Presentation Advisors Blog

Bouncing Back from a Presentation Mishap - Part 2

Last week I posted part 1 of bouncing back from a presentation mishap, where I threw up what I thought was a softball question and heard only crickets.  Well, as I mentioned in that post, there was more...

The organizer wanted me to fill a time block about a half hour longer than this particular presentation normally takes, so I added in some new content and was confident I'd hit my timing no problem. I was even pretty excited about the new content because it revolved around a personal story about a friend of mine, and stories are powerful presentation tools.

However, the story didn't work.  At least, it was falling on mostly deaf ears to this audience.  It was a story that had a web 2.0 theme to it and the audience just wasn't technically savvy enough to really follow the point I was trying to make.  Many audience members couldn't see the forest for the trees and missed the point.  My fault, completely.

I could have used a simpler method to tell my story and make my point, but unfortunately I didn't, and the audience let me know...immediately.  I always tell my audience that I accept questions at ANY time during my presentation.  There's no such thing as interrupting me with a question (unless you actually interrupt me).  I love opend and honest conversation during a presentation, since presentations themselves are conversations.  So as soon as a few of the audience members got lost, they started raising their hands.  I was able to reel the discussion back on track, however once we were all on the same page I was already at least 10 minutes behind where I wanted to be. 

I still finished in time without skipping through slides or not giving them their due diligence, but I had much less time for open Q&A than I would have liked.  I felt as though I had let them down, but while it technically was in my hands, it really wasn't.  Just like I couldn't beat myself up for my mishap from part 1, I couldn't beat myself up for this mishap either.  I took all the feedback to heart and altered my presentation accordingly.  All I can do is try my best to make sure it never happens again.

Honesty is crucial.  Not just in presenting, or business.  It's crucial in life, period.  You probably won't see a lot of presentation designers and trainers talk so openly about their mishaps, but that's only because they're hiding them.  It happens to all of us.  I write posts like these because I know they can help you, and that's all that matters to me.

I fell into presentation design because I love marketing.  Scott Stratten is one of my favorite marketers, or should I say "UnMarketers", and he devotes a good portion of his recent book outlining all the mistakes he made in social media.  I was so thankful he did because I made some of those mistakes too.  It made me feel better that I not only wasn't the only one, but someone who I highly respect in the social media space made the same mistakes. 

I used to have a poster in my room of Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player to ever live.  It read as follows:

As long as you learn from your mistakes, making that mistake is never a bad thing.

Image courtesy of parhessiastes on Flickr

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Bouncing Back from a Presentation Mishap - Part 1

Two months ago I delivered a presentation to a room full of entrepreneurs, small business owners, retirees and the like about preparing for, designing, and delivering an effective presentation.  This was the first time I had presented for this particular group, and there's always opportunity to stumble when you're personally unfamiliar with an audience (though there is never a situation where there's zero chance of stumbling).

The setup and technology tests went great and I had ample time to meet the attendees as they entered the room.  I already found a few allies and was confident that it was going to go well. 

I introduced myself and began to address the problem we're all facing with presentations today.  I had decided to ask the audience a question right off the bat. I usually don't, but I had a good feeling about this audience after meeting them as they arrived. With an easel to my back and marker in my hand ready to field the flood of answers I asked, "What do you hate most about PowerPoint presentations?"

I got crickets...

Zip. Zero. Nada. Nobody had anything to say.  Gulp...

Whenever I mention to anyone, young or old, that I design PowerPoint presentations, without missing a beat they will go into a diatribe of everything they hate about PowerPoint and presentations. From boredom to presenters who read to slides with massive amouts of text - I usually have to stop them so the conversation can move on. Not this group...not this time.

Like a good teacher coaxes answers out of shy or slightly confused students, I could have and maybe should have tried to coax some responses out of them. I knew that they knew what bothered them about presentations. If they thought nothing was wrong, then they wouldn't be there.

Instead, I chose to move on.  I had called an audible and put them on the spot within minutes of their arrival and it wasn't the right move. However, I wasn't going to beat myself up about it. I had plenty more to talk to them about and this presentation train wasn't getting derailed under my watch.

