Oh Yeah, Another Critical Thing For Both Online and In-Person Presenting Success

So far I have looked at the eye and voice power aspects when presenting, whether you are full form in front of an audience or struggling to get out of that tiny box in the corner of the screen that, Zoom or WebEx or whoever, has relegated you to, when you are online.  What about body language?  Does this remain the bastion of live presentations only and we are unable to muster much of its power, when we are looking down the barrel of a camera lens at the top of our laptop?

Certainly, it is very powerful when we are in person.  We have three distances, three angles and three stage positions when in front of an audience.  The three distances are as close as possible to the audience, standing somewhere mid-stage and moving to the back of the stage.  Now these distances may be contained, when we are using slide decks and projecting on to a screen.  If the screen is at head height, rather than lofted well above us, we need to be mindful of our position.  We should be standing audience left next to the screen, so that the punters will look at us, read the screen and then look at us again.  What we don’t want them captivated by the screen content and oblivious to us.

Whether we are next to the screen or not, we can still change our distance engagement with the audience.  When we want to make a strong point, we can move as close as possible to the audience.  We can’t stay there though, because the pressure on the audience is too much.  So, we move back to the mid-stage area, a type of neutral ground.  If we want to make an expansive point, we move to the rear of the stage area and embrace the whole audience at one time.

The three angles are chin straight, up and chin down.  At the center position, our chin is straight.  When we move to that expansive position, we need to slightly elevate our chin.  When we are close to the audience, we tuck our chin in, ever so slightly.  This chin adjusting business just strengthens the power of the position we are speaking from.  Try it.  Stand close to the audience with your chin up and it won’t have anywhere as much power as when standing in the same position, with your chin being held slightly down.

There are also the three stage positions of center, left and right.  This allows us to engage with all of our audience.  Those sitting on the extreme sides, can feel remote from the speaker.  By moving to the extreme left or extreme right, we bring them into our presentation.  To engage those right at the back, we stand on the very apron of the stage with our chin up and looking at those in the distant “cheap seats”. When moving across the stage apron, try not to fall into the orchestra pit.  Don’t laugh, stages are often curved and without too much difficulty you can be head up, watching your audience and not watching where you are going.  Next thing, down you go.

What about in the online world? We are often seated, but if it is a presentation, why are we seated?  Why not mount the laptop so that the camera is head height, when you are standing.  I was giving a presentation on giving presentations, to this year’s JMEC or Japan Market Expansion Competition participants and doing it online.  I chose to stand when giving this presentation, because I wanted full access to my body language.  That mean mounting a folding set of steps on my study desk and having my laptop precariously balanced on some books, so that I achieved the required eye height.

One thing I didn’t figure well enough into the equation was that I need a dedicated light source for my face, rather than relying on the room lighting in my study.  This is something we need to work on, when presenting online. It does make a big difference to the clarity of our presence on screen.

On camera we are more limited in our movement range, so we are more dependant on our facial expressions and gestures.  We don’t want to be swaying around like a drunken sailor, as that doesn’t look terribly convincing on screen.  We need to stand in the one spot, but stand up straight and project credibility, reliability and professionalism.  We can move our hands forward, rather than sideways and stay in shot more easily.  So rather than showing something large, by spreading our hands wide from left to right, we can hold one hand close to our body and move the other closer to the camera.  It communicates the size concept, without us going out of camera range.

Energy is much easier to generate and project when we are presenting standing up.  We can access our full body power.  Then we combine this with our hands, face, eyes and voice for a total wall of power effect on the audience.  We might be wearing a headset and microphone combination for the best audio quality and usually we are able to stand close enough to the laptop to connect the cables.  If we have to stand, such that we are using only the laptop microphone, we can expect that the audio quality may not be as good. You might also get some room echo on the audio, when you are positioned away from the camera.  We can also use slide advancer technology, so that we are released from the laptop or we can just use the remote mouse.

