Now that you have used an icebreaker and an attention-getter, and have oriented your audience to your topic, it is time to look at – and learn how to avoid - some of the common pitfalls speakers commit in their introductions.

They RAMBLE. Rambling undercuts the audience’s interest and the speaker’s credibility.

TIP:  Be brief, concise. and focused.

They are TOO BRIEF. Introductions that are too brief pass the audience by in a blur.

TIP: Don’t race through your opening lines. Give your listeners time to move from thinking their own thoughts to orienting themselves to your thoughts.  Allow them to become an audience.  Just because they are physically present, it doesn’t mean that they have started to listen or are engaged.

They are APOLOGETIC AND SEEK SYMPATHY.  They say, “Bear with me; I’m not used to speaking to groups.”

TIP:  You are after respect, not sympathy.   Your confidence and credibility should become immediately apparent.  Remember those “vibes”?

They use GIMMICKS.  They shout, slam an object, or throw something in order to startle an audience into attention.  This usually produces the opposite effect, forcing your audience to seek refuge from the perceived hostility and melodrama.

TIP:  Make the opening strategy gimmick-free. It needs to be appropriate, professional, and integral to your entire presentation.

In my last message, I talked about  the importance of using an icebreaker in the beginning of a presentation to establish a feeling of informality and intimacy between yourself and your audience.

The next step is is to move into your more formal introduction and get the attention of the audience.

Your choice of an attention-getting method should be based on your audience, topic, purpose, and personality.  You should also make sure your attention-getter is something you can do comfortably.

The word ”rapport” in French means “relationship”.  How do you build a relationship with your audience?  One of the ways to build rapport is to ask your audience questions immediately.  Simple things – i.e. “How many of you have gone to the Riverwalk in the last month?”    If you can become a listener at the beginning of the presentation, you begin to develop an exchange.   Get them to raise their hands.   Or get them to shout out where they are from.  It is trite but true: know your audience.  Know what they are interested in.  Know what their values are.  Consistently show them you are “at one” with them.

The most important part of building rapport is to see yourself as being in a conversation with your audience.  Presidential candidates 40 years ago were oratorical…but today we live in a conversational age.  If you see yourself as someone who is conversing with the audience – and you are indeed the expert - then your demeanor changes.

The audience needs to see you as a human being, as well as the expert.

Consider the following attention-getting options:

• Ask a question. Your question can be rhetorical (“Is bigger better?”  Or,  “Can having more mean having less?”) Or one requiring audience participation (“I would like a show of hands – How many of you have experienced a major change in your lifestyle in the last year?”).  Do not ask embarrassing or personal questions, and always clarify – either verbally or nonverbally – whether the question is rhetorical or actual.
• Refer to audience members. For example, “I consider it a privilege to speak to the members of the Institute of Small Business.  I celebrate with you as you recognize your fifth anniversary of successful minority recruiting efforts.”
• Tell a story.  Make this an anecdote or dramatic story, but NOT a joke (unless you are one of those rare individuals who can do so successfully).
• Open with a startling, but true, statement. You could say something like,  “According to a recent Pennsylvania State University study, the earth is destined to dry up, burn up or freeze.  Don’t worry about making final plans just yet.  Those catastrophic scenarios are at least 500 million years in the future.”
• Cite a quotation. Just remember:  if you do use a quote, remember to keep your eyes up when you read your quotation and make it brief.
• Refer to recent happenings. For example, “Following Wall Street’s notoriety of the early 90’s, the New York Stock Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange have both -implemented their latest stringent safety measures . . . the decade of greed taught us some lessons.”

Once you get the attention of your audience, the next step is to orient them.  I’ll cover that in my next blog.

To help reduce your nervousness when you begin a presentation, and to allow your audience to relax and listen more intently, you may want to begin by creating an informal atmosphere before moving into your formal presentation.

Starting with an “icebreaker,” (a polite prologue that creates a connection between audience and speaker) is one way to create this feeling of informality and intimacy.

The icebreaker should achieve three purposes:

1. Express your pleasure of speaking to this group
2. Compliment the audience
3. Connect the audience to you and the subject (that rapport concept again!)

