Shifting from talking to presenting
One of my favorite topics is The Zone. The Zone is made up of all the non-verbal, psychological, emotional, and physical parts of your presentation. Your gestures, eye contact, and voice are all important parts of The Zone. When you make the mental shift from talking to presenting, you are entering The Zone.
Everybody has a different way of getting into The Zone, such as:
- Moving in slow motion.
- Focusing on direct eye contact
- Extending gestures so that they’re large
- Uncrossing arms
- Allowing oneself to smile
- Unlocking eyebrows
For every person, there is a key to The Zone. It often involves looking at the hobbies or professional skills in which you are most comfortable and happy, and mimicking those feelings of confidence and control. For example:
- A fisherman who needs to get into The Zone can think of it like the act of fishing: Be patient, watch the water, change the bait when necessary, and be flexible. He remembers he can’t force a fish onto a hook – he has to coax, wait, and strategize.
- A nurse compares getting into The Zone to talking with the family of a critically ill patient. She positions herself before she walks into the room, plans her message carefully, opens and closes with a positive message, and nurtures with strength all the way through the conversation.
- A golf pro can get into The Zone through solid golf techniques: balanced stance, soft knees, focusing on the ball, extending as she hits the ball, allowing the golf club to lead her.
In summarizing The Zone, here are some of the known facts:
- You can’t be in a “pure” Zone until you care more about your audience and your message than you do about yourself.
- Before you can get into The Zone, you have to be prepared on your speech, bullet points, topic, and presentation with a rock-solid foundation.You, like an actor, must always know why you’re on stage, where you are on that stage, and the goals and purpose of your performance.
- We never apologize to an audience for a mistake. We correct it, but do not draw attention to it.
- The material you will present to your audience must be practiced and rehearsed for weeks until the material is second nature to you.
