Using Your Heart

You go to a play and the actor comes to the edge of the stage and he's crying. If you say, “Wow, look at that! Real tears!” you saw technique. If he's crying and you're crying—you are in the moment. You are sharing the emotion, not watching it happen.

You can't limit your skill set to the physical or even the physical and mental. You have to use your heart. You're a whole person—body, voice, mind, and heart. You present with your whole being.

I once had a colleague who had the potential to completely master this skill. She had so much going for her. She perfected physical movement and developed excellent voice control; she used her head, linking intentions with content to convey messages effectively. But she failed to take the last step and use her emotions. This limited her use of humor as well, and it restricted her growth as a consummate communicator. By not committing herself to her own feelings, she let a gap of emptiness exist between herself and her audiences.

The use of emotion is what separates presenting from performing. As a visual presenter you will have to create the emotional link between you and your audience.

Understanding Motivation

Think of all the means at your disposal to express your feelings to an audience. Your eyes, facial expressions, voice, and gestures—your whole body emits feeling in order to make words have meaning. But without your personal commitment, your belief, and your motivation, the audience doesn't react as well as expected. Motivation requires inner energy to deliver the information with conviction.

That energy starts with you. You're the catalyst. You have to give an emotion to get an emotion. You have to be motivated before you can expect the group to be motivated. This is one of the most obvious problems I find in working with presenters. They fail to “get into it,” but they expect the audience to “get it.” If you can't psyche yourself up for the moment, why should the audience be expected to do so? You have to work on yourself to get your heart into it. But before you build the desire (the motivation) to tell the story, you have to believe in your message.

Sense of Truth

The chance to stir the feelings of a group to truly believe what you believe is the essence of your skill. Your ultimate challenge is to make them believe in your belief in the message. People can't have faith in the message without believing in the person representing the message. People believe in other people. The audience wants above all to believe what you are telling them. It is that simple. That belief starts in your own heart because if you don't buy it, they don't buy it. You must have a sense of truth about your message. This becomes your motivation to deliver that sense of truth with clarity and enthusiasm.

So, ask yourself, “What in the message do I really believe is true?” Everything, something, nothing? Remember that in life, truth is what you know. In presenting, truth doesn't exist until you demonstrate it. Using action, you must show your version of the truth to an audience. But if you can't justify your actions, then the truth is less obvious. Truth and belief are inseparable. You must believe something to show its truth. It reminds me of the saying “Practice what you preach.” In almost every coaching session I say, “Do you believe it?”

The best way to develop a sense of truth in your message is to play the devil's advocate with the argument you constructed for the audience. Can you convincingly play both sides of the issue? Can you be the prosecution and the defense? Naturally, the side that wins has more of your sense of truth because it has more of your heart. Truth is in the heart, not the mind. The more the message appeals to you, the more evidence you look for to support it.

Your sense of truth in your topic is directly related to your belief in that topic. Whatever appeals to you most in that truth will be delivered with the most conviction.

Thinking, Feeling, Wanting

Your sense of truth in the message justifies your presenting it. Motivation makes it happen. The motivation to speak is measured by your will, your desire, and your determination. Your feelings and your intellect are both supported by your will. They all work for one another and can hardly be separated. If you use your intellect (mind) to decide on some action, you must call upon your feelings (heart) and your desire (motivation) to make the action happen. You can't separate them. They all work together synergistically. Although action drives emotion, you have to want to create the action in the first place.

For example, let's say you must make a presentation to a group of people about a new product. You know how you will present the message because you've planned it. The planning involved a thinking process, but it doesn't stop there. How do you feel about the plan to present the product? How do you feel about the product itself? How about the people you'll be speaking to, and even the place you'll be presenting in? Considering those feelings, what motivates you to deliver the information at all?

You might say, “My paycheck.” Believe it or not, money can motivate only as much as what it gives you—security, luxury, power, and so on. If the motivation is from only a need to present (to get paid), then it is not being driven by desire. It becomes one of those presentations you have to do, but would skip if you could. This, unfortunately, is the case with over 95% of all presentations.

You've heard the excuses. “I just don't have it today,” “I'm not into it right now,” or “This doesn't interest me.” You've probably used these expressions yourself.

When the motivation, the desire, the will is missing, the feelings disappear and the mind is left alone to direct the body and the voice. When this happens, the presenter appears to be going through the motions, and the effect of the message is usually lost.

