Gerry Sandusky's Blog, page 11

Beware of the Angle of Your Communication

We all come at communications from a different angle. Literally. Understanding the angle can dramatically influence the impact.

This works whether you are talking to one person or talking to an auditorium filled with hundreds of people.

Side by Side

If you come at your communication side by side, it sends the message of avoiding the communication.

There’s no need for eye contact.

You can talk around the issues instead of taking them head on.

You can easily look the other way without having to break eye contact when the discussion gets uncomfortable.

Sitting side by side makes it easy to avoid eye contact

 

Come at Communication from an Angle

The easiest way to put yourself in position to connect with communication, have good eye contact and keep the other person or people from feeling threatened is to come at your communication from an angle.

Not pure side by side and not head on.

Look at the examples below of how in one-on-one and group settings, body language positioned more at a 45-degree angle creates a level of ease and comfort.

One-on-one conversation

Speaker at a podium angling his body to the audience.

 

 

Gerry walking and talking to an audience at an angle.

 

Change Angle, Change Impact

You can’t always come at communication from an angle, but by using non-threatening body language, body language intentionally angled to create ease and comfort for the person or people on the receiving end, you create contrast when you do come at your communication head on.

Whether that’s in a conversation, a meeting, or a presentation when you want to make a vitally important point, change your angle.

Move to a straight on delivery.

Your audience will get the point.

Gerry speaking straight on to an audience.

 

 

Variety Creates Interest and Enhances Impact

You obviously don’t want to always use one angle of communication.

If you are aware of what impact your angle of approach has on your audience–regardless of the size of that audience–you can change your angle of approach to intentionally change the mood, the reception, and the quality of the communication.

Too much side-by-side communication will leave you looking uncommitted and indecisive.

Too much straight on, “give it to me straight” communication will leave you developing a reputation as a communication bull, hard charging, lacking all subtlety.

We all know people whose communication style is a bull in a china shop, bull-headed, or even a bully.

The angle of body language has a lot to do with that reputation.

A bull-headed communicator gets a bad reputation.

 

The Key to the Right Angle

The right angle isn’t always a right angle. The key is knowing the impact you want to have and making sure you take the correct angle to your communication.

If you don’t feel like you are connecting with your communication, change your angle of approach.

The results may surprise you–not to mention your audience.

 

 

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How to Turn an Applause into a Standing Ovation

Every presenter dreams about it, wants it. The standing ovation that comes when you finish. Bam. The drop the mic moment. Most presenters think those magical finishes come because of them. They don’t. They come because the presenter got outside of his or her emotional needs and connected deeply to the needs or wants of the audience.

In this video, I’ll show you an example of how by paying attention to the audience’s needs a presenter can create a connection with the audience that transcends the ordinary.

Leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

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A Hidden Truth Has Power in a Presentation

Most people when they get to the front of room don’t dare show a hidden truth. Everything suffers because of that one mistake.

It only takes one, small act of courage to change everything.

Realizing this one insight will help set you free.

We’re all hiding something

We all have a shadow self, a talent, a hobby, an interest, a fear, a story that we keep hidden from public view. Sometimes for good reason. We think it will limit our job opportunities. We think others will like us less. We think we’ll lose power. We think people will ostracise us because of it.

Sharing is connecting

Here’s the grand irony: It won’t ostracise you. It will connect you with your audience. After all, we’re all hiding something. Once you share what you’re hiding, your audience will immediately relate more with you–because each person in the audience is hiding something too.

Dare to share

There are three pivotal points in a presentation where sharing something that you’ve been hiding will have maximum impact with your audience:

The open
When you’re hitting on a key point
The close

The open

Hit your audience with a hidden truth right out of the gate.

I hate cocktail party chit-chat. I always feel like such a phony in those settings. And if I’m ever trapped in that setting without my wife by my side, I often disappear and either find a dark corner to hide out in or I hide out for as long as possible in the men’s room. 

