How To Make Amazing PowerPoint Presentations and Keynote Presentations:KeynoteNut

Public Speaking: Why It Can Torment You Forever (If You Let It)!

Have you ever been to a primary school play?
There they are, all the kids, all keen to play their part.

And then one kid forgets his part.
He stands there dumbfounded. Unable to speak. Frozen in fear. The words seemingly circulating in his brain somewhere.

I was that kid!
Except I wasn’t five years old. I was thirty-three years old and I was giving my first presentation ever on The Brain Audit. Except at that point, it wasn’t even called The Brain Audit. I was, at least in my mind, just giving a one hour seminar.

And about twenty minutes into that one hour, I froze
Nothing. I couldn’t remember a thing. There were twenty five people in the room looking right at me, and my mind was blankety-blank. And time doesn’t just slow down in these moments. It shuts down. You feel suffocated, unable to move or even twitch an eyebrow.

My wife, Renuka saved me that night.
She told the audience we were going to take a 10-minute break. Imagine that. A 10-minute break in the middle of a presentation. But there I was ten minutes later, my brain all rebooted. And I gave my first presentation on The Brain Audit ever. But that was my first ever event. Sure I goofed up. But then I was fine.

Fine until Wellington, that is
I had to speak to this group of insurance agents. One hundred and fifty of them. And I was being paid the grand sum of $1500 plus airfare + expenses. And though it was at least three-four years later and forty presentations later, I did it again.

I became that five-year old on the stage again
My 45-minute speech was done in twenty. And I fled the stage. I was mortified because I forgot what I was supposed to say. And I knew in that moment, that I really should stop doing trying to be a speaker. Heck I might as well go and hide behind my computer and never show my face again.

Moments of doubt creep up in everyone’s mind
But this isn’t a moment. This is a crisis. You’re being mangled, pulverised and every bone in your body is telling you to eject, eject and eject. And yet you stay on course. You feel the anguish, the shame, the utter doubt. And then when you’ve done enough of you self-pity, you wake up the next day (or several days later) and you get back to doing what you need to do.

What I needed to do was go back to Wellington
Back to that same hotel. Back to that same stage. Back to face a fear so strong that even though I wasn’t going to be speaking to the same audience; or even speaking on the same topic; or the fact that it several years had elapsed. I was still petrified of—get this—the very room!

But that’s what you have to do
The only way to face the fear is to face it. You pick yourself, dust yourself off and start all over again. That’s what marks out the people who succeed vs. the people who don’t.

The people who don’t make excuses. They say: I tried this stuff. It didn’t work. Well hello there, try it again. And again. At least so that you get over the fear. If for no one else, then at least for yourself.

Because the moment of doubt doesn’t care
As you get better at what you do, you have more challenges. Some challenges you breeze through. Some make you feel five again. Fearful. Blank. Unable to go on. But you must go on, because if you do there is that so-called pot of gold waiting at the end of the rainbow.

Remember The Brain Audit presentation I was telling you about?
Well, at that point I hadn’t written The Brain Audit. But after that event, someone came up to me and asked me for notes. Of course I didn’t have any notes. But she persisted. So I wrote out the notes a few days later and sent it to her in a PDF. Those notes became the basis for The Brain Audit as it is today.

And today that one book alone has sold over $500,000 worth of copies to date.

One book. Half a million dollars!
In my wildest dreams I could not have envisioned a turnaround like that. But it could have gone the other way as well. I could have given up. Decided to go into early ‘retirement’. And that would be the end.

Doubt shakes our very core
When you’re doing a course. Learning a new skill. Doing something different or scary. And the longer you wallow in self-pity, the more stupid excuses you make, the more that doubt is going to chew you up and spit you out.

Be that five year old.
Freeze in fear if you have to. Take your ’10-minute break.’
Then come back to fight.

And win!

