6.5. DON THE WHITE COAT

Don't let that expensive Italian suit fool you: You are the servant, and the audience is the master. They invited you. They signed the check. They cleared their schedules and suspended countless potential work hours to hear you say what you have to say. To be fair, you've been working hard yourself: clarifying, brainstorming, outlining, revising, and practicing, practicing, practicing. Really, the lengths we'll go to in order to hear someone speak, or to speak to someone, are pretty amazing.

There's no faster way to turn bated breath to halitosis than to show up looking for spa treatment. At the worst presentation I ever attended, the keynote speaker spent 20 minutes of a 30-minute slot explaining, in great detail, his academic pedigree and personal achievements. The moral of the story was that more individuals in society should aspire to be like him, or even just a tenth of the man he fancied himself to be. Needless to say, we all walked away quite determined to forget everything he had said.

When we step on stage, we need to imagine that we're putting on a white service coat. How can we help the audience? How can we meet their top needs and desires expeditiously? This approach covers so many presentation sins, even (dare I say) the sin of using bullet-pointed lists. The people roaming about the world today are hungry for connections. We have a million technological devices that provide a semblance of relationships, but very few of us ever feel truly loved, listened to, or respected. When you, the speaker, show up on stage and display a genuine interest in your audience's well-being and advancement, you create energy in the room that is fueled and sustained by the very welcome feeling of real, meaningful interaction with another human being.

The trick, of course, is not learning how to do it. That part is easy: you just put others first. The trick is remembering to try. This sort of interaction is a dying art in our society, which is simultaneously saddening and thrilling. It's saddening in that we see evidence of relational hunger every day in the news; loneliness, frustration, and depression are an increasingly prevalent part of many people's daily cycles of emotions. It's thrilling because this void creates a huge opportunity for motivated, big-picture people to step in and start meeting needs.

Start each day—and certainly each presentation—seeking to reach common ground with your audience. The momentum you gain from this effort will more than justify the investment of time it takes; no matter what happens with your discussion, you'll impress a very positive mark on their minds as you leave. Although it may be hard to see the short-term payoff, these unquantifiable opportunities carry an enormous amount of potential for your message. Your efforts will not go unrewarded.