The Precious First Few Minutes of a Presentation

Audiences will not listen to you just because you’re standing in front
of a room. Did you listen to your English teachers or Social Studies
teachers just because they were there? Of course not. The ones you
listened to were the ones who earned your listening. Adults may
be more politically correct than kids and give you the impression that
they’re listening—but unless you have earned it, they’re tuned out.

How do you “earn their listening”? First, let’s talk about how you
don’t. Just in any conversation, whether with one or one thousand
people, you lose their listening when you start out talking about
yourself
. They don’t care about you. Not yet. You have to earn
that. Begin by entering their world and showing them that you under-
stand them. That you respect them. When people are acknowledged,
they’re all ears.

You lose their listening if you don’t persuade them that they will
benefit from something you have to say. My daughter comes home
every day telling me “school was boring.” I don’t doubt it. Wasn’t it
boring when you went, too?  Her teachers are not enrolling  the kids
in the benefits of learning about fungi or Ancient Rome. You must
convince them that they’ll gain from listening to you–right from the
outset. If you fail at this, you’ve lost them for the rest of the ride.

You lose their listening if you’re not speaking their language. Literally.
Know the industry lingo. But at the same time, do not use your indus-
ry lingo with an audience who’s not in your industry!!! This kind of lack-
of-awareness is epidemic. Do you use words others don’t know to impress
them–or just because you’re not thinking?

You’ll lose their listening really fast if the language isn’t right, either.
 A particular pet peeve of mine is incorrect grammar. I can’t tell you how
many “professional speakers” don’t speak correct English. They lose my
listening the instant they mix up “me” with “I.” As in, “The team went to
the meeting with Roger and myself,” or “He was so much better than me
at selling.” Please read a grammar book if you’re unsure. 

You’ll lose their listening if you don’t tell them why you are up there.
 What are the education and credentials that make you worthy of their
listening? The best method is to tell us a story that explains what brought
you to this spot in front of the room. Perhaps it’s a before and after story;
or a story of an “aha” moment that changed everything. I don’t know any-
one who won’t listen to a good story. Do you really want to wow them?
Then tell them why you’re doing this over any other career/job in
the world. What about this compels you? Gets you up in the morning?
What’s in it for you? Why are you so passionate? When you answer this
for them, not only are they listening, but they’re beginning to see the
value of being in their seats.

And, of course, you lose their listening if you don’t know that.  If you
have no passion for your subject. It will show itself in your monotone
voice, flat facial expressions, slow movements, “ums” and slide-reading.
If the subject you’re speaking about isn’t worth your energy…it certainly
isn’t worth theirs!

I teach my clients and audiences how to “earn their listening”  from the
very first moment they step on stage, and, of course, how to keep
it throughout. There are many more elements to this process that are
subtle and absolutely essential. If you don’t get the results you want
from speaking in public; if you don’t get the reactions and the word of
mouth and the sales, check in to see how you “lost their listening.” Did
you start out talking about yourself? Fail to enroll them in the benefits of
listening to you? Did you speak “below” or “above” their heads? Give data
instead of a story?

Don’t worry. There’s always a next time! 

Today is the LAST DAY you can bring-a-colleague-free to my
2-day public speaking training based on the latest brain research. 
You will learn 2 sequences at this event–and the first is the 7-Point
Introduction: How to earn their listening right from the start. There
are a lot of videos you can watch on this page to see if this is the
seminar you need to attend next month. I hope to see you there!

Monkey See Monkey Feel: Why Your Energy as a Presenter = Your Results

I tell my students all the time: “Your audiences mirror you. If you’re flat, they’ll be flat. If you’re highly analytical, they’ll go straight into their head, too. Make sure you’re emitting the kind of energy you want them feeling.” And I end with, “Your energy equals your results.”

Some students get it eventually; others never do. You can imagine, then, how overjoyed I was to discover that neuroscientists would heartily agree with my proclamations. It turns out that we have a very special brain cell that is responsible for mirroring the actions and emotions of others.