P.S. So what was your scariest presentation moment? And how did you overcome it? Share your experience here

How To Do Presentations:Black Belt Presentations

Can a Presentation really make $20,000 in an hour? Blackbelt Presentations Shows you What it Takes to make a $20,000 Presentation

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Hans Rosling and the Magic Washing Machine: Part 1-Using the Disconnect

Hans Rosling talks about the magic washing machine. How does he get and keep the audience’s attention?

Washing machine? What does a washing machine have to do with economic growth?
And how do you tie a washing machine into reduction of energy we use? Sounds crazy doesn’t it? If you have a seemingly boring topic, how do you bring it to life? You use the power of the disconnect.

So what is the disconnect?
Let’s say I’m about to talk to y0u about pricing strategy. What are you expecting to hear? Why ‘pricing strategy’ of course! And that’s the biggest reason why I should disconnect. The disconnect instantly wakes you up. Instead of pricing, I’m talking about ‘New Zealand’. Or ‘lampshades’. Or about ‘conveyor belts at airports’. Now you can’t help but pay attention. Now you’re locked into the speech, because frankly, you have no other option.

What helps tremendously, is turning that disconnect into a story
So Hans talks about the washing machine. But he doesn’t restrict to two lines. He builds it up. To quote: “I was only four years old when I saw my mother load a washing machine for the very first time in her life. That was a great day for my mother. My mother and father had been saving money for years to be able to buy that machine. And the first day it was going to be used, even Grandma was invited to see the machine. And Grandma was even more excited. Throughout her life she had been heating water with firewood, and she had hand washed laundry for seven children. And now she was going to watch electricity do that work.

My mother carefully opened the door, and she loaded the laundry into the machine, like this. And then, when she closed the door, Grandma said, “No, no, no, no. Let me, let me push the button.” And Grandma pushed the button, and she said, “Oh, fantastic. I want to see this. Give me a chair. Give me a chair. I want to see it.” And she sat down in front of the machine, and she watched the entire washing program. She was mesmerized. To my grandmother, the washing machine was a miracle.”

There are a few elements to that story that you need to pay attention to…
It’s not just a story. It’s a story that’s building up. There’s a definite sequence and drama. First the washine machine. Then the grandma. Then the mother. Then the grandma. It’s impossible to not be fascinated when the story pulsates with a life of its own. But there’s another side to the story. It’s not just a story.

It’s a story of YOUR life.
You’ve been there before. You’ve had a situation where a new gadget was brought into your home. Maybe a stereo, maybe an iPad, maybe a new computer—some gadget or the other. And in the far recesses of your brain you can remember how you crowded around the gadget in wonder.

That’s what Hans Rosling is using to maximum effect! He’s using the power of your own memory to make the story utterly unforgettable.

So we’ve seen just the start of a great presentation.
In under one minute and thirty three seconds, Hans Rosling and his magic washing machine have the audience rapt with attention. And you can do it too. But let’s go over the few steps that we’ve learned so far.

Step 1: Disconnect. Surprise the audience with a concept they simply would not have considered.
Step 2: Tell a story. A story gets the audience’s attention faster than anything else.
Step 3: Tell a story that’s powerful. (We’ll go into this in the following post).
Step 4: Tap into the memory banks of your audience to make the story unforgettable.

So how do we make a story unforgettable?
Read the next part in this series. But for now, get yourself a story. Any story. And then let’s work towards making it absolutely unforgettable!

Want to really ramp up your ability to make Outstanding Presentations? Take a look at Blackbelt Presentations and you’ll like what you see.

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How To Test Whether Your Audience Is Tuned In (Or Tuned Out)

If you gave a speech and half the audience was tuned out, does it mean your speech is bad? Or does it mean that you have a bad audience? Let’s assume for now that you have the perfect audience. Is it still possible that the audience will tune out? And how do you test? And what are the parameters you’ll need to get your testing right?

