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All speakers must remember two things before giving a presentation: you're going to make a mistake at some point, and when you do, don't freak out.
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If you're giving a talk in front of an
audience, you've
0:00
got slides, notes, a script or whatever,
just remember these two things.
0:02
You're going to make a mistake at some
point and
0:07
when you do, don't freak out, right, it's
always gonna happen.
0:11
But you know, of course one thing to help
you with these mistakes.
0:17
Make sure you spellcheck, right?
Just like I'm doing right there.
0:20
You're gonna make mistakes but don't make
obvious,
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silly mistakes that are really gonna
[LAUGH] you
0:25
know, eat away at the effectiