Gerry Sandusky's Blog, page 8

Two Things a Big League Pitcher Can Teach You About Your Next Presentation

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Camden Yards, the baseball park that changed ballparks in the major leagues. I covered the very first game played at Camden Yards. Rick Sutcliffe was the starting pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles that day and forever holds the honor of throwing the first pitch in a game in that ballpark.

Years later, after he retired, I asked Sutcliffe the key to his success as a big league pitcher. I remember his answer vividly and have often thought about how it parallels the success of a presenter.

Sutcliffe’s keys to success:

1. Change speeds

2. Change locations

That’s it.

To a pitcher, that means change the velocity of your pitches. Throw some fastballs, some curves, some change ups. Be unpredictable. Put some pitches over the plate, some high and inside, some low and away. Keep the batter on his toes. Don’t be predictable.

The power of mixing it up

Sutcliffe lasted 18 years in the majors. His keys work—and not just for pitchers. They work for presenters too.

Here’s how they translate from the mound to the front of the room:

1. Change speeds—vary your delivery.

Don’t deliver everything at the same pace. Mix it up. If you deliver everything at the same pace, it becomes predictable or irritable.

I recently saw Shawn Achor, the author of The Happiness Advantage present at a major national conference. He’s brilliant. His message is amazing, and he’s really funny. But after an hour long presentation, many of the people in his audience felt exhausted because he never changes his pace. He delivers fast ball after fast ball after fast ball. Click the video below to see for yourself.

Shawn Achor presenting from Gerry Sandusky on Vimeo.

2. Change locations.

Too often as speakers, we do one of two things: we stand in the same place (sometimes behind a podium) or we meander constantly.

Those both become very predictable and boring.

It’s far more effective to move with your message. Move when you are transitioning from one key point to another. Move when you are gathering your thoughts. Use the available space in the front of the room. When you are ready to deliver an important segment of your presentation, stop. Stand and deliver. Really connect with the audience.

When you finish that segment, move again.

Don’t confuse moving intentionally with pacing

You don’t want to pace the stage like a caged animal. That gets predictable. You don’t want to look stuck in one place. That gets painful to watch. Use whatever available space you have. Move when it feels natural. Stop when you want to deliver something important. Mix it up.

Change speeds.

Change locations.

It works in an old ballpark or a new board room. It works for pitchers and for presenters. It worked for Rick Sutcliffe at Camden Yards and it will work for you in the front of the room.

The post Two Things a Big League Pitcher Can Teach You About Your Next Presentation appeared first on Presentation Skills Training | Gerry Sandusky.

Three Steps to Learning New Presentation Skills

The only way you can improve your presentations is to learn new presentation skills. Sounds simple, in theory. In practice, however, it means the inevitable struggle we always face when learning new skills.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that hard.

During a recent family vacation to Ireland, I encountered a driving situation that reminded me of a simple, but extremely effective approach to learning new skills–presentation skills or any new skills.

Come along for a fun journey that can help change the way you look at developing new skills.

The post Three Steps to Learning New Presentation Skills appeared first on Presentation Skills Training | Gerry Sandusky.

How to Avoid Confusing Your Audience with Mixed Messages

I came across this sign on my drive to work earlier this week. The arrow points to the right, but the words are upside down, which means the arrow should be pointing to the left. I think.

And there’s the rub.

Because what I saw—the arrow—didn’t match the words. Mixed message. I had to choose. Go right, or go left? I had to stop and think about it.

And that’s what happens in presentations.

If we tell our audience one thing, but show them another, we force our audience to choose.

We add stress to their lives and confusion to their experience.

I don’t know about you, but stressful choices don’t usually enhance my experience as an audience member.

Here’s how this frequently plays out in a presentation:

The presenter is trying to convince you with his or her words to do something, to take an action, agree with a premise, buy an item. But the presenter looks and sounds nervous. Now, at an intellectual level, you can probably figure out that the nerves come from stage fright. But at an emotional level, you will feel the presenter’s nervousness. That will make you feel uncomfortable.