Let’s take two parameters to start with
1) Action Taken
2) Time of day

And let’s start with an example…
I gave six speeches on two consecutive days. Same speech. Same length of speech. Similar target audience (people who were advertising on radio). And I gave the speech at 9am, 1pm and 5pm. And then we checked for response. In my case, the response (action taken) was the level of laughter for specific points in the presentation. And consistently the best response was at 9am. Then it dipped like crazy at 1pm. And went up a bit at 5pm (but not as high as 9am).

So what does this prove?
Nothing and everything. You know instinctively that people are sleepier at lunch time and also tend to droop a lot. But how can it be that entire audiences (who wake up at different times of the day) have the same response?

Well they do.

And I tested it.
And so what would I do if I were to speak again? I’d insist on a 9 or 10 am slot. I wouldn’t speak at lunch time and I wouldn’t speak at 5pm. And yes, when I was starting up in my career I’d take any time slot, but now I’ll play prima donna and demand the morning slot—or I won’t speak. How does this make a difference? At events where we sell products, our conversion rate stems from 30% to 60% of the audience. If were to do the same speech at 1pm, I may go as low as 5%. At 5pm I may hit 20%.

Why? Because the more the audience laughs with you; the more they respond, the more they’re participating.
And a participatory audience is always more likely to convert. Conversion doesn’t always mean selling product or services. It could mean “giving their business cards” or it could be that they stand up and “wave their hands in the air”. Whatever it is you want them to do (the next action), one audience will respond better than the next one.

So if you want to get a response, you need to measure the action.
Get the audience to do something. Get them to take action? How many people take that action? And then change the action a bit. Is there a change in response? Change it again. Is there a change? Change the time of day. Is there a change?

You may automatically assume it’s the time of day that works against you. But that’s not true.
I’ve watched speakers do the “graveyard shift” (that’s right after lunch in speaker land) and get the audience to respond better than the speaker did in the morning or afternoon shift. I’ve seen speakers speak at the end of three rigorous days and get an enormous response from the audience. So your assumption isn’t always correct, because it does depend on your material as well. In my case, I need the audience to be super-alert because the information I’m giving is pretty full on.

The information is so unusual that it requires my audience to be on “full battery”. But your material may be difference and not quite as taxing. And hence may well be better suited for a different time slot.

The only way to test is to change the variables of “action taken” and “time of day”. Test, test and then test some more. And when you’ve tested enough, become a prima donna. And you’ll find your audience is completely tuned in every time you speak.

P.S. How did you get your audience to participate? Share your Presentation Story here

When you make a presentation, wouldn’t it be amazing to completely control the room—without turning anyone off? Blackbelt Presentations shows you how to do it.

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Why You Should Not Repeat What’s On The Slides

You know those presenters who read out from slides? You know how you detest them? Well there’s a reason.

And it comes all the way from Hollywood.
The Hollywood saying goes like this: If the scene shows you what the scene is supposed to show you, you’re in deep shit.

What does that mean?
If there are two lovers over a candlelit dinner and they’re saying: “I love you” then the scene is showing you what the scene is showing you. So in effect it’s treating you like an idiot. You already know that the candlelit, soft scene is about love. That’s already been clearly shown to you. Now if the actors repeat it, then it’s a complete waste of space. And a waste of your time.

Love can be shown in different ways.
So in an episode of Frasier, Daphne and Niles are chopping vegetables and singing a song. And they chop to a rhythm. There’s love written all over the scene. Unabashed love on Niles’ face. Unknown love on Daphne’s face. But they never say I love you. They chop veggies.

The same applies to anything whether it goes from cartoons to magazine layouts to presentations.
The graphic needs to accompany the text. Not be a replica of the text. If the graphics are a replica of the text, it’s boring for the reader/listener/viewer. So when you read off the points in your slides, you’re causing the listener/viewer a ton of grief. For one, you’re breaking Hollywood’s rule—that’s never good. And secondly you’re boring me, because here’s what happens in my brain.

