The Power Presenter: Techniques, Style, And Strategy To Be Suasive [2 ed.] 0136933742, 9780136933748, 0136933645, 9780136933649, 0136933793, 9780136933793

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Case Studies
Contents
Foreword to the Second Edition
Preface: Show Me the Money
Introduction: The Deer in the Headlights
Fight-or-Flight
Adrenaline Rush Remedies
The Mental Method
Book Conventions
Chapter One: Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Audience Advocacy®
The Power of the Visual
Chapter Two: Creating Empathy with Your Audience
Empathy
The Science of Empathy
The Effectiveness Matrix
Chapter Three: The Butterflies in Your Stomach
Fight-or-Flight: Internal Dynamics
Fight-or-Flight: External Dynamics
Presenter Behavior/Audience Perception
The Yikes! Moment
Chapter Four: The Quest for Content
Slides
Script
Teleprompter (Also Known as Autocue)
Comfort Monitors
Advanced Technology
Five Simple Steps to Develop Your Story
Chapter Five: The Mental Method
Concentration
The Mind–Body Connection
The Mental Method
Delivering Your Message
Chapter Six: The Learning Process
Change
The Four Stages of Learning
Comfort Zone Paradox
Repetition over Time
The Yikes! Moment
The Suasive Master Skills Cycle
Chapter Seven: Speak with Your Body Language
The Historic Kennedy–Nixon Debate
External Factors/Audience Perception
Visual Dynamics
Vocal Dynamics
Putting It All Together
Chapter Eight: Control Your Cadence: The Phrase
Cadence
Complete the Arc®
Rising/Falling Inflection
Complete the Arc in Action
Chapter Nine: Control Your Cadence: The Pause
Unwords
Ten Benefits of the Pause
Speak Only to Eyes®
Phrase & Pause[sup(SM)]
Cadence Summary
Chapter Ten: Tools of the Trade
Position
The Presentation Checklist
Putting It All Together
Chapter Eleven: SlideSynchronization
Design/Delivery Balance
The Suasive Meta Design Concepts
Seven Steps of SlideSync Delivery
SlideSync Delivery in Action
Chapter Twelve: SlideSync Narrative
Describe
Narrative Continuity
Three Simple Steps of Continuity
Putting It All Together
Chapter Thirteen: Masters of the Game
The Great Communicator
Sir Winston Churchill
President John F. Kennedy
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Reverend Billy Graham
The Great Communicator Redux
The Great Orators: Conversation and Empathy
Coda: Ending with the Beginning
Endnotes
Appendix A Video Links
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X-Y-Z

Citation preview

Praise for the First Edition of The Power Presenter ‘‘Jerry is a coach like no other. If you need to give an important presentation, buy this book. Now. The only thing at stake is your income, your influence, and the success of your cause.’’ —Scott Cook Founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit, Inc.

‘‘Jerry Weissman’s genius is getting successful leaders like me to realize we are imbeciles when it comes to effective communication that is not email. In particular, Jerry broadens one’s perspective on how to use the visual well, how to focus on the audience’s perspective, and on how to keep the narrative strong and compelling. I benefited from Jerry’s work way back in 1995 for my first IPO, and then went back again in 2002 for my second IPO—in both cases his teaching added tremendous clarity to our investor presentations. Not only should IPObound CEOs read this book, but everyone who does presentations should absorb its messages.’’ —Reed Hastings Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Netflix, Inc.

‘‘This book will help you bring out your natural charisma. It’s like a bottle of turbo-charged personality. Take a swig, and you’ll kick butt.’’ —Guy Kawasaki Co-founder, Alltop.com; Author of Reality Check and Wise Guy; Remarkable People Podcast

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‘‘I watched with my own eyes as Jerry Weissman created billions in stock market value by teaching CEOs his speaking styles and strategies. Now it’s all in a 250 page book—how cool is that.’’ —Andy Kessler “Inside View” columnist, The Wall Street Journal

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‘‘As an executive communication coach, Jerry Weissman has taught me and many others that great communication skills are not hereditary, but can be learned. Jerry’s series of books makes his profound ideas accessible to every reader. This book, The Power Presenter, is an excellent exposition into what makes a great communicator, and how to become one, starting from the inside. Using the very persuasion techniques it teaches, this book applies plain language, fun examples, and convincing demonstrations to lead the reader to absorb and internalize the concepts, and gain the skills and confidence to truly become a power presenter.’’ —Kai-Fu Lee Former Vice President, Google Inc.; Former President, Google Greater China; Chairman and CEO, Sinovation Ventures; Author of AI Super-Powers

‘‘The Power Presenter captures the essence of Jerry’s in-person training, including his approach, real-world examples, and story-telling strategies. It’s a must read for anyone who needs to close a deal, market a product, or drive consensus.’’ —Mike Nash VP of Customer Experience and Portfolio Strategy and Chief Technologist, Personal Systems, HP Inc.

‘‘Jerry’s insightful coaching helped us to launch a major new chip design successfully. His new book, The Power Presenter, makes the invaluable techniques he showed us at Intel available to everyone.’’ —David Perlmutter Former Executive Vice President and Former Chief Product Officer, Intel Corporation; Social and Technology entrepreneur; Chairman, Weebit Nano; Chairman, Teramount

‘‘Jerry has the uncanny ability to take the art of communicating and make it feel like science. The Power Presenter is a prescriptive roadmap to communications confidence and excellence.’’ —Ron Ricci Former Vice President, Corporate Positioning, Cisco Systems; Founder and CEO, The Transparency Imperative

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THE POWER PRESENTER

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THE POWER PRESENTER Techniques, Style, and Strategy To Be Suasive Second Edition

Jerry Weissman

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Editor-in-Chief: Mark L. Taub Acquisitions Editor: Kim Spenceley Managing Editor: Sandra Schroeder Senior Project Editor: Lori Lyons Composition Manager: Aswini Kumar/codeMantra Copy Editor: Kitty Wilson Indexer: Erika Millen Proofreader: Donna E. Mulder Cover Designer: Chuti Prasertsith Compositor: codeMantra Copyright 2021 by Suasive, Inc. All rights reserved. Audience Advocacy®, Complete the Arc®, EyeConnect®, Phrase & Pause, Point B, ReachOut®, Speak Only to Eyes®, TitlePlus®, and WIIFY® are registered service marks or service marks of SUASIVE, Inc. © 1988–2020 SUASIVE, Inc. Published by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. The author and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. For information about buying this title in bulk quantities, or for special sales opportunities (which may include electronic versions; custom cover designs; and content particular to your business, training goals, marketing focus, or branding interests), please contact our corporate sales department at [email protected] or (800) 382-3419. For government sales inquiries, please contact [email protected]. For questions about sales outside the U.S., please contact [email protected]. Visit us on the web: informit.com/business Library of Congress Control Number: 2020945018 ISBN-13: 978-0-13-693374-8 ISBN-10: 0-13-693374-2 ScoutAutomatedPrintCode

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For Benji Rosen A launch from Houston to the moon —and the stars

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Case Studies

In order of appearance: Warren Buffet

Senator Marco Rubio

John Suler

Malcolm Gladwell

Mark Twain

Anthony Fauci, M.D.

Federico Fellini

Robert De Niro

Steph Curry

Ronald Reagan

Jeff Raikes

Mark Zuckerberg

Howard Rosenberg

Evan Osnos

Edward Tronick, M.D.

Oliver Sacks, MD

Michael Bay

Leah Maher

David McNeill

Marianna Pascal

Sir Isaac Newton

Nikita Khrushchev

Jeff Lawson

Juvenal

Kennedy vs. Nixon

Julian Chokkattu

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

James Fallows

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Benjamin Netanyahu

Marcel Marceau

Will Poole

William Shakespeare

IPO Roadshow Study

The Actors Studio

Marc Benioff

Shocking British Couples Dr. Bob Rotella

William F. Buckley, Jr.

Italian Lab Monkeys

W. Timothy Gallwey

John F. Kennedy

Robert Krulwich

John Chambers

Amy Chang

Vince Lombardi

Mike Tuchen

Tyler Stanton

Steve Jobs

Carly Simon

Tripp Crosby

Ken Kocienda

Marya McCabe

Frank Sinatra

The Boy/The Cookie Jar

Lawrence Steinman

Ludwig van Beethoven

The Telemarketer

The Squinting Woman

Leonard Bernstein

John Stumpf

Joe Moglia

Stephen Sondheim

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld

Elon Musk

Dr. Krzysztof Izdebski

Marc Trestman

Theodore H. White

Garrison Frost

Rick Scott

Don Hewitt

Stephen Fry

Will Stephen

Marshall Klaus, M.D.

George W. Bush

Megan Rapinoe

John Kennell, M.D.

Jill Abramson

Cullen Dudas

Queen Mary University

Mark Carney

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T he P ower P resenter

Mary Barra

General Israel Putnam

Frank Quattrone

Indra Nooyi

Michael J. Byron

Andrew Cuomo

Wolfgang Mozart

Teodor Panayotov

Annika Goldman

Ella Fitzgerald

Atul Gawande, M.D.

Presenter Coach

Dizzy Gillespie

Don McMillan

Abraham Lincoln

The Frenchman

Robert Benchley

Sir Winston Churchill

Christine Lagarde

Leslie Culbertson

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Vitalik Buterin

Olivier Fontana

Reverend Billy Graham

Joey Zwillinger

Bill Jasper

Vlad Shmunis

Jack Rakove

Ken Hirsch

Cindy Burgdorf

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Contents

.

 

■ Foreword to the Second Edition.......................................................................xvii .

 

■ Preface: Show Me the Money............................................................................xxi .

 

■ Introduction: The Deer in the Headlights ................................................... xxvii .

Fight-or-Flight ....................................................................................... xxvii .

Adrenaline Rush Remedies ..................................................................xxviii .

The Mental Method ................................................................................ xxix .

Book Conventions .................................................................................... xxx .

 

■ Chapter One: Actions Speak Louder Than Words ............................................1 .

Audience Advocacy® ................................................................................... 1 .

The Power of the Visual .............................................................................. 3  

■ Chapter Two: Creating Empathy with Your Audience...................................11 .

Empathy .................................................................................................... 11 .

The Science of Empathy........................................................................... 12 .

The Effectiveness Matrix .......................................................................... 15 .

 

■ Chapter Three: The Butterflies in Your Stomach .......................................... 23 .

Fight-or-Flight: Internal Dynamics.......................................................... 23 .

Fight-or-Flight: External Dynamics ......................................................... 26 .

Presenter Behavior/Audience Perception ................................................ 29 .

The Yikes! Moment ................................................................................... 30 .

 

■ Chapter Four: The Quest for Content .............................................................. 31 .

Slides.......................................................................................................... 32 Script.......................................................................................................... 33 .

Teleprompter (Also Known as Autocue) .................................................. 34 .

Comfort Monitors ..................................................................................... 35

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Advanced Technology ............................................................................... 36 .

Five Simple Steps to Develop Your Story ................................................ 37 .

 

■ Chapter Five: The Mental Method .................................................................... 45 .

Concentration............................................................................................ 45 .

The Mind–Body Connection .................................................................... 46 .

The Mental Method .................................................................................. 49 .

Delivering Your Message .......................................................................... 59 .

 

■ Chapter Six: The Learning Process ................................................................... 61 .

Change....................................................................................................... 61 .

The Four Stages of Learning .................................................................... 62 .

Comfort Zone Paradox.............................................................................. 63 .

Repetition over Time ................................................................................ 65 .

The Yikes! Moment ................................................................................... 68 .

The Suasive Master Skills Cycle ............................................................... 69 .

 

■ Chapter Seven: Speak with Your Body Language ..........................................71 .

The Historic Kennedy–Nixon Debate ..................................................... 71 .

External Factors/Audience Perception .................................................... 76 .

Visual Dynamics ........................................................................................ 77 .

Vocal Dynamics ......................................................................................... 92 .

Putting It All Together .............................................................................. 96 .

 

■ Chapter Eight: Control Your Cadence: The Phrase ....................................... 99 .

Cadence ..................................................................................................... 99 .

Complete the Arc® .................................................................................. 100 .

Rising/Falling Inflection ......................................................................... 102 .

Complete the Arc in Action .................................................................... 107 .

 

■ Chapter Nine: Control Your Cadence: The Pause ........................................ 111 .

Unwords................................................................................................... 112 .

Ten Benefits of the Pause ....................................................................... 120 xii

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C ontents

.

Speak Only to Eyes® ............................................................................... 120 .

Phrase & PauseSM .................................................................................... 122 .

Cadence Summary .................................................................................. 124 .

 

■ Chapter Ten: Tools of the Trade ......................................................................127 .

Position .................................................................................................... 127 .

The Presentation Checklist..................................................................... 130 .

Putting It All Together ............................................................................ 133 .

 

■ Chapter Eleven: SlideSynchronization .................................................... 135 .

Design/Delivery Balance ........................................................................ 135 .

The Suasive Meta Design Concepts ...................................................... 138 .

Seven Steps of SlideSync Delivery ......................................................... 141 .

SlideSync Delivery in Action .................................................................. 148 .

 

■ Chapter Twelve: SlideSync Narrative .............................................................149 .

Describe .................................................................................................. 149 .

Narrative Continuity ............................................................................... 154 .

Three Simple Steps of Continuity .......................................................... 155 .

Putting It All Together ............................................................................ 156 .

 

■ Chapter Thirteen: Masters of the Game .......................................................157 .

The Great Communicator ...................................................................... 157 .

Sir Winston Churchill ............................................................................. 160 .

President John F. Kennedy ..................................................................... 161 .

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. . ........................................................ 162 .

Reverend Billy Graham .......................................................................... 163 .

The Great Communicator Redux ........................................................... 165 .

The Great Orators: Conversation and Empathy .................................... 167 .

 

■ Coda: Ending with the Beginning ..................................................................169

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.

 

 

■ Appendix A

Video Links .................................................................................187 .

 

■ Endnotes ...............................................................................................................173

.

 

■ Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................193 .

 

■ About the Author ...............................................................................................195 .

 

■ Index ......................................................................................................................197

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Figure Credits

Cover



Attribution VikaSuh/Shutterstock



Figure

Split screen version of NetRoadshow. © 2020 NetRoadshow, Inc.

Figure 1.1

Washington DC.USA, 22nd February, 1984 President Ronald Reagan News Conference. Mark Reinstein/Shutterstock





Figure P.1

Khrushchev Addresses UN General Assembly. Bettmann/ Getty Images



Figure 1.2

French mime Marcel Marceau. Keystone Press/Alamy Stock Photo

Figure 3.1

Paul Émile Chabas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1912





Figure 1.3



Figures 4.1–4.4 Courtesy of Suasive, Inc. Kennedy-Nixon debates, 09-26-1960. Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo ­



Figure 7.1



Frank Sinatra Recording Session. M. Garrett/Contributor/ Getty

Figure 9.1

Gallery View of Virtual Meeting. Image by Alexandra Koch from Pixabay



Figure 7.2

Ronald Reagan State of the Union speech. Dirck Halstead/ The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images

Figure 13.2

Winston Churchill in Washington, USA. Byron Rollins/AP/ Shutterstock





Figure 13.1

Kennedy Inauguration, Washington, USA. Uncredited/AP/ Shutterstock

Figure 13.4

Martin Luther King, Jr. Delivering His Famous Speech. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty





Figure 13.3



Figure 13.5

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Billy Graham preaching at Miami Beach Convention Hall. Alpha Historica/Alamy Stock Photo

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Register Your Book

​

Register your copy of The Power Presenter at informit.com for convenient access to downloads, updates, and corrections as they become available. To start the registration process, go to informit.com/register and log in or create an account. Enter the product ISBN 9780136933748 and click Submit. Once the process is complete, you will find any available bonus content under “Registered Products.”

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All the World’s a Stage ■  

■

 

Foreword to the Second Edition

Case Studies: Chapman University • CBS Television All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.1 As You Like It 1.7.138–139 William Shakespeare

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Public speaking—a catchall term that, once upon a time, defined a narrow domain ranging from banquet speeches to eulogies, practiced on rare occasions by an exclusive few—has, in the twenty-first century and particularly in the decade since the first edition of this book, exploded. Now, propelled by web, mobile, and video technologies, all the men and women in public, private, corporate, as well as social life are finding themselves as players in front of live audiences, video cameras, and even mobile phones, having to deliver a presentation.

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Despite the proliferation of many new avenues of communication— videoconferencing, industry keynotes, fireside talks, briefing center pitches, virtual meetings, podcasts—the fundamentals of every single one of these events remains unchanged: what the speaker says and how he or she says it, the narrative and the delivery, the message and the messenger. Getting the message crystal clear and delivering it with authoritative assurance has, in this age of highspeed information overload, become more challenging than ever. That challenge is further heightened by the universal fear of public speaking. A Google search for the “fear of public speaking” produced over 400 million results at the time of writing. Many of those results cite studies that rank public speaking as more fearful than heights, flying, insects, and death. However, after almost two decades of increasing global concerns ranging from climate change to terrorism, public speaking fell to 52nd place in a 2017 Chapman University survey of American Fears. The dubious distinction of first place in the survey is now occupied by “Corrupt Government Officials.”2

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Among those more than 400 million search results is a cottage industry of resources to help people deal with that still-pervasive fear of public speaking. In the high-stakes world of business, one of the most popular offerings is “media training,” a term that spans a large grab bag of instructions: how to control one’s nerves, what to do with one’s hands, how to slow down, how to speed up, how to eliminate “UMs,” and even what to wear. The word “training” denotes a demanding discipline, as in training for an athletic event or a performance. But businesspeople are not performers, and treating them as if they were only serves to heighten their stress. Nonetheless, media training has become the standard approach for presentation skills development. When I entered the field over 30 years ago, having come from CBS Television in New York City, where I had been a staff producer-director of public affairs programs, my media credibility was mint. Still, I had to instruct using what, by then, had become an entrenched playbook. I spent my early days as a freelance presentation trainer inflicting the rigors of a close-order drill on businesspeople just like you, treating my clients as performers—a counterproductive process for both the instructed and the instructor. I spent many tortuous, torturous, and torturing hours telling people what to do and what not to do with their voices and body language. I badgered them to speak faster or slower, louder or softer, to make their gestures wider or narrower, bigger or smaller. At the end of the day, I was able to change their behavior infinitesimally, only to see them go out into the real world and rapidly regress to a point further back from where I had started with them at the beginning of the day. What’s wrong with this picture? A presentation coach is supposed to be of service, not disservice. The word “coaching,” derived from the word for a transportation vehicle, denotes movement. To help people progress naturally requires coaching that provides them with a set of simple, non-invasive tools and techniques to learn new skills. To implement this approach, I looked back to my days at CBS. A key part of my job was to invite men and women from the government, academic, health, scientific, and culture sectors—none of them performers—into our studios. To help make them feel comfortable and look comfortable in the stressful circumstances of appearing on camera, we deployed the basic format of public affairs television: the talk show. We structured our programs as conversations, personto-person interviews, or small group discussions conducted by professional moderators or anchors. By placing our guests in familiar settings and giving them xviii

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e ond c

to the

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F oreword

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the opportunity to interact with others—rather than putting them on the spot to perform—we were able to reduce their stress levels.

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Another part of my job was to screen hours and hours of new and archival film and video, read stacks and stacks of reports, and conduct hours and hours of interviews and then condense all that data into a crisp 28-minutes-and-40seconds program. In doing so, my colleagues and I employed an array of proven, professional techniques to distill, focus, and, best of all, streamline our guests’ stories. In retrospect, looking at those two job functions—making our guests feel comfortable and helping them to develop their stories—made me realize that I could readily adapt the techniques we used at CBS for business presentations. It worked! By clarifying the content and creating a conversational comfort zone, businesspeople experienced the same ease in presentations as our guests did in the CBS studios.

I started my own coaching company, Power Presentations, Ltd., in 1988 and, to sharpen the mission to create persuasive presentations that produce results, renamed it Suasive, Inc. in 2018. Now that this powerful methodology has proven successful for over three decades, let me introduce it to you so that you can learn how to feel natural and appear confident whenever you stand in front of any audience. Jerry Weissman

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Preface

Show Me the Money Case Studies: Cisco IPO Roadshow • Twilio IPO Roadshow •

NetRoadshow

Cisco originally expected to get $13.50 to $15.50 per share for its stock. “But during the road show the company was so well-received” that it managed to sell 2.8 million shares at $18 apiece, Valentine [Cisco’s then-Chairman of the Board] said. He attributed “at least $2 to $3” of the increase to Weissman’s coaching.1 Kathleen Pender San Francisco Chronicle July 9, 1990

Shortly after starting my own company, one of my earliest coaching assignments was with Cisco Systems, at the time a young Silicon Valley networking technology company that had decided to sell shares of its stock in an Initial Public Offering (IPO). An important part of that process is to develop a presentation called a “roadshow” that the company’s senior management team pitches to potential investors. Over two hectic weeks, the team travels to about a dozen cities across the country—and often across the oceans. At the time, Cisco—as did every other company going public—had to deliver the same pitch several times a day, or about 30 or 40 times each week. Now, with the advent of streaming video, that process is very different, as you’ll see below, but in all cases then and now, the management team must suit up and show up at the same number of investors’ offices. The IPO roadshow is the most demanding, high-stakes presentation any executive will ever deliver.

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I’m proud to say that my coaching of the Cisco team resulted in the quote at the beginning of this preface. But why should you care about a 30-year-old article about Cisco’s roadshow? What does the IPO of one of the most successful companies in the world mean to you and your career? And what does an endorsement of my coaching mean to you?

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After all, only a few hundred companies go public in any given year, and you are more likely to win a national lottery than to launch an IPO. But you’ll almost certainly have to deliver a high-stakes presentation or make an important speecha at some point during your lifetime. And whether you are a businessperson or an ordinary citizen, your challenge is to be as “well-received” as was the Cisco IPO roadshow.

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The same techniques, style, and strategy that I provided to the Cisco executive team and, subsequently, to the executive teams of more than 600 other companies preparing for their IPO roadshows (among them Intuit, eBay, Netflix, Yahoo!, Dolby Labs, RingCentral, Twilio, Trulia, Talend, MobileEye, Zuora, Sonos, and Lyft) can help you with every presentation you will ever have to deliver. Those very same techniques have also helped thousands of managers, salespeople, engineers, and finance executives at Microsoft, Intel, Adobe, Ericsson, Experian, and thousands of other companies to sell their products or services, propose partnerships, seek approval for projects, or raise financing. This book will provide you with the same techniques that I provide in my private coaching sessions. As important as delivery style is in business presentations, it is of equal importance when soliciting funds for a not-for-profit cause or when speaking to a professional association, community organization, club, church, or synagogue. In all cases, whenever and wherever you stand and deliver, your challenge is to make your presentation a success. John Morgridge, the CEO of Cisco at the time of the IPO, was faced with such a challenge. Having held senior management positions at Honeywell Information Systems and GRiD Systems before Cisco, John was an experienced executive who was focused more on delivering his data than on his presentation style and technique. His challenge was further compounded by the fact that Cisco’s innovative networking technology was complex, which made the company’s story difficult to explain to the nontechnical audiences of institutional investors. In our work together, I coached John to craft a story that was comprehensible and meaningful to potential investors and to deliver it with poise, confidence, and enthusiasm. Through it all, I helped John to feel natural and appear comfortable. History is witness to John’s success. He went on to build Cisco into

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a Because the main focus of this book is presentations, I will be using that term primarily; but because the methodology is universal, you can consider presentations to also refer to speeches, pitches and, as you’ll see later in the book, the rapidly expanding format of virtual presentations.

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f

P re

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a formidable business enterprise; and now, having retired, he is building a formidable philanthropic enterprise. Around the time of Cisco’s IPO, another CEO experienced another challenge during his roadshow. Just as his two-week tour was about to begin, the CEO learned that there was a problem back at the home office. To deal with the problem, he often had to get on the telephone between presentations. As a result, whenever he presented during that first week, he was distracted. Not surprisingly, his presentations suffered.

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Over the intervening weekend, the CEO finally cleared up the problem. No longer distracted, he presented smoothly during the entire second week. At the end of the roadshow, the investment bankers tallied the results of their efforts. The investors in the cities they had visited during the first week placed light orders, and those in the cities of the second week, high orders. The content was identical both weeks; the only difference was the CEO’s body language and voice. Speaking style and delivery can impact the value of an IPO.

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In 2016, Jeff Lawson, Founder, CEO, and Chairman of  Twilio, Inc., a cloud communications platform-as-a-service company, faced two big challenges heading into his IPO: Our business model is unique (we are a platform, not a SaaS application) and the markets were unfriendly (with no Silicon Valley IPOs before our offering in June 2016). Our training sessions with Suasive were integral in conveying the attractiveness of our business in our roadshow presentations.2 Lee Kirkpatrick, Twilio’s then-CFO, quantified the result: Twilio went public during an unfriendly market, yet the strength of our presentations...helped us close 92% above the offering price.3 In the time between the Cisco and Twilio IPOs, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) changed the way roadshows were done forever. The SEC gave a company called NetRoadshow permission to stream video roadshows over the internet. ­

NetRoadshowb is a website where, after clicking on a Preliminary Prospectus disclaimer, anyone can view a streaming video of a company’s IPO presentation.



b Accessible to the public at http://retailroadshow.com

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Figure P.1

 

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The early versions displayed a simple split screen: on one side was a video of the company’s executive officers delivering their pitch; on the other side, the company’s slideshow, advancing in lockstep with their narrative (Figure P.1).

Split-screen version of NetRoadshow

Over time, some companies began to add more production value with fullscreen images shot at multiple locations using diverse camera angles to demonstrate the company’s product or service in action. These elements are often accompanied by videos of customer testimonials and imaginative animations of text and data embedded into those images. These extravagant productions can cost as much as a quarter of a million dollars. Despite the unrestricted access that NetRoadshow affords, the investment bankers managing these offerings still arrange the same two-week tour for the company’s management team, during which they visit those dozen cities to pitch prospective investment firms. Now, however, most of those investors will have seen the streaming version. As a result, the management team, rather than presenting, spends their meeting time discussing their business and answering the investors’ questions.

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The reason for perpetuating this grueling tour is that no investor will decide to buy tens of millions of dollars of stock based on a canned presentation alone. Investors want to meet the executives in person, press the flesh, look them in the eye, and interact with them directly. The challenge then is to make that vital interaction a success. John Morgridge of Cisco and Jeff Lawson of Twilio faced that challenge, as do all the CEOs and CFOs of all IPO roadshows—as does every person who delivers any presentation—a universal challenge heightened by the all-too-familiar pressure of standing in front of a live audience. In the following pages, you will learn how to meet that challenge and present to win.

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Introduction

The Deer in the Headlights Case Study: Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway

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According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two! Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.1 Comedian Jerry Seinfeld

Picture this: you’re seated in the audience for a presentation. The speaker approaches the front of the room, reaches the lectern, turns to face the group, and suddenly freezes, striking the pose of the proverbial deer in the headlights. The eyes widen like dinner plates. The body goes rigid. Then, as the person starts to speak, the parched lips emit a thin, rasping sound, and the halting words that sputter out are punctuated by a series of audible pasty clicks—cottonmouth. In reaction, the person’s arm darts down to the lectern to grasp a glass of water and, as the trembling hand lifts the glass, the water almost sloshes over the rim. Why does this happen? Why would speaking—a most ordinary activity that most people practice all day, every day with complete ease—become so fearful when speaking in front of an audience? Why wouldn’t every person who stands to deliver a presentation be the best they can be? After all, many presentations are high-stakes events, where a favorable outcome hangs in the balance of the success or failure of the message and the messenger. There’s the rub: the high-stakes event. At the very instant the presentation begins, when the audience sits back and falls silent, and the presenter or speaker becomes the focal point of attention, he or she suddenly thinks, “Yikes! They’re all looking at me! I’d better do well! I’d better not mess up!”

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The Yikes! thought triggers a physiological reaction, a surge of adrenaline that produces the automatic Fight-or-Flight Response. Adrenaline is the cause,

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Fight-or-Flight is the effect, and the result is either contentious (Fight) or defensive (Flight) behavior. This reflexive physical reaction impacts every creature on Earth, including every person who presents, veteran and novice alike—even billionaire investor Warren Buffet. In his biography, he confessed that, as a young man, “I would throw up. In fact, I arranged my life so that I never had to get up in front of anybody.”2

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Fight-or-Flight affects even professional performers. The great British actor Sir Laurence Olivier, classical pianist Glenn Gould, and popular singers Barbra Streisand and Katy Perry,3 have all acknowledged that they suffer from stage fright, the performers’ version of the fear of public speaking.4 A paradox: adrenaline, the same physiological reaction that enables a creature to survive in the wild, causes it to falter or fail in the captive environment of a presentation.

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Solutions to stem the adrenaline rush abound. Among those more than 400 million Google search results for the fear of public speaking, you’ll find these recommendations: Take deep breaths

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Do push-ups

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Run around the block

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Practice yoga

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Make a fist

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Yawn

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Focus on an imaginary spot in the back of the room

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Pop a pill (beta blockers are the drug of choice)

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Take a swig of alcohol

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Imagine your audience naked

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Have sex























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The list goes on, but its length and variety demonstrate that the problem remains unsolved because most of these recommendations are purely physical solutions to what is not a purely physical problem. Moreover, a physical approach xxviii

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to overcoming the fear of public speaking will make a presenter feel like a performer and aggravate the problem that caused the adrenaline to start surging in the first place.

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The adrenaline rush is caused by the mental perception that danger is imminent. You’ll read more about the adrenaline rush in Chapter Three: The Butterflies in Your Stomach, but unless you manage that perception at the very moment of onset, the adrenaline will continue its detrimental rampage unabated. At that critical moment, you can exert the power of your mind to control the forces of your body.

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Use a psychological solution for a physiological problem. Shift your thinking. Instead of thinking about yourself, think about your audience. See how they are reacting to you. That is precisely what we did with our guests at the CBS studios. By engaging them into two-way conversations, we enabled them to interact and feel less compelled to perform. As a result, they felt less anxious. You’ll find a simple three-step process to implement this mind shift in your presentations in Chapter Five: The Mental Method. To lighten your mental load when you step up in front of the room, you’ll also find the other methodology we used at CBS in Chapter Four: The Quest for Content, an array of techniques to distill, focus, and, best of all, simplify your content. Natural conversation and clear content. Taken together, they add up to a psychological solution for a physiological problem. These two factors will enable you to reduce your adrenaline rush and, with it, the negative effects of Fight-orFlight. They will enable you to put into action the time-honored adage “If you have butterflies, make them fly in formation.”

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In the subsequent chapters, you’ll also learn how to optimize the equally important physical factors: your eyes, your body language, your voice, and—the answer to the most frequently asked question about presentation skills—what to do with your hands and arms. In Chapter Seven: Speak with Your Body Language, I’ll guide you, step-by-step, through a set of comprehensive instructions and exercises. Then, to simply the process, will distill all of them into three high-impact Master Skills.

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Ultimately, you’ll learn how to integrate all these skills, including the design and animation of your slides. The latter is a unique skillset called SlideSynchronizationSM. Along the way, you’ll progress through the essential stages of the learning process and, with it, discover how to break old habits and develop a new confidence in your ability to speak comfortably in public. Readers of the first edition will note that I have reduced the number of examples of politicians to only the most iconic—the Kennedy–Nixon debates, Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill, and a couple of other special cases—and replaced them with examples of people delivering presentations in the business world. After all, I wrote this book for all the road warriors who must deliver pitches that persuade.

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I have battle-tested this comprehensive methodology for over three decades, coaching thousands of clients to present with composure and assurance. Learn the techniques, practice them diligently, and you can become a confident, persuasive presenter. Warren Buffet understands the importance of acquiring such skills. He went from early reticence to become the chair and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, one of the most successful companies in the world. At a CNBC Town Hall Event with Bill Gates, he told an audience of Columbia Business School students that “in terms of public speaking…you improve your value 50 percent by having better communication skills.”5

 

Book Conventions ■

Throughout the book, you’ll see this icon, which indicates video and audio files referenced as examples. All the video references are listed in Appendix A. To view select videos, please visit our website: besuasive.com/videos. ­

 

 

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Chapter One

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Case Studies: Malcolm Gladwell • Federico Fellini • Ronald Reagan • Howard Rosenberg • Oliver Sacks, MD • David McNeill • Nikita Khrushchev • The Kennedy-Nixon Debate • James Fallows • Marcel Marceau • The IPO Roadshow Study “Actions Speak Louder Than Words” is the maxim.1 Abraham Lincoln

You are going to find many techniques in this book to optimize your content and your delivery, and overarching all of them is a concept called Audience Advocacy®—a viewpoint that asks you, the presenter, to be an advocate for your audience. Put yourself in their place and think about who they are and what they want. What are their hopes, fears, and passions? What do they know about you? What do they need to know in order to respond favorably to your message or cause, to act on your call to action?

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Apply Audience Advocacy to every aspect of every presentation:

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Story. Develop your content to provide what your audience needs not, as far too many presentations do, make your story a laundry list all about you, your company, or your product or service.

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Slides. Design your deck to illustrate and support your story for your audience not, as common business practice has it, to attempt to be a standalone document of your story.

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Questions. Answer whatever question your audience asks* not as former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara once counseled, “Never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you.”2





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All these factors are a measure of how your presentation impacts your audience intellectually. Audience Advocacy also applies to how it impacts them interpersonally, to the physical delivery of your story via your body language and your voice. In this view, your audience’s perception of you widens from their minds to include how they react to you with their eyes, their ears, and, even more deeply, their guts. How do they feel about you? Think of the presenter and the audience, the speaker and the listener, as the beginning and ending points of all interpersonal communications; think of the presenter as a transmitter and the audience as a receiver. The presenter transmits a set of human dynamics known as the three Vs: Verbal. The story you tell

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Vocal. Your voice, or how you tell your story

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Visual. Your body language, or what you do when you tell your story— not your slides







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Over the past few decades, a number of psychological, neurological, social, and semantic studies have measured the impact of these three dynamics with varying results—for good reason: different settings have different levels of their involvement, e.g., telephone conversations (no Visual), virtual meetings (constricted Visual), text (no Visual or Vocal), etc. However, all these scientific studies agree3 that the Visual, the nonverbal messages humans send to each other via body language, has the greatest impact. Ironically, the most impactful is the most challenging because of the Fight-or-Flight reaction. We’ll start with skills and exercises to show you how to control the adrenaline and also give equal emphasis to help you to manage and optimize the Vocal and Verbal dynamics. All three count.



* The correct way to respond to questions is the subject of another of my books, In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions.

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Malcolm Gladwell spent 288 pages of his international bestseller Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking discussing what he calls “those first two seconds” 4 of how people make snap judgments based on first impressions. Frequently, that first impression is purely Visual. The deer-in-the-headlights presenter in the Introduction made a significant first impression without a word of the Verbal or a decibel of the Vocal. The Visual impact is greater than the Vocal and the Verbal. Or, put another way, Actions (body language) Speak (voice) louder than Words (story).

The Power of the Visual Exercise Ask a colleague or friend to be your audience for a very brief presentation. Then step up to the front of the room and start to speak, but do so silently, moving your lips without using your voice. As you do, slouch, put your weight on one leg, thrust your hands deep into your pockets, and dart your eyes around the room rapidly. Then stop and step to the side of the room. After a moment, step back to the front of the room, stand up straight, look directly at your colleague, and move your lips silently again. Address all your energies to your colleague and extend your hand toward that person, as if you were about to shake hands. Stop again and ask your trial audience to react to both versions of your exercise. Undoubtedly, the person will respond negatively to the first and positively to the second. And they will have made that evaluation solely on what they saw, not what they heard. Federico Fellini, one of the world’s greatest film directors, fully appreciated the power of the Visual. As a practice, he cast actors more for their appearance than for their voice. Often, he cast nonprofessionals to play the role on camera and later dubbed their dialogue with the voices of professional actors. Given the time and effort that most presenters expend in preparation for their high-stakes presentations tapping away at their computers, shuffling slides, scribbling on whiteboards or yellow legal pads, or slapping Post-it notes all over the walls, they assume that content is paramount. But when they stand to present, the story takes third place, behind the body language and the voice.

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(Video 1) President Ronald Reagan’s Address to the Republican National Convention, August 15, 1988. https://youtu.be/sLW2UXXwjI8?t=2359 

 

The Power of the Visual in Action

The 40th President of the United States Consider Ronald Reagan, known as the “Great Communicator,” and deservedly so for his peerless skills as a public speaker (Figure 1.1). No president in the history of the United States achieved the level of popularity ratings that Reagan did. During his eight years in office (1981–1989), he brought personality to the forefront of presidential qualities. In an office that previously had been occupied by career politicians, former generals, or professional bureaucrats, Reagan’s persona radiated a subtle but irresistible charisma that held the national news media, the electorate, and every audience he ever faced in his thrall.

 

Figure 1.1

Former President Ronald Reagan

The measure of Reagan’s impact was best expressed in a reaction to what was to be his presidential swan song: a pass-the-baton speech in support of his imminent replacement, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. On August 15, 1988, at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans, the assembled delegates in the enormous Louisiana Superdome, and the even larger prime-time television audience, watched as Reagan poured on the charm: With George Bush, I’ll know as we approach the new millennium our children will have a future secure with a nation at peace and protected 4

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against aggression. We’ll have a prosperity that spreads the blessings of our abundance and opportunity across all America. We’ll have safe and active neighborhoods, drug-free schools that send our children soaring in the atmosphere of great ideas and deep values, and a nation confidently willing to take its leadership into the uncharted reaches of a new age. So, George, I’m in your corner. I’m ready to volunteer… The partisan crowd in the Superdome interrupted, rising to their feet to roar their approval, waving their blue and white “Bush ’88” banners in a tidal wave of affection. Reagan smiled humbly and then continued: …a little advice now and then and offer a pointer or two on strategy, if asked. I’ll help keep the facts straight or just stand back and cheer. But, George, just one personal request: Reagan paused for dramatic effect, his eyes crinkling. His lips parted into that classic sunny smile. Then he resumed to deliver the climax with his trademark signature phrase: Go out there and win one for the Gipper.5

The Television Critic Among the viewers of the nationwide telecast was Howard Rosenberg, the Pulitzer Prize–winning television critic of the Los Angeles Times, who summed up his reaction in his column the next day: There is a critical moment early in every Reagan speech when his physical presence begins to eclipse his words—when you begin watching more and hearing less—feeling more and thinking less. Look and mood completely take over. That presence on TV: just the sight of him cocking his head with his sincere grin and lopsided hair, is still worth a thousand words and millions of votes.6

The Scientists An equally powerful but converse example of Howard Rosenberg’s reaction to Ronald Reagan comes from Oliver Sacks, who was a prominent physician

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(Professor of Clinical Neurology and Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons), as well as a successful author. In his bestselling book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, Dr. Sacks described his work with aphasic (brain-damaged) patients. In one incident, Dr. Sacks entered a ward to find most of the patients watching a Reagan speech on television and laughing at him hysterically. Dr. Sacks explained: Why all this? Because speech—natural speech—does not consist of words alone.…It consists of utterance—an uttering-forth of one’s whole meaning with one’s whole being—the understanding of which involves infinitely more than mere word recognition. And this was the clue to aphasics’ understanding, even when they might be wholly uncomprehending of words as such.7 Further scientific validation of the power of body language comes from David McNeill, professor emeritus, Departments of Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Chicago, who conducted studies in a subject he called “communicative effects of speech-mismatched gestures.”8 The subjects in the study were shown a video in which speakers told a story, but with gestures that differed oddly from the content. After the story, the subjects were asked to retell the story from memory. The subjects described what they saw rather than what they heard. They described the gestures, not the words. The Visual dominated the Vocal and the Verbal.

(Video 2) UN General Assembly, Khrushchev Speech, Philipine Delegate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A3TRFH6CR0 

 

The Soviet Premier

On September 23, 1960, a day at the height of the Cold War, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the contentious leader of the Communist Bloc, came to New York to attend a session of the United Nations General Assembly. When he stepped up to the Swedish green marble dais to deliver his own speech, Khrushchev unleashed a vehement attack against the West, the United Nations, and, in particular, the United States (Figure 1.2). 6

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Former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev

The delegates in that international audience, listening to a simultaneous interpreter’s voice translate his Russian words, did not hear Khrushchev’s voice. So it was his vehement gestures that dominated, vividly conveying his aggressive message. Body language told the story.

The First Televised Presidential Debate Three days after Khrushchev’s speech in New York, a landmark rhetorical event took place at the CBS television studios in Chicago: Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, respectively the Republican and Democratic candidates for president, met in the first-ever televised presidential debate. Nixon, the favorite, appeared nervous and rigid, while Kennedy, the underdog, appeared confident and poised. The day after the debate, their positions in the public opinion polls reversed—further proof of the power of the body language. You’ll see a detailed analysis of the historic encounter in Chapter Seven: Speak with Your Body Language.

The Political Journalist James Fallows, after having served as a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter, became a respected national correspondent for  The Atlantic, specializing in presidential debates. In one of his articles, Fallows summed up the power of the Visual dynamic: …the easiest way to judge “victory” in many debates is to watch with the sound turned off, so you can assess the candidates’ ease, tenseness, humor, and other traits signaled by their body language.9 7

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The Mime The purest example of the power of the Visual is pantomime, the silent art, which had its origins in classical Greek and Roman drama and later evolution in sixteenth-century Italian commedia dell’arte. France’s Marcel Marceau (Figure 1.3), one of the world’s most famous mimes, for decades captivated audiences around the globe with his wordless performances. Of special note is his portrayal of the stages of life in a piece called “Youth, Maturity, Old Age, and Death.”

Marcel Marceau

 

 

Figure 1.3

(Video 3) Marcel Marceau—Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death (1965). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5RLTZSrr4A

Marceau begins the sequence curled up in the fetal position and then, slowly, in one unbroken sequence, opens up and becomes a toddling infant. Continuing fluidly, he stretches his limbs, and the infant transforms into a strapping young man, striding vigorously forward in place. But soon his strides slow down, his shoulders hunch over, and he becomes an old man, doddering forward until he concludes in a shriveled ball, a mirror image of the fetal position at the start. Another mime tells a less profound and more whimsical tale—of a person getting ready to go to work—with a complete beginning, middle, and end, all in 60 seconds. The Visual tells the entire story without the Verbal or Vocal. 8

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(Video 4) The Mime. www.besuasive.com/videos

For our culminating example, we return to the business world and, in particular, the high stakes of IPO roadshows. A fascinating academic study examined “how investor perceptions of management influence firm valuation.”10 To assess those perceptions, researchers showed 30-second video clips from the NetRoadshows of 224 companies to random audiences—but they filtered the soundtrack so that the CEOs’ voices were distorted, and their words were unintelligible. The Wall Street Journal reported on the study and, in their article, went right to the bottom line: They found that perceptions of the CEO are a strong predictor of an IPO’s price. The study found that for the average CEO, a 5% higher rating on perceptions correlated to an IPO price roughly 11% higher than the price that would be expected based on fundamentals alone. ...The more a chief executive’s gestures and manners exude competence during investor pitch sessions, the more likely he or she is to have a higher-priced IPO.11 “Gestures and manners” are the Visual dynamic. The irony is that most presenters spend most of their time and effort on the Verbal content. So, am I suggesting that you should forget about telling your story and focus all of your energy on your delivery skills? Not at all. Put equal effort on both sides of the equation, as much on your body language and your voice as on your story, as much on the messenger as the message. Of course, as always, focus on how your audience perceives you, the messenger, and the message. Build a bridge between you and your audience. That bridge is empathy.