It will also undermine your confidence in the presenter. After all, if she looks nervous, it’s hard to buy what she’s selling—whether that’s an idea, a product, or a service—because she doesn’t appear confident.

When we show our audience one thing but tell them another, we create stress and force audience members to choose. That never works out in the presenter’s favor.

Give your audience clean, simple, consistent directions.

When it came to that one-way street, I stopped (I didn’t act like the sign wanted me to). And then I decided to skip the street altogether. I took another route.

As a presenter, you can’t make the audience feel comfortable unless you look comfortable. You can’t make the audience feel confident in following you unless you sound confident.

And I’m not even talking about PowerPoint.

You are the most important visual in your presentation.  If you don’t look like your message, the audience will probably take away a different message than you intended to send.

The audience won’t take the action you want.

The audience won’t follow your lead.

The audience won’t hear what you have to say because the audience already “heard” what it saw from you.

Don’t confuse your audience.

And if your nervousness is getting in the way of your impact, then come on over and join my new, on-line course, Move From Shake to Shine. 

It’s designed to help you look comfortable, confident, and in control in front of any audience. And unlike driving down a one-way street, this is designed to take you exactly where you want to go.

Enrollment closes tomorrow. Click here to join now before we close registration.

Looking confident, comfortable, and in control in front of the room changes everything—including the arc and impact of your career!

If you aren’t comfortable in presentations or speeches, there’s only way thing to do: learn how to get comfortable. Once you do that, you put your career on a one-way street to the top of your field.

Enrollment ends tomorrow. Click here to find out how you can move from feeling anxious to rocking the front of the room in your next presentation!

The post How to Avoid Confusing Your Audience with Mixed Messages appeared first on Presentation Skills Training | Gerry Sandusky.

Bring Your Presentation to Life Using Stories

What’s your favorite movie? Without knowing the answer, I’ll bet I know the basic storyline:

Someone wanted something
Something got in his/her/their way of getting what they wanted
A struggle took place
It looked like your someone wasn’t going to get what he/she/they wanted
Your someone learned an important lesson from the struggle
It helped him/her/them get what they originally wanted or something even more valuable

That’s the storyline of pretty much all great stories from Homer’s Illiad right on up to this year’s Academy Award winning films. Times change, people’s names change, what people want changes, but the structure of great stories remains the same.

The Story about Stories

Stories always revolve around facing and overcoming struggles and the lessons we learn from going through the struggles.

In any presentation, any keynote speech, any meeting, stories can help you convey a key point or a sub-point far more powerfully than a PowerPoint slide.

Stories help you as the presenter connect with your audience in ways that content alone can never do.

Why Stories Work

Here’s why: Your audience won’t always understand or be able to relate to your content. But if you use a story that the audience can relate to, then you create a connection. The stronger the connection, the more willing people are to follow you. Period.

A few years ago I was delivering a keynote speech to a large HR conference.

I am not an HR professional and I don’t play one on TV.

About 80-percent of the audience were female professionals. The event organizer shared with me ahead of time that after she booked me to speak she received some negative pushback from people wondering what a TV sportscaster and consultant was going to tell them about HR!

My talk focused on managing change in a world ever present time demands.

So here’s how I began my talk.

My Makeup Story

“Like many of you, I wear makeup every day (chuckle). Not because I want to. It’s an occupational hazard. For years I thought I was doing something wrong because one day it would take me five minutes to put on makeup. When a makeup artist came in, it only took her five minutes. When I had to do it myself it might take me fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, ten minutes. I got frustrated because I couldn’t figure out how much time I should budget for makeup before each newscast because I couldn’t figure out the answer to this question: ‘How long does it take to put on your makeup?’

“How long does it take you? (I pointed to a woman in the audience) And you? (I pointed to another). And you? (I pointed to a third).

