In This Chapter

Using the best methods to get the best from every presentation.

Preparing and researching before presenting

As you prepare your music, your business, and your plan, the last step comes down to your presentation. Whereas people invest in a business, in the arts, they also invest in the people. All the more reason it’s important to have the ability to present and carry yourself well. A great deal of your career consists of presentations. Whether talking to investors, booking agents, potential endorsers, sponsors, managers, labels, or anyone else, your ability to present in a professional and personable way that engages, entices, and excites gives you that much more ammunition to get a project funded, done, booked, and more.

In this chapter, I cover the ten core fundamental tips to practice, learn, and execute the right way to achieve the best results.

Posture

You may have heard that phrase about chin up, shoulders back, chest out, and gut in. Many make fun of it, but don’t realize that your physical presence is a key part of your entire presentation. A confident walk that carries a confident body makes all the positive difference in the world. One of the first things that people see is your posture and your walk when you go into a meeting, so make it count. Start off on the right foot with the right step and the solid posture to support it.

It doesn’t matter if you’re short or tall, fat or thin, and while it’s good to present in clean and solid clothing, bad posture, slouching, and a passive walk can turn potential opportunities and connections off.

Simple stretching, a little bit of basic yoga, and attention to how you stand and even walk in front of the mirror can help you make simple adjustments that can yield the best results. Take the time and put in the effort to reinforce good posture techniques. Those first impressions are key, and the first thing others see is your body.

The tone of your voice can be altered in bad posture. When you stand straight with solid posture, even your voice has a cleaner tone. Don’t underestimate the power of physical projection. It’s one of the first things people see and one of the first things people judge before even hearing your first words.

Your Volume Speaks Volumes

Think of those people whose voices just annoy the daylights out of you. Think of those people who seem to be completely unaware of just how loud they are. Then think about the people who speak so softly, it’s both annoying and challenging to try to hear them. Then the last type, those fluctuating between sounding as quiet as a mouse and then roaring like a lion. Now, here’s that moment of truth and something to put you in check … make sure you aren’t one of them.

The volume of your voice truly speaks volumes about your confidence and your ability to connect, project, and communicate. When you talk too loudly, it gives off a sense of fear and lack of confidence mixed with trying to overcompensate. When you speak too softly, it highlights the same fear in a different way and a passiveness that can turn people away.

Look at it like Goldilocks and the three bears. Not too loud, not too soft, project with your volume just right. Don’t overcompensate or undercompensate; just deliver an even tone at a reasonable volume. Inflections are fine. You don’t want to sound monotone or like that teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. (I might be dating myself here. Bueller, Bueller, Bueller. Just YouTube Ferris Bueller teacher and you will see what I mean.)

The consistency of the volume of your voice subliminally presents a confident person delivering something solid. Be seen as someone who presents a well-equalized and decent volume in their voice.

As hard as it might be, record yourself. Whether on a phone voice memo program or some kind of audio or video application, listen to how you sound, how you fluctuate in volume and pitch. Addressing these tiny intricacies can help open the doors for the biggest results and benefits from your presentations.

Uhs, Ums, Ohs, and Stuttering

Sometimes space is a beautiful thing. There’s this simplicity, a comfort, and a sense of relaxation in space and in silence. The space between a note in a song or the space and pause between words in speech can have a great impact, while at the same time add a sense of dominance, control, and confidence.

On the exact opposite side of the spectrum, add someone who is afraid of space and feels like silence or a pause is the enemy. Then, of course, compound that with fear, lack of confidence, and the almost allergic reaction and outbreak of uhs and ums and ohs and stuttering, and you’ve taken the best plan and destroyed any chance of it, right there in the presentation.

By rooting yourself in your belief and confidence in whatever project, concept, or idea you’re pitching and feeling the security to allow for pauses, silence, and breaks, you can raise the assertiveness and project a much stronger foundation for your presentation and your ability to present that much more professionally.

Trust yourself and allow for spaces, a breath, and even silence to occur without feeling that the given space has to be filled. The security and confidence in what you say mixed with what you don’t say can speak volumes and showcase a strength even in a moment of silence.