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Chapter Two

Creating Empathy with Your Audience

Case Studies: Shocking British Couples • Italian Laboratory Monkeys • Robert Krulwich, Nova • Vince Lombardi • Steve Jobs, Apple • Ken Kocienda, Apple • The Boy with a Hand in the Cookie Jar • The Telemarketer • John Stumpf, Wells Fargo • Jeffrey Sonnenfeld • Marc Trestman • Governor Rick Scott • Will Stephen • Megan Rapinoe People will forget what you said, People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.1 Maya Angelou

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Evolved from the Greek word for emotion or affection, empathy refers to shared or vicarious feelings—as distinct from sympathy, which is more about pity and implies separate, rather than mutual, feelings. In the presentation environment, empathy refers to the shared feelings between the audience and the presenter. The sharing on the audience’s part, however, is involuntary. The most common example of such involuntary sharing is yawning. Think of the time you’ve been in a group and one person yawns. Before long, other people in the group yawn, too. It’s contagious. That’s empathy.

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To see how empathy works in the presentation environment, let’s revisit the deer-in-the-headlights scenario from the Introduction. A presenter stepped up to the lectern and suddenly froze: the eyes widened, the body went rigid, the mouth got pasty, and the hand trembled. How did that make you, watching from the audience, feel? Most likely, you winced. You felt sorry for the presenter, if not even somewhat nervous yourself. In that one instant, your reaction was completely visceral. Another common wince-inducing situation is when a presenter steps into the bright stage lights and suddenly squints. Undoubtedly, you squint, too. That is empathy, a direct correlation between what the presenter does and how the audience feels, an involuntary link between the presenter behavior and the audience perception. That link is the audience’s first impression of the presenter. As Malcolm Gladwell made clear in Blink, first impressions last.

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There is an actual neurological link between presenter behavior and audience perception. A team of British researchers conducted a study to measure human brain waves in empathic situations. As part of the experiment, volunteer couples were invited into a laboratory where the scientists attached electrodes to each person’s brain. First, one member of the couple received a mild electric shock, which produced an impulse in a specific area of that person’s brain. Then the mild electric shock was administered to the second member of the couple. When the first person observed the partner’s reaction to the shock, the same area of the first person’s brain produced the same impulse as when they were shocked— even though that person was no longer experiencing the shock. What the first person saw produced the same reaction as they previously felt. As the study summed it up:

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Our ability to have an experience of another’s pain is characteristic of empathy. Using functional imaging, we assessed brain activity while volunteers experienced a painful stimulus and compared it to that elicited when they observed a signal indicating that their loved one— present in the same room—was receiving a similar pain stimulus.2 Although you may not be the loved one of the stressed deer-in-the-headlights speaker, when you are in the audience and see that person’s nervousness, you are most likely to feel similar, vicarious feelings. 12

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These feelings are due to a set of nerve cells in the brain called mirror neurons, which were first studied by a team of Italian researchers working with laboratory monkeys. The study was intended to measure the animals’ brain activity, but the scientists noted that the monkeys’ physical behavior mimicked their own, leading the scientists to conclude: These findings indicate that premotor neurons can retrieve movements not only on the basis of stimulus characteristics…but also on the basis of the meaning of the observed actions.3

(Video 5) NOVA scienceNOW: 1—Mirror Neurons. https://youtu.be/Xmx1qPyo8Ks?t=270 

 

The article was circulated widely among other scientists, who dubbed the mirror neurons “Monkey see, monkey do.”4 Put another way, what is seen is the same as what is felt.

Empathy in Action The evolutionary path from hominids to humans was the subject of a PBS television documentary about mirror neurons on the science series Nova. While the program presented all the usual serious scientific evidence, including the British and Italian experiments above, the most illustrative—and entertaining—part of the program came when the series host and executive editor, Robert Krulwich, piled a stack of heavy boxes on top of one another and then carried them out onto a street in New York City.5 The stack was very high and very unstable, so Krulwich struggled and strained as he walked. As he passed other pedestrians, who were carrying nothing bulkier than purses or briefcases they, too, appeared strained. What the pedestrians saw produced the same reaction as Krulwich exhibited. More recently, a team of scientists at Princeton University published a study they conducted on how neurology impacts communications. Using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) of brain activity, they discovered that speakers and listeners communicate more successfully when they achieve “neural coupling,” which they described as: We connected the extent of neural coupling to a quantitative measure of story comprehension and find that the greater the anticipatory speakerlistener coupling, the greater the understanding.6 13

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Whether by neural coupling or mirror neurons, presenters and audiences are involuntarily bonded in empathy, a powerful emotional dynamic. Empathy works both ways. Different behavior by the presenter produces a different perception from the audience. Imagine if the deer-in-the-headlights presenter had behaved differently: striding to the lectern briskly, smiling broadly, with both arms open wide in welcome. Your reaction would very likely have been positive. And all of this occurs before the presenter utters a single word! Positive or negative, the audience’s response to the presenter’s behavior is involuntary. Then, when the presenter speaks, all the dynamics work together. If the presenter exhibits anxiety, the audience will perceive the story dubiously or, worse, negatively; if the presenter appears authoritative and confident, the audience will perceive the story favorably. Either way, empathy impacts the exchange, the reaction, and, eventually, the outcome. As Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach, once said, “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.”7 Just think about how the presenter behavior affected the audience perception in the preceding examples: When the deer-in-the-headlights presenter’s hand trembled, you felt it.

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When the presenter stepped into the bright lights and squinted, you winced.

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When the couples in the British study saw each other receive a shock, their mirror neurons caused them to respond just as they did when they received a shock themselves.

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When Nova’s Robert Krulwich struggled and strained with a stack of heavy boxes, complete strangers on the street reflected his strain.









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(Video 6) Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone at Macworld 2007. https://youtu.be/x7qPAY9JqE4?t=79 

 

All these examples represent negative behaviors that produced negative perceptions. Now flip the lens: when the presenter’s behavior is positive, it produces a positive perception.

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On January 9, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs—wearing what had become his trademark uniform: black mock turtleneck, blue jeans, and white sneakers— nonchalantly strolled onto the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention 14

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Center in front of an enormous audience assembled for the annual Macworld conference. He began by chatting casually about previous Apple launches, but when he started to describe the new product launching that day, his voice and body language suddenly fired up to express his passion and enthusiasm. Today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device. So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone— Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices, this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone. Today…Apple is going to reinvent the phone, and here it is.8 Ken Kocienda, one of the principal software engineers on the iPhone design team, described Jobs’ dramatic shift from conversational mode to sales pitch: He went fully into his keynote persona. His tone of voice, his stance, his gestures, everything…9

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The iPhone went on to revolutionize the technology industry, countless other businesses, and even social media. And so did Steve Jobs’ launch presentation, which went on to become the benchmark by which all other launches—if not all other presentations—would be measured.

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From all the foregoing, you can draw the following conclusions about the effectiveness of both the story and the delivery. The matrix in Figure 2.1 relates story effec tiveness to delivery effectiveness. Both are charted from low to high. 15

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Story

Delivery  

Figure 2.1

Effectiveness Matrix

A presenter can be in one of four following quadrants:

1. Lower Left: Low Story/Low Delivery or Bad Message/Ineffective Messenger The classic example of this case is the little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. As he protests “I was just looking for my homework!” his eyes dart around the room while he squirms and fidgets. Looking for his homework in the cookie jar? An unlikely story, and his nervous behavior gives him away. The all-too-familiar business example of low story/low delivery is that of the telemarketer who sits in a cubicle for hours on end, dialing an endless list of telephone numbers, calling complete strangers. The telemarketer uses a canned pitch to try to sell a product or service that may or, much more likely, may not be of interest to the person. The one-size-fits-all script is a poor story, and the telemarketer’s flat vocal delivery, after countless repetitions, sounds robotic. A higher-stakes example of this case is that of John Stumpf, the former chair and CEO of Wells Fargo Bank. On September 8, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) charged the bank with “the widespread illegal practice of secretly opening unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts…by transferring funds from consumers’ authorized accounts without their knowledge or consent, often racking up fees or other charges,”10 and fined the bank $185 million.11 Less than two weeks later, Stumpf was summoned to Washington, D.C., to testify about the scandal to the Senate Banking Committee. The well-groomed, silver-haired CEO was attired in the standard respectable bank officer uniform: dark suit, white shirt, and conservative necktie. His right hand was conspicuously 16

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CEO 7) John Stumpf discussing his company’s settlement with the Senate Banking Committee (56:10). https://www.c-span.org/video/?415547-1/ceo-johnstumpftestifies-unauthorized-wells-fargo-accounts 

 

wrapped in bandages (due to an injury from playing with his grandchildren, according to a spokesperson).12 But the indignant senators showed him no respect or mercy in their crossfire questions.

One of his inquisitors was Senator Pat Toomey (R–PA):

S

t

Toomey: Let me begin. Mr. Stumpf, do you acknowledge that the employees who engaged in this activity were committing fraud? umpf:

You know, I’m not a—uh—criminal—uh—ah—you know…

Echoing Richard Nixon’s infamous denial of guilt, Stumpf’s halting delivery made him sound as guilty as did Nixon.

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Toomey: When did you begin to disclose in SEC filings that you had this potentially material adverse set of circumstances that could certainly have huge damage to your reputational value?

(Video 8) CEO John Stumpf discussing his company’s settlement with the Senate Banking Committee (1:32:25–1:33:22). https://www.c-span.org/video/?415547-1/ceo-johnstumpf-testifies-unauthorized-wells-fargoaccounts 

 

t

S umpf: Well, I don’t—the—the—uh—I don’t—I can’t answer that, I’d have to get to our—our legal team. I don’t have that in front of me, but this was not a—a—ah—I just—I’d have to get back to you on that. I don’t know.13

Later in the day, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D–MASS) continued the attack: Warren: Do you know how much money, how much value your stock holdings in Wells Fargo gained while the scam was under way? t

S umpf: Well, first of all, it was not a scam. And cross-sell is a way of deepening relationships—when customers…

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Warren: We’ve been through this, Mr. Stumpf. I asked you a very simple question. Do you know how much the value of your stock went up while this scam was going on? umpf:

It’s—it’s—all of my compensation is in our—uh—public filings…

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t

Warren: Do you know how much it was? umpf:

It’s all in the public filings.

Warren: You’re right, it is all in the public records because I looked it up. While this scam was going on, you personally held an average of 6.75 million shares of Wells stock. The share price during this time period went up by about $30, which comes out to more than $200 million in gains all for you personally.14

(Video 9) Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf “Completely Unprepared” | Squawk Box | CNBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvzV7D54Xo 

 

It took Senators Toomey, Warren, and their colleagues on the Senate Banking Committee a day to expose the problems in the Wells Fargo story, but it took an academician only thirty seconds to expose the problems with Stumpf’s delivery.

The day after the Senate hearing, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a senior associate dean and professor at the Yale School of Management, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box to comment on Stumpf’s testimony: He went in there completely unprepared. He had a flat, drafted, public relations script that he read off that was contrite and seemed authentic—then was melted in the easiest of questions that came his way; questions that should have been anticipated: When did he know? What did he know? And who knew what, when? He wasn’t prepared… he managed to unify this highly fractious committee.15 Less than a month later, Stumpf  resigned  from Wells Fargo. A little more than three years after that, in 2020, the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency banned Stumpf from the banking industry for life and fined him $17.5 million personally. Ultimately,16 Wells Fargo settled the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission investigations for $3 billion.17 A damaged hand caught in a very large cookie jar.

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(Video 10) Argonauts Training Camp: Marc Trestman— May 22, 2018). https://www.argonauts.ca/s2018/05/22/argonautstraining-camp-marc-trestmanmay-22-2018/ 

 

2. Upper Left: High Story Driven Down by Low Delivery or Strong Message/Unconvincing Delivery

epor er: t

R

Football coaches are synonymous with motivational speakers and every coach’s stock-in-trade is the rousing pep talk that inspires players to superior performances. Marc Trestman is a veteran coach who has held that position with several teams in both the U.S.-based National Football League and in the Canadian Football League. During a stint with the Toronto Argonauts, he held an on-field press conference with sports reporters.18 In the transcript below, you’ll see that I’ve underlined the supposedly inspirational words of his story—“urgency,” “enthusiastic,” “energy,” “important,” and “excited”—but that is only my emphasis. Trestman delivered those words with the same flatline monotone he used for every other word: First impressions of day one of practice?

st

Tre man: The guys are excited to be back. It was a very enthusiastic practice they worked really hard and you know, we’re gonna go and grade the film and try to make the corrections and compliment them when they did well and correct them and just try to get better. t

R

epor er: How important are these first couple of days, especially because the training camp is so short, and the season is right around the corner? st

Tre man: I mean, I look at it a little differently, I look at every day being a major sense of urgency to get work done and become a better football team. I don’t rate days and I don’t look at day seven being less important than day one or day fifty being less important than day seven, they all couldn’t be more important, ya know, this is the only day we get we gotta make the most of it. t

R

epor er: Was there anything or any group in particular that stood out today that you liked what you saw? st

Tre man: Ya know I just like the energy today. I thought, we got some new guys and I’m not gonna start naming names but we got some new guys I think that uh, not only draft choices but free agents I think that have really added value to our team and I’m just gonna be really excited to see how this thing comes together on a day-by-day basis. 19

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(Video 11) Funny Interpreter at Rick Scott’s Hurricane Irma Speech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue= 26&v=-4dtAjRDAYU 

 

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An unusual variation on the high story/low delivery dynamic occurred when Hurricane Irma wreaked devastation on Florida. Governor Rick Scott went on television to tell his constituents about emergency measures for the storm.19 He spoke urgent words such as “life-threatening,” “catastrophic,” “deadly,” “survive,” and “evacuate,” but he read them from a document in a bland, matter-of-fact drone. In sharp contrast, an interpreter for the hearing impaired stood at the governor’s side, delivering the sign language version of those same urgent words. But the interpreter conveyed the same message with dramatic gestures, swinging his arms wide and punctuating his silent translation with animated facial expressions that added a touch of tension-relieving humor.

(Video 12) How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk | Will Stephen | TEDxNewYork https://youtu.be/8S0FDjFBj8o 

 

3. Lower Right: High Delivery Driven Down by Low Story

Will Stephen, a writer on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, serves as an example for this case. He created a TEDx Talk that, in his opening words, fully disclosed that his story had nothing of value; and by its title, How to Sound Smart in a TEDx Talk,20 conveyed his intention to give that story the false appearance of value with a spirited delivery. He used his voice and body language to produce expressive gestures, dynamic speech, and animated features: Hear that? That’s nothing, which is what I, as a speaker at today’s conference, have for you all. I have nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zippo. Nothing smart, nothing inspirational, nothing even remotely researched at all. I have absolutely nothing to say whatsoever. And yet, through my manner of speaking I will make it seem like I do. Like what I am saying is brilliant and maybe, just maybe, you will feel like you’ve learned something. Now, I’m gonna get started with the opening. I’m gonna make a lot of hand gestures, I’m gonna do this with my right hand, 20

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I’m gonna do this with my left. I’m gonna adjust my glasses and then I’m gonna ask you all a question. By show of hands, how many of you have been asked a question before? Okay great, I’m seeing some hands. And again, I have nothing here…

(Video 13) Megan Rapinoe’s full World Cup parade speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDrB2IestHs&fe ature=youtube&t=238 

 

4. Upper Right: High Story/High Delivery

In 2019, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team won their fourth consecutive World Cup, led by their captain, Megan Rapinoe. The route to the championship, however, was marked by political controversy and challenges, largely generated by Rapinoe’s activism. She repeatedly spoke out on behalf of equal pay for female athletes, racial injustice, and gay rights and against the president of the United States.

­

­

But at a grand victory celebration in New York City for the team, Rapinoe gave a six-minute speech filled with conciliation, unity, and harmony. She conveyed her new tone with a ringing voice and the same confident, vigorous athleticism she demonstrated on the playing field: This is my charge to everyone: we have to be better. We have to love more, hate less. We gotta listen more and talk less. We gotta know that this is everybody’s responsibility. Every single person here. Every single person who’s not here. Every single person who doesn’t wanna be here. Every single person who agrees and doesn’t agree. It’s our responsibility to make this world a better place.…There’s been so much contention in these last years, I’ve been a victim of that. I’ve been a perpetrator of that, with our fight with the federation. Sorry for some of the things I said—not all of the things. But it’s time together, this conversation is at the next step. We have to collaborate, it takes everybody. This is my charge to everybody: do what you can. Do what you have to do. Step outside yourself. Be more. Be better. Be bigger than you’ve ever been before. If this team is any representation of what you can be when you do that, please take this as an example. This group is incredible. We took so much on our shoulders to be here today, to celebrate with you today, and we did it with a smile. So, do the same for us, please, we ask you. New York City, you’re the…best.21 21

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Spoken like a champion. Ideally, everybody wants to be in the upper-right quadrant—high story/high delivery—and deliver a strong message powerfully. Why can’t we be the best we can be? Why can’t every presenter be that by default? The reason is that when human beings stand up in front of audiences, they are impacted by forces that are seemingly above and beyond their control. In the following chapters, you will learn what those forces are and how you can indeed control all of them. Let’s begin by looking more deeply into the most powerful of those forces: the Fight-or-Flight Reaction.

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Chapter Three

The Butterflies in Your Stomach

Case Studies: Cullen Dudas, Lumier • Senator Marco Rubio • Mark Twain • Robert De Niro There are two types of speakers: those who get nervous and those who are liars.1 (Attributed to) Mark Twain

As you read in the Introduction, every living being on the planet, from one-celled organisms to four-legged animals to two-legged humans, responds to imminent danger by standing its ground and fighting for its life or by fleeing for its life. To enable either of these reactions, the body releases a sudden surge of adrenaline that activates the sympathetic nervous system and produces survival behaviors.

Fight-or-Flight: Internal Dynamics ■  

 

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This emergency network then sets many internal parts of the body into accelerated motion: Eyes. Pupils dilate to increase the field of vision; the irises rapidly scan the area

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Heart. Pumps faster to send blood to the extremities to enable Fight-or-Flight





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Blood pressure. Elevates due to increased blood flow

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Blood sugar. Levels rise to generate more energy

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Lungs. Increase respiration rate to put more oxygen into the blood

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Sweat glands. Activate to avoid overheating, producing sweaty palms

•

Salivary glands. Shut down to suspend digestion, leaving the mouth bone dry (Video 14) Lumier Startup Battlefield Presentation—Cullen Dudas. https://youtu.be/aEdrey6U5dU?t=57 

 











•

TechCrunch Disrupt is an annual conference in which entrepreneurs of very early stage startup technology companies get the opportunity to pitch for financing from an audience of venture capitalists and angel investors—an adrenalineinducing situation if ever there was one. At one of the sessions, a young man named Cullen Dudas, a novice in the business world, was a finalist with his pitch for his nascent company, Lumier.

(Video 15) Marco Rubio Pauses Speech for Water Break. https://youtu.be/19ZxJVnM5Gs 

 

To heighten the stress of presenting to such a high-profile audience, when Dudas stepped onto the stage, there was some confusion about the number of presenters, and the MC interrupted him to clarify. At the same time, the technical staff put up the wrong slide, and Dudas had to stop to correct them. By the time he started the actual pitch, his elevated stress level gave him a case of dry mouth, and he had to repeatedly take gulping swallows and moisten his lips.2

Dry mouth also strikes more mature people. Senator Marco Rubio (R–FLA) infamously experienced the phenomenon when he delivered the Republican Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address in 2013.3 As he spoke, his mouth pasted dry so often, he had to stop, reach down for a bottle of water, and take a hurried gulp, looking desperate in the process.

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Time Warp The adrenaline surge also fires up the nerve synapses to heighten alertness, but it also distorts the presenter’s senses into Time Warp. Time moves very differently for a person standing in front of a roomful of people. Even for me. You’ll recall from the Preface that, before becoming a presentations coach, I was a producer-director at CBS. Television people live by the clock. Although I’ve been out of that business for more than three decades, I still wear a stopwatch. Counting time is easy for me; I can easily calculate backward and forward in units of 60, but I have difficulty balancing my checkbook. For nearly all the time since I left broadcasting, I have been a presentations coach, and almost every time I coach, I present material that is quite familiar to me. As a result, my adrenaline flow is barely elevated when I am in front of an audience. With that as background, after a prolonged absence from broadcasting, I had occasion to return to a television studio for the media tour for my first book, Presenting to Win. Before the video recording began, as an audio technician attached my microphone, the interviewer chatted amiably with me. I asked her how long the interview would last, and she replied, “Oh, about four or five minutes.” Soon the stage manager cued the interviewer to start the interview. Our conversation continued smoothly, but suddenly, all too suddenly, the interviewer said, “We’re about out of time. Thank you, Jerry, for joining us here today.” As the technician returned to remove my microphone, I asked the interviewer, “Did you run out of time?” “Why?” she asked. “You cut me off after only a couple of minutes.” “No,” she replied, and then called into the control room, “George, how long did that piece run?” A moment later, the disembodied voice of George boomed out over a loudspeaker, “Four minutes and forty-six seconds.”

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Four minutes and forty-six seconds felt like a couple of minutes! A 150 percent misperception of time! And I know time, I know television, and I present frequently! Imagine the degree of misperception for anyone who presents less frequently. That’s Time Warp.

Fight-or-Flight: External Dynamics ■  

 

■

Now let’s look at how adrenaline affects body language.

The Limbs When a four-legged animal senses imminent danger, it scampers away to escape—the Flight reaction. When a four-legged animal can’t escape because it is trapped in the back of the cave, it lashes out at its attacker with its paws—the Fight reaction. The animal also protects its underbelly, the vulnerable part of the body that contains its vital organs. When dogs or cats feel threatened, they hunker down to the ground, contracting their fore and hind paws. When a two-legged animal senses imminent danger, its legs respond instinctively to flee—the Flight reaction; or it puts up its dukes—the Fight reaction. When a two-legged presenting animal is faced with the daunting task of standing exposed before an audience, the solitary focus of attention for dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of watchful eyes, it responds with the Flight reaction: pacing around the platform like a caged tiger. Or as Mark Twain’s legs did the first time he spoke in public. The great American humorist, who was to go on to become a famous lecturer, described his initial experience: “My knees were shaking so that I didn’t know whether I could stand up. If there is an awful, horrible malady in the world it is stage fright.”4 When a two-legged presenting animal cannot escape because it is trapped by the microphone, the computer, the lectern—and the expectant audience—it responds by protecting its vulnerable underbelly with its limbs. Of course, the civilized presenter is not going to strike the pose in the famous painting September Morn (Figure 3.1).

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Figure 3.1

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September Morn by Paul Chabas, 1912

But two-legged presenting animals do strike variations of the September Morn pose: Hands clasped below the waist in front (the “fig leaf”)

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Hands clasped behind the back (the “reverse fig leaf”)



•



•



•



•



•



•



•





•

Both hands tightly clasped above the waist Half-clasped (one hand pressed to the side defensively while the other hand gestures) Reverse half-clasped (the opposite hand pressed defensively to the side while the other hand gestures) One or both hands plunged deeply into the pants pockets Both hands clenched as if in prayer Both hands wringing like Lady Macbeth Both hands cupped together, while the fingers of one hand nervously twirl the ring on the finger of the other hand The fingers of both hands playing cat’s cradle

•

The fingers of both hands forming a tepee with the fingertips in what is known as “a butterfly doing pushups on a mirror”





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The common factor in all these movements is that the upper arms press tightly against the side of the body, positioning the forearms and hands to be in position to dart down and protect the vulnerable underbelly. As a result, the elbows clamp the body as if they were attached by Velcro. All these positions have one common name: Body Wrap (Figure 3.2).

 

Figure 3.2

Body Wrap

Photo by Rich Hall

In the noteworthy Hollywood film The Irishman, Robert De Niro portrayed the life of a gangster ranging from his 30s through his 80s. De Niro was 76 when the film was shot, but with the use of a new special effects technique, his face was made to look younger for the earlier ages. However, as several critics observed, his actual body did not match his virtual digital face. “But even with those fancy effects I just saw the Robert De Niro of today,” said one.5 The New York Times critic described one particular scene, where the younger version of the character assaults a victim: Like anyone his age, De Niro moves in a way that prioritizes stability: His elbows stay tucked protectively near his ribs, and his feet jab stiffly out without disturbing his center of gravity.6 In a violent encounter, an older man, having lost muscle mass and agility, becomes defensive, tries to stay upright, and brings his arms into Body Wrap.

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Presenter Behavior/Audience Perception ■  

 

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Here’s how all the preceding reflexive presenter behaviors are perceived by the audience: Eyes. Rapid eye movement appears shifty-eyed or furtive.

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Features. Under stress, the features freeze, making the presenter appear detached from the story and disengaged from the audience.





•

Head. Sweeping back and forth across the audience makes no one feel addressed and appears impersonal.

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Hands and Arms. Body Wrap appears defensive or protective.

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Stance. Body Wrap also contracts the body, throwing the posture or stance inward, shifting the weight to one hip or the other, making the presenter appear slack.







•

Moreover, Body Wrap presses the arms against the rib cage, constricting the air supply in the lungs, which, in turn, impacts: Volume. Low volume sounds soft or weak.

•

Inflection. Narrow inflection sounds monotonous.





•

Time Warp affects two other aspects of the voice: Tempo. The outpouring of words accelerates, making the presenter sound rushed or harried.

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Pattern. Jamming the words into a flatline stream makes it difficult for the audience to separate the ideas, and the story becomes a data dump.





•

The steady stream pattern also causes the presenter to lose track and hitch, which produces:

•

Unwords. When “UMs” or “AHs” intrude repeatedly, the presenter sounds uncertain.

Negative presenter behavior produces negative audience perception. This cause and effect is summarized for you in Table 3.1.

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Table 3.1

 

T he P ower P resenter Presenter Behavior/Audience Perception Table

FACTOR

BEHAVIOR

PERCEPTION

Eyes

Scanning

Furtive

Features

Immobile

Disengaged

Head

Sweeping

Impersonal

Stance

Off-center

Slack

Hands/Arms

Body Wrap

Protective

Volume

Low

Soft

Inflection

Narrow

Monotonous

Tempo

Fast

Harried

Pattern

Steady stream

Data dump

Unwords

Multiple

Uncertain

To restate the paradox from the Introduction: The very system that enables a creature to survive in the wild causes it to falter or fail in the captive environment of a presentation.

The Yikes! Moment ■  

 

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Let’s return to that pivotal instant when the presentation begins, when the audience sits back and falls silent, and the presenter becomes the focal point of attention. At that moment, the presenter suddenly thinks, “Yikes! They’re all looking at me! I’d better do well! I’d better not mess up!” That’s the Yikes! moment—the moment when all these powerful forces surging around inside your body and your mind occur. But that moment is preceded by many other moments that stretch all the way back to another important moment: when the date and time for your high-stakes presentation was set. As the clock starts ticking down to D-day, you think, “How will I ever find the time to get it done?” Suddenly, you ignite a state of high anticipation that builds in intensity until the Yikes! moment. Then the sight of your live audience kicks your adrenaline flow even higher. Nip your anticipation in the bud. Diminish your anxiety by preparing your content thoroughly, the subject of the next chapter.

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Chapter Four

The Quest for Content

Case Studies: Jeff Raikes, Microsoft • Evan Osnos • Michael Bay • Marianna Pascal • Jeff Lawson, Twilio • Julian Chokkattu • Marcus Tullius Cicero • Will Poole, Microsoft • Steve Jobs, Apple • Vince Lombardi I asked a guy to tell me the time, He told me how to build a clock. Common social complaint

Jeff Raikes has had a long and distinguished career. He was the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for almost six years. Prior to that, he spent 27 years at Microsoft Corporation as one of the company’s major executives, much of that time as president of the Microsoft Business Division. Now he is the cofounder of The Raikes Foundation, whose mission is to help empower young people to reach their full potential. Early in Jeff’s career at Microsoft, he was given a very important assignment: to introduce a new product called Windows for Pen Computing. An account executive from Microsoft’s public relations agency, Waggener Edstrom, called and asked me to coach the young manager for his launch presentation. I offered our three-day program, which covers the full range of skills from story development through slide design, delivery skills, and how to handle tough questions. The account executive said, “We can only give you one day.”

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In that one day, all we did was to shape, structure, and rehearse Jeff’s story. He then went off and delivered his presentation. Afterward, the account executive called me to praise Jeff’s delivery, commenting on how poised and assured he appeared, with assertive gestures and an authoritative voice. But in our one day together, I had never said a word about body language or voice. Jeff’s clarity of mind gave him the comfort to present with confidence. Knowledge of content controlled an adrenaline-inducing situation.

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However, Jeff Raikes’ experience was atypical. Most businesspeople, when faced with the challenge of having to develop a presentation, often beg, borrow, or steal a colleague’s slides and rely on them to tell the story. They assume, as a New Yorker article put it, that “PowerPoint can be an impressive antidote to fear— converting public-speaking dread into moviemaking pleasure…[and] be soothing.”1 This desperate quest for content—to know what to say—sends presenters down blind alleys, most of them leading to dead ends.

Slides ■  

 

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There is a pervasive belief throughout the business world that the slides are the story, and so each slide in the deck is loaded with detailed verbiage and comprehensive data. This misguided belief leads to a series of misguided practices that fall into a vicious cycle: The content-heavy slides are used as a display during the presentation and as a document for distribution before, during, or after the presentation, in a hybrid incarnation known as a Twofer. Unfortunately, neither the display nor the document stands alone.

•

The beg-borrow-or-steal method usually proceeds to a random shuffling of the deck into a slide-to-slide sequence that has a logic for each individual juncture but has no overarching flow.

•

In the presentation, speakers, reliant on the screen, turn their backs to the audience and read the dense, disjointed deck verbatim, making the audience feel both disconnected and patronized. The audience reacts with puzzlement, boredom, or restlessness, any of which, when seen by the presenter, proceeds to heighten that person’s anxiety—which began with the desperate quest for content in the first place. ­



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Q uest

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Script ■  

 

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Some presenters seek to bring their content to the front of the room with them in a word-for-word script, but that seemingly comforting crutch has a double downside: Presenter delivery. To access the content, the presenter’s eyes must return repeatedly to the script, breaking engagement with the audience and, because the presenter’s vocal energy is directed downward to the script, the presenter’s voice becomes muffled.

•

Audience perception. The presenter appears to lack preparation or knowledge of the subject.





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(Video 16) Mark Zuckerberg is too ambitious to let things go pear-shaped, says The New Yorker’s Osnos. https://youtu.be/U4tPRm9JzUA 

 

Here’s an example of what reading from a script can do to an excellent speaker. Evan Osnos, a staff writer at The New Yorker and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, appears frequently on cable and broadcast television; and as the author of Age of Ambition, which received the National Book Award, he often travels the lecture circuit, managed by a prestigious Washington, D.C.–based speaker’s bureau. In all these cases, Osnos speaks fluently without notes.

(Video 17) Evan Osnos “Age of Ambition.” https://youtu.be/RP_hi_rORJ8 

 

In an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss a profile he had written on Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Osnos appeared authoritative and articulate as he spoke directly to the camera—and to the audience.2

In an appearance at a Washington, D.C. bookstore to promote his book, Osnos appeared warm and confident as he repeatedly engaged with his live audience.3

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(Video 18) The China debate: Are US and Chinese long-term interests fundamentally incompatible? https://youtu.be/hERzupvRa-o 

 

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However, at an event at the Brookings Institution, a different version of Osnos surfaced.4 During his opening welcome and agenda-setting greetings, he spoke without notes and projected the same engaging, animated persona he had shown on television and in the bookstore. But when he began reading from his prepared remarks, he repeatedly dropped his eyes and voice down to the script on the lectern. Although a fixed microphone maintained his volume, his vocal animation flattened. And although he looked up from time to time—and was his engaging and animated self each time—his script became more of a hindrance than a help.

Teleprompter (Also Known as Autocue) ■  

 

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Teleprompter is a sophisticated technical system of transparent screens, mirrors, and a computer that scrolls an invisible (to the audience) image of the wordfor-word script at the speaker’s eye level in real time. Use of this complex—and expensive—system requires careful preparation and extensive practice, or the presenter can appear robotic.

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The primary users of teleprompters fall into two groups, each with different reasons for using these supportive devices:



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Performers and newscasters whose words must be precisely synchronized with other production elements, such as video clips, remote locations, other speakers, and breaks for commercials. For these users, a transparent teleprompter screen is mounted over the lens of a camera so that the speaker can read the text and still look directly into the lens and out to the audience. Public officials and politicians whose narratives often address sensitive policy or legal issues and require prepared texts that are carefully vetted and reviewed position statements. For these users, two transparent screens are mounted on thin rods placed at either side of the lectern, allowing the speaker to move back and forth between the screens to access the full text and still appear to be looking at the audience. 34

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But teleprompters are mechanical devices and, like all mechanical devices, are subject to Murphy’s Law:

(Video 19) Michael Bay quits Samsung’s press conference. https://youtu.be/R4rMy1iA268 

 

Whatever can go wrong will.

Michael Bay is a Hollywood producer-director whose action films such as Transformers, Armageddon, and Bad Boys have grossed an aggregate $9.4 billion. His blockbuster films have earned him multiple industry awards that have often brought him out from behind the camera to face audiences to deliver acceptance speeches. When Samsung Group planned to introduce their new transformative curved video screen at the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Bay was a natural choice to help with the launch. During the elaborate multimedia presentation in front of a very large audience, however, Bay’s teleprompter froze, and so did he. After a moment, he said, “Excuse me, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” and turned to scurry off the stage.5 Later he blogged: I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down— then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing.6 Forewarned is forearmed: use teleprompters at your own risk.

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“Big Tent,” or large-scale, events such as industry conferences and trade shows use a variation of the teleprompter called comfort monitors. Here, the content is reduced to bullets on slides that are projected on big LCD monitors placed at the foot of the stage. With this arrangement, presenters can glance down briefly for prompts and spend the majority of their time looking up and out, engaging with the audience.

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(Video 20) Learning a language? Speak it like you’re playing a video game | Marianna Pascal | TEDxPenangRoad. https://youtu.be/Ge7c7otG2mk 

 

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(Video 21) Jeff Lawson: SIGNAL 2019—Keynote Day 1. https://youtu.be/TTo37IRoMz4 

 

Marianna Pascal, who has spent 20 years teaching thousands of Malaysians and other Southeast Asians to speak English, described her unique approach to language learning at TEDxPenangRoad. As she stood on a small stage, she glanced down only occasionally for prompts from a pair of comfort monitors set about ten feet apart in front of her and spent most of her presentation looking out to her audience, warmly engaging with them.7

Jeff Lawson, the CEO of Twilio, about whom you read in the Preface, was the keynote speaker at SIGNAL, his company’s annual customer and developer conference. The venue was the mammoth main hall at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, with a live audience of more than 3,000 and thousands more attending via livestream. Three gigantic projection screens spanned a wide stage displaying magnified images of Jeff, along with animated graphics and videos. Jeff used comfort monitors, too, but his were placed farther apart, giving him the freedom to stride from side to side of the stage to engage with all parts of his large audience—which added an enthusiastic bounce to his moves.8

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A Silicon Valley company called Mojo Vision is developing a smart contact lens called Mojo Lens that enables a wearer to access multiple apps, including calendar, weather, music, and, of particular interest to our purposes, an app called Speech. Wired reporter Julian Chokkattu described a demonstration of Mojo Lens: Using only my eyes, I opened a prewritten speech, scrolled through it, and read it aloud. This app alone opens up a myriad of possibilities…if you’re filming a video, you may not need to shoot multiple 36

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takes because the script is in the dead center of your eye. Who needs teleprompters?9 But the demo was only a prototype. Mojo Lens is still in the R&D phase and is not expected to come to market for several years. That means you need a more efficient way to develop the content for your presentations. Let me offer you the method I used with Jeff Raikes.

Five Simple Steps to Develop Your Story ■  

 

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In Presenting to Win, I provide a comprehensive 10-step process of story development using the methodology I developed based on my experience at CBS. Five of those steps relate to delivery skills and help you in your quest for content.

1. FrameForm: Establish the Context Define the playing field. Establish the parameters. Every sport sets the boundaries for its arena. The same first step is necessary for presentations. Without those boundaries, the tendency is to throw everything into the mix, and the story becomes a confusing assault on the audience. Instead, start by considering your story as a blank white frame, just as painters start with an empty canvas. Tabula rasa, a clean slate. Along the left side of the frame, identify the objective of your presentation, your goal. This is known as Point BSM—because, when your audience enters the room, they are at Point A, in their own blank slate. Your task is to provide them with reasons and supporting evidence to move them from their Point A to your Point B. That movement is the essence of persuasion. Point B is your call to action, your goal, your endgame. On the right side of the frame, analyze your target audience: who they are, what they know, and what they need to know in order to respond to your call to action. A vital part of that analysis is to determine your audience’s benefits. To define those benefits, let me introduce you to the concept of WIIFY®, an acronym for “What’s in it for you?”—an intentional variation of the more common phrase “What’s in it for me?” The shift from “me” to “you” identifies the correct recipient of the benefit. For instance, if I wanted to persuade you to buy my product rather than that of the competitor, I would first describe all the features of my product. Then I 37

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would add, “What’s in it for you is that you’ll get the same results only better, faster, cheaper.” The last three adjectives are the benefits, the WIIFYs®. “You” is a very powerful word. If you search the web, you’ll find nearly nine million references to a Yale University study that ranked the 12 most persuasive words in the English language. “You” leads the list. The study is unsubstantiated by Yale but, like so much data on the web, this one has taken on a life of its own—with good reason. As you’ll see in the upcoming chapters, incorporating “you” in your presentation has other benefits. WIIFY® is central to persuasion. List as many WIIFYs® as you can; they are the reasons your audience needs to act on your Point B.

­

Capture this fundamental information on the Suasive FrameForm in Figure 4.1. When you fill in each side of the outer frame with all this pertinent data, you define the scope and context of your story. Having established the playing field, you can now move on to develop supporting ideas. SM

AUDIENCE

Point B

WIIFY®

 

Figure 4.1

Suasive FrameForm (available for download from www.besuasive.com)

2. Brainstorm: Consider All Potential Ideas Having established the context of one particular presentation to one particular target audience, you now need to come up with ideas to support that story. Those ideas will start bubbling up and bouncing around in your mind chaotically. That’s 38

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what minds do naturally. To manage the chaos, it’s important to be able to look at the ideas in an objective, panoramic view by getting them out of your mind and onto an external surface where you can examine them objectively. In our story development meetings at CBS, we wrote our ideas on 3×5 index cards and, using pushpins, mounted them on a corkboard wall. You can write your ideas on Postits, a pad of paper, a computer, a whiteboard, or nowadays, a digital whiteboard. The purpose of this part of the process is to lay out all the possible ideas you might consider so that you can evaluate, select, or reject each idea—separate the wheat from the chaff. Brainstorming all your ideas to find the essential ones is similar to how artists test their colors on a palette before applying them to a canvas. Most presenters, in their rush to get the job done, skip past brainstorming and jump directly to sequencing, most often by shuffling their slides. The result of this approach is a series of end-to-end connections, slide-to-slide, with no through line of sequence. That’s because this approach ignores the flood of diverse thoughts ricocheting around in the mind. Brainstorming allows the flood to run its course before attempting to impose a sequence. Write all your random ideas in the center of your FrameForm, as in Figure 4.2. SM

Point B

Media

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% CEO

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Figure 4.2 Suasive FrameForm with Brainstormed ideas

Now, having gotten the bulk of your ideas out, you’re ready to clarify the chaos. 39

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3. Distill: Find and Define the Key Ideas Look for relationships among the free-floating ideas on the FrameForm in Figure 4.2. As you do, draw connections between those that are related, as in Figure 4.3. SM

Point B

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Figure 4.3

%

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Suasive FrameForm Brainstorm with Connections

At first, all those connections will look like a wiring diagram, but as you continue, you’ll find that they distill into clusters of ideas around central themes, as in Figure 4.4. SM

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Suasive FrameForm with Clusters

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The clusters are also called “parents and children,” “buckets,” “pillars,” or “themes,” or Roman Columns. If you visit Rome today and tour the ruins of the great Forum, your guide will likely describe the glory days of the Roman Empire, around 100 b.c.e. Your guide will also likely talk about Marcus Tullius Cicero, the great Roman senator and orator, and his colleagues, all of whom spoke in the Forum for hours on end without any notes. Paper had yet to be invented. To help them remember what to say, the orators used the stately marble columns of the Forum as memory prompts. As they strode around delivering their rhetoric, they would stop at individual columns to discourse on their themes. Each column represented the focal point for a group of subordinate or related ideas. Will Poole, a former corporate vice president in Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group, and now a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Capria Ventures, met another practitioner of the Roman Column method on a trip to India. Will described an incident during a tour of a temple: he asked his guide a question about an area of the temple they had just left, but the guide replied that he couldn’t answer that question unless he returned to that area. This step, as it relates to presentations, is not meant to help you memorize your content (never do that, as you’ll see in step 5 below) but to distill your many random thoughts into a few select main ideas. By doing so, you will lighten your mental—and, in turn, adrenal—load. Try to keep the total number of Roman Columns to no more than six; more than that becomes too complex. The minimum is two, or there would be no progression in the story. Most presentations usually fall into the three- to fivecolumn range. Now, and only now, are you ready for sequence—which is where most presenters start the process by shuffling their slides.

4. Flow Structure: Organize the Key Ideas into a Roadmap With only three, four, or five Roman Columns to consider, your task of sequencing is greatly simplified. You can easily try several different sequences of the clusters because, when you move one parent, all the children come along. Click and drag. Ultimately, you must decide on the most logical sequence so that your audience can follow you—but also so that you know where you are going. You can

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achieve both benefits by arranging all your Roman Columns into an overarching roadmap. Give the individual components of your story a meaningful, orderly flow. Professional writers, particularly novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters, call this the “story arc.” You can create an arc for your presentation by encompassing your Roman Columns within a rhetorical template known as a Flow Structure. Presenting to Win lists 12 different Flow Structures. Choose only 1 or 2 of them for your entire presentation. Three of the most common are: Chronological. Track your story along a timeline: past, present, and future; yesterday, today, and tomorrow; year by year.

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Numerical. Combine all your Roman Columns and assign each one a defined number, as Stephen Covey did in his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People or, as many print and digital publishers do with their “Top Ten” or “Seven Best” lists. Then count up or down for your audience as you discuss each Column.