I’ve opened presentations before by sharing that secret. I’m not proud of it. I make my living communicating, but I would rather surgically remove my fingernails than make cocktail party chit-chat. As soon as I shared that hidden truth, I saw a room filled with people begin to nod their head. They got it. The mood in the room softened. I had given a glimpse into one of my fears, my weaknesses. The audience softened its defenses immediately. We connected.

Key Point

When you’re making a point of how to do something, why to use product X, why a certain approach works best, try sharing a hidden truth about how you learned this lesson the hard way.

I once spoke to a high school football team in a rough area of the town where I lived at t time and I wrote out the entire speech. Then I tried to read them the speech. First they yawned. Then they booed. Then they began to throw food at me. And I was only a few pages into the speech when the food started to fly. I felt pure panic wrap itself around me like an anaconda. 

I have used that paragraph to share with audiences why I took the time to become a student of public speaking and presentation skills. Because I was terrible. And I was afraid I was going to die from doing it. In other words, I felt like most people feel. That’s very connective.

Close

When I was on my book tour a couple of years ago, I shared with an audience the story of my father’s final conversation with me and my brother Jim. My father somehow broke through the confusion of Alzheimer’s disease for a brief moment. He looked us both in the eyes and said, “Don’t wait. Life gets really confusing at the end. Don’t wait to live. Live now.” Then Alzheimer’s swallowed him again and all he could do was stare blankly at us as if we had never met. 

The hidden truth has power

My hidden truth was how emotional that conversation still makes me–more than 10 years later. I was afraid to share that with the audience because I was afraid I would get choked up. And I did. I cried. I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to get the genie back into the bottle. What I disco

What I discovered is I didn’t have to. By sharing a hidden truth, I connected at a level I could barely imagine with the audience, many of whom found themselves in a similar dilemma with a loved one.

Stop hiding; start sharing

You have talents, experiences, fears, messages, beliefs, and insights that you keep hidden. You know it and I know it. The only thing I don’t know is what those are, but I know you have them. It’s time to let  them out. It’s time to share.

You don’t have to push yourself to tears, but in your next presentation or speech, try revealing one hidden truth in your open, key point, or close. Do it in a way that makes you feel naked for a moment, laid bare in front of your audience. It’s a vulnerable moment. And in that moment you will make your most powerful connection to your audience. In the end, isn’t that really what we’re trying to do in the front of the room?

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The Secret Power of Using Suspense in Your Presentations

One of the most common questions people ask me in seminars is how can they do a better job of holding the audience’s attention? One way is to put some suspense in your presentations.

Suspense keeps people alert

Look at the photo to the right. Doesn’t that just beg for you to peek inside the door? People want to look behind a door that has a sign on it that reads: Warning, don’t look behind this door! That’s the power of suspense.

It’s human nature to want to know more.

Play to that nature by giving your audience some information and keep them wanting more.

Do you want to know the key to suspense?

The fact that you keep reading would indicate yes.

By asking a question in the above headline instead of just giving information, I pulled you into the next line. Now, I have to answer that question, eventually, but I don’t have to answer it right away.

That’s the key to suspense.

You have to trust me that the answer is coming and I have to bring you along to that answer.

The key to suspense is not giving away everything too soon.

Agenda slides kill suspense

If you read my blog very often or attend one of my seminars you’ve heard me say I don’t like agenda slides. Now you know one of the reasons why: They kill suspense.

There’s another reason too. I’ll get to that in a minute. It might surprise you a little.

Okay, right now, aren’t you wondering–at least a little–about the other reason? That’s suspense.

Remember, I have to eventually give you the answer. That’s how I bring the presentation, the communication to completion, but by adding a touch of suspense I hold your attention longer and deeper. And by increasing your interest I also increase your retention. When you get to the answer, you’ll hold on to it longer.

Suspense has another benefit too

The other reason I don’t like agenda slides is they limit your flexibility as a presenter. Suspense increases your flexibility.