The key is to always maximise your body language power, regardless of whether you are in person or online.

One More Critical Key For Both Online And In-Person Presenting Success

Previously I talked about the importance of eye contact when presenting, whether online or in the venue with the audience.  Another major element is how presenters use their voice when in front of their audience, be they sojourned in tiny boxes on screen or live in the room, standing right in front of us.  You would think this was the easiest thing in the world.  We talk to our friends, family and colleagues, so what is the big deal about talking when we are presenting?  Good question and yet so many erstwhile presenters make a mess of it.

The online world is full of traps for presenters.  The audio quality of every system I have used so far has been dodgy.  This means that our voice is not easily heard and what we are saying is not always being comprehended.  Some presenters just use the built-in microphone in their computers, rather than using a more specialised, sophiticated headset and microphone combination.  This adds to the underlying issue with the various already flawed broadcast platforms.  The lesson here is use a good quality headset and microphone combo.

In the live audience situation, we have those individuals who flee from the microphone, those who manhandle it, rendering it ineffective and those who know what they are doing.  Leaning over to speak into a rostrum mounted microphone stand should only be allowed for those with lustrous and ample hair.  Bald spot spotting is never a pleasant pastime.  Actually even those with amply hirsute proportions, are forced to look down when they address the audience, when using a low microphone stand.  Get there early and ask for a better microphone stand or a pin microphone. Lavalier microphones have the added benefit of freeing you from penal servitude, locked away behind the rostrum.  You can move across the stage and engage members of the audience seated to the extreme left and right as well as those in the middle.

When holding a hand microphone, hold it by the handle and speak across the mesh.  A common error is holding the microphone too low.  Amazingly, I see people holding it at waste height and then expecting the equipment to pick up their sound waves.  Please do not wrap your paws around the top, in a savage attempt to strangle the implement.  I can never understand why some people cover the microphone top with their palm and then expect it to broadcast their contribution.  By the way, if you are nervous and the microphone is now frantically wiggling in your palm, just pull your hand to your upper chest, hold it there and speak across the mesh.  If you are really nervous, use both hands.

Apart from the tech issues there are the human own goals being scored with alarming frequency and consistency.  The most common is the lack of understanding of that most wonderful instrument – our own voice and what it can do.  When we are online, the microphone technology in headsets is very good, so we don’t have to yell to be heard.  Before you start your online presentation and before the participants are allowed into the virtual room, do a microphone check, for the right speaking level you will need throughout you talk.  We normally do this in a room, before the audience arrives. Online presentations need this sound check too. Remember for online, we need to be able to speak with more energy than normal, without becoming deafening.

When we are speaking with friends, we don’t need to project our voice very much because even with social distancing we are usually physically close to them and if we did, they would ask us to stop shouting at them.  On stage, in front of an audience, we need to up our energy levels.  When we push out our ki or our intrinsic energy, we connect with the audience physiologically.  I have been practicing traditional Japanese karate for 50 years now.  When I speak in public, without even thinking about it, I am directing a lot of ki to my audience.  The audience literally feels the power of my conviction, in what I am saying and what I am recommending to them.  This ki projection allows you to reach every member of the audience, no matter how far away they are seated.  It also creates a type of powerful magnetic field that turns their mobile phones into kryptonite and keeps them attracted to what you are saying.

Online and in-person, the absolute message mangler is the monotone delivery.  I hereby expose these nefarious presenters as card carrying members of the Guild of Public Speaking Flat Heads.  This is not an organisation you want to join.  They assault us with their flat delivery, flat energy and flat commitment. 

In Japan, this means immediate and automatic audience slumber permission has been granted.  It has a hypnotic effect on many Japanese, similar to the gentle swaying of the trains. Off they go to the Nipponese equivalent of the land of Nod.  The cure for banishment to purgatory by monotone voicing is variety.  There are three elements: tonal, strength and speed.  European languages have that rise and fall tonal variety, whereas the Japanese language is spoken in a flat manner.  Regardless of linguistic chauvinism regarding tone, all languages can access the acceleration and deacceleration of speaking speed. We can speed it up and slow -it - down.  We can also vary the strength output, to go from a roar, to a conspiratorial stage whisper.