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Problem/Solution. Describe a problem and then the solution your company offers to solve it.







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This chapter is a composite of the first two Flow Structures: Chronological (the temporal progression of the story development process) and Numerical (five steps). This entire book is structured as Problem (adrenaline)/Solution (all the techniques are designed to diminish the negative effects of adrenaline). In Chapter Two, you read about Steve Jobs and his memorable iPhone launch presentation. For your convenience, I’ve repeated the text: Today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device. So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone… Are you getting it?

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These are not three separate devices, this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone. Today…Apple is going to reinvent the phone, and here it is.10 His Flow Structure is Numerical (three products in one). And just for good measure, Jobs stated his Point B clearly: “Apple is going to reinvent the phone.”11

5. Verbalize: The Correct Way to Practice Establishing the context, brainstorming, distilling, and structuring will bring you clarity of mind as it did for Jeff Raikes at Microsoft. But that is only the foundation. You can generate even more ease of mind through a practice technique known as Verbalization. This useful method simply means that, in your rehearsals, you speak the actual words of your presentation aloud, just the way you will when you are in front of your intended audience. Verbalization crystallizes ideas. In daily human communication, we often seek face-to-face meetings with both personal and business connections to “talk things over.” Businesspeople and diplomats negotiate back and forth until they achieve win–win agreements. Websites offer chat. Professional writers often read their work aloud to themselves to hear how it sounds. Verbalization works. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, many presenters are reluctant to Verbalize. They find it either boring or tedious or time-consuming, and they relegate one of the most powerful techniques to one of the most underutilized. In doing so, they lose a golden opportunity to gain control of their content. Most people are willing to endure repetitive physical training to build their muscles and skills as athletes. Verbalization is the mental equivalent: building your intellectual muscles and narrative skills. This is not to say that you should Verbalize to the point of memorization. Memorization is fitting for the timeless words of William Shakespeare and other professional writers, but it is unnecessary for presentations. In fact, memorization can be counterproductive. If you commit specific word strings to memory and then lose just one word during your presentation, you will lose track of your story. Never memorize. Verbalize only until you have a strong sense of your flow. I practice what I preach. As a professional coach, every time I present, I use content that I have developed and have been delivering for over 30 years. I don’t Verbalize the material for my usual sessions, but when I introduce new 43

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material or create new content for special events, I often Verbalize it as many as two dozen times. In response to an invitation to deliver a keynote speech at an investment banking conference, I went through the entire process above and Verbalized it multiple times. It worked, and the speech went flawlessly. However, immediately after the speech, I had to record excerpts for a promotional video. There were only about a dozen very short excerpts, drawn from the body of quite familiar material, but I hadn’t Verbalized the excerpts. Because the material was out of context, I stumbled frequently during the recording. Fortunately, the video editor was merciful and saved only the good takes. I learned my lesson and since then have never presented in any new situation without first Verbalizing multiple times. Turning to football coach Vince Lombardi for advice again, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”12 Your presentation will be much stronger if you spend enough time to develop, organize, and Verbalize your content.



1. Establish the context with the Suasive FrameForm 2. Brainstorm to consider all ideas

3. Distill into a maximum of six key ideas or Roman Columns 4. Sequence the Roman Columns into a logical Flow Structure 5. Verbalize to refine and polish















Story Development Summary

These five steps are the right tools to help you fulfill your quest for content. They work far better than slides (which, as you’ll see in Chapter Eleven, should serve only to prompt your discussion), scripted text, teleprompters, comfort monitors, and (maybe someday) contact lenses. They address what is in your mind rather than what is on the external elements. They worked for Jeff Raikes, they work for me, they can work for you. They will enable you to step up to the front of the room with a lighter load. Now you are ready to face your audience. As you approach the platform, you must do so with the proper mindset. Athletic coaches call this Positive Mental Attitude, or PMA: “I can do it!” In the next chapter, you’ll learn how to focus your mind when you present.

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Chapter Five

The Mental Method

Case Studies: The Actors Studio • Dr. Bob Rotella • W. Timothy Gallwey • Steve Jobs, Apple • John Chambers, Cisco • Mike Tuchen, Talend • Carly Simon • Marya McCabe, Microsoft • Mark Twain • Lawrence Steinman, M.D. • The Squinting Woman Sound mind, sound body. Satire X Juvenal (c. 60–130 AD)

Concentration ■  

 

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Control of the mind is essential in every activity in the human experience. Even relaxation requires you to clear your mind of multiple extraneous thoughts and to focus on one tranquil image. The mind also plays an important role in physical performances such as sports, dance, and theater. In fact, during the twentieth century, a form of acting known as “The Method” revolutionized the theatrical profession by breaking ranks with the theretofore traditional emphasis on vocal projection and body movement, focusing instead on thinking. It was this very revolution that inspired me to break ranks with the traditional presentation training emphasis on voice and body language and focus instead on the mind. The Method was based on ideas pioneered by Konstantin Stanislavski (1863– 1938), the director of the prestigious Moscow Art Theater. Stanislavski’s seminal book, An Actor Prepares, influenced an artists’ collective in New York called the

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Group Theatre and its offshoot, the Actors Studio. The Studio, as it came to be known, went on to develop The Method and to propagate its theories throughout the acting community. In the process, the Studio became the spawning ground for legions of luminaries, among them Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Robert De Niro. Simply stated, The Method rejected the long-established theater practice in which actions are staged to depict emotions and reversed field to have emotions drive actions. To achieve this, Method actors use concentration to recall sense memories of feelings and events in their own lives to help them create realistic performances of the characters they portray. However, you are not reading this book to learn about being anyone other than yourself, and it is unlikely that you will pursue a career in acting (other than in your community theater), so let’s turn to the role concentration plays in the more universally familiar world of sports. Think about how important concentration is in your own participatory sport of choice. The mind is used to control the body. It happens to be the very same mind and the very same body that you use when you stand in front of an audience to present. Therefore, use your mind to control the physical delivery system. Use concentration to manage your adrenaline rush—and convey your message successfully.

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In the two millennia since Juvenal, we have been aware of the power of the mind to influence the body. In sports, concentration ranks higher in importance than conditioning, muscle mass, nutrition, hydration, or stamina. Concentration is key in golf, tennis, swimming, basketball, biking, soccer, skiing, running, you name it. In marathon races, runners encounter what is known as “the wall,” a distant point in a race where runners feel completely spent and unable to take another step. This phenomenon occurs somewhere around the 23rd mile of the 26.3-mile course. Successful runners do take that next step: they go through the wall and finish the race. They do it by sheer mental will alone. Electrolyte drinks, energy bars, or packets of honey will not propel them forward. Only their minds will.

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Consider skiing. To be effective, a skier must constantly focus on the proper positioning of body weight in relation to the slope of the hill. That factor became indelibly clear to me many years ago on a cold, clear January day in Vermont. I had been skiing vigorously all day and then took that one last run down the mountain. Exhilarated but fatigued, I got to the bottom of the hill and relaxed into my final turn. With my concentration off my skis, my weight shifted backward. One ski caught on a mound, but I was moving too slowly to release the boot bindings. In that single instant, I tore the medial collateral ligament in my left knee and ended my skiing days forever. The mind controls skis, racquets, clubs, balls, bats, oars, skates, sabers, weights, surfboards, bicycles—and the bodies that use them. Competitive athletes fully understand and appreciate this mind–body relationship. They strive for what is known as the “quiet mind,” or what athletic coaches call “Zone,” a heightened state of mental and physical efficiency that produces peak performance. Professional and even amateur players spend a substantial amount of time and effort searching for methods to produce this elevated state, and there are many: Raise the bar. To sharpen their concentration, some baseball players take batting practice with a bat half the diameter of a regulation bat. Some football players practice by trying to throw a ball through a rubber tire—as it swings suspended in midair. Raising the bar of difficulty forces these athletes to concentrate on the central factor: the ball.

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Visualization. Many athletes try to conjure a mental image of succeeding at their endeavor: crossing the finish or goal line, envisioning the ball going where they want it to go, or seeing their arrow hitting the bull’s-eye.

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Neurofeedback. This medical technique, often used to treat epilepsy and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, is now being tried by athletes. Electrodes that measure brainwaves are strapped onto the athletes’ heads. They can then see their brainwave patterns on a screen and try to control the spikes with their concentration.1

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Meditation. A web search for “meditation in sports” produces about 244 million results. And in these turbulent and ever-changing times of the twenty-first century, meditation has become an industry unto itself. A Wall Street Journal article on the sector reported that it “is worth









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about $1.2 billion and growing”2 and that the two leading apps in the space, Headspace and Calm, have had more than 38 million downloads each. On his personal blog Gates Notes, Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates recommended The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness as one of his favorite books.3 Psychological consultation. Dr. Bob Rotella, a sports psychologist (one of about a thousand others in Division 47, an important subspecialty of the American Psychological Association), has developed a singular reputation as a coach to superstar athletes, entertainers, and executives. “Doc” focuses on the role of the mind in physical activity.

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The Inner Game. Doc Rotella owes a great deal, as do I, to the pioneering work of W. Timothy Gallwey, whose bestselling book The Inner Game of Tennis4 essentially established the field of sports psychology.





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The key in sports is to concentrate outside the body. Think of the hill in skiing, the wind in sailing, the wave in surfing, the road in auto racing; think of the ball in tennis, golf, volleyball, soccer, baseball, and basketball. In presentations, the key is to think outside your mind, to think about your audience. Use your mind to control your body. To demonstrate how you can achieve that shift, let’s return to the Yikes! moment you read about in Chapter Three. When speakers think, “Yikes! They’re all looking at me!” or “I’m on the spot!” those thoughts are, as the social meme puts it, “All about you, Babe!” It’s all about “How am I doing?” Instead, slam on the brakes and reverse gears. Do a sharp U-turn. Change your mindset. Think instead, “How are you doing?” How is your audience doing? Shift the focus from yourself to your audience. When you learn how to implement this shift in the steps below, your anxiety will diminish and allow you to deliver your presentation with less stress. Think outside yourself, think outside your body, outside your hands and arms and eyes and voice, outside your story, outside your slides, outside your own mind. Think about your audience. Think on an even more granular level. Think about one person. Think about each and every person in your audience, one at a time. This is the first step in a three-step process known as The Mental Method.

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The first step of this three-step process begins with Person-to-Person Conversation.

1. Person-to-Person Conversation Let’s return to the rhetorical question I posed at the very beginning of this book: Why would speaking, an ordinary activity that most people practice daily with complete ease, become so fraught with dread when standing in front of an audience? The reason, as we now know, is the adrenaline rush that triggers the Fightor-Flight Reaction. The solution is to reestablish that conversational mode—the very same mode in which most human beings are quite comfortable. Remember from Chapter Two how Apple CEO Steve Jobs strolled onto the stage at Macworld and started by just casually chatting to the audience before snapping into his “keynote persona.”5 Every moment, every word, and every movement of that progression were carefully planned. The purpose of the chat was to bond with his audience before selling to them. Jobs brought the same surgical precision he gave to Apple’s products to every presentation. With his attention to detail, Steve Jobs fully understood the value of being conversational. Here’s how it works for you: whenever you step up to the front of a room to present, regardless of the size of the audience—4, 40, 400, or 4,000—pick one person. It doesn’t matter whom: the person who greeted you at the door, someone you know, someone you don’t know, a friendly face, or an unfriendly face. Pick just one person. For an instant in time, set a new default: imagine that you and that individual are the only people present. For that instant, disregard everyone else in the room. Make that person the object of your concentration. Then, as if the two of you were sitting across a table from each other, strike up a conversation. You might even start by addressing that person by name, as you would in a conversation. Then continue to chat with that individual. When you chat, you don’t present. You don’t unload canned data, you don’t speak unilaterally; you engage, you exchange, you think about the person with whom you are chatting. This shift from yourself to that other person must be as deliberate as throwing an electric switch. Feel the snap.

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After a moment with one person, shift your attention to another person and strike up a conversation. After another moment, shift to another person and have another conversation. Continue around the room in a series of Person-to-Person Conversations.

(Video 22) Tech Titans—Cisco, John Chambers, https://youtu.be/9PE1E2KJgyg?t=270 

 

A Series of Person-to-Person Conversations in Action

One of the most successful practitioners of this approach is John Chambers, who was the public face of Cisco for 26 years, most of them as the chair of the board and CEO. His trademark presentation style was to leave the dais or stage and move around the audience, addressing one person at a time. During his keynote speech at the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, John stepped off the stage, saying: We started thinking about this seven years ago with Smart+Connected communities… He moved to his left across the aisle to address a person in the front row: …what Wilm Elfrink has led for us, the ability to say how will this transform smart cities for the future. He turned to his right and crossed the aisle to address a person in the front row: But what we originally thought is if you just did connectivity that would be the job. Then he stepped to another person in the front row: That doesn’t work, you have to do connectivity, Then, working his way along the front row, he stepped to another person: …you have to get the right data… And another person: …to the right device… 50

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And another person: …at the right time… And another person: …to the right person or machine to be able to make the right decision.6 In a Big Tent venue such as CES, John Chambers had the luxury of having multiple cameras track his every move, with every angle projected on large display screens for the thousands of people in the audience to see him at all times.

(Video 23) Mike Tuchen, CEO of Talend at JMP Securities Technology Conference. www.besuasive.com/videos 

 

Very few speakers get to do Big Tent presentations. Most take place in more intimate settings, such as conference rooms, executive briefing centers (EBCs), or commercial meeting spaces. Investment banks regularly hold conferences in hotel banquet facilities. They invite multiple companies in a business vertical to present in several small- to medium-sized rooms to audiences of 20 or 30 potential investors who move about among the rooms.

Mike Tuchen was the CEO of Talend, a cloud integration company, when he presented at the JMP Securities Technology Conference at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in San Francisco. Standing in a fixed position on a small stage, Mike addressed individual members of the audience in a series of Person-to-Person Conversations by turning from one person to another with each sentence below: We are in an increasingly data driven world. We’re in a world where winners and losers are being determined by how well people take advantage of their data. And partly that’s because there’s just a lot more data now to take advantage of than there used to be. Nowadays we have the internet and social media as you guys just heard about next door. We have the rise in central data in the Internet of Things. 51

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But more importantly than just there being more data, as there is in every industry, there are intensely data driven competitors that are emerging, and they’re changing the face of competition by using data more effectively. So we have GE that’s changing the game in industrial equipment… At that moment, a man entered the room and headed for a chair down front. Mike recognized him, nodded, and smiled—confirming the person-to-person connection. Then Mike continued around the room with his Person-to-Person Conversations: …we’ve got Amazon changing the game in retail of course, Uber in transportation, Netflix in entertainment. And underlying all of them is they use data more effectively than the old players and they’re changing the competition. And so what Talend is-is we are the player that helps them take advantage of data.7 Turn your presentations into conversations. To learn to do that, let’s analyze the dynamics of any Person-to-Person Conversation. In such an exchange, the two parties: Look at each other

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Use their hands and arms to express themselves

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Use their voices to punctuate their words

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Interact by asking questions and exchanging ideas









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In presentations, the adrenaline rush causes drastic changes in each of those core elements: The eyes sweep the room in search of escape routes.

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The hands and arms go into Body Wrap, constricting the lungs and causing the voice to become suppressed because of the reduced air supply.

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The interaction grinds to a halt.







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But does the interaction really stop? If you see a person in your audience smiling at you in knowing appreciation, that’s an interaction. If you see a person frowning at you in apparent disagreement, that’s an interaction. If you see a person giving you a quizzical look, that’s an interaction. If you see a person’s head nodding in agreement, that’s an interaction. So, there is indeed interaction with your audience but, in a presentation setting, your audience’s interaction suddenly switches from verbal to nonverbal. In that pivotal instant, you can make that nonverbal interaction work for you—which brings us to the next step in The Mental Method.

2. Read the Nonverbal Reaction The initial surge of adrenaline causes presenters’ eyes to start scanning the audience, but they see no one. A more effective technique is to read the nonverbal reaction of the one person you are addressing. Look at that person long enough to see if they are getting it or not getting it. If that person is getting it, you will get head nods. If that person is not getting it, you will get a quizzical look or a frown. Their body language may be positive (alert) or negative (slumped). Their head nods, however, will always be positive. If you’ve ever seen head nods from your audience, you’ll know that there is no doubt that they are positive. The head nods essentially tell you that that person is saying, “I get it!” Head nods represent the goal of every presenter: the magic moment known as Aha! Better still, the head nods go right to the heart of the fear of public speaking: they tell you that your “performance” (that is, your execution—not your acting) is getting through to your audience. At that very moment, your brain, realizing that you are being effective, subconsciously concludes that neither Fight nor Flight is necessary. This realization transmits a physical signal to your adrenal gland, which promptly reduces the flow of adrenaline. In that instant, the very mechanism that enables organisms to survive in the wild—sweeping eyes, body wrap, accelerated heartbeat, pumping lungs, and rapidly firing synapses—downshifts.

Read the Reaction in Action Carly Simon, now a bestselling author, was a prominent singer and songwriter in the 1970s. Like many other professional entertainers, Ms. Simon suffered from

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performance anxiety, but she developed her own method to deal with it by evoking responses from her audiences: I’ll pick out one person, usually in the first four rows, and sing a song directly to that person. He or she will get embarrassed and turn to people on his right or left…The focus I’m putting on him takes it directly away from me.8

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Simon’s approach provides a related model for presenting. To reduce the fear of public speaking, you must shift your focus away from your concerns about your own success or failure and think about whether each and every individual in every audience is getting your message. To paraphrase a core practice of performers, you must work the room. By reading the reaction, even if it is nonverbal, you have established the seemingly missing interaction. You are no longer alone in front of the room, on the spot. Now you can continue the interaction by responding to what you have observed. Now you are ready for the third step in The Mental Method.

3. Adjust Your Content Here is where you can go from the passive Yikes! moment to actively doing something about what you have seen. You can control your own destiny. You can respond to the nonverbal reaction verbally in a variety of ways: Say it differently. “In other words…”

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Explain your terms. “What that means is…”

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Add depth. “Another way to look at this is…”

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Define your acronyms. “That stands for…”



•









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Give an example. “For instance, there is the case of…” Provide evidence. “Research shows that…”

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Customize. “Just before we started today, Ted asked…”





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Elaborate. “Taking a deeper look at this…”

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Add value. “The reason this is important to you is…” (WIIFY®)





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uncomfortable for having been singled out. It also invites a potentially digressive exchange or tangential discussion. The better way to react to such nonverbal signals is to do so tacitly, using one of the proactive phrase options above. By making such seemingly unprompted connections, you create positive reactions from your audience—empathically. Whichever adjustment you make, keep it very brief—just long enough to maintain your interaction. After an exchange with one person, shift your attention to another person and strike up a conversation. Read that person’s nonverbal reaction and adjust your content. After another instant, shift to another person and have another conversation. Continue around the room in a series of Person-to-Person Conversations. As you move around the room, continue to focus away from yourself. Shift from thinking “How am I doing?” to “How are you doing?” Do that with each person in your audience. In cinema, you often see a shot of a person in the foreground, with the background in soft focus. Suddenly, the camera shifts focus, and the background becomes sharp, while the foreground goes soft. This shift calls attention to a new action. Create the same effect in your presentation: shift the focus from yourself to each member of your audience each time you engage with another person.

Read the Reaction/Adjust the Content in Action Marya McCabe, who spent 14 years at Microsoft Corporation, is now the founder and president of SATTlab, LLC, a company that specializes in helping clients build strong business relationships. During her tenure at Microsoft, Marya discovered the value of interaction with an audience the hard way: by backing into it. She was a district sales and marketing manager with Microsoft’s Northwest sales district and presented infrequently. At one point, however, she was asked to present an unproven marketing concept to several internal audiences, most of whom, as she was painfully aware, would be resistant to the new ideas. A long row to hoe, to say the least. The first time Marya presented, her worst fears came true. As she unfolded her story, she could see her audience’s resistance in their dubious facial expressions, narrowed eyes, and stiffening body language. She reacted the way any person would react to stress: full Fight-or-Flight mode, and her presentation fell apart. What she did not know at the time was that she had already taken the first 55

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step toward controlling her audience: she had Read Their Reaction. But that was only half of the solution. She had yet to take the next step: Adjust Her Content. That didn’t happen until the next time she presented. That next time, she came prepared. Whenever she saw someone react skeptically or negatively, she offered counter evidence. The effect was immediate: their skepticism subsided, and, in some cases, she even got head nods. Head nods helped her regain her composure and enabled her to deliver her new marketing concept with more confidence. For her third audience, Marya took her interaction to the next level: she proactively evoked the head nods. Not only did she address the skepticism as it occurred, she also preempted her objectors by arriving with a set of negative questions that she posed rhetorically and then provided her own answers. Each answer produced head nods, and each time she saw the nods, she settled down. Soon she came to expect the head nods. As she put it, “It gave me an opportunity to address what was controversial and support my story.”9 She had tapped into the full power of interaction: evoking head nods with preplanned responses, as well as on-the-fly by Reading the Reactions of her audience and Adjusting her Content—live and in real time. Mark Twain proactively evoked audience reactions in his own unique way. In Chapter Three, you read how terrified Twain was in his first public speaking engagement. Here is how he overcame that moment: I had got a number of friends of mine, stalwart men, to sprinkle themselves through the audience with big clubs. Every time I said anything they could possible guess I intended to be funny, they were to pound those clubs on the floor. Although planted, the deliberate pounding worked for Twain: “After the first agonizing five minutes, my stage fright left me, never to return.”10 You needn’t go to the extent of hiring stalwart men with big clubs. But you can do as Marya McCabe did: Read the Reaction/Adjust the Content. You will soon discover that, as you become proficient in this powerful technique, the positive energies of each interactive exchange will multiply and compound as you move around the room—first cumulatively as you move from person to person; then exponentially as the group dynamics gain momentum. The reflexive empathy radiates throughout the audience like ripples on a lake, creating almost irresistible waves of positive perception—about you.

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1. Pick one person and start a conversation. 2. Read that person’s nonverbal reaction. 3. Adjust your content.











The Mental Method Summary

Most speakers present as if they are standing behind an invisible shield that separates and protects them from their audience. A select few presenters pierce the barrier and read their audience’s reactions. Precious few react to what they observe. Returning to our sports analogy, many tennis players keep their eye on the ball as they make contact and watch its flight but very few maintain their concentration by following through to see where the ball lands. The ball in sports is but a single inanimate object, while audiences to presentations are multiple objects. The champion presenter instinctively follows the reaction of each member of the audience and promptly Adjusts the Content. Read the Reaction/Adjust the Content restores the two-way dynamic to your exchanges. The Mental Method is a simpler and far more effective way to reduce the fear of public speaking than beta blockers, meditation, visualization, swinging small-diameter bats, throwing a ball through moving rubber tires, or neurofeedback. Getting head nods from your target audience member does it all for you. When you complete that loop, you will enter the presentation equivalent of the athlete’s “Zone.” From that moment on, you will know that you are not just standing there, helplessly exposed, shooting blanks into the dark, yawning chasm in front of you. You will be inside the room with your audience, engaged in twoway interactions with them. You will control your nerves and your audience. You will control your own destiny. This interactive cycle has a scientific basis that was validated by Lawrence Steinman, M.D., Zimmermann Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology and Neurological Sciences at the Beckman Center for Molecular Medicine at Stanford University. I was privileged to work with Larry on the IPO roadshow of Bayhill

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­

Therapeutics, one of his companies. At the culmination of the delivery skills session, the good doctor said of the Suasive technique: The Mental Method controls the stress of public speaking because it taps into the basic principles of neurophysiology. Speaking before a group causes the release of adrenaline. This key neurochemical produces Fight-or-Flight behavior, which diminishes a speaker’s effectiveness. But when a speaker connects with the audience and senses their responsiveness, the adrenaline flow and therefore the stress level recede. Then, when an audience observes a speaker’s ease and confidence, remarkably, the listener experiences feelings of confidence and becomes more receptive to the speaker’s message. These synchronous and synergistic emotions occur in the listener via stimulation of the mirror neurons in the brain. Neurology and physiology combine to create a powerful two-way loop that bonds the speaker and the audience.11

The Mental Method in Action The power of The Mental Method comes in two final examples. In our Suasive core program, we ask each participant to stand and deliver a short presentation to the other participants. Using the same skills you are learning here, each person presents the same pitch four times, and we record each iteration on digital video. Between iterations, we play back the videos to see the learning progression. The first recording occurs before any instruction, to establish a baseline. In one session, a young woman who was an experienced presenter delivered her first iteration quite comfortably. She was very composed in front of her peers, and she presented with assurance and animation. Then, when she sat down to see the video playback, she realized that she had forgotten to bring her eyeglasses and had to squint at the screen. As the day progressed, she learned about the importance of reading the reactions of her audience. When she got to her fourth and final video recording, she stood and spoke to one person at a time, but this time, she squinted. And this time, her engagements produced head nods—for the first time. Earlier in the day, when she had been delivering the identical content to the identical group, she had not squinted. Although her initial iteration was seemingly effective, she had been looking toward her audience but was not seeing or connecting with them. That final step of The Mental Method enabled an effective presenter to become a persuasive presenter. 58

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For a personal experience, let’s turn back to the example in Chapter Four of a speech I gave at an investment banking conference and the video recording that followed. During the entire speech, I was able to present at full effectiveness because I was focused on the audience. As I delivered my words, I watched how the individual members of the audience received them. I looked for their head nods, smiles of recognition, or quizzical looks, and I adjusted my content to whatever I saw. Whenever I saw understanding, I moved on; whenever I saw puzzlement or doubt, I elaborated briefly. But during the video recording, when I was focused only on myself and my performance—and because I had not Verbalized my material—I stumbled repeatedly. Learn from my experience: Read the Reaction/Adjust Your Content. Get the head nods. Experience the endgame of The Mental Method of Presenting.

Delivering Your Message ■  

 

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Here we are about a third of the way into this book, and only now have we come to the point where conventional presentation skills advice begins: the physical expression of your presentation with your eyes, body language, and voice. Over the course of my many years as a coach, I have found that this is what most people refer to, or expect, when they seek consultation for their high-stakes pitches. More often than not, I have been asked to coach only the delivery skills. These inquiries usually start by stating, “My story is set, my slides are set; all I need is for you to tell me…” and then conclude with one or all of the following: “… what to do with my hands and arms,” “…how to slow down,” “…how to make me louder,” “…how to be less stiff,” “…how to be more expressive,” and the most common, “…how to calm my nerves.” Clearly, there is great demand for advice on delivery skills because of the many challenges. I have steadfastly declined all such requests, for if I were to start coaching the body language and voice of a person who had not carefully prepared their content, who did not understand the effects the adrenaline rush has on the body, and whose focus was on how they were doing rather than how the audience was doing, then any coaching I could offer would be moonshine, all about flapping arms and flapping gums, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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But now that you are armed with the tools to implement the foundation, you are ready to learn how to implement your delivery skills. Now is the time to answer those questions frequently asked of coaches. Now is the time to begin the learning process of your delivery skills, the subject of the next three chapters.

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Chapter Six

The Learning Process

Case Studies: Ken Kocienda, Apple • Joe Moglia, TD Ameritrade • Elon Musk, Tesla The question has to be how to give instructions in such a way as to help the natural learning process of the student and not interfere with it. The Inner Game of Tennis1 W. Timothy Gallwey

One of the most frequent assertions in the presentation trade is, “Good speakers are born, not made,” and its usual variation, “That person has natural charisma.” The corollary implication of this view is “Change is impossible” or “Nature nullifies Nurture.” For some unfathomable reason, many people cling to this mistaken preconception and recite it almost as a pledge of allegiance. The pledge persists despite overwhelming evidence and advice to the contrary from every walk of life: from the minor leagues to the majors, from Off-Broadway to Broadway, from ugly duckling to beautiful swan.

Change ■  

 

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Change is possible. It just takes time, skills, and effort.

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The Four Stages of Learning ■  

 

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If you’ve ever taken up a new physical activity—a sport, dance, gymnastics, horseback riding—you’ve gone through a process known as the Four Stages of Learning (Figure 6.1). The same stages are also applicable to the physical aspect of presenting. Unconscious Competence Time

Repetition Self-Conscious Competence Conscious Incompetence Unconscious Incompetence

 

Figure 6.1

The Four Stages of Learning

Stage One Unaware of what to do, you perform poorly and are unconscious about your incompetence.

Stage Two The instructor tells you what you did wrong, and you become conscious about your incompetence.

Stage Three The instructor tells you what to do correctly, and you become conscious about your competence. But the first time you try to follow the instructor’s advice, it feels unnatural. Stage Three, then, is being self-conscious about your competence. The instructor then tells you to practice the new skill often. Repetition over time is central to learning any subject, any skill, be it mental or physical. If you practice often enough, you can get to…

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Stage Four You perform your skill without thinking about it, and you become unconscious about your competence. Are you at Stage Four with your participatory sport of choice? Are you there with any sport? Have you ever been there? It is possible, but it cannot happen overnight. You cannot go from beginner to expert easily and quickly. You can improve only by going through all four stages. As a matter of fact, as you go through the stages, you will most likely spend the majority of your time at Stage Three, self-conscious competence. Undoubtedly, you will feel uncomfortable as you learn some of the new skills and exercises in this book. The key for you to be able to make changes is to accept the discomfort of the learning process. Accept that you will have to step outside your comfort zone— which brings us to a paradox.

Comfort Zone Paradox ■  

 

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When you are up in front of an audience, and your adrenaline starts flowing, you feel the urge to fight or flee. What feels comfortable to you is to go into Body Wrap to protect yourself. Paradoxically, that behavior makes you appear uncomfortable to your audience. If, instead, you were to behave in a way that looks comfortable to your audience—opening your arms wide in welcome—you would feel exposed, open, vulnerable, and uncomfortable. The paradox is expressed in the matrix in Figure 6.2, where the left side represents the presenter’s behavior and the right side the audience’s perception of the presenter.

 

Figure 6.2

Presenter

Audience

Feels Comfortable

Appears Uncomfortable

Feels Uncomfortable

Appears Comfortable

Behavior

Perception

The Comfort Zone Paradox

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Table 6.1

 

Taking a deeper look at the dynamics of Presenter Behavior/Audience Perception, let’s recall the table of negative behavior/negative perception from Chapter Three (Table 3.1), repeated here for your convenience in Table 6.1. Presenter Behavior/Audience Perception Table

FACTOR

BEHAVIOR

PERCEPTION

Eyes

Scanning

Furtive

Features

Immobile

Disengaged

Head

Sweeping

Impersonal

Hands/Arms

Body Wrap

Protective

Stance

Off-Center

Slack

Volume

Low

Soft

Inflection

Narrow

Monotonous

Tempo

Fast

Harried

Pattern

Steady Stream

Data Dump

Unwords

Multiple

Uncertain

Negative behavior, driven by the Yikes! moment and the instinctive Fightor-Flight Reaction, creates negative perceptions in the audience. Once again, we have the same paradox: the very mechanism that enables us to survive in the wild makes us falter in captivity—as presenters. How do we change the behavior to create a positive perception? How do we make each of these elements work for us rather than against us? The key is to approach the challenge from a 35,000-foot view and understand the paradox. If you accept that there is a difference between the way it feels to you as a presenter and the way it looks to your audience, please accept the fact that the skills you are about to learn and the exercise to practice them are going to make you feel uncomfortable. When I coach participants through these same exercises, I ask them to stand in front of the room and gesture with their arms open wide. As soon as they do, I stop them and ask them how it feels. Invariably, they reply: “Overdone!” “Strange!” “Exaggerated!” “Inappropriate!” Undoubtedly, you will feel the same when you try the instructions. Please reserve judgment about how it looks to your audience.

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Before starting my own company, I worked as a hired hand for other training companies, teaching delivery skills. I spent the better part of my business days coaching participants to perform new behaviors. The new behaviors felt uncomfortable to them, and so they invariably resisted. Nevertheless, I continued to coax or cajole them until they performed the new behaviors. At the end of the day, they had changed, but only slightly. At the same time, they felt substantially worse. As did I, for having inflicted such discomfort. The participants and I parted, each of us feeling unhappy and unfulfilled. As soon as I realized the paradox and started pointing out that the discomfort would diminish over time, my job got easier. The participants were free to continue their individual ascents toward Stage Four, at their own pace, in their own time. More importantly, they were able to make significant improvements. One of them said to me, “The best tennis teacher I ever had didn’t expect me to get it right the first time!”

Repetition over Time ■  

 

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Repetition over time will flatten out the paradox. Eventually, opening your arms will feel comfortable to you and continue to look comfortable to your audience. You will look poised, confident, and ready to take on the world. Please keep in mind that it will take time for that to happen. You are not a race car; you cannot go from zero knowledge to zero defects in 60 seconds flat. You cannot go from white belt to black belt in a day. It takes time. Skiers must traverse the baby hills many times before they can move on to the advanced slopes. Repetition over time reinforces habits. The behavior you have been practicing up to this point in your life is behavior you have been reinforcing. To develop new habits, you need repetition. The hurdles are high, with different heights for different human beings, but worth vaulting. Repetition over time will move you from Stage Three to Stage Four, from self-conscious competence to unconscious competence.

Repetition over Time in Action For a role model of practice, let’s return to Steve Jobs and his iPhone launch presentation. Having founded Apple Computer, then NeXT Computer, and then back to Apple again, he was quite comfortable making big pitches to massive audiences. Nonetheless, Jobs practiced that iPhone launch pitch extensively. 65

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Ken Kocienda, one of the engineers on the iPhone design team, described Jobs’ diligence: Three weeks or a month before the keynote itself, Steve would start rehearsing portions of his slide deck in some venue at Apple…[and] ran through his entire presentation, from start to finish, twice each on the Saturday and Sunday preceding the keynote itself.2

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Joe Moglia, chair of the board of TD Ameritrade, a financial services company, was the defensive coordinator for the Dartmouth College football team prior to entering the financial world. He also authored the book The Key to Winning Football: The Perimeter Attack Offense. When Joe was the CEO of TD Ameritrade, he engaged my services to help craft the company’s corporate presentation. During our sessions, Joe and I bonded as fellow coaches. He noted the similarities between learning presentation skills and his approach to football— and even to running a company: Learning the new behavior requires going through discomfort. Because of the discomfort, people—and organizations—are resistant to change.

(Video 24) Conversation with Elon Musk (Tesla Motors) —Web 2.0 Summit 08. https://youtu.be/gVwmNaPsxLc?t=92 

 

The key to effectuating change is to communicate to the individual—or the organization—that the discomfort is the price to pay to achieve the new results. If an athlete wants to excel, he or she will have to work out harder and longer. If an organization wants to improve its business, it will have to alter its tactics and perhaps even its structure. It will have to change.3

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Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla, launched his first electric vehicle, the Roadster, in 2008, and went on a promotion tour. One of his appearances was at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, where he touted the energy efficiency that electric vehicles have over fossil fuel cars: Uh—so—the—the car is—it’s really—uh—so the elevator phrase is, “It’s faster than a Ferrari, more efficient than a Prius.” Ah—it’s—the zero to sixty time is 3.9 seconds—um—and we’re actually working on a power pack upgrade that’ll take that down to 3.6 to 3.7—uh—next 66

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year—uh—the energy efficiency—uh—in terms of miles per gallon equivalent—uh—is about 130—uh—so that’s—if you took a gallon of oil and you—uh—you refined it to gasoline and transported it to the gas station and—uh—and how many miles do you get in a car?4 Although Musk was obviously quite knowledgeable about his subject, his halting delivery, the frequency of Unwords, and his rapid pace made him appear uncertain and harried. But he proceeded to make more and more presentations, culminating in his most important pitch of all, the Tesla Motors IPO roadshow in June 2010. On the first day of trading, the price of the company’s shares increased by 40.53% and closed at $23.89.5 As a public company, Tesla continued to lead the development, production, and proliferation of electric vehicles, and the hockey stick results continued their impressive ascent.

(Video 25) The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity… | Elon Musk. https://youtu.be/IgKWPdJWuBQ?t=56 

 

The success made Musk the darling of the speaking and media circuit. At a TED event, Curator Chris Anderson interviewed him about his favorite subject, energy efficiency. Anderson asked: “Most of American electricity comes from burning fossil fuels. How can an electric car that plugs into that electricity help?”6

Musk replied: [Even] if you take the same source fuel and produce power at the power plant and use it to charge electric cars, you’re still better off. So, if you take, say, natural gas, which is the most prevalent hydrocarbon source fuel, if you burn that in a modern General Electric natural gas turbine, you’ll get about 60 percent efficiency. If you put that same fuel in an internal combustion engine car, you get about 20 percent efficiency. And the reason is, in the stationary power plant, you can afford to have something that weighs a lot more, is voluminous, and you can take the waste heat and run a steam turbine and generate a secondary power source. So, in effect, even after you’ve taken transmission loss into account and everything, even using the same source fuel, you’re at least twice as better off charging an electric car than burning it at the power plant.7

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Exit the Unwords, enter a crisp, clear, and authoritative pace—the mark of a confident, assured, and knowledgeable leader.

The Yikes! Moment ■  

 

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Let’s flash forward to your next high-stakes presentation. The Yikes! moment has arrived. You hear the key decision maker in your audience say, “Okay, let’s get started.” Or you hear the preceding presenter introduce you. Or you hear your name boom out over the public address system, intoned by the disembodied voice of an announcer, known in the presentation trade as the “Voice of God.” Now, however, having organized your content in advance and having Verbalized it to the point of familiarity, you step up to the front of the room with much greater ease of mind. You also throw that switch in your mind from “How am I doing?” to “How are you doing?” You focus on one specific “you” in your audience. You choose a woman in the middle of the back of the room. However, that woman is not aware of your internal decision. Your job is to project your intent to her externally. The projection system to convey that mental decision is comprised of all the behavior items in the preceding Table 6.1. You’ll note that the ten factors in the table divide into the two human dynamics with the most impact: the first five are the Visual, and the last five are the Vocal. The next three chapters will show you, with highly detailed, step-by-step instructions and exercises, how to master the best practices and create a new table with positive audience perceptions. Of course, you cannot bring that table or this book up to the front of the room with you, or you will appear to be using a cheat sheet. Moreover, the list will be lengthy and would give you far too much to do—and not to do. You would have to ask yourself, “What did the book say I should do with my hands and arms?” “How should I stand?” “How should I make eye contact?” “How do I slow down?” “How do I keep from saying ‘Um’?” “Am I loud enough?” Before long, you would go into overload. Instead, once the list of instructions is complete, I’ll compile all the granular details into three easy-to-remember Master Skills—and they will be all you’ll need from the Yikes! moment forward.

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You’re already familiar with the first of the three Master Skills: Person-to-Person Conversation. As you read in the previous chapter, this skill involves a shift outward from “How am I doing?” to “How are you doing?” Person-to-Person Conversation is the first of three arcs, all linked in progression in Figure 6.3. Each skill leads to and powers the next in a virtuous circle.

Person-to-Person  

Figure 6.3

First of Three Master Skills Cycle

The choice of Person-to-Person Conversations as the first of the Master Skills is intentional. A bit of perspective will illustrate why. Earlier, I described my work as a hired hand for other presentation training firms offering delivery skills to businesspeople. All I ever offered, however, were instructions about body language and voice. I spent most of my days directing people just like you, ordinary mortals, to: “Do this!” “Don’t do that!” “Don’t do this!” “Do that!” “Do it bigger, smaller, faster, slower, louder, softer, wider, narrower…!” These instructions were appropriate during my days at CBS, where I was directing announcers, reporters, newscasters, and program hosts, all of whom were professional performers. Businesspeople, however, are professional at their own job specialties, and when I treated them as performers, they balked. “I’m not an actor!” “Hey, back off, Jerry!” But I had a big bag of tips and tricks and, when I deployed them, I got my business clients to do exactly what I directed them to do: “Bigger, smaller, faster, slower, louder, softer, wider, narrower…” At the end of the day, I had them pounding the lectern and bellowing their words.

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When I started my own business, I realized that coaching delivery skills needed a different approach, to start with a familiar, natural base: Person-toPerson Conversations. Then, and only then, can we move on to the body language and voice skills, the other two arcs in our virtuous circle in the following chapters.

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Unfortunately, when they went out into the real world and tried to present, they were so busy thinking about themselves and trying to remember all the many directions I had given them, they got all tied up in knots. Worse, they regressed to a point further back than where I had started with them.

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Chapter Seven

Speak with Your Body Language

Case Studies: The Kennedy–Nixon Debate • Theodore H. White • Don Hewitt • Marshall Klaus, M.D./John Kennell, M.D. • Queen Mary University Study • John Suler • Anthony Fauci, M.D. • Steph Curry • Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook • Edward Tronick, M.D. • Leah Maher, Ericsson • Sir Isaac Newton • Juvenal • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • Benjamin Netanyahu • William Shakespeare • Marc Benioff, Salesforce • William F. Buckley Jr. • John F. Kennedy • Amy Chang, Cisco • Tyler Stanton/Tripp Crosby • Frank Sinatra The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter.1 Cicero (106–43 b.c.e.) Reach out and touch someone.2 AT&T ad campaign (1979)

 

The Historic Kennedy–Nixon Debate ■

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(Video 26) TNC:172 Kennedy–Nixon First Presidential Debate, 1960. https://youtu.be/gbrcRKqLSRw?t=62 

 

 

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The U.S. presidential election of 1960 pitted Vice President Richard M. Nixon against Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. From the start, Kennedy had three strikes against him: Challenger. As a sitting vice president, Nixon had the edge as a virtual incumbent.

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Age. At 43, Kennedy, the second youngest candidate ever, was of questionable maturity. The youngest, William Jennings Bryan, was 36 when he ran in 1896 and lost.

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Religion. Kennedy was the second Roman Catholic to run for the office. The first, Al Smith, the Governor of New York, had lost his bid 32 years earlier because of his religion. Catholicism was controversial in the early days of the twentieth century.







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All these factors combined to give Nixon a slight lead in the public opinion polls, and he held that edge for the entire summer leading up to the election. Then, on September 26, the two men met in the studios of WBBM-TV in Chicago for the first-ever televised presidential debate (Figure 7.1). Kennedy was the first to speak: In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln said the question was whether this nation could exist half slave or half free. In the election of 1960 and with the world around us, the question is whether the world will exist half slave or half free. Whether it will move in the direction of freedom, in the direction of the road that we are taking, or whether it will move in the direction of slavery.