The late comedian Minnie Pearl used one of the best icebreakers and she did in one second. Every appearance, in person or on television during the broadcasts of the Grand Old Opry show, Minnie began with her trademark opener,“I’m just so proud to be here!”   Then, if she were making a personal appearance, her next line referred to something about the town or city – a person, landmark or event.

Then, of course, there was President John F. Kennedy’s famous statement at the Berlin Wall.  In German he said,“Ich bin ein Berliner”  (which translates to “I am a Berliner”).  In four simple words, he bonded with his audience, and the audience roared its approval.

We are not world leaders or world-class comics, but we can learn from them.  “I’m just so proud to be here” can become “Speaking to a group such as this is a privilege,” followed by who they are: risk takers, community leaders,movers and shakers, or tomorrow’s leaders.  Describe the audience and connect with them, just like Minnie Pearl and JFK did. These two had very disparate presentation personas, but both were world-class rapport builders—whether at the Grand Old Opry or in the theatre of global politics.

Key points to remember about icebreakers:

• Be honest and sincere.  Flattery for the sake of flattery insults and alienates an audience.
• Make your icebreaker brief and to the point.  You do not want to open with a rambling monologue that loses the attention of your audience and drains your presentation of its energy and forcefulness.

Never underestimate the importance of the first few sentences of your presentation.

You have only about 30 seconds to “hook” an audience. Within those 30 seconds you must send what Dorothy Sarnoff, the famous actress and speech coach, calls “vibes” … that is,  messages of competence, enthusiasm, and sincerity.  This is a lot to pack into 30 seconds, but it can be done.

Your “delivery” actually begins the moment you enter the building or the room where you will be delivering your presentation. Emit an attitude of, “Hello, you lucky people!” Your facial expressions and posture speak worlds about your eagerness to share information.  Give a positive impression by:

• Putting on an active, energetic, confident face.  Say “MONEY” to get those cheekbones up.
• Striding confidently to your speaking position.
• Grounding yourself (feeling a solid and secure speaking posture).
• Making eye contact with at least one member of the audience, pausing, and then confidently beginning your well-planned and well-prepared introduction.

You have now set the stage for TRUST.  Soon your audience will relax and listen because they connect with you, and they trust your competence.  You are obviously in charge.

Next topic:  icebreakers.  They’ll relax you AND your audience.

We’re ready for the fun part of preparing your presentation!  We’ve talked about the first eight steps of my 12-step “formula” for putting together a presentation.   We’ve addressed coming up with ideas and formulating the  content of your presentations.  Now, let’s talk about the fun stuff:  preparing your visuals, rehearsing your questions and answers, and practicing your delivery.  The final four steps are:

(9)    Prepare your visuals
Plan and create your visuals and integrate them into your presentation. Like the development of your introduction and conclusion, notice how late in the process this step is taken.

(10)    Brainstorm questions and answers
Brainstorm potential questions that may arise in your question and answer session.  Think of every possible question (and prepare every possible answer).   Plan your responses, and speak them out loud.

(11)    Practice and rehearse your delivery
Sit and read through your presentation.  Then sit and speak through your presentation.  Listen for glitches (pronunciation stumbles, “mouthy” sentences/phrases, etc.) and change your presentation accordingly for speaker/listener ease.  Reduce your speech outline to phrases, words, and visual images. Stand and practice, with heavy reliance on notes. Tape further reduced notes on wall, then practice gestures and posture. Turn to your living room/office and then practice eye contact. Practice with your “speaking voice” (practice inflection, pauses, pace, and volume).

Get into the real space in which you will be making your presentation (or one similar). Practice all of the above, plus “staging” (movement as visual punctuation to content, walking to visuals, standing next to visuals, etc.).   Actors and directors call this “blocking.”  Videotape yourself. Bring in someone with objectivity and good coaching skills to give you feedback (friend, peer, or presentation consultant – depending on the stakes).

(12)    Practice the question and answer session
Rehearse the possible questions and answers one more time!