If you put on a slide the five, 10, 12, or 15 things you plan to accomplish with your presentation then the audience will know if you only got to six, eight, or nine of those items. Then they will leave with a sense of being cheated. They will lack a feeling of completion.

If you use suspense to let your audience feel like you will give them information that will improve their career, even change their lives, but you don’t tell them exactly where in the presentation it will come, you can adjust when you deliver the payoff based on your sense of timing and the amount of time you have to work with.

Suspense should lead to satisfaction

Suspense, when used properly, leads to a feeling of completion. Agenda slides lead to boredom. The choice is yours. Your audience is secretly hoping you’ll choose suspense.

Suspense makes time disappear in a presentation. Agenda slides make people keep track of time. Oh, he has six more items to get to. This will take forever!

The choice is yours. Your audience is secretly hoping you’ll choose suspense.

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The front of the room can set you apart

According to a recent article in Forbes magazine, the front of the room can set you apart. Forbes says speaking is the No. 1 business development strategy for the owner of a service business (Here’s a link to the article: http://bit.ly/2aDMNLK). That covers everything from keynote speaking to speaking at networking events to presentations. As technology proliferates (and I’m not bashing technology) human interaction becomes a bigger point of difference, a bigger way to stand out from other businesses, a bigger way to gain an advantage for your business.

There is no app for becoming a better speaker

There isn’t, and probably never will be an app for becoming a better public speaker, a better communicator–especially in front of the room. You have to get up there. Try. Make mistakes. Try some more. Gradually, and sometimes quickly, you make progress. But here’s where the biggest competitive advantage lies: most people don’t want to get to the front of the room until they think they are excellent. This isn’t Star Trek. You can’t use a phaser to beam yourself from beginning to expert with presentations and speeches. You have to grow, like most things in nature grow, step-by-step and gradually.

Stage fright doesn’t have to stop you

For many professionals, simple stage fright keeps them from beginning or continuing the journey. They so dread getting up in front of the room that they do it as little as possible. Or worse, they do nothing at all. If you really feel stuck or frozen because of stage fright, download my free guide by clicking the icon below.

 

Fear and quit are four-letter words

Letting fear stop you from making progress is like forfeiting in sports. You give up before you even begin.

I believe that to make real progress in life or in any area of life you have to have the humility and the courage to accept sucking at something for awhile. So you’re not very good right now. So what? Wherever you are is just a starting place. If you don’t take the steps to move through stage fright and acquire the skills to shine then where you are is also your ending place. That’s awful.

A plan to improve

Here’s a simple 8-step plan to begin using speaking and presenting as tools to give your business a competitive advantage:

Ask yourself why you aren’t doing more public speaking or presentations to promote your business?
Assess your strengths and weaknesses.
Be honest about stage fright. If it’s really holding you back, get help (hint: we can help).
Double the number of speeches or presentations you are currently making.
Video your speeches and presentations.
Make a list of 10 things you want to do better in your front of the room performance.
Work on one of those things at a time, and don’t shift your focus from that item until you have turned it into a strength. When it’s a strength, move on to working on the next weakness.
Keep putting yourself in front of clients and prospects throughout the entire process.

You might think steps one through seven matter the most. They do only in the sense that they will give you a better skill set to work with. But the most important step is actually step eight. Get out there. Get to the front of the room. That’s the habit that makes all the difference. You can’t get better in front of the room until you get to the front of the room and then get there again, and again, and again.

Your competitive advantage

Most people–most of the people you compete with–lack the discipline and the courage to do that. If you will embrace the simple idea that the front of the room and people skills are two of your greatest potential competitive advantages, then you will both understand and begin to harness what Forbes magazine is talking about. You’ll get why speaking is the No. 1 business development strategy for the owner of a service business–and to one degree or another isn’t every business a service business?

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The Power of Pause

To understand the power of pause look at any video on any website. You’ll see a little toolbar on the bottom of the video frame. It has symbols for play, stop, and pause. Your next business presentation, conversation, even meeting can benefit from that same toolbar.