I deal with presentations on a daily basis, but I'm also a human. Things don't always work for me. I make mistakes too. No presenter is perfect. What I hope you learn from this is that it's not how few mistakes you make, it's how you bounce back from them.  Use that negative experience and turn it into a positive, learning from it and gaining new insight into how audiences work.  I now know better than to put my audience on the spot so quickly in a room full of unfamiliar people.

Also know that even if you think you're doing the right thing, it may be wrong. In ten other situations with ten other audiences maybe I would have gotten the reaction I desired, but this situation wasn't the right one. That doesn't mean you are a bad presenter or that you didn't prepare properly. Human nature is hard to predict. Learn from the experience.

Don't be afraid to fail. Don't waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It's OK to fail. If you're not failing, you're not growing. - H. Stanley Judd

This wasn't my only mishap in this presentation. I'll be back with Part 2 to cover some content and timing issues I had and what you need to take into consideration.

Image provided by Alex E. Proimos on Flickr via Compfight

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Chris Brogan Shines Up Your Mediocre Presentation

I recently came upon a post by Chris Brogan over at the AmEx OPEN Forum (a fantastic branded initiative, btw) about how to tune up your presentation.

Damn.

Not only is Chris a marketing and social media rockstar, creator of "your second favorite blog", and a sought after speaker, he goes ahead and leaps into my genre and writes a very useful post for anyone who presents.

The nerve!

Faux anger aside, Chris hits some super-important points to help presenters of all shapes, sizes, and experience levels create and deliver a memorable presentation.  And if you consider my writings to be any shred of useful, then his is pretty much gospel, as he has given close to a thousand presentation over the years to rave reviews and constant speaking requests.

Start with a Plan

One of Chris' tune-up tips was to start with a plan and know it by heart. He notes that while many people think they have a plan, that's not necessarily true.  Chris writes, "They have slides, and those are arranged in an order, but if I shut their laptop lid, there is absolutely no plan."

Your story structure is paramount in creating a memorable and effective presentation.  Always make sure your presentation boils down to a singular main point that may expand to two or three sub-points, but that's it.  Make sure you know EXACTLY what you want your audience to walk away from the presentation with.  You've got to know this by heart, because if your equipment fails, it's just you and your thoughts...

From there, work to create an effective but relatively brief introduction stating where we are now and where we will/can be.  Tie the presentation together at the end by recapping your main/sub points, and make sure to leave the audience with the final thought of what can/will be, or what's possible.  I'm greatly oversimplifying it, but even formatting your presentation (this doesn't just mean "slides" either) to fit this type of story framework will help you create a coherent and engaging presentation.

And of course, don't start your presentation in PowerPoint.

Below are the other three tips Chris covered, which you can read about in his article, so I've hyperlinked them to related posts of mine that you may find useful.

• Your part in the presentation (appearance matters)
• Structuring your presentation (including WIIFM?)
• Your promise to the audience (and this post too about loving your audience)
• Practice is EVERYTHING!

Let me know what you thought about the article? What points did you like?

Image courtesy of Jimmy Baikovicius on Flickr

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The Real Question: What's In It For Your Audience?

WIIFM?

What's In It For Me?

That's what you're audience is asking.  That's (for the most part) all they care about.  It doesn't matter what you're presenting.  Could be a presentation about your company.  Could be a new product release to your sales team.  Could be a new initiative you're starting.  It doesn't matter.  Your audience only cares about one thing - what's in it for them?

Does that sound selfish?  Yes.  Is it true?  Yes.  Is it selfish?  No.

Quite often when we sit down and start sketching out our presentation, we rarely think of it in terms of what we're offering the audience.  We think about what product features to mention, or which client logos to show, or how worthwhile our cause is.  But you're presenting to reach a certain goal, and if you want to reach that goal, your audience is going to have to take you there.

I just finished a presentation for a great client who is launching a revolutionary type of software.  It has awesome features.  It blows away the competition.  It looks slick.  Really, it's the cat's meow.

My client is presenting this to his national sales team - that's his audience.  So when we started the design process, one of my first questions was, "What's in it for them?"  How is this product going to change their lives?  The goal of his presentation wasn't to unveil this new software, though at first glance you may think it was.  There's nothing in that for them.