People Make a Difference

Motivation is a key element to making presentations more effective. I have been giving the same basic skills seminar for a number of years. Often people come up to me who've seen my show more than once and say, “I keep getting more and more out of this seminar; what have you added?” I say, “I've changed nothing.” The response is typically, “But something is different.”

There is one difference. I'll tell you what it is in a minute.

I've had others ask, “How can you give the same seminar, over and over again, and not be totally bored with the topic?” I respond, “The same way an actor in the theater can play the same role six nights a week for two years and deliver the same part with enthusiasm—because every night is different.” It's the same reason my seminar seems different each time.

The answer is different people. When the people change, the event changes because the event is by people, for people. It's a completely new presentation for each new audience. That's the secret behind the motivation. It's the desire and the will to share anew. Whether it's the same information for different people or even new information for the same people, the motivation is a result of change.

Never look to your content to stimulate your will. Look to the people who will be stimulated. It's not the joke that's funny; rather, it's the reaction. Your anticipation of the laughter motivates you to tell the joke. The inspiration you need to present the topic with conviction comes from the simple fact that people are willing to give you their time. If that's not enough to get you excited about your delivery, then consider yourself one of the average communicators—one of the talking heads that people expect to see each time a presentation takes place.

Always visualize the effect of your words on the group and you will understand your motivation. Think of infecting rather than affecting the audience, and your desire to deliver the message will increase.

Adding Stories and Personal Opinions

In a world where every product looks the same, the one difference is you. That's what being a visual presenter is all about. Companies differentiate not with products, but with people. If people make the difference, then you can bet that individual experience and personal opinion count for something. Experience means you've been there and have probably formed some philosophy over the years. You've learned some lessons over the course of time. Talk about the lessons, what you learned, and the way you see it. Talk about the way it was, and you'll convince people about the way it should be.

The best presenters tell stories. I can't stress that enough. The advantage of good stories is that they are unique. No one can copy, duplicate, reiterate, reproduce, retransmit, or recount your stories. They are personal references that enable a group of people to know something about what you have been through. Stories and personal experience are ways to share your character with an audience.

Time, Place, and Circumstance

The rules of storytelling are simple. The audience has to know when it happened, where it happened, and what conditions existed while it happened. If you don't establish time, place, and circumstance, you have less chance of keeping the audience attentive to your story.

Several years ago I was at a big conference and everything was hectic. That's the beginning of my story. How involved are you at this point? What do you really know so far? More important, what do you visualize about the event compared to what I remember about it? Let's break it apart.

“Several years ago”—whatever year you might be thinking of may not be the one I am, so we are not together on that issue. I mentioned “a big conference”—but you are probably visualizing a completely different event in a much different place. Finally, I said, “everything was hectic”—to you, maybe hectic means chaotic, confused, frenzied, or simply wild. Adjectives are tough for everyone to agree on.

Clearly my story doesn't put us on the same page so far. Our references are different. A story works best when we all share a common set of parameters. I need to establish time, place, and circumstance very quickly, to pull you into my story.

It was August 12, 1996. I was inside the San Diego Convention Center at the Republican National Convention, escaping the 100-degree heat. I was with a few thousand people crammed into this closet-of-a-room and suddenly—no air conditioning. Everything was hectic.

Do you see what a big difference those details make? It takes about 20 seconds more to add the description, but you are definitely with me in the story. You know the time (August 1996); you know the place (San Diego, Republican Convention); you know the circumstance (no air conditioning). We both can agree on what hectic means now.

When you specify time, place, and circumstance, you help the listener see what you are recalling in your mind. When you detail with adjectives (crammed, closet-of-a-room, and hectic), you let the listener feel what you are re-creating in your heart.

Storytelling is about attributes and attitudes. Keep that in mind every time you tell a story, and you will be more descriptive of both the facts and the feelings associated with the experience.

Personal Opinions Matter

It's one thing to tell good stories, whether they happened to you or to someone else. It's also important to editorialize. You have to voice your opinion every so often so that people know you're involved in the message. The editorial is the slant on the topic that the audience expects to hear from you. It's the emotional hook that keeps them coming back for more. Just don't be afraid to say the word “I” when you speak.

For example, let's say you're giving a presentation, and you bring up a bullet chart with a list of services your company provides. You may find yourself reciting the list and adding more explanation here and there. How do you feel about these services? The audience would love to know. Maybe you say, “What I really find helpful about” or “One of my favorite ways to use this”—these are personal opinions. Your views tell the audience so much more than your reviews. Don't be afraid to show them your take on life.

