Creating Your Personal Style When Presenting

When we are writing, we can create a style of our own.  The way we use certain vocabulary, the phrasing we apply in our sentences, the types of subjects we tackle.  What about when we are speaking?  What would we like to be known for?  When people hear we are speaking, are they saying to themselves, “I need to attend that talk”?  The answer to can we create our own style is definitely “yes” and you don’t have to look far for role models.

Simon Sinek launched a new career off the back of his now famous TED talk, emphasising the WHY behind what we are all doing.  Anthony Robbins is famous for his massive amounts of energy and self confidence when presenting.  Rowan Atkinson for his sly and dry wit. Brian Tracy for his very science based approach to his subjects.  Zig Ziglar for his storytelling. Locally here in Tokyo, Jesper Koll has a distinct use of casual dress, powerful rhetorical questions, data (and colour!) saturated slides and references to when Germany will win the next World Cup. 

One aspect of building a following is getting numerous, sustained gigs over long periods of time, so that you become well known, like Jesper.  There are many economists in Japan, but few performers like Jesper. He can mix it up, combining dry economics with pizzazz, to make the whole event enlightening and entertaining at the same time.  I am a fan and I always attend.

What about the rest of us, who for many reasons, don’t get that many chances to speak publically in a year?  How can we build a brand?  The first thing is to decide what you would like to become well known for?  Is it your sparling wit, your cutting analysis of complex problems, your supreme confidence on what you are saying, your expert authority, the quality of your data?

Generally speaking, we will have a relatively small number of content areas we will cover.  For example, I never hear Jesper speak about Japanese politics because that is outside his specialized knowledge.  In my case, I cover three topics – sales, leadership and presenting.  That is a bit unusual, but as we are a training company, it makes sense because these are our core areas of expert authority.  I write blogs, shoot video and speak on these subjects.  Here is a hint, you can do the same thing.  Your blogs can be thought leadership pieces or data heavy contributions or considered commentary on a subject.  

Some friends say, unkindly, that I have a good head for podcasts, but I shoot my videos anyway. Audiences search out content in different places, so it makes sense to try and meet them where they are looking. Good head or nay, I choose to get my content out there.  It is often through our blogs and videos that we become known for expertise or interest in different subjects.  When people are looking for a speaker, they can see the quality of what we can do and this may inspire them to invite us to speak.  The impetus is on us though, to make it easy to be found.

If you are a witty type, then certainly be witty when speaking.  This is a natural extension of you and it is congruous with your presentation style.  If you are not witty, then spare the rest of us from failed attempts at stand up comedy, when speaking on business topics.  Cautionary note to Aussies and Brits – avoid all of those culture centric sardonic witticisms. They rarely translate to broader audiences.

If you have access to excellent research and quality data then make this something that you are known for.  Jesper is a well established economist in Japan, so he can easily access his own original research data and other worthy published sources.  When you go to his talk, you know you are going to get some new information. This draws a fan base of repeaters like me.  We can do the same, because in our different lines of business we come across golden nuggets of information, which are not so easily available to all the punters out there in audience land.  We can become known for the quality of our content.

The delivery is the key though.  Boring people are not attractive and won’t build a following, no matter how good their information is.  So don’t be boring!  Engage your audience when you speak, speak clearly and confidently.  I remember reading one of Anthony Robbins’s books about how he sought out speaking spots, as many as possible, when he first started. He did this to short circuit the learning curve for himself.  I am sure many of those early speeches were horrible, but by getting the repetition done, he could find ways to become the speaker he is today.  We should do the same and grab every opportunity to speak however humble it may be.  We can improve and become better at our speaking craft and we should be committed to doing so.  The last thing the business world needs is another boring presenter!

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

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About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

Author of Japan Sales Mastery, the Amazon #1 Bestseller on selling in Japan and the first book on the subject in the last thirty years.

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "THE Sales Japan series", THE Presentations Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.

