Your presentation: The "So what?" factor

You've got a great hook for your presentation. You've got a truly startling statistic. You've got a powerful theme.

Or so you think.

We tend to think our ideas are spectacular and that everyone wants to hear them. Which is one reason why it's so hard for a speaker to stick to her time. It's inconceivable that there might be parts of the speech that could be cut, so instead, she tries to pack in as much as possible.

But that's not my point today. My point today is "So what?"

This is one of many questions your audience is asking before, during and after your presentation (including, "How much longer?" and "Are there cookies?"). But it's an important one, because if the answer to "So what?" is not convincing enough, your audience will feel disappointed and let down.

I'm working with a client on a speech with the theme "Simply Amazing." She wants to touch on all the aspects of her organization and its members that are "amazing."

However, using a word like "amazing" can backfire on you. Now that you've committed to talking about what's amazing in this organization, you can't tell just any old stories or use just any old examples. You don't want your audience to find your definition of "amazing" to be lacking. You don't want your audience arguing with you in their minds, saying "That's not amazing at all. It's kinda neat, but not really AMAZING."

Jerry Seinfeld touched on this during the TV special "Talking Funny" that I referenced the other day. He remembered being introduced once by Louis C.K., who was opening the show.

Louis introduced Jerry as "the best comedian in the world," and Jerry says, "I just went right down the toilet. The audience goes, 'Oh, really.' [crossing his arms defiantly]. Don't put that kind of pressure on someone."

Now in this case, you might be putting that pressure on yourself!

Is that statistic really going to shock your audience the way you hope it will? Is your hook (think "Yes, we can!") as compelling as you hope it will be? Is your theme ("Simply Amazing") going to generate the kinds of stories and examples that will truly awe your audience?

I am, by no means, saying that you should play it safe and avoid big themes and catchy phrases. Please be as radical as you need to be to make your point.

But keep in mind the "So what?" factor. The audience will be asking themselves this question, so you need to ask it of yourself first.

My client's first theme was "Believe," but "Simply Amazing" became more compelling to her the more she thought about the points she wanted to make and the way she wanted to affect the audience. If she found that "Simply Amazing" was going to be too difficult to pull off, she could always go back to "Believe" as her theme. It could be equally as powerful, but doesn't come with the inherent pressure that the word "amazing" does.

If you don't think you have the supporting material, it's okay to let go of a big idea -- for now.

If you take a critical look at your ideas and feel sure that you will blow your audience's mind, then go big! Commit! Bring out the big stats, the big themes and the big ideas!

One special moment

On the TV special "Talking Funny" the other night, host Ricky Gervais facilitated a conversation between fellow comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K. and Chris Rock.

During the conversation, Ricky Gervais mentioned the the responsibility of performing -- people pay money to come to the show, find a babysitter, drive around to find parking... it's a major commitment for the audience.

In response, Gervais says, "I better have something special to say. I don't think it's just enough to do 60 minutes of them laughing, because they can't take that with them. Whereas if you say something that's interesting or resonates, or that's different, they can take it with them. All the best bits you remember [referring to jokes the other comedians still remembered hearing decades ago], it stayed with you for twenty years. And it's the gift that keeps on giving."

For Ricky Gervais, it's not enough to entertain the audience, a point he brings up several times during the conversation. He even mentions cutting a bit from his show if it's too easy, or gets a "cheap laugh." He wants the audience to know he's worked hard on a bit, and that it wasn't just a throwaway joke. He wants to feel proud of his work. (Louis C.K. made a similar statement about cutting a joke that's funny if he doesn't believe in it.)

Most performers might be ecstatic to get an easy laugh or to draw a standing ovation for very little work. For Gervais, there has to be a deeper connection with the audience; he wants to send them home with something so memorable and unique, they'll still be thinking about it twenty years later.

How many of us put this kind of thought and care into our presentations?

How many of us think (or care) about what our audience is giving up (money, time, deadlines) to hear us speak?

How many of us actually make the effort to give our audience a "gift that keeps on giving?"

How many of us just want our preparation to be as easy as possible, for the presentation to glide by with no effort, and to reap rewards for little work?

