What's Your Message

by Cam Barber

  When I first attempted to speak with ‘no effort’ it just didn’t feel right. I assumed the audience would think I didn’t care about what I was saying. I kept falling back into my long-standing rhythm of FULL VOLUME ALL THE TIME. The breakthrough was learning to whisper on stage. My teacher said, ‘From now on, every time you make an important point you must whisper it.’

  Now, it’s not as quiet as a real whisper, but it does take me from a volume level of 9-out-of-10, down to 4-out-of-10. This technique gave me an awareness of vocal variation, which I’ve been able to refine over time. When I think back to how much I used to exhaust myself during a speech, it’s mind blowing. I found I didn’t need to tense every muscle when speaking, as I attempted to reach 200% effort. As Jedi Master Yoda famously said to Luke Skywalker, “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

  The whisper technique

  The whisper technique has worked for many of my clients as well. For example, Jules Lund has a powerful presence, but found vocal variety difficult. On a scale of 1-10 Jules was also at 9 or 10 most of the time. That was ok as a TV presenter on shows like Getaway, where he spoke for 10 seconds and then the camera cut to a beautiful location or an interview with a local. But Jules was about to make a 60 minute presentation at a Radio Conference. An hour of speaking at an intensity of 9-out-of-10 would not only wear Jules’ voice out, it would wear out the audience.

  Once again, the whisper technique proved to be the trigger that helped him to have more control and variety when presenting. If you think this scenario matches your style, give the whisper technique a go.

  The Power of the Pause

  An ‘extrovert-style’ speaker tends to speak loudly. Getting an extrovert style from a volume level of 10 down to a level of 5 using the whisper technique gives great vocal variety. However, what if you’re more of an introvert style and your voice rarely gets above 5-out-of-10? Should you scream to add vocal variety?

  Probably not. The technique for you to master is pausing.

  Pausing has many benefits for both the speaker and the audience. It gives your audience space to process and embed your ideas. And it gives you time to breathe, gather your thoughts and regroup throughout the talk. A pause can set up an important point. Pausing allows a point to stand out and sink in. You just need the ability to shut your mouth for 3 or 4 seconds after you make it!

  The foundation for pausing is also built into the chunk structure. It shows you where to pause - like a trusted friend guiding you through the speech. When you think of a speech in sections, where you introduce and wrap-up each section, you’ll start to pause naturally.

  [c] Emphasis

  Emphasis is similar to variation, but worth looking at separately. Variation is a general principle about varying the energy in the room, whereas emphasis requires the identification of what to emphasise. When you know what you want to emphasise, it will start to happen automatically, so it also flows automatically with your structure and key points. Other methods of achieving emphasis include:

  Wording: Use language to signpost important ideas. For example, hook them with lines like, “You may want to make a note of this…” or “This next point may be of particular interest to you…” or “And this is a crucial point…” Sometimes I just let out a ‘Boom!’ after a killer point.

  Rich words: The ‘insanely great’ Steve Jobs used to drop words like groundbreaking, game-changer, amazing, staggering and insanely great. I remember being enthralled by a speaker who used ‘diabolical’ and ‘preposterous’ in the same sentence. ‘It’s a diabolical problem but the current solution is preposterous…’ We all wanted to hear her solution!

  Chunks: The START and END of anything will capture people’s attention. Even if they’re daydreaming or looking at their phones while you speak, your audience will stop and focus on you when you indicate you are starting or ending a section. This is amazingly powerful. For example, indicate you are STARTING a section by saying; “Now, let’s move on to…” or “Next, lets have a look at…” or even, “Secondly…”, etc.

  Or, demonstrate you’re ENDING a section and they won’t be able to look away! For example. “The key point here is…” or “Just to wrap up…” or “In summary…” or “So, what does that mean to you?…”, etc.

  Great explanations give you effortless delivery skills

  Have you noticed that none of these techniques requires a particular style? They are optional and flexible. They adapt to your style. They don’t paint you into a corner by requiring specific body language. They simply help bring your information to life.

  Giving great explanations will boost your delivery skills with very little effort. And help both you and your audience enjoy the experience!

  VISUAL EXPLANATIONS - LEVERAGING SLIDES AND VISUAL SUPPORT

  Before we discuss slides, PowerPoint and presentation software, let’s take a moment to look at visual support from a broader perspective. Your goal with visual support is to make your information easier to follow and easier to remember - or to bring an idea to life.

  When I speak to a small group sitting at a table, I usually have a yellow notepad and a pen. I write key words and I scribble wonky diagrams. Then I flick the page over and do it some more. These scribbles add tremendous visual support to my explanations.

  The equivalent of this is to use a flip-chart or whiteboard during a presentation. The flip chart is a fantastic, yet underused presentation tool. It’s main strength is that the image is created by you as you speak.

