B (3:17)

Exactly. Now, look, folks, if you've listened to us before, you know we tell you all the time when it comes to presenting, the audience is what matters. In fact, we have guidance. It's a podcast called the Foundations of Presenting Mastery. We which teaches that the ultimate presenter knows his behaviors and his or her content so well that you can actually focus on the audience's response. That's what true presenting mastery is, is being able to know yourself and your audience or your content so well that you can totally focus on the audience while you're speaking, but you can only get to that audience mastery after you've mastered yourself and your content. You cannot reverse engineer from the audience to your content. So if they tell you what the audience wants or what their theme is, and you can't do that, you should say no. At an industry event where you don't know the audience well, you won't be able to satisfy them with a topic of which you are not an absolute master.

A (4:22)

Yeah. And folks, you might be listening to this and thinking, well, surely they're never going to ask me to speak about something that I don't know. They are. I assure you that they are. We routinely get requests to speak at events, some paid, some not, which we turn down. And let's remember we are essentially what amounts to public speakers. For a job like that is our occupation. And we still don't do it because we are asked to speak about a really specific topic, one that we didn't pick, or one that we don't agree with, or one that is an edge case of. An edge case of something we maybe might do, but we would have to contort ourselves into such a different person to be successful at it. And we say no. And again, we do this for a job. We are public speakers for a living. So if we won't do it, you oughtn't to do it.

B (5:18)

Yeah. This is also true of the many requests we get to go on other people's podcasts. I get two or three week hey, Mark, why don't you come on our podcast and talk about the effects of AI on managers managing their time and their relationships with their external vendors. Like, wow, that's really an edge of an edge case. It's like, no, no. So what this means is that if you feel there are only two topics you're totally committed to and those aren't right for the audience, according to the coordinator, because they'll Know their audience. Probably not as well as you want them to, but they'll know them better than you. You just have to say no. Our recommendation is you say no. Do not be shoehorned into trying to become an expert on something. Now, if you're given wide latitude, on the other hand, and you have a Hip Pocket presentation, which was our last Manager Tools podcast, say yes and use that presentation.

A (6:20)

Yeah. And folks, this happens with us in our events all the time. We say to people, speak about what drives you, what you're passionate about, what you think you can do a good job of, and will help you make it useful for the audience. So sometimes the group that's coordinating the event will help you with it, but if not, you just say no, and that's okay, too. Then there is rehearse. Now, folks, if you're not willing to rehearse again, say no. Don't present you. You won't be as good as you could be had you rehearsed. It's great to be asked, but it comes with a responsibility not just to present, to actually be great at presenting. And when you throw a presentation together, because you're a natural presenter.

B (7:09)

A natural presenter?

A (7:10)

Oh, yeah, I could throw it on overnight, it'd be great. That's arrogant. The audience is going to see right through you, and you won't be great. We know you won't be great. We've seen you before.

B (7:20)

Here's a good test of whether or not you've rehearsed enough. Do you know the exact sentence, word for word, or the last thing you will say word for word before moving to your next slide. You have to be that ready. In fact, those transition statements are very important. Too many people don't plan that, and it's actually a bit of a dead space in most people's presentations when they're switching slides. The only way to get there is rehearsing for hours, probably rehearsing a topic you're a master of, which is very different than rehearsing a topic that you're not. You don't have mastery of. If you rehearse, and you're a master, that will allow you to know your behaviors, and then you'll begin to be able to truly focus on the audience when you're speaking.

A (8:13)

And to Mark's point, those transition sentences are the most important. So know your first sentence, memorize your first sentence, make it dramatic, but not over the top. Don't talk about yourself. Rather talk about what the audience is going to learn. And know your last dramatic line. The thing right before you say thank you, memorize those things.

B (8:37)

Yeah. Even if you have a great topic you've mastered, if you're not willing to rehearse or just don't have, or you won't make the time to rehearse because it's pretty clear other people do that, we'll still tell you. Say no again. It's not the opportunity that matters. Don't listen to your ego. It's the outcome that matters for the audience. When the audience ranks you highly, you'll get asked back. If they don't, you won't.

A (9:09)

Now folks, if you don't have a lot of opportunities maybe to speak those, those don't come up in your day to day, generally at work, what have you, you don't have somebody at home that you could practice your presentations with, for example. Although I will say I practiced with a cat for a lot of years and it worked pretty well. But whatever, you know, if you need more than that, we would recommend that you join Toastmasters. We have for years and years now advocated for the use of Toastmasters. They are one of the best professional organizations we have ever known. They're friendly, they're knowledgeable. You're going to get tons of practice in a very supportive environment. Some of the people that are at Toastmasters have literally, this is their first presentation ever. In fact, there are a lot of folks that go to Toastmasters who are new to the country and they don't know English well. So their English is a second language. And so we assure you, you will be among a safe, trusted audience while you're there.