That's why we watch talk shows and read those letters to the editor. We are addicted to the unsupported assertions of people we will never meet. If a schoolteacher in West Podunk, Ohio, calls in to Larry King Live and criticizes a comment by a state senator from Texas, I'll sit there mesmerized while I dig deeper into my half-gallon of Vanilla-Fudge Swirl. I have no idea why, other than that I have to hear an opinion on anything by anybody, anywhere. Maybe you're not that bad. The point is that we are fascinated by other people's opinions and stories. It's part of the intrigue of being human.

You can be much more effective when you break the pattern of the presentation with stories and personal opinions. It gives the audience an image of a real person who knows how to share information in an interesting way.

Using Humor

A traveling salesman walks into a local bar and orders a beer. The bar is crowded, but it's pretty quiet.

Suddenly a voice shouts out, “72!” and everyone just bursts into laughter. The salesman looks puzzled.

The crowd settles, again another voice yells, “114!” and people are just doubling over in hysterics.

The salesman leans to the bartender and says, “What's the deal with the numbers and the laughs?”

The bartender replies, “Oh, this bar has been here for years. Same crowd all the time. Well, they know all the jokes, got tired of telling them, so they numbered them all. When you want to tell a joke, you just yell the number. It's pretty simple!”

The salesman whispers, “Do you mind if I try?”

The bartender says, “Give it a shot.”

The salesman clears his throat, waits for a lull, and yells, “84!” Nothing! No response, not even a chuckle. He tries again, even louder, “84!” Dead silence. One more time he shouts, “84!” Blank stares.

Frustrated, he turns to the bartender and says, “What's up? Why don't they laugh? Is something wrong with number 84?”

The bartender shakes his head and says, “Hey, pal, face it. Some people just can't tell a joke!”

I think you get the point. If you aren't funny now, you probably won't be funny when you present. This doesn't mean you can't learn things about timing and rhythm, but humor is exactness, precision, and accuracy. You can miss with tragedy and have some people in tears while others sniffle, but comedy is different. They either laugh or they don't. Smirks and chuckles don't count.

I don't want you to shy away from using humor; rather, I want you to realize how effective humor can be in a presentation. In a world of visual creatures, entertainment ranks high on the list of “what they want.” Humor is the best entertainment you can add to an event, because it relaxes people and makes them realize that the world isn't coming to an end after all. The use of humor at the right time with the right inflection can be extremely effective.

Opening Lines

“I just flew in from New York. Boy, are my arms tired!” That's fine if you are a standup comic. A comedian is expected to be funny. But are you expected to be funny? When someone says, “I want to start off with a joke,” I ask why? What makes you think the audience expects an opening joke? For that matter, why not sing? If they expect a joke, surely they expect a song, maybe even a dance! If they've seen you present before and they know you for your humor, then yes, tell the joke. But if they don't know your style, the joke better be really funny. No, I mean really funny. If it's not, it will probably bomb.

Don't just tell an opening joke for the sake of the joke. Whatever opener you choose, make it relate to the topic, the industry, the specific business, or even to a general characteristic about the group, like the fact that they are all in sales or marketing.

I was the keynote speaker at an annual meeting for a global travel agency. My opener was a Henny Youngman joke: “So, I got to the airport, walked up to the ticket counter and said, 'I have three bags here. I want one bag to go to Rome, one to Detroit, and the third one to Dallas.'The attendant said, 'We can't do that!'I said, 'Why not? You did it last week!'” For this group, the joke fit the industry.

Stretching the Rubber Band

When I prepare my own presentations, I structure the key issues around the jokes. This is very important because it uses a theater principle called “stretching the rubber band.” Think of the emotions of the audience as a simple rubber band. One side is serious; the other side is humorous. When the rubber band is stretched, the distance between the two sides is greater. If you let go of one side, the impact from the other side is bigger. An unstretched rubber band creates less impact.

Applying this principle to presentations, the humor offsets the serious tone of the talk. The timing is the trick. When the humor is at its peak, when you are delivering the funniest line—that's when the rubber band is stretched the most. Immediately following that moment is when you can get the greatest effect from being serious. The seriousness of the message is greater when the audience least expects it. If they are relaxed from a lighthearted comment, then they are vulnerable to the importance of an issue. The timing of your humor can effectively heighten the importance of your message.