 

Figure 7.1

Kennedy-Nixon Debate

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Kennedy spoke his words straight into the camera (and, therefore, to the audience). Looking the electorate right in the eye, he appeared confident and sincere as he continued: I think it will depend in great measure upon what we do here in the United States. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt said in his inaugural that this generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. Kennedy’s stance was rock-solid, his weight evenly distributed on both feet, his shoulders level. His left hand rested lightly on the lectern, and his right arm moved animatedly. That familiar Boston accent rang out in a resonant voice that he inflected repeatedly to emphasize his key words, as underlined below: I think our generation of Americans has the same rendezvous. The question now is: Can freedom be maintained under the most severe attack it has ever known? I think it can be, and I think in the final analysis it depends upon what we do here. I think it is time America started moving again. Eyes, posture, gestures, voice: all the Visual and Vocal dynamics worked in unison to convey Kennedy’s message. He looked and sounded composed, poised, assured, authoritative, and brimming with conviction. All those descriptors are synonymous with “presidential.” Richard Nixon presented a very different image. Nixon’s weight was on his right hip. As he slouched to one side, his right shoulder drooped. Both his hands clutched the lectern with white-knuckle intensity. He looked tense, defensive, and fretful. None of these adjectives is synonymous with “presidential.” A more appropriate description for him would be a deer-in-the-headlights. His words streamed out in a flatline drone: Let us take hospitals. We find that more of them have been built in this administration than in the previous administration. The same is true of highways. Let’s put it in terms that all of us can understand. At that point, Nixon’s right hip got tired, so he shifted his weight to his left hip and came down unbalanced on his other side. During the shift, his hands never released his death grip on the lectern.

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A short while later, Kennedy spoke about Nixon: Mr. Nixon comes out of the Republican Party… The television director for the debate was Don Hewitt, the man who would go on to become the creative force behind CBS’s long-running 60 Minutes. Because Kennedy was talking about Nixon, Hewitt appropriately decided that he should show Nixon. In television, this is known as a cutaway or reaction shot. This being the first-ever televised debate, Nixon was not aware that, when he was not speaking, he could still be seen on camera. Kennedy continued:

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…he was nominated by it. And it is a fact that through most of these last 25 years the Republican leadership has opposed federal aid for education, medical care for the aged, development of the Tennessee Valley, development of our natural resources… As the image suddenly cut from a shot of Kennedy speaking to a close-up of Nixon listening, Nixon’s eyes darted from side to side, and then off into space. His rapid eye movements continued as Kennedy continued: I think Mr. Nixon is an effective leader of his party. I hope he would grant me the same. The question before us is which point of view and which party do we want to lead the United States.3 ­

Ten years earlier, during the election campaign for U.S. senator in California, Nixon ran against Helen Gahagan Douglas. In what was a very nasty campaign, filled with mudslinging and name-calling, Douglas labeled Nixon “Tricky Dicky.” Ten years later, Nixon’s furtive eye movements in the debate with Kennedy revived the label.* When Kennedy concluded his observations about Nixon, Stuart Novins of CBS, one of the reporters on the panel asked: “Mr. Nixon, would you like to comment on that statement?”



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* Another footnote to history provides perspective on Nixon’s eye movement. There was only one clock in the WBBM studio, and it was situated over Nixon’s left shoulder. Therefore, whenever Kennedy spoke, Nixon had to look away from Kennedy to see the clock. The close-ups of Nixon showed only his face, and not the clock, making his rapid eye movements appear furtive. Alternatively, whenever Nixon spoke, Kennedy could see both his opponent and the clock without having to move his eyes very far. As a result, when Hewitt showed reaction shots of Kennedy, his eyes were fixed, making him appear focused and attentive.

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Nixon’s eyes darted away from Kennedy to find Novins, and then they flitted off into space, appearing furtive again, as he replied: I have no comment. Then Novins asked: Would you tell us please specifically what major proposals you have made in the last eight years that have been adopted by the administration? During Nixon’s response, his stance remained slack. He lost concentration and stumbled over his words: It would be rather difficult to cover them in eight—er—two and a half minutes. I would suggest that these proposals could be mentioned. First, after each of my foreign trips I have made recommendations that have been adopted. For example, after my first trip abr—er—abroad I strongly recommended that we increase our exchange programs particularly as they related to exchange of leaders in the labor field and in the information field. Nixon appeared halting and uncertain.

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In the final segment of the debate, as Kennedy delivered his closing statement, Hewitt continued to cut to reaction shots of Nixon, and Nixon’s eyes continued to dart. Kennedy’s eyes continued to hold steady: If you feel that everything that is being done now is satisfactory, that the relative power, prestige, and strength of the United States is increasing in relation to that of the communists, that we are gaining more security, that we are achieving everything as a nation that we should achieve, that we are achieving a better life for our citizens and a greater strength, then I agree and I think you should vote for Mr. Nixon. But, if you feel that we have to move again in the ’60s, that the function of the president is to set before the people the unfinished business of our society as Franklin Roosevelt did in the ’30s, the agenda for our people, what we must do as a society to meet our needs in this country to protect our security and help the cause of freedom.4 The marked differences between the candidates’ styles immediately became grist for the mill of political analysts and historians. One of the most widely noted points of reference was that, in the public opinion polls of the debate, those respondents who 75

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had watched on television thought Kennedy had won, while those who had listened on the radio thought Nixon had won—a striking reversal of fortune.5 Historian Theodore H. White, whose The Making of the President 1960 became the definitive chronicle of the campaign and the debate, summed up the effect: It was the picture image that had done it—and in 1960 it was television that had won the nation away from sound to images, and that was that.6 The Visual dominated the Vocal and the Verbal.

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In the Kennedy–Nixon debate, several other factors impacted the candidates’ appearances and, therefore, the public perception of them:

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Nixon, in the days leading up to the debate, was fighting a viral infection, but he continued to campaign vigorously. By the time he got to WBBM, he had lost 10 pounds, and his clothing hung loosely on his body. Kennedy had rested for three days prior to the debate, even taking some time to sit in the sun and get a tan.



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Nixon was offered professional makeup for his characteristically heavy beard, but he declined. One of his aides offered him a product called “Lazy Shave,” a caulking talc to coat his 5 o’clock shadow. But Lazy Shave was not porous, and Nixon perspired through the talc, which made him look nervous.

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Kennedy accepted a light coat of professional makeup, which is porous. Nixon wore a light suit, which, in monochrome television, appeared as almost the same shade of gray as the pale blue studio backdrop and made him look washed out. Kennedy wore a dark suit that contrasted with the light background and made him stand out.

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Nixon was suffering from a staphylococcus infection in his left leg, caused by an injury he had sustained while campaigning in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he banged his knee against a car door7—which is likely what caused him to favor that knee and shift his weight.

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Kennedy, who suffered from chronic back pain, wore a corset that supported—and straightened—his spine. All the above, however, are purely external factors. The primary influence on the audience perception was the candidates’ behavior. Nixon, himself, would later admit: “I had concentrated too much on substance and not enough on appearance.”8 Don Hewitt concurred. In his autobiography, he wrote, “What I particularly remember about that night was that Kennedy took it a lot more seriously than Nixon did.”9 From that moment on, no candidate for any office, national or local, would ever again fail to treat television debates seriously or consider appearance and style subordinate to substance. The Kennedy–Nixon debate was the seminal event that changed the face of political campaigning forever. No longer could or would any candidate succeed without making television a very high priority and without possessing or acquiring optimal delivery skills for their appearances in the medium—and beyond. Whether you run for president or your local town council—whatever your Run for the Roses, whether for financing, partnership, customer acquisition, or project approval—your delivery style will be viewed in light of the heightened requirements for personal appearance we seek in our public leaders. To heighten your delivery skills, let’s step through each of the individual Presenter Behavior elements of Table 3.1 and provide you with best practices, exercises, and examples for each. When we’re done, you’ll have a new revised table, but there will be far too much granularity for you to remember and do. Not to worry: I’ll condense all the skills you will have learned into the two remaining Master Skills. Let’s begin with the Visual.

Visual Dynamics ■  

 

■ Eyes lead the list.

Eyes Eyes are the most impactful aspect of all human communication. The power of the eyes has deep roots that go all the way back to the first hour of life.

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Marshall Klaus, M.D., and John Kennell, M.D., two distinguished U.S. pediatricians, wrote a landmark book about infancy called Bonding,10 in which they describe a study they conducted of mothers and newborn infants. All the mothers in the study were asked to hold up their babies one hour after birth—the first hour of life. Half of them were asked to hold their child in what the doctors called the en face position or “eye-to-eye contact.” In this position, both of the baby’s eyes are engaged with both of the mother’s eyes. The mothers in the other group were asked to cradle their babies at their sides. In this position, the babies could see only one of their mother’s eyes. The babies in the first group remained focused on their mothers in what the doctors called a state of “quiet alert.” The babies in the second group kept “squirming and looking around.”11 One week later, the babies in the first group recognized their mothers more readily than did the babies in the second group. A later study made by British and Italian scientists further reinforced the importance of eye engagement in infancy: The results show that, from birth, human infants prefer to look at faces that engage them in mutual gaze and that, from an early age, healthy babies show enhanced neural processing of direct gaze. The exceptionally early sensitivity to mutual gaze demonstrated in these studies is arguably the major foundation for the later development of social skills.12 This early imprinting carries forward into the adult social life of every human being. There are two common statements in Western culture: “I like Jill, she looks me straight in the eye!” “I don’t like Jack, he’s shifty-eyed!” In our coaching programs, every time I discuss the role of the eyes in interpersonal communication, I ask whether anyone would ever hire someone who did not look them straight in the eye during a job interview. Invariably, the answer is a resounding No!

 

Unfortunately, the term eye contact is vague. Is it scanning the room frantically, looking for escape routes? No. Is it darting from one person to the next? Nixon’s darting eyes revived his “Tricky Dicky” label. Therefore, let’s give the engagement involved in eye contact a more specific time frame and call it by a different name: EyeConnect®.

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EyeConnect

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Every time you pick a person with whom to have a Person-to-Person Conversation, connect. Close the circuit. Look at that person until you see them look back at you. See how that person is responding to what you’re saying. Read the Reaction—which brings us directly back to The Mental Method of Chapter Five. Look that person straight in the eye. Establish sincerity. Establish engagement. However, because your adrenaline will be impelling your eyes to scan the room, extending the duration of engagement will be very difficult to do. To learn to overcome that impulse, try the following exercise.

EyeConnect Exercise Enlist four or five colleagues or friends to assist you. Assemble around a table in a small conference room. Tell them that you are going make EyeConnect with each of them in turn and ask that each of them nod back at you when they see you engage. Do this exercise silently so that you can focus on what you do rather than on what you say, on your engagement rather than your words. When you suddenly see everyone staring back at you, your Time Warp will undoubtedly ramp up and, as you move from person to person, each engagement will feel awkwardly long. But that is the Comfort Zone Paradox: what feels uncomfortable looks comfortable. The goal is to get you to see the head nods, to Read the Reaction, to extend the duration of engagement.

EyeConnect in Virtual Presentations In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic forced the public into social distancing, and most businesses to work remotely. WFH, the acronym for work from home, became a buzzword. But even before the pandemic, the ongoing expansion of global commerce and the increasing complexity of travel were driving more and more businesses to work, meet, communicate, and present remotely. Some companies—13 in the technology sector alone13—were already “100% Remote.” One “all-remote” company, GitLab, offers the public a 5,000+ page handbook that shares their virtual processes.14 Using services provided by companies like Zoom, Cisco, RingCentral, Google, and Microsoft, businesspeople can deliver virtual presentations or participate in videoconferences over cloud platforms using mobile phones, iPads, or computers. Later in the chapter, you’ll learn how to optimize your voice for virtual and telephone meetings, but when video is involved, EyeConnect takes on an important new role. 79

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Videoconferencing platforms offer a rich array of features, such as chat, annotation, polling, whiteboard functions, breakout rooms, screen sharing, slideshow integration, and a gallery view of the participants. These features, along with side notes and other related material, draw the presenter’s attention away from the webcam. But by looking away to those other elements, the presenter breaks away from the virtual audience; and because of the empathic power of the person-to-person connection, the break appears furtive. To become less reliant on your notes or slides and more fluent with your presentation content, do just as you would for an in-person presentation: Verbalize. When you present, spend the majority of your time in EyeConnect with the webcam. Make each person in your virtual audience feel engaged. Do look away to those other elements occasionally—it will keep you from appearing to stare. Staring can make audiences—whether virtual or in-person—feel uncomfortable. A New York Times article described a study made at the visual-perception lab at Queen Mary University of London, in which “subjects were asked to look at a video of a face that turned to stare directly at them. People found the gaze enjoyable, but only for about three seconds. After that, it became unsettling.” The article then concluded, “The polite thing also winds up being the creepy thing.”15 To maintain EyeConnect with the webcam, you can, depending on the virtual platform, drag the gallery view of your participants to the top of your computer screen, just below the webcam and minimize the distance your eyes move. This view also enables you to easily observe the participants’ nonverbal expressions so you can Read the Reaction and Adjust the Content. The physical separation from your audience in virtual presentations makes interaction even more important. To be sure that your eyes—your most important asset—are clearly visible, check the illumination in the room. Overhead lighting throws your eyes into shadow, but adding a table or floor lamp can provide sufficient illumination on your face and eyes. As an additional source of illumination, placing a sheet of white paper flat on your table will bounce more light onto your face.

Eye Level Position the webcam at your eye level so that you can look directly into the lens rather than down or up at your virtual audience. In photography and cinematography, when the camera is positioned above a subject, it is called a high angle shot; when it is below a subject, a low angle shot.

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Each of these positions creates a different emotional message. In his book Photographic Psychology, John Suler notes that the high angle makes “the subject appear to be in an inferior position relative to your dominant and more powerful point of view”; and a low angle shot creates “the feeling that the subject is big, high, powerful, dominant, imposing, authoritative, or menacing.”16 To experience the feelings Suler describes, try the following exercise.

Eye Level Exercise Stand up next to a seated colleague and look down at that person; then crouch down and look up at that person. You and that person—the stand-in for your audience—will undoubtedly feel the difference. To create empathy with your virtual audience, speak to the webcam at eye level. Because the camera built into your laptop is positioned just above the screen, it produces the unintended consequence of causing you to look down and away from your virtual audience. For best results, invest in a dedicated webcam with enhanced image capabilities. Mount the camera over your primary screen or on a mini tripod and adjust it to the optimal height: the level of your eyes. Remember, you can look at the screen from time to time to avoid staring, but spend most of your time making EyeConnect with your audience through the webcam.

Eye Level in Action

(Video 27) Stephen Curry and Dr. Anthony Fauci | COVID-19 Q&A. https://youtu.be/iuX826AGXWU 

 

During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Anthony Fauci, M.D., the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), became a media superstar as the principal spokesman for the federal government’s scientific efforts to combat the virus. In great demand for media appearances, he became a role model for social distancing by conducting all his interviews virtually.

In a superstar-meets-superstar pairing, Dr. Fauci had a virtual conversation with Golden State Warriors basketball player Steph Curry via Facebook. Sharing a split screen, the doctor sat in his office and spoke to a webcam at eye level; Curry, speaking from his home, used his mobile device and looked down to the screen frequently rather than at the webcam. But even without sustained 81

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(Video 28) NowThis Politics—Zuckerberg & Fauci Talk Coronavirus. https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/ videos/2933393063408887/ 

 

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EyeConnect, Curry’s trademark buoyant energy, so familiar from his play on the basketball court and in his many other television appearances, radiated through.17

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Dr. Fauci also had a virtual conversation with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in which both men—Dr. Fauci in front of a NIAID logo wall and Zuckerberg in his home—spoke to the webcam at eye level.18 Network and cable television news and panel programs are very diligent about eye level. An anchorperson or host conducts a discussion among two, three, four, and sometimes up to six people, each at a different location. Their images are electronically composited side-by-side, and each person speaks directly into the lens of the camera—at eye level—so that their television audiences feel addressed. Make your virtual audiences feel directly addressed. Make EyeConnect at the level of the webcam.

Background Your virtual audience sees you and everything else in the frame. Be mindful of your background and avoid distractions. Best to choose a neutral setting such as a blank wall or door so that the focus remains on you. That said, some presenters choose to dress up their surroundings by sitting in front of a wall decorated with art or photographs. Some sit in front of bookshelves, particularly authors and experts who have their own books prominently displayed face out. And some show a wide angle of their entire setting. Most conferencing platforms offer a virtual background option so participants can insert generic images. The most technical background option is a green screen, also known as chroma key, which enables electronic insertion of images, such as: Live camera shots of an actual physical location

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Generic neutral colors, relevant stock photographs, or a logo wall

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Recorded animated images or patterns







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One internet wit recommended keying in a prerecorded video loop of yourself listening intently that can be played while you actually duck out for a cup of coffee.

(Video 29) Still Face Experiment: Dr. Edward Tronick. https://youtu.be/apzXGEbZht0 

 

Features

As we turn our focus to features, we look back to infancy to see the effects of early imprinting of nonverbal communication.

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Dr. Edward Tronick, the Director of the University of Massachusetts, Boston’s Infant–Parent Mental Health Program, conducted the now-famous “Still Face Experiment.”19 The YouTube video of the experiment has accumulated more than 8 million views. At the start of the experiment, a mother is asked to engage with her baby with warm smiles and facial expressions. The baby responds with warm smiles and facial expressions in what Dr. Tronick calls “coordinated emotions.” Then, at Dr. Tronick’s instruction, the mother stops being expressive and looks at her baby with a “still face,” showing no emotion. In response, the baby tries to reengage the mother with animated facial expressions and arm movements, to no avail. Soon the baby starts screeching and then crying. When the mother reengages with smiles and warmth, the baby promptly stops crying and responds with smiles and warmth. The mother and child experience coordinated emotions.20 Ronald Reagan’s strong suit was his expressive features. Remember the words of the Pulitzer Prize–winning TV critic in Chapter One: “…just the sight of him cocking his head with his sincere grin and lopsided hair, is still worth a thousand words and millions of votes.”21 Emulate the Great Communicator: be expressive. Raise your eyebrows, furrow your forehead, crinkle your eyes, and smile. But those instructions are all about performance and will feel forced. You can become expressive naturally when you EyeConnect. When your eyes are engaged with another person, your features become expressive automatically; conversely, when your eyes are not engaged—scan rapidly—your features do not animate. 83

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(Video 30) E=E Ericsson Participant Before and After. www.besuasive.com/videos 

 

EyeConnect activates an equation: Engagement equals Expressiveness, or E=E. The converse also occurs: lack of engagement equals lack of expressiveness. EyeConnect animates your features without your having to think about it.

E=E in Action Leah Maher, who is now the General Counsel and COO at MobiledgeX, a marketplace of edge resources and services, participated in our presentation skills program when she was at Ericsson AB in Sweden, the multinational networking and telecommunications company. As in all the Suasive programs, we make several video recordings of the participants to track their skills progression. In Leah’s first video, her eyes moved rapidly, and her features were mostly static; once she learned EyeConnect and extended the duration of her engagements, her features become expressive—without having to think about it.

Head Your head is an excellent vehicle to move your eyes from person to person, left to right, and right to left in the horizontal plane; but a far more powerful move is in the vertical plane: the nod. To demonstrate, try the following exercise.

Head Nod Exercise Turn to someone nearby and ask for a moment of their time. Ask the person not to nod back at you and then nod at the person. Try as they might, the person cannot resist and will nod back at you. The nod evokes empathy. This is not to suggest that you become a bobble-head doll. As you move from one person to another, all you need to do is nod when you engage with the new person. Nod as you land. Nod naturally. Nod when you make EyeConnect.

Stance Balance your stance by distributing your weight evenly on both feet. The most stable figure in geometry is a triangle, with a wide base supporting a narrow top. Re-create the triangle with your whole body, and the stability will make you 84

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appear poised. If your weight is unevenly distributed, you appear slack. What’s worse, after a short while with your weight on one leg, your hip will grow tired, and you will shift your weight to your other leg and become slack again, just as Nixon did in his debate with Kennedy. Moreover, when your eyes scan left and right, the lateral movement causes your body weight to shift from hip to hip. Far too many instructions.

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To simplify, when you make EyeConnect, your stance balances automatically. Wait, you might think: How can your eyes control your body? It’s all due to a physical phenomenon discovered by Sir Isaac Newton, the renowned seventeenth-century English scientist, called his Third Law of Motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction.22 A common example of this dynamic occurs when you try to step onto a pier from a boat. The forward motion has an equal and opposite reaction: the boat pushes back, away from you. When you make EyeConnect, your body leans forward to the person you’re addressing. Because you are on a solid floor rather than on the water, the equal and opposite reaction causes your weight to find its center of gravity. You settle back, stabilize your stance, and become balanced. “Sound mind, sound body,” as the Roman poet Juvenal said, expressed the interdependent relationship of the human mind and body: when the mind is clear, the body is stable; when the body is balanced, the mind also stabilizes. Remember how Nixon lost concentration when he was physically off balance. A balanced stance helps you focus your ideas more clearly. Does this mean that you must balance your weight in place and never move? Not at all. Move all you want—if your movement meets these two requirements: Move purposefully to a destination. Step to a person on one side of the room and have a brief conversation and then step to another person seated a few feet away and have another conversation. Then step to another person on the other side of the room. Move to the projection screen. Move to a demonstration table.

•

When you reach your destination, stop. Move again to the next destination and stop. Avoid the endless pacing that makes a person look like a caged tiger.





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Hands and Arms The most frequently asked question of presentation coaches is: “What do I do with my hands?” 85

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That was the first question I got on my first day on the job. I had graduated from Stanford University with a Master of Arts degree in Speech, Drama, and Television and was hired as an associate adjunct professor of speech (read: teaching assistant) at the Baruch School of the College of the City of New York. Whew! I was ready to take on the world. My first assignment was to teach the requisite beginners’ course in public speaking. Just before the start of the first class, a nervous young woman came up to me and asked: “What do I do with my hands?” Hands weren’t part of the curriculum at Stanford. The graduate studies had included Aristotle, Socrates, and Cicero but not gestures. “Uh, oh!” I said to myself, “I can’t look dumb on my first day on the job!”

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As I searched the database of my mind for an answer, my adrenaline-driven eyes scanned the classroom for an escape route. Suddenly, they stopped at the pen on my desk. Feigning assured wisdom, I said, “An orator is a scholar. Use a scholar’s tool, use a pen. Hold onto your pen to focus your energies. That’s a logical place for your hands.” My improvised remedy seemed to produce an immediate cure for the young woman’s jitters. Confident that I had made a major discovery that would become a landmark in the annals of rhetoric and that I would be hailed as a twentiethcentury Aristotle, I continued to prescribe the same remedy to other students for the next two semesters. In support of my advice, I role-modeled the solution by holding on to my own pen as I lectured. Not only was I telling people what to do, I was doing it myself. Behavioral psychologists call this double reinforcement. A year later, I developed a new module for the class and dutifully went home to practice it in front of a mirror. What I saw made me realize that my brilliant new solution had created the image of a person who was brandishing a weapon, making a fist, and protecting his underbelly, all at the same time. Worse still, because I had been repeating this negative behavior for a year and reinforcing it by advocating it, clutching the pen had become a deeply ingrained habit. I knew I had to break it, and the effort was like trying to rip adhesive tape off my skin. But I did it. And so can you. So, the answer to the hands question is to do what most people naturally do with their hands in conversation: gesture to illustrate. In the interest of developing a natural, individual style for you, I won’t attempt to choreograph your gestures, nor should you. I tried that in the early days of my career and learned a difficult lesson. I coached participants to make 86

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specific gestures with their hands and arms. But because everyone is different, all the gestures felt unnatural to all of them. They also gave everyone more to think about. Nevertheless, I coaxed and cajoled until all the participants tried all the gestures, only to make them feel even worse because they all felt forced and looked awkward. (Video 31) Ahmadinejad vs Netanyahu. https://youtu.be/denq0_qFjT4

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran from 2005 to 2013, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the long-serving prime minister of Israel, were always at a swords’ points with each other due to the ongoing animosity between their countries. Yet the two of them had to cross paths on the common ground of the United Nations in New York, where each of them separately addressed the General Assembly. An enterprising internet wit observed that the two men used many of the same gestures when they spoke. The wit assembled and edited a series of matching video clips from their UN speeches and ran them side-by-side on YouTube. Uncannily, the two mortal enemies appeared to have been coached by the same choreographer: each standing at the UN’s familiar Swedish green marble dais wagging their forefingers, clasping their hands, stroking their chins, raising their thumbs, clutching their chests, and gesturing with one arm, then two—simultaneously.23

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Clearly, the virtual video match was done for the sake of its humorous incongruity, but it makes the point that one person’s gestures are not another’s— especially if they are forced. The goal of this chapter is to lighten your mental load by giving you fewer instructions. As William Shakespeare had Hamlet say: …do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness… o’erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature.24

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The mirror up to nature. Do what comes naturally. Be yourself. You may be a person who indicates big as tall, or you may be a person who indicates big as wide. You may enumerate with your fingers by starting with your forefinger as Americans do, or by starting with your thumb as Europeans do. Gesture naturally. However, there is one gesture I will recommend, and if it is only one, it had better be a good one.     

ReachOut ® Whenever you step up to the front of the room, you create a gap between yourself and your target audience. As a communicator, your job is to close the gap. Do it by extending your arm. Take the suggestion of the once-famous AT&T advertising slogan: “Reach out and touch someone.”25 ReachOut in presentations. When you ReachOut, you replicate a handshake, the universal symbol of human communication. The origin of the handshake can be traced back to a marble slab known as a stele found in Athens and dated to around 410 b.c.e. In relief, the stele shows two warriors wearing helmets and shields, locking hands. Although there is no written evidence about the meaning of the gesture, the right hand was clearly the weapon hand. In social exchange, when the hand was extended and empty, it was an indication that a person was unarmed. The open hand signaled “I come in peace.” When both parties grasp each other’s hands, it signals “We come in peace.”

­

Two and a half millennia of practice have embedded that same signal in our modern culture, and we are all conditioned to respond positively—and reflexively—to the handshake. Empathy again. To experience the power of ReachOut, please try the following exercise.

ReachOut Exercise Turn to someone nearby and, without saying a word, suddenly extend your hand. Although you have been in each other’s presence for some time, the other person will invariably extend their hand back to you. While the distance between you and your audience in a presentation setting will keep them from extending their hands back to you, they will feel engaged when you ReachOut to them. The net effect is to create yet another means of connection and interaction.

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There are ample opportunities for you to ReachOut. As part of The Mental Method, you will be thinking “How are you doing?” and saying “you” extensively. Therefore, every time you say “you,” you can accompany the word with your hand and arm extended in the ReachOut gesture: •

“Why am I telling you this?”

•

“Do you see what I mean?”

•

And of course, WIIFY ®—“What’s in it for you?”



 

“Let me show you…”



•

The parallels between sports and presentations are endless. In all sports, extension is essential. You take full strokes in golf and tennis rather than punch at the ball. You take full strokes in swimming rather than dog paddle. You take full strides in running, and you kick the soccer ball with full extension. During a recent soccer competition, a promotional television clip showed a player kicking a ball with his body extended in a full horizontal thrust, parallel to the ground. The video image froze him in midair to emphasize his athleticism—and extension. Do the same in your presentations: ReachOut, extending your arm fully, unlocking your elbow. The full extension replicates a determined handshake, the direct opposite of the socially undesirable limp handshake.

(Video 32) Marc Benioff—Welcome—DF ’18 Opening Keynote: “Dreamforce: A Celebration of Trailblazers.” https://youtu.be/i53LCY3OIsw?t=20 

 

ReachOut in Action

Marc Benioff, the chair and CEO of Salesforce, is an excellent role model for full extension. In his opening remarks at Dreamforce, the company’s annual gathering, Marc used one arm, two arms, and wide-open arms to project enthusiasm, confidence, and a robust welcome to his audience: Welcome to Dreamforce everybody, what a great day it is! What a great day, I have never been more excited about this Dreamforce and I am so excited that all of you are here with me today.26

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ReachOut Challenges Despite all the many benefits of ReachOut, you will find it very difficult to do. Your adrenaline will send counter signals to your arms, impelling them to go into protective Body Wrap—which brings us back to the Comfort Zone Paradox you saw in Figure 6.2: What feels uncomfortable to you looks comfortable to your audience.

•

What feels comfortable to you looks uncomfortable to your audience.





•

When you are up in front of the room, exposed to an audience, and try the ReachOut skill, you will feel uncomfortable as you fight the instinctive impulse to wrap your body. But because you are replicating a friendly handshake to your audience, it will look comfortable to them. This brings us back to the Four Stages of Learning. ReachOut is a new skill. The first few times you try it, you will be stuck at Stage Three, self-conscious about your competence. ReachOut will feel very awkward. Over time, it will feel better, and every time you practice, it will look better. The path to learning new skills is to accept that they will feel worse before they feel better. You will not be alone. Every person who has taken our program finds the ReachOut skill awkward at first and easier later. So much so that when I run into graduates of the program, they inevitably greet me with a smile, a vigorous thrust of their arm, and an enthusiastic, “How are you?” Mix and match ReachOut and gesturing. Sometimes ReachOut with your left arm, sometimes with your right arm, sometimes with both arms, as Marc Benioff did. Sometimes point up as you say, “Our revenues are rising,” sometimes point down as you say, “We’re reducing our costs,” sometimes tick your fingers as you enumerate, sometimes thrust your arms wide open as you say, “This is a global opportunity!” One cautionary note: be sure that the full extension of your arm culminates with your palm open and all your fingers extended. If you have a tendency, as many presenters do, to point with your forefinger, be aware that this will appear as scolding at best and threatening at worst. To avoid either negative perception, straighten your other fingers to join your extended forefinger in an open palm— just as you do in a full handshake. And sometimes do nothing with your hands and arms. Let them fall to the home base position at your sides.

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How will this feel? Undoubtedly uncomfortable. Body Wrap is essentially the adult version of the fetal position. You have been assuming this position since you were inside your mother’s womb. You have repeated and, therefore, reinforced the position every time you stood exposed in front of an audience. The new home base position will feel exposed and vulnerable to you. How will it look to your audience? Comfortable. The Comfort Zone Paradox again.

Home Base This is not to say that you should stand frozen like a soldier at attention. Think of dropping your hands and arms to your sides as going to home base. After you gesture with one hand, drop your arm to your side for an instant. Then gesture with the other hand and drop your arm for an instant. ReachOut and then drop your arm for an instant. Enumerate with your fingers and then drop your arms for an instant. Touch and go. Every time you illustrate your talking points with your hands, drop your arms to your sides. Home base produces five benefits:



•



•

Animation. When your arms drop to your sides, you feel exposed and compelled to protect yourself by bringing them back up. This movement, while somewhat comforting to you, will appear as animated to your audience. It will also help illustrate your words. Range of motion. When your hands and arms come up from below your waist to gesture, they travel a greater distance than from the Body Wrap position, making the gesture more pronounced. If your elbows are pressed against your sides when you say, “This is a very large opportunity,” your forearms will swing out in a very short arc, like a seal’s flippers. Not a very large opportunity. In U.S. football, if players do not extend their arms fully when reaching for a catch, they are accused of having “alligator arms.” When your hands and arms start from below your waist as you say, “This is a very large opportunity,” they will travel a greater distance and express a larger opportunity. Poised posture. When your hands and arms are in Body Wrap, they pull your shoulders forward and tilt your head down. When your hands release from Body Wrap and your arms fall to your sides, your shoulders roll back and your head elevates, and you appear erect and poised.

•

Punctuate. When one or both of your arms fall naturally to your sides, they put a visual period on your gesture and words.





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Animated voice. The final benefit of dropping your hands and arms to your sides is the biggest payoff of all. When either arm travels up from below your waist to ReachOut, the movement elevates your chest. This simple action contracts your lungs and forces air up and out of your mouth, animating your voice. Your arm acts as a handle on a water pump or as a bellows.

 

■

Vocal Dynamics ■  



•

Animate your voice with the Bellows Effect.

The Bellows Effect ­

Without having to think about it, ReachOut animates your Vocal dynamics— Volume and Inflection (the next items in Table 3.1)—automatically. If you were to try to speak more loudly, you would strain your vocal cords; if you were to try to speak more softly, you would sound as if you were whispering; if you were to try to emphasize particular words, you would feel as if you were acting. With ReachOut, you control all those vocal dynamics naturally. ReachOut replaces all these forced, performance-like efforts. ReachOut starting from home base animates the full range of your vocal production. ReachOut connects all your Visual and Vocal components with your Verbal. ReachOut and any other natural gestures you make activate your chest and lungs, create the Bellows Effect, and add variety and punctuation to your words and your story—without much effort. Try the following exercise to feel how the Bellows Effect works.

The Bellows Effect Exercise ®

 

Let’s use WIIFY as a vehicle for this exercise. Say, “What’s in it for you?” aloud three times. First say it while seated. Then stand and repeat the words. Then, still standing, say the words again and ReachOut as you say “you.” You’ll hear your voice get louder and more animated each time. The Bellows Effect is the polar opposite of Body Wrap. When your arms are pressed against your ribs in Body Wrap, your chest is compressed and so are your lungs, limiting the flow of air—the source of your voice—producing a flatline drone. The Bellows Effect propels the flow of air and animates your voice.

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Such negative vocal dynamics never bothered William F. Buckley Jr., the noted conservative thinker, magazine editor, syndicated columnist, and television talk show star. Over a span of 33 years, he hosted 1,504 episodes of Firing Line on public television, marked by his brilliant intellect, dry wit, trenchant sarcasm, and contentious engagements. But Buckley was equally known for his unique voice, which Slate described as “his aristocratic drawl, quasi-British pronunciations, and…Connecticut lockjaw sound.”27 Indeed, he barely moved his lips when he spoke, and he leaned back in his host’s chair imperiously. It all went with the urbane drollery. Rather than try to emulate William F. Buckley Jr., take as your vocal role model John F. Kennedy.

(Video 33) Kennedy–Nixon Suasive Version. www.besuasive.com/videos 

 

The Bellows Effect in Action

Let’s revisit the moment in the Kennedy–Nixon debate from the beginning of this chapter when Kennedy repeatedly inflected his voice to emphasize his key words. I’ve indicated the emphasized words with underlines: I think our generation of Americans has the same rendezvous. The question now is: Can freedom be maintained under the most severe attack it has ever known? I think it can be, and I think in the final analysis it depends upon what we do here. I think it is time America started moving again.28

(Video 34) Amy Chang—Cognitive Collaboration: Transforming Workplaces and Changing the Way We Work. https://youtu.be/qK_mDlOXuOk?t=103 

 

In the video of this portion of the debate, we digitally enhanced this section to show that each time Kennedy emphasized his words, he did it by vigorously pumping his right arm.29 This is the Bellows Effect in action.

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Another role model of using arm movements to animate the voice is Amy Chang, the senior vice president and general manager of the Collaboration Technology Group at Cisco. Although Chang is a petite woman, she has a very big, dynamic voice that she generates by using animated, expressive gestures. In the transcript below of her presentation at the Enterprise Connect conference, I’ve underlined the words she emphasized and inflected—all of them driven by her arm movements: Thank you so much for the warm welcome! So, for the next 30 minutes, it is my mission to show you Cisco collaboration in a whole new light. In a cognitive light. And we’re going to fast forward and jump to future state first, and then I’m going to pull that back and translate that step-by-step into what we put into your hands now. So today, on the heels of 24% year-over-year growth that we just announced last earnings, on this already multi-billion-dollar business…30 At this point, the video image goes to an animation clip, and we no longer see Chang, but we can hear that she continues to animate her voice, undoubtedly energized by her gestures: We are so excited to introduce the concept of cognitive collaboration.31

(Video 35) A Conference Call in Real Life. https://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ 

 

The Bellows Effect in Virtual Presentations

Now for the lesson I promised earlier in this chapter for your voice in virtual and phone presentations. Because your eyes, features, stance, arms, and hands are not always seen by your audience in a virtual presentation, your voice is the primary vehicle for your message. Put another way, because the Visual dynamic is absent or minimized, the Vocal is the main messenger of the Verbal. The drawbacks of voice-only virtual presentations were satirized in a YouTube video made by comedians Tyler Stanton and Tripp Crosby. In the video, several people enter a physical conference room, one at a time, as if they were logging in by audio, but they all act as if they are invisible to the other participants, who are actually in the room. As the meeting proceeds, they demonstrate 94

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the all-too-common pitfalls of such meetings: the mechanical ping and robotic voice introducing each entrant, late entrants interrupting the discussion, crosstalking, accidental muting, awkward silences, and background noises of a barking dog and honking traffic horns.32 The video helps you appreciate the value of inperson communication. Despite their imperfections, however, virtual presentations are here to stay and are sure to improve. In the meantime, because your voice is often your sole or primary delivery vehicle, you must take extra care to optimize its sound. Leverage the Bellows Effect: stand when you speak, particularly when you are in voice-only exchanges (that is, telephone conversations). Just as you learned in the exercise above, standing allows full expansion of your chest and lungs. When you sit, your arms may rest on the desk or the arms of your chair, constricting your chest and lungs; standing allows you to open them wide. Being seated may also bring your head down so you can look at your computer or speakerphone, constricting the air flow in your throat; standing opens that air passage. To maintain an open air passage, lift your chin when you stand. To avoid looking down at your computer and/or notes, raise them on an adjustable standing desk or a stack of books. When singers make recordings, they place their sheet music on a raised stand to elevate their chest and head. Figure 7.2 shows the great Frank Sinatra lifting his head and arms to optimize his voice.

 

Figure 7.2

Frank Sinatra

One of my clients, the CEO of a public company, stands when he delivers his quarterly earnings calls and reads his word-for-word script (thoroughly vetted by legal counsel) propped on a raised music stand. Free your hands and arms to 95

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gesture, ReachOut, and animate your voice, whether you use your computer’s audio or invest in a good quality hands-free microphone. Given the length of many virtual sessions, standing is not always practical. When you sit, be mindful of your posture because sitting often invites slouching. Do as your mother always told you: sit up straight. Keep your chin elevated so that your chest and throat—those all-important air passages—remain wide open. Use an ergonomic chair to support your spine. If your chair has roller wheels, be sure that you don’t roll past the webcam and vanish from your virtual audience. If you tend to roll, lock the wheels or get a chair without wheels. Because the webcam lens composes a tight-angle shot that consists of your head and shoulders, your hands are mostly out of camera range. They enter the frame when you gesture. To keep your gestures from becoming distracting, remember Shakespeare’s advice from earlier: …do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently.

Putting It All Together ■  

 

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If you were to stand up right now and try all the preceding instructions, you would start thinking about raising your eyebrows, nodding your head, balancing your stance, and flapping your arms all at the same time—and go into overload. To prevent paralysis by analysis, I will distill all the preceding instructions into one short, easy-to-remember takeaway in a moment. But first, please note that all these instructions share a common denominator: each of them is qualitative and not quantitative.

Qualitative Versus Quantitative As a coach, I never say “Bigger, smaller, faster, slower, louder, softer, wider, narrower…” Those words are quantitative performance commands, and neither you nor any other presenter is a performer. Each of the instructions you’ve learned in this chapter describes the quality of your engagement with the one person with whom you are having a conversation: Your eyes hold until they connect.

•

Your features reflect your enthusiasm.

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Your head nods create agreement.







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Your balanced posture appears poised. Your • hand and arm reaching out replicates a handshake. Your voice conveys your message with conviction and punctuation.

These bullets can also be viewed as one continuous chain, a series of dynamic interconnections linking one instruction to another. To demonstrate this chain action, step through the following exercise.

Step up to the front of the room, imagine an audience, and pick one person—let’s say a woman in the middle of the room.

2.

Think about that woman. What does she know, and what does she need to know in order to respond favorably to your message?

3.

EyeConnect with the woman, and as you do, ReachOut to her. As your arm extends, your body will follow. As you lean forward, your head will dip into a nod, which will cause the woman to nod back to you involuntarily. In order to maintain EyeConnect with her, you will have to look up through your eyebrows, causing them to rise, making your features expressive.



1.







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The Chain Action Exercise: ERA

Therefore, when you EyeConnect and ReachOut in one continuous motion, you animate all your Visual components. That same motion, extending your arm out from your chest, also compresses your lungs and animates your voice. Thus, the two brief linked actions, EyeConnect and ReachOut, generate an extended chain action that animates all your Visual and Vocal dynamics. Of the many instructions in the chain above, three are pivotal: EyeConnect

•

ReachOut

•

Animation







•

You can view these three instructions as an equation: EyeConnect + ReachOut = Animation. We can reduce these instructions even further—to a simple three-letter acronym, ERA, for: EyeConnect

•

ReachOut

•

Animation







•

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Figure 7.3

EyeConnect + ReachOut = Animation (Photo by Rich Hall)

ERA is the system that delivers your story. ERA unites the Visual, Vocal, and Verbal dynamics as one force. As you move around your audience, from person to person, ERA each person (Figure 7.3). With ERA and Person-to-Person Conversation, you now have a composite of the instructions for two of the three Master Skills (Figure 7.4).

ERA

Person-to-Person  

Figure 7.4

The First Two of the Three Master Skills Cycle

The third skill involves the Vocal, and you now know that ERA serves to animate two of the five Vocal components: Volume and Inflection. The other three Vocal components—Tempo, Pattern, and Unwords—fall under the umbrella of Cadence, the subject of the next two chapters.

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Chapter Eight

Control Your Cadence: The Phrase

Case Studies: Elmore Leonard • Ludwig van Beethoven • Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim • Dr. Krzysztof Izdebski • Garrison Frost • Stephen Fry • George W. Bush • Jill Abramson • Mark Carney, Bank of England • Mary Barra, GM • Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo I’m very much aware in the writing of the dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it...a beat.1 Elmore Leonard

Cadence ■  

 

■

Although Elmore Leonard wrote countless novels and short stories that have sold tens of millions of copies, he is best known for the films that have been made from his published writing, and particularly for the pungent dialogue his characters speak. Cadence in speech is the equivalent of rhythm in music. Music needs a beat, and speech needs a beat—a metric. For our speech metric, we turn to the Verbal, or the content. In text—the written form of the Verbal—the metric is a sentence.

­

Spoken language, however, is different from written text. When we speak, we don’t form full sentences; we speak in incomplete or partial sentences. Spoken ideas are formed in fractions, interrupted by ellipses, or ramble as prolonged thoughts that veer off into discontinuity. When written, spoken language appears fragmented. Look at any newspaper or magazine article that contains a transcription of an interview and, more than likely, you will have to back up and reread a given passage to understand it.

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The audience for your presentation does not have a rewind button. If they lose track of what you are saying, they will fall behind and will have to work hard to catch up with you. Before long, they will stop trying and tune out. On the other hand, if you speak in a clear and coherent cadence, you will make it easy for your audience to follow you.

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Speak in a rhythm that meters the progression of your verbal presentation. Speak with a beat. In speech, that metric is a subdivision of a sentence, the irreducible unit of spoken language, the phrase. Some phrases are very long and very convoluted, consisting of many, many words. Some phrases are shorter, consisting of fewer words. Others are shorter. Shorter still. Shortest. Therefore, a phrase can be multiple words, two words, or even one word.

­

Regardless of the number of words, every phrase shares a common characteristic with every other phrase: every phrase is a complete unit of logic. Every phrase is an entity. Every phrase is an integer. Every phrase is a complete transaction. Every phrase parses your content. Every phrase has a clear beginning and a distinct end. ­

To express that ending, drop your voice at the end of the phrase. Use a falling inflection to resolve the logic. This vocal pattern is a unique skill called Complete the Arc®.

