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I am often amazed to discover that most presentations are not inspiring at all. It is funny but the public senses this right away. After only a minute they know, this is going to be interesting or not. In the case of the latter, they´ll start making up the groceries lists instead. It is quite painful to see. The presenter trying his best, but feels that the harder he works the more the audience seems to be slipping away. As if there is this secret understanding: we are both not connecting at all, but for the sake of politeness let’s all pretend! Read down below, what, according to me, is the misguided belief that is responsible for so many uninspiring presentation and what you can do about it! What is this misconception that makes us uninspiring and makes us so ineffective as speakers? I have asked and trained a lot of highly educated professionals and what they seem to believe is that only content counts. Or as someone said: `talking in an enthusiastic way would downplay the professionalism and seriousness of the subject`. How wrong can you be! Maybe you will be considered professional, but I can assure you that you will score no points in the "being inspiring and being convincing" department. Steve Jobs the Apple CEO knows better. His reputation on being one of the most inspirational speakers is such, that even presentation books have been written about him. He is a true phenomenon in the presentation arena. He knows that combining content with enthusiasm is extremely powerful! Besides having a clear story, he is so amazingly enthusiastic and passionate about his product, you can’t help but become entangled by Steve. His energy is incredible contagious. This man breaths apple! The result: you want to hear more and there is not a second that you think of your groceries list, listening to Steve. The result: major sales and rise in shares after one talk of Steve introducing a new Apple product. Of course there are a lot of things that Steve Jobs does while presenting that are very smart and work very well, besides his enthusiasm. But, still it is one of the most important characteristics that signify this man. According to Carmine Gallo the author of the book of "The presentation secret of Steve Jobs" there are 3 ways in the non-verbal department that Steve does and that you can easily adapt. 1) Make eye-contact (being available for your public all the time). 2) Have an open posture. 3) Use a lot of hand gestures. Obviously the above is quite predictable, but I have a much easier and better plan for you.Take the time to think of what it is that makes you enthusiastic about your presentation subject. What makes your heart run faster or gives you loads of energy thinking about it? Try to find the reason that makes your motor run. Once found, you cannot help but make eye-contact, have an open posture and use a lot of hand gestures. Because you simply will be super eager to convey this to your audience! This is what Anna, one of my participants, wrote after one of my trainings: "The exercises in your workshop showed me how much more I liked to listen when I felt people were enthusiastic". As you pointed out in the workshop, I don’t think that most people are aware of the importance of this emotional aspect, most indeed focus on content." This is what Anna did before her presentation that got her "a lot of positive remarks". Focus on: 1) How important it is to get to my own enthusiasm. 2) What this enthusiasm is founded in. 3) Really making this clear to people by telling them. Do you want to become convincing and inspiring? Spend some time finding the reason for your enthusiasm for the subject! Once found, you cannot help but automatically mimic the phenomenon Steve Jobs. I will assure you that combining good content with your enthusiasm will make your public sit on the tips of their chairs instead of making up their groceries list for next week! Kind regards, Mabel Frumau |
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