74. Be Honest and Authentic

In the previous section I stressed how important a first impression is. But what if you blow it? What if you trip on a cord as you go to the front of the room? What if you plug in your computer and the image doesn’t show up on the projector?

This—and much worse—happens to every presenter at some point. In my career as a presenter and speaker I’ve had the following things occur:

• No one brought a projector yet my entire presentation consisted of slides.

• No one picked up the handouts from the printer as they said they would.

• The electricity went out in the building just as I started my presentation.

• I looked down to realize I was wearing two completely different shoes (long story).

• My luggage didn’t arrive with me on the plane, and I had dressed very casually that day.

• My plane was late, so I arrived an hour late and everyone was waiting for me. I didn’t have any time to test out the microphone, set the room up the way I wanted it to be, and so on.

• I walked up to the front of the stage not knowing that I had toilet paper stuck to my shoe.

When things like this happen, undermining your impression of being a leader in control, you have a few choices:

1. Ignore it and hope that no one else sees it/realizes it.

2. Acknowledge whatever is going on and ask for understanding.

3. Acknowledge whatever is going on and make a joke and/or self-effacing comment.