Complete the Arc® ■  

 

■

Complete the Arc of the logic of your content with the sound of your voice. Complete the logic of the Verbal with the Vocal. Mark your logic by dropping your voice at the ends of your phrases. When you do, you culminate each of your ideas and, most of all, you create clarity for your audience. You’ll note that there are no numbers in this instruction—no word count and no length of time. That’s because each phrase is different from the next. Moreover, it’s impossible to speak and count words or seconds simultaneously. Complete the Arc measures and defines the length of each phrase conceptually rather than numerically. 100

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Stay in EyeConnect until you Complete the Arc. Stay in EyeConnect with one person for an entire phrase, regardless of its length, and then drop your voice. Stay engaged with that one person for the full meaning of the phrase. In the previous chapter, I defined the duration of EyeConnect as lasting until you Read the Reaction of the person you’re addressing. Now I’m defining the other side of the equation: the optimal length of your engagement.

­

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The reason I gave you instructions for EyeConnect in two stages—a minimum and maximum length of engagement—is that Time Warp drives you to do the opposite, to keep scanning the room. Complete the Arc helps to manage Time Warp by combining both stages: Reading the Reaction and providing the logic.

Complete the Arc in Music Think of the main theme from Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous Fifth Symphony and its familiar pattern of three short notes followed by a long one: Bam-BamBam BAM. The final BAM completes the arc of the musical phrase. If you were to hear only Bam-Bam-Bam…it would sound incomplete. In music, this pattern is called tension and resolution, it refers to a rising progression of musical chords that culminates in a release. From the sublime of Beethoven to the simple. Think of the universally familiar knock-on-the-door pattern composed of four short notes followed by two long ones: BAM-Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam, BAM BAM (also known as “Shave and a haircut, two bits”). If you were to hear only BAM-Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam...it would sound incomplete.

(Video 36) West Side Story—Gee Officer Krupke! https://youtu.be/j7TT4jnnWys?t=239 

 

Composer Leonard Bernstein and lyricist Stephen Sondheim used this familiar rhythmic pattern in their legendary musical West Side Story as the climax to their comedic song “Gee, Officer Krupke.”2

To get a better idea of the power of Complete the Arc, try the following exercise.

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Complete the Arc Exercise When you are next with a group of friends in a restaurant or with colleagues around a conference table, out of the blue, rap your knuckles on the tabletop: BAM-Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam…and then stop short. Odds are that one or two of your companions, without any prompting, will rap their knuckles on the tabletop: BAM BAM—to Complete the Arc. This instinctive impulse to resolve the logic of a musical phrase transcends cultural borders. Dr. Krzysztof Izdebski, the chair of the Pacific Voice & Speech Foundation, invited me to present the Complete the Arc concept at one of the organization’s annual conferences. The attendees were voice and speech scientists from all over the world: Japan, Russia, Scandinavia, and Western Europe. After Dr. Izdebski’s introduction, I stepped onto the stage and, without uttering a word, rapped my knuckles on the lectern: BAM-Bam-Bam-Bam-bam, then stopped short. Without a word, several people in the audience rapped their knuckles on whatever hard surface was nearby—their armrests, their laptops, or their briefcases—BAM BAM! Complete the Arc.

Complete the Arc in Film and Video Film and video editing offer another example of the importance of Complete the Arc. Think about the time you saw a television news clip in which a subject, such as a public official, says “I think that’s a great idea…” and then, with the official’s rising voice suspended in midair, the clip abruptly switches to a shot of a reporter, who comments on the statement. The rise in the official’s voice at the edit point is known by film and video editors as an “upcut” because it sounds incomplete and makes a viewer wonder whether there was something more to the statement. Did the official go on to say “but…” and then disparage the idea? Did the editor alter or manipulate the meaning of the official’s statement? Most likely not, but in the deadline-driven news business, editors are forced to cut on the copy, not the tone.

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If you do not drop your voice at the end of a phrase, or if your voice rises and you let it hang in midair, it sounds incomplete. For example, suppose I were to look you straight in the eye and say, “The most important aspect of presenting is…” 102

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and then suddenly dart my eyes away as I finished the phrase: “…confidence!” How would that feel? Abrupt at best and rude at worst. Finish the phrase to the eyes of the person with whom you are engaged. Stay in EyeConnect with them all the way to the end of the phrase: “The most important aspect of presenting is confidence!” Then move your eyes to engage with a different person. Staying connected for one additional word may seem insignificant, but the difference in impact is quite significant. You can hear the impact in the following exercise.

Rising/Falling Exercise Deliver the two variations of the same phrase above to a person you know. Watch that person’s reactions to each version. Even as an exercise, the difference will be palpable.

Rising/Falling: The Question If your voice rises at the end of a phrase, it converts a statement into a question. A question sounds uncertain or dubious; a statement sounds confident, the perception every presenter wants to project. The following exercise demonstrates the difference between the uncertainty in a question and the conviction of a statement.

Question Exercise Say a simple phrase such as “I grew up in (your hometown”) but do it twice, first as a question with rising inflection and then as a statement with falling inflection. Hear the difference?

Rising/Falling Exception I discovered an interesting exception to the rising/falling effect in my car’s voice guidance system. After I enter a destination, a recorded male voice provides directions using a rising or falling pattern to convey different meanings. Every time the voice provides an update, he ends the phrase with rising inflection on the last words: “Continue on El Camino Real for three miles…” “Continue on El Camino Real for two miles…” “In 200 feet, turn left…” The rise in his voice creates suspense and indicates that we’re not there yet. But then, when he delivers his last instruction, “You have arrived at your destination,” his inflection falls on the last word, concluding the journey. 103

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This pattern works well for guidance systems because it indicates a continuing journey, but works against presenters because a rising inflection pattern indicates uncertainty.

(Video 37) A quick example of uptalk. https://youtu.be/pPZMy_JWsOU 

 

Rising/Falling: UpSpeak

At the far end of the rising/falling vocal spectrum is what is known as UpSpeak, where the inflection rises at the end of a phrase even further than it does for a question and continues upward until it veers off into complete meaninglessness. In a YouTube video, Garrison Frost demonstrated UpSpeak by simply speaking the first sentence of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address two ways: conventionally and with UpSpeak. In the latter, Frost’s voice rose at the end of each phrase in the sentence—at each comma—weakening the power of those immortal words3: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

(Video 38) Stephen Fry. Room 101—“AQI”—2001. https://youtu.be/xs5fH1ECzWc 

 

UpSpeak is often identified with teenagers because the pattern makes their words—and their personas—sound immature. Comedians have labeled this pattern “Valley Girl Talk.”

British comedian and writer Stephen Fry demonstrated Valley Girl talk as it occurs “particularly on the West Coast of America and a particularly female way of talking”4: My name is Mandy… [rising] and I want to be class president… [rising] 104

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(Video 39) George W Bush—Upspeak. https://archive.org/details/Political_videosGeorgeWBush20060731_1_134

But UpSpeak is not limited to Valley Girls; presidents do it, too. George W. Bush fell into an UpSpeak pattern during a speech in Florida: This trip’s a little different from the last time I spent the night here in Miami. Last night Jeb and I had some crabs… [rising inflection] …with like members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins… [rising] …Dan Marino and his really dynamic wife… [rising] …TV stars, Andy Garcia… [rising] …movie stars, we had a fantastic experience! It’s a lot better, by the way, than preparing for a presidential debate.5

(Video 40) Faith Salie on speaking with “vocal fry.” https://youtu.be/R6r7LhcHHAc 

 

Rising/Falling: Vocal Fry

(Video 41) Jill Abramson: Her new book and possible plagiarism. https://www.pbs.org/video/jill-abramson-her-new-bookand-possible-plagiarism-claims-xo/ 

 

At the far other end of the rising/falling vocal spectrum is “Vocal Fry,” a mannerism in which speakers end their phrases by dropping their voice into a raspy, lowpitched growl.6 The mannerism has drawn much attention because it has been adopted by many young women who are said to be emulating celebrities7 like Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears.8 It has also generated considerable media attention and controversy because it casts females who use it in a negative light. An article in The Guardian concluded that “this pattern makes young women who use it sound less competent, less trustworthy, less educated.”9

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But here, too, the pattern is not limited to young women. It can also make a mature woman sound less trustworthy. Jill Abramson is an experienced and respected journalist who rose through the ranks to become the first female executive editor of The New York Times. She lasted in that role for only four years due to conflicts with management and was abruptly dismissed. Returning to her journalistic roots, she wrote a book called Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts.

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When the book was published, however, it landed her in more trouble: Jake Malooley, an alert reporter for Rolling Stone, discovered that she had used several passages written by other writers, duplicated word-for-word, without attribution—the literary world’s cardinal sin of plagiarism, made worse because it was perpetrated by an editor. “The irony was thick,” Malooley wrote. “Here was a veteran of the industry, a Harvard journalism lecturer no less, getting facts wrong in a book about ‘the fight for facts’ in contemporary news.”10 In an effort to defend herself, Abramson made the media rounds. One stop was an interview on PBS, conducted by the respected Walter Isaacson, a former managing editor of Time Magazine, now a professor of history at Tulane University, and the author of biographies of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci. Isaacson said, “You’ve been accused of plagiarism in the book because there are a few passages that are pretty much verbatim from sources that weren’t cited well.…Were you cutting and pasting?”11 In her halting answer, Abramson repeatedly dropped her voice into Vocal Fry, indicated by underlines: I wasn’t doing that much cutting and pasting—some—uh—you know, but I don’t think that in—there are three examples of things that just went uncited, either authors or publications. I have, you know, 70 pages of footnotes and 835 separate citations. I was using—uh—a form of footnoting that I’d never used before called “trailing phrase end notes”—uh—which I’m certain—whether for a source—some people were angry because I credited some material but used other quotes from someone’s interview and didn’t do a separate end note on that. I didn’t think that is what that form required. But looking back I—I wish I had been more careful.12 The remedy for both UpSpeak and Vocal Fry is to Complete the Arc.

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(Video 42) EU referendum result—Statement by the Governor of the Bank of England. https://youtu.be/IK3By6uQ8gU 

 

Let’s now turn to three positive role models who Complete the Arc of their phrases flawlessly, although each of them does so in different patterns.

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Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, who grew up in Canada and studied at Harvard, speaks in compound phrases. When he announced Britain’s intention to resign from the European Union (Brexit), he used falling inflection at the ends of his long phrases: Good morning. The people of the United Kingdom have voted to leave the European Union. [falling] Inevitably there’ll be a period of uncertainty and adjustment following this result, but as the Prime Minister said just this morning there’ll be no initial change in the way our people can travel and the way our goods can move or the way our services can be sold.13 [falling] He also used a string of several phrases culminated by Complete the Arc: And it will take some time for the United Kingdom to establish new relationships with Europe and the rest of the world. [falling] So some market and economic volatility can be expected as this process unfolds, but we are well prepared for this.14 [falling]

(Video 43) Mary Barra—GM Switch Recall Update. https://youtu.be/s5Mt-PHyKdI?t=60 

 

Complete the Arc.

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General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who grew up and was educated in Michigan, speaks in short, simple phrases. When she spoke to GM employees about a defective ignition switch that led to the recall of 2.6 million cars, she 107

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also used falling inflection at the end of her phrases, indicated below by the line breaks: But as I lead through this crisis, I want everyone to know I am guided by two clear principles. First, we will do the right thing for those who were harmed, and second, we’ll accept responsibility for our mistakes, and commit to doing everything within our power to make sure this never happens again. I hate sharing this with you just as much as you hate hearing it. But I want you to hear it. In fact, I want you to remember it, I want you to never forget it.15

(Video 44) Never be happy with what you know: Indra Nooyi. https://youtu.be/24d4rfnsOxg?t=47 

 

Complete the Arc.

Indra Nooyi was the CEO of PepsiCo for 12 years, during which time she became widely regarded as one of the most powerful and influential women in business. She grew up speaking Tamil in her native India.16 Like other Indian languages and dialects, Tamil is characterized by rising inflections that give it a lilting, melodic pattern. But when Nooyi speaks in English, she Completes the Arc of her phrases, projecting the authority and confidence she clearly possesses. A year after her tenure at PepsiCo concluded, she was honored for her many achievements at a gala held at the official residence

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of the president in New Delhi. In her acceptance speech below, she, too, used falling inflection at the ends of her phrases, indicated by the line breaks: Greatness comes not from a position but from helping build the future. All of us in positions of power have an obligation to pull others up. You know as I stand here today, I look at my responsibility not as accepting an honor. I look upon it as accepting a challenge and a responsibility, …an obligation to actually make it possible for the people who are younger to come up and achieve levels of greatness so they too can be on the stage sometime in the future. So, thank you…for this incredible honor.17 Complete the Arc. To make the phrase the basic rhythm of your spoken cadence, you must also consider what separates one phrase from another. In written text, that would be a comma or a period. The Vocal equivalent of a written punctuation mark is a pause, the subject of the next chapter.

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Chapter Nine

Control Your Cadence: The Pause

Case Studies: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Frank Sinatra • Ella Fitzgerald • Dizzy Gillespie • John F. Kennedy • The Frenchman Who Paused • Christine Lagarde, European Central Bank • Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum • Joey Zwillinger, Allbirds • Jack Rakove • General Israel Putnam No word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.1 Mark Twain

Once again, we find music a perfect analogy for speech. In music, a pause—a silent interval—is called a rest. Every composer, singer, and musician fully appreciates the value of the rest. Consider these examples: “Mozart is said to have declared the most powerful effect in music was—no music.”2

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Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, who were admired for the exquisite tone of their voices, were equally admired for their interpretive phrasing of lyrics. Both of them bracketed and shaped their phrases with pauses. Each of them held some of their pauses as long as their sung notes.

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Dizzy Gillespie, the great jazz trumpeter, gave us his own inimitable definition of the pause: “It’s taken me most of my life to know which notes not to play.”3







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In speech, the pause is the interval of time between phrases, and it occurs most effectively as you move from one person to another.

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Multiple benefits occur during that silence. Leading off the list, you can think of your next phrase; a very significant benefit, because it allows you to prime your mind with what to say next. The silence provides an even more significant benefit: it allows the audience member you have just addressed to absorb what you said. While those two benefits are important, there is a third, even more important—more important than the other two put together—you breathe. The breath you take contains oxygen, which, in addition to extending your life span, relaxes you and further counteracts the adrenaline rush. As you take that breath, you cannot utter a word, you cannot make a sound. You cannot say, “UM,” the dreaded Unword. Try it. Take a deep breath, and as you do, try to say “UM.” You cannot. Inhaled air cannot produce a sound. The fourth benefit of the pause, then, is to eliminate Unwords.

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The dreaded Unwords are the universal anathema of presenters. Collective custom in the presentation trade has made saying “UM” a cardinal sin. Speakers avoid “UM” like the plague, for fear that they will sound uncertain. Unwords can affect the most experienced presenters, even great orators like President John F. Kennedy.

(Audio 1) John F. Kennedy—News Conference #24, February 14, 1962. https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/ JFKWHA/1962/JFKWHA-073/JFKWHA-073 

 

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In February 1962, when the controversial Vietnam War was descending further into its complex downward spiral, President Kennedy held a press conference, where the following exchange occurred:

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epor er: Mr. President, a Republican National Committee publication has said that you are—have been less than candid with the American people as to how deeply we are involved in Vietnam. Could you throw any more light on that?… do you feel that you have told the American people as much as can be told, because of the sensitivity of the subject?

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Jfk: We have increased our assistance to the government—its logistics. We have not sent combat troops there—though the training missions that we have there—uh—have been instructed if they are fired upon to—uh—they— uh—would, of course, fire back to protect themselves. But we have not sent— uh—combat troops in the generally understood—uh—sense of the word … And—uh—we are attempting to make all the information that we can, consistent with our—uh—security needs in the area. So that I—I feel that—uh—we are—uh—being as frank as the—uh—as we can be. I think—what I have said to you is a description of our activity there.4

Most approaches to eliminate Unwords are based on negative conditioning such as, “Don’t say ‘UM’!” or, “Every time you say ‘UM,’ you have to pay a quarter.” Now there is even an app called Presentr that marks Unwords (the app calls UMs “filler words”) and sends a signal to the presenter’s mobile device in real time.5 Aversion therapy doesn’t work for nail-biters or smokers, nor does it work for presenters. Telling a perpetrator what not to do usually causes the perpetrator to do it more often. If you tell an agitated person to calm down, that person is likely to become more agitated. The adrenaline rush in presentations is a form of agitation. Telling a presenter not to say “UM” will simply produce more “UMs.” Try a positive approach instead. Tell the presenter what to do: pause. Simply stop and breathe. That is the only way to eliminate Unwords. The breath you take during the pause has still another, fifth, benefit: it fills your lungs with air, providing more fuel for your vocal pump and gives your voice more animation.

Benefits of the Pause Presenter thinks

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Presenter breathes Unwords vanish Voice animates

Five benefits—all for just coming to a complete stop!

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Speaking in a Second Language The first and second benefits above each has a sub-benefit related to the continuing globalization of the world. Because many presenters today speak English as a second language, the pause that provides those speakers time to think also gives them time to translate the words from their native language. Many of my business clients speak English as a second language, and they do so very well. However, regardless of whether their first language is Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Tamil, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, or Hebrew, their brains must still travel two neural pathways to process both languages when they speak. The Pause enables both pathways to run their full courses.

(Video 45) The David Rubenstein Show: Christine Lagarde. https://youtu.be/_Jhfp8fa2Fk?t=73 

 

In addition, because second-language presenters are likely to speak English with an accent, the pause also gives their audiences time to process unfamiliar pronunciations and absorb the meaning. I once worked with a French gentleman who used the word “ontairpreez” during an early iteration of his presentation, and I didn’t understand the word. But later, after he had learned to pause, I was able to interpret that he had said “enterprise.” Still later in his presentation, he said “ze ‘oul onsheelahdah,” and paused. During his pause, I understood that he had said, “the whole enchilada.”

Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, was born, raised, and, for the most part, educated in France. She spent part of her youth in the United States on a scholarship and as an intern to a member of Congress, so she is quite fluent in English. She does speak with a slight French accent, but she pauses often, giving her time to think in two languages and her audience time to interpolate her pronunciations. In an interview with David Rubenstein on his Bloomberg cable television show, she spoke about the International Monetary Fund:

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Lagarde: The International Monetary Fund was set up 75 years ago by 44 men who decided that… No women?

Lagarde: There were no women in those days. [pause] So 44 men in 1944, [pause] on the eve of the end of the Second World War, [pause] with a view to avoiding 114

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major economic crisis, [pause] major instability in the world, which in their view led to the war. [pause] So that’s the intention. [pause] Where do you get your money?

Lagarde: From all the membership. [pause] Every member, 189 members, [pause] every member contributes to the financing of this common pot.6

The pauses also made Lagarde appear unhurried, measured, and reasoned— required qualities for a bank president. Of course, those English speakers who are fluent enough to present in a second language will reap the same corollary benefits for themselves and for their audiences when they pause.

Still More Benefits of the Pause During the Pause, as you move away from the person to whom you finished your phrase, your eyes sweep across an unpopulated space. In that space, you may see a coffee cup, a stack of paper, a mobile device, a water glass, a pair of eyeglasses, a computer, and then, finally, the next person. All those images are bits and bytes of data that your eyes take in and transmit via your optic nerves to your brain for processing. If you try to speak while your brain is doing all that processing, your brain goes into overload. The two energy paths—inbound and outbound sensory data—collide, and your mind goes blank. Game over! All that sensory processing produces a cascade effect: your brain transmits your overload to your adrenal glands, which trigger the Fight-or-Flight Reaction, which produces negative behavior, which creates a negative perception in your audience, which they manifest in restlessness, which tells you that your presentation is faltering, and which stimulates even more adrenaline flow. The vicious cycle becomes a vortex, and the cascade becomes a raging flood. Whew! Instead, when you are completely silent as you make that trip across the unpopulated space, your brain processes only the inbound data. The Pause reduces sensory overload. The benefits continue: because your eyes are not darting around, your audience perceives you as assured and confident—a positive perception. As you finish your phrase, you come to a stop and punctuate the phrase succinctly. You can also Read the Reaction of the person who has just received the phrase and, depending on what you see, you can Adjust the Content. 115

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The final benefit of the Pause is the most important of all: you control your tempo. Notice I said control your tempo rather than slow down or speed up. As a coach, I never ask people to speak faster or slower, because one cannot speak faster or slower. I was born and raised in New York City, where pausing is illegal. It is impossible for me to speak slowly. If I were to try to slow down, it would sound as…if…my…battery…were…running…down. Instead, Ispeakveryquicklywithineachphrase. Then I pause. Then Ispeakveryquicklywithinthenextphrase. Then I pause. Therefore, instead of trying to slow down, I control my tempo. Geography determines tempo. If you were raised in a fast-paced urban environment, your tempo is likely to be fast; in the suburbs, moderate; and in a rural area, slower. That’s why metropolitans like me tend to sound fast and southerners have drawls. Those patterns, having been embedded at an early age and reinforced by years of repetition, are as difficult to change as right- or left-handedness. The Pause enables you to control your tempo. Now you have five more benefits of the pause: Reduce sensory overload

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Earn a positive perception

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Punctuate your words

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Read the Reaction/Adjust the Content

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Control the tempo











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A total of ten benefits, all for the price of doing absolutely nothing! Pause. While all ten benefits of the pause are important, the one that rises above all the rest is the second: your audience absorbs. The Pause gives your audience time during the silence to digest and think about the phrase you have just completed. The more time they have, the more they can reflect on your ideas. Imagine your audience reflecting on each of your phrases as if they were savoring a spoonful of the rarest and most expensive Beluga caviar. Don’t force them to wolf down such valuable substance. Don’t be guilty of the often-leveled charge, “Listening to Jack is like trying to take a sip of water from a gushing fire hose!”

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The Challenge of the Pause

(Video 46) Keynote from Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum Foundation) at Ethereum Meetup 2018. https://youtu.be/7vuTtvshR34?t=9 

 

Unfortunately, pausing is very difficult to do because when the Yikes! moment strikes, Time Warp kicks in, accelerates the tempo, and overrides the Pause.

Vitalik Buterin is the co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine and Ethereum, an  open source,  public,  blockchain-based  distributed computing  platform. He was born in Moscow but moved to Canada at the age of six, so he is quite fluent in English. However, when Buterin delivered a keynote at the Ethereum Meetup produced by TechCrunch in Zug, Switzerland, Time Warp struck him. Buterin went into overdrive and jammed his words together so rapidly that he often ran out of breath, and only then did he stop to inhale. This random pausing pattern fragmented his phrases at arbitrary points and disrupted his logic. You can see the irregular breaks in the transcript of his keynote presentation: So [breath] UM today I’m going to talk about a, ah subject that’s kind of a bit off the beaten path in that it doesn’t [breath] tend to get as much media attention as some of the more flashy things like ah [breath] Casper and sharding and, ah zero knowledge proofs but [breath] at the same time it is something that is ah very important to a well-functioning public blockchain [breath] and its ability to [breath] be efficient and be sustainable for the long term which is a, ah transaction fee economics [breath] or why is the fee or gas price or rent so darn high? [breath] So, [breath] start off with the fundamentals right. So, this is a blockchain, blockchains contain blocks, blocks contain transactions [breath]. Users, that is you, [breath] sends transactions [breath] and these transactions get included into blocks. [breath] Now, [breath] from an economic point of view, right, each transaction [breath] gives a private benefit to its sender. You send a transaction because you want to send a transaction because you get something out of the [breath] transaction being sent and being successful included into the blockchain.7

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(Video 47) Joey Zwillinger—Allbirds CEO talks struggles with Amazon. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/ 11/19/intv-allbirds-joey-zwillinger-amanpour.cnn 

 

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Joey Zwillinger, the co-CEO of Allbirds, a manufacturer of sustainable shoes, is a tortoise compared to Vitalik Buterin’s hare. Moreover, Zwillinger has very little reason to feel any stress: after just two years of operation, his company was valued at $1.4 billion. Nor did he have any reason to feel stress when, in an interview on CNN, Christiane Amanpour, the usually challenging investigative reporter, posed her first question as a softball, or, as journalists call it, a “valentine”: “How [did] you and your co-founder, your colleague, just even come up with this idea?” Zwillinger’s answer, although delivered with a warm, composed smile, sounded like a man in a hurry. What made him sound rushed is that he spoke all his words as one long, unbroken sentence. What made them into one sentence were the multiple occurrences of “and” (underlines mine) which connected disparate phrases: My partner, Tim Brown, was a professional athlete playing soccer on the international stage, and he’d been sponsored by some of the big athletic companies and learned that splashy logos and promoting those brands was what they’re all about, ah the gear was nice, and he had a design background, so he started to kind of just toy around with the concepts around making a shoe that was a little more clean, and simple and designed a little more timeless, and at that time I was actually working in the renewable chemicals industry and…and saw that there was an unbelievable opportunity and just this rising tide of demand from consumers that wanted something that was a no-compromise offering that was wonderful for whatever that product should do for you as a person when you buy it, and what you expect of it, and that it should also be sensible in the planet, and I was selling into these brands and developing really innovative materials that they could use and no one wanted it.8 To Zwillinger’s credit, however, whenever he said “and,” he took a breath, which punctuated his words and helped the listener parse his logic. (Imagine if he had Completed the Arc as well.)

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(Video 48) Jack Rakove—Constitutional Convention of 1787 (In cue: 2:18). https://www.c-span.org/video/?323803-1/discussionconstitutional-convention-1787 

 

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Time Warp affects even experienced speakers in stress-free settings. Jack Rakove, a professor of history and political science, has been lecturing at Stanford University since 1980. One of his lectures on the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was broadcast on C-SPAN: The federal system is never going to function efficiently—under such a system as it says, “This will never fail to render federal measures abortive,” and so from that position he reaches the conclusion that what needs to be done is you need to have a system that is going to operate by law not by recommendations and if it operates by law you therefore have to create a national government that looks like a regular government in the full sense of the term, meaning it has to have an independent legislature, it has to have an independent executive, it has to have an independent judiciary.9 Here, too, the “ands” connect multiple phrases into one long, run-on sentence. In its own way, “and,” a seemingly innocuous conjunction, is a worse Unword than “UM.” “And” replaces the pause and deprives the presenter of thinking time; worse still, by connecting two discrete phrases, it deprives the audience of absorption time. Rapid, run-on speech patterns are not limited to keynote presenters, television interviewees, and university professors. They occur in everyday communications: meetings, casual conversations, telephone chats, cocktail party chatter, and voicemail. Cocktail party bores are a subject for another time, but think of the times you’ve listened to a recorded message on your voicemail left by someone who rambles: Hi! I’m just calling to confirm our lunch today and I was wondering where you think we should go because I know that you like Chinese food but MSG doesn’t agree with me and you can’t have Italian food because you’re on a low-carb diet and neither of us wants Mexican food because it’s too spicy and salads are really bland and boring so I was wondering… 119

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At this point, you are most likely ready to hit Delete on your keypad. Don’t inflict a ramble on your audience and risk their wanting to delete you. Pause to breathe as Christine Lagarde did. Pause to think. Pause to eliminate the dreaded Unword as well as the even more dreadful unnecessary “and.” Control your cadence with the Pause.



 









• Voice animates



• Unwords vanish • Reduce sensory overload



• Presenter breathes

• Earn a positive perception



• Audience absorbs

• Punctuate your words



• Presenter thinks

• Read the Reaction/Adjust the Content



Ten Benefits of the Pause ■

• Control the tempo



 

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A total of ten benefits, all for the price of doing absolutely nothing! Pause. Now you have chapter and verse for how and why to pause, but you cannot lug this book and all these details up to the front of the room with you. Once again, it’s time to condense all the instructions into an easy-to-remember takeaway.

Speak Only to Eyes® ■  

 

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Speak only when you are in EyeConnect with one person. If you speak while you are moving, you would be speaking into what was known in World War I trench warfare as “no man’s land.” You would be speaking to no one.

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There are no eyes between people, so be silent during your pause. Do not speak as you traverse from one person to another. But that is aversion therapy again. Speak Only to Eyes tells you what to do, rather than what not to do. The London Underground rail network provides an analogous instruction: when a train enters a station with a curved platform and comes to a stop, the curve creates a small space between the car and the platform, a minor hazard for boarding passengers. With typical British courtesy and understatement, a placard advises riders to “Mind the gap.” Mind the gap between the sets of eyes in your audience, move across the gap in silence. Let’s turn back to sports for another analogy. In tennis you can either hit the ball on the run or planted. The latter is preferable because having both feet solidly planted provide a stable platform from which to launch your next shot. The analogy is applicable to presentations as well. Let’s say you were to deliver the phrase you used in the previous chapter to learn Complete the Arc®: “The most important aspect of presenting is confidence!” But then, if you were to start your next phrase on the run before you reached the next person’s eyes— “and the key to confidence is EyeConnect”—you would appear rushed to that person. You, too, would feel rushed, and that would activate the cascade effect. Instead, take a full pause. Wait until you make full EyeConnect with the next person before you start your next phrase. Wait to speak until you land, wait until both your eyes are engaged with both the eyes of that next person. Then say, “The key to confidence is EyeConnect.” Just as it is important to stay with a person’s eyes until you finish a phrase before you move away, it is equally important to wait until you see both eyes of the next person before you speak. The difference in time is a mere instant, but difference in impact is significant.

Speak Only to Both Eyes Speak Only to Eyes is a simple instruction that produces another string of important benefits, each triggering positive reactions from your audience:



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Instinct. Both your eyes connecting with both the eyes of a person in your audience re-creates the early imprinting of eye-to-eye contact between mothers and newborn infants. Head nods. Your head will dip into a nod when you land to Speak Only to Both Eyes, causing the person with whom you are connecting to nod back at you reflexively.

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Expressiveness. To maintain EyeConnect with that person, you have to look up through your eyebrows, causing them to rise, and animate your features in the process. Remember the equation from Chapter Seven: Speak with Your Body Language: E=E, Engagement equals Expressiveness.

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Logic. You will deliver your content with a clean, clear starting point.

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Pause. When you Speak Only to Both Eyes, you control the entire duration of the pause: its beginning, middle, and end.

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Sincerity. When both your eyes are engaged with both the eyes of an audience member, you appear sincere. Photographers and painters generally avoid posing subjects looking out of the corners of their eyes because it makes the subjects appear stealthy. To create sincerity, portraitists have their subjects look straight ahead, with their irises—the colored circles of the eyes—in the center, flanked by equal amounts of white.









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Another scientific study of infants reinforced the importance the whites of the eyes—known anatomically as sclera—in interpersonal communication: The current study provides neural evidence for the unconscious detection of emotion and gaze cues from the sclera in 7-mo-old infants.… that likely provide a vital foundation for the development of social interactive skills.10 To paraphrase Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam, “Don’t speak until you see the whites of their eyes.” Speak Only to Eyes. Then pair it with Complete the Arc®. Taken together, we can sum up everything you’ve learned in this chapter and the prior chapter as…

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Here’s how it all works in a presentation: when you step up to the front of the room, pick one person in your audience—the one with whom you’re going to have a conversation. Then:



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Deliver one phrase to that person. Pause. 122

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Move to another person and deliver one phrase to that person.

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Pause.

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Move to another person and deliver one phrase to that person. Pause. Continue around the room, delivering one phrase to one person at a time. Pause between each phrase and each person.

There are two apocryphal notions floating around the presentation trade related to Phrases and Pauses. The first is that the presenter should “finish the thought.” But that instruction is too vague. Is a thought a group of phrases or a group of sentences? Is a thought a paragraph? Trying to parse a “thought” is likely to produce a long string that contains multiple phrases all unloaded onto one poor, unsuspecting audience member, making that person feel uncomfortable and depriving the person of the time to absorb anything. The other apocryphal notion is about timing: it says that the duration of a Phrase should be three or four seconds, and a companion notion that the duration of a Pause should be a second or two between phrases. Either of these notions would require the presenter to count simultaneously while speaking and thinking—which would immediately produce sensory overload. Speak Only to Eyes precludes the need for counting. The pause takes as long as it takes for your eyes to move from both eyes of one person to both eyes of another person.

Phrase & Pause in Virtual Presentations Because your voice is the prime conveyor of your content in virtual and phone meetings, be sure to animate your volume and inflection by using the Bellows Effect you learned in Chapter Seven. By the same measure, pay special attention to your cadence. You don’t want to sound like the unbroken, flatline voicemail message above. It would be the Verbal equivalent of a document without punctuation. Punctuate your virtual content by completing your arcs and pausing between them. You can Speak Only to Eyes by delivering each phrase to a different participant in the gallery view—in random order (Figure 9.1).

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Gallery View of Virtual Meeting

 

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Cadence Summary ■  

 

Figure 9.1

Control your cadence with the key elements of Phrase & Pause: Define the Phrase when you Complete the Arc.

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Define the Pause when you Speak Only to Eyes.





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Combine these steps with the Person-to-Person Conversation method. Deliver every presentation as a series of Person-to-Person Conversations and make every engagement a complete conversation. As succinct and simple as these instructions may seem, Time Warp is going to make them very difficult to do. Because of my New York City upbringing, it was very difficult for me to pause. Because of every human being’s adrenal reaction, it will be difficult for you to apply this skill. It will require practice. In my own learning process, I developed two simple exercises that you can use to learn to pause.

Cadence Practice Exercises For the first exercise, go into an unoccupied conference room and, from your position in front of the room, have a series of Person-to-Person Conversations with the empty chairs, as if there were people sitting in them. As you move your EyeConnect from one chair to another, do so in random sequence, as you would do when you 124

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are in front of a real audience. If you move in a predictable, sequential order, your audience will pick up the pattern and lose attention when you move away. If you move randomly, they won’t know when you are returning and will stay attentive. The second approach is to go into an office or any room alone with a digital recorder or your mobile device and record yourself presenting or just speaking on the telephone. Then play back the recording and listen to your cadence. Listen objectively for whether you parse your words into complete arcs or whether you ramble. By focusing on your voice, you eliminate the need to think about your body language and concentrate only on your cadence and content. Record several iterations of the same passage and listen to whether you do or do not use a falling inflection at the end of each phrase. As you repeat the exercise, you will find your own optimal speech pattern and become more proficient with the skill. Of course, the ultimate benefit is that it will be your own natural pattern.

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Phrase & Pause is the last of our three Master Skills. It serves to fill in the final arc of the cycle, first as Figure 6.3 and Figure 7.5, now completed in Figure 9.2. The circle of interlocking arrows links all the instructions in a continuous, virtuous chain.

ERA

Phrase & Pause

Person-to-Person  

Figure 9.2

The Suasive Master Skills Cycle

Once you have completed your conversation with one person, move to another person and start around the circle again. This pattern will carry you around the room in a series of person-to-person conversations. Remember that conversations are not one-way streets. Read the Reaction/Adjust the Content of each conversation. In the ultimate consolidation, Phrase & Pause brings together all the elements of presentation dynamics: deliver a logical unit of your Verbal content to one person with your Vocal components and engage with that person with your Visual components by looking them straight in the eye while extending your hand. 125

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These reduced instructions can be reduced even further to a simple equation: 1:1:1 One-to-one for one: person-to-person for one phrase. This simple equation is essentially a summary of the entire book. Always speak person-to-person, regardless of the size of the audience. Deliver a presentation as a series of Person-toPerson Conversations. Phrase & Pause produces positive behavior that will create a positive perception about your cadence: Tempo by phrases (versus fast or slow) is well-paced

•

Pattern of complete phrases has logic that creates clarity

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UNwords replaced by pauses sound natural







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Phrase & Pause also culminates the changes in all of the factors you first saw in the Negative Behavior/Negative Perception table in Table 3.1, now with Positive Behavior/Positive Perception in a new table in Table 9.1. BEHAVIOR

PERCEPTION

Eyes

Connect

Sincere

Features

Expressive

Engaged

Head

Nods

Agreement

Hands/Arms

ReachOut

Handshake

Stance

Balanced

Poised

Volume

Projected

Conviction

Inflection

Animation

Punctuation

Tempo

Phrases

Well-paced

Pattern

Pauses

Absorb

Unwords

Pauses

Natural

Table 9.1

 

FACTOR

Positive Behavior/Positive Perception

Until this point, I have not made any reference to slides, except in Chapter Four: The Quest for Content, where I told you how not to use them. This omission is intentional. You can find a thorough set of best graphic design practices in Presenting to Win. But once you learn to implement those techniques, there is still one more aspect that falls into the wheelhouse of this book: how to integrate your slides with your delivery, your narrative, and even the physical tools that display your slides. That is a unique skill called SlideSynchronization, the subject of the next three chapters. 126

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Chapter Ten

Tools of the Trade

Case Studies: Michael J. Byron, Nighthawk Gold • Teodor Panayotov, CourseDot • Atul Gawande, M.D. The Right Tool for the Right Job1 Ad slogan for True Temper tools

The nuts and bolts of presentations come in many forms: projection and LCD screens, microphones, lecterns, projectors, computers, and remote-control devices. The first two are standard operating equipment in almost every conference room on the planet; the latter three are in a constant state of technological change and upgrade. All six are an integral part of the SlideSynchronization skills, but they are subject to the vagaries and variations of venue layouts. The world of presentations is not perfect, but the following guidelines show you how to deploy these tools to their best effect.

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The tools of the presentation trade are governed by the same rules as those of real estate: location, location, location. In presentations, they translate to the location of the speaker in relation to the display screen:

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Location One: Present in or close to the screen’s plane. When you are at the same depth as the screen, you can easily glance at your slide over your left shoulder without turning your back to the audience.

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This position also works well for your audience, saving them from having to adjust their focus between you and the screen. When you present seated, use the lid of your laptop as your screen and sit in the same plane.

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Location Two: Present at or close to the edge of the screen. Stand close to the screen so your audience can shift from you to the screen in a very short move. We’ve all experienced arrangements in large hotel banquet rooms where the screen is at one side of the stage and the presenter’s lectern is at the far end of the other, causing the audience to swing their eyes back and forth as if in a tennis match. When your company hosts the event, you can ask for closer positioning, but often the physical arrangements are beyond the presenter’s control. When you present seated, position yourself close to the edge of your laptop screen or your pitchbook.



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Location Three: Present with the screen to your left. Western audiences are culturally accustomed to reading from left to right, so when you present with the screen to your left, your audience will start with you and then take in your slide in one familiar, smooth move. This is particularly important with text slides because, if you were to present with the screen to your right, your audience would be forced to take in each line of text in two moves: backward across the grain of the words, and then forward on the second pass. With the screen to your left, they can take in the words in one easy, natural pass. (The exception, of course, is when the text on the slides is in either Hebrew or Arabic, where the text is read from right to left. In that case, Location Three is to present with the screen to your right.) Furthermore, with the screen to your left, when you gesture or ReachOut to your audience, you will most likely do it with your right arm as you replicate the handshake. You can use your left arm to gesture toward the screen. Remember, too, that the movement of your arms creates the Bellows Effect and produces vocal animation.

In summary, location, location, location: position yourself at or close to the screen plane, position yourself at or close to the screen edge, and present with the screen to your left (Figure 10.1).

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Figure 10.1

Bullet point Bullet point

@ Left

Bullet point Bullet point

Location, location, location

Location, Location, Location in Action 

(Video 49) Nighthawk Gold investor presentation by Michael Byron at CMS 2018. https://youtu.be/Lg3Fc21uJJs?t=115

Dr. Michael J. Byron, the CEO of Nighthawk Gold, delivered an investor pitch at the Canadian Mining Symposium in London. His screen was positioned to his right, which forced his audience to read the words on his slides backwards; a task made even more challenging by dense graphic design. The first slide had four quadrants with four disparate subjects (a description of one of Nighthawk Gold’s properties, a description of one of their projects, their cash balance, and their management) and each quadrant had multiple bullets.2 However, even those crowded slides would have been easier for the audience to read if the screen had been positioned to Dr. Byron’s left.



(Video 50) Teodor Panayotov—StartUP@Blagoevgrad 2015. https://youtu.be/0WUVbtZkXy0?t=22

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The audience for Teodor Panayotov’s presentation had a much easier time. Panayotov, the CEO of CourseDot, an online marketplace for IT training, spoke at a startup conference in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, standing on a large stage with a large screen to his left. His slides were very simple—the first was a swoosh timeline of computer growth—that allowed the audience to take in the entire slide in a single matching swoosh movement from Panayotov to the screen. His next three slides—a short quote from a thought leader followed by two picture slides with single-line captions—enabled his audience to understand them quickly and turn their attention back to him.3 This Less Is More design approach (about which you will learn more in the next chapter) enabled Panayotov to glance at the screen and get a prompt from the slide—a far more efficient reminder than the comfort monitors you read about in Chapter Four: The Quest for Content because it connects the presenter’s narrative directly with the slide—as well as the presenter’s position to the screen.

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The Checklist Manifesto, a bestselling book by Atul Gawande, M.D., focuses on the all-too-common occurrence of essential steps in medical practices being overlooked or omitted. Dr. Gawande shows how to create a “belt and suspenders” checklist to avoid such failures, which can lead to malpractice suits.4 One of the book’s many strengths is its applicability to many other walks of life. With all due respect and gratitude to the good doctor, I extend the applicability of the checklist approach to presentations: Face front. Speak Only to Eyes, not to the screen. Speak Only to Both Eyes, not in profile. Remember the study that showed the difference between the mothers who made eye-to-eye contact with their newborn infants and those who looked at them at an angle. The power of direct engagement is imprinted early in life.

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Illuminate for EyeConnect. Some presenters dim the lights in the room to create better contrast on the screen but lose EyeConnect. However, it is better to sacrifice contrast of the image than to sacrifice EyeConnect. Never plunge the room into complete darkness—it invites napping. Like screen position, however, lighting is often beyond the presenter’s control; in which case, see “Blinding Lights” below for how to optimize lighting in such settings.





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Use the lectern properly. Don’t use it to:

Do:

Hold your notes

Use the slide as your prompt

Hold the microphone

Use a wireless microphone

Hold the computer

Use a wireless remote control

Hold the presenter

Stand on your own two feet

Hide the presenter

Come out in the open

Promote the hotel

Promote yourself

Avoid the projection beam. Stay out of the light of the projection beam. If the light hits your eyes, you will squint in discomfort, and so will your audience—out of empathy. Or they will become distracted by the patterns superimposed on your face. Or they might become intrigued with the figure that the shadow of your hand casts on the screen. You can gesture toward the screen and describe where you want your audience to look with your narrative. This is called “Verbal Navigation,” and you’ll find more about the skill in Chapter Twelve: SlideSync Narrative.

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Check sight lines. Make sure each person in your audience can see you and the screen. You can take a slight step to make EyeConnect with people who are seated behind other people. Check to see that the image is projected high enough on the screen so that the people in the back can see the entire slide.



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I don’t play golf, but I’m told by friends who do that they walk the course to see the lay of the land before they play the game. The analogy is appropriate to presentations. Walk around the room before you present to see all the angles from which the audience will see you and the screen.