Presenting By Video Conferencing

Technology is getting pretty good these days so joining meetings remotely is becoming more and more common.  Years ago the platforms were not that stable and the actions and voice synchronization had a problem with delays.  I had a job interview with a panel by video conference which was horrible.  The panel looked very small on the screen because the system could only handle a wide angle shot for that many people. I on the other hand, was a close up for them.  They would move their mouths and about three seconds later out would come the words and the same for my end.  It was all very disconcerting I must say but I got the job anyway. 

Today the tech is much, much better but the presenting part is no easier.  Here are a few ideas for when you are doing a presentation remotely. Make sure you get there early and check the sound and video connections are working perfectly.  In some cases, you may need to be wearing headphones and speaking into a separate microphone connected to the computer.  I am doing a guest spot on Jeffrey Gitomer and Jennifer Gluckow’s “Sell Or Die” podcast shortly and these are the requirements for me to participate.  Fortunately, because I do three weekly podcasts, I have the necessary high quality microphone and headset.  Make sure to check what you will need equipment-wise your end, well before the set date.  If you can organize it, definitely have an iPad, extra screen or a phone hooked into the same system, so that you can see what the audience can see. 

This is useful during the set up, to see how you look to the viewers and also for during the actual broadcast, to see how you are coming across.  You only need to glance at yourself during the real meeting, because otherwise it looks weird if you are talking to someone off camera. 

Most of these systems allow for recording, so when you rehearse, use the exact same system and record yourself speaking and then take a look at the results.  Most people don’t think to do this, but we have to see the presentation through the eyes of our viewers.  You may notice that you have little habits that become magnified, when it is just your face on screen.  You may find there are slides in the deck that on the small screen are hard to read and need simplifying.

When you use slides, this is very similar to a webinar format.  If you have done webinars before, you know how disconcerting it is to be talking to others and not being able to easily gauge their reactions.  Even with the better tech today, the team members will either be in a wide shot of the whole room, in which case you can’t really see their faces or the tech will only feature the face of whoever is talking, so again you can’t see the other participants.  You just have to accept that your read of how what you are saying is going down, will be limited and carry on anyway. 

The camera in your computer is always set above the main screen, so you are always looking at a point below the looking line of the audience.  If you can manage it buy a separate camera, that you can arrange to be more face level, so you can talk to the camera, rather than talk to a point 20 centimeters below the screen camera.  This also allows you to have better posture and sit up straighter in the chair.  Try it and you will see it makes a big difference to how you relate to the viewing audience.

When you see a screen, it is an illusion really, because the visual aspect is really superseded by the voice.  Also slides will reduce your “face time” on screen as well.  The voice is a powerful tool for communication and in these instances it becomes even more important than usual.  Don’t speak too quickly.  The tech is good but we still need to slow the pace down a bit for the audience to hear what we are saying.  You don’t know the quality of the speakers at their end.  They could be those small, cheap, portable speakers and so the acoustics may not be great.

Many of the things I am going to mention also apply when we are speaking to a live audience.  Voice modulation is key to avoiding a slumber inducing monotone.  Hitting key words brings greater emphasis to important parts of the message.  I recently did over seven hours of narration for my bestseller Japan Sales Mastery for the audio version. 

Sadly, I don’t have the classic, deep bass DJ voice.  What I could do though, which a sexier voiced narrator would find impossible to do, is to know which words to emphasise in every sentence.  By isolating out key words with either additional volume or by dropping the volume to a covert whisper, we can really grab the listener’s attention.

Pauses become very important when speaking in these situations, because we need people to constantly adjust their hearing and digest the content of what we have just said. Rushing ideas, one after another, over the top of each other is ineffective.  Plan to have slightly longer breaks than you would do with a face to face presentation.  Also don’t be thrown if there are long periods of silence on their end.  If you ask a question and no one answers, it can often be that they are not able to organize who will answer amongst themselves, if they are all tuning in remotely.  In that case, just repeat the question and be patient. Wait for the answer.  The ball is their court now, so there is no pressure on you.

