12.3. CLOSING A TALK

First impressions, especially good ones, are fragile. Closing a discussion well is as vital to your presentation as opening one with style. Some of the tactics can be the same. For instance, one of the most powerful iterations of the artifact tactic I have ever seen was a closing tactic at the end of a presentation at a dull convention. A family values expert walked on stage with a giant plush panda bear, set it next to the podium, and then proceeded with his presentation as if everything were completely normal. He looked normal enough and his slide deck was normal, also. He went through an almost academic lecture format discussing various family statistics, but as boring as that sounds, I listened to him more intently than I had to any of the other presenters. Every sentence could have been the one explaining the reason for the big panda bear—was it his Woobie? Was there a bomb inside it? Was it a prize for an audience member? I couldn't figure it out.

He began to conclude his discussion, wrapping up some of the academic concepts he had proposed and providing the action points to the audience, but then he paused. After looking around the audience, he began to talk about family relationships. He talked about his own family and how every decision each family made resulted in a compromise or sacrifice for the other family members. He explained that his son had missed the opportunity to visit the zoo that weekend because he had been preparing for a professional engagement—the very presentation he was giving at that moment. It was a compromise, and he had gotten the large panda bear as a thoughtful substitute for his son's sacrifice.

It was a profound personalization. His message, which had dealt in the statistical evidence that families are drifting apart as individual family members find it easier to pursue individual interests, felt real. I didn't just understand that my choices impact the lives of my loved ones; I felt it. I felt for the speaker's son's missed zoo visit, but I also felt for the speaker. I fully appreciated his commitment to what he was saying, since he clearly felt torn being away from his family over the weekend. To this day, I think about how my decisions affect my loved ones more vividly than I ever had prior to hearing this speaker.

I don't think the message would have had half the power had he told this story at the presentation's beginning. By allowing the audience's curiosity to build, he elevated our capacity for emotional feeling—a required state for catching the heart of his particular message. Revealing the sentiment behind the data he pounded us with at the end of the presentation was pivotal to imparting what was inside his heart to others.

Closing is all about filling people with purpose: your purpose, their purpose, and the reason for the meeting, product, or events being discussed. By planning your presentation well, you should be able to deliver a solid climax to a story that has built throughout the entire talk.

But what do you do with your nonverbal communication?

To get an answer for this, watch some sermons or other powerful political or religious speeches. You'll often find that at the end, the speaker often assumes a much more empathetic, relational posture. The voice, once powerful and authoritative while setting key points in stone, becomes calm and understanding. Instead of being distant on stage, perhaps behind a lectern, the speaker moves to the edge of the stage or out among the audience for closeness. He or she revisited the main points, but with an emphasis on the passion behind them and how imperative it is that the audience act on the objectives set forth in the speech.

Why this structure—power and authority in the middle, empathy and compassion at the end? It's simple: The way we close our presentations determines how people think of us once we're gone. The conclusion forces a different perspective of the issues. The body—the thesis, the objectives, the key points—is the message; the conclusion is the speaker. It's how the speaker feels, a chance for him or her to become a human to the audience, rather than a separate entity. In a sense, the conclusion breaks the trance of group-think: It takes individuals out of that audience mind-set and back into personal accountability for the message. When the speaker turns personal, the audience does too. It's a natural, empathetic response—one that can be called upon when it counts.

12.3.1. Conclusion

What you do when you speak, speaks volumes. You are what you think about, but all of your possessions, all of your little quirks and tics, are the result of thoughts you've been thinking for years. The physical representation of your personality is a powerful presentation tool, one that you should be wielding with great force on stage. Start paying attention to the little things: They reveal more about who you are than all of the things you've been telling people about yourself. You are a chatterbox. It's time to take charge of what you're saying.