I opted to personally narrate my own two books “Japan Sales Mastery” and “Japan Business Mastery”, despite the excruciating stamina involved, dragged out over many painful hours.  There was only one reason for this insanity.  I know which words I want to emphasis in my sentences, whereas a professional narrator won’t have a clue.  Whether we are speaking to people in the virtual world or those sitting in front of us, we must keep in mind that not every word in a sentence is created equally.  Some are there for more emphasis, to help us sell our message.  We have to either hit those words harder or softer for effect, to be an effective speaker. 

Virtual or in-person, our voice carries the day.  Presenting is a world of its own and we need to rise to the occasion to match its requirements.  Variety is the key, so focus on that and your audience will be with you from the start until the finish.  In this Age of Distraction, that is a big achievement.

One Critical Key For Both Online And In-Person Presenting Success

Lockdown has ended in Japan and we are caught in a sort of phony war, where neither online nor in-person has won the ultimate battle for audience attention.  Online is still more prominent at the moment, but the cobwebs are being cleared away and the dust wiped off the “live and in the room with you” presenters.  These two major delivery vehicles are fundamentally different. 

Trapped in a tiny box at the top of the screen, we do our best to engage our audience when we are online.  Our virtual background is perhaps marginally better than our humble abode’s interior. All the stickybeak viewers ponder about the backgrounds of our homes, wondering what we have there on the shelf or the wall, rather than paying full attention to us as the speaker. The alternative is the green screen technology virtual backgrounds being employed.  They are definitely dodgy though, as whenever we move, half of our head is quickly cleaved off the screen.  The reality is that, as presenters, we will have to become like the skilled samurai of old, in the Miyamoto Musashi tradition of nitoryu or two swords mastery.  We will have to become the modern masters of the presenting weaponry needed for both mediums.

Travelling to give talks may become redundant, as organisers have discovered they can run events virtually.  The time, cost and general wear and tear factors speak in favour of everyone staying in the comfort and safety of their homes.  Thankfully, battling through airport security may become a less frequent unedifying experience than it has been. So even if getting in a room, together with the multitude makes a comeback, the odds are that we will continue to be called upon to present online.

There is one key thing we need to do for both worlds - make expert eye contact.

On screen though, this is rather tricky.  You have people faces right in front of you on screen and we are trained to talk to people’s faces.  The camera however is usually located many centimetres above or to the side of these faces.  On most laptops and desktop computers, the camera is zeroing in on the top of our head and even though we are looking at people’s faces, we have no actual eye contact with anyone. 

We are allowed to look away, to consult our notes, so we don’t have to maintain constant eye contact with the camera.  Most presenters though, cannot manage to make any eye contact with the camera, so their ability to engage their audience is shredded.  It takes concentration to suspend the reality you see in front of you and shift your eye contact to the camera and away from the faces on the screen.

In the face to face audience situation, we still have plenty of amateur and dud presenters who don’t make eye contact with their audience.  This is such a waste.  We are no longer trapped in a little box, we are now full form and on stage.  We should be making expert eye contact with the members of our audience.  When we are online and on screen, we need to keep looking at one single point - the camera.  But in the live situation, we need to move that eye contact around.  We select someone in the audience and for the next six seconds we speak to that person, as if they were the only person in the world.  We then move our gaze and repeat the process with the next person.  We do this right throughout our talk and try to make eye contact with as many people as possible.

On screen, we cannot easily tell the reaction of the audience to what we have said, because either their cameras are off or they are also in a trapped in a little box in the corner.  In real life though, by constantly using eye contact we can see if our audience are agreeing with us or if we are losing their attention.  We can adjust our flow, energy or content to suit.