What we needed to do was craft the message in a way that gets the sales team excited about selling the software.  How will this software ignite their sales figures? How will this software help them solve the problems of their customers and make them look good?  How is this going to change their lives?  We had to connect the software with the things that matter to the sales team in order to empower them.

Think about your presentation and your audience.  Is your presentaiton about you or is it about them?  Is it about features or is it about how those features will help a business make more money?  Is it about your charity or how helping your charity will enrich your audience's lives?

I'd love to hear your approach to WIIFM in the comments.  How do you make sure it's all about your audience?

Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk

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Give Your Presentation Audience What They Don't Expect

As I was reading my way through the rabbit hole (which is when you're reading a blog post and you link through to another, then another, then another, and now you're reading a post from 2008) I came across a post by Lisa Barone at Outspoken Media about "The Power of the Unexpected."

Her post was introducing the "Wedding Entrance" video where the wedding party enters the church to the soothing sounds of Chris Brown's Forever.  By now, everyone and their brother has seen it (over 6 million views), and it's been spoofed in a variety of places, including NBC's The Office at Jim and Pam's wedding.

I'm not here to talk about the video, but how reading about how powerful the unexpected can really be.  Lisa writes:

Your customers will probably expect you to act a certain way today. The same old greetings, the same service, the same old promises, etc. Maybe today you should surprise them. Answer the phone differently. Offer them something extra.  Show them another side of you. Let yourself get carried away and swept up.

I imediately thought about presentations. One of the reasons I'm so damn passionate about this "new" way of presenting (simple, vivid, clean, + images, - text) is because we live in a culture where a great PowerPoint is UNEXPECTED! 

99.9% Presentations today are:

• Boring
• Text heavy
• Image light
• Lack creativity
• Lack sensitivity (for the audience)
• Copy the standard format
• Rarely entertaining
• Hardly interesting
• Underwhelming
• Did I say boring?

Creating a truly effective presentation can be SO POWERFUL for you, as a brand, as a business owner, as a job seeker, as an educator, or whatever you may be.  If you put in the effort to master your content and use vivid imagery to enhance and support your message, then you can be WILDLY successful because audiences have been subjected to bad presentations for as long as PowerPoint has been around.

I'm not blowing smoke.  I truly believe this because I see it happen every day. Give your audience something of value, something entertaining, something they don't expect, and you will have an audience that can't stop thanking you, calling for your business, referring you to others...you get the point.

Image provided by KhayaL

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John Coleman Takes Bull Sh*t to a Whole New Level

I'm so excited to bring this to you.  I came across this video just the other day when Olivia Mitchell tweeted a video of Tim Washer avoiding a presentation disaster through the use of improv humor.   That's a great video as well. 

I'll set the scene and give my thoughts after the jump.  This video features John Coleman, an MBA/MPA student at the Harvard Business School who is tasked with delivering a 7-minute venture capitalist presentation as part of the school's first annual "B.S. Contest" (Yes, that stands for bull shitake) sponsored by the Harvard Business School's Public Speaking club.  The trick, though, is that he's NEVER seen the PowerPoint.  He doesn't even know the "product" he is pitching until AFTER his introduction (which is unfortuantely cut off).  In his case, his product is Robot Vending Machines - whatever that means.  I like it better than the 2nd place presenter's product - Removable Mustaches.  The class presentations are part of the Harvard Business School's Public Speaking club.  The lessons are plentiful.

Scott Stratten Proves PowerPoint is Not a Presentation Prerequisite

Photo courtesy of Sean Zinsmeister

Recently I had the priviledge of sitting in on a talk by Mr. UnMarketing himself, Scott Stratten, hosted by the Connecticut chapter of the American Marketing Association.  If you don't know him, you should - he's kind of a big deal on Twitter.  I drove through rain and crazy amounts of traffic for two hours (each way) just for the opportunity to hear him talk about his new book, aptly titled UnMarketing (seriously...I didn't do it just for the iPad raffle and free drink ticket, I swear).  I'll have a review of the book up very soon, along with a free UnMarketing book to give away so keep an eye out.

Phil Davison - God's Gift to Presentation Coaches

I know this video has spread like wildfire (over 1.1 million hits as of today), but it's too good not to post on my blog in the slim chance that some of my readers haven't seen it.