When I see text, I read it.
When I read it, it may appear to be a silent reading but in fact my ear is processing the information before sending it to my brain. You see this more evidently in older folk and young children. They read aloud so that their ear processes the information before sending it to their brain. The same applies to you and me—except that we don’t read aloud. But we’ve still “read aloud” and then along comes the presenter and reads it aloud again.

That’s like saying something twice. That’s like saying something twice.
It irritates the reader/viewer. It irritates the reader/viewer.
And in a few minutes it turns the reader/viewer off completely. And in a few minutes it turns the reader/viewer off completely.

Get the point?

P.S. Do you have a Presentation Story? Share your Story here

Did you know Slide Design can make your Presentations come alive?
Learn How To make your Presentation stand out from every other presenter.

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How To Set Up A Room For Maximum Participation

Imagine you’re about to a seminar. And let’s assume you don’t know how many people are going to turn up. How will you set up the room, for an unknown number of participants?

The answer is incredibly simple, but the wrong move could make the difference between a lively atmosphere or a dull one.

Here’s how you set up the room

Put five chairs right in front of you

I assume that you’re not going to have hundreds of people coming to your seminar (especially when you’re just starting up). Sometimes, even getting ten people is a tricky task. But about five people always turn up, no matter what the weather conditions. Well, set up the room for five people.

When these five people walk in the room, where are they going to sit?

Why in the five seats you’ve allocated for them. And then of course, the sixth person may enter the room. Well, don’t panic. Just get the sixth chair, and place it alongside the five. And if the seventh person enters, you continue placing chairs.

What rookies do (and where they goof up)

They fill the room with twenty five or forty chairs. And people being people act according to their personality. Some of them will plonk themselves in the front row. Some of them will sit at the back. And some in the middle. So suddenly, you’ve got these great yawning gaps all over the place, that you just don’t need.

It then becomes a pain to get the audience to move up front, and what’s more obvious, is that about forty people were called, but just five turned up.

Much better to have five seats and add more as you go along. And if you do get forty people, great! If you get less than six, at least you can have a cozy session after all.

Don’t you agree?

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Things You Shouldn’t Tell Your Audience

So you’re about to make a presentation? Or about to do a teleclass. And you’re not feeling up to the mark. Last night the neighbour’s dog barked all night and now you’re feeling like it would be nice to snuggle back into bed.

But no. You’ve got a presentation to make. And you’re conscious that you’re not quite feeling 100%.

Which is just the point you make your first mistake…

You apologize to the audience

You apologise to the audience in advance. You tell them you had a rough night. And in one second, you’ve destroyed the perception of the audience.

You see, you may feel like hell, but the audience doesn’t know that you’ve come straight from Devil’s dome. They look at you, or hear your voice, and they don’t know any different. If you’re making a live presentation, they see someone who’s freshly showered, neat and ready to make a great presentation.

If you’re on the phone, they can see even less and they are looking for the upbeat energy in your voice. That’s all.

So don’t ever tell your audience how you feel.

Not before.
Not at the end of your presentation.
Your job is to make the presentation with as much gusto and energy as possible.
And then get the audience to the next step–whatever that next step may be. (e.g. to buy a product/service)

Keep your sob story for the cafe

Yes the barking dog was a pain.
Yes you didn’t sleep well.
Yes you were presenting at 50% of your ability.
That sob story can be told to friends/spouses at the cafe later.

Don’t make the mistake of ever telling an audience, because as you tell them you’re working at 50%, they’ll automatically believe they got less value. You tell them about the dog barking–again, they’ll believe you’re half asleep. The more you apologise, the more your audience is going to magnify that apology into a factor of less value.

Tell your audience what they need to hear.
And then take your applause.