Eye contact should be made with the camera at all times, where possible.  This is similar to if you were doing a video shoot.  You need to be making love to the camera lens.  My weekly YouTube TV show “The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show” is me talking straight to the camera.  It was difficult at first, to keep staring into the camera lens, but with practice I found you can get used to it.  Don’t look away or to the side if possible.  It looks like you lack conviction or self confidence in what you are saying. 

You are probably going to be seated, so your gestures will be smaller than normal, but still use them. At this close up range, your arms won’t be making the gestures, as much as your hands.  The sweep of the gestures will be more compact and you will probably want to hold them for slightly longer than usual.  As I said before sit up straight, don’t slouch and adjust the chair height to allow you to do that.  If you can arrange the tech so that you can do the presentation standing that would be ideal.  It gives you more access to your body language and gestures.  It also feels more comfortable than being constrained while sitting.

If it is phone only and no video connection, then the earlier ideas about voice come directly into play.  This is harder in one way, but there is also less pressure, because no one is looking at you.  Also, you are not trying to discern the expressions on their faces through the medium of a small screen.  Rehearsal is still very important and you should record how you sound across the phone lines.  Pay special attention to pauses, because the only mental stimulation they are receiving is auditory.  They need time to filter what they are hearing, so don’t be in a rush. You may have had to send the deck ahead of time, which means they will be on page eight, while you are still on page two. There is nothing you can do about that, so keep going regardless.

The basics of presenting apply whether you are in the hall, on the phone or on live video.  The rehearsal element is even more important.  Getting online early, to check the tech becomes critical.  Remember the tech, the screens, etc., are all there to play second fiddle to you, the presenter.  You must dominate the medium, no matter what it is.  Plan to be successful and you will be successful.

Can A Presentation Be Conversationalist And Still Be Business Professional?

Sometimes we read that when we are presenting it should be just like a conversation with your friend. The idea is we should be relaxed, inclusive, totally focused on the people we are speaking to.  Now will that work in the boardroom when presenting to the senior executives, none of whom are particularly friendly?  Will this work with an audience of legitimate experts in your field?  Will this work with clients when pitching for their business. 

We need to determine from the very start what it is we are trying to achieve.  Are we going to pass on a lot of recent and relevant information that our audience will appreciate, because they can then use that in their work or use it to add to their own presentations?  If it is a technical topic and the attendees are experts, then an inform style speech will work very well.  Should it be chatty?  Probably not. The audience may feel we are not taking them seriously enough.

This doesn’t give us a blank cheque now to be dull and boring.  We need to tailor our talk to our audience and to how much they know about the subject.  Too high level and full of insider jargon and we, the great unwashed, will feel stupid, isolated and diminished by the speaker.  Then we will get angry at our unfair treatment. 

We need to be using power in or power out to highlight certain words we want to stress.  We should be using gestures which are congruent with what we are saying.  Our eyes should be on the audience the whole time picking up visual clues as to how well they are receiving our message.  We should be telling stories to make the points easier to recall.  Where possible we should include aspects of our own experience both good and bad, to be added to the mix to make it real for the listeners.

If the object is to impress your audience and convince them of your suggestions. then we need lots of evidence in the talk.  This is not a backyard over the fence chat.  This is well structured to layer on so much evidence that the audience can only agree with our ideas.  We need oodles of logic, facts, data, statistics, testimonials, evidence etc. We may need a little showmanship to bring these dead numbers to life.  A distance expressed as a numeral is an abstract idea for most people.  But if we expressed it as so many football pitch lengths, then people would have a much better idea of how far we are talking. The same with volumes.  If we compared it to a Sports Stadium or an Olympic pool, then the concept of sizes is easier to grasp.

If our aim is to persuade or get people to commit to action, then we need to be highly energised.  If we don’t look enthusiastic about the idea the audience may well be asking themselves why they should bother to get behind this suggestion from us.  We will need plenty of word pictures to draw out the end result such that the audience can see it in their mind’s eye.  Getting from the abstract to the concrete as fast as possible is critical.  We need to be describing what the future looks like after they take up our ideas and suggestions.  If it was a course in financial accounting, for example, we need to be talking about the types of complex analysis the graduates will be able to perform.  Now comes the important bit, relate that new found facility to the business and how it will either save or increase money.  We cannot leave the outcomes at the general directional level, we need to nut out the concrete gains.