B (10:11)

There's no hazing.

A (10:12)

Yeah, no hazing.

B (10:13)

There's no negative feedback.

A (10:15)

Not at all. There are many, many chapters right near you because they're everywhere. So yeah, it's just a really easy way to get a ton of practice and a really supportive environment. Toastmasters.

B (10:27)

Yeah, good. Next item, Communicate. Now, if you'll notice, all the other items just had a single word. This one says communicate like a professional in advance. I should have just left it as Communicate when I was writing it. But in any event, be a professional communicator with the organizing team from the moment you're asked and accept until well after your event. Please respond quickly to all requests, whether it's your bio or your deck or your travel plans or your headshot or your title or your LinkedIn profile. Respond in less than 24 hours. There are plenty of great speakers who don't get asked back because they activist as if the process is all about them, rather than the organizer and ultimately the audience, they come across as arrogant. And if given a choice between somebody who's going to be very good and somebody who's going to be great but who is hard to manage, manage organizers will just choose the person that will be very good.

A (11:31)

Oh, absolutely. That's absolutely it. So folks, what this means is create a folder somewhere that includes your bio and your headshot and your hip pocket presentations. Once you agree to speak, review all of these things for currency and accuracy. And before you're even asked by the organizer, after they've, they've asked you to speak and you've said yes, assume they're definitely going to want your headshot in your bio. Just send them immediately, proactively send them to them. You'll get more invites from that organizer in the future and that organizer will probably recommend you to other event organizers, if for no other reason than you're a total professional to work with. You're easy to work with. It's not like we're having to drag information out of you and wait for weeks and put up our website incomplete because we're still waiting on things from you. And it's just, it's, it makes the life of everyone else easier. And these are knowns, they're gonna ask for that information, have it ready.

B (12:31)

You're not that good and they're not that dumb is what it boils down to. When I get asked to speak, I do all this stuff immediately because we organize an event, our M conference, which I think Sarah, you mentioned at the top of the show and we're still amazed. We actually had a presenter of this last EM conference that ghosted us for two months and we've told people he canceled, but actually we canceled him because we couldn't be sure he was going to show up.

A (12:58)

Yeah, we did get a hold of him, but we couldn't be sure he was going to show after all that.

B (13:01)

Right? And they swan in and they act like it's no big deal and I'm here and I'm going to be awesome. And it's arrogant and it's stupid, it's unprofessional, it's rude. Don't do it. Look, let the organizer know when you get to your hotel the night before, obviously, hopefully the event hotel, seek out someone on the organizing team and tell them you're there. Let them know when you come down the next morning, say for breakfast or when you get into the presenting room. Make sure they know you're there, even if it's six hours before you're supposed to present, let them know that you're there. Okay? They're worried. Believe me, they're worried about this stuff.

A (13:40)

Yeah, that's the thing. If it's not in their local area, I mean, I think we even have had in the past people who are local to our event. I think it was in Chicago at that point who something happened in traffic might not make it because that's how close we were cutting the delivery of the presentation. And just. Yeah, they know where you are or where you're not. Kickstart your career with proven tools and expert guidance. Exclusively for licensees. Get full access to our resume, workbook and a suite of career resources when you become a Career Tools, Manager Tools or Executive Tools licensee. Learn more today by visiting us at manager-tools.com licenses podiums is the next piece of the next item, I should say, on our checklist Hot button topic. Here we go. Find out in advance whether or not there's going to be a podium. We do not recommend if there is going to be a podium that you use that podium.

B (14:43)

Do not.

A (14:43)

Do not. Exactly. If you can, ask for it to be removed for your talk.

B (14:50)

Actually, we should say that differently. I should have written that differently. Ask if it can be removed. If they tell you there is one. Okay. There's no question about whether or not you can ask. You can ask. They may tell you no. But please, if there's a podium asking, ask that it be removed. If they say, I'm sorry, we don't have the resources that say, that's fine, but I won't be using it.

A (15:10)

Yeah, exactly. Sometimes they'll remove it, sometimes they won't remove it. But yes, regardless, do not use it.

B (15:15)

If you need a podium to put your notes on, you are not fully prepared and rehearsed. If you've written a speech, you're doing this wrong. This is not a speech, it's a presentation. I've written speeches for many famous people. US presidents, congressmen, senators, CEOs, and so on. Speechwriting is a very different kettle of fish, and organizers do not pay for people to give speeches, especially when there's no teleprompter or even more, you're flipping pages or you get out of order and you can't present without your speech. You have not been asked for a speech, you've been asked for a presentation. And if you need the crutch of written comments, you're not ready.