Audiences who are multitasking, while participating in an online event, are a nightmare for the speaker.  One good tactic to deal with multitaskers is to stop speaking.  It works in both the live situation and online.  When we inject a pause, we break the rhythm of the talk and the audience members brains record there has been a change and now they need to pay attention again.  Their brains are thinking the talk is over, so they engage with the speaker again, because they think it is time to get out of there.

Online is going to remain an important medium for presenters and we will be back in person at some stage soon.  However, it is not a great joy being hopeless in one or both mediums, so let’s at least get this one element of presenting right.  Eye contact is a super power when you know how to use it, so let’s make sure we master this facility as presenters, every time we present.

Today’s On-Line Presenters Are Demented One Dimensionals

Webinar and after webinar, I see presenters delivering such substandard efforts that I quiver with fear for the personal brand damage they are doing to themselves.  Once upon a time, they might be showing fifty people they were unprofessional, but now the online meetings can have hundreds in attendance.  Camera up the nose, talking down to what is on screen, not looking at the viewers, waffling away in a demented monotone, being all at sea with the broadcast platform, using delusional, inpenetrable slide decks and somehow expecting we can unravel the florid mess on screen - the list of virtual presentation misdemeanours goes on and on. 

I laughed the other day, when the expert panel had been thrashing around before the start, getting organised and vaguely trying to work out how to do polls, to get the show on the road. At sixty seconds to blast off, one of the host geniuses suddenly realised they had all been naked to their audience, in their pathetic pre-show glory, for the last fifteen minutes of online presenting preparation vaudeville. 

Organisers need to plan carefully for the start of the programme.  First impressions are quickly formed and are unforgiving.  If you come across as unprofessional, then the audience will be reluctant to accept your subsequent professional contribution. This is show business folks, so carefully craft what happens when the curtain goes up. The impresario planning element needs a lot more work for the preparation. What about the post show review.  I doubt anyone is doing the latter, because they keep shovelling out the same drivel.

The amateur hour, one way, passive delivery is also very droll. They each speak in turn, we listen and we are commanded to get our questions into the chat or the Q&A box at the end.  The formula is always the same.  After months of experience with the medium, you would think presenters would be wanting to push the tech to its limits.  Nope. 

They are timorous types, trapped by the nerd eminence grise armies at Zoom, WebEx, Teams, GoToWebinar and all of the other not quite satisfactory platforms out there.  Yes, the tech platforms have their limitations, but the presenters are falling well within the boundaries of the commonplace, rather than pushing hard against what is possible.

Online presenting is different to physical room environment.  Live venue audiences give speakers visceral feedback through body language, eye contact and energy.  Online, all of that is masked, hidden, contorted and mainly unfathomable.  Therefore, we really need to engage the audience with the tech tools available.  But you never see this being attempted by the speakers. 

During the talk, we can get a raised hand, a green check or a red cross, smiley face emojis of bewildering variety or a simple one word comment in the chat.  But we never ask for it.  We can also get members of the audience to comment during the talk, as we can unmute them and seek their reaction. It is still all very much an “us and them” affair. The erudite panel are over here and the punters are over there. No fraternisation among the ranks allowed during online parade.

Why should it be like that?  This is a different medium and it needs extra effort to get audience engagement.  We should be using all the reaction tools at our disposal.  Polls are good for humour, self awareness and real time information dissemination, but these tools are used with such sparing pluck. It reveals what a bunch of dilettantes we have in charge of these mighty organisations and what a gauche group of amateurs we have running the show.  The organisers are doing a pretty poor job and they are failing their presenters at every turn.  When the presenters are clueless on the tech possibilities, the host has the job of educating them.

The engagement tools exist, yet no one makes any effort to learn them first, before launching forth with their webinar effort. The hosts of the programme need to take the presenters through what is possible for them and lead them to the understanding that they can employ these tools to be more effective communicators in this medium.