The New York Times wrote an article
on this on January 10, 2006: On a hot
summer day 15 years ago in Parma,
Italy, a monkey sat in a special lab
chair waiting for researchers to return
from lunch. Thin wires had been im-
planted in the region of its brain
involved in planning and carrying
out movements. Every time the monkey
grasped and moved an object, some
cells in that brain region would fire,
and a monitor would register a sound:
brrrrrip, brrrrrip, brrrrrip.

They discovered that the monkey brain contains a special class of cells, called mirror neurons, that fire when the animal sees or hears an action, and when the animal carries out the same action on its own.

A graduate student entered the lab with an ice cream cone in his hand. The monkey stared at him. Then, something amazing happened: when the student raised the cone to his lips, the monitor sounded- brrrrrip, brrrrrip, brrrrrip – even though the monkey had not moved but had simply observed the student grasping the cone and moving it to his mouth.

It turns out that humans have mirror neurons, as well—that are far smarter, more flexible and more highly evolved than any of those found in monkeys.

So, imagine that during one of your presentations, your brain and the brains of your audience members are being studied for electrical activity. When you feel anything, your brain will register activity in certain areas. Those same areas will be activated in the brains of your audience. The same neural pathways that light up in your brain will be lit up in theirs–instantaneously and unconsciously.

Dr. Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist at the University of California who studies mirror neurons, explains, “When you see me pull my arm back, as if to throw the ball, you also have in your brain a copy of what I am doing and it helps you understand my goal…And if you see me choke up, in emotional distress from striking out at home plate, mirror neurons in your brain simulate my distress. You know how I feel because you literally feel what I am feeling.”

Daniel Goleman in his book, Social Intelligence, claims that because of mirror neurons, emotions are literally “contagious.” When someone “dumps their toxic feelings on us, they activate in us circuitry for those very same distressing emotions. We “catch” strong emotions much as we do a virus—and can come down with the emotional equivalent of a cold.”

He writes also about “group contagion…which occurs in even the most minimal of groups. When just three people sit face to face with each other in silence for a few minutes, with no power hierarchy, the person with the most expressive face will set the shared tone.” He details a classic study done at Yale University where an actor was hired to be particularly confrontational with a group. “In whichever direction his emotions went, his lead was followed…but none knew why their mood had changed…they had looped into a mood shift. The feelings,” Goleman goes on, “that pass through a group can bias how all the group members process information and hence the decisions they make.”

How and what you emote in your presentations and speeches dictate the results you will get.

Mirror neurons are leadership tools,” Goleman writes. “Emotions flow with special strength from the more socially dominant person to the less.” From the front of the room—the board room, the living room, a presentation room–you are not merely leading people to act; you are leading them to feel…a far greater influencer. But your power doesn’t end there. If you, the emotional leader, have consistent contact with another, your emotional contagion will literally change the physical structure of their brain.” 

This adds a whole new dimension to the concepts of influence and leaderhip. You have a great deal of power when you’re in front of the room. You can use that power to your own detriment, with flat, boring, serious presentations that activate flat, boring, serious emotions in them. Or you can use it to get what you want for them and for you. It turns out that smiles have an edge over all other emotional expressions; the human brain recognizes happy faces more readily than negative expressions. With a happy face and upbeat, fun energy, you will create a mirror-effect in your audiences: happy faces that walk out wanting more of you.

Like I’ve been saying: your energy equals your results. Give ‘em the best you’ve got!

I offer a special 2-day presentations-training twice/year that makes you energetically contagious with audiences, so you get results. It’s coming up next month and it’s really something to check out if you’ve got a stake in the decisions your audiences make…and it’s especially important if you’re a “visionary entrepreneur”–with big dreams and a big message.   http://www.inspiredleadershiptraining.com/secrets

Chris Daughtry Review: How to Give a Brain-Sticky Concert

I love Chris Daughtry. I love that he triumphed magnificently
after being voted off of American Idol at number 5. That his debut
album was the fastest selling debut rock album in Soundscan his-
tory. That it has been certified 4 times platinum by RIAA and has
sold more than 5 million copies.

And I love his music—or should I say his first album. Every
single song rocks and, well, I’ve listened to them on my iPod so
many times, I honestly don’t know what was a hit single on the
radio and what wasn’t; they’re all hit songs to me.