Pauses helps your audience.

You hit “play” when you begin a presentation.

For a lot of professionals, the problems begin soon after that.

Most professionals and executives who I have watched over the years start a presentation or conversation and keep going until they hit the stop button. They never pause.

Pauses are brief. Their impact lasts.

A pause only has to last a second or two, about the same length as a breath. It has the same effect as a breath too: It feels natural.

Here are three effective ways to use pauses in your next presentation, conversation, or meeting:

Immediately after you make a critical point, pause.
Immediately after you deliver a funny line or the punch line of a humorous story, pause.
When you want more feedback, ask for it. When it starts to come, mentally hit the pause button.

All three techniques work because they give your audience, not just you, a chance to breathe, absorb, and process information.

Pauses should last longer than you think.

Time distorts in front of an audience.

When you first start to use a pause it will feel like an eternity of silence—but only to you.

A two-second pause to someone not used to pausing will seem like ten minutes of silence. But to the audience it will only seem like two seconds! You are the one who has to get used to the pause. Your audience is already fine with them.

Here’s an easy way to start using pauses:

Pause during presentations

Ask someone you work with who you have a good relationship to give you a stop sign during conversations when they think that you pausing would help them digest what you’re talking about.

This will help you become more attuned to your audience’s needs—whether that’s an audience of one or one thousand.

The more you learn when to pause the more you’ll become comfortable with the pause and the length of it. Once you do that, you’ll discover that the power of the pause. A little silence goes a long way.

Play, Pause, Stop.

Too many professionals fall for the trap of beginning their presentation or conversation and plowing through it until they finish. Play button to stop button. By peppering your next presentation, conversation, or meeting with a few pauses, you’ll notice a greater connection with your audience. The people you address will begin to feel as if you are talking with them instead of at them.

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A Magic Pill Won’t Cure Stage Fright

Wouldn’t it be great if you take a magic pill to cure stage fright? You can. If you’re a doctor. I media coached a doctor several years ago who experienced extreme stage fright before TV interviews or before a presentation. He told me he prescribed himself the beta-block propranolol. It’s called a beta blocker because it blocks the flow of adrenaline in your system.

Research Findings

Researchers at the University of Amsterdam published findings last year that propranolol reduced anxiety in a test group that was asked to touch and hold baby tarantula spiders. I know. The hair on my neck stands up thinking about that too. Here’s the story on their findings: (click here to read the story)

They found that propranolol reduced anxiety when dealing with spiders. Research seems to indicate similar results with stage fright. Let’s face it when a doctor prescribes something for himself it probably works.

The FDA has not approved the use of propranolol for stage fright, so drug companies can’t market it for that use. If you’re a doctor or you have a good relationship with your doctor, you can obviously find an easy work around.

Why a Drug Isn’t the Ideal Solution

But even if you can take a pill that seems to solve the problem, I don’t think you should. Why? Because the pill only masks the problem, and it actually hurts the solution. Adrenaline is one of the hormones that creates stage fright, but adrenaline is also a hormone that when harnessed and used properly can turn an average presentation into a super performance. We need adrenaline in the front of the room.

A presentation with no adrenaline is a presentation with no energy. Audiences will forgive presenters most anything but boredom. An audience would much prefer a slightly nervous presenter who confesses his or her concerns over a stone cold, emotionless drone.

Adrenaline isn’t the enemy. It’s your ally. You just have to learn how to harness its power.

A Better Solution

You don’t need a magic pill to feel better in front of the room. You need to understand why spiders and stage fright make you feel so freaked out. It’s about adrenaline and other hormones. Once you understand that you can go to work on taking the steps to feel better, more comfortable, and more in control without surrendering your adrenaline.

I explain it all in my free report. Click the graphic below to download it.

Here’s the best part: unlike a propranolol prescription, my suggestions are free. And while I’m not sure if they work with a fear of spiders, I do know they work with stage fright. I’ll let someone else run the tests of putting their hands in a jar with tarantulas. I prefer to conduct my tests in front of the room on two legs, not eight legs.