Can you imagine how rewarding it would be to know that you've given the audience something so valuable and profound that years later they're still responding to your message? (I've had this experience a few times, and I don't have to imagine it -- it's pretty fabulous.)

Maybe this isn't realistic on an everyday basis, when the boss pops his head in the door of your office and says, "Hey Sam, can you give a report at the staff meeting in 15 minutes?"

But what if we were to keep this idea in the front of our minds, striving as often as possible to add one special moment to each presentation?

Paging ... someone

Sitting in the Denver airport last week waiting for my flight home, I noticed a handy passenger-communication system called visual paging.

There was a screen next to the arrivals and departures monitor that had the name of a passenger who was being paged, so that if you didn't hear the page over the loudspeaker, you could see on the screen who was being called.

Seems like a great idea, huh? It's frequently difficult to hear pages in airports, especially large airports with gate announcements happening simultaneously. Anything to help the passenger get their pages and work out their travel issues, right?

However, there's something wrong with this system. Can you tell what it is by looking at the picture?

In case you can't read the name of the person being paged, it's Antonio Davis. Now, if I want to look at the departures monitor, I'll walk over and check it out, because that's what I'm trained to do as a passenger. But I believe this visual paging system is supposed to be visible from afar -- say, from the gate, where I was sitting.

Nope. You have to walk right up to this thing to read it. And do you see how much extra space there is around the name? This font could be five times bigger and still not take up much of the screen. I would also argue that there's not enough contrast between the text and the background, making the name even harder to see.

What does this remind me of? PowerPoint with text so tiny that your audience can't even read it. Usually, this happens because the speaker is trying to cram in lots of data and makes the text tiny so it will all fit. Which is never a good excuse.

But in this instance, there isn't even a lot of data to cram onto the screen. Even if several names were being paged, they still could make this bigger and easier to see.

To use a popular Twitter expression: Visual Paging FAIL.

How to procrastinate on a presentation

The topic of procrastination came up twice yesterday, so I think it was a sign that I'm supposed to write about it.

I asked in a previous post, "What's the opposite of a procrastinator?" If there is such a thing, why is there no word for it in the English language?

But that's beside the point. The point is, we procrastinate. Almost all of us. Some of the time or all of the time.

And we all have important work we need to complete every day, including preparing for presentations. Yet we put off this work until the last minute, oftentimes delivering a final product that is not up to par -- or at least not up to the quality that we know we could have produced.

Is there a way to get the best of both worlds? Is there a way to start your presentation early, but still get the rush and the drama of procrastination? Of course there is!

The main problem for a lot of procrastinators is not knowing how or when to start. If you're too paralyzed to start your presentation, then how can you expect to finish it?

If you know how to start, however, then you can take your time finishing, but at least you've got the skeleton of the presentation to hang your ideas on.

The trick is to start early. That is, give yourself extra time precisely SO you can procrastinate!

By the way, I procrastinated in the middle of this article. Realizing my cat was asleep and it was a good time to mop the kitchen floor while she wasn't walking around, I stopped writing and started mopping. Mission accomplished! And not a moment too soon, as she got up right after I finished. Because I already had started thinking about and scribbling ideas for this post, it was easy to pick up where I left off!

Here's how to get the ball rolling.

When you know you have a presentation coming up, say a month before, write down the following as soon as possible.

• What is your theme or main message?
• What is your objective or desired result?
• What is the purpose of the presentation?
• What are some points you might want to make?
• Who's your audience?
• Where will you be speaking?
• What else can you think of that you can drop into your notes right now and come back to later?

Write down these thoughts as soon as you can, preferably in a rough outline form, because this allows you to get the material fermenting in your brain, bubbling and churning away even when you're not physically working on the presentation.

When you come back to it later -- hopefully not the day before it's due -- you will have a basic framework to hang the rest of your content on, and your ideas will have been brewing and ripening for this moment. Instead of frantically scrambling in the wee hours to build the presentation, you can be refining and fleshing out something you've already started.

I don't advocate procrastinating on a speaking engagement; I see far too many last-minute, thrown-together, half-ass presentations to support that kind of shoddy work.

But if that's your style, and it takes nothing less than a looming deadline to get your rear in gear, then at least give yourself a head start before you start procrastinating, to put some thoughts on paper or in the computer.