  The sliding scale

  Don’t think about PowerPoint first, think about visual devices that will help people understand your ideas. For example, a great visual device is the ‘sliding scale’ which can be used on a slide, a flip chart or created in the air with your arms. It seems that many people see the world in black and white. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Are you a democrat or a republican? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you suffer from public speaking anxiety or not? What’s more important, body language or words?

  An accurate answer is often, ‘It depends…’. The simple sliding scale can help break people’s thinking out of rigid and unhelpful limitations. So, what is a sliding scale? It’s just a line showing extremes.

  One extreme-------------------------Other extreme

  This simple diagram can help people open their mind and see an issue from a different perspective. For example:

  Extrovert---------------------------Introvert

  Some people are extreme extroverts or introverts, while others are closer to the middle of the scale.

  The sliding scale also gives you a visual reference to answer questions. For example, I’m often asked whether some people are ‘hopeless cases’ and will never be good speakers, no matter how much training they receive. I always use the sliding scale to answer that question.

  Terrible--------------------------------Amazing

  I point out that even if they’re terrible now, message and structure will move them along the line, closer to amazing. They may never be totally amazing, but clear and memorable is so much better than ‘terrible’.

  Terrible----->------->------Clear--------------Amazing

  Two-by-two grid

  A two-by-two grid is an example of a visual model to convey ideas. For example, when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 they were 30 days from bankruptcy. He refocused the company with a simple quadrant scribbled on a whiteboard.

  At the time, Apple was producing a dozen different versions of the Macintosh. After a few weeks attending product review sessions, Jobs had had enough. Producing such a large number of options was not only scattering their limited resources, he realised it was a communication problem. Jobs asked his team, “Why would I recommend a 3400 model over a 4400? When should somebody jump up to a 6500 model, but not a 7300? Which Mac should I recommend to my friends?”

  He recognised that if he couldn’t figure it out working inside Apple with all these experts advising him, how were customers going make decisions
? So, during a meeting he stopped the discussion, grabbed a Magic Marker and drew a two-by-two grid. “Here’s what we need,” he declared.

  He labeled the 2 columns, ‘Consumer’ and ‘Pro’. He labeled the rows ‘Desktop’ and ‘Notebook’.

  There would only be 2 categories of Apple computer, desktop and notebook. And each category had 2 varieties: consumer and pro. This visual model focused everyone.

  He told his team to build 4 great products, 1 for each quadrant. All other products were canceled. There was a stunned silence as people digested the enormity of the change. But by getting Apple to focus on making just 4 computers, he saved the company. In 1998 he used the same two-by-two grid on stage to launch Apple’s streamlined offerings to the world.

  Do you even need visual support?

  Of course, you don’t have to use visual support at all (I’ll explore a Jim Collins speech with no visuals in a few pages), but when you do, realise there are many ways to engage people - whether it’s a flip chart, slides or just using your hands to draw a diagram in the air.

  Even though there are many ways to provide visual support, most of the questions I receive are about slides. So, here are 4 principles to help you leverage presentation software.

  Principle 1: Choose your presentation software

  Even though there are many presentation software options, the principles for engaging your audience with visual support are the same whether you use PowerPoint, Apple’s Keynote or Prezi.

  I prefer Keynote at the moment, but my clients use all three. The differences are predominantly in the creation tools. If you think about it, once you’re on stage, the main function of all presentation software is simply to move from one image or slide to the next. So the best presentation software is the one you prefer to use to create your slides.

  The current winner in the hype stakes is Prezi. Some people argue that the zooming nature of Prezi makes it fundamentally different from Keynote and PowerPoint for your audience. But is it fundamentally different? Well, it depends on your goals.

  Prezi and LucidChart

  Prezi is a cloud-based program that doesn’t work on the traditional slide metaphor. The result is considered more dynamic than PowerPoint or Keynote because of its zooming user interface.

  What’s a zooming user interface, you ask?

  Your presentation is laid out on a large virtual canvas, not slides, and you zoom in and out of a particular area in order to see more detail or less detail. Like the way Google Maps lets you zoom into a street, then back out to the view of the city.

  So instead of appearing like a progression of slides, the audience feels like they are zooming in and out of text, images, videos, charts, etc. In fact, Prezi calls it a ‘map’, not slides, and your presentation zooms in and out of your map to show relationships between information.

  Prezi was created by a Hungarian architect who wanted to be able to zoom in on his designs to show the detail of a room, then zoom out to show the bigger picture. So Prezi is great at achieving that visual goal.

  LucidChart.com is another option. It’s great for creating online flowcharts and diagrams and uses the same kind of virtual canvas to lay out elements of a presentation. It has an easy-to-use ‘presentation mode’ that also allows you to zoom in and out of different areas.