 

 

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Stop Trying To Avoid Stage Fright!

Performers who know the most about stage fright stop trying to avoid stage fright. A popular music group spends hours on stage every night—sometimes several days a week, several weeks a month. It adds up to hundreds of hours over the course of a year, thousands of hours over the course of a few years. And still many of them get stage fright.

Kelly Zutrau, the lead singer of Wet said in an interview with Fuse that she doesn’t try to avoid stage fright anymore because she knows she can’t. “I’m really used to the feeling at this point and I just know what it is. I know just to drink water, breath, and focus.”

Learning to accept stage fright

What brought her to that realization? Hours and hours and hours on stage without getting rid of stage fright. It’s there before every performance. It will be for her and it will be for you too. But fortunately for Kelly she realized something few presenters every get their heads wrapped around: “It’s an interaction. It’s not supposed to be perfect. I think people like to see that you’re up there taking a risk and maybe you mess up. I think that’s a really good thing to realize.”

Take aways:

There are a couple of major takeaways from Kelly’s insights and you don’t have to sing in a popular band to put them to use. Anyone who has to present from the front of the room can benefit:

You will always face stage fright before a performance.

You can get used to the feeling.

Create your own ritual to use over and over.

Audiences don’t expect you to be perfect. They want an interaction not an adulation.

If you stood up to stage fright in the past and survived—and you did or you wouldn’t be reading this—then you’ll do it again, and again, and again.

Maybe you do mess up. Welcome to the club. We’re all human. Do you best and when you make a mistake, use it to connect with your audience.

Here’s the link to the Fuse interview with Kelly Zurau: http://www.fuse.tv/videos/2016/06/wet-interview-firefly-2016

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How to Get Your Presentations off to a Smoother Start

You have probably found yourself in the awkward moment where you have begun your presentation but it feels like your stuck before you ever really get moving. So you hem and haw, talk about what you’re going to talk about, maybe even make a bad joke, and the whole time you can feel your presentation just sitting there like a parked. It has potential, but first you have to get it moving.

In this video I’ll show you two common stumbling blocks that you easily remove to get your presentation going faster and smoother from the start.

 

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Why Every Professional Man Should Keep a Blue Blazer Handy

You almost always have a presentation on your schedule well ahead of time, but media interviews don’t always come with enough time to schedule. And sometimes you do need to fill-in last minute for someone in your organization who couldn’t make the presentation. That’s why every professional man should keep a blue blazer handy at the office. It’s the most versatile jacket because you can use it to dress up or down depending on the situation and the media outlet.

Paired with a light colored dress shirt and a bright tie and pocket square a blue blazer dress up nicely. Paired with a nice polo or a well made tee-shirt and jeans a blue blazer dress down and trendy. It’s hard to dress down a suit or dress up a tee-shirt by themselves. A blue blazer gives you the flexibility to move in either direction at a moment’s notice.

And in the event you find yourself in the spotlight of a media emergency, you want to focus the maximum amount of time on preparing your target perception and key points. What you wear will impact the audience’s perception of your first—before anything you say. The blue blazer gives you the most flexibility to match your look with your target perception. But only if you have it with you.

If you have an office door, keep a blue blazer hanging on the back. I keep one at my office because I never know when something might break that will put me in front of a camera, but I do know that with a blue blazer handy I can meet the moment without having my attire look wildly too casual or too formal based on the situation.

I keep a black one around too, but start with blue. It’s more versatile and works with more colors than black. If you are the type that likes to prepare for anything—and you have the coat hooks or coat rack to handle it then keep a black blazer around too.

Here’s a great resource article on matching items with a blue blazer: http://www.realmenrealstyle.com/navy-blazer-matching/

This will help you dress for media, meetings, presentations or just a night out. But being able to pull off the perfect look to match your message when you don’t have much advance warning is something that can help you stand out from the others in your organization or your field.

 

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