It was with that great appreciation and admiration that I excitedly
took my seat at the Prudential Center Sunday night to see Daughtry
live. I write about my experience now because it so nicely parallels
the experience any of us has when we are in an audience, and gives
clues to what we need to do when we’re in front of an audience.

Granted, Daughtry is no Paul Rogers–my true rock idol and
THE rock legend, who knows precisely how to energize an audi-
ence and keep them energized, even when he’s singing new music.
But Daughtry should have known that he has to open with a song
that spikes endorphins in his audience, a crowd-pleaser that takes
the energy in the stadium from 0-60 in seconds. Paul started a
concert I saw two years ago with “Feel Like Making Love.” What
state of mind and spirit do you think that put his fans into,
hearing that song right out of the gate? Daughtry played a new
song—which, come on, let’s get real,the audience doesn’t want to
hear. Not yet. Those amazing chemicals released from our brains
that make us feel “high” and dizzy with excitement…weren’t
released And that is a  bad mistake. It sets the stage for what’s to come—and not come.
And it’s a mistake presenters make all the time.

I noticed, in spite of myself, that at the half-hour mark, I wasn’t
jumping up and down. In fact, I was sitting. In fact, most every-
one was sitting. Unless you’re watching Luciano Pavoratti, or
bluegrass or any other “listening music”—there is no worse sign
at a rock concert than an audience sitting down
. It means
there’s not enough energy coursing through them to get to their
feet. Nothing impelling them to rise and move or clap or shout or
sing. It’s rare to see anyone singing passionately at a rock concert
while sitting down. No, we rise to our feet because the energy in
us is too big and powerful for the constrained sitting position. If
we’re reclining, our brains are, too. And that spells death for a
rock star (and presenter).

Why was everyone sitting? Because Daughtry was playing one
new song after another. And they’re mainly ballads—and not great
ones, at that. This is akin to giving a presentation in a flat monotone,
with nothing but Power Point, and referencing very little that is of
interest to us. Last week in the blog posts, I wrote about the brain’s
need for relevancy–what’s in it for me, and for emotion! Neither
was happening thirty-minutes into the concert. And then Chris
said something so true, and I’m wondering if he realized their mis-
take as it was unfolding (if you’re professional at all in front of a
group, you are masterful at measuring energy.) He said, “Let’s
get you guys back into familiarity.”

My brain jumped back to my blog post from last Friday, where
I talked about the brain’s need for familiarity. And low and
behold, as they started to play the very first notes of a song from
their first album, bodies began to rise instantly, instinctively. Soon,
the whole room was standing again because the familiarity of a
song they loved shot a cascade of feel-good chemicals from their
brain into their body and brought them to their feet because
sitting down was too small a feeling for what was burgeoning
within them
. The band managed to keep us standing for a few
more songs, but then dropped the ball again. Lost their control
of the room’s energy. Like presenters do constantly.

This is something iconic Paul never does. Of course, he’s been
doing this forty years longer than Daughtry. But he knows
that alternating between old favorites and new ones keeps the
energy at a constant high. He also knows that the audience needs
to experience the biggest high of the night as they are walking
out. He knows he needs to build the energy to a crescendo in his
encores, until the last song he sings tips everyone over the edge.
The last song must be an all-time favorite—not one most of the
room doesn’t know.

Energy is what causes an audience to want more, tell
others about their experience, and come back for more.

If it dips for a few minutes, that’s understandable and it can be
saved. But if it dips more than once, you begin to lose your audi-
ence. Daughtry let it dip too often, and near the end, we all slid
off the cliff. Countless seats had been abandoned by the beginning
of his encore. Just as so many presentations, classrooms and
churches experience a mass exodus near the end.

Brain-Food for Thought: Do you manage the energy in your
presentations, so that your audience is feeling familiar with
your content but also energized by the content they’ve never
heard? Are you causing them to feel so they figuratively (and
literally!) “rise to their feet”? Or do they stay (figuratively and
literally) sedately in their seats because nothing you are saying
grabs at them, heart and soul, causing the chemicals of emotion
to burst through them?

If you want to hear more on this topic, be sure to sign up for my
upcoming 90-minute free teleclass on the new paradigm of public
speaking that “talks to the brains” of audiences. The next one is
April 7th. Click here to learn more.

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