Next:
We’ll talk about hooking your audience in 30 seconds.  In my next blog musing, we’ll address how you can send messages of competence, enthusiasm, and sincerity…in 30 seconds.

When you give a presentation, you don’t have a big window of opportunity in which to impress your audience.  The rule of thumb is: if you don’t engage your audience physically, emotionally, or intellectually within the first 30 seconds of your presentation, you will lose your audience.   They’ll use an internal remote control to turn you off.   So, you really need to be organized.

I use a 12-step formula, and it works every time!  In my last blog, I talked about the first four steps:  (1) Determining your purpose (2) Brainstorming ideas and strategies, (3) Writing down – but not judging—lots of ideas, and (4) Clumping your ideas and material into manageable groups.

The next four steps in my formula are:

(5)    Determine a theme
Circle key words/phrases in idea clumps.   Compare these key words with the purpose you identified in the first step. Create a simple, clear, emphatic, memorable phrase or sentence that encompasses your purpose/audience/main ideas (e.g. “Chart your course while in safe harbors.”).  Weave this theme throughout text, visuals, your introduction and conclusion, and your question and answer period.

(6)    Spice up your organized material
Use analogies, stories, acronyms, music, visuals, audience interaction, and otherwise surprising, unusual, colorful, and unforgettable content elements.

(7)     Create your introduction and conclusion
Write your introduction and conclusion to match, support, and fuse your purpose, points, theme, and memorable moments. Repeat your purpose and theme in the introduction and again in the conclusion. (Notice how late in the process you create your introduction and conclusion.)

(8)    Create transitions among the “parts” of your presentation
Put your transitions in places where your audience needs organizational guidance. Vary your transitions:  use rhetorical questions, summary sentences, etc.  (By the way, this is typically the most neglected step in professional presentations.)

I’ll go through the last four steps in my next blog.  Next time, we’ll talk more about visuals, questions-and-answers, and practicing both your delivery and the question-and-answer portion of your presentation.

Believe it or not, being a persuasive, fearless presenter is really quite simple:

• Know who you are
• Know what you believe
• Say what you really mean (Speak the truth)
• Speak from your heart
• Respect yourself and your audience
• Prepare and practice your presentation

I typically use a 12-step formula for putting together a presentation.   Today, I’ll talk about the first four steps, and I’ll cover the other eight steps in future blog postings.  Here goes:

Step 1

Determine your purpose
Write down or speak out loud the conclusion of these sentences:

• I want to ___________________.
• I want my audience to be able to _______________.

Commit to these two completed sentences as you collect data and information, and as you shape your material and select persuasive examples, stories, and statistics.   Be flexible enough to change when circumstances and audiences change.

Step 2

Brainstorm possible ideas, strategies, and selections.

Step 3
Come up with lots of ideas but don’t judge them.  Just write them down (preferably on flip charts that you stick on the wall), or use any other brainstorming formats that suit you and your thinking style.

Step 4
Clump ideas/material into manageable groups.   Triads work best to begin with when you start to put the ideas and material into groups.   Be realistic about your time constraints, audience endurance, and persuasive power.  Refine and label the main points of your presentation, and refine and label the secondary points

I’ll talk about steps #5 through #8 in my next blog.   In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a little food for thought about composing speeches, from William Gladstone, Prime Minister of the UnitedKingdon four times in the late 1800s:  ” A speech need not be eternal to be immortal“.

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.

“Four times and you own it.”  This is the rule of thumb I give my clients when they ask me:  “How can I own my material?  How can know I will be able to remember my central points?  How will I achieve CONTROL over my material?”

Simple:  Four times and you own it. 

First, what does “ownership” mean?  It is a “feeling” of being at one with the message, of feeling comfortable with the FLOW of the message, of knowing you can recover if you get off message, because you have neuropathically grooved the message in your brain.

There is something “magical” about using your brain, your vocal mechanism–teeth, jaw, tongue, throat–your gestures, and your words–all together–in order to create a complete package of CONTROL.

