Category: Presentation

When I’m presenting live, I look for a friendly face in the audience. I like to focus on attentive, smiling, thoughtful faces. They give out a good energy that I respond to as a presenter.

Often, just one friendly audience member can make me a better, more confident presenter.

So when it’s my turn to be an audience member, I try to pay the good audience vibe forward. I feel that a presenter will do a better job if someone in the audience gives the performer “good face”. I try to radiate “positive face energy” to the performer. I make eye contact. I smile and nod at the presenter. If it’s supposed to be funny, I’ll laugh or giggle.

I like to believe that if I’m a positive audience member, my face and energy will encourage the presenter to give a more enthusiastic performance.

Think about this the next time you’re in a deadly dull presentation. We often hear or read about improving our “presentation skills” — but what are we doing to improve our “audience skills?” How are we helping to co-create the presentation experience with the person who’s on stage?

What part can we play — as audience members– to improve the performance of any presenter?

Americans find the word “whatever” annoying.

They find it way more annoying than the phrase “you know” and “it is what it is.”

This factoid comes courtesy of USA Today, as quoted in a recent Marist Poll.

Really?

As for me, I have trouble with another pervasive verbal tic.

I call it “The Trailing So.”

You might hear “The Trailing So…” in interviews and Q&A sessions. Someone asks a question. The subject answers, but instead of ending the sentence in a period, he or she ends with “so…”

You can actually hear the ellipses after the trailing so! For example:

Question: “How did it feel to come back to Michigan after living in Hawaii?”
Answer: “Hawaii is great – beautiful weather. I like the change of seasons in Michigan, though. So…”

The “trailing so” signals a weak answer, or that the interviewee is too bored to complete the thought to a satisfying conclusion. It’s often a sign that the mouth has started chattering before the brain has had time to think through the answer!

How to cure the trailing so. The first step to finding a cure for the trailing so is to become aware of it. If you find yourself ending a sentence in a trailing so, there are two common situations for why you might have let this verbal tic slip.

1. Habitual Offender. If you find that you’re a repeat “trailing so” offender, it’s likely that you have become accustomed to hearing it, and unconsciously let this sloppy habit slip into your vernacular. You’ll do well to take a moment or two to think through your answer to completion before activating your voice. Taking these silent moments can make you look more thoughtful and reflective. It sure beats babbling around in circles while you try to figure out how you’re going to end your statement!

2. Bored or Tired. Let’s say you’re giving an answer, and find to your horror, that you’ve ended with a trailing so. This is so unlike you, and you’re mortified! You may have done so because you lost interest in your own idea halfway through your statement. Or you may simply be exhausted. At this point, snap awake and firmly state this phrase “Let me summarize!” After you say, “Let me summarize” – quickly and strongly finish your statement as quickly as possible.

For example, “Hawaii is great – beautiful weather. I like the change of seasons in Michigan, though. So…Let me summarize! I’m enjoying the difference!”

The best cure, of course, is to be aware of the trailing so — and to avoid it by thinking through your statement before speaking.

What’s your cure for pervasive verbal tics you find annoying?

How many times have you heard this three-word bit of useless advice? Yes, you read that right: I wrote “useless”. Why useless? Two main reasons:

1. There’s nothing “just” about being yourself. You’re complicated. You’re deep. If you were a rock or a piece of wood, perhaps you could “just” present yourself without thought to your audience.
2. You can only be yourself. Even if you act as if you’re someone else, you’re being yourself. Apparently, you’re an actor. Or a con artist. Hey, acting like someone else might be exactly who you are!

If someone tells you to “just” be yourself, you might think for a second, “OK, then — who am I?”

photo credit: natamagat

You might find that you’re rather complicated. You’re a thoughtful, intelligent, caring person. You might also be a parent, a dog-lover, a teacher, a business person, a singer, a CEO of a thriving company, a practical jokester, a oenophile, a stamp collector, a martial arts expert, a gardener, a cook — yes, indeed, you may be all this and more. Or you may be something else entirely…

“It is well known that people don’t always ‘speak their minds’, and it is suspected that people don’t always ‘know their minds’.”
-Quote from the Harvard Implicit Association Test Home Page

So, here you are. You’re this fascinating and multi-faceted character, and some vapid goofball thinks you can “just” be yourself, as if you were a bit of plankton or an amoeba.

