Your best just got better: How did you learn to present?

Since I started presenting to groups in 1994, I have tried many different ways to gain, practice and acquire the skills necessary to lead a group of any size, and any level, toward a new destination. Notice, I did not say that it is my job to get anyone there, I just show the path – demonstrate the “how” involved in getting from where you are to where you want to be.

I learned everything that I know from others.

I will not say that what I do, or how I do it, is natural. From early childhood, I remember being terribly, horribly shy; to the point of feeling nauseated by the thought of sitting on my desk in 7th grade participating in the classroom spelling bee!

As a youngster, I had increasing opportunities to practice getting in front of, and talking to, people. Today, I get up in front of groups one to three times each week. I work in cities throughout the US, and present internationally. How do I do it? Here are some of the things that have helped me:

Join the National Speaker’s Association: I had heard about this organization over the years from various clients. I had always put it off, and then, finally I joined. Since joining, I’ve already made connections and learned enough to justify the investment plus annual membership. I highly recommend the Speaker magazine as well.

Join Toastmasters: I first found out about Toastmasters from a colleague. I loved the early morning breakfast meetings, listening to people give their very short presentations, and hearing feedback and ideas on how to be more effective. Click on the Tips and Tricks link over here and you will find a couple of neat articles.
And, here’s a link to the International Organization website http://www.toastmasters.org/

Take a ______ course (communications, acting, etc): While I studied at City College, I took several short (weekend/half-semester) communications courses. I tried anything from writing to keyboarding to speaking; these classes gave me several tools to communicate clearly and more efficiently. One day, I will take an acting or improv class.

Join a club: It does not have to be a speaking club; anything where you surround yourself with other like people. When you are around people who like what you do, you get comfortable talking. Out on the speaking circuit, we talk to people interested in what we have to offer. The sooner we can pretend we are just talking to a bunch of our peers, the better. One of my teachers actually suggested that when I present a seminar, I imagine we are all hangin’ out in my living room and I am just telling stories about what I know.

Serve on a committee: I have learned SO much by working around other people. I will join a club (see above) and even serve on the board. (I am past-president of the Rincon Racing Club.) In these situations, again, we get to practice the leadership and speaking skills we use professionally.

Volunteer at an event: As a student at universities in Santa Barbara, San Diego and Berkeley, I spent a lot of time volunteering. Donating what time, energy and resources I could was just another way of getting involved and putting me in a position to work with and around others. I remember volunteering at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation in the months following 9/11. We were working through the night, taking calls from concerned east coast residents. (It was quite something to take a call at 11pm our time – 2am eastern – and listen to someone share a story of a loved one involved in the event.)

Work in sales: I grew up selling; my dad was a retail executive, my mom owned a restaurant. I remember always being around people, sharing something I valued for something they valued. Whether I was selling product at The Sharper Image, or recommending a side dish at Le Printemps restaurant, I realized ways to encourage – using just my voice in come cases – people to buy or try something new. (I found a great perspective on this in Dee Hock’s book The Birth of the Chaordic Age. As the founder of VISA International, the driving thesis that encouraged growth of that organization was the concept of exchanging value.)

http://www.chaordic.org/learn/res_choasgood.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1576750744/qid=1119012699/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-8345818-0170208?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
http://www.chaordic.org/who_hock2.html

Work in telemarketing: Yes, I am very serious about this one. Volunteering for political campaigns, and even cold calling to sell products and services, I have learned a lot about human behavior and effective presenting strategies using the phone. On the phone, I figured I had 30 words or less on the initial pick-up to make something happen. (When it comes down to that level, you get real careful with the extraneous ums, uhs, and how are yous?!)

Teach a class: This should be obvious; but, what sometimes slips out of focus is that it is very easy to share new information with a group of friends or even a local not-for-profit organization. Any exposure, in a safe and fun environment, is good for practice. When I travel, I contact local organizations – schools, churches, non-profits, YMCA’s etc. – to see if they would like a free 30-45 minute presentation while I am in town. I do this as much for me as for them. They get an outside guy for an evening; I get the experience of being in front of another group.