A (16:02)

Exactly. What we would also say is if the size of the audience is small enough, like less than a hundred. And there's a stage. You can and should get off that stage, out from behind the podium itself, walk out into the audience if at all possible. Keep in mind we do have a little bit later, some guidance on microphones and video, which could get in the way of this. But yeah, the. The closer you can get to the audience, the more a part of the group you can be, the more interactive it'll, the better your presentation will generally go.

B (16:35)

Yeah. Good. That brings us to microphones. Our next item on the agenda. Please use a Lavalier microphone if at all possible. That's the one you clip to your shirt or your blouse. Right here. They run a cord down through the back and they put the little battery pack in the back. They have it on mute. You'll probably have to go and talk to the video, the audio people 20 minutes before. We'll talk about that later. They may not think they can get one, but usually they can through their AV provider, ask them to do so. By the way, hotels rarely have today used to be they did, but it got too expensive. They rarely have AV departments of their own, so they farm that out. You probably won't get to talk to the AV company before the event, but your organizer will ask for a lav mic. It may cost a little bit more, but they'll probably, probably be willing to do it for you.

A (17:31)

Exactly. And folks, this is important enough that if they say everyone's speaking from the podium, therefore the microphone will just be tacked on to the top of the podium. It's. It's solid in that manner, you may want to consider not speaking at all. A truly good presenter does not want to hide behind or be anchored to a podium or a specific spot in space. It severely limits your ability to make gestures, to emphasize your points, to draw images in the air, or physically move and add energy to your talk. And one of the things that we often talk about when we're, when we're talking about delivery is remember, they're all sitting still watching you. They have what amounts to zero energy.

B (18:16)

And it declines from the beginning of your speech till the end.

A (18:19)

Yeah. So you have to bring all the energy so you want to move. You want to be able to move around and move your arms and bring more energy to that talk. Having to stick behind a podium is going to severely limit that. If you have to stick behind it to talk on your microphone, believe us when we tell you your audience will be tired of sitting and you're going to be the primary source of energy in the room. Podiums are going to suck that out of the, the energy out of your speech.

B (18:47)

Yeah. You don't want anything between you and the audience. Also, the reason we suggested a lav mic is you don't want to have to hold a microphone while you speak if it's your only choice. And again, it probably isn't, although they may at first say it is. Unless you ask for a lav mic.

A (19:05)

I think sometimes Mark handhelds are more affordable to rent. They are than lavs. So that would be why they would be telling you that generally.

B (19:14)

Yeah, exactly. But you can still ask for it.

A (19:17)

Yeah.

B (19:17)

If you can't get a lav mic, we still recommend you use a handheld mic, but it will affect your ability to gesture. Again, if you start gesturing with your, the, with the hand that's holding your microphone. By the way, as a general rule, if you're right handed, hold the microphone with your left hand. But if you start gesturing with your non dominant hand, the one holding the microphone, and you pull the microphone away from your face, those microphones do not pick up your speech well two feet away from your head. And that's why a lav mic really, really works well if there is no other option, practice while holding a microphone. Ideally use your phone as the microphone, use another phone as the video capture source and see how the audio sounds as you inevitably move your phone that you're holding as the microphone around because you forgot you need it for everyone to hear you.

A (20:18)

Yeah. It is actually quite complex, I've found, given that I'm somebody that presents all the time without a microphone. At the recent AM conference we had, we only had two lav mics. That's all that the AV group had brought on site and two handhelds. So for our last speech there were four of us on stage and I had to use a handheld. I was just fumbling with it, I had to hold it. What am I supposed to do with this? Between statements that I'm making, it's really kind of awkward. So you do really want to practice with it. I mean, how close or far away should it be to my mouth? It's really not the easiest thing to use a handheld microphone, by the way.

B (20:56)

Sarah mentioned they only had two lav mics. Keep in mind, that's probably all that they think they need. We don't need a lav mic for everyone. You're not going to be mic'd up at 7am when you walk in for breakfast. If you're talking at 2 with your mic off all day, you're going to have to go when the previous person finishes talking and you're going to have to go get mic'd up by the AV person. That's why there's usually a break in between, so they can save in part on lav mic rentals and you can get mic'd up with the mic of the person who presented before the person who presented right before you. Next item is timers. Don't assume there will be a clock or a timer or someone in the back giving you updates, often on a poster board held up by one of the people on the organizing staff. You can ask about this, but be prepared for it not working. And in fact, it's even better to choose your own timer and whatever you're using in your rehearsals and then use that. Remember, it'll be far away from you. Use that when you're actually presenting to supplement whatever they are doing as well.

