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.

When you make the mental shift from talking to presenting, you are entering The Zone.  The Zone, one of my favorite topics, 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.

Gestures

Gestures are an outside expression of internal attitude.  They create the first visual imprint for the listener and will elicit the first instinctive response:  positive, negative, or indifferent.  With gestures, the four most important attributes are:  calm, open, balanced, and definitive.

Your gestures should be comfortable, natural, deliberate, open, extended, emphatic, and meaningful.

When you use gestures, keep your hands and gestures open:  no finger pointing, crossed arms, or clenched fists.  Always remember this succinct little rule:  movement matches meaning.  Think of hands as relaxed mittens, not gloves.  Do not separate out your fingers, which is a subconscious indication of tension.   Make sure your hand gestures are not “below the belt” so that the listeners’ eyes are not drawn downward, reducing visual distractions.

Eye contact and connection

Eye contact is a non-verbal signal that creates a connection, or bond, with a listener.   (Again, we are building rapport through connecting with the audience.)

Look people in the eye.  Forget the old speech class adage to look at people’s hair or above their heads, or to visualize them naked (if you visualize your audience naked, it makes it even harder to look them in the eyes!).  Do not look at the foreheads of your audience members.   (Have you ever seen an actor portray a blind person?   They do so by looking at their acting partner’s forehead.)

Make a connection with the individuals in the audience with your eyes.  When you do that, you will feel an electric zap…a click.  ­Arrive at a natural breaking point in your thoughts, feel the click, and move to another audience member. 

Voice

A voice can subconsciously repel or attract an audience.  The most important suggestion for the use of voice as a persuasive tool is to be your conversational self when you present. Be prepared, organized, and a rehearsed– but be yourself.   Present with energy, emphasis, and variety, and you will control an audience’s attention.

Projection 

 Your breath is the source of a well-projected voice.   What is “projection?”  First of all, it is not synonymous with ­volume (“loud or soft.”)  It is the force with which we speak, which affects the FORCE of our message.  To help you project your voice, picture a large red circle on the back wall.  Your goal is to send your voice on a wave of air to hit that circle, and then bounce your voice off the walls!   Energy will then fill the room . . . and people will listen and be engaged.  

Enunciation

If you want to have a crisp, professional, and articulate speaking voice, here’s a trick:  make sure that you pronounce your consonants clearly.  This is referred to as clear enunciation.  To improve enunciation, read aloud from the newspaper five minutes a night for two weeks, emphasizing precise pronunciation of consonants.  Force lazy lips and a lazy tongue to work at sounding all the letters in a word, not just the vowels. Emphasize the last consonant of each sentence.   Consonants carry the force and structure of a message; vowels carry the emotion.

Speed 

Am I racing and spilling one word into another?  Do I need to slow down, because, as a Southerner once said about a northern friend, “He talks faster than I can listen”? Conversely, am I talking too slowly, lumbering along and sapping my energy – and my audience’s energy — with too many lengthy pauses?

Pitch and tone

Is my voice too high, like a cartoon character’s voice, or is it too dull, low and monotonous? Is it too high or a cavernous drone?   When I speak, do I send my air though my nose rather than my mouth? Do I sound breathy, like Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday Mr. President, or do I sound strong, forceful, and confident?

In sum, your gestures, eye contact, and voice will indicate your energy level, preparedness, stress level, and confidence – or lack of it. 

Because I started talking about the Zone in my last blog, I have a secret to share with you.  It’s my favorite topic, and my secret weapon.

When you walk into the spotlight as a presenter, what do you do?  You move into what I call your “Zone.”  

When you make the mental and physical shift from talking to presenting, you are entering your Zone.  Your eye contact, stance, posture, gesture, and vocal projection are some of the most important facets of your Zone. 

Your presentation really begins the moment you get out of your car in the parking lot:  you are “on” … and you are in your Zone. Think of your Zone as your suit of armor.  No matter how you feel, no matter how fast your heart is racing, or how much sweat has dripped into your socks, your Zone will protect you.  

Stance

Your steadying force in your Zone is your stance.  Position your feet so they are aligned with your shoulders.  Move your feet only when there is a reason to do so.  Don’t pace or jangle your coins, bracelets, or earrings.  Don’t rock, shift, or wander aimlessly around.  Know exactly where you are, and why you are there.

Posture

In order to be perceived as a balanced and credible speaker, you must present an image of certainty and strength.  Make a conscious decision to have your weight evenly distributed over both feet (50% over one foot, and 50% over the other foot).  Visualize your spine as a stack of coins, stacked straight and strong through the center of your body.  Relax your shoulders down, away from your ears, move them back, and then stack those coins.