“Now it sounds like each person gave me a different answer. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes. But after wrestling with this issue for years, conversations like this with other people who wear makeup every day helped me to understand that each of those professionals gave me the same answer. You see it takes exactly how much time we have available to put on our makeup. No more. No less. And like most things in life, we never have as much time as we want.”

What Stories Help You Do

That opening, a story, let me do three important things:

Create a connection with the audience. I was talking about something we had in common—not HR or sportscaster, but make up.
Make a key point. I made a key point that we never have as much time as we want to do the things we want.
By using my “makeup story,” I caught the audience by surprise, I calmed down any tension caused by people wondering ‘what’s he going to teach me?’ And I did it using a classic story format.


I wanted something: I wanted to know how long it was supposed to take me to put on make up
I struggled with trying to figure it out on my own.
The more I asked others the more confused I became.
Once I realized I had to look at the question from a different angle, I discovered what I was looking for
By sharing my insight with others, I created connections.

When you use stories in presentations, you create connections with people who might have no other connection to what you are talking about or where you are coming from. Once you create a connection you have far greater influence with your audience.

Try This in Your Next Presentation:

Pick a place in the presentation where you think a story will help you create a connection to your audience
Use the story to help get a key point across

A Few Things to Remember about Stories:

All great stories are about people
All great stories involve struggle and overcoming struggle
Avoid telling your audience, “And the moral of the story is…” You aren’t talking to children. Trust the intelligence of your audience

A Final Thought on Stories:

Never make yourself the hero of the story.

Make yourself the person who learns an important lesson, but never the hero.

No one likes this kind of story:

I was driving to work the other day and I stopped at a 7-11. I bought a scratch-off lottery ticket, and I won a million dollars!

There are two things wrong with that story:

There’s no struggle
You’re the hero

That’s a formula for failure with stories.

Audiences prefer this kind of story:

I was driving to work last Tuesday, running about five minutes late for an important meeting, the kind of meeting with a prospect that can change your career—or end it. A light illuminated on my dash board: Check engine. Now! I looked at my watch. If I stopped to check my engine I was going to miss my meeting.

I ignored it.

Two miles down the road, another light went off. This time bells rang too. Was that smoke coming out from under my hood? $%^!. I pulled over on the side of the road and what happened next changed my life forever.

Bet you want to know what happened next, right? That’s the power of story. No one ever sat through a PowerPoint-heavy presentation and quietly wondered, “Hmmm, what’s coming next?”

This is where you would finish the story with the lesson you learned on the side of the road and then connect that to the topic you are talking about in your presentation.

Stories keep your audience engaged.

Okay, Your Turn:

Start using stories in your presentation.

Start off with one until you get the hang of it.

Then gradually start using more as your comfort level increases.

Your audience will thank you.

The post Bring Your Presentation to Life Using Stories appeared first on Presentation Skills Training | Gerry Sandusky.

Before You Start Your Next Presentation…Begin Here.

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What to do When Nobody Takes Part in Your Presentation Q & A

The post What to do When Nobody Takes Part in Your Presentation Q & A appeared first on Presentation Skills Training | Gerry Sandusky.

What to do When Nobody Takes Part in Your Presentation Q & A

The post What to do When Nobody Takes Part in Your Presentation Q & A appeared first on Presentation Skills Training | Gerry Sandusky.

And the Winner Is…What to Do After a Major Presentation Mistake

For obvious reasons, most people dread making a major presentation mistake. We don’t want to look stupid. We don’t want to fail. Ironically, it’s when things do go wrong in a presentation that you actually have a chance to shine the brightest—by showing your ability to handle the moment.

Lessons from The Academy Awards

This year’s Academy Awards ceremony is probably the winner of biggest blunder ever in a pivotal moment of a presentation. They gave the presenters, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, the wrong card, and that set up Beatty and Dunaway to announced the wrong winner for Picture of the Year.

That, my friends, is a presentation gone very, very wrong.

But then something unbelievable happened.