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Adjust for the audience size. Different audiences have different needs: Small groups. Audiences of half a dozen or so are the optimal presentation environment. In such an intimate setting, you can connect directly with each person. Present seated so that you are at the same eye level as the audience. This advice correlates with the virtual presentation advice in Chapter Seven: Speak with Your Body Language, where you read about the psychological benefits of presenting at eye level with the video webcam. ­

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If you stand in a small group, you will look down at your audience and create negative feelings. Presenting seated puts you at eye level with your audience and creates empathy.

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Medium-size groups. The most common presentation format usually takes place in an executive briefing center or a large conference room, to audiences of a dozen or more. In this setting, stand so that you can see and make EyeConnect with each person in the room. Move from person to person in a series of person-to-person conversations in random sequence. Check the sight lines. Walk the course.

Large venues. Big Tent presentations, as you read about in earlier chapters, have audiences in the hundreds and sometimes thousands in large convention centers. These events use image magnification, known as IMAG: large screens on which giant images of slides, animated graphics, videos, and presenters are projected. In this setting, while the presenters are subject to the specific elements of each production, they must still tell a clear story and deliver it with confidence. There are two specific physical factors of Big Tent presentations that affect your delivery skills and require a slight modification of the skills you’ve learned: Blinding lights. When you are illuminated by blinding lights, you cannot Speak Only to Eyes because you cannot see any eyes. In such situations, maintain your cadence and move on your phrases. Deliver a phrase to a spot in the dark. Move to another spot in the dark and deliver another phrase. Find a pair of eyes at the edge of the light and deliver a phrase to that person. Then move to another spot in the dark and deliver a phrase. Continue to move around the audience in random sequence.

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Depth of field. Have you ever sat in the audience at the back of a large room and had the presenter look at you and say, “You, sir,” or “You, ma’am”? Uncertain as to exactly where the presenter is looking, you most likely looked around and said, “Who me?”





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This is the depth-of-field factor. At a certain distance, it is difficult for the audience to see your eyes. Depth of field works in your favor because when you deliver a phrase to the back of a large room, several people feel as if you are addressing them directly.

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Now let’s take all that you’ve learned so far and move forward to your next highstakes presentation. No matter where or when that is, as soon as you get to the front of that room, you will experience the Yikes! moment, and adrenaline will start coursing through your body. Reflexively, your eyes will sweep the room in search of escape routes. You will not be able to hold back that sweep. You will not be able to think about pausing. You will barely be able to think of what to say. Your eyes will go into motion, searching for the exits.

The First Ten Seconds Let your eyes go. Let the sweep happen. Sweep long enough for your eyes to determine which way you’ll flee, should the need arise. Let your eyes take in the entire room but make the sweep work for you rather than against you. Accompany your sweeping eye movement with a greeting that addresses the entire group as one: “Good morning, everybody. Welcome. Thank you for coming. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with all of you.” This simple amenity will make your movement appear sincere rather than furtive. But be sure to make your greeting brief. No Academy Award acceptance speeches here. Once you have swept the room with your welcoming remarks, stop. Turn to one new person, look at both eyes of that person, and deliver the first phrase of your presentation—one that you have Verbalized. This first person to receive your first phrase should be at the opposite side of the room from the last person at the end of your sweep. If you sweep your eyes to the right, stop and move to a new person on the left side of the room; if you sweep to the left, stop and move to a new person on the right side of the room. There are two important reasons for this wide swing. One is to give you a longer pause to think—thinking is always a good idea. The other is to stabilize yourself for that first phrase to that first person. Think of it as stepping up to the baseline in tennis. You don’t serve as soon as you get there. You plant your feet, you look across the net at your opponent, you take a breath; all to be in a solid position to deliver a hard, fast serve. Your first phrase to the first person is your serve. Make it an ace. At the end of that first phrase, pause and turn to another person to deliver another phrase. Continue to move around the entire room in that same pattern: one person, one phrase, and then pause. Establish your cadence and stay in your cadence. 133

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In U.S. football, some coaches develop a game plan for their team: they script the first ten plays of every contest for a strong start. Once again, we can draw a parallel between sports and presenting. “Script” the first ten seconds of your presentation. The quotation marks around “script” mean that you should develop the general ideas of those first few phrases as brief bullets, just as you saw with the comfort monitors in Chapter Four. Once you’ve done that, Verbalize the phrases until you become familiar with them. Don’t carve them in stone; Verbalize them until you find your comfort level. Establish the rhythm for your entire presentation in the first ten seconds. This strategy for the first ten seconds is applicable to all groups—small, medium, and large. I use this technique myself every time I present. Even though I present often, like every other human being, my adrenaline surges as I begin, but I control it by sweeping my eyes across the room during my greeting. Give your presentation a strong, clear start. You never have a second chance to make a first impression.

The Bottom Line Make your presentation good for the audience, and they’ll make it good for you. The bottom line is Audience Advocacy®. If you think about it, all the guidelines in this chapter are intended to make it easier for the audience to receive you and your presentation. This is Audience Advocacy®, the theme for the entire book. The theme continues in the next chapter, as we integrate the tools of the trade with the Visual, Vocal, and Verbal in SlideSynchronization.

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Chapter Eleven

SlideSynchronization

Case Studies: Don McMillan • Robert Benchley • Leslie Culbertson, Intel • Olivier Fontana, Microsoft • Bill Jasper, Dolby • Ken Hirsch, Goldman Sachs • Frank Quattrone, Morgan Stanley • Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York • Annika Goldman, Canopy Suit the action to the word…1 Hamlet 3.2.18 William Shakespeare

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SlideSynchronization, or SlideSync for short, is a unique skill set that integrates Design (what you show, your slides) and Delivery (what you do, your body language—and what you say, your voice and your content).

Design/Delivery Balance ■  

 

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Ideally, Design and Delivery exist in a balanced relationship (Figure 11.1). Design

Delivery

 

Figure 11.1 Design and delivery in balance

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The Teeterboard Effect If your deck is designed with simple, easy-to-read slides that follow the classic Less Is More principle* (Less on the slide is more effective), they will speak for themselves. Your audience will understand them instantly. You will have less to do and say to explain your slides (Figure 11.2). Design Less Is More

Delivery

 

Figure 11.2 Less Is More Design/Less to do and say Delivery

In this model, once your audience finishes with your slide and looks back at you, your narrative can go beyond what they have seen, you can discuss, analyze, cite examples, and add value with case studies, statistics, anecdotes, endorsements, and WIIFYs®. If, on the other hand, your deck is designed with top-heavy, cluttered eye chart slides, known as More Is Less (More on the slide is less effective), your audience will find them difficult to understand. You have to say and do a great deal to explain such slides (Figure 11.3). Delivery

Design More Is Less  

Figure 11.3 More Is Less Design means Delivery with more to say and do



* The design principle advocated by twentieth-century architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for his Minimalist structures. Today the principle is applied to everything from stylish packaging design to efficient business models to effective slide design.

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While you are doing all that explaining, your audience will have to dart their eyes back and forth between you and the screen, trying to understand your complicated slide and what it has to do with what you are saying. Game over!

(Video 51) Don McMillan: Life After Death by PowerPoint. https://youtu.be/lpvgfmEU2Ck?t=5 

 

More Is Less Design/More to Say and Do in Action

Don McMillan, a former Silicon Valley electrical engineer, is keenly aware of the dysfunctional More Is Less dynamics. After spending years designing complex computer chips and watching equally complex technical presentations, he decided to satirize the latter in a YouTube video: Here are the common PowerPoint® mistakes. Number One: People tend to put every word they are going to say on their PowerPoint® slides. Although this eliminates the need to memorize your talk, ultimately this makes your slide crowded, wordy, and boring. You will lose your audience’s attention before you even reach the bottom of your uh—first slide.2 What makes the scene humorous is that every word McMillan speaks is on his slide, and he reads them verbatim with his eyes glued to the screen and his back turned to his audience.

(Video 52) Robert Benchley, The sky’s the limit (1943). https://youtu.be/G1yc-19z14s?t=135 

 

The video has amassed more than a million and a half views and launched McMillan into a new career as a professional comedian performing at corporate events.3

McMillan follows in the footsteps of another comedian, who satirized dysfunctional presentations back in the pre-PowerPoint® era. In a 1943 Fred Astaire film called The Sky’s the Limit, humorist and actor Robert Benchley (also the grandfather of Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws) delivered a presentation using large, clunky, and cluttered flipcharts mounted on a rickety easel. Those 137

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More Is Less charts forced Benchley to twist, turn, fumble, cough, and apologize as he tried to make sense of them.4 These two comic videos demonstrate the problem underlying what Don McMillan calls Mistake Number One: More Is Less graphics cause poor presentations.

The Suasive Meta Design Concepts ■  

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The solution: use Less Is More graphics.

You can find a comprehensive set of guidelines to design Less Is More slides in Presenting to Win, but to understand how slide Design relates to SlideSync, I’ve brought two complementary Suasive Meta Design Concepts from that book: @ Glance and TitlePlus.

@ Glance If your slide is designed using the Less Is More principle, your audience will look at it, understand it in a quick glimpse, and turn back to listen to you. If your slide is designed using the More Is Less approach, your audience will be forced to spend more time trying to decipher your slide—and while they do, they stop listening to you. Think of every slide you create as a highway billboard. Advertisers design these expensive displays for their audiences—seated in automobiles zipping by at high speeds—so that the drivers can get them @ Glance. Your presentation audiences will be stationary, but their minds zip by at high speeds, thinking about emails, text messages, phone calls, meetings, and personal matters. They do not need to spend more brain cycles trying to figure out what you are trying to communicate. To validate that your audience can understand your Less Is More slides @ Glance, you should be able to describe every slide in one sentence. That one sentence is the complementary meta design concept called TitlePlus.

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TitlePlussm Your one-sentence slide description is composed of the title of the slide—the text above the line—and the plus—all the other elements below the line: bullets, bars, pie charts, diagrams, or images. Think of the title as the headline of a magazine or newspaper article and the plus as the body text. For instance, for a slide like the one in Figure 11.4, with the title “Revenue Growth” and four bars, the TitlePlus would be “Here you can see how our revenues have grown over the past four years.” Revenue Growth

 

Figure 11.4 Bar chart

The TitlePlus combined with the Less Is More design enables your audience to understand the entire slide @ Glance. Once they do that, they will turn back to you to listen as you discuss and add value. For the slide in Figure 11.5 with the title “Product Features” and several bullets, the TitlePlus would be “These are the four key features our product provides to our customers.” Product Features • Bullet point • Bullet point • Bullet point • Bullet point

 

Figure 11.5 Bullet chart

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Two fine points about TitlePlus. First, notice that the wording above is “These are the four key features…” rather than “There are four key features….” “There are” sounds indefinite and amorphous, while “these” connects—and synchronizes—your narrative with your slide. The other fine point is to be sparing in stating the total number of bullets in your TitlePlus. If you use numbering too often, you sound like you’re reciting laundry lists. Worse, too many numbered lists force your audience to try to keep track of them. Instead, for a group of bullets—or, for that matter, other groups of images, such as icons, logos, or photos—your TitlePlus can be the more general, such as “These are the key….” When you state the TitlePlus, your audience can understand the slide @ Glance and then turn back to you to listen as you discuss each bullet and add value.

TitlePlus in Action When Leslie Culbertson became the vice president of finance at Intel Corporation, she asked me to coach her for a major presentation at an investment conference. Leslie was a most diligent student: she took full ownership of her presentation by shaping her content, designing her own slides, and Verbalizing her narrative. As part of the process, we exchanged her slideshow via email several times to refine it. Early one the morning, Leslie called me and asked, “Could you review my presentation again?” “Sure,” I replied, “go ahead and email it to me.” “Well, I can’t do that now,” she said, “I’m in a car on the way to the conference.” “Who’s driving?” I asked. “A colleague,” she said, reassuringly. “Okay, go for it.” Leslie was on her mobile phone. I was in my office on a landline. She had the slides on her laptop. I did not. All I could review was her spoken narrative. I heard her say, “This slide represents the continuing growth of Intel’s product revenues over the past four years.” In my mind’s eye, I could envision four bars. Then Leslie spent about a minute or so discussing the factors that contributed to the revenue growth. 140

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“Now,” she continued, “let’s look at those same revenues in quarterly installments….” In my mind’s eye, I could now picture 20 bars. Then she went on to discuss and analyze the quarterly revenue patterns.5 By using the TitlePlus technique to introduce each slide, Leslie captured the overview description encompassing the title and the rest of the image. Once she made that opening statement, I understood the full context of the slide and, without any visual support, I was able to follow her discussion. Start every one of your slides with the TitlePlus. Resist the tendency to dive into a discussion right away. The moment the slide appears, describe it in a single sentence. Once you do that, your audience understands it, and they turn to focus on you and your narration. You can then move on to elaborate on the content of the slide with a deeper discussion. Now let’s focus on the other side of the SlideSync teeterboard: Delivery.

Seven Steps of SlideSync Delivery ■  

 

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When you begin to deliver your presentation, assume the location, location, location positioning of the previous chapter: stand in the same plane and at the edge of your large LCD or projection screen or sit in the same plane and at the edge of your laptop or iPad, with the screen positioned to your left. After you greet your audience, take the first step:  

1. Turn and Click Turn to the screen and, as you do, click to your first slide and look at it. As soon as the slide appears, your audience turns to the screen and looks at it, too— reflexively. They can’t not look at it. Think of how your own eyes dart reflexively to your computer screen when an email notification pops up or to your mobile device when a text message pops up. You can’t not look at those demanding images. There is a pervasive belief that presenters should not turn to look at their screen because it would appear that they do not know their own material. However, the reflexive movement of the audience’s eyes runs counter to that belief. This belief arises from the difference between B-school and C-school thinking. B-school, or business school, tells us to be prepared, look sharp, know your content cold.

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Here is C-School or cinema school fact: the involuntary neurological forces that drive audiences’ eyes have a powerful effect on how they react to and feel about what they see. Cinematographers, editors, and directors understand those forces and shoot and edit their films to express specific messages or moods—for example, jarring action to create negative tension and smooth action to create positive feelings. Those same neurological forces are at work with your presentation audiences, and you want to create only positive feelings. So, if you do not turn to look at a new slide but continue to look out at your audience, their brains will become conflicted. Their optic reflexes will impel them to look at the new image, while, simultaneously, their mirror neurons will impel them to remain engaged with you. Driven by these two opposing impulses, your audience’s eyes will rapidly shuttle back and forth between you and the screen in confusion. To see this effect in action, try the following exercise.

Reflexive Eye Movement Exercise Open a slideshow on your computer. Ask a colleague or friend to be your audience. Then click through several slides and, as you do, rather than turn to the screen, hold your EyeConnect with your colleague. You’ll see that person’s eyes dart back and forth between you and the screen. By not turning to the screen, you are misdirecting your audience, just as magicians do when performing sleight-ofhand tricks. Be sure to click only when you are turning. By the same token, do not turn and click after you turn because the lag will distract your audience. Turn to the screen the instant a new image appears. As a matter of fact, turn to the screen with every click on every slide, including every animation. Every time you turn to the screen, your movement leads your audience to look where you are looking. Both you and your audience then arrive at the identical point in your presentation, in sync. In your presentations, do as they do in C-school: save the B-school thinking for spreadsheets.

Eye Movement and Slide Animation Let’s return for a moment to the previous chapter and Location Three: present with the screen to your left. Because Western audiences read from left to right, the rationale for that positioning was cultural. This is Nurture at work. Now, with reflexive eye movement, we factor in Nature. 142

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You can enhance the left-to-right movement as you turn by adding animation to your slideshow. Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and Google Slides offer rich toolkits you can use to add motion to images, numbers, and text in slideshows. Presenting to Win provides a comprehensive set of guidelines on how to deploy those many animation options to maximum effect, but one of them relates directly to SlideSync: Choose “Wipe From Left” (which changes one slide to the next in a smooth left-to-right move) as the default command for all your Slide Transitions and Animations. Then, when you turn to your left to look at the screen, the movement of your body will not only lead your audience to look at the screen, but they will see your turn converge with the new image entering from the same direction in a continuous—and positive—fluid movement. Step One involves synchronizing both the journey and the destination.  

2. Pause When you arrive at your screen, stop. Pause. How will the pause feel to you? Uncomfortable. Time Warp again. How will your discomfort look to the audience? They will not even notice. Their eyes will be absorbing the large, demanding image on the screen. The human eye is more sensitive than the human ear. If your audience gets lost as you tell your story, they can easily think about it, regroup, and then catch up to you. But if their eyes become occupied trying to process a new image on a bright screen, their eyes and minds will become overloaded. They will stop listening to you, fall behind your narrative, and never catch up. If your slide is designed using the More Is Less approach, it will take your audience longer to read it; if your slide is designed using Less Is More, they will understand it @ Glance.

The SlideSync Pause in Action Olivier Fontana, the vice president of marketing at Neal Analytics, previously spent 15 years at Microsoft traveling around the world, delivering presentations on behalf of the company. On one of his more demanding international trips, 143

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Olivier often had to present while fighting jet lag. At one point during one of his presentations, he clicked to a new slide and turned to look at it on his computer screen. Just then, he felt himself beginning to nod off. He caught himself but panicked, thinking that his audience had seen him. But when he turned to look at them, he saw that they were so engrossed in the slide on his screen they were not looking at him.6 This is not to suggest that you should nod off during your presentation, but to be aware that, because your audience will be looking at your slide and not at you, you can give yourself permission to pause. Another case in point is Dolby Laboratories, the world-famous audio technology company. I was privileged to coach the company’s then-CEO, Bill Jasper, and his executive team to develop their IPO roadshow. We spent the better part of four days together, focusing on every aspect of their presentation, including their body language, voice, the narrative structure of their story, and the design and animation of their slides. Most importantly, I coached them on how to integrate all these factors with SlideSync. The centerpiece of the Dolby story was the company’s vision of what they called “The Complete Content Chain,” a series of six steps that take content (for television or film) from its creation by professionals to its playback by consumers and Dolby’s role (and opportunity to generate revenues) at each of these steps. In their slideshow, Dolby represented this chain as a series of six green rectangles arrayed in a semicircular arc, with Dolby’s role at each step visualized as a series of six orange boxes, arranged in a parallel arc. Using animation to illustrate the various stages, the rectangles and boxes moved, morphed, and changed text to express the potential, implementation, and progression of the vision. Bill Jasper decided to spread our four-day coaching program over several months to give him and his team enough time to learn and practice the skills. When he was ready to show the evolved presentation to the investment bankers, we gathered in the state-of-the-art screening auditorium in the Dolby’s San Francisco offices. Because the offering was eagerly awaited by the stock market, Dolby Labs chose to have two major banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (usually fierce competitors), in what is known in the financial trade as “Joint Book Runners.” In attendance at the run-through was a virtual army of bankers, ranging from corporate finance people to retail salespersons to analysts to interns. As diverse as they may be as individuals, most people in the world of high-stress, high-stakes financial markets share two common characteristics: a short attention span and 144

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S lide S ynchronization

an abundance of opinions. Over the past 30 plus years, I have been privileged to coach more than 600 other roadshows and can safely attest that none of them had ever run through a presentation without interruption—until Dolby. Bill ran through his presentation using the SlideSync skills to display the imaginative animation. As he did, not a person in that auditorium uttered a word. When he was done, a murmur ran through the crowd. Finally, one voice spoke up. It was Ken Hirsch, one of the senior bankers at Goldman Sachs, who had seen his fair share of roadshows. Ken’s first words were, “Your graphics worked very well, and I really liked the way you paused and gave us time to read them.”7 Bill turned to me and smiled. Think about that: the essential element in presentations is not what you do; it is what you don’t do. Pause. How long should that seemingly interminable pause last? Long enough for you to…  

3. Read the Slide as if You’ve Never Seen It …because your audience has certainly never seen it. The potential investor, analyst, customer, partner, key executive, or donor in your audience will be seeing your slide for the first time. They are all decision makers, and decision makers do not like to be rushed into decisions; they need time to absorb a new image. You, however, will be quite familiar with your slide, and you will be experiencing Time Warp. Both of these factors will likely cause you to take only a fleeting peek at the screen. Resist! Read every slide as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Read every word and look at every image on the screen. If you rush your reading—and your adrenaline will impel you to do so—you will rush your audience. Worse, when you turn back to engage with them and see that they are still reading the slide and not looking at you, you will feel another Yikes! moment that will trigger another surge of adrenaline. Of course, if you turn and see a Less Is More slide, you will get it @ Glance, making for a very quick and easy prompt. Remember Teodor Panayotov from the previous chapter. If you turn and see a crowded, complicated More Is Less slide, it will take you longer to read. Rather than prompt you, it will grind you to a screeching halt. Use Less Is More design so you—and the audience—can get it @ Glance. Save the details for your spoken narrative, as you’ll see in Step Six below. 145

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Benefit of Reading a Slide as if for the First Time The slide gives you a prompt about your content. You may have created and rehearsed your presentation thoroughly and know each slide cold. Or a colleague may have thrust the deck into your hands just minutes before your presentation, and you’ve only clicked through it rapidly. Either way, when you click to any given slide, you will recognize it instantly and say to yourself, “Oh yes, that one!” In computer technology, “screen refresh” refers to how information is updated on a display. In presentations, your mind is the screen, and your slide refreshes it with a prompt of the next topic of your presentation. During the coaching sessions for the Cisco IPO roadshow, the lead investment banker was Frank Quattrone of Morgan Stanley (now of Qatalyst Partners), who described the benefit of the prompt perfectly: “Let the slide be your guide.”8 During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo went on television frequently to provide updates on the crisis. He shared a split screen with his slides, all of which—whether bullets, charts, or tables—were designed following the Less Is More philosophy (Figure 11.6). Cuomo used the slides as prompts. They were his headlines; he added value and continuity in his spoken narrative. Let the slide be your guide.

 

Figure 11.6 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo relies heavily on PowerPoint presentations when he gives public addresses, such as his daily briefings on the coronavirus (Photo: NYS Governor’s Office)

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Now, knowing what you are going to say, you are ready to resume your presentation.  

4. Turn to Engage with One Person and Speak Only to Eyes This is the same instruction you learned in Chapter Nine: Control Your Cadence: The Pause. SlideSync is essentially an extension of that skill. Phrase & Pause provides the cadence to move from person to person; SlideSync provides the cadence to move from your slides to your audience. Speak Only to Eyes. There are no eyes on your projection screen, and there are no eyes in the space as you move from the screen to a new pair of eyes. Speak Only to Eyes is a positive way of saying, “Do not speak to the screen.” But that is aversion therapy again. When you Speak Only to Eyes and not the screen, you gain three benefits: You engage with your audience rather than turn your back to them.

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Your voice projects forward rather than being muffled into the screen or back wall.



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You avoid the reading verbatim trap.

Resist the tendency to start speaking before you see both of the person’s eyes. If you start speaking as you are turning, you sound rushed.  

5. Deliver the TitlePlus When you are fully engaged and provide a succinct description, the reaction of the person with whom you are actively engaging will very likely be an affirming— and comforting—head nod.  

6. Move to Another Person Now, and only now, you can move on to discuss the substance of the slide. You provide add value with analysis, use cases, examples, statistics, endorsements, your Point B, and, of course, as often as you can, WIIFYs for your audience.  

7. Continue Around the Room Present in a series of Person-to-Person Conversations, adding value to each conversation. Move in a random pattern, speak to all parts of your audience. Make everyone feel addressed. 147

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SlideSync Delivery in Action ■

(Video 53) Canopy’s Annika Goldman | Full presentation | Code Media 2019. https://www.youtu.be.com/watch?v=P4hQJtdcosE 

 

 

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Annika Goldman, the chief operating officer of Canopy, a company that offers a personalization engine for the internet, role modeled the last three steps of SlideSync in her presentation at the Code Media conference. Because all of her slides were designed using Less Is More approach—either a picture of the Canopy mobile app or a short sentence in large white font on a black background— Goldman was able to reference each slide with a brief TitlePlus and then continue around the room with a fuller discussion. The centerpiece of her 11-minute presentation was a nearly 3-minute section about the importance of personalization that she discussed in full while showing only images of faces on the screen. To be precise, Goldman did not, as the first three steps recommend, turn and read any of the slides; instead, she glanced down at comfort monitors in front of her. However, she more than made up for it with her assured delivery, the interpretive value of her discussion, and her warm, conversational engagement with the audience. When you are ready for the next slide:

1. Turn and click

2. Pause

3. Read the slide

4. Turn and Speak Only to Eyes

5. Deliver the TitlePlus

6. Move to another person

7. Continue around the room Use this sequence for every slide—and every click on every slide. Now that you know what to show and what to do, that leaves only what to say, or your narrative—the topic of the next chapter.

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Chapter Twelve

SlideSync Narrative

Case Studies: Microsoft Presenter Coach • Abraham Lincoln Suit…the word to the action.1 Hamlet 3.2.18–19 William Shakespeare

Describe ■  

 

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Start your discussion of every slide with the TitlePlus, the one-sentence description of the slide, so that your audience understands it immediately. Do not read the words of the title verbatim, or you will fall into the trap that Don McMillan parodied in Chapter Ten: Tools of the Trade. One of the most common audience complaints is about presenters who read their slides verbatim. Feeling patronized, the audience thinks, “I can read it myself!” Verbatim reading—as pervasive and problematic in presentations as Unwords—produces a host of negative effects. The presenter appears to lack sufficient preparation or subject expertise.

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The presenter’s back is to the audience.

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The presenter’s voice is muffled.







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The first time anyone ever read to you was to put you to sleep, and thus you—and every person in every audience you will ever face—are forever programmed.

Of course, Less Is More—that is, designing the slides as headlines—will go a long way toward minimizing literal reading. However, in their endless quest for crutches for content, too many presenters still fall into the verbatim trap. Technology has finally addressed this problem. Microsoft has added an AI-powered assistant to PowerPoint called Presenter Coach2, which “lets you know when you’re just reading off the slide.”* A simple human solution is for the presenter—you—to paraphrase the words in the title, use synonyms, or juxtapose the key words. Your audience can readily make the interpolation. Then, for the Plus, summarize everything below the title (bar charts, pie charts, graphs, bullets, images, icons, and the like) in a succinct phrase. For instance, if you have a bar chart with the title “Revenue Growth” and four bars, as in Figure 12.1 (Figure 11.4, repeated here for your convenience), the TitlePlus would be “Here’s how our revenues have grown over the past four years.” Revenue Growth

 

Figure 12.1 Bar chart

Or if you have a bullet slide with the title “Product Features” and several bullets, as in Figure 12.2 (Figure 11.5, also repeated here for your convenience), the TitlePlus would be “These are the four key features our product provides to our customers.”



* Presenter Coach also provides “on-screen guidance about pacing, inclusive language, use of filler words, and culturally insensitive phrases.”

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Product Features • Bullet point • Bullet point • Bullet point • Bullet point

 

Figure 12.2 Bullet chart

Bullet Slides Once you’ve stated the TitlePlus, go on to discuss every bullet on the slide. Skip none—or your audience will think you’re rushing or have lost track. That’s why Less Is More design is important. Limit the total number of bullets. Long bulleted lists make your audience think “This is going to take forever!” As an alternative, you can lighten your—and your audience’s—load by stating the total number of bullets in the TitlePlus: “…here are the four key features…” and then say, “…let me focus on the second and third.” Because you will have acknowledged the total, your audience will accept—and appreciate—the shorter version. Whichever option you choose, you can then go on to talk about what’s not on the slide, providing examples, anecdotes, or quotes from customers, analysts, or respected authorities. You can then culminate your discussion with a Point B or a WIIFY®.

Numeric Charts As with all slides, start your bar, line, and area charts with the TitlePlus. For the bar chart in Figure 12.1 you can say: “This is how our revenues have grown over the past four years” and then add the value of the axis: “…in millions of dollars.” Now, having oriented your audience, you can go on to discuss the individual numbers, with a fuller analysis, and conclude with a Point B or a WIIFY.

Tables and Matrices As with numeric charts, start tables and matrices, with the TitlePlus as description and then go on to identify the values of the axes. 151

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Gartner, the global research and advisory firm, has popularized their Magic Quadrant methodology.3 Gartner uses this four-box matrix to analyze market positioning. Matrices and tables like Gartner’s need a TitlePlus description to orient the audience before the analysis proceeds.

­

For example, with the Effectiveness Matrix in Figure 12.3 (repeated here for your convenience from Figure 2.1), my description started with the TitlePlus: “Story effectiveness is compared to delivery effectiveness.” Then I added the value of the axes: “Both are charted from low to high.” Then I went on to give more complete descriptions of each quadrant and examples for each of them.

Story

Delivery  

Figure 12.3

Effectiveness Matrix

Verbal Navigation Navigate your audience’s eyes with your words. For instance, with the pie chart in Figure 12.4, you might say, “The largest wedge represents the North American market share in black, at 55%; moving clockwise is Europe in dark gray, at 38%; and Asia, the smallest, is in light gray, at 7%.” In doing so, you navigate your audience’s eyes with words that describe the tint, shape, direction, and position of the components. Europe 7%

38%

55%

Asia

 

Figure 12.4

Americas

Verbal navigation of a pie chart

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For pie charts, you can navigate using compass directions (north, east, south, west) or analog clock positions (twelve o’clock, six o’clock). For bar charts, you can refer to the first, second, or third bars. For line charts, you can refer to the solid line, the dotted line, or the dashed line. For any image, you can speak of the top or bottom. Be careful about referring to the left and right sides of a chart because the audience’s left and right are different from yours, and you might confuse them. If you want to orient your audience to one side or the other, simply do it by referencing the screen: “the left side of the screen” or “the far side of the screen.” Make it easy for your audience.

Quotations Complimentary words from satisfied customers, market analysts, or thought leaders validate and support any story’s message, but they also tend to lead the presenter into the dreaded verbatim reading trap. To avoid that trap, turn and click to the quotation, pause, and read it to yourself (as if you’ve never seen it, giving the audience time to read it—because they have never seen it). Then turn to engage with one person and state the TitlePlus. Once you’ve done that, you have your audience’s full attention and you can go on to discuss and add value. In the Suasive programs, I demonstrate this technique by showing the first sentence of the Gettysburg Address, shown in Figure 12.5.4 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

 

Figure 12.5 The first sentence of the Gettysburg Address

I pause, read the sentence to myself (as if I’ve never seen it), and then describe the slide with the TitlePlus, saying, “This is a passage from the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, one of the world’s most famous speeches.” Then I add, “It’s also one of the world’s shortest speeches. The entire text of the Gettysburg Address contains a total of 272 words.” The information about “272 words” is not on the screen; it’s added value. Then I go on to say, “So you can see that the concept of Less Is More is applicable everywhere.” 153

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That last sentence is one of the Points B of the Suasive program and this book.

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Because of the regrettable common business practice of developing presentations by shuffling slides in a deck with little or no thought to overall structure, presenters often neglect to use narrative bridges to aid continuity. This creates a slide-toslide sequence with little or no verbal flow. For example, let’s say you have a deck with the Product Features bullet slide of Figure 12.2, followed by the Revenue Growth bar chart of Figure 12.1. A presenter might discuss each of the bullets on the Product Features slide and then click to the Revenue Growth slide and say, “Now I’d like to talk about how our revenues have grown.” Sound familiar? No continuity. The Revenue Growth slide restarts the presentation from zero. And this pattern continues. When the Revenue Growth slide is done, the presenter clicks to the next slide and says, “Now I’d like to talk about margins.” When the Margins slide is done, the presenter clicks to the next slide and says, “Now I’d like to talk about our growth strategy.” The “Now I’d like to…” approach, a maddeningly rote—and meaningless— transition has become standard operating procedure in presentations that speakers use as they churn through their slides. Some presenters try to add continuity by leading to the next slide, but this is risky business. In the heat of battle—read: adrenaline rush—while your mind is busy processing the details of your story, it is very difficult to remember the sequence of slides. You suddenly say to yourself, “Yikes! What’s next? Is it the Revenues slide or the Growth Strategy slide?” This can happen whether you are presenting a slideshow for the first time or the hundredth time. It can happen whether you are presenting a slideshow that was thrust into your hands moments before the start or one that you have delivered so many times you are on autopilot. Even after more than three decades, it sometimes happens to me.

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Burdening your mind with the sequence of slides is a complete waste of time, energy, and memory capacity. Lighten your mental load with the following three simple steps.

Three Simple Steps of Continuity ■  

 

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1. Closure of the Outbound Slide After you’ve finished discussing each of the bullets on the Product Features slide in Figure 12.2, while the slide is still on the screen, conclude with a summarizing point: “These unique product features have made us the market leader.” The end. Closure. Your audience is now primed for the next slide, the inbound slide. Fulfill that priming with the Revenue Growth slide in Figure 12.1.

2. Use the SlideSync Steps Turn and click, pause, read (you’ll see that it’s the Revenue Growth slide in Figure 12.1), then turn to engage with one person and deliver the TitlePlus of the new, inbound slide by saying, “This is how our revenues have grown over the past four years…”

3. Add a Back Link to the Outbound Slide Conclude the TitlePlus by adding a Back Link that references the prior slide: “… which was driven by the innovative features of our market-leading product.” With the Back Link, you connect the two slides. Having just discussed the outbound slide, you will have no difficulty remembering it. When you use the Back Link, you provide continuity for your audience.

­

Unfortunately, with Time Warp impelling them, few presenters use this powerful technique. Writers do. The Back Link is drawn from a literary technique in which a writer repeats a word or a phrase from the preceding paragraph (the outbound) in the subsequent paragraph (the inbound) to create continuity between the two paragraphs.

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These three simple steps have a double benefit: •

Your story has a flow that your audience can follow easily

•

You free your mind to focus on telling your story

Putting It All Together ■  

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Now let me recap all that you’ve learned in this book in one paragraph. Step up to the front of the room with the screen to your left. Turn and click. While you are turning, your audience’s eyes will look at the screen reflexively. If your slide is designed with the Less Is More technique, the audience will understand it at @ Glance. While your audience is reading the slide, read it yourself, as if you’ve never seen it before. Turn to engage with one person and deliver the TitlePlus by Speaking Only to Both Eyes. Complete the Arc® and move to another person. Discuss what is on the slide and what is not on the slide. Then move to another person to continue your discussion. Continue around the room in a series of Person-to-Person Conversations. For every conversation, follow the Suasive Master Skills Cycle of Figure 9.2, repeated here for your convenience as Figure 12.6.

ERA

Phrase & Pause

Person-to-Person  

Figure 12.6 The Suasive Master Skills Cycle

As simplified and as natural as I have tried to make these skills, you will ultimately evolve your very own delivery style, incorporating each of the components to varying degrees. Just as every human being has a unique fingerprint, every human being develops a unique delivery style—even the masters of the game, as you will see in the next chapter.

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Chapter Thirteen

Masters of the Game

Case Studies: Ronald Reagan • Sir Winston Churchill • John F. Kennedy • Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. • Reverend Billy Graham …tell them to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper.1 Knute Rockne, All American

Now that we’ve spent multiple chapters analyzing the best practices of positive behavior, let’s look at the masters of the communication game.

 

The Great Communicator ■

(Video 54) Ronald Reagan—State of the Union: President Reagan’s State of the Union Speech—1/25/88. https://youtu.be/rG-DZqOX_wc?t=2560 

 

 

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In Chapter One: Actions Speak Louder Than Words you read about Ronald Reagan’s captivating delivery style. Let’s take another look at the Great Communicator to see what made him so effective. An excellent illustration is his final State of the Union Address.

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On January 25, 1988, in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Building, Reagan stood at the dais, looking out at the sea of faces in a joint session of Congress (Figure 13.1). He spoke with—not at—the men and women of the Senate and House of Representatives.

 

Figure 13.1 President Ronald Reagan

Please look at the video of the speech and, as you do, shut your eyes for a moment and listen to his long phrases. Listen to how he Completes the Arcs: I hope you will let me end this evening with a personal reflection. You know, the world could never be quite the same again after Jacob Shallus, a trustworthy and dependable clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, took his pen and engrossed those words about representative government in the Preamble of our Constitution. After completing that long, graceful arc, he paused for a beat, and then resumed: And in a quiet but final way, the course of human events was forever altered when, on a ridge overlooking the Emmitsburg Pike in an obscure Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg, Lincoln spoke of our duty to government of and by the people and never letting it perish from the earth. The packed chamber watched and listened in hushed silence, drawn in by the hypnotic long, looping rhythms of his cadence. In the next section, his words elevated from the personal to more lofty, universal ideas, expressed in even longer arcs. Reagan rode each arc like a majestic ship rolling on the high seas, sailing over the waves: 158

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At the start of this decade, I suggested that we live in equally momentous times—that it was up to us now to decide whether our form of government would endure and whether history still had a place of greatness for a quiet, pleasant greening land called America. Not everything has been made perfect in seven years—nor will it be made perfect in seven times 70 years—but before us, this year and beyond, are great prospects for the cause of peace and world freedom. It means, too, that the young Americans I spoke of seven years ago—as well as those who might be coming along the Virginia or Maryland shores this night and seeing for the first time the lights of this capital city, the lights that cast their glow on our great halls of government and the monuments to the memory of our great men—it means those young Americans will find a city of hope in a land that is free.2 As Reagan headed down the homestretch, recall the words of the Pulitzer Prize–winning television critic from Chapter One: …his physical presence begins to eclipse his words…when you begin watching more and hearing less…feeling more and thinking less. Look and mood completely take over. That presence on TV: just the sight of him cocking his head with his sincere grin and lopsided hair, is still worth a thousand words and millions of votes.3 Reagan headed down the homestretch for a big finish: We can be proud that for them, and for us, those lights along the Potomac are still seen this night—signaling, as they have for nearly two centuries and as we pray God they always will, that another generation of Americans has protected and passed on lovingly this place called America, this shining city on a hill, this government of, by, and for the people. Thank you and God bless you.4 Throughout the speech, Reagan spoke every word with bell-like clarity, articulated to perfection. At age 77, however, his once-resonant radio voice had become thin and wispy, in marked contrast to the voice of another man who stood at the same spot on that same dais 47 years earlier.

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Sir Winston Churchill ■  

 

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(Video 55) Mr Churchill Addresses Congress. https://youtu.be/6fawAFOkuac?t=322

Less than three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill came to the United States to express his nation’s support for its ally. On December 26, 1941, he spoke to a joint session of Congress from the same podium where presidents stand to deliver their State of the Union Addresses (Figure 13.2).

 

Figure 13.2 Sir Winston Churchill

Throughout his 30-minute speech, Sir Winston’s characteristic stentorian tones and aristocratic eloquence rang throughout the chamber. As he drew to a close, his imposing figure stood in quiet dignity, his arms resting at his sides: Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will, for their own safety and for the good of all….5 Then, in an expansive gesture, his arms rose grandly and reached out to the packed chamber. Churchill’s closing words rang with determination: …walk together in majesty, in justice, and in peace.6 160

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When he concluded, he lifted one hand and raised two fingers in his trademark “V” for victory sign. It brought the audience to its feet, in thunderous applause.

 

President John F. Kennedy ■

(Video 56) President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. https://youtu.be/PEC1C4p0k3E?t=805 

 

 

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Now compare President Reagan’s presentation style to that of President John F. Kennedy in his memorable Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961. Delivered on the steps of the very same Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on a bitterly cold day, with a chilling wind and a temperature of 22 degrees, Kennedy appeared without a hat or topcoat (Figure 13.3). After he took the oath of office, he thrust back his shoulders, held his head high, and delivered his speech:

 

Figure 13.3 Former President John F. Kennedy

I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.7 At this point, he extended his right arm fully and, as his resonant voice bellowed the crisp words, his arm beat the phrases like a concertmaster of a marching band: The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world. 161

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Next, he drew his right arm in closer to his side and beat the words with only his forearm: And so, my fellow Americans… Now he extended his forefinger to emphasize his words: …ask not… His forefinger continued to emphasize his words, tapping on the lectern: …what your country can do for you… His forefinger came up again, extended for a moment, and then curled back under his thumb, forming his trademark gesture. Kennedy’s hand punched the air, animating the key points of his message: …ask what you can do for your country.8

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. ■  

(Video 57) I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. HD (subtitled). https://youtu.be/vP4iY1TtS3s?t=378 

 

 

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Two and a half years later and two and a half miles across town, on August 28, 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered an equally historic speech. Following a civil rights march, Dr. King spoke before a crowd of 200,000 people (Figure 13.4). He stretched out his arms and, in his rich voice, intoned: When we let freedom ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city… He dropped his voice and let his hands fall to the lectern: …we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children… Both his arms came up again, his hands now clenched tightly: …black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics… 162

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Figure 13.4 Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

His arms dropped again, as did his voice, for just a moment. Then his voice began a crescendo: …will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:9 His right arm alone began to rise, stretched out to the crowd: Free at last! His right arm continued to rise along with the crescendo of his voice: Free at last! Now, with his right hand pointing straight up to the heavens, his voice reached its pinnacle: Thank God Almighty we are free at last!10

 

Reverend Billy Graham ■

(Video 58) Billy Graham—Who Is Jesus?—Chicago 1971. https://youtu.be/U89zkUZPd5w?t=2280 

 

 

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Another man of the cloth, who was as gifted an orator as Dr. King, was Reverend Billy Graham. That charisma was evident at a packed stadium in Chicago in 1971. Clad in a simple layman’s dark suit, he stood proudly behind a lectern, his head held high. His full mane of blond hair framed his handsome features, and his rich voice pealed out his words as if they were coming from the pipes of a church organ.