Personal Experience:

I was due to speak on a cruise liner going in from New Zealand to Australia. It was winter, and we ran into rough waters on the Tasman Sea. And I was due to speak to a franchise group at 10am. There was just one problem. I was throwing up my breakfast for one solid hour before I was due to speak. I’d eaten a plateful of oily stuff (bacon, sausages, eggs) and was sick and throwing up till 9:15am.
But when I was done, I dressed and went down to speak. And spoke for a good hour. With not a word about my state. I got the applause (and a great testimonial from the CEo). My sob story was told over the bar later that night.

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Dumping PowerPoint

Does Powerpoint actually reduce your sales? When does PowerPoint need to be dumped? And when should you make sure you don’t dump Powerpoint? This article will show you exactly what you need to do to increase your effectiveness when speaking.

You’re probably already wondering: Why on earth would you get rid of Powerpoint? Why would you want to get rid of the one thing that would help you through your presentation? There’s a good reason.

It’s called: You sell more!

When I first heard this preposterous idea to dump Powerpoint, I was aghast. I’d made dozens of presentations using Powerpoint and being very successful. I’ve sold at events and presented in board meetings. And every single time, Powerpoint worked like a charm. I wowed the audience. I sold my products or services.

So why drop an idea that works? There’s only one reason. Another system works even better.

Here’s what happens to an audience in a Powerpoint presentation:

1) You click the slide. The audience’s eyes move to the presentation.
2) You speak about the slide. The audience looks towards you. Part of them are still looking at the slide.
3) You click the slide. The entire audience looks at the slide.

Notice what’s happening here? The slide is the main performer. Your content is dominating your presentation. And contrary to what you may believe, your content is not what most customers buy into. A customer tends more to buy into the person selling the concept or product.

Here’s what happens when you don’t have a Powerpoint presentation:

1) You speak. The audience listens.
2) You write one point on the whiteboard. They pay attention to that one point.

The more you get the audience to listen to you and look at your face, hand gestures, the greater the branding it creates in the audience’s mind a very short space of time. I’ve done presentations with and without Powerpoint and not so much as changed a single word in my presentation. And the non-Powerpoint presentation sells a product/service a whole lot better.

There are reasons why:

1) Your presentation doesn’t depend on technology. No last-minute chaos.
2) The audience’s focus is totally on you. You control the situation; the Powerpoint doesn’t take control.
3) You’re forced to keep your presentation down to just three points at best. This not only allows you to be very focussed on your content, but it also helps the customers to quickly absorb what you’re saying and buy into the idea.

I know what you’re thinking. Your Powerpoint helps you move along. It forms a sort of guiding path that you can hold onto and not ramble on. Well, force yourself to cover just three points instead of twenty thousand points in any given presentation. Talk elaborately about those three main points you have to cover, and you’ll find you neither need notes nor any PowerPoint crutch.

Dump Powerpoint today. And see the difference in your sales.

Note: I’d recommend you keep Powerpoint when you’re training or teaching. Training and teaching often extends for many hours and often over many days. In a training mode, Powerpoint slides are a vital tool to keep you on track. Powerpoint should be used only to jog your memory. The most boring presenters have twenty points on one slide and/or read off their slides. The main two purposes of your PowerPoint slide should be to be your prompter and to demonstrate a picture/illustration/photo/concept that may not be possible to describe with words.

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How to systematically use numbers to get attention when speaking

Do you quickly want to get the attention of your customers when you’re speaking? Well, here’s a quick method to do so.

It’s called ‘put in a number.’ Because numbers add a bucketload of curiosity.

So what’s a number?

A number is a figure.

Like 23%
Or 55 people.
Or $7 million.

Numbers attract. And if you simply stood up and said: How to increase your prices by 23% (without losing customers). Bing! Suddenly you’ve got the attention of your public. Or ‘How 55 people in Nagasaki, have a secret that slows down aging.’ Or ‘Why most people who win $7 million at the lottery end up broke.’

We’re a curious lot, we humans.

But give us a number and our curiosity goes way, way higher. And there’s a reason why. It’s called specifics. We lurrve nitty-gritties, even more than we love curiosity. And you don’t have to believe me at all. You’ll prove it to yourself in less than three seconds.