Feast your eyes on Phil Davison, GOP Candidate for Stark County Treasurer.  This is one of the most incredible speeches you have ever seen.  This video is a six minute commercial for presentation coaching.  This is what happens when you don't have anyone to coach you - or even give one iota of honest feedback.  Needless to say, Phil unfortunately did not win the nomination.  More after the video:

3 Sure Fire Ways to Win Over Your Audience

When you step onto that stage, or into that boardroom, or in front of those students, or behind the mic for a webinar,  or the many other circumstances that precede a presentation, you're never presenting alone.  Now, that may be true simply because you're part of a group of people presenting, but even if you're solo, you're never really alone.  That's because you're just one part of the presentation equation.  The audience is the other HUGE part of that equation. 

It's no secret that having an audience on your side will make a presentation seem easier, less stressful, and even fun!  But with so much effort put into learning the content, designing the presentation, and practicing the delivery, the audience is often overlooked.  The presenter is seemingly "head down" as they start their presentation, focusing only on the one-way communication coming from them.  However, great presentations are conversations, and the audience is 50% of that.

What's important to note is that the "conversation" doesn't have to be verbal.  While presenting, especially virtually, the interaction with the audience is done through other means, even if it's a supporting nod, a raised hand, a submitted question, or an interested stare.

The audience is so important, and making sure your audience is on your side is key to ensuring a smooth and interactive presentation.  While the key to my heart is through my stomach (feed me!), offering coffee and donuts isn't enough to ensure that your audience will remain engaged and interested throughout.  So here are three sure fire ways to win over your audience.

1. Greet your audience as they arrive
   This is one of those "sneaky yet effective" tips because I really don't see a lot of presenters doing this.  Obviously it lends better to live, in-person presentations, but even on a webinar you can make some announcements and interact with the audience (to an extent) prior to the webinar.  In order to do this effectively, you have to arrive early enough to set up ALL of your presentation needs so you can give ample time to meet and greet your audience as they arrive (instead of using that time to test your remote or run through your slides one more time).  Greeting your audience before you present, as opposed to simply "appearing from behind the curtain." will familiarize your audience with you (and you with them) and even allow you to find allies and dissenters you can call on later to encourage discussion.  Try to remember names for more wow-factor.


2. Offer a high-quality takeaway after the presentation
   Without exception, after every presentation at least one audience member asks for a copy of the slides.  A great way to exceed their expectations is to offer them something better than the slides.  With my standard presentation about effective presenting, I give away printed copies of my ebook.  It's a far better recall device than trying to gaze at my slides which use far more images than works. You don't have to write an ebook, but give them more than just black and white printouts of your slides.  This can be as simple as a well-written word document.  At Seth Godin's Linchpin presentation, nearly every ticket-holder received a free book as well as a free poster (seen below, hanging on my office wall).  He even autographed the books as well as long as you were willing to wait in line. 
   
   
   


3. Be on time, every time
   There's nothing that can turn a good crowd bad than to disrespect their time.  If your presentation is only supposed to last an hour, you better believe they are leaving satisfied with the content and their questions answered in under an hour.  Your audience is sacrificing something (time, money, productivity, etc) to listen to you speak, so you owe them at least enough respect to get them out the door when you promised to.  That doesn't give you the right to speed through your last few slides either, which happens way too often for my liking.  They deserve all the content as well.

Image courtesy of Tattooed JJ via CompFight

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Reader Survey: What YOU Want from the Presentation Advisors Blog?

I apologize.  After recently attending the Audience Conference, I've realize that I haven't done enough to understand what you, MY audience, wants, needs, and cares about in regards to my blog. 

The range of this blog has exceeded what I originally intended, straying from just PowerPoint design to a broader view of presenting, public speaking, marketing, social media, sales, engagement, and more.  I broadened the scope as my passions broadened, but this blog isn't about me - it's about the value I can offer for you, my audience.

I've created a survey to find out exactly what you like/dislike, want/don't want, want to stay the same/want to change, etc.  I would REALLY TRULY appreciate it if you could help me by filling out the survey to let me know how I can better serve you.  Even if this is your first time at the blog, let me know what you'd like to see!  I tried to ask about all aspects of the blog, but if you think there's something missing just shoot me an email or leave a comment. 

All questions are optional and submissions are anonymous.  Thanks so much.

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