If our job is to entertain the audience, then the conversational manner is a good one. This is disarming, because we are inviting people to relax through our own informality.  The storytelling will be on fire.  We will be relating incidents and filling them out with people, places, seasons and all manner of detail to make the scene come alive.  This is the verbal equivalent of the novelist setting the scene for the action.  The writer doesn’t just say an exchange of spies took place.  The author constructs the drive to the bridge, outlines the surrounds, paints in the atmosphere, injects interesting personalities into the mix. As the speaker we need to be doing the same thing. 

Chatty, witty talks are fine for when we should be chatty.  At other times, we need to be more circumspect and formal. Not dull but formal and the difference is mightily important.  In some cases we may need to come armed with a battalion of bar charts and tie our audience up with our line graphs and then  hit them with our pie charts.  We belt them with detail and data until they surrender.  We might also need to be at our pulpit, preaching our doctrine, making our calls for obedience to our ideas and words.  Fully indoctrinated, we attempt to infect others. Definitely not a chat.  Or we might need to be topical, on point, deep in the zeitgeist as they say, informing others of what is the state of play.  The key is to decide which approach you will take from the very start, before you even get anywhere near a slide deck.  Do that and you will be well on the way to exceeding your audiences expectations.

Tag Team Pitching For Fun And Profit

In business, we are asked to present as a team.  We may be pitching for new business and the presentation requires different specialist areas of expertise.  This is quite different to doing something on your own, where you are the star and have full control over what is going on.  One of the big mistakes with amateur presenters is they don’t rehearse.  They just turn up and fluff it.  They blow up their personal and organisational brands. When in a team environment, you absolutely cannot neglect the rehearsal component.  There will be many sessions needed before you are ready to face an audience, so you have to plan for this.  Do not leave this until the last moment after you have all been diligently assembling your slide decks.

The batting order is important.   Don’t put the brainy nerd up front. They may be the legitimate expert, but unless they are the best presenter keep them in reserve.  We want the best person to lead off, because this is how we create that all important first impression.  They may come back for the close out or have another equally skillful person secure the positive final impression.  The technical geeky people can be safely placed in the middle of proceedings.

As mentioned, don’t allow all the available team time to be sucked up by creating slides for the presentation.  This is the mechanical part and we need the soft skills part to be really firing. That takes time and repetition.  Set deadlines for deck completion, well in advance of the event, so that the chances to get everyone together are created.

Having worked out the order, do dry runs to see how the whole things flows.  Practice little things like each presenter shaking the hand of the next presenter as a type of baton pass between the team.  It shows you are a tight, united unit and connects the whole enterprise together. 

Also, make sure each presentation can be given by everyone in the team.  People get sick, planes get cancelled or delayed, all manner of circumstances can arise.  At the appointed time, you are down some key members of the team.  In this case the audience expects the show to go on and for you to cover the missing person’s part. 

This cannot be the first time this idea has occurred to you,.  You need to plan for this at the very start.  As you all rehearse together you hear their section over and over, so jumping in and working through their part of the deck shouldn’t be an impossibility. The questioning part might be different, but the presenting part should not create too many difficulties, if you are organised.

Have a navigator for the questions determined at the start.  When questions land you want that process to be handled seamlessly.  I remember being on a panel for a dummy press conference, during media training. One ex-journo in the audience asked us a very curly question and we all just looked at each other, having no clue as to who would take that infrared missile.  Our work colleagues in the audience just burst out laughing, because we looked such a shambles. 

Anticipate what likely questions will rise, nominate who will take care of which sections and if anything indeterminate hits the team, understand that the navigator will take care of it.  The navigator, will also control the questions.  If it is straightforward, then after thanking the questioner, they will just say, “Suzuki san will take care of this topic” and hand it over. 