Doing all this will allow you to be perceived as comfortable and solid.  When YOU look comfortable, you will make your audience feel comfortable.  Your audience will then be ready to focus on your message.

Barriers

Speakers distance themselves from their audience because their delivery is boring and their presentation is unrehearsed.  Another culprit is the lectern that is placed between the speaker and the audience.  Many speakers use a lectern as a security blanket to crouch behind, or lean on, or ­nervously shift our weight behind.    

Don’t let a lectern lure you into thinking that you have a security blanket. The lectern diminishes the conversational feel you want in a presentation.  

Like talk show hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman, get out from behind the barrier and stand tall.  Do what Leno and Letterman do:  move close to your audience.  Avoid the lectern except for such situations as formal acceptance speeches and commencement addresses.

We must face two realities about presentations:  We need to create chemistry, and we need to be a broadcaster. 

Webster’s Dictionary defines chemistry as, “the way two individuals relate to each other.”  Many times, the choice a consumer makes (whether it is someone choosing a person, a product, idea, or a service) is based on chemistry, and not on expertise.  “Chemistry” between you and your audience, gut instinct, and an indefinable feel for you as a presenter (and you as a person) is very influential when you are asking your audience to make a decision or a choice.  Chemistry is definitely a factor that will inspire your audience.  

The other challenge facing you when you’re a presenter is that you need to act like a television broadcaster.  

Television, particularly TV news shows, has subconsciously changed what people expect from a presentation.  Viewers expect a polished, virtually seamless (but not slick) delivery. The same applies to an audience listening to a speaker.  The audience might sit through a disorganized, rambling, incoherent presentation, but they will not respond positively to it.  When presenting, you have to think of yourself as broadcaster who is being rated by your viewers. Those viewers have an internal remote control with which they will change your channel very quickly if you do not engage them intellectually and emotionally. 

What can you do to make yourself a comfortable, natural, ­conversational, and professional presenter?  What can you do to give yourself the persuasive edge that produces the “YES!” response or even a standing ovation?   The answer is simple:  connect with your audience, and be natural.   

Your persuasion abilities are based on how connected you are with your message and your audience, and how close you are to your natural, or conversational, speaking style.  The non-verbal, psychological, emotional, and physical part of your presentation is what I call your “Zone”. When you make the mental and physical shift from talking to presenting, you are entering your Zone.   

After discussing the art of definitive, deliberate, and descriptive gestures in a recent seminar, I was approached by one of the attendees who was a military retiree–from the Marine Corps Band.  He was struck by the similarities between the principles of gesturing I had discussed and modeled and his instruction as a band director or symphony conductor.

“It’s amazing!” he said.  “We, too, learned that the signals (gestures) we give the band are within parameters, within a ‘box.’  Essentially, it is exactly within the pitcher’s strike zone, just as you described.  Like your gesture description, the flow of the conductor’s signals have both depth (out from the body) and latitude (the horizontal extension of the arms).”

“The conductor’s movements must have meaning and must be fluid, just like the way you have taught us to use our arms and body to produce a visual image of the spoken word.”

As he explained these concepts to me, he used his arms to visually explain the way a conductor keeps the desired rhythm but also brings in various instruments and soloists, sometimes with elaborate gestures, sometimes with just the lift of an eyebrow.

I was struck by his astute insight but also by how his analogy captured the essence of purposeful, non-random gestures.  Movement matches meaning.  Meaning must have purpose or it is wasted and worthless.

Presentation gestures are different from “talking gestures,” which are more random and repetitious.  Presentation gestures are:

1.  Between the beltline and shoulders

2.  A full extension of the arms and hands out from the chest, with firm wrists and “soft” hands–I call them “mitten” hands, not “glove” hands, which have tense, extended fingers

3.  And most importantly, useful in creating our personal “Power point space” in the “box” by aligning the concept with the movement: “on the other hand,” “as we move forward,” “let us all work as a team,” etc.

When we speak, we really are conducting an orchestra; we are the band leader.  The audience looks to us for meaning and that meaning must have a narrative flow as well as a physical flow.  “Presentation gestures” are one of the many ways to achieve both.

This is  a first:  4 incredible books in a row; I’m on a literary roll.  Here’s a brief summary of each:

·         When Will There Be Good News?  By Kate Atkinson.  You may recall several years ago I called her book, Case Histories, one of the best books I had read in some time; it still remains one of the top 5 of the last 5 years.    Jackson Brodie and Det. Louise Mason are back, on a case that began 30 years ago with the slaughter of an entire family…..except one, the daughter, who is now missing.  Atkinson makes me laugh out loud with her descriptions:  Gil from CSI:  Las Vegas—“he walks like a bear wearing a nappy.”  Taking place in Scotland, it takes you all over the place—where the heart lies, where humor tempers, and where fear and mystery ride side saddle.