You will feel less stressed out, and you might even find that the luxury of extra time feels kinda good.

"Have to" or "Get to"?

"I wasn't going to let nerves get in my way. I wasn't going to let fear get in my way. I knew how lucky I was. And I just was going to let every moment be about joy and gratitude." ~ Ann Hathaway, on hosting the Oscars

Not many of us get the opportunity to stand in front of millions of people and promote ourselves and our businesses, which is what an actor or comedian gets to do when they host the Oscars.

Some of you are saying "get" to do? You see speaking as more of a "have" to do.

Of course, it's a privilege to host an awards show like the Oscars. But it's also a privilege to speak in front of any audience!

Think about it for a minute:

You get the opportunity to share your message with a captive audience.

You get to stand out from all the other people who avoid speaking.

You get to learn about yourself as a person, and face your personal challenges.

You get to connect with people and build relationships.

You get to work on your skills every time you're on the stage or in the conference room.

You get to help people move forward and take action.

You get to express your ideas, change minds and make an impact.

You get to be in charge of the room -- and own the stage.

There is so much a speaker gets out of presenting to an audience. You get to be your most fabulous, confident, brilliant, witty self. You get to stand out while others hide in the shadows. You get to change minds, and maybe lives.

But only if you reframe that negative "have to" into "get to."

Be the one with the surprises

I've heard this from several of my clients: "My information isn't interesting." "They're bored before I even start." "They don't even want to be there."

Typically, attendance at these internal presentations is mandatory, and they cover topics like compliance, sexual harassment, health benefits, and so forth. There's usually lots of filling out of forms, watching painful educational videos and sitting through complex technical explanations.

So are they right? Is their information truly not interesting? Is the audience bored before the speaker even begins?

Maybe it's true that the audience is not eagerly anticipating listening to a presentation about HIPAA, but that doesn't mean you have to feed into this preconceived idea that the presentation is automatically boring.

There's certain information you're required to deliver. But why not wrap it in a fun package? Why not find ways to take this same "boring" information, and make it into a game, or build in interactive activities that add some energy to the room?

I spoke with a recent client about this negative mental energy she was bringing to her presentations. I asked her how she could find a way to make her time in meetings more engaging, both for herself and for her audience. There is always a way, but it takes commitment, planning and preparation.

The more we talked about it, the more intrigued she became. To begin with, why not incorporate some icebreakers and mental refreshers into her presentations and meetings?

• How about one week she brings a short quiz about the history of the company to the all-staff meeting, and whoever gets the most answers correct wins a prize?

• Maybe at another meeting, she brings an activity where the staff can learn something new about the other people they work with, by drawing clues on their name tags.

• At one meeting, she might introduce an interesting and fun factoid she found on the Web that relates to the company's mission.

• During one of those "dreaded" compliance presentations, she could have her team discuss how these issues affect them, personally, and track responses on a flip chart (and candy would make a nice reward).

None of these activities are complex. And they all relate to the meeting topic, the company's mission and history, or to employee bonding and morale -- all worthwhile focus areas.

I saw her face brighten. Her eyes lit up. She began to smile. She realized that, instead of being the person with the boring technical presentations that "no one wants to attend," she could instead be the person with the surprises. She could be the person who brings the fun.

Who wouldn't want to be that person?

Jean-Ralphio: Speech Expert

From last night's episode of Parks and Recreation: Tom Haverford, hoping to give the best man speech at his friend Andy's wedding, consults Jean-Ralphio for advice.

Jean-Ralphio: Can I throw something on you, see if it feels good?

Okay, this is what I would do. I would start with a joke. Joke. Vince Vaughn quote. Obviously.

Tom: Swingers or Crashers?

Jean-Ralphio: Fred Claus.

Talk about Andy's ex-girlfriends. Quote from "Love, Actually." Hold back your tears. Pause....

Drop the microphone, get out of that b!tch. [Makes explosion sound.]

---

Some pretty solid advice. What do you think? Happy Friday!

Here's the clip. If you have trouble viewing it, click here. The clip runs from 15:56 to 16:23.