The producer of La La Land, Jordan Horowitz, amidst the growing chaos on stage leaned into the microphone and said, “We lost, by the way, but, you know…”

Horowitz then added, “I’m sorry, there’s a mistake. ‘Moonlight,’ you guys won best picture.”

“This is not a joke,” he said.

What the…?

All of us watching had pretty much the same thought. “What the…?”

Somewhere in the frenzy of activity that had consumed the stage, Howowitz added, “I’m going to be really thrilled to hand this to my friends from Moonlight,” gesturing toward the producers of Moonlight who were coming on to the stage.

In a moment of total presentation collapse, in front of 200 million people, at the pinnacle of a production that cost millions of dollars to produce, Jordan Horowitz showed a level of humanity, compassion, and elegance that no presentation can ever script.

At the worst possible moment, Horowitz became a lighthouse.

What to do When Things Go Wrong

Sure, Horowitz would have preferred to deliver an acceptance speech that no one would remember or talk about the next day. Instead, he delivered a lesson in grace and class under fire. He literally showed the world how to handle an awful situation with dignity.

He could have railed against the academy.

He could have demanded an explanation.

He could have stormed off the stage and held onto the Oscar.

He didn’t.

He brought dignity to chaos.

That can’t happen when everything goes as planned.

Now please understand me. I’m not saying try to screw up the close to your next presentation. But I do want you to keep a few thoughts in mind:

Sometimes things go wrong at the worst possible moment.
When they do, all we can control is our reaction.
If we stay calm and show poise that stands out more than what went wrong.
Nothing impacts an audience more than being your best at the worst possible moment.

The Biggest Take Away

Here’s the other big take away from the Academy Awards fiasco. No one died. Oh sure, a few people probably wanted to, but no one did.

When things go wrong—sometimes terribly wrong—in a presentation, it can feel at that moment like your world is going to end. It doesn’t. Life goes on. And so will you.

Jimmy Kimmel went back to hosting his show. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway went back to being Hollywood legends, and Jordan Horowitz went back to being a successful movie producer while Moonlight producer Adele Romanski and the rest of the Moonlight team went on to enjoy the night of their lives.

Even when a presentation mistake happens in front of the whole world, on live TV, it isn’t the end of the world. No one dies. Keep that in mind.

Mistakes will happen—sometimes at the worst possible time imaginable. At those times, how you handle this mistakes will often say more about you than anything you had planned to say in your perfect version of the presentation.

The post And the Winner Is…What to Do After a Major Presentation Mistake appeared first on Presentation Skills Training | Gerry Sandusky.

Two Changes to Your Presentation That Can Smooth Out Your Start

You have a small window of time to get your audience’s attention. Too often presenters miss that window by taking way too long to get going. The open to too many presentations turns into a meander while the presenter gets his or her momentum going. It doesn’t have to take so long to get going.

This video will show you two simple changes you can make that will have a dramatic impact on your next presentation because a better start leads to a better chance of a better presentation.

The post Two Changes to Your Presentation That Can Smooth Out Your Start appeared first on Presentation Skills Training | Gerry Sandusky.

Two Ways to Ensure Body Language Improves Your Presentations

If it didn’t send a message, we wouldn’t call it body language.

What you do with your body impacts the message your audience takes away from your presentation.

To get the most positive impact from your body language in a presentation, you need to know these two things before you say your first word in the presentation:

What’s your message?
What’s the perception you want the audience to have of you and your presentation?

The Impact of Body Language

Body language does one of three things to your presentation:

Improves it
Confuses your message
Becomes your message

Body language that supports your message and your desired audience perception improves your presentation.

But all too often, stage fright, inexperience, or a simple lack of awareness undermines your message and target audience perception. You can’t create a sense of confidence in your audience if your body language sends a message of nervousness or tension–no matter what you say.

Body Language Speaks Sooner Than Words

Your audience will usually see your body language before it hears your language. In this video, I’ll share with you a couple of simple, but powerful techniques to ensure your body language supports your message and improves your presentations.

 

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