Write an article: I started writing articles back in 2000. The first four were published within 9 weeks of my starting. The rush was huge, and since then I regularly submit articles and article ideas to editors of newspapers, journals and magazines. The feeling of publication is still just as strong – seeing my name and byline atop an article is exciting and inspiring. The very interesting thing – at least for me – is that I don’t always write about what I do and know professionally. Recently, I wrote an article on how parents and teens can communicate – more effectively and lovingly – with one another about the homework question…(You know, you see the kid at dinner and you ask, “So, do you have any homework?” How often has that question led to upset, yelling, or – even worse – further frustration and distance in the relationship?)

Set up and contribute to a web log: Knowing there is someone (even a friend or family member) interested in what I am writing makes me want to get out there and write some more. Not always long, not always meaningful, this one of those exercises in consistency.

Video tape the presentation: In the beginning, about $300 bucks got me a high8 camcorder and tripod. I set this up in my living room, and recorded myself speaking 45-90 minutes at a time. Later on, I started putting the camera up in my classroom (teaching 9th-12th grades). A few tips here: (1) I was the only one who got to watch the video. I know what is on and off, and the video really played it out for me to see. (2) Watch the last half of the recording. The first half will be decent, you will know you are on camera. After 30 minutes or so, you get into a rhythm, and whatever is natural shows up – for better or for worse. (3) Save these videos. I love watching the videos of me 10 years ago, they are great! I am fresh, young(er), excited…and, I can really tell that things have changed. (4) Only when you have something you are comfortable sharing, bring someone else into the screening. Let them watch you, and press pause every 5 minutes or so. Resist the temptation to press pause each time you see something good or bad. Instead, go for a predetermined amount of time, and then offer feedback that was general over what you saw.

Audio record the presentation: Not quite the same as video, but it is easier to replay. Now-a-days, I travel with an iPod and I use the voice recorder. I record myself at least once a week, and listen to it within 48 hours. I do not save very much of it, there is just too much. Every now and then however, I find something that is good and offload that to my hard drive. Also, if you ever meet or have a client who wants to hear some of what you talk about, it is quite easy to splice and save and send this off over the Internet. Many speakers even have short pieces available for instant download from their website.

Read a book: The best way to do this is to ask around. What are other presenters in your field reading/recommending? Find out what is hot, and what is not. There will be books that they recommend. I remember doing this, I not only got the new releases that were good, I ask most people for the one book that stands out in their mind the most as having something to do with their development, learning, and training. I have been surprised by what I read, and have enjoyed expanding my horizons through other recommendations others have made.

Read an article: I often ask my Human Resources contacts for a recommendation here. I request they send me something internal – describing the current climate of the organization, or something external – such as a link to a web page about the department or division I am going to work for. I have had people send me both digital and hard copies of magazine and journal articles. One even photocopied the chapter of a book one of the executives had written – this gave me a good sense of the culture and expectations before I arrived.

Subscribe to a magazine: Trade journals – T&D, Professional Speaker, and Business Traveler – are wonderful sources of ideas and suggestions. The thing I like about magazines is they arrive monthly, I read them when I have time, and I only commit to reading at least one (and sometimes only one) article in the whole issue. If I spend $100 and get one idea per month, that year-long subscription was worth it!

Take a class: Take a class in your area of interest. Our local junior college offers weekend courses in business and project management. As a consultant and presenter, I often sign up for these classes – for several reasons. (1) There is always something I can learn, some new-to-me technique or strategy. Often, I will learn not about or from the presentation, but from the presenter as well. I have changed the way I do many things based on observing others. From what I wear, to how I set up the front table, to the first few hundred words I say when I start the presentation.

Attend a seminar or workshop: A weekend seminar is a great way to expand ideas and horizons. Conferences where you attend multiple sessions, presented by different people, each day are great learning grounds. You can repeatedly observe the things that work, and the things that do not. Take notes, observe, meet people, go out of your way to pick up something you can use in your next presentation.