 

Figure 13.5 Reverend Billy Graham

He leaned forward, opened both arms out to the audience, and said: I’m going to ask hundreds of you to get up out of your seat right now and come and stand in front of this platform quietly and reverently…11 Then drawing his arms back to clutch his chest, he added: …and say I want Christ in my heart. I want him to forgive my sins. Shooting his left forefinger heavenward, he intoned: I want to know I’m going to heaven; I want him to change my life. I receive him as my Lord and savior. Leaning forward again, he lifted an open Bible from the lectern and held it out to the audience: Why do I ask you to come forward? Because every person Jesus ever called in the new testament, he called publicly. You come publicly and openly and declare yourself. Here, as if he were conducting an orchestra, he opened his palms and arms wide to indicate diverse parts of his audience: 164

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You may be Protestant, you may be Catholic, you may be Jewish, you may be Orthodox, or you may not have any religion. But God has spoken to you today and you know that you need Christ. You come and make sure right now.12 Fanning his arms out in a wide arc, he beckoned people to rise and join him: Just get up and come right now, quickly from everywhere, hundreds of you. We’re going to wait. From all over the stadium as God is speaking you may be in the choir and this may be your last moment with God. You may never have another hour like this, you come.13

The Great Communicator Redux ■  

 

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Each of these world-famous orators used his hands and arms expressively. But not Ronald Reagan. In his farewell State of the Union address, and for most of his other speeches, Reagan rarely used his hands and arms at all. By the time he delivered that final annual speech, his hands had become arthritic and he kept them out of camera range. Moreover, because State of the Union Addresses are run on a teleprompter, Reagan held a backup hard copy of his speech in his hands. All of Ronald Reagan’s expressiveness occurred above his broad, solid shoulders, in his head and features. Those descriptive words of the Pulitzer Prize television critic captured it all: “…cocking his head with his sincere grin….” This distinctive delivery style was not new to Ronald Reagan, and it did not come about as a result of the ravages of time or the fallibility of teleprompters. It emerged more than 30 years before his presidency, during a unique part of his film career. No, not his acting. Reagan’s outstanding communication skills are often mistakenly attributed to his career as an actor when, in fact, even the kindest of critics found very little to praise about his performances in 54 films, most of them B-movies. However, during the twilight period between the end of his acting days and the beginning of his political career as the governor of California, Reagan took on an assignment that was to crystallize his unique style. From 1954 to 1962, he was the host of an anthology series on CBS television called General Electric Theater. His job was to provide on-camera introductions and conclusions to short dramas. Reagan’s host segments were usually filmed at a different time from the screenplay productions. With Hollywood’s customary logistical efficiency, Reagan 165

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often recorded several openings and closings at a time, in a bare studio, with only a camera and a production crew present. Yet he had to project his words and personality into the inanimate lens of a camera and through to audiences who would not see the film clip for months, if not years, and now, decades later. To be welcome in the living rooms of twentieth-century America, Ronald Reagan had to present himself as one of the family, to be empathic, to be conversational. He had developed this intimate quality even before he became a screen actor. In the early 1930s, he worked as a sports announcer at a radio station in Des Moines, Iowa. His job was to describe Chicago Cubs baseball games being played in Chicago while he was sitting in a studio in Des Moines. Using a telegraph ticker tape for his descriptions of the play-by-play, Reagan had to fill in the color as if he were in the ballpark. Then and there, Ronald Reagan learned the art of projecting himself into the hearts and minds of his audiences. By the time he got to Hollywood in the late 1930s, he had perfected his personable manner. It was undoubtedly reinforced by the role model of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose Fireside Chat radio broadcasts were captivating the nation at the time. Then, after nearly two decades and countless film and television roles as the All-American guy-next-door, Reagan’s conversational style had become his trademark.

(Video 59) General Electric Theater Opening—Ronald Reagan. https://archive.org/details/IAmAFool 

 

One such 1954 episode of GE Theater is illustrative. A young, strapping Ronald Reagan, with the same “lopsided”—and color—hair as he had in his 1988 State of the Union, stood in front of a bare wall in a movie studio, framed by stage lights. Attired in a smartly tailored tweed coat, sprouting a natty pocket kerchief, he propped his right arm casually on a stage light and let his left hand rest comfortably in his trouser pocket.

He opened the episode with these words: In a moment, in an answer to a great many requests, we’ll present a film of a fine performance by James Dean in a General Electric Theater play.

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He spoke the word “play” with falling inflection, Completing the Arc, and then continued: It was a performance that helped attract nationwide attention to his talent, and we present it as one of the landmarks in his progress toward the great roles of his brief career. He spoke the words “brief career” with falling inflection, Completing the Arc, and then continued: Those of us who worked with Jimmy Dean carry an image of his intense struggle for a goal beyond himself and, curiously enough, that’s the story of the boy he portrays tonight. He Completed the Arc and paused for a beat, then resumed: Eddie Albert is the narrator, Natalie Woods the girl, in Sherwood Anderson’s I’m a Fool.14 It was all there: “…cocking his head with his sincere grin…” and all the warmth and sincerity that would eventually net him those “millions of votes.”15 But he never moved his hands and arms! A commercial DVD called Ronald Reagan: The Great Communicator contains many clips from more than 100 of his presidential appearances during the eight years of his presidency. In all the clips, he rarely used his hands and arms. Yet, in every clip, the Reagan charm comes shining through, expressed by that cocked head, sincere grin, lopsided hair, twinkling eyes, measured cadence, and that silvery voice.

The Great Orators: Conversation and Empathy ■  

 

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Contrast Ronald Reagan’s conversational style to that of the four other orators in this chapter. Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Billy Graham all used their hands and arms with dramatic gestures that approached choreography. All four had rich, resonant, nearly operatic voices. The first two, Churchill and Kennedy, were national leaders who spoke from on high, down to their audiences, asking them to come up to their lofty level. The latter two,

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Reverends King and Graham, were religious leaders who also spoke from on high, asking their audiences to go up to a higher authority. Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, spoke to his audiences at their level, as one of us. Churchill, Kennedy, King, and Graham forcefully projected their personas to the distant backs of the audiences in their public venues; Reagan gently projected his into private living rooms. It was the skill he had begun in radio and mastered during those eight years on GE Theater, radiating his personality to unseen strangers across a vast gulf of time and space; the skill that carried him from Iowa to Hollywood to Sacramento and, ultimately, to Washington. The essence of Reagan’s style was his uncanny ability to be completely at one with his audience in every setting, across every dimension, to make every person in every audience feel as if, “He’s speaking to me!” Being conversational begets positive empathy. No other president ever achieved the approval ratings that Ronald Reagan did. He was the irresistible force that moved every object, every audience, every time. You may not reach the heights Ronald Reagan attained, but you can use his array of conversational skills as a role model and adapt them to your own delivery style. Emulate Ronald Reagan: be natural.

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Coda: Ending with the Beginning

Case Studies: Ronald Reagan • Vlad Shmunis, RingCentral • Cindy Burgdorf, SanDisk …In terms of public speaking …you improve your value 50 percent by having better communication skills.1 Warren Buffet

Bookends ■  

 

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The first exemplary speaker you read about was Ronald Reagan. I reprise him here to culminate the book, and to serve as a lasting role model for you and any person who presents. The conversational style that Reagan developed as the host of General Electric Theater gave rise to his success as the Great Communicator. Develop and polish your own conversational style so that every time you stand in front of any audience you can present to win. Whenever your Yikes! Moment arrives, default to what you do naturally and effectively: deliver your presentation as a series of person-to-person conversations. That shift in your approach, along with a shift in your thinking from yourself to the person with whom you are conversing, is the essence of Audience Advocacy®. These shifts will evoke empathy from your audiences instinctively. In turn, when you perceive their positive responses, your fear of public speaking will diminish. You will find your comfort zone. Once you have established that foundation, you can then deploy the Suasive Master Skills Cycle (Figure c.1) as the vehicle for your conversation.

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ERA

Phrase & Pause

Person-to-Person

 

The Master Skills in Action ■

(Video 60) Technology Pioneer 2010—Vlad Shmunis (RingCentral). https://youtu.be/sblRBDE-ws8?t=9 

 

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Figure c.1 The Suasive Master Skills Cycle

Vlad Shmunis is a seasoned and successful Silicon Valley technology executive. He founded Ring Zero Systems, a business communications software company, and built it to a level attractive enough to be acquired by Motorola. In 1999, he founded RingCentral, a cloud-based communications company and, as its CEO, helped escalate its business and technology. As a result, Vlad was honored with the Technology Pioneer Award at the prestigious World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, in 2010. In an interview at the Forum, he sat back, crossed his fingers, cast his eyes down, and described RingCentral’s business in a rambling statement punctuated by multiple Unwords: RingCentral’s growth continued to accelerate, and before long, the company started planning a public offering. That’s when I met Vlad. He retained me to help him and his senior team prepare for their IPO roadshow, and I coached them in the same skills you’ve learned in this book. The public offering finally took place in 2013. As a public company, RingCentral’s upward climb continued to a market cap of more than $20 billion in 2020.2

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(Video 61) We’re winning business from Cisco “all the time,” says CEO of cloud-based telecom RingCentral. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/11/06/ringcentralceo-were-winning-business-from-cisco-all-the-time. html 

 

C oda :

Vlad is still the company’s principal spokesman. In an appearance on CNBC’s Mad Money, when host Jim Cramer asked him to describe what RingCentral does, Vlad smiled, leaned forward, looked Cramer straight in the eye, and, punctuating his words with animated gestures, described RingCentral’s business succinctly. The RingCentral message remained essentially unchanged from the World Economic Forum to Mad Money; the messenger, however, by deploying EyeConnect and animated gestures, made his voice more dynamic. And by using succinct phrasing and clear pausing (to eliminate Unwords), Vlad made his already strong message even stronger.

The Best Compliment ■  

 

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In closing, allow me a moment of immodesty to share with you the best compliment I ever received in all my years as a presentations coach. It came from Cindy Burgdorf, the former CFO of SanDisk Corporation, now the world’s largest supplier of flash memory data storage products. At the time of the company’s IPO, Cindy and Eli Harari, the CEO and founder of the company, engaged me to coach them for their roadshow. As we were wrapping up the last day of our program, Cindy turned to me and said, “This isn’t just about presentations, is it? This is about communicating in any situation. It all applies everywhere.”3 I hope Cindy’s words are meaningful to you, too. Every communication exchange you make—whether a meeting, an interview, a conference, a discussion, or a one-on-one engagement; whether business or social—involves the same key elements and dynamics that are in a presentation. They vary only slightly, and only by degree. If you want your communication to be successful, you must manage all the elements and dynamics of every interpersonal exchange effectively. If you want a positive audience perception, you must present with positive behavior. Good luck. 171

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Endnotes

Foreword



1 Shakespeare, William. “As You Like It,” n.d. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/ asyoulikeit/full.html.



2 Wilkinson College. “America’s Top Fears 2017—Chapman University Survey of American Fears.” Chapman University. Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, October 11, 2017. https://blogs.chapman. edu/wilkinson/2017/10/11/americas-top-fears-2017/.

Preface



1 Pender, Kathleen. “Prep School for High-Tech Execs: Coach Specializes in IPO Road Shows.” San Francisco Chronicle, July 9, 1990.



2 Jeff Lawson, founder, chair, and CEO of Twilio, in email exchange with author, August 10, 2016.



3 Lee Kirkpatrick, CFO of Twilio, in email exchange with author, August 10, 2016.

Introduction



1 “Jerry Seinfeld Quotes (Author of SeinLanguage).” Goodreads. Accessed March 23, 2020. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/19838.Jerry_ Seinfeld.



2 Schroeder, Alice.  The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (New York: Bantam Books, 2009), 158.



3 Alexander, Ella. “Katy Perry Admits to Taking Beta Blockers to Deal with Anxiety: ‘I Get So Nervous’.” The Independent. May 29, 2014. https://www. independent.co.uk/news/people/katy-perry-admits-to-taking-beta-blockersto-deal-with-anxiety-i-get-so-nervous-9455897.html.



4 Lahr, John. “Petrified: The Horrors of Stagefright.” The New Yorker, August 28, 2006.



5 Crippen, Alex. “Warren Buffett’s $100,000 Offer and $500,000 Advice for Columbia Business School Students.” CNBC. March 18, 2010. https://www. cnbc.com/id/33891448.

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Chapter 1



1 Lincoln, Abraham. The Collected Works of Abraham , Vol.Lincoln 2. Edited by Roy P. Basler, Christian O. Basler, Marion Delores Pratt, and Lloyd A. Dunlap. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953, 352. http:// name.umdl.umich.edu/lincoln2.



2 The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. Directed by Errol Morris. New York: Sony Pictures Classics, 2003.

 





3 Anders, Scott. “What Are You Really Saying? The Importance of Nonverbal Clues.” American Association for Physician Leadership, December 5, 2018. https:// www.physicianleaders.org/news/what-are-you-really-saying-importancenonverbal-clues; Pease, Allan, and Barbara Pease. The Definitive Book of Body Language : The Hidden Meaning Behind People’s Gestures and Expressions. New York: Bantam Dell, 2004; Mehrabian, Albert. Silent Messages. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1971.



4 Gladwell, Malcolm.  Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. New York: Back Bay Books, 2007.



5 Reagan Library. “Address to the Republican National Convention.” YouTube video, 56:19. Posted June 7, 2016. https://youtu.be/sLW2UXXwjI8; “August 15, 1988: Farewell Address at the Republican National Convention.” Miller Center, May 4, 2017. https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidentialspeeches/august-15-1988-farewell-address-republican-national-convention.



6 Rosenberg, Howard. “Ronald Reagan’s Farewell: The Power and the Glory.” The Los Angeles Times, August 16, 1988.



7 Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales. Touchstone, 1985.



8 McNeill, David, Justine Cassell, and Karl-Erik Mccullough. “Communicative Effects of Speech-Mismatched Gestures.”  Research on Language & Social Interaction  27, no. 3 (1994): 223–237. https://doi.org/10.1207/ s15327973rlsi2703_4.



9 Fallows, James. “Slugfest.”  The Atlantic, September 2012. https://www. theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/slugfest/309063/.

10 Blankespoor, Elizabeth, Bradley E. Hendricks, and Gregory S. Miller. “Perceptions and Price: Evidence from CEO Presentations at IPO Roadshows.”  Journal of Accounting Research  55, no. 2 (2017): 275–327. https:// doi.org/10.1111/1475-679x.12164.

11 Demos, Telis. “Can You Judge an IPO by Its CEO?” The Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2015. https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-you-judge-an-ipo-by-itsceo-1439525002. 174

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E ndnotes

Chapter 2



1 “25 Maya Angelou Quotes to Inspire Your Life.” Goalcast, November 22, 2019. https://www.goalcast.com/2017/04/03/maya-angelou-quotes-to-inspireyour-life/.



2 Singer, Tania. “Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but Not Sensory Components of Pain.”  Science  303, no. 5661 (February 20, 2004): 1157– 1162. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1093535.



3 Di Pellegrino, G., L. Fadiga, L. Fogassi, V. Gallese, and G. Rizzolatti. “Understanding Motor Events: A Neurophysiological Study.”  Experimental Brain Research 91, no. 1 (October 1992): 176–180. https://doi.org/10.1007/ bf00230027.



4 Glenberg, Arthur M. “Monkey See, Monkey Do? The Role of Mirror Neurons in Human Behavior.” Association for Psychological Science, August 1, 2011. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/monkey-seemonkey-do-the-role-of-mirror-neurons-in-human-behavior.html.



5 araniel. “NOVA scienceNOW: 1—Mirror Neurons.” YouTube video, 13:50. Posted July 23, 2012. https://youtu.be/Xmx1qPyo8Ks.



6 Stephens, Greg J., Lauren J. Silbert, and Uri Hasson. “Speaker–Listener Neural Coupling Underlies Successful Communication.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, no. 32 (August 10, 2010): 14425–14430. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1008662107.



7 Hutyra, Hannah. “115 Vince Lombardi Quotes to Use in the Game of Life.” KeepInspiring.me, February 13, 2020. https://www.keepinspiring.me/ vince-lombardi-quotes/.



8 superapple4ever. “Steve Jobs Introducing the iPhone at MacWorld 2007.” YouTube video, 14:00. Posted December 2, 2010. https://youtu.be/ x7qPAY9JqE4.



9 Kocienda, Ken. Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs. New York: Picador, 2019.

10 “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Fines Wells Fargo $100 Million for Widespread Illegal Practice of Secretly Opening Unauthorized Accounts.” Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, September 8, 2016. https://www. consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/consumer-financial-protectionbureau-fines-wells-fargo-100-million-widespread-illegal-practice-secretlyopening-unauthorized-accounts/.

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11 Marino, Jon. “How Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf Hurt His Hand.” CNBC, September 21, 2016. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/20/how-wells-fargoceo-john-stumpf-hurt-his-hand.html.

12 Ibid.

13 C-SPAN, September 20, 2016. https://www.c-span.org/video/?415547-1/ ceo-john-stumpf-testifies-unauthorized-wells-fargo-accounts.

14 Ibid.

15 CNBC. “Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf ‘Completely Unprepared’ | Squawk Box | CNBC.” YouTube video, 4:49. Posted September 21, 2016. https:// youtu.be/fxvzV7D54Xo.

16 Ensign, Rachel Louise, and Ben Eisen. “Wells Fargo Ex-CEO Banned, to Pay $17 Million in Fake-Account Scandal.” The Wall Street Journal. January 23, 2020. https://www.wsj.com/articles/ex-wells-fargo-ceo-john-stumpf-agreesto-pay-sales-misconduct-charges-11579803789?mod=djemalertNEWS.

17 Eisen, Ben. “Wells Fargo Reaches Settlement With Government Over Fake-Accounts Scandal.”  The Wall Street Journal. February 21, 2020. www.wsj.com/articles/wells-fargo-nears-settlement-with-governmentover-fake-account-scandal-11582299041?mod=searchresults&page=1& pos=2.

18 Toronto Argonauts, May 22, 2018. https://www.argonauts.ca/2018/05/22/ argonauts-training-camp-marc-trestman-may-22-2018/.

19 Ctozz113. “Funny Interpreter at Rick Scott’s Hurricane Irma Speech.” YouTube video, 1:36. Posted September 9, 2017. https://youtu.be/-4dtAjRDAYU.

20 TEDx Talks. “How to Sound Smart in Your TEDx Talk | Will Stephen | TEDxNewYork.” YouTube video, 5:55. Posted January 15, 2015. https:// youtu.be/8S0FDjFBj8o.

21 Eyewitness News ABC7NY. “Megan Rapinoe’s Full World Cup Parade Speech.” YouTube video, 6:19. Posted July 10, 2019. https://youtu.be/jDrB2IestHs.

Chapter 3



1 “There Are Two Types of Speakers: Those Who Are Nervous and Those Who Are Liars.” Quote Investigator, March 5, 2020. https://quoteinvestigator. com/2020/03/05/nervous/.



2 TechCrunch. “Lumier Startup Battlefield Presentation.” YouTube video, 7:20. Posted June 22, 2011. https://youtu.be/aEdrey6U5dU.



3 ABC News. “Marco Rubio Pauses Speech for Water Break.” YouTube video, 0:38. Posted February 12, 2013. https://youtu.be/19ZxJVnM5Gs. 176

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E ndnotes





4 Safire, William. Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History, Selected and Introduced. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997: 520.



5 Trenholm, Richard. “The Irishman: De-Aging De Niro Was a Waste of Money.” CNET, December 1, 2019. https://www.cnet.com/news/the-irishman-de-agingrobert-de-niro-was-a-waste-of-money/.



6 Abebe, Nitsuh. “Why the Most Ridiculous Part of ‘The Irishman’ Actually Works.”  The New York Times Magazine, December 31, 2019. https:// www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/magazine/the-irishman-robert-de-niro.html.

Chapter 4



1 Parker, Ian. “Absolute PowerPoint.” The New Yorker, May 21, 2001. https:// www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/05/28/absolute-powerpoint.



2 CNBC Television. “Mark Zuckerberg Is Too Ambitious to Let Things Go Pear-Shaped, Says The New Yorker’s Osnos.” YouTube video, 4:35. Posted September 11, 2018. https://youtu.be/U4tPRm9JzUA.



3 Politics and Prose. “Evan Osnos Age of Ambition.” YouTube video, 59:04. Posted May 21, 2014. https://youtu.be/RP_hi_rORJ8.



4 Brookings Institution. “The China Debate: Are US and Chinese Long-Term Interests Fundamentally Incompatible?” YouTube video, 1:24:13. Posted October 31, 2018. https://youtu.be/hERzupvRa-o.



5 CNET. “Michael Bay Quits Samsung’s Press Conference.” YouTube video, 1:19. Posted January 6, 2014. https://youtu.be/R4rMy1iA268.



6 Carroll, Rory. “Michael Bay Walks Off CES Stage After Autocue Fails at Samsung TV Talk.”  The Guardian, January 7, 2014. https://www. theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/07/michael-bay-walks-out-ces-samsungpresentation; “News.” Michael Bay, January 6, 2014. https://www.michaelbay. com/2014/01/06/ces/.



7 TEDx Talks. “Learning a Language? Speak It Like You’re Playing a Video Game | Marianna Pascal | TEDxPenangRoad.” YouTube video, 15:30. Posted May 11, 2017. https://youtu.be/Ge7c7otG2mk.



8 Twilio. “SIGNAL 2019—Keynote Day 1.” YouTube video, 2:02:49. Posted August 6, 2019. https://youtu.be/TTo37IRoMz4.

9 Chokkattu, Julian. “The Display of the Future Might Be in Your Contact Lens.” Wired. January 16, 2020. https://www.wired.com/story/mojo-visionsmart-contact-lens/.

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10 superapple4ever. “Steve Jobs Introducing the iPhone at Macworld 2007.” YouTube video, 14:00. Posted December 2, 2010. https://youtu.be/ x7qPAY9JqE4.

11 Ibid.

12 Hutyra, Hannah. “115 Vince Lombardi Quotes to Use in the Game of Life.” KeepInspiring.me, February 13, 2020. https://www.keepinspiring.me/ vince-lombardi-quotes/.

Chapter 5



1 Adams, Russell. “Getting Your Head in the Game: From the World Cup to Youth Tennis, a Training Fad Emerges; the Science of Finding the Zone.” The Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2006. https://www.wsj.com/articles/ SB115412301478020803.



2 Potkewitz, Hilary. “Headspace vs. Calm: The Meditation Battle That’s Anything but Zen.”  The Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2018. https://www.wsj.com/articles/headspace-vs-calm-the-meditation-battlethats-anything-but-zen-11544889606?mod=searchresults&page=1& pos=3.



3 Gates, Bill. “5 Books I Loved in 2018.”  GatesNotes: The Blog of Bill Gates, December 3, 2018. https://www.gatesnotes.com/about-bill-gates/ holiday-books-2018.



4 Gallwey, W. Timothy. The Inner Game of Tennis. New York: Random House, 1974.



5 Kocienda, Ken. Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs. New York: Picador, 2019.



6 CES. “Tech Titans—Cisco, John Chambers.” YouTube video, 1:00:17. Posted January 24, 2014. https://youtu.be/9PE1E2KJgyg.



7 Mike Tuchen presentation presented at the JMP Securities Technology Conference February 28, 2017.



8 Lahr, John. “Petrified: The Horrors of Stagefright.” The New Yorker, August 28, 2006.



9 Marya McCabe, Microsoft presentation.

10 Safire, William. Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History, Selected and Introduced. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997: 520.

11 Lawrence Steinman, M.D., in discussion with author, January 29, 2008.

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E ndnotes

Chapter 6



1 Gallwey, W. Timothy. The Inner Game of Tennis. New York: Random House, 1974.



2 Kocienda, Ken. Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs. New York: Picador, 2019.



3 Joe Moglia, chair of board of TD Ameritrade Corporation, in discussion with author, February/March 2003.



4 O’Reilly. “Conversation with Elon Musk (Tesla Motors)—Web 2.0 Summit 08.” YouTube video, 29:35. Posted November 10, 2008. https://youtu.be/ gVwmNaPsxLc.



5 Varty, Anika. “If You Had Invested Right After Tesla’s IPO.” Investopedia, January 29, 2020. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/activetrading/081315/if-you-would-have-invested-right-after-teslas-ipo.asp.



6 TED. “The Mind Behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity[el] | Elon Musk.” YouTube video, 21:04. Posted March 19, 2013. https://youtu.be/IgKWPdJWuBQ.



7 Ibid.

Chapter 7



1 “A Quote by Marcus Tullius Cicero.” Goodreads. Accessed March 27, 2020. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/312166-the-face-is-a-picture-of-themind-with-the.



2 “Bell System Advertisements: Human Desire to Communicate with Others.” Beatrice Co. Accessed March 27, 2020. https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/ porticus/bell/bellsystem_ads-1.html.



3 JFK Library. “TNC:172 Kennedy–Nixon First Presidential Debate, 1960.” YouTube video, 58:34. Posted September 21, 2010. https://youtu.be/gbrcRKqLSRw; “Transcript of First Kennedy–Nixon Debate, Chicago, Illinois, 26 September 1960: JFK Library.” JFK Library, September 26, 1960, www. jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKSEN/0912/JFKSEN-0912-001.



4 JFK Library. “TNC:172 Kennedy–Nixon First Presidential Debate, 1960”; “Transcript of First Kennedy–Nixon Debate, Chicago, Illinois, 26 September 1960: JFK Library.”



5 Nelson, Michael, ed. Guide to the Presidency, Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1996: 385; Kalb, Deborah, ed. Guide to U.S. Elections, 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference/CQ Press, 2016: ii; Schulman, Bruce J. Student’s Guide to Elections. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2008: 143. 179

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6 White, Theodore H.  The Making of the President 1960. New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1961: 290.



7 Lyons, Richard D. “President Suffered Leg Inflammation; Condition ‘Resolved.’”  The New York Times, June 25, 1974. https://www.nytimes. com/1974/06/25/archives/president-suffered-leg-inflammation-conditionresolved-nixon.html.



8 Nixon, Richard M. Six Crises. New York: Doubleday, 1969.



9 Hewitt, Don. Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television. New York Public Affairs, 2002.

10 Klaus, Marshall H., John H. Kennell, and Phyllis H. Klaus. Bonding: Building the Foundations of Secure Attachment and Independence. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1996.

11 Ibid.

12 Farroni, Teresa, Gergely Csibra, Francesca Simion, and Mark H. Johnson. “Eye Contact Detection in Humans from Birth.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  99, no. 14 (August 1, 2002): 9602–9605. https://doi. org/10.1073/pnas.152159999.

13 “100% Remote! 13 Cool Companies to Apply to Today.” Glassdoor, March 1, 2020, https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/100-percent-remote-companies/.

14 “Handbook.” GitLab, March 17, 2020. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/.

15 Thompson, Clive. “What If Working From Home Goes on … Forever?” June 9, 2020. Accessed June 9, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/ 2020/06/09/magazine/remote-work-covid.html.

16 Suler, John. Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche. Doylestown, PA: True Center Publishing, 2013. http://truecenterpublishing.com/photopsy/ camera_angles.htm.

17 NBA. “Stephen Curry and Dr. Anthony Fauci | COVID-19 Q&A.” YouTube video, 28:50. Posted March 26, 2020. https://youtu.be/iuX826AGXWU.

18 NowThis Politics. “Zuckerberg & Fauci Talk Coronavirus.” Facebook, 33:28. Posted March 19, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/ videos/2933393063408887/.

19 UMass Boston. “Still Face Experiment: Dr. Edward Tronick.” YouTube video, 2:48. Posted November 30, 2009. https://youtu.be/apzXGEbZht0.

20 Ibid.

21 Rosenberg, Howard. “Ronald Reagan’s Farewell: The Power and the Glory.” The Los Angeles Times, August 16, 1988. 180

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E ndnotes



22 Lucas, Jim. “Equal & Opposite Reactions: Newton’s Third Law of Motion.” LiveScience, September 26, 2017. https://www.livescience.com/46561-newton-third-law.html.

23 Shab Ahang. “Ahmadinejad vs Netanyahu.” YouTube video, 0:53. Posted April 20, 2015. https://youtu.be/denq0_qFjT4.

24 Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet,” n.d. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/ hamlet.3.2.html.

25 “Bell System Advertisements: Human Desire to Communicate with Others.” https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/bellsystem_ads-1.html.

26 Salesforce. “Welcome—DF ’18 Opening Keynote: ‘Dreamforce: A Celebration of Trailblazers.’” YouTube video, 28:41. Posted September 26, 2018. https://youtu.be/i53LCY3OIsw.

27 Tsai, Michelle. “Why Did William F. Buckley Jr. Talk Like That?” Slate. February 29, 2008. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/02/why-did-williamf-buckley-jr-talk-like-that.html.

28 JFK Library. “TNC:172 Kennedy–Nixon First Presidential Debate, 1960.”

29 Ibid.

30 Cisco. “Cognitive Collaboration: Transforming Workplaces and Changing the Way We Work.” YouTube video, 30:07. Posted March 20, 2019. https:// youtu.be/qK_mDlOXuOk.

31 Ibid.

32 Tripp and Tyler. “A Conference Call in Real Life.” YouTube video, 3:25. Posted January 22, 2014. https://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ.

Chapter 8



1 Nettoyeur71. “Elmore Leonard on Writing.” YouTube video, 7:01. Posted May 1, 2010. https://youtu.be/PeZQl2nvnfM.



2 Long, John. “West Side Story—Gee Officer Krupke! (1961) HD.” YouTube video, 4:05. Posted December 14, 2013. https://youtu.be/j7TT4jnnWys.



3 audubonca. “A Quick Example of Uptalk.” YouTube video, 0:40. Posted March 27, 2015. https://youtu.be/pPZMy_JWsOU.



4 VHSfx. “Stephen Fry. Room 101—‘AQI’—2001.” YouTube video, 5:05. Posted January 25, 2015. https://youtu.be/xs5fH1ECzWc.



5 gwbush. “George W Bush 20060731_1.” Internet Archive, 24:55. Posted June 16, 2007. https://archive.org/details/Political_videos-GeorgeWBush20060731_1_134.

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6 Okrent, Arika. “What Is Vocal Fry?” Mental Floss, August 24, 2018. https:// www.mentalfloss.com/article/61552/what-vocal-fry; BBC News. “Faith Salie on Speaking with ‘Vocal Fry.’” YouTube video, 2:17. Posted September 12, 2013. https://youtu.be/R6r7LhcHHAc.



7 Ibid.



8 Reynolds, Eileen. “What’s the Big Deal About Vocal Fry? An NYU Linguist Weighs In.”  NYU, September 29, 2015. https://www.nyu.edu/about/newspublications/news/2015/september/lisa-davidson-on-vocal-fry.html.



9 Wolf, Naomi. “Young Women, Give Up the Vocal Fry and Reclaim Your Strong Female Voice.”  The Guardian, July 24, 2015. https://www. theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/24/vocal-fry-strong-female-voice.

10 Malooley, Jake. “Jill Abramson Plagiarized My Writing. So I Interviewed Her About It.”  Rolling Stone, February 13, 2019. https://www.rollingstone. com/culture/culture-features/jill-abramson-jake-malooley-plagiarisminterview-794257/.

11 Amanpour and Company. “Jill Abramson on Her New Book and Possible Plagiarism Claims.” PBS. New York: PBS, February 28, 2019. https://www.pbs. org/video/jill-abramson-her-new-book-and-possible-plagiarism-claims-xo/.

12 Ibid.

13 Bank of England. “EU Referendum Result—Statement by the Governor of the Bank of England.” YouTube video, 4:51. Posted June 24, 2016. https:// youtu.be/IK3By6uQ8gU.

14 Ibid.

15 General Motors. “GM Ignition Switch Recall Update.” YouTube video, 1:20:45. Posted June 5, 2014. https://youtu.be/s5Mt-PHyKdI.

16 Lyons, Dylan. “9 Fortune 500 CEOs Who Speak Another Language.” Babbel. July 10, 2018. https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/9-fortune-500-ceosspeak-another-language.

17 NDTV. “Never Be Happy with What You Know: Indra Nooyi.” YouTube video, 2:53. Posted December 14, 2013. https://youtu.be/24d4rfnsOxg.

Chapter 9



1 “Mark Twain Quotes.” BrainyQuote. Xplore. Accessed March 30, 2020. https:// www.brainyquote.com/quotes/mark_twain_124428.

182

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E ndnotes





2 Pierce, Edwin H. “The Most Powerful Effect in Music.” The Etude 37, no. 5 (May 1919). https://books.google.com/books?id=cc63piskHkUC&lpg=PA278&dq= the most powerful effect in music is no music mozart&pg=PA278#v= onepage&q=the most powerful effect in music is no music mozart&f=false.



3 Hentoff, Nat. “She’s on the Road to Renown.” The Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2007.



4 “News Conference 24, February 14, 1962.” JFK Library. Accessed March 31, 2020. https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-pressconferences/news-conference-24.



5 “How It Works.” Presentr. Accessed March 31, 2020. https://presentr.me/ how-it-works/.



6 Rubenstein, David. “The David Rubenstein Show: Christine Lagarde.” YouTube video, 24:05. Posted October 17, 2018. https://youtu.be/_Jhfp8fa2Fk.



7 TechCrunch. “Keynote from Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum Foundation) at Ethereum Meetup 2018.” YouTube video, 26:54. Posted August 16, 2018. https://youtu.be/7vuTtvshR34.



8 Amanpour, Christiane. “Interview with Joey Zwillinger.” CNN. November 19, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/11/19/intv-allbirds-joeyzwillinger-amanpour.cnn.



9 Rakove, Jack. “Constitutional Convention of 1787.” C-SPAN video, 53:06. January 9, 2015. https://www.c-span.org/video/?323803-1/discussion-constitutionalconvention-1787.

10 Jessen, Sarah, and Tobias Grossmann. “Unconscious Discrimination of Social Cues from Eye Whites in Infants.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 45 (October 27, 2014): 16208–16213. https://doi. org/10.1073/pnas.1411333111.

Chapter 10



1 Pancoast, W. G. “Advertising Campaign on ‘True Temper’ Tools.” In Marco Morrow and R. S. Thain, eds., Agricultural Advertising, 16, no. 1, January 1907. https://books.google.com/books?id=NDs3AAAAMAAJ&dq=“right tool for the right job” “true temper”&pg=PA21#v=onepage&q=“right tool for the right job” “true temper”&f=false.



2 The Northern Miner. “Nighthawk Gold Investor Presentation by Michael Byron at CMS 2018.” YouTube video, 23:35. Posted May 14, 2018. https:// youtu.be/Lg3Fc21uJJs.

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3 StartUP Blagoevgrad. “Teodor Panayotov—StartUP@Blagoevgrad 2015.” YouTube video, 24:02. Posted June 2, 2015. https://youtu.be/0WUVbtZkXy0.



4 Gawande, Atul. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. New York: Picador; First Edition (January 4, 2011).

Chapter 11



1 Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet,” n.d. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/ hamlet.3.2.html.



2 McMillan, Don. “Don McMillan: Life After Death by PowerPoint.” YouTube video, 4:24. Posted September 14, 2008. https://youtu.be/lpvgfmEU2Ck.



3 “Technically Funny: Custom Comedy for Your Corporate Event.” Technically Funny. Accessed March 31, 2020. https://www.technicallyfunny.com/.



4 V8a8n8o8s8s. “Robert Benchley, The Sky’s the Limit (1943).” YouTube video, 5:21. Posted October 10, 2009. https://youtu.be/G1yc-19z14s.



5 Leslie Culbertson, vice president of Finance at Intel Corporation, in discussion with author.



6 Oliver Fontana, vice president of Marketing at Neal Analytics, in discussion with author.



7 Ken Hirsch, senior banker at Goldman Sachs, in discussion with author.



8 Frank Quattrone, managing director at Morgan Stanley, in discussion with author.

Chapter 12



1 Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet,” n.d. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/ hamlet.3.2.html.



2 Villaron, Shawn. “PowerPoint AI Gets an Upgrade and Designer Surpasses a Major Milestone of 1 Billion Slides.” Microsoft 365 Blog. Microsoft, October 11, 2019. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2019/06/18/ powerpoint-ai-upgrade-designer-major-milestone-1-billion-slides/.



3 “Magic Quadrant Research Methodology.” Gartner. Accessed March 31, 2020. https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/magic-quadrants-research.



4 Lincoln, Abraham. “The Gettysburg Address.” Gettysburg, PA, November 19, 1863. https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause/transcript.htm.

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E ndnotes

Chapter 13



1 Knute Rockne All American, directed by Lloyd Bacon, screenplay by Robert Buckner, featuring Pat O’Brien, Gale Page, and Ronald Reagan (Warner Brothers, First National Pictures, 1940).



2 Reagan Foundation. “State of the Union: President Reagan’s State of the Union Speech—1/25/88.” YouTube video, 45:45. Posted May 8, 2009. https://youtu.be/ rG-DZqOX_wc; “Transcript of Reagan’s State of the Union Message to Nation.”  The New York Times, January 26, 1988. https://www.nytimes. com/1988/01/26/us/transcript-of-reagan-s-state-of-the-union-message-tonation.html.



3 Rosenberg, Howard. “Ronald Reagan’s Farewell: The Power and the Glory.” The Los Angeles Times, August 16, 1988.



4 ReaganFoundation. “State of the Union: President Reagan’s State of the Union Speech—1/25/88.”; “Transcript of Reagan’s State of the Union Message to Nation.” 



5 British Movietone. “Mr. Churchill Addresses Congress.” YouTube video, 6:22. Posted July 21, 2015. https://youtu.be/6fawAFOkuac; Churchill, Winston. “Address to Joint Session of US Congress, 1941.” National Churchill Museum, Westminster College. Accessed April 1, 2020. https://www. nationalchurchillmuseum.org/churchill-address-to-congress.html.



6 Ibid.



7 “Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961: JFK Library.”  JFK Library, January 20,1961, https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedyspeeches/inaugural-address-19610120; CBS. “President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.” YouTube video, 15:36. Posted January 16, 2011. https:// youtu.be/PEC1C4p0k3E.



8 Ibid.



9 RARE FACTS. “I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King Jr. HD (subtitled).” YouTube video, 6:46. Posted November 7, 2017. https://youtu. be/vP4iY1TtS3s.

10 Ibid.

11 Our Only Hope. “Billy Graham—Who is Jesus?—Chicago 1971.” YouTube video, 42:36. Posted May 19, 2016. https://youtu.be/U89zkUZPd5w.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

185

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­



14 “General Electric Theater Opening.” United States, 1954. Accessed November 1, 2020. https://archive.org/details/IAmAFool.

15 Rosenberg. “Ronald Reagan’s Farewell: The Power and the Glory.”

Coda



1 Crippen, Alex. “Warren Buffett’s $100,000 Offer and $500,000 Advice for Columbia Business School Students.” CNBC. March 18, 2010. https://www. cnbc.com/id/33891448.



2 Vlad Shmunis, CEO of RingCentral, in email exchange with author, February 20, 2020.



3 Cindy Burgdorf, CFO of SanDisk, in conversation with author, October 13, 1995.

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Appendix A

Video Links

­



1. President Ronald Reagan’s Address to the Republican National Convention, August 15, 1988 https://youtu.be/sLW2UXXwjI8?t=2359

2. UN General Assembly, Khrushchev Speech, Philippine Delegate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A3TRFH6CR0

3. Marcel Marceau - Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death (1965) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5RLTZSrr4A

4. The Mime. www.besuasive.com/videos

5. NOVA scienceNOW: 1 - Mirror Neurons https://youtu.be/Xmx1qPyo8Ks?t=270

6. Steve Jobs Introducing the iPhone at MacWorld 2007 https://youtu.be/x7qPAY9JqE4?t=79

7. CEO John Stumpf discussing his company’s settlement with the Senate Banking Committee (56:10) https://www.c-span.org/video/?415547-1/ceo-john-stumpf-testifiesunauthorized-wells-fargo-accounts

8. CEO John Stumpf discussing his company’s settlement with the Senate Banking Committee (1:32:25 – 1:33:22) https://www.c-span.org/video/?415547-1/ceo-john-stumpf-testifiesunauthorized-wells-fargo-accounts

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9. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf ‘Completely Unprepared’ | Squawk Box | CNBC



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvzV7D54Xo Argonauts Training Camp: Marc Trestman – May 22, 2018 10. https://www.argonauts.ca/2018/05/22/argonauts-trainingcamp-marc-trestman-may-22-2018/

11. Funny Interpreter at Rick Scott’s Hurricane Irma Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=26&v=-4dtAjRDAYU

12. How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk | Will Stephen | TEDxNewYork https://youtu.be/8S0FDjFBj8o

13. Megan Rapinoe’s full World Cup parade speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDrB2IestHs&feature= youtu.be&t=238

14. Lumier Startup Battlefield Presentation – Cullen Dudas https://youtu.be/aEdrey6U5dU?t=57

15. Marco Rubio Pauses Speech for Water Break https://youtu.be/19ZxJVnM5Gs

16. Mark Zuckerberg is too ambitious to let things go pear-shaped, says The New Yorker’s Osnos https://youtu.be/U4tPRm9JzUA

17. Evan Osnos “Age of Ambition” https://youtu.be/RP_hi_rORJ8

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18. The China debate: Are US and Chinese long-term interests fundamentally incompatible? https://youtu.be/hERzupvRa-o

19. Michael Bay quits Samsung’s press conference https://youtu.be/R4rMy1iA268

20. Learning a language? Speak it like you’re playing a video game | Marianna Pascal | TEDxPenangRoad https://youtu.be/Ge7c7otG2mk

21. Jeff Lawson: SIGNAL 2019 – Keynote Day 1 https://youtu.be/TTo37IRoMz4 188

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22. Tech Titans – Cisco, John Chambers https://youtu.be/9PE1E2KJgyg?t=270

23. Mike Tuchen, CEO of Talend at JMP Securities Technology Conference. www.besuasive.com/videos

24. Conversation with Elon Musk (Tesla Motors) - Web 2.0 Summit 08 https://youtu.be/gVwmNaPsxLc?t=92

25. The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity ... | Elon Musk https://youtu.be/IgKWPdJWuBQ?t=56

26. TNC:172 Kennedy–Nixon First Presidential Debate, 1960 https://youtu.be/gbrcRKqLSRw?t=62

27. Stephen Curry and Dr. Anthony Fauci | COVID-19 Q&A https://youtu.be/iuX826AGXWU

28. NowThis Politics – Zuckerberg & Fauci Talk Coronavirus https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/2933393063408887/

29. Still Face Experiment: Dr. Edward Tronick https://youtu.be/apzXGEbZht0

30. E=E Ericsson Participant Before and After www.besuasive.com/videos

31. Ahmadinejad vs Netanyahu https://youtu.be/denq0_qFjT4

32. Marc Benioff - Welcome - DF ’18 Opening Keynote: “Dreamforce: A Celebration of Trailblazers” https://youtu.be/i53LCY3OIsw?t=20

33. Kennedy-Nixon Suasive Version www.besuasive.com/videos

34. Amy Chang - Cognitive Collaboration: Transforming Workplaces and Changing the Way We Work https://youtu.be/qK_mDlOXuOk?t=103

35. A Conference Call in Real Life https://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ

36. West Side Story – Gee Officer Krupke! https://youtu.be/j7TT4jnnWys?t=239 189

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37. A quick example of uptalk https://youtu.be/pPZMy_JWsOU

38. Stephen Fry. Room 101 – “AQI” – 2001 https://youtu.be/xs5fH1ECzWc

39. George W Bush – Upspeak https://archive.org/details/Political_videosGeorgeWBush20060731_1_134

40. Faith Salie on speaking with ‘vocal fry’ https://youtu.be/R6r7LhcHHAc

41. Jill Abramson: Her new book and possible plagiarism claims https://www.pbs.org/video/jill-abramson-her-new-bookand-possible-plagiarism-claims-xo/

42. EU referendum result – Statement by the Governor of the Bank of England https://youtu.be/IK3By6uQ8gU

43. Mary Barra – GM Switch Recall Update https://youtu.be/s5Mt-PHyKdI?t=60

44. Never be happy with what you know: Indra Nooyi https://youtu.be/24d4rfnsOxg?t=47

45. The David Rubenstein Show: Christine Lagarde https://youtu.be/_Jhfp8fa2Fk?t=73

46. Keynote from Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum Foundation) at Ethereum Meetup 2018 https://youtu.be/7vuTtvshR34?t=9

47. Joey Zwillinger - Allbirds CEO talks struggles with Amazon https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/11/19/intv-allbirds-joeyzwillinger-amanpour.cnn

48. Jack Rakove – Constitutional Convention of 1787 (In cue: 2:18) https://www.c-span.org/video/?323803-1/discussion-constitutionalconvention-1787

49. Nighthawk Gold investor presentation by Michael Byron at CMS 2018 https://youtu.be/Lg3Fc21uJJs?t=115 190

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50. Teodor Panayotov - StartUP@Blagoevgrad 2015



https://youtu.be/0WUVbtZkXy0?t=22 Don 51. McMillan: Life After Death by PowerPoint https://youtu.be/lpvgfmEU2Ck?t=5

52. Robert Benchley, The sky’s the limit (1943) https://youtu.be/G1yc-19z14s?t=135

53. Canopy’s Annika Goldman | Full presentation | Code Media 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4hQJtdcosE

54. Ronald Reagan – State of the Union: President Reagan’s State of the Union Speech - 1/25/88 https://youtu.be/rG-DZqOX_wc?t=2560

55. Mr. Churchill Addresses Congress https://youtu.be/6fawAFOkuac?t=322

56. President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address https://youtu.be/PEC1C4p0k3E?t=805

57. I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King, Jr HD (subtitled) https://youtu.be/vP4iY1TtS3s?t=378

58. Billy Graham – Who is Jesus? – Chicago 1971 https://youtu.be/U89zkUZPd5w?t=2280

59. General Electric Theater Opening – Ronald Reagan https://archive.org/details/IAmAFool

60. Technology Pioneer 2010 – Vlad Shmunis (RingCentral) https://youtu.be/sblRBDE-ws8?t=9

61. We’re winning business from Cisco ‘all the time,’ says CEO of cloud-based telecom RingCentral https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/11/06/ringcentral-ceo-were-winningbusiness-from-cisco-all-the-time.html

Audio Links

1. John F. Kennedy – News Conference #24, February 14, 1962 https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKWHA/1962/ JFKWHA-073/JFKWHA-073 191

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Acknowledgments

My gratitude goes, first and foremost, to the two young women whose imagination and intelligence energized this edition: Natalie Sofia Jamison Tiret, who I’m proud to say is my daughter, inspired a brand new point of view while maintaining the integrity of the original concepts in the first edition; and Sarah Elisabeth Becton, who is not only the Program Manager of Suasive, but such a human search engine, I’ve taken to calling her Siri. Natalie and Sarah, who, among their many other sterling achievements, have made OCD into an art form, were ably assisted along the way by Amanda Stiles and Grace Armstrong. Speaking of inspiration, Benji Rosen, my Stanford University graduate school buddy, who was studying electrical engineering while I was learning about Aristotle, saw the opportunity to merge the two disciplines in the fertile garden that had sprouted in Stanford’s backyard, Silicon Valley. Ben’s inspiration was the impetus that gave rise to my company and to the more than three decades of programs that gave rise to the disruptive methodology in this book. Ben also introduced me to the late Don Valentine, the man with THE quote. To the video gang: Rich Hall, Kenn Rabin of Fulcrum Media Services, and Bob Johns and David Weissman of Video Arts. David is not a relative, but I wish he were. To the hundreds of people at Cisco Systems and Microsoft who learned, practiced, and then went on to champion my method. Two of the Microsoft alumni, both named Jon, merit special mention. Jon Bromberg, the Max Bialystock of the Big Tent, and Jon Lazarus, who opened the biggest door in Redmond while, at the same time, challenging my techniques. Jon’s challenge gave rise to the Comfort Zone Paradox: ‘‘What feels comfortable looks uncomfortable; what feels uncomfortable looks comfortable.’’ Thanks, too, to the people who granted permission to discuss my work with them: Jeff Raikes, Will Poole, Olivier Fontana, Marya McCabe, Krzysztof Izdebski, Jeff Lawson, Joe Moglia, Mike Tuchen, Lawrence Steinman, Ken Hirsch, Frank Quattrone, Leslie Culbertson, Cindy Burgdorf, Leah Maher, and Vlad Shmunis. To Kim Spenceley, my latest bright editor at Pearson; Lori Lyons, who has ably managed seven editions of my books through to publication; and Aswini Kumar, who managed the layout of the pages.