You can do better. Instead of just being yourself, why not present your very best self to the audience at hand?

For example, let’s say you are a fabulous parent to two toddlers. That’s a big part of “who you are”. When you’re with your children, you take on a tone of voice and project an image that is appropriate for your tots.

Now take that same tone of voice and image that you present to your children and use it to give a business presentation to the board of directors. Or lecture to a class of college students. Or to talk to the guy who’s fixing your car.

Probably not so effective to be your “exceptional-toddler-parent” self for those particular audiences!

If you think you know yourself, think again. So let’s go back to the very essence of “who you are” — who are you, exactly? (For an eye-opener, I recommend taking some of the online tests at the Harvard Implicit Association Test. You may find out that you know yourself very well — or maybe not!)

Let’s say, for example, that you are “a thoughtful, intelligent, caring person.”

No matter which role you take on — parent, martial artist, teacher, business person, dog lover — these characteristics describe the essence of “who you are”. You carry these characteristics with you, regardless of the audience in front of you.

And because you are intelligent and caring, you might decide that your audience will be more enthusiastic if you decide to act like someone else entirely! Someone smarter, funnier, braver, stronger, sillier, dopier, goofier, angrier, more confident…whatever.

“Pretending to be braver than you are” is also a bit of presentation advice you’ll often hear — almost as much as that crazy bit about “being yourself.”

If you have to pick between these two bits of contrary advice — which would you choose?

And “just” how well do you know yourself– really?

My host told me to go ahead and fill up at the wet burrito bar a half hour before I was scheduled to talk to a large audience. I politely declined.

I can’t eat just ANYTHING before a major presentation. I don’t want to subject the audience to a fit of, em, gastronomic distress during a presentation. I know better than to digest a large, spicy, bean-filled meal  minutes before having a microphone clipped near my face.

And yet, I need to eat. I expend energy during a presentation. I’m not the kind of person who can go without food.

So what can I eat before a presentation? I got into the habit of packing a peanut butter sandwich. On whole grain bread. And drinking water. That’s it. That’s been my go-to for a pre-presentation meal for an awfully long time. It gives me energy. It sticks to my ribs. No blood sugar crashing — and no burping. It also packs easily. I can put a few peanut butter sandwiches in a zip lock bag, and they can survive a mean day of travel. Pair it with a banana or other piece of fruit, and it works for me.

Of course, I veer from this pre-performance diet from time to time. Out of circumstance and politeness, I’ll often eat whatever my host will present to me. As long as it’s not stinky, sugary, or burpy, I’ll probably eat it. And sometimes, event coordinators serve meals that are great for performance energy, but they’re delicious, too. 

But as much as I’d like to tell you that my peanut-butter presentation diet is a sensible solution to keeping my energy high while avoiding discourteous gastronomical side effects, I have my suspicions. It seems that performers and presenters are a superstitious lot — we get into habits that have nothing to do with reason. I’m the sort that usually has a peanut butter sandwich on my person while travelling.

But is that good nutrition…or weird superstition?

Many actors say “break a leg” instead of “good luck” before a performance. Whistling behind the stage or uttering the name of a certain Shakespeare play? This is also supposed to bring bad luck. And let’s not forget all the good luck superstitions: athletes and actors are famous for carrying good luck talismans or undergoing quirky little rituals before performing.

Is my peanut butter sandwich + water pre-presentation diet practical and sensible — or have I veered off into the land of the supernatural? Could my peanut butter sandwich simply be a good-luck charm? Am I nutritious or superstitious?

What’s your presentation diet plan? What foods do you avoid — or are absolute must-haves on the day of a performance?

Even if it’s not food-related — what’s the oddest ritual or habit you’ve heard of someone routinely undertaking before a performance?