The proof: Which opening do you like better?

How to increase your prices by 23% (without losing customers).
OR
How to increase your prices (without losing customers).

‘How 55 people in Nagasaki, have a secret that slows down aging.’
OR
‘How people in Nagasaki, have a secret that slows down aging.’

‘Why most people who win $7 million at the lottery end up broke.’
OR
‘Why most people who win the lottery end up broke.’

Yeah, I thought so!

You do like the numbers, don’t you? You even liked the fact that I told you that you’ll ‘prove it to yourself in less than three seconds.’ Numbers are part of what makes things more solid, so hey, what’s not to like?

But how do you use numbers to spike interest for the rest of your presentation?

Here’s how you do it.

Step 1: Outline your presentation.
Step 2: Find at least three spots where you can insert a number.
Step 3: Put those darned numbers in at decent intervals.

So for example, here’s where I’d find my three spots:

1) The headline or opening statement.
2) A story with numbers.
3) Another story with numbers.

So my opening would be: How to increase your prices by 23% (without losing customers). And that would instantly get attention. And those heads would stay up for a while. But then inevitably there’s a droop in the heads. And you want them to bob up again.

Well, I’d bring up a story with numbers like ‘imagine you had seven red bags.’ Again, the numbers get the attention. And then somewhere down the line, I’d slide in another story with specifics.

You see what’s happening here, don’t you?

Yeah, yeah, I know it’s clever, but that’s what you’re supposed to do as a speaker. You’re supposed to keep the audience awake. And since it’s almost impossible for an audience to listen to you yakkity-yak for 30-45 minutes, one of the best ways to stop them from snoring, is to give them numbers.

But numbers alone can get too hard to handle. This is why we wrap up the numbers in a story. Or a case study.

You know stories and case studies work don’t you?

And yes, they work darned well. But you’ve probably not been conscious of the importance of numbers meshed within story-telling. But now you know, eh? Yes, you do, but there’s a way to get it all wrong.

Numbers are attraction devices

If you misuse them, you’ll muck up your presentation beyond belief. And if you don’t believe me, go and sit in a presentation where you’re snowed under an avalanche of numbers. Too many digits flying at you, and the numbers become counter-productive. Because while numbers do get your attention, if you throw two-hundred and seventy five numbers at me, my brain has to be alert all the time. And that’s kinda tiring.

The brain needs its rest

And the droop in the audience’s attention isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just the way the brain assimilates information, and while it’s doing that assimilating, it kinda gets a bit tired and droops. Using the numbers at pre-designated intervals, allows the brain to snap back without having to be on attention all of the time.

So yeah, numbers work.

And si, they create intense curiosity.
But use them to spike interest, don’t misuse them.
Misuse numbers and one thing is for sure.

100% of your audience will think you’re a dope. Guaranteed.

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Why Most Screencasts And Online Presentations Are Tedious (And How To Fix It)

Switch on your TV.

It doesn’t matter what program is going on, you’ll notice something quite interesting. After about seven seconds something changes. It may be the scene, it may be the camera angle, it maybe a whole new shot. But almost like clockwork you’ll find there’s a change every seven seconds or so.

Then look at just about any tutorial or presentation on YouTube and start counting the seconds. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8…17,25,32 seconds—and you’re still watching a single frame while the presenter’s voice keeps droning on.

This is the point where your brain starts to fall asleep.

You’re trying desperately to pay attention, but there’s zero movement on the screen (if you don’t count the moving mouse cursor that is). And this lack of movement drives us to distraction.

So how do you replicate the movement you see on TV?

Software does the trick. If you create a slide show, you’re going to be using some software such as Screenflow or Camtasia to record the screen animation. Software allows you to zoom in and zoom out to create a feeling of movement. So as you’re talking about a specific topic, you can create zoom in and then zoom out to show the entire screen.