Education for the Presentation

This is one of those due diligence type of pieces to the puzzle of your overall presentation. You may have prepared and educated yourself on the pitch or solicitation, but make sure you know about the people you’re talking to, the company you are pitching, or the history of those who can help you achieve the results you’re looking for.

Showcasing personal and professional respect to the person, company, group, or product that you’re pitching or presenting helps you out exponentially with your presentation. Stay confident, but keep the ego checked at the door.

With all the time that goes into preparing and building that rock-solid, impress-them-all presentation, leave the time to learn and educate yourself on the people, the companies, and the products that those people and companies put out. Educate yourself on the key names, history, and success of that company, person, or organization. Bringing this type of individualized knowledge, information, and preparation to your presentation builds up that much better of a concentration from the listening audience.

The more you go into a meeting, pitch, or presentation not only asking but also showcasing and sharing your knowledge and respect to the person or company you want to align with, you prove you did your homework and you’re not just trying to repeat the same pitch to a series of different people, over and over again.

Pre-Production for Pre-Presentation

A week before a Skype or video call, a phone meeting, or a face-to-face meeting, take in a rehearsal or two. Think of it as pre-production or a cold rehearsal before you go into do the real thing. Try a role-play-type scenario and test the waters. Get a friend you trust or business person you know and ask them to play the role of a skeptical, doubting, but slightly interested person who has agreed to hear you out.

Ask them to be honest, critical, as well as doubtful and very apprehensive. This dry run can help you test out how you present as well as allow you feedback on how you came off from someone other than the person or people who you plan to approach.

This can help you to dial in last-minute issues and prepare for some unexpected questions that might arise. Still, understand that no amount of practice can prepare you for the real presentation, and the best take-away from your pre-production and rehearsals is to achieve a basic level of comfort and confidence to take whatever is thrown at you and have the ability to address it.

It isn’t about preparation to have the answers for every single question. It’s more about being comfortable and confident in fielding and handling all the questions, over having all those answers. No one has all the answers, but those who can handle the questioning while explaining how they get the answers are the ones who see a greater level of support, investment, and sponsorship.

While preparation is a good idea, don’t take it to the extent of trying to learn lines or make it too rigid or sterile. Rehearsal and preparation are good things, but something too rehearsed, too contrived, and too planned has a big chance of backfiring.

Adapting, Improvising, and Resonating with a Room

Imagine you’re a chameleon, able to shift to any color to fit the environment around you. Sounds almost like some superhero, but it’s not. It’s your responsibility to adapt, adjust, improvise, and resonate with those who you’re meeting. Your ability to relate and reset to resonate with the people around you will help those people feel both comfortable with you and with the idea, investment, concept, or pitch you’re sharing.

As much as you may have done your research and your due diligence, there’s no way to know what a room is like when you walk in, just as there’s no way to guess what type of mood a person is in when you talk to them. This is all the more reason why it’s crucial to be prepared to change on the drop of a dime.

Preparing and executing a professional but more rigid business pitch when you walk into a room of investors who have their suits on and ties straightened is a better choice than walking in, putting your feet up on a conference table, and calling people “dude.”

On the other side of the coin, there’s no need to keep that more rigid approach when you sit down in a more relaxed environment with people who tell you to call them by their first names, are cracking jokes, and seem like the kind of people you’d hang out with. In that case, you can dial back the formality and adjust accordingly.

Plan for what you can and find out who you’re meeting, and where and when you’re meeting them. Even more so, though, be prepared to switch up your presentation and vibe to meet, match, and resonate with someone from whom you want something.

Regardless of how formal or relaxed a situation is, adjust to the situation, but stay professional. Even if it shifts to a buddy-buddy type meeting, you’re there for business. Don’t forget that.

Other Side of the Coin: Empathy

Whereas you have the best sense of what you’re looking for, why you want it, and what you plan to do with it, realize that the majority of people you meet as you present and solicit your pitch have heard it all before. And they’ve heard it a lot. A great element to practice is that of empathy and seeing things from the other side of the coin with the person or people you are talking to.

This relating and understanding of their point of view and their experience enables you to make the experience all the stronger for yourself and what you are asking for. Too many people go into presentations with a selfish and very linear view that what they’re saying, doing, and planning is something that no one has ever seen. Your presentation should be personalized and individualized as you define the points about who you are and what you’re doing, but it’s crucial to add an element of empathy, understanding, and looking at the other side of the coin.