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For their individual contributions: Jim LeValley, Roger Gould, Richard Narramore, Robert Totman, Bixby Jamison, Liana O’Brien, and Melvin Van Peebles, who showed me the difference between critics and performers, and therefore between talk and action. And as always, my Lovely Lady Lucie for listening patiently to the many drafts of both editions, for her perceptive ideas—and for her constant, unconditional love.

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About the Author

Jerry Weissman is the founder and president of Suasive, Inc., formerly Power Presentations, Ltd. Weissman began his career as a staff producer-director of public affairs and news programs at CBS TV in New York, where he learned the skills to master the building blocks of every presentation: a clear, compelling story, well-designed graphics, natural delivery, and the art of Q&A. In 1988, Weissman brought these skills to Silicon Valley. In short order, he established himself as the coach for Silicon Valley CEOs developing their IPO roadshows by teaching them to tell their business stories through the eyes of their investors. In doing so, he helped their companies raise hundreds of billions of dollars. After amassing an elite client list of IPOs, he soon widened his focus to coaching public and privately held companies to develop and deliver all types of business presentations. Today his methodology has helped thousands of companies on every continent deliver high-stakes presentations with clarity, confidence, and maximum persuasion. In addition to this book, Weissman is the author of four other books on presentations and public speaking: Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story and Designing Your Slides, In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions, Presentations in Action, and Winning Strategies for Power Presentations, all Pearson publications.

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Index

A

Abramson, Jill, 105–106 acting, Method, 45–59 actions. See body language Actors Studio, 45–46 adrenaline, 49 case studies De Niro, Robert, 28 Dudas, Cullen, 24 Rubio, Marco, 24 Twain, Mark, 26 Fight-or-Flight reaction, 2, 49 audience perception of, 29–30, 49 body language and, 26–30, 49 Body Wrap, 28, 91–92 comfort zone paradox, 63–65 physical responses during, 23–24 Time Warp effect, 25–26, 29, 145 Yikes! moment, 30 Age of Ambition (Osnos), 33 Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 87 Allbirds, 118 Amanpour, Christine, 118 Anderson, Chris, 66 angle shots, high/low, 80–81 animation ERA exercise, 97–98 in presenter, 91 vocal, 92 animation, slide, 142–143 anxiety. See nervousness Apple Keynote, 143 arm movements Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 26–29 handshake, 88 importance of, 85–88 ReachOut, 88–91 case studies, 89 challenges of, 90–91 ERA exercise, 97–98 exercise for, 88–89 Home Base, 91–92 origins of, 88 Astaire, Fred, 137–138 AT&T ad campaign, 71 @ Glance design concept, 138 The Atlantic, 7

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audience. See also empathy adjusting for size of, 131–132 nonverbal reaction of, 53–54 perception of presenter behaviors, 76–77 Fight-or-Flight responses, 23–30, 64–65 Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate case study, 7, 71–78, 84–85 Phrase & Pause changes to, 126 reading from scripts, 33–34 Audience Advocacy, 127–134 essence of, 169 overview of, 1–2 presentation tips for first ten seconds, 133–134 position of speaker, 127–130 presentation checklist, 130–132 autocue, 34–35

B

Back Links, 155–156 backgrounds, 82–83 Barra, Mary, 107–108 Bay, Michael, 35 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 101 beg-borrow-or-steal method, 32 Bellows Effect, 92–96 benefits of, 92 case studies, 93–94 exercise for, 92–93 in virtual presentations, 94–96 Benchley, Pete, 137–138 Benioff, Marc, 89 Bernstein, Leonard, 101 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 31 Bitcoin Magazine, 117 blinding light, 132 Blink (Gladwell), 3, 12 blood pressure, Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 24 blood sugar, Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 24 body language of audience members, 53–54 audience perception of, 76–77 Fight-or-Flight responses, 29–30, 63–65 Phrase & Pause changes to, 126 reading from scripts, 33–34

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Bellows Effect, 92–96 case studies Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 87 Benioff, Marc, 89 CEO NetRoadshows, 8–9 Fallows, James, 7–8 Fauci, Anthony, 81 Fellini, Federico, 3 Gladwell, Malcolm, 3 Kennedy, John F., 7, 71–77 Khrushchev, Nikita, 6–7 Maher, Leah, 84 Marceau, Marcel, 8 McNeill, David, 6 Netanyahu, Benjamin, 87 Nixon, Richard, 7, 71–78, 84–85 Reagan, Ronald, 4–6, 83–84 Sacks, Oliver, 5–6 Tronick, Edward, 83 Chain Action exercise, 97–98 comfort zone paradox, 63–65 definition of, 2 ERA exercise, 97–98 eye contact, 77–83, 101 case studies, 77–78 early neurological imprinting, 77–78 exercises for, 79, 97–98 eye level, 80–82 EyeConnect, 79–80, 97–98, 101, 120–122, 130, 147 Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 23, 29 illumination for, 130 importance of, 77–78 reflexive eye movements, 142–143 Speak Only to Eyes, 120–122, 130, 147 “sweep the room” eye movement, 133–134 in virtual presentations, 79–80 facial features example of, 84 importance of, 83–84 Fight-or-Flight reaction, 2, 49 audience perception of, 29–30, 49 audience perception of reflective behaviors, 29–30, 49 body language and, 26–30, 49 Body Wrap, 28, 91–92 comfort zone paradox, 63–65 physical responses during, 23–24 Time Warp effect, 25–26, 29, 145 Yikes! moment, 30

head movements Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 head nods, 53–54, 56, 84 Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate case study, 7, 71–78, 84–85, 93 lecterns, use of, 131 limb movements ERA exercise, 97–98 handshake, 88 importance of, 85–88 ReachOut, 88–91 paralysis by analysis, 96 power of case study, 3 exercise for, 3 qualitative versus quantitative, 96–97 stance Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 importance of, 84–85 Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate case study, 77–78 Body Wrap, 28, 91, 92 Bonding (Klaus and Kennell), 78 brainstorming, 38–39 Brookings Institution, 33–34 Bryan, William Jennings, 72 Buckley, William F. Jr., 93 Buffet, Warren, xxvii, 169 bullet slides, 151 Burgdorf, Cindy, 171 Bush, George H.W., 4–5 Bush, George W. 105 Buterin, Vitalik, 117 butterflies in stomach. See nervousness Byron, Michael J., 129

C

cadence, pauses and. See also Unwords benefits of, 112–116 case studies Buterin, Vitalik, 117 Fitzgerald, Ella, 111 Gillespie, Dizzy, 111 Kennedy, John F., 112–113 Lagarde, Christine, 114–115 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 111 Putnam, Israel, 122 Rakove, Jack, 119 Sinatra, Frank, 111 Zwillinger, Joey, 118 challenges of, 117–120

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I ndex Astaire, Fred, 137–138 Barra, Mary, 107–108 Bay, Michael, 35 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 101 Benchley, Pete, 137–138 Benchley, Robert, 137–138 Benioff, Marc, 89 Bernstein, Leonard, 101 Bryan, William Jennings, 72 Buckley, William F. Jr., 93 Buffet, Warren, xxvii Burgdorf, Cindy, 190 Bush, George H.W., 4–5 Bush, George W., 105 Buterin, Vitalik, 117 Byron, Michael J., 129 Carney, Mark, 107 Carter, Jimmy, 7 Chabas, Paul, 26–27 Chambers, John, 50–51 Chang, Amy, 94 Churchill, Winston, 160–161 Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 41, 71 Covey, Stephen, 42 Crosby, Tripp, 94–95 Culbertson, Leslie, 140–141 Cuomo, Andrew, 146–147 Curry, Steph, 81–82 da Vinci, Leonardo, 106 De Niro, Robert, 28 Douglas, Helen Gahagan, 74 Dudas, Cullen, 24 Fallows, James, 7–8 Fauci, Anthony, 81–82 Fellini, Federico, 3 Fitzgerald, Ella, 111 Fontana, Olivier, 143–144 Frost, Garrison, 104 Fry, Stephen, 104 Gallwey, W. Timothy, 48, 61 Gates, Bill, 47–48 Gawande, Atul, 130 Gershwin, George, 99 Gershwin, Ira, 99 Gillespie, Dizzy, 111 Gladwell, Malcolm, 3, 12 Goldman, Annika, 148 Graham, Billy, 164–165, 167–168 Hewitt, Don, 74, 77 Hilton, Paris, 105 Hirsch, Ken, 145 Isaacson, Walter, 106

­

definition of, 112 exercise for, 124–126 in Person-to-Person Conversation method, 124 Phrase & Pause exercise for, 124–126 overview of, 122–123 in virtual presentations, 123–124 second languages, speaking in, 114–115 SlideSync delivery and, 143–145 Speak Only to Eyes and, 120–122 Time Warp effect and, 119, 124 cadence, phrasing and case studies Abramson, Jill, 105–106 Barra, Mary, 107–108 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 101 Bernstein, Leonard, and Stephen Sondheim, 101 Bush, George W., 105 Carney, Mark, 107 Frost, Garrison, 104 Fry, Stephen, 104 Izdebski, Krzysztof, 102 Nooyi, Indra, 108–109 Salie, Faith, 105 Complete the Arc, 100–102 case studies, 107–109 exercise for, 102 EyeConnect, 101 in film and video, 102 in music, 101 overview of, 100–101 Reading the Reaction, 101 definition of, 99–100 rising/falling inflection, 102–106 definition of, 102–103 exception to, 103–104 exercises for, 103 in questions, 103 UpSpeak, 104–105 Vocal Fry, 105–106 Calm, 47–48 Canadian Mining Symposium, 129 Canopy, 148 Carney, Mark, 107 Carter, Jimmy, 7 case studies Abramson, Jill, 105–106 Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 87 Amanpour, Christine, 118 Anderson, Chris, 66

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T he P ower P resenter Izdebski, Krzysztof, 102 Jasper, Bill, 144–145 Jobs, Steve, 14–15, 42–43, 49–50, 65–66 Juvenal, 45, 85 Kardashian, Kim, 105 Kennedy, John F., 7, 71–77, 93, 112–113, 161–162, 167–168 Khrushchev, Nikita, 6–7 King, Martin Luther Jr., 162–163, 167–168 Klaus, Marshall, 78 Kocienda, Ken, 15, 65–66 Krulwich, Robert, 13–14 Lagarde, Christine, 114–115 Lawson, Jeff, 36 Lincoln, Abraham, 1, 72, 153–154 Lombardi, Vince, 14, 44 Maher, Leah, 84 Malooley, Jake, 106 Marceau, Marcel, 8 McCabe, Marya, 55–56 McMillan, Don, 137, 149 McNeill, David, 6 Mies, Ludwig van der Rohe, 136 Moglia, Joe, 66 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 111 Musk, Elon, 66–68 Netanyahu, Benjamin, 87 Newton, Isaac, 85 Nixon, Richard, 7, 71–78, 84–85 Nooyi, Indra, 108–109 Obama, Barack, 24 Osnos, Evan, 33–34 Panayotov, Teodor, 130, 145–146 Pascal, Marianna, 36 Poole, Will, 41 power of, 3 Putnam, Israel, 122 Quattrone, Frank, 146 Raikes, Jeff, 31–32 Rakove, Jack, 119 Rapinoe, Megan, 21 Reagan, Ronald, 157, 169 delivery style of, 4–6, 157–159, 165–168 empathy exhibited by, 167–168 expressiveness of features, 83–84 General Electric Theater opening address, 166 as role model, 168 State of the Union Address (1988), 157–159 Rockne, Knute, 157

Roosevelt, Franklin D., 73, 166 Rosenberg, Howard, 5 Rotella, Bob, 48 Rubio, Marco, 24 Sacks, Oliver, 5–6 Salie, Faith, 105 Scott, Rick, 20 Shakespeare, William, 87, 135, 149 Shmunis, Vlad, 170 Simon, Carly, 53–54 Sinatra, Frank, 95, 111 Smith, Al, 72 Sondheim, Stephen, 101 Sonnenfeld, Jeffrey, 18 Spears, Britney, 105 Stanislavski, Konstantin, 45–46 Stanton, Tyler, 94–95 Steinman, Lawrence, 57–58 Stephen, Will, 20–21 Stumpf, John, 16–18 Sular, John, 80–81 Toomey, Pat, 17 Trestman, Marc, 19–20 Tronick, Edward, 83 Tuchen, Mike, 51–53 Twain, Mark, 23, 26, 56, 111 Warren, Elizabeth, 17–18 White, Theodore H., 76 Zuckerberg, Mark, 33, 82 Zwillinger, Joey, 118 CEO NetRoadshows, 8–9 CES (Consumer Electronics Show), 51 CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), 16 Chabas, Paul, 26–27 Chain Action exercise, 97–98 Chambers, John, 50–51 Chang, Amy, 94 checklist, presentation, 130–132 The Checklist Manifesto (Gawande), 130 chronological flow structure, 42 Churchill, Winston, 160–161 Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 41, 71 Cisco, 50, 79, 146 clusters of ideas, 40–41 Code Media conference, 148 comfort monitors, 35–36 Comfort Zone Paradox, 63–65, 79 competence, consciousness/unconsciousness of, 62–63 Complete the Arc case studies, 107–109

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I ndex exercise for, 102 EyeConnect, 101 in film and video, 102 in music, 101 overview of, 100–101 Reading the Reaction, 101 concentration. See Mental Method connections between ideas, 40–41 consciousness of competence/incompetence, 62 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 50–51 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), 16 contact lenses, smart, 36–37 content, 31–32. See also slides and SlideSynchronization adjusting, 54–58 case studies, 55–58 overview of, 54–55 case studies Bay, Michael, 35 Jobs, Steve, 42–43 Lawson, Jeff, 36 Osnos, Evan, 33–34 Pascal, Marianna, 36 Poole, Will, 41 Raikes, Jeff, 31–32 comfort monitors, 35–36 Mojo Lens, 36–37 scripts, 33–34 story development brainstorming, 38–39 Effectiveness Matrix, 15–16 Flow Structure, 41–43 FrameForm, 37–38 Roman Column method, 41–43 summary of, 44 Verbalization, 43–44 teleprompters, 34–35 WIIFY, 37–38, 54, 92, 136, 151 content-heavy slides, 32 context, establishing, 37–38 continuity, creating for slides, 154–156 Back Links, 155–156 benefits of, 154–156 closure of outbound slide, 154–156 SlideSync steps, 155 conversation empathy and, 167–168

Person-to-Person Conversation, 69–70 cadence and, 124 case studies, 50–53 overview of, 49–53 series of deposits, 55 in SlideSync delivery, 147 couples, electric shock experiment with, 12 CourseDot, 130 Covey, Stephen, 42 Cramer, Jim, 171 Crosby, Tripp, 94–95 Culbertson, Leslie, 140–141 Cuomo, Andrew, 146–147 Curry, Steph, 81–82 customizing content, 54

D

da Vinci, Leonardo, 106 De Niro, Robert, 28 delivery. See also Verbal dynamic; Vocal dynamics Effectiveness Matrix, 15–16, 152 high story/high delivery, 21 high story/low delivery, 19–20 low story/high delivery, 20–21 low story/low delivery, 16–18 SlideSync, 141–148 continuing around room, 147 example of, 148 moving to another person, 147 pausing, 143–145 reading slide, 145–147 reflexive eye movements, 142–143 Speak Only to Eyes, 147 TitlePlus, 147 turning and clicking, 141–143 depth of field, 54, 132 design design/delivery balance, 135 Less Is More, 136–141 @ Glance design concept, 138 teeterboard effect, 136–137 TitlePlus, 139–141 video demonstration of, 137–138 development, story. See story development display screens, speaker position relative to, 127–129 Dolby Laboratories, 144 double reinforcement, 86 Douglas, Helen Gahagan, 74 Dudas, Cullen, 24

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E

early neurological imprinting, eye contact and, 77–78 EBCs (executive briefing centers), 51 Effectiveness Matrix, 15–16, 152 high story/high delivery, 21 high story/low delivery, 19–20 low story/high delivery, 20–21 low story/low delivery, 16–18 elaborating on ideas, 54 empathy case studies, 13–15 definition of, 11 Effectiveness Matrix, 15–16 high story/high delivery, 21 high story/low delivery, 19–20 low story/high delivery, 20–21 low story/low delivery, 16–18 eye level and, 81 handshake, 88 head nods and, 84 importance of, 23 science of, 12–13 ERA exercise, 97–98 Ethereum, 117 European Central Bank, 114 evidence, providing, 54 examples, providing, 54 executive briefing centers (EBCs), 51 exercises Bellows Effect, 92–93 cadence, 124–126 Complete the Arc, 102 rising/falling inflection, 103 Chain Action (ERA), 97–98 eye level, 81 EyeConnect, 79 head nods, 84 power of the Visual, 3 ReachOut, 88–89 for reflexive eye movements, 142–143 explaining terms, 54 eye contact, 77–83 early neurological imprinting, 77–78 eye level, 80–82 case studies, 81–82 exercise for, 81 EyeConnect, 79–80, 101 ERA exercise, 97–98 exercise for, 79 illumination for, 130

Speak Only to Eyes, 120–122, 130, 147 in virtual presentations, 79–80 Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 23, 29 importance of, 77–78 in Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate, 77–78 reflexive eye movements, 142–143 “sweep the room” eye movement, 133–134 EyeConnect, 79–80, 101 ERA exercise, 97–98 exercise for, 79 illumination for, 130 Speak Only to Eyes, 120–122, 130, 147 in virtual presentations, 79–80

F

facial features Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 importance of, 83–84 falling inflection. See inflection, rising/falling Fallows, James, 7–8 Fauci, Anthony, 81–82 Fellini, Federico, 3 Fight-or-Flight reaction, 2, 49 audience perception of, 23–30, 49 Body Wrap, 28, 91, 92 comfort zone paradox, 63–65 physical responses during, 23–24 Time Warp effect, 25–26, 29, 145 Yikes! moment, 30 filler words, 29, 112–113 film Body Wrap in, 28 Complete the Arc in, 102 Fireside Chat radio broadcasts (Roosevelt), 166 Firing Line, 93 first impressions, 133–134 Fitzgerald, Ella, 111 Flow Structure, 41–43 fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), 13 Fontana, Olivier, 143–144 FrameForm, 37–38 Frost, Garrison, 104 Fry, Stephen, 104 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 13

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I ndex

G

heart rate, Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 23 Hewitt, Don, 74, 77 high angle shot, 80–81 Hilton, Paris, 105 Hirsch, Ken, 145 Home Base, 91–92 How to Sound Smart in a TEDx Talk, 20–21 Hurricane Irma, 20

Gallwey, W. Timothy, 48, 61 Gartner, Magic Quadrant methodology, 152 Gates, Bill, 47–48 Gates Notes, 47–48 Gawande, Atul, 130 General Electric Theater opening address, 166 General Motors, 107 Gershwin, George, 99 Gershwin, Ira, 99 gestures Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 26–29 handshake, 88 importance of, 85–88 ReachOut, 88–91 case studies, 89 challenges of, 90–91 ERA exercise, 97–98 exercise for, 88–89 Home Base, 91–92 origins of, 88 Gettysburg Address, 153–154 Gillespie, Dizzy, 111 GitLab, 79 Gladwell, Malcolm, 3, 12 @ Glance design concept, 138 Golden State Warriors, 81–82 Goldman, Annika, 148 Goldman Sachs, 144, 145 Google, 79 Google Slides, 143 Graham, Billy, 164–165, 167–168 “The Great Communicator.” See Reagan, Ronald The Guardian, 105

I

I Have a Dream speech (King), 162–163 illumination, 80, 130, 132 Inaugural Address (Kennedy), 161–162 inbound slides, 155–156 incompetence, consciousness of, 62 incompetence, unconsciousness of, 62 infant/mother bonding, eye contact in, 77–78 inflection, rising/falling, 102–106 definition of, 102–103 exception to, 103–104 exercises for, 103 Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 in questions, 103 ReachOut and, 92 UpSpeak, 104–105 Vocal Fry, 105–106 The Inner Game of Tennis (Gallwey), 48 Intel Corporation, 140 involuntary sharing, 11 iPhone launch presentation, 14–15, 42–43, 65–66 IPO roadshows, power of Visual in, 9 The Irishman (film), 28 Isaacson, Walter, 106 Izdebski, Krzysztof, 102

J

H

Jasper, Bill, 144–145 JMP Securities Technology Conference, 51 Jobs, Steve, 14–15, 42–43, 49–50, 65–66, 106 Juvenal, 45, 85

Hamlet (Shakespeare), 87–88 hand movement. See limb movements handshakes, 88 Harari, Eli, 190 head movements Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 head nods, 53–54, 56 exercise for, 84 importance of, 84 Headspace, 47–48 The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness, 47–48

K

Kardashian, Kim, 105 Kennedy, John F., 7, 71–77, 93, 112–113, 161–162, 167–168 The Key to Winning Football (Moglia), 66 Keynote, 143 Khrushchev, Nikita, 6–7

203

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T he P ower P resenter King, Martin Luther Jr., 162–163, 167–168 Klaus, Marshall, 78 Kocienda, Ken, 15, 65–66 Krulwich, Robert, 13, 14

L

Lagarde, Christine, 114–115 large venues, adjusting presentations for, 132 Lawson, Jeff, 36 learning process case studies Jobs, Steve, 65–66 Moglia, Joe, 66 Musk, Elon, 66–68 change from, 61 Comfort Zone Paradox, 63–65, 79 Person-to-Person Conversation and, 69–70 repetition over time, 65–68 stages of, 62–63 Yikes! moment, 68 lecterns, use of, 131 left-to-right movement, 143 Less Is More design, 136–141, 150 teeterboard effect, 136–137 @ Glance design concept, 138 video demonstration of, 137–138 TitlePlus, 139–141 lighting, 80, 130, 132 limb movements Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 26–28, 29 handshake, 88 importance of, 85–88 ReachOut, 88–91 case studies, 89 challenges of, 90–91 ERA exercise, 97–98 exercise for, 88–89 Home Base, 91–92 origins of, 88 Lincoln, Abraham, 1, 72, 153–154 location of speaker, 127–130 Lombardi, Vince, 14, 44 London Underground, 121 Los Angeles Times, 5 low angle shot, 80–81 Lumier, 24 lungs, Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 24, 29

M

Macworld, 49–50 Magic Quadrant methodology, 152 Maher, Leah, 84 The Making of the President 1960 (White), 76 Malooley, Jake, 106 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales (Sacks), 5–6 Marceau, Marcel, 8 McCabe, Marya, 55–56 McMillan, Don, 137, 149 McNeill, David, 6 meditation, 47–48 medium-size groups, adjusting presentations for, 132 memorization, 43 Mental Method content, adjusting, 54–58 case studies, 55–58 overview of, 54–55 examples of, 58–59 message delivery, 59–60 mind-body connection, 46–48 nonverbal reaction, reading, 53–54 Person-to-Person Conversation, 49–53 case studies, 50–53 overview of, 49–50 series of, 55 scientific basis of, 57–58 Merchants of Truth (Abramson), 106 message delivery, 59–60 Meta Design Concepts @ Glance, 138 TitlePlus, 139–141 Method acting, 45–59 Microsoft, 31, 41, 47–48, 79 PowerPoint, 55, 143. See also slides and SlideSynchronization Presenter Coach, 150 Mies, Ludwig van der Rohe, 136 mime, 8 mind-body connection, 46–48 mirror neurons, 13 misperception of time, 25–26, 29 cadence and, 119, 124 when reading slides, 145 Moglia, Joe, 66 Mojo Lens, 36–37 monkeys, mirror neurons studied in, 11

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I ndex

O

More is Less design, 136, 137–138. See also Less Is More design Morgan Stanley, 144, 146 Moscow Art Theater, 45–46 motion, range of, 91 Motorola, 170 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 111 Murphy’s Law, 35 music, Complete the Arc in, 101 Musk, Elon, 66–68

Obama, Barack, 24 Osnos, Evan, 33–34 outbound slides Back Links, 155–156 closure of, 154–156

P

Pacific Voice & Speech Foundation, 102 Panayotov, Teodor, 130, 145–146 pantomime, 8 paralysis by analysis, 96 Pascal, Marianna, 36 pauses benefits of, 112–116 case studies Buterin, Vitalik, 117 Fitzgerald, Ella, 111 Gillespie, Dizzy, 111 Kennedy, John F., 112–113 Lagarde, Christine, 114–115 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 111 Putnam, Israel, 122 Rakove, Jack, 119 Sinatra, Frank, 111 Zwillinger, Joey, 118 challenges of, 117–120 definition of, 112 exercise for, 124–126 in Person-to-Person Conversation method, 124 Phrase & Pause exercise for, 124–126 overview of, 122–123 in virtual presentations, 123–124 second languages, speaking in, 114–115 SlideSync delivery, 143–145 Speak Only to Eyes, 120–122 Time Warp effect and, 119, 124 PepsiCo, 108 performers, teleprompter use by, 34 Person-to-Person Conversation, 49–53, 69–70 cadence and, 124 case studies, 50–53 Chambers, John, 50–51 Tuchen, Mike, 51–53 overview of, 49–53 series of deposits, 55 in SlideSync delivery, 147

N

narrative continuity, creating for slides, 154–156 Back Links, 155–156 benefits of, 154–156 closure of outbound slide, 154–156 SlideSync steps, 155 Neal Analytics, 143–144 nervousness case studies De Niro, Robert, 28 Dudas, Cullen, 24 Rubio, Marco, 24 Twain, Mark, 26 Fight-or-Flight reaction, 2, 49 audience perception of, 29–30, 49 body language and, 26–30, 49 Body Wrap, 28, 91, 92 comfort zone paradox, 63–65 physical responses during, 23–24 Time Warp effect, 25–26, 29, 145 Yikes! moment, 30 Twain on, 23 Netanyahu, Benjamin, 87 NetRoadshows, power of Visual in, 8–9 neural coupling, 13 neurofeedback, 47 neurological imprinting, eye contact and, 77–78 The New York Times, 33, 80, 106 newscasters, teleprompter use by, 34 Newton, Isaac, 85 Nixon, Richard, 7, 71–78, 84–85 nodding, 53–54, 56, 84 nonverbal reaction, reading, 53–54 Nooyi, Indra, 108–109 Nova, 13 numeral flow structure, 42 numeric charts, 151

205

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T he P ower P resenter Photographic Psychology (Suler), 80–81 Phrase & Pause exercise for, 124–126 overview of, 122–123 in virtual presentations, 123–124 phrases case studies Abramson, Jill, 105–106 Barra, Mary, 107–108 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 101 Bernstein, Leonard, and Stephen Sondheim, 101 Bush, George W., 105 Carney, Mark, 107 Frost, Garrison, 104 Fry, Stephen, 104 Izdebski, Krzysztof, 102 Nooyi, Indra, 108–109 Salie, Faith, 105 Complete the Arc, 100–102 case studies, 107–109 exercise for, 102 EyeConnect, 101 in film and video, 102 in music, 101 overview of, 100–101 Reading the Reaction, 101 definition of, 99–100 rising/falling inflection, 102–106 definition of, 102–103 exception to, 103–104 exercises for, 103 in questions, 103 UpSpeak, 104–105 Vocal Fry, 105–106 pie charts, verbal navigation of, 152–153 PMA (Positive Mental Attitude), 44 poised posture, 91 politicians, teleprompter use by, 34 Poole, Will, 41 position of speaker, 127–130 Positive Mental Attitude (PMA), 44 posture, poised, 91 PowerPoint, 143 presentations. See also body language; content; nervousness; slides and SlideSynchronization backgrounds, 82–83 case studies Burgdorf, Cindy, 190 Byron, Michael J., 129 Gawande, Atul, 130

Panayotov, Teodor, 130 Shmunis, Vlad, 170 checklist for, 130–132 first ten seconds of, 133–134 Mental Method, 54–58 content, adjusting, 54–58 examples of, 58–59 message delivery, 59–60 mind-body connection, 46–48 nonverbal reaction, reading, 53–54 Person-to-Person Conversation, 49–53 position of speaker for, 127–130 tools of the trade, 127–134 presenter behavior, audience perceptions of, 76–77. See also empathy Fight-or-Flight responses, 23–30, 63–65 Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate case study, 7, 71–78, 84–85 Phrase & Pause changes to, 126 reading from scripts, 33–34 Presenter Coach, 150 Presenting to Win (Weissman), 25, 37, 138 presidential debates, 7, 71–77, 93 problem/solution flow structure, 42 projection beam, 131 psychological consultation, 48 public officials, teleprompter use by, 34 punctuation, visual, 91 Putnam, Israel, 122

Q

Qatalyst Partners, 146 quality of engagement, 96–97 Quattrone, Frank, 146 questions, answering, 2 quiet mind, 47 quotations, in slides, 153–154

R

Raikes, Jeff, 31–32 raising the bar, 47 Rakove, Jack, 119 range of motion, 91 Rapinoe, Megan, 21 ReachOut, 88–91 case studies, 89 challenges of, 90–91 concept and origins, 88 ERA exercise, 97–98

206

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I ndex second languages, speaking in, 114–115 September Morn (Chabas), 26–27 Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey), 42 Shakespeare, William, 87, 135, 149 sharing, involuntary, 11 Shmunis, Vlad, 170 sightlines, 131 SIGNAL, 36 Simon, Carly, 53–54 Sinatra, Frank, 95, 111 The Sky’s the Limit (film), 137–138 slides and SlideSynchronization, 2, 135–148 bullet slides, 151 case studies Benchley, Robert, 137–138 Culbertson, Leslie, 140–141 Cuomo, Andrew, 146–147 Fontana, Olivier, 143–144 Goldman, Annika, 148 Jasper, Bill, 144–145 McMillan, Don, 137 Quattrone, Frank, 146 content of, 32 design, 135–148 design/delivery balance, 135 Less Is More design, 136–141 design/delivery balance, 135 inbound/outbound slides, 155–156 Less Is More design, 136–141 @ Glance design concept, 138 teeterboard effect, 136–137 TitlePlus, 139–141 video demonstration of, 137–138 narrative continuity, creating, 154–156 Back Links, 155–156 benefits of, 154–156 closure of outbound slide, 155 Less Is More, 150 SlideSync steps, 155 Suasive Master Skills Cycle and, 156 numeric charts, 151–152 quotations, 153–154 quotations in, 153–154 reading, 145–147, 149 SlideSync delivery, 141–148 continuing around room, 147 example of, 148 moving to another person, 147 pausing, 143–145 reading slide, 145–147 reflexive eye movements, 142–143

exercise for, 88–89 Home Base, 91–92 reading audience reactions, 53–54 slides, 32, 145–147, 149 Reading the Reaction, 101 Reagan, Ronald, 157, 169 delivery style of, 4–6, 157–159, 165–167, 168 empathy exhibited by, 167–168 expressiveness of features, 83–84 General Electric Theater opening address, 166 as role model, 168 State of the Union Address (1988), 157–159 reflexive eye movements, 142–143 repetition over time, 65–68 rephrasing content, 54 Republican National Convention, Reagan’s 1988 address to, 4–5 resolution, in music, 101 Ring Zero Systems, 170 RingCentral, 79, 170 rising/falling inflection, 102–106 definition of, 102–103 exception to, 103–104 exercises for, 103 in questions, 103 UpSpeak, 104–105 Vocal Fry, 105–106 Rockne, Knute, 157 Rolling Stone, 106 Roman Column method, 41–43 Ronald Reagan: The Great Communicator (DVD), 167 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 73, 166 Rosenberg, Howard, 5 Rotella, Bob, 48 Rubio, Marco, 24

S

Sacks, Oliver, 5–6 Salie, Faith, 105 salivary glands, Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 24 Samsung Group, 35 SanDisk Corporation, 190 SATTlab, LLC, 55 Saturday Night Live, 20 Scott, Rick, 20 scripts, 33–34

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T he P ower P resenter Speak Only to Eyes, 147 TitlePlus, 147 turning and clicking, 141–143 SlideSync steps, 155 tables and matrices, 151–152 TitlePlus description, 149–151 verbal navigation of, 151–153 small groups, adjusting presentations for, 131 smart contact lens, 36–37 Smith, Al, 72 Sondheim, Stephen, 101 Sonnenfeld, Jeffrey, 18 Speak Only to Eyes, 120–122, 130, 147 speaker, position of, 127–130 Spears, Britney, 105 speech pattern, Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 stages of learning process, 62–63 stance Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 importance of, 84–85 Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate case study, 77–78 Stanislavski, Konstantin, 45–46 Stanton, Tyler, 94–95 State of the Union Address (1988), 157–159 Steinman, Lawrence, 57–58 Stephen, Will, 20–21 Still Face Experiment, 83 story development, 1 brainstorming, 38–39 Effectiveness Matrix, 15–16, 152 high story/high delivery, 21 high story/low delivery, 19–20 low story/high delivery, 20–21 low story/low delivery, 16–18 Flow Structure, 41–43 FrameForm, 37–38 Roman Column method, 41–43 summary of, 44 Verbalization, 43–44 Stumpf, John, 16–18 Suasive FrameForm, 37–38 brainstorming, 38–39 connections and clusters, 40–41 Sular, John, 80–81 sweat glands, Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 24 “sweep the room” eye movement, 133–134

synchronization, slide. See slides and SlideSynchronization

T

tables, in slides, 151–152 Talend, 51 TD Ameritrade, 66 TechCrunch Disrupt, 24 TEDxPenangRoad, 36 teleprompters, 34–35 televised presidential debates, 77–78 tempo, Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 tension and resolution, in music, 101 terms, explaining, 54 Tesla Motors IPO roadshow, 66 Tesla Roadster, launch of, 66 Third Law of Motion, 85 Time Magazine, 106 Time Warp effect, 25–26, 29 cadence and, 119, 124 when reading slides, 145 TitlePlus, 139–141, 147, 149–151 tools of the trade, 127–134 first ten seconds of, 133–134 position, 127–130 presentation checklist, 130–132 Toomey, Pat, 17 Toronto Argonauts, 19 transformative curved video screen, 35 Trestman, Marc, 19–20 “Tricky Dicky.” See Nixon, Richard Tronick, Edward, 83 Tuchen, Mike, 51–53 turning and clicking (SlideSync delivery), 141–143 Twain, Mark, 23, 26, 56, 111 Twilio, 36 Twofer, 32

U

unconsciousness of competence, 63 unconsciousness of incompetence, 62 United Nations General Assembly, Khrushchev’s address to, 6–7 Unlimited Potential Group (Microsoft), 41 Unwords, 112–113, 149 elimination of, 66–68 Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 UpSpeak, 104–105

208

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I ndex

V

eye level, 80–82 EyeConnect, 79–80, 97–98, 101, 120–122, 130, 147 Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 23, 29 illumination for, 130 importance of, 77–78 reflexive eye movements, 142–143 Speak Only to Eyes, 120–122, 130, 147 “sweep the room” eye movement, 133–134 in virtual presentations, 79–80 facial features example of, 84 importance of, 83–84 Fight-or-Flight reaction, 2, 49 audience perception of, 29–30, 49 audience perception of reflective behaviors, 29–30, 49 body language and, 26–30, 49 Body Wrap, 28, 49, 91, 92 comfort zone paradox, 63–65 physical responses during, 23–24 Time Warp effect, 25–26, 29, 145 Yikes! moment, 30 head movements Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 head nods, 53–54, 56, 84 Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate case study, 7, 71–78, 84–85, 93 lecterns, use of, 131 limb movements ERA exercise, 97–98 handshake, 88 importance of, 85–88 ReachOut, 88–91 nonverbal reaction, reading, 53–54 paralysis by analysis, 96 power of case study, 3 exercise for, 3 Gladwell case study, 3 qualitative versus quantitative, 96–97 stance Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 importance of, 84–85 Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate case study, 71––78 visualization, 47 visualization, 47 Vocal dynamics animation, 92 Bellows Effect, 92–96 ­

Valley Girl Talk, 104–105 value, adding, 54 Verbal dynamic definition of, 2 verbal navigation of slides, 151–152 Verbalization, 43–44 verbatim reading, 32 video, Complete the Arc in, 102 videoconferencing. See virtual presentations virtual presentations backgrounds, 82–83 Bellows Effect in, 94–96 eye level, 81–82 EyeConnect in, 79–80 Phrase & Pause in, 123–124 Visual dynamics, 1–2 of audience members, 53–54 audience perception of, 76–77 Fight-or-Flight responses, 29–30, 63–65 Phrase & Pause changes to, 126 reading from scripts, 33–34 backgrounds, 82–83 Bellows Effect, 92–96 case studies, 71–77 Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 87 Benioff, Marc, 89 CEO NetRoadshows, 8–9 Fallows, James, 7–8 Fauci, Anthony, 81 Fellini, Federico, 3 Gladwell, Malcolm, 3 Kennedy, John F., 7, 71–77 Khrushchev, Nikita, 6–7 Maher, Leah, 84 Marceau, Marcel, 8 McNeill, David, 6 Netanyahu, Benjamin, 87 Nixon, Richard, 7, 71–78, 84–85 power of, 3 Reagan, Ronald, 4–6, 83–84 Sacks, Oliver, 5–6 Tronick, Edward, 83 Chain Action exercise, 97–98 comfort zone paradox, 63–65 definition of, 2 ERA exercise, 97–98 eye contact, 77–83, 101 case studies, 71–78 early neurological imprinting, 77–78 exercises for, 79, 97–98

209

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T he P ower P resenter benefits of, 92 case studies, 93–94 exercise for, 92–93 in virtual presentations, 94–96 case studies Buckley, William F. Jr., 93 Chang, Amy, 94 Crosby, Tripp, 94–95 Kennedy, John F., 93 Sinatra, Frank, 95 Stanton, Tyler, 94–95 definition of, 2 inflection, rising/falling, 102–106 definition of, 102–103 exception to, 103–104 exercises for, 103 Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 in questions, 103 ReachOut and, 92 UpSpeak, 104–105 Vocal Fry, 105–106 pauses benefits of, 112–116 challenges of, 117–120 definition of, 112. See also Unwords exercise for, 124–126 Person-to-Person Conversation and, 124 Phrase & Pause, 122–126 SlideSync delivery and, 143–145 Speak Only to Eyes and, 120–122 speaking in a second language, 114–115 Time Warp effect and, 119, 124

phrasing Complete the Arc, 100–102, 107–109 definition of, 99–100 rising/falling inflection, 102–106 reading slides, 145–147, 149 speech pattern, 29 tempo, 29 Unwords, 112–113, 149 elimination of, 66–68 Fight-or-Flight reaction and, 29 Volume, 29, 92 Vocal Fry, 105–106 Volume, 29, 92

W

Warren, Elizabeth, 17–18 Wells Fargo Bank, 16 West Side Story (Bernstein), 101 White, Theodore H., 76 WIIFY, 37–38, 54, 92, 136, 151 World Economic Forum, 171

X-Y-Z

Yikes! moment, 30, 130–132 learning process and, 68 mind-body connection and, 48 “Zone,”47 Zoom, 79 Zuckerberg, Mark, 33, 82 Zwillinger, Joey, 118

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