One of the best things about this job is working with corporate voices and let’s face it, over many years we’ve seen a lot of them. Those who could excite a stone with their vision and the plodders who extinguish any budding interest as they mercilessly plough through each word on their slides!!!
Preparing a long time ago to give a presentation myself, one family cynic commented that PowerPoint was used most frequently by those with no power and usually no point..! Still not quite ready to give a major presentation entirely off the cuff – I did take it on board and made sure to use the slides only as a place-holder and to keep me on track.
Today, with rare advance notice, I rely on experience to keep me focused and hopefully make sure the audience is duly entertained and enlightened. Actually, with practice it’s quite easy and apart from knowing the content in great detail, there’s one very simple rule that you need to remember – and that’s the power of empathy.
At the end of the day, it’s about engagement and if you can show an audience – ideally in the first 20 seconds – that you appreciate their point of view then indeed, you should get their attention. After all, why should anyone care about what you know, until you’ve earned the credibility and shown that you understand their position and where they’re coming from.
In media training we say constantly, “who’s the reader or the audience” and if you synch your story with their needs and interests, then half the battle’s already won.