As you work to understand how the other side feels, look at how you can supplement your presentation by thinking of how your presentation would make you feel. As you look at yourself as the requesting party, make sure you come off like someone you’d want to invest in.

Work to understand the other person’s view of you and your project. Even if it isn’t true or completely correct, that understanding mixed with the efforts to present in a way where you’ve already scrutinized and analyzed allows you a better connection and resonation with you.

Confidence without Arrogance

Confidence and assertiveness in a presentation are two attributes that make any presentation that much better, but keep them in check and don’t let them run out of control into arrogance and belligerence. Your ability to present in a way that excites, draws people in, and engages people comes from the confidence you have in your project and in yourself.

Regardless of how good the presentation is on paper, a great deal comes down to how confident you are in person. If someone senses you seem doubtful, questionable, or iffy on how you’re presenting, that can translate for them that you’re doubtful, questionable, or iffy on what you presenting.

Believe in yourself and in your presentation. Being a little nervous and a shaky before delivering a pitch is one thing, but if you don’t have the core confidence to deliver a presentation, get someone else to deliver it or spend a little more time honing it so you can deliver with the confidence it requires.

Saying that you don’t know something showcases a lot more confidence than lying about something you don’t have an answer for. People are much more impressed by someone who can look them dead in the eyes and say, “I don’t know, but I will go and find out.”

The Little Things

Many times a series of little things can make the difference and add that extra embellishment to a presentation. At the same time those little things that are forgotten or skipped over can also take away from presentations and potential opportunities.

As much as you’d like it to be all about the plan, all about the business, and all about what’s being presented, the way you present yourself and the different parts of you can make all the difference. The following is a simple checklist of the little things to address to add that extra punch of professionalism to your presentation:

• Shine those shoes or clean those sneakers. A little blackener on the sole of a dark shoe or a little bleach to the sole of a sneaker shows that attention to detail.
• Present your clothes as clean and well cared for. Regardless of what you’re presenting in, iron garments that can use ironing. Avoid looking overly wrinkled or sloppy.
• Trim and clean your fingernails. Show that you put effort from tip to toe.
• Shower and relax on the cologne or perfume. Don’t overwhelm and intimidate with good or bad smells.
• Clean your phone. Clean your keys. Clean your laptop. That shiny screen on a phone, on a laptop, or even a set of keys that look cared for as well as anything else that can be seen during a meeting or presentation shows that extra attention to detail.

All those little extra embellishments bring that much more for reinforcements to your presentation in what you’re sharing and how you appear while sharing it.

Talking With, Not To or At, People

There’s a big difference in talking with someone, talking to someone, and talking at someone. It might be seen like semantics, but it goes much further and that’s why it’s the last tip for presentations. Although you’re doing a great deal of the talking in a given presentation, solicitation, or pitch, keep in mind how you’re talking. This is a much more psychological aspect with much more subliminal-type connections. People who present as they’re talking with someone create a much more comfortable experience with the people to whom they’re presenting.

In talking with someone, it becomes that much more of an inviting presentation and comes off softer and more welcoming. Think of talking with someone in the sense that they could jump in and add a thought, ask a question, or become a part of the presentation themselves, even though you’re the presenter.

Steer clear of talking at someone, which usually brings the sense of being almost looked down on. Dominating a talk, not allowing for others to interject, and making it more like a speech over a conversation between two parties is a good way to alienate your audience and come off as condescending. Even the phrase of talking to someone has many of those aggressive elements as well.

Keep in mind that you’re presenting by talking with someone or talking with a group of people, not just talking at them. Even if no one else says a word, giving off the two-way vibe of talking with someone creates a more inviting, engaging atmosphere for your presentation. In turn, it has that much more of an effect because you make everyone part of the conversation.

No one has a better understanding of what you want than you. Take every step, use every tool in your toolbox, and every tip in this chapter to bring across the strength of your presentation and your pitch. Even more so, present the best of you. You’re the maker of your music, the foundation of your business. The plan and elements are detailed, defined, and organized, but the final piece comes back to you and your delivery.