Indicating and Apologizing

Don't indicate your humor. If you begin to laugh before the audience does, then the effect of the joke diminishes. This is because you indicated or telegraphed the result (laughter) before it could happen for the audience. If you laugh for the crowd, then they won't have to. One other way of indicating humor is by stating, “That reminds me of a joke,” or “Here's a really funny story.” When you say things like that, you raise the expectation of the group. In that case, it better be funny.

The best way to develop your delivery of humor is to practice telling jokes or funny stories to those closest to you. Family and friends will be the first to tell you if your jokes are funny. But make sure you find the jokes funny as well, or you will not tell them with commitment.

Finally, if a joke falls flat, keep going. Never apologize and never comment on the failure of humor. It's done. Move on. Only a comedian has to worry about being funny all the time. If you bomb out, it only makes the audience relieved that you don't tell jokes for a living.

That reminds me of the two construction workers who…

Developing Your Own Style

Probably the most important issue in the whole skill of delivery is the development of your own style. Think of style not as fashion, but as character.

The audience evaluates your character in relation to the message, the media, and the mechanics. All of these elements are part of the event. If you have developed your own natural way to deliver consistent messages, your style will emerge. People will remember your kind of presentation. Your style will show each time you deliver, regardless of the content.

Levels in Your Style

One way of assuring your own style is to match three levels of objectives in this order: the objectives for your life, for your role within the organization, and for your current presentation.

Start with your life. Let's say one of the objectives or goals you have in life is to be rich. Then look at your role in your current company. Is there an objective in your job description that possibly can match your life goal of attaining great wealth? Maybe not great wealth, but possibly a raise or a promotion—the steps to greater wealth. Finally, is there anything in the presentation that has to do with attaining great wealth, even if not directly for you but for the company? Look for it.

For example, perhaps part of the presentation discusses company growth. More revenue for the corporation might increase the budget for payroll. That could mean a nice fat raise for you. The extra cash might be what you need for the down payment on that piece of property you've been looking at recently. You know that property appreciates in value, and it would be so nice to have the land as an investment for the future.

During the presentation, the discussion of company growth is in direct line with your goal of attaining great wealth. Chances are that you will cover this topic with more enthusiasm because it matches something that appeals to you—in your heart. That's important in the development of your own style.

Many things in your life appeal to you. If any of them exist in your work and through the presentations you give because of your work, all the better to identify them and use them. Link the little objectives of your talk to the larger objectives of your work and into the even bigger objectives of your life.

Through Line of Action

Paying attention to everything that comes before, during, and following your presentation develops your character or style. It is one continuous process called a through line of action. This is important because it lets you link all of the elements in the presentation with the reality of the way things are.

For example, suppose you are giving a presentation on a Monday morning to a group of people. You begin at 9:00 a.m. and plan to finish at about 11:00 a.m. There will be one 15-minute break at 10:00 a.m. Let's make your through line of action for this example run from the time you woke up until after lunch.

Run through the details of those moments and you'll see a range of events from the very consistent to the very unique. The wake-up routine is probably the same. Depending on where the presentation takes place, locally or out of town, the commute to the event may be more or less familiar. The arrival at the event might be unique, depending on how many times you've done this same presentation for the same people in the same space. The event itself will have some information you've mentioned many times and some new information you are presenting for the first time. You can see how an examination of the continuous action will show you a combination of daily habits and one-of-a-kind activities.

The habits are already a part of your personal style. Don't worry about them at all. The one-of-a-kind moments are part of this through line of action, which eventually may add to your personal style, depending on how often they are repeated. The more you can pinpoint and control the unique moments, the more likely it is that they will recur the next time you present.

Don't Even Think About It!

The examination of your through line of action—that is, the connecting points along the way—is how you develop good habits. Although habits are hard to break, the good ones last forever. You don't even need to think about them after a while because they are part of your natural way of doing things.

There was a time in your life when, for a few weeks, all you did was spend every single waking moment of your day trying to accomplish a task that today you take for granted. It's called walking. At one time it was a rare privilege; now it's just part of the way you move.

When your presentation skills evolve from a rarity to routine, your own style becomes second nature. This is the result of putting so much of yourself into the mechanics of function—the inner life of your delivery—so that no one else can copy, reproduce, or mimic your personal skill set in any way.

Your body, voice, mind, and heart combine to form the foundation of your skill as a visual presenter. Once developed, your own style will be evident in the message, the media, and the mechanics as you perform your presentation for an appreciative audience. Every move you make, every word you utter, every thought you express, and every feeling you have will be part of your natural style. You'll finally be able to trust your own skills whenever you are truly being yourself in the presentation.