There’s just one problem with zooming in and out

A simple presentation can take you hours—even the whole day, because every darned zoom action has to be manually done at least every 10-12 seconds (if not every seven seconds). And this is where Camtasia comes to the rescue.

Camtasia’s Smart-Focus feature follows the mouse

So as your mouse goes to a specific part of the page, Camtasia’s Smart-Focus feature zooms in. And then as you pull back, it zooms to reveal the entire page. Of course I’ve been using Camtasia since Version 3 and the early versions were just plain hard work to achieve any kind of movement. (The last few versions have solved this “hard work” problem with Smart-Focus).

The other way to solve the problem is to have loads of slides

I often have several hundred slides in a presentation. And if you run a presentation skillfully, you’ll find that your audience hasn’t noticed that you’ve had a few hundred slides. But again, this becomes tedious work to front load all your presentations with loads of slides.

So is this a pitch for Camtasia?

You bet it is. I’ve used a fair bit of OnScreen software, and they all do a splendid job of recording, but none of them even come close to creating movement as effortlessly as Camtasia does.

Movement is critical—that’s for sure. How you do it is up to you. I’d recommend Camtasia, because it makes it easy for me. And easy for the audience as well. And that’s all that really matters, doesn’t it?

Watch the video below and see for yourself how the movement keeps your attention. And how critical it is to zoom in and zoom out, just to reveal something—or just to create movement every seven seconds or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8AzrQ_uYKE&feature=player_embedded

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The Subtle (Yet Important) Difference Between Presentation And Conversation

There’s a difference between presenting and conversation.

Do you know the difference?

The presenter’s tone is almost like a parent’s tone.

It’s telling you to do this, and do that. It follows a script that’s either in the presenter’s head or on paper (if the person is reading off a script). And that tone while acceptable is not ideal, because it seems to treat the audience like they’re kids.

Now we both know you don’t want to treat your audience in that fashion, but invariably that’s exactly what you and I do. We talk down to the audience. We tell them what to do. And we don’t even realise that we’re doing this talking down.

So how do you move from the presenter’s tone to the conversational tone?

You first have to notice how we speak.

And the best possible way to understand the concept is to listen to someone. When you listen to someone, you’ll notice that they don’t speak with an even tone and delivery. In this article, I’m talking not about tone, but delivery. And how do people speak on a day to day basis?

They tend to slow down. They tend to speed up.

There are gaps of silence. And then sudden bursts of conversation. There’s a snicker, a giggle, even a smile. This is how we speak every single day. We don’t speak in a continuous, reader-like or even presenter-like fashion.

To see/listen the difference between the presenter and the conversation switch on your TV

You’ll notice that the TV presenter does modulate his/her tone going up and down, based on what they’re reading. But the pace of delivery is constant. Then as you go to Oprah or Ellen, the pace of delivery changes. They’re having a conversation. They’re not talking at the audience, they’re talking to one person.

When you’re talking to one person the pace of your delivery is slightly erratic

As I mentioned before, it slows down. It speeds up. It’s even quiet sometimes.

And this is the pace of delivery you need when shooting video or when speaking on audio, even if you’re reading from a script. You need to force yourself to be ‘human’ instead of being a ‘robot’ rattling off the words on the page (on from your head as the case may be).

It takes work to make this switch

We’re so used to shifting gears from conversationalist to speaker/reader that we don’t realise we’re talking at the audience. The audience doesn’t need a lecture. It needs a conversation. A conversation that’s one on one.

How do you tell the difference?

Listen to this ‘conversational’ audio (It’s about 8 minutes long).
http://www.psychotactics.com/blog/podpress_trac/web/272/0/The_Myth_Sales_Page.mp3

Listen to this ‘presenter-like’ audio
http://www.psychotactics.com/blog/podpress_trac/web/66/0/art_of_convincing_clients.mp3

Can you tell the difference?