So what practice is not:  it is not whispering the presentation while driving, mouthing it while showering, thinking it right before you go to bed.  It is SPEAKING it, as you will be doing in front of your audience.  You do not whisper your message in front of your audience members; therefore, you will not practice in a way that you will not use in the actual circumstance of your presentation….or meeting…or project update…or high stakes conversation with your boss.

That is the “practice” part of your preparation.  Saying the message aloud and gaining “ownership” of the intricacies of using all your tools:  voice, verbal message, and nonverbal message.

The “rehearsal” part is different in that here you try to find a similar “space”–or stage–as the actual environment you will be speaking in.  If you are lucky, you can actually rehearse in the “real” space of your presentation–to test the sound level, to see the space you will be delivering in, to “own” the environment of your presentation and to visualize for our brain what you will be “facing.”  Create as few surprises for your eyes, ears, and brain as possible.

In “rehearsal” you do not stop for for mistakes.  If possible, bring someone with you to take notes as you present, with a feedback/analysis briefing afterwards.  If this is not possible, remind yourself as you go along and then try again.  Four times and you own it.

When practicing, you may start and stop, self correct, and continue.  In rehearsal, wear the clothes you will be wearing for the presentation to see if you are comfortable, to feel if the shoes are the right height, to catch the movement of the clothing as you make your expansive gestures.

In rehearsal, go through from start to finish without dropping out of your “Zone” (see previous blog entries).  Do not react to mistakes:  press on (an old theatre term.  If the audience doesn’t notice it, it didn’t happen.) 

Most presenters do not take the time (not “have the time” but “take the time”) to rehearse.  In fact, most presenters do not take the time to “practice.”  They throw their Power Points together and then read them–the ultimate insult to an audience.

So I suggest you have the self discipline and commitment to do both practice and rehearse.  You will feel more confident, and your audience will be able to tell the difference!

Do you remember the part in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in which Alice asked the king: “Where shall I begin, please, your majesty?” “Begin at the beginning,” the king said very gravely, “and go on ‘til you come to the end and then stop.”

This is good advice for Alice and for you as a public speaker.

Speech fright is a natural reaction. Some say that 75% of the population suffers with a fear of public speaking. The ultimate antidote for this natural fear is to prepare and practice.

When we talk about getting into The Zone, one of the things we emphasize is that we need to give our brain and body a cue to be calm and in control.

Here are a few tips and cues to help you overcome some of the nervous symptoms associated with the dread of presenting:

• Don’t drink any caffeine on the day of your presentation. Caffeine promotes anxiety and gives you a dry mouth.
• Avoid milk and milk products on the big day. Dairy products will coat your vocal chords and will create a lot of nervous throat clearing.
• Drink lots of water to cut down on “dry mouth syndrome.”
• If you find that you have “cotton mouth,” press your tongue firmly against the roof of mouth for a few seconds, which triggers a saliva release. Or think of a lemon and gently bite your tongue.
• Breathe deeply and calmly, hours before the presentation begins.
• Exercise vigorously the day of your presentation to burn up adrenaline.
• Accept and acknowledge speech fright. Then work with it, not against it. Harness it and use it to give your presentation an “edge”.
• Use visual aids in your presentation; then you know you will always have a “script” and can’t lose your way.

One of the ways of reducing fear is to consider yourself part of the audience rather than above them or disconnected from them. You are part of the human family first, then the company, then the presenter.

Audiences don’t expect perfection – they do expect you to be engaging, passionate and interactive. No audience has ever sat down and said to themselves, “By golly, the speaker better be perfect or I will reject them.” They have one need: not to be bored.

We feel we must play the role of the perfect presenter. The audience doesn’t put that role on us – we do. They want to be engaged and be given material that is interesting and important. We say, “We must be perfect”…. and those two goals are at odds.

The reality is …. You lose fear when you “own” your material. Most people in business don’t give themselves enough practice and rehearsal time to own their material. They rely too much on their PowerPoint slides, even “hiding” behind them, or deciding, as a defense mechanism against failure, to “shoot from the hip”, assuming a good presentation will happen spontaneously. But it won’t.