A (22:10)

Yeah. And folks, we recommend, I mean, an easy solution. Use your iPad, buy a clock app. The one we recommend is called Clocks. Surprisingly, the the iPhone iPad clock app doesn't have its own analog function that you're going to be able to see easily from a distance. So you do need a second app on your device to make this work. We recommend using the analog clock with a moving second hand because that moving second hand will keep your iPad's screen from going to sleep. Pro tip.

B (22:44)

Yes.

A (22:45)

Just in case there is no place to plug in your iPad, make sure you bring an ancillary battery to keep it charged for your entire presentation. In addition, make sure you have turned off WI Fi, put it in airplane mode. You want to avoid having alerts come up that are going to obscure the clock face or that are going to change it in some way or cause your attention to be drawn to it. And that's what happens. I mean, our brains are trained to look when there's an alert. And you don't want to constantly be looking at your alerts. Yeah, you're using it as a device to help.

B (23:19)

Yeah. We do know people who use digital countdown timers. In other words, they're given 60 minutes and they start and it's clicks down to 59, 59 and then so on down the line. This works. But sometimes if it's not counting down and it's digital rather than analog, it requires you to do math in your head to figure out how much time you have left. That takes a brief clock second. It takes you away from yourself and what you're doing. It takes you away from your topic, which you're Supposed to be mastery of mastered, already have mastered. And it takes you away from thinking about the audience. That's mental energy not spent on the audience and your topic and yourself.

A (24:04)

Now, folks, I would say many of the events are not going to have countdown clocks because they are quite expensive. They're usually coming from the AV team. It's usually about $400 a day to rent one of those countdown timers. And you have to rely on the human error of the AV person setting it and resetting it every time, so it's unlikely to be there for you. Make sure you bring your own clock and have practiced using it, so you could theoretically keep time yourself. And of course, you have to be prepared. You know exactly when and where you should be in your presentation at the end of each slide. That does not mean that you should use the timing function on your presentation software like PowerPoint or Keynote or whatever you're using. Presentations are fluid. You're going to get questions hopefully throughout your presentation. Don't be having your slides automatically advance because you've practiced it so many times. You know it's going to be 7 minutes and 32 seconds between slide advances. Because if you get a question now, it's all out of whack.

B (25:08)

Yeah. Now what I do, I actually tell the organizers, I don't need anyone in the back telling me how much time I have because I've got a clock right here. It's on my iPad. I can see it. I know. In fact, I'll probably say if I've gotten some questions and I have 10 minutes of content and only five minutes left, I'll say, hey, guys, I got five minutes. I want to finish on time. And organizers and audiences love that. They don't want you having not prepared well enough that you end up saying, hey, look, guys, I'm going to run five minutes long. I've just got to finish this last slide. You can't do that. You have to master your topic through rehearsal so well that you can speed up and you can get through things. If in fact questions or a technical glitch or an interruption or who knows what, at any time, anything could happen and take you off topic or stop the presentation for two or three minutes at a time. You just never know.

A (26:07)

Earthquake. These things have happened, folks. We wouldn't be the first one.

B (26:12)

I presented in New Jersey. This is, gosh, it must have been 15 years ago because Mike was there and I was presenting on the second floor. I had about 50 people in a public conference near Newark Airport. I am in the middle of flow, there were several rows. I'm in the middle aisle, halfway back, I know exactly where I'm supposed to be. I'm presenting something I presented a thousand times. I've certainly mastered the topic. I've rehearsed it a thousand times. And I am looking in their faces, making sure they're staying with me, looking for questioning glances, making sure the note, they seem to be taking notes, and so on, meaning that I'm making relevant points that are valid to them. And all of a sudden, as I'm talking, it totally in flow, know exactly what I'm going to say next. And after that, and. And after that, every face in the room shows a look in their eyes that is completely disconnected from me, utterly just gone. Like how when you're talking to somebody face to face and their phone buzzes and you can see them, their eyes, their pupils dilate differently and all of a sudden they're reaching for their phone. And I thought, what have I done? I thought my zipper was down or something. I was like, wow, I just lost this audience in like a second. And I hadn't felt it because I was moving around, but they felt the beginning of the earthquake and I started to say, hey, where did everybody go? And then I felt the second bit of the earthquake. And then we had to file out of the room in an orderly fashion because we were on the second floor and go outside. By the way, in that particular case, we gathered underneath the tree in the parking lot and I continued to present because I didn't know how to long the earthquake outage was going to last.

A (27:58)

Thanks, folks. Join us again next week as we continue this topic. Now help us help others and tell your friends. And of course, follow rate and review our podcast. And remember, five stars only. Please.