The "pink slime" demonstration

Jamie Oliver -- chef, restaurateur and star of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution TV show -- has a big job ahead of him in his latest series, set in Los Angeles. His goal is to improve the healthfulness of school food, and it's a project that has ruffled the feathers of many a school official in the process.

Jamie has had cooking shows on TV for many years now, and he's a master of demonstrations. Here's a brief clip from his latest episode, where he describes for a small audience of parents and children the processing of waste meat products (considered unfit for human consumption) into "pink slime," which is then added back into ground beef as filler.

Some of his demonstration is for dramatic effect, like the use of the washing machine. As he doesn't have the actual machinery to process the meat, he "imagines" it for the audience.

Note how he pulls the ammonia from a cabinet with a childproof lock on it. Brilliant.

How could you be using props and demonstrations more effectively in your presentations? What can you bring with you to give the audience an up-close-and-personal perspective on your topic?



If you're having trouble viewing this video, you can see it here on Hulu. This clip runs from about 11:35 to 16:35.

How to magnify your flaws: Try public speaking!

As a personal development tool, public speaking can't be beat. If you don't learn a few things about yourself from the process of building and delivering a presentation, you may be self-awareness-challenged.

A theory of mine about why people are so reluctant to give presentations is that it's not all about the fear of being judged by others, but also about what we'll find when we judge ourselves.

Who likes to look at our own flaws? Not me. And not most people. But here's what you'll see when you start working on your presentation.

Time management problems? They will come to the forefront.

Organization issues? Your audience will notice.

Preparation not your strong suit? You'll be scrambling.

Nitpicker? You'll drive yourself crazy. (This is me, by the way.)

Lack patience? Your audience will suffer.

Pessimist? Murphy's Law is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Afraid to take a risk? Your presentations will be safe and boring.

Pretentious/Vain/Arrogant? The audience will be glad to escape.

OR...

It could go like this...

Time management problems? You'll learn how to edit a presentation so it fits into the time you have.

Organization issues? You'll become better at structuring your flow so the audience gets it.

Preparation not your strong suit? You'll discover that the more you prepare, the less nervous you are.

Nitpicker? You'll learn to let go. (Ahhh, it feels so good.)

Lack patience? You'll begin to appreciate where the audience is coming from.

Pessimist? You'll find that things don't always go wrong, but when they do, you're ready.

Afraid to take a risk? You'll start to enjoy trying new things when you see the positive audience response.

Pretentious/Vain/Arrogant? I'd like to think that you'll see how connecting with an audience on a human, authentic level gives immense satisfaction and is a win-win situation for both of you. But you might never learn this if you cling to the idea that a presentation is all about you and how brilliant and successful you appear to the audience.

Oh well. Nobody's perfect.

What have you learned about yourself from public speaking?

It's okay to have fun!

How many of you are having a good time when you're presenting?

Are you distracted by fears, by insecurity, by how you're coming across or by how many ums you're saying? "Am I doing the right gestures?" "Am I funny enough?"

Or are you reveling in the opportunity to share your message, meet cool people, interact with the audience, and feel that electric feeling when everyone in the room is with you and "getting it?"

Here's a performance by a young man who truly enjoys himself and embraces his unique qualities. He's not concerned so much with doing things "right" as he is about giving his mind, body and soul to the performance, and his appreciation to the audience.

Contrast James with some of the other performers who appear to be trying to do everything "right" and "safe," but who are missing out on the true joy of touching the audience emotionally.

Here are the judges' comments after James Durbin's performance on American Idol last week.

Jennifer Lopez: I feel like you really encompass the whole audience. It was really a full performance of a great song by a great artist. Period.

Randy Jackson: What I also loved about it, you enjoy yourself. That's the greatest thing about any performer performing. Anybody can come out and put on a show and choreograph it, but I really felt like you were having a good time.

The fire, the piano, you coming out here with us, playing up there with the crowd. Dude that was a great, great, great performance.

Here's James' performance:



Now watch Thia Megia's performance from the previous week and listen to the judges' comments, including "dig a little deeper" and "is that song who you think you are?" Thia went home last week, not for lack of talent, but the audience was obviously missing some connection with her.



Which one are you? The safe one? Or the one who pushes boundaries, lets go of inhibitions and finds the joy in presenting?