Watch a terrible presenter: This might not be nice, but we have to acknowledge that there are some brilliant people out there who cannot present. My own experience in this comes from college courses, local community evening presentations, and watching former high school teacher colleagues. To see someone who obviously knows their topic, and can write (or be edited) beautifully get in front and not hold an audience is more than disappointing, sometimes it is painful. Of course, someone new, just starting his or her career receives the benefit of the doubt. Someone who continues to stand up and not look for ways to grow, learn, expand, and evolve – well, I want to watch them. There is bound to be something I will take away.

Work with a group: How many of us remember managing a group project in some course or class we took in college? I know as a student that I dreaded the group project. Not because I did not want to work with people – I love that! It was known in the circle I studied in (medieval Spanish literature and US Environmental History) that I would do all the work to get the learning, the experience and – I admit – the A grade. What I have learned in the past several years is less about how to do more on my own, and more about how to get the group isolated in task completion and continually move forward together toward something greater than just one person could complete.

Work by yourself: On the flip side, there is something to be said for working on things solo. Try simply picking something that is just outside your current area of expertise. Create a project to complete – write an article, design a portfolio, write a presentation – on that topic and then move forward. Sometimes I do this and do not tell anyone what I am doing until I have the presentation ready to go. Then, whether it is to my friends or family, or a group out there in the real world, I deliver the presentation. The goal is to learn something so well that I can present it. The practical application of this is easy to see: Make it easy to add new information to your repertoire and you become more valuable to your organization or your clients.

Write a speech: Most people talk around 120-words a minute (JFK was one of our fastest talking presidents – clocking somewhere in the 150-words-per-minute range!). So, a 5 minute speech will take up about 600 words. Some seminars I deliver are multi-day events. So, I have a few canned speeches for the return from lunch the first day, the second morning, and the second lunch. I do not always use them, nor do I use the same ones each time. The participants rarely know (at least they do not tell me) that what I did was a speech, but inside my mind I am creating short pieces that I can splice together if and when necessary. A great one to start with is to take one of the most common questions you receive in your presentation and answer it using this process: 1-Restate the problem as a question; 2-Tell when you personally saw a (hurtful, important, amazing, emotional, etc) example of the problem in action; 3-Describe how you solved that problem using something that you have already presented in the seminar or workshop; 4-Loop back to the original question and state emphatically that that is one way to move through the process.

Practice, practice, practice: Obvious. As Nike says, Just Do It.

Set a goal: As a professional speaker and an employee for a larger organization, I do not have many of the outside extrinsic goals some people can create. Lately, I’ve started each morning identifying one thing I want to look for, find, and learn from during the presentation. For example: I identify the types of questions I’m looking forward to hearing, as well how professionally I can answer that question. I want to demonstrate my expertise and knowledge base quickly, effectively, and to the point for my clients. Then, at the end of the seminar, I review the journal entry from that morning and write down what worked (and, of course, what I would change the next time).

Present a team presentation: For a couple of years in the later 90’s, I worked with a colleague to prepare and present seminars to graduate students of education. We presented at UCSB, Northridge, Pepperdine, even brining our presentation to the State level by presenting at annual conferences. This was a great experience; not only did the two of us co-create the presentation and materials, we presented the workshop together. We learned when to step in, when to back out, when to interrupt (without it looking like we were interrupting each other). The slighter nuances of presenting were really quite something. If you can, find a partner, and even if it is just for a local evening meeting, get a team presentation together – it will be worth it!

Attend a networking event: Local chambers of commerce often have morning meetings, or evening social hours. If you go to a conference or series of workshops, attend the extra evening events. Yes you will be tired, but so will everyone else! And, remember, you are probably not looking for a new job when you go to one of these; you are going to see how other people present, persuade and engage in conversation. You will most likely walk away with one or two things to try.

Update your resume: You probably will not send it out anytime soon, but the updating is great to remind you of how far you have come. Take the opportunity to acknowledge all you do, and all you have done to get to where you are. Often, life, work, hobbies and relationships come at us so quickly we forget to take the time we need to see the bigger picture.