  But as I see it, the zooming is just an animation feature. Nothing wrong with that, of course. In fact, I particularly like Prezi to zoom into stage 1 of a flowchart, then zoom out to see all the stages, then back into the detail of stage 2, and so on. And if you like MindMapping, you’ll probably be thrilled with Prezi or LucidChart. They can also add energy and movement to your visuals in the same way zooming TV cameras fly into and away from a contestant on ‘The Voice’ or Who Wants to Be A Millionaire’.

  However, many people think, ‘It’s not PowerPoint, so I’ll avoid the death by PowerPoint syndrome’. Sorry, it’s not that easy. I remember hearing the same hopeful cries 10 years ago when companies employed FLASH animators to put their presentations together. If you haven’t nailed the message and structure, no software tool will save you.

  And remember, you don’t want compliments about your animations – you want people talking about your ideas! Make your decisions around graphics and presentation software based on their ability to illuminate your ideas.

  Principle 2: Change your relationship with the screen

  Winston Smith, the protagonist in George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-four, lived in the world of Big Brother where huge tele-screens delivering government propaganda were in every home, workplace and public space. And they were always on. They couldn’t be turned off, even at home.

  One day Winston has a meeting in the office of an inner party official. As they start their discussion, the party official clicks a button and turns the screen off. Winston is stunned. “You can turn it off?!”he says in wide-eyed amazement. His expression is a cross between a starving man being given food, and a slave being released from his chains.

  What does this have to do with business presentations? Ask yourself, why is that presentation screen behind the speaker always on? Wouldn’t the images have more impact if the screen was blank some of the time?

  The answer is yes. You see, the fundamental problem that leads to ‘death by PowerPoint’ is not the technology, it’s how the presenter uses it. The speaker makes the presentation, and the slides are support.

  Too often presentation software is seen as the master. People even refer to their slide deck or PowerPoint file as ‘the presentation’. Have you seen this before: the speaker stands on a spot next to the screen. Hardly moving. Reading the words. It seems that if the slide didn’t appear, the speaker wouldn’t have a clue what to say.

  The ‘B’ key

  A great way to take control of your presentation software is to use the ‘B’ key on the keyboard, which blacks out the screen. I’m constantly amazed at how few people even know about the ‘B’ key function. Only 10% of business presenters use this blank screen effect.

  Are you wondering how you return to your slides after the screen goes blank? Simply press the B key again. Most remotes have a button for this function. This simple technique improves your presentation in many ways. Here are 7 specific benefits of the B key.

  Benefit 1: It changes the relationship you have with PowerPoint

  Knowing you have the power to blank the screen reduces the chance you’ll use the presentation software as a crutch. The simple act of switching your slides on and off as needed can change your mindset. You choose to have it on – or off.

  Benefit 2: It helps you start thinking more creatively

  Your mindset can completely change, you start to ask yourself great questions like: ‘Do I need a slide here? Will it help my audience understand? Or should I just tell a story?’ You might even move to a whiteboard or flip-chart to write a key word or draw a wonky diagram.

  Benefit 3: You look more impressive

  Most speakers look uncertain about the technology they’re using. When you hit the ‘B’ key and you know that you have control over the technology it changes the entire experience for you and positively impacts your audience’s perception of you.

  Benefit 4: It makes it easier for your audience to digest information

  Blanking the screen helps create structure for the audience. This makes it easier for audiences to focus, compared to one, long unbroken presentation. It also improves the effect of stories and examples - or when you show an object, prop, handout or product. For example, you can use your slides to stay on track and then you blank the screen and say, “Let me tell you a story that illustrates this point”. You finish the story, bring the slides back, and continue.

  Benefit 5: It changes the mood of the room. Dramatically

  The audience gets variation and emphasis, which keeps energy levels up. We fall asleep while the TV is on, but as soon as someone turns it off, you wake up. Each time the screen goes on or off, people are drawn to the stage. The human mind can
’t resist the start or the end of something. It’s fantastic if you want to deliver a critical point.

  Benefit 6: It gives you more flexibility

  When you want to go off topic or step away from planned material, it will help you control the impromptu discussion without distraction. If there are questions, you can blank the screen and focus on their query. When the audience sees you engage thoughtfully with one person, they feel closer to you too.

  Benefit 7: It is the perfect way to end with impact

  Hit the “B” key. Pause. And deliver your message. Boom!

  Principle 3: Design your slides

  Think billboards, not magazine ads

  One way to produce good visuals is to think of them as billboards as opposed to magazine ads. Billboard messages need to be able to be absorbed quickly and easily from a distance as drivers zoom by. As a result, the good ones contain a bare minimum of words, presented in large, easy to read fonts with high contrast. In other words, you glance at billboards while you’re focused on something else, like a presentation.

  Magazine ads, however are read alone. You give your full attention to them. You don’t have someone explaining them to you. The simple principle of slides as billboards can guide your thinking and help you produce effective visual aids.