Raybould’s Rules for Presentations #4

Rule four is simple: Do The Swan Thing

You’ll hear trainers say things like “never let the audience see you sweat” which is the same sentiment but for me, at least, it’s a bit limiting.  What I mean by Do The Swan Thing comes from the old adage about how swans look serene and calm on the surface of the river, but when you see underwater camera footage it becomes obvious that they’re actually paddling hard – really hard – and working like hell!

Another way of saying it are things like (from a football coach: train hard so you can play easy.  My favorite other way of saying this comes  though comes from a friend of mine who’s a choreographer.  She was talking to some dancers who were, simply, stunning. Imagine coming off-stage, sweating, panting and clearly exhausted – but with the audience on their feet! – only to hear your choreographer admonishing you for panting, saying “If it looks like you’re working hard, you’re not working hard enough”.

She’s right.

Your audience should never, ever see the backroom stuff. It’s unprofessional and undermines your credibility. More importantly (see the previous rule) it reduces the audiences ability to take things away from your presentation.  No one cares how much work you’ve put into getting your slide ‘just right’ – they just care what the end products are.

How does this apply in the ‘real world’ (whatever that might be).  Lots of ways – but let me pick a few out based upon presenters I’ve seen recently…

1. Arrive in so much time that you have everything – and I mean everything – set up and checked/tested before the first of your audience.  That’s before they arrive, not before you’re due on stage.
2. Don’t make any reference to how hard it was/is to get this information or design this slide. That’s your problem, not theirs. Would you expect an actor to stop the show every scene to say how many hours rehearsal to get this bit right?
3. Have backups for everything.  If you’re using slides, nothing short of a fire-evacuation of the building should stop you.  Spare lamps, projectors, laptops, remotes, cables, fuses, ties, shirts should be no more than arms length away. If they are, you’re an amateur: you might be a good amateur but you’re still an amateur.
4. Stage Fright isn’t as common as you pretend. What you’re experiencing is nerves, not full on Stage Fright. Deal with it, don’t revel in it – and your audience don’t need to be told (several times) how nervous you are. They aren’t your parents (well, okay, up to two of the might be I suppose, but there are other people there as well).
5. Practice, practice, practice.  That’s not the same as rehearsal – thought that’s part of it.  Stumbling over your lines, forgetting what you’re going to say or being over-reliant on scripts and prompts is hardly doing the swan thing, is it?! No one wants to see you paddling.

I’m sure you can think of a dozen different times and examples when you’ve seen a presenter not doing the swan thing!  Anyone care to add examples of when they’ve seen someone paddling, not gliding? :)