If it is a bit tricky, tough or complicated and is going to be hard to answer, the navigator must control things.  They need to build in a bit of thinking time for the person who is going to have to take this one.  They need to “cushion” the answer.  By this I mean they will say something rather harmless, but which buys valuable thinking time for the person. This allows them to brace themselves for their reply. 

It would sound like this, “Thank you for your question.  Yes, it is important that the budget allocated helps to drive the business forward. I am going to ask Tanaka san to give us some insight into how to address this budget issue -  Tanaka san”.  That sentence takes around 12-15 seconds to say.  Tanaka san knows she will get this one, because it is within in her designated area of expertise to answer during the pitch.  The navigator provides her with some extra time to compose her strategy for her answer. 

Another technique, which you can only use sparingly, is to simply ask them to repeat the question. You got it the first time, but you may want to build in some extra thinking time to come up with the best answer. Do this too often and the games up!

Inject Yourself Into The Presentation Content

When we are presenting, we can be mentally separating out personal selves from the content of the talk. There will be facts, data, statistics, details, examples, evidence, etc., which is all rather far removed from the individual presenting.  It is almost like we are doing third person presentation rather than first person. Technical people in particular like to remove themselves from the proceedings and only talk about the facts.  This is a big opportunity wasted.

I am an introvert, so I understand about the reluctance to inject oneself into the story.  People who know me will be doubting that statement entirely.  They will say I am outgoing, confident, vocal, not shy and retiring at all.  The Myers Briggs personality analysis results define an introvert as someone who when they get tired, likes to retire from the fray, rest up and then return.  The extrovert grabs energy from others and so wants to occupy the center of the fray. 

As an introvert, talking about myself or my family was something that I was highly hesitant to do. In fact I managed to give hundreds of public speeches, while safely keeping myself out of the narrative. This was a big mistake. 

Now we don’t have to hang all the family’s dirty laundry out for all to see, but we can inject something of ourselves into the talk.  We can refer to our experiences with a particular subject.  We can tell stories of what happened to us when we did something we are recommending people to do or not to do.  When we do that we make a very strong connection with the audience and with a sense of reality.  Now the talk has moved from the theoretical to the practical.

We all want to know what the reality is.  That is why we appreciate the opportunity to read consumer comments on products or services they have bought.  We are looking to cut through all the company propaganda and get some sense of what is really going on. You Tube is full of videos of people reviewing products and commenting on their experiences with them.  We love the chance to get more objective information before we make our purchase.

Well, audiences are the same.  They want to know what really happened.  This means if we can inject our experiences and insights into the presentation, the audience speaker credibility gauge starts to really move the needle in a very positive direction for us.  To do this we have to be willing to share stories and episodes of what happened.  Sometimes these are hard to relate because maybe we are not being shown in a perfect light. 

The funny thing about audiences is that they don’t like people who are perfect.  Too smooth, too polished, too slick comes across like a rat with a gold tooth.  Your internal danger beacons starts flashing and the loudspeaker broadcast is telling you “danger, danger”. Our audience likes to hear about the struggles, foibles, mistakes and failings of others.  They don’t regard these people as weaklings to be discarded on the mountainside like in Sparta.  Instead they identify with our human frailties.

Humour is tricky with presentations, but self-depreciating humour never goes down badly.  I was watching one of the masters of sales presentations –_Zig Ziglar.  He was relating his tough, early days in sales, going to host’s kitchens and cooking up a storm for the invited guests who were his prospects.   In passing he casually mentioned that even though he was struggling early in his career he did sell quite a bit - his car, his furniture….  It was quite funny the way he told it and the joke was against himself, rather than against another person.

If we want to connect with our audience, we shouldn’t be afraid to poke fun at ourselves, tell of our failings, mistakes, disasters, train wrecks, etc.  The audience will appreciate the honesty and also the peek inside about what not to do.  It took me a long time to be able to do this, being an incredibly private person, raised in the isolation of the Australian bush.  But when I did manage to start injecting more of myself into my talks, I found a stronger resonance with the audience and more acceptance of what I was saying. I realised I should have been doing this a lot earlier.