That’s what I kept forgetting as I moped through the Fort Lauderdale airport yesterday. Thanks to inflight wifi, I bring you my story from a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, on my way home from a three-city keynote tour for a new financial services client (they’ve grown 30% per year for the last few and are investing in their people’s communication skills).

The Orlando keynote was great, but then came Fort Lauderdale. True to form, I showed up at the venue early to find the room and set up my equipment. Despite testing it all, this keynote was a technical disaster. Their computer froze, and so did my slides. Had to do the last 25% without my planned visuals and videos. While I rolled with it, the presentation didn’t end the way I planned, and I left totally discouraged (didn’t show it, of course).

Here’s the funny thing: I got a call from my client today, and they loved it. They knew something had gone wrong technically, but were very impressed and pleased at how I moved on with the show. In fact, they’re using my model as a way to teach their people what to do when things go wrong. Surprised doesn’t really cut it.

Goes to show, the audience only knows what you give them. I speak all the time, but I still got stuck in my own head and forgot this rule. Sure, I was disappointed they didn’t see my planned ending, but the audience had no idea what they missed. As far as they were concerned, it ended just as it should have. Same goes for your audience.

So here’s what to do to prevent technical mayhem, and roll with it if it happens:

1. Test it all!

• Get to your presentation site early and test the equipment (even if it’s a conference room you’re in all the time). Whether it’s your laptop or their computer, test everything: audio, visual, and videos. Turn the projector on and off. Make sure there’s ample power supply.
• Make an IT best friend immediately upon showing up at the site, and get his or her phone number. If there’s a problem, you can call and get it fixed, while you keep going with the presentation.

2. Bring backup.

• Have your slide deck on a separate flash drive. That way, you can easily move over to a different computer if needed. If you can have a backup laptop ready to go, even better.
• If this is a high stakes presentation, you should be prepared to present without slides. Be sure to do a run through without your slide deck so you’re not relying on it.

3. Keep calm and carry on.

• If the tech freezes and you know there’s no going back, roll with it. Stay (or at least appear) calm. Subtly turn off the projector and continue on, never again referencing slides or apologizing for what would have been.
• Steve Jobs had a pretty infamous tech disaster when demonstrating the features of iPhone 4, but he made it through by staying professional, humorous, and moving on.

4. Deliver strong, no excuses.

• Remember and keep repeating to yourself: The audience only gets what you give them. Deliver the strong presentation they came to see regardless of what happens technically.
• Make sure to have notes (we recommend the Decker Grid) so you’re not relying on your slides to guide you along. Your slides should be extra support to help make your points, but YOU are the presentation, not your PowerPoint.

Beginning our descent in to San Francisco — look forward to you sharing your experiences with technical difficulties and any tips you’ve picked up along the way.

Last week I coached two executives, neither of whom had used video feedback before.  In both of these sessions, we addressed the need to “get out of the weeds.”  Most often, when we’re in the weeds, we don’t realize it.  Having an outside perspective (such as coaching and video feedback) is important for this very reason.  When we are passionate and invested in a message, it’s our natural tendency to share as much as we can in as much detail as we can.  The material is so important, so brilliant and so valuable that we inadvertently create information overload in our fervor.

When you present your communications experience, are you in the weeds?  Consider these indicators:

• The verbal content of your message is cluttered with verbosity, technical jargon, industry lingo, and too much detail.
• The visuals presented are overkill (too many slides, too much text, little or no graphics).
• Your presentation lacks stories, anecdotes, and humor.
• Your intensity for the material blinds you from the need to connect with and engage your audience.

The answer?  Focus on two things and two things only.

1. Your point of view:  What is the core message you want to convey?
2. Your audience:  What’s in it for them?  What are they looking for in your message?  How can you focus on the aspects of your message that they’ll care about?
   

Simplify your material.  Divorce the details that excite you but alienate your listeners.  Become a master of exclusion and a facilitator of a memorable message.  Take “you” out of the message.  Focus on your listeners, learn them and create an experience that leaves an impact on them.

Want to connect your message with your audience?  Get out your weed whacker!

Photo credit: gracieshoots

“It’s not you…it’s me.”

Relationship wise, maybe you’ve been the receiver of that message, or in George Constanza’s case, you invented it. One of my favorite Seinfeld moments below:

We’ve ALL actually been there – in fact, in our business communications, we’re guilty of being on the sender side. And it’s one of the single biggest problems with communications.

When we present (in a meeting, conference call or formal presentation) we think it is about us, and not about them. It’s not as if we consciously try to focus on me, me, me, but it sure comes off that way. It rears its ugly head in many ways. Maybe you’ve got a start-up, or a new product, or you’re trying to convince your exec team to pursue your initiative. You use those opportunities to prove yourself. In the words of Stuart Smalley, “You’re good enough. You’re smart enough. And gosh darn it, people like you.” So there you are with YOUR agenda in mind, why YOU think it’s great, and what it will do for YOU. And you’ve got a presentation that has nothing to do with listener.

A recent HarvardBusiness.org article on framing notes, “Individuals tend to focus on their own particular needs and on matters relating to their specific areas of expertise. In so doing, they may lose sight of the details that matter for the project they are currently working on.” In other words, you’re just too focused on you to worry about them.

Last Saturday I failed miserably doing this with my four-year-old. He came into my room to hang out as I was getting ready for a busy day with the kids. (Let me just take a moment to say that I really value my very rare alone time – those 20 minutes in the morning is one of those few calm, zen-like moments that I have all to myself.) I’m therefore none too happy with the intrusion, and say, “I REALLY want to finish getting ready alone right now, please go wait in the family room.” If I’m him, I’m thinking “That’s nice. What’s in it for me?” I shoulda coulda woulda said, “If you wait in the family room, I can get ready much more quickly so that we can go to the park sooner.” Same thing goes for your next pitch.

Focus on your listener. Now, really focus. Listeners are the centerpiece of our Decker Grid system – whether it’s 1, 15, 54 or 322 people to whom you’re speaking. Before you come up with the big “So what?” of your message, you should do a careful analysis of your listener. Ask a few questions:

1. Who are they? Why are they here?
2. How do they feel about you or your subject?
3. How will they support or challenge your idea?
4. Are they data or business (initiative) driven?
5. What’s in it for them (not just as a team or corporation, but individually as well)?

Once you’ve answered these questions, come up with the top three adjectives that describe your listener – things like: resistant, open, hostile, skeptical, friendly, budget-conscious, etc. Now you can think about the big picture, and the approach that you’ll use to move that specific listener from information to influence.

When it comes to communications, remember, “It’s you, it’s not me.”

BTW, Duarte Design does a great audience mapping exercise as part of their work as well – because they get it! It’s mentioned in their blog here.

What was exciting was that these were not just pedantic slide shows, but were visual and arresting. If only one of the entries had a "black slide" or an explanation of what went along with the visual support – they would have had me applauding! Most of us are still missing the point in what makes an arresting presentation -  it’s not the PowerPoint but the People.

We judged them on design, impact and message (or at least I did.) Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds and Jerry Weisman were the other judges – and I think we pretty much agreed on the best of over 400 entries.

What I was delighted in was the originality and visual quality of almost all of the entries. And next I hope we can figure out a way to have videos of the actual presentations – then we will have a "Presentation Contest" worthy of the name. But this is a great start.

Winners (chosen by judges)

1. ShiftHappens by Jbrenman

2. Meet Henry by Chereemoore
3. Sustainable Food Lab by Chrislandry

People’s Choice Winners

1. PaniPuri–An Introduction by Thakkar

2. ShiftHappens by Jbrenman
3. Meet Henry by Chereeemoore