Quote:
Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy
I never liked formal public speaking, the key for me was to just learn the content so well that I could talk about it in a casual manner. No notecards, reading a Powerpoint, or teleprompter (lol). Ultimately it makes the speech better too, because nobody likes a dry reading from a Powerpoint slide. With that approach I was very successful in business development work, where I was typically pitching my company to a prospective customer that was both questioning the honesty of everything that I said as well as half annoyed to be there. I also did 6 presentations per year to senior leaders of my Fortune 500 company that were hellbent on picking me and my content apart and making me look like a fool.
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LOL many years ago i was doing a presentation to the leadership team on a familiar subject that was dry and technical, the kind of thing that has them fading out within a few minutes.
As I often do, I really got into it and was animated, moving around the room and varying voice levels, cadence, etc. to emphasize certain points and to prevent droning on and to try and keep interest.
I was picking up good signs from the audience considering, but I could tell I was losing a few of them. After about 15 minutes I wrapped it all up with a reinforcing conclusion.
"Any questions?"
My general manager asked if I had forgotten something, and pointed to the power-point slide presentation on the screen that was still on the first slide.
Looking around with a smile, I said:
Ready for the test?" waiting for their groans.
"Oh, don't worry. It's a test for me, not you. How about if we go through these slides and see if I got any details wrong or left anything important out?"
I asked them to speak up if they see anything they can bust me on. And they tried.
Afterward, my manager apologized for calling me out like that but said I recovered well.
I asked if he noticed how everyone was studying those slides carefully, reviewing every detail on the presentation trying to see if i screwed up.
Ye said: "yep, amazing considering (it was the leadership team)."
So I showed him my notes, it was all planned out that way.
If I had played it straight and just did another boring tech presentation, they'd pick up maybe 10% and probably get half of that wrong.
Within a week they wouldn't remember much at all.
But having them review the info again after I presented it, and actually paying attention, made a difference.
The word got out that I had tricked them and a few sneered by most thought it was cool. A couple of them told me later that they had tried it too.
Now I wish I could say that I thought it all up myself but i didn't, my old boss from a long time ago pulled that on a group I was in.
Being prepared and having a strategy and having fun with it goes a long ways.