Last week, I presented magic at the historic Vienna. I started entertaining a few people, but in ten minutes I was completely surrounded, and the room was packed. Then, I looked for my Sharpie marker, which I needed for my next effect. I realized it was in my bag sitting about ten feet away; so I wended my way through the crowd, fished for my marker, and finally handed it to the spectator. This took about twenty seconds. But, when I launched back into my presentation, the crowd had dissipated, and small conversations were flourishing. Now I needed to WORK HARD at rebuilding my crowd and recapturing attention. In short, I had to revive my presentation from the dead.

Shame on me! I teach executives and managers that they must have everything they need at their fingertips BEFORE beginning a presentation. Why?  Because DEAD TIME KILLS. It devours your effectiveness because without the audience’s rapt attention, you are wasting your time and theirs.

What I witnessed physically at a magic performance (people talking and walking) is a caricature of what happens in a business presentation. While it is unlikely that your audience will bolt for the door or launch into small private chats at your presentation, people will “check out” mentally, and they will launch into internal dialogue about something more important or more amusing than you.  It’s that simple.

The solution is simple as well:

1) While rehearsing make a checklist of everything you need, use, or refer to.

2) Setup: on the big day, go through your checklist and physically touch every item you need.

3) Handouts: have them at each seat before you begin. If this is not possible, have somebody else deliver the handouts for you while you continue to present.

4) Index cards: If you rely on index cards for notes, be sure to number them to avoid excessive fumbling should you drop them.  If you rely on powerpoint for notes see here.

5) Do you refer to a manual, text or report? Use Post-it notes as book marks. Flipping around for even five seconds creates enough dead-time to start the bleeding.

6) Avoid or limit conversation that is administrative and directed at only one person. For example, you are presenting on a new accounting policy, and your tech guru asks about systems integration. Even though this is not technically dead time, the conversation acts as white noise for everyone else in the room who is far removed from these details. Unless the issue is urgent, use this response: “excellent question, and you and I need to discuss it in detail after this presentation. Thanks for bringing it up Jim.”

7) Be very aware of any time that ticks where nothing is happening, and understand that it is causing a slow drain of your audience’s attention.

Please do not confuse dead time with the power of the pause. A purposeful pause drastically increases your effectiveness. I’m talking about me fumbling for my Sharpie or you flipping through your 10-Q report trying to find the change in retained earnings while your boss begins to daydream about whether it’s chicken fajita or tuna salad for lunch.  Personally, I’d take the chicken fajita with ranch dressing.

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A long-time client just asked me to do a presentation for his annual sales kickoff meeting.  He also asked me to select another speaker in my circle who could deliver a compelling business message in achievement.

One of my suggestions was a woman that I had brought in to present to his team one year earlier.  He replied to my suggestion that “she was a little bit dry for our group”.  My client ended up choosing one of my other options.

The “dry” comment was enlightening because the presenter was an impressive expert in her field, very well prepared, and she imparted useful techniques to achievement.  In addition, she was an excellent speaker: knowing when to pause, avoiding all filler, making great eye contact, etc.  However, I witnessed that volume and inflection were lacking.

What a lesson!  You can have great content that is well prepared and useful to your audience.  You can be confident, and employ excellent public speaking skills.  All is for naught, however, if you don’t have volume and inflection.  The perception is that you are serving dry toast.  Brilliant content buried in dry toast has little to no value.

How can we avoid serving dry toast?

Saying vs. conveying: A robot can say something to an audience.  You convey by using more than words.

1) Speak Loudly.  If you speak too softly, you will annoy your audience.  Even if they love your topic, they will desperately wish for your presentation to end.  Note: To speak loudly; then make one point in a whisper can be powerful.  Avoid overusing this technique.

2) Monotone kills.  It’s as simple as that.  The inflection you use in a one-to-one conversation, where you are discussing something that interests you is the same inflection you should employ with your audience.

3) Enthusiasm.  Get excited about what you are presenting, then the first two points happen naturally.  I had a college statistics professor who was excited about what he taught.  The class LOVED him and learned a great deal. Conversely, I had a marketing professor who was “dry”; the class could barely stand his lectures.

4) Did you know that when most people present they gesture about 15% as much as they do when speaking one-on-one?  Here’s the interesting point: most gestures before a large audience feel too big to the presenter but look too small to the audience.  In my experience over-gesturing is truly rare.  Most speakers overwhelmingly under-gesture.

How do you know whether you are saying or conveying?

1) Video your presentation and review it.

2) Practice your presentation before your friends/family/peers.

3) After presenting ask audience members how enthusiastic you appeared.

4) Remember to avoid at all costs speaking too softly.  It will irk your audience, unless they happen to like dry toast.  Have somebody in the back row point upward if you need to raise the volume.

Here’s my question for you.  Would you tell that presenter who was perceived to be “dry” what she needs to work on?  Consider that this individual did not solicit my feedback.

Thanks

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