Wired Presentations

There are some presentation coaches who say that you shouldn’t reduce presentations to a set of rules. Since I am not a presentation coach that doesn’t apply to me. Oh, this advice isn’t just for speaking pros, it is for you, the person delivering your first or second presentation.

Here is one of Jeff’s rules.

Take risks during your presentation!

I am not talking about ridiculous risks. Here is an example of a ridiculous risk that many people don’t mind taking, “I know this pretty well, I am just going to wing-it!” Winging-it, or just going up there and speaking without any preparation, is not the kind of risk I am talking about. When you think about it, it’s more stupid than risky. Actually, it is usually a sign of fear but that is a subject for another day.

Here are some ways to be risky during your next presentation:

1) Make meaningful eye contact. This one is soooooo important. When you are delivering a presentation a second can feel like an eternity. I consider this risky because you, like most people, feel so uncomfortable doing it. Make eye contact often and hold it longer than you think you should. You should practice this, often, during normal conversation with friends and family. Strangers too!

Eating in Asia is risky! But worth it!

2) Tell personal stories. Many people are unwilling to do this. I guess they see it as a sign of weakness. It isn’t. Your audience will find your story (if it is told well) interesting. The trick is to ensure that the story highlights the point you are trying to make. Stories are a great way to connect with your audience. Plus, people will remember you.

3) Don’t be a statue. You are a human, not a statue. Move! Sure, that junction box on the floor may knock you to the ground. No problem. Handle it well and people will talk about how awesome you are under pressure. Move, connect, influence!

4) Show some emotion. President Obama was recently interviewed about the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. He stated that he had to find someones “ass” to kick. The President of the United States shouldn’t use language like that on TV. That being said, he looked strange because he was using a very emotional word but was acting like Spock on Star Trek. No emotion at all.

I know what you are thinking. I give technical presentations. There’s no need for emotion. Nonsense! Technical presentations are all I deliver and I use emotion every single time. Emotion shows you care and you must care to connect and get your message across.

The speaking pros know these things and work on them. Fortunately, you can too. A willingness to take some risks will set you apart from your peers and possibly take your life, and career, in directions you never thought possible.

The Virtual Presentation Handbook by Roger Courville

The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook by Roger Courville is the 4th of 52 books that I will read this year.

How did I find Roger’s book, The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook? I found this book because I am a webinar nerd. I just love delivering them. I think that I enjoy delivering them because it may be the most challenging presentation environment there is. Well, that may be an overstatement. “Do you have any final words before we flip the switch?” would be worse. Oh back to the book…

A few years ago I was a Technical Trainer at SAS. Part of the job was delivering courses over the Web. I had never done this before and it scared the life out of me. I asked for advice and no one had any. I looked for help everywhere. There was very little to be found. I decided that I would have to learn how to do it — on my own. I started by watching hundreds of hours of recorded webinars (virtual presentations). I learned what made one webinar better than another and then I taught myself how to do it.

Periodically, I will search Amazon for books of presenting over the Web. During one of those searches I found Roger’s book.

Why did I read the book? Although I am no longer an instructor I still love learning about virtual presentations. I still deliver them, just not as often. Plus, the skills using in virtual presentations apply to using Camtasia. Finally, I want to see if others concur with some of the things I discovered on my own.

Lessons learned. The insight that Roger provides here is very good. Even though the book doesn’t address teaching, or technical presentations, the topics covered can be applied to those fields. I really enjoyed reading about using the Web for sales and marketing presentations. It is an environment that I don’t encounter very often.

There are no discussions of specific tools in the book. The vendors do a great job of documenting their offerings and how to use them. Their tutorial videos are a great learning tool. There is no reason to waste space in the book for that. One of the things that makes the book great is it’s size. Or lack of size. It is a small book and gets straight to the point.

Roger makes a point of emphasizing practice. This was born out in my learning adventure. You have to know the tool that you are using. There is no time to try to figure-out how to make something work during a real presentation. It is hard to make that case to people and Roger does a great job at it. Every once in a while I teach people how to get started with virtual presentations using WebEx. The only way I have found to hammer this home is to make a “mistake” with the tool. I always use polling. Yes, I have a scripted procedure to intentionally screw it up. It highlights the need to practice very effectively.

The book contains a discussion of PowerPoint as well. The tried and true advice extolling the joy of bullet free slides is covered as is a neat trick for building slides without using animations. You see, many of the tools have issues with animations. I won’t spoil it for you but I can vouch for the technique. I use it all the time and it works very well.

One of the joys of virtual presentations is the unmuted phone. During our training classes we heard lots of interesting things. Most of which were quite funny and just a little embarrassing. I can honestly say that I have never heard a story as good as the one from the book. It is a hoot. Plus, the presenter’s reaction is incredibly funny. Seriously, it is almost worth the price of the book just to read the story.

The book has a wonderful discussion on how to make your webinars interactive. Interactivity is required for a great webcast. The vendors all have a common set of features to support this. Polls, chat and annotation tools that allow you do draw or type on the screen are common to all of them. Roger covers them in the book. We differ in our opinion of the annotation tools but that is probably a function of the subject matter we present.

The book is chock-full of useful tips and tricks. I haven’t scratched the surface. I guess you will just have to read it for yourself;)

The final verdict: Experienced Web presenters and newbies will both benefit from reading this book. I wish it had been around when I started.

Be sure to follow Roger on Twitter. You can also learn more at The Virtual Presenter Web site.

Alan Hoffler and I spend a lot of time talking about ideas and presentation skills. That is why I am so thankful that our paths crossed. I honestly don’t know where I would be without him. And I know he feels the same way about me.

We met for lunch at our usual place today and discussed what it means to learn. Today was about how to learn presentation skills. But it really applies to lots of areas.

As I walked back to my office, it hit me. Never in human history has it been so easy to learn. You can literally get on the Internet and find an expert in practically any field who will help you. Photography? Yep, I got help one time from a photographer at National Geographic. Have a question about a presentation? Speech coaches all over the world will help you. In general, people love to help others. You just have to ask.

I taught SAS courses over the web and it always amazed me that we could effectively teach people who are half a world a way. I was able to find hundreds of hours of videos to analyze. In short, I found the resources necessary to teach myself. Teaching yourself is not a bad thing. Learning how to learn is a great skill to have.

Back to presentations… To learn to deliver effective presentations you need an audience. Ideally this audience will be sophisticated, and honest, enough to provide you with feedback. Make that “GREAT FEEDBACK.” You don’t want the feedback to be superficial. “You said ‘um’ and ‘ah’ is not what I would call deeply profound.” You want the feedback to be meaningful. Although you can go improve by presenting to a video camera, adding an audience into the mix helps a lot.

A knowledgeable audience who won’t tell you the truth isn’t much use, either. You need honest feedback.

I am reasonably certain that this audience (group) I am describing does not exist as an organized club. It must be created. Fortunately, Keith Ferrazzi has provided a general blueprint for us. His most recent book, “Who’s Got Your Back,” describes accountability groups. He doesn’t talk about presentations, per se, but his concept applies.

If you are interested in something like I am describing. Let me know. If you live in the Triangle area of North Carolina that’s great. If you don’t, still contact me. With so much great technology at our disposal we can probably make the distance irrelevant.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and we can discuss this.