Every four to five minutes of a talk, there should be some interaction with the audience in the live venue world.  Well that rule applies just as much in the on-line world.  All you need to do is plan for it.  Let’s scope out beforehand at which points it makes sense to get some feedback from the audience.  Waiting until the end is outdated, old school.

We are all in the multitasking like demons on speed world now.  If the online speaker isn’t getting engagement, then the audience remains oblivious to their message.  There is a lot of flame and quite a bit of smoke being put about in the webinar world today, but precious little light.  The punters who turn up online are not online.  They are doing something else at the same time, on the internet, with their email, with their papers, their phones.  All the while, the expert panel are bumbling along in the background in their mind-numbing, monotonous monotones.  Organisers in Japan, please be more professional and release us from this online webinar hell.

When Is High Energy Over The Top?

Recently, I was watching a presenter online, teaching others how to do online presentations.  Man, he was really jumping around.  The body language was rocking hard, the voice was powerful, the gestures almost pungent, the facial expressions were on fire and his eyes were blazing.  The thought floated across my mind about how his audience was receiving this advice?  Most of the people I see online in these various webinars provided by the good burghers of Tokyo’s business community are necrotic.  They are almost like one of those death stars, where all the energy collapses inward and the whole thing just disappears into oblivion.

Many of us rant about getting more professional with online presenting, yet the same house captives who attend these castings of pearls of wisdom on the subject, do nothing to alter their approaches.  They still zoom the laptop camera up their own noses from its position on the desk or over their ample beer bellies.  They still sit there talking in a monotone, with a lifeless delivery style guaranteed to cure the most severe cases of insomnia.  They are not getting it.

There seems to be an absence of interest in being a professional in business.  They will argue against that view of course and say that in their area of expertise they are the goods.  I would answer that by venturing that their vector is too narrowly defined.  Being a business professional relies on deep knowledge but also the facility to broadcast that knowledge to others.  We know that the modern audience has been brought up on computer games, reality television, DJs severely trimming songs, hand held devices with immediate access to the temptations of the internet and social media as their source of news.  In sum, they are easily distracted.  If the presenter is not engaging this audience then baby, they are long gone.

You can see this phenomenon live in your own home, as the participant names or numbers on the online call, begin to drop alarmingly, as the massively oblivious presenter just drones on and on and on.  People weren’t particularly patient before, but Covid-19 has made them even less so, it would seem. 

The presenters may feel speaking in a voice with passion and energy is too fake for them.  They are usually boring, warm beer types and so think this is how they need to rise to the occasion, to be a professional in business who delivers content in the online world.  They forget they are competing with such a plethora of escape options, that their precious message will not even get close to a look in, by those on the call.

If you come across like you are not sold on what you are speaking about, let me assure you, the rest of us won’t be either.  We can tell you are passionate about your subject because you demonstrate that passion.  Your voice, body language, gestures, eyes are all screaming at us – believe me, believe me, believe me! 

Now do you have to be throttling along at 150 miles an hour?  No.  You just need to raise your energy at certain points in the talk where you are making a key point.  You need to start your comments at a higher energy level, than would be your normal speaking voice.  Interestingly when we are training people in public speaking and we ask them to double the energy when they are talking, they raise it ten percent.  We just keep asking them to double it, until we get to a pitch level that sounds like they are sold on their own presentation.  It is not a shrill trumpet call, but louder than normal.  To them, it seems like they are wild banshees wailing at the top of their lungs. To the audience, it sounds like they believe what they are communicating.

Getting the presenters to realise that their over the top level is still well within the professional range is a struggle.  This is where video is so useful. When we play back their rehearsal presentation and they see the enhanced body language, purposeful gestures and good eye contact with the camera, they are amazed it looks so different to what they imagined.  They expected unhinged, demonic, batty, lunatic ravings on screen.  All they got was a much better professional presenter, dominating the medium and engaging the audience.  And as the audience, that is exactly what we want from presentations – that they be truly professional.