·         The Black Tower by Louis Bayard.  An incredible historical fiction writer, Bayard wrote one of the finest examples of this genre with The  Pale Blue Eye, about Edgar Alan Poe while he was at West Point– a gripping mystery. Taking place in Paris in the mid-19^th century, it “stars” the real-life first modern detective:  Vidocq.  The essential question is:  what really happened to the son, a mere boy,  of Marie Antoinette, Louis-Charles?  Did he die in the Black Tower, or did he escape through the efforts of his doctor and a mystery “helper”?  Was the 10 year old smuggles out and has Vidocq and a young medical student found him, 20 years later, and who does not want him found…if indeed it is he?  If you have ever been to Paris, you will love the descriptions of its streets, parks, life.  You must read through to the very last page.  Gripping to the end.

·         The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti:  I love Dickens, so if you do, too, dive in.  12-year-old Ren is missing his left hand, which leaves him “unplace-able” at St. Anthony’s Orphanage, but a stranger/con man arrives and snaps him up, and together they go on a perfect PBS journey through the New England of the mid-19^th century.  Shakespearian in his characters—scan artists, grave robbers, and petty thieves—it is a delightful romp.  This is an author to watch; I learned about the book in The New Yorker.

·         Wolf to the Slaughter by Ruth Rendell:  Along P.D. James, Ruth Rendell is one of the grande dames literary mystery writers, and this is a race of a read.  CI Wexford is back, a party girl is missing, there is a bloody room but no body….and off she goes.  She is psychic in the way she reads her characters’ minds and gives us psychological insights into human motivation.  She is always the perfect “airplane” book to read.  You will be riding the wave mystery till the very end.

As a voracious viewer of National Geographic’s Friday night television program, “The Dog Whisperer” with Cesar Milan, and a leadership seminar consultant, one who loves making Connections from incongruous sources, I am always struck by the similarities of “becoming the pack leader” and the “art of leadership.”

Cesar Milan tackles dog problems which are the worst of the worst, from “red zone” dogs (read “steroid” aggression) to dogs who “own their owners,” to cowering dogs fearful of the slightest noise or movement.

What is fascinating about the show is something all his fans know:  Cesar usually works more with the owners than he does with their dogs.  The owners have not reached that “calm, submissive state” wherein they become the “leader of the pack.”  Dogs, like many people, will instinctively fill a leadership void, even though they are a 5 pound Chihuahua.

Connection Number 1:  Power has nothing to do with size, gender, or age.  It has to do “owning” one’s space, using non-verbals of confidence and ease, and demanding respect in a respectful way.

Cesar often trains people to use their non-verbals–their “presence”–to command respect.  Dogs, like people, sense and can take advantage of fear, anxiety, or helplessness.  Dogs know passive/submissive dogs instantly, and they know the same about their owners.

So Cesar will teach the owner how to pull their shoulders back yet remain relaxed, walk with the chest up and out, keep their eyes straight ahead and hold the leash with a slight touch, not with nervous tension.

Connection Number 2:  There are times when we have to bluff confidence through managing our non-verbals:  eye contact, posture, vocal tone.  When I teach presentation skills, I teach the cultural non-verbals of credibility and authority this culture values so highly and then translate these into specific non-verbals to exhibit in front of an audience.

Cesar works with attitude by teaching owners to “be in the moment,” just like their animals are.  Do not expect the dog to exhibit the same destructive behavior that has been a part of the past.  This is the first hour of change; do not look back; look past the fear that change cannot occur.  Do not “What if” your way into expecting old behaviors.  Keep trying until the dog “surrenders” to the new expectations.  Take charge of the process.

Connection Number 3:  When tackling a new leadership role at work or attempting to overcome the fear of public speaking, focus on the first step of change, let go of old negative expectations, accept the discomfort of change, acknowledge it is the first step, and do not look back.  As a client once said to me: ”Fear of public speaking is nothing but an old habit.  I’m tired of that habit.  I am going to break it….starting now.  That was then.  Now is now.” 

He is now a fully confident, polished, comfortable leader and presenter.  But first he had to change his expectations and diligently practice his new habits.

I am surprised Cesar Milan has not been approached by a publishing company to write a leadership book–for people–using the same principles he uses in training dogs and their owners.  When I find a client who watches the show consistently, as I do, it is so easy to translate the leadership techniques into ones that are useful in the work place.

You can learn something from this show even if you are not a pet owner.  Leadership is leadership and being a “pack leader” who leads without exhibiting anger, defensiveness, or passivity is powerful in both personal and professional worlds.

So whether you are an anxious five pound Chihuahua or a red zone Chow, you can learn some life changing techniques simply by tuning in each Friday night for an hour of “The Dog Whisperer.”