6.2. THEY'RE JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

The way the audience reacted to your emotional story about how instrumental your mother was in helping you navigate the teenage years was something special. When you told them you still talk to her three times a day, a few began to cry. It gave you goose bumps. What a connection!

And then there were the hilarious moments. You laughed so hard telling the story about your cat dying. Sure, Mr. Pickles was a friend, but being run over by a steamroller? You just can't make that stuff up. It's always nice to entertain an audience.

What a relief: The big presentation is over. The account? Come to think of it, you haven't heard from anyone for days. They never faxed the contract. You make a follow-up call and . . . what? They've decided to go with the competition? What went wrong?

They're just not that into you. I see it all the time: Presenters get so wrapped up in their own experience of the presentation that they forget to put themselves in the audience's shoes. The diatribe about your mother came across to a roomful of people who don't know you as very, very weird. The cat story? Horrific. Most of the people in the room were silent, but you couldn't hear the crickets over your own raucous laughter.

Passion and enthusiasm are absolute must-haves in a presentation. Without them, the audience feels as though they're being lightly slapped with a cold, dead trout for an hour. However, engaging with our material in this way is new, completely uncharted territory for some of us. Without a script to follow, we can get lost very quickly. So how do we keep ourselves grounded?

It begins with making a habit of presenting. Well-planned content isn't great content until it is executed well. Constant feedback and adjustments help make the most of great prose and logic. Without serial presenting, you're liable to fall into the same old traps: working hard, thinking you've got a good read on the audience, and losing to the competition. Establishing a true connection with the audience is an art, a sixth sense that requires you to be both energetic and interactive with your content while keeping one ear and one eye attuned to the audience at all times. Without both, you may find that you've done an excellent job of entertaining yourself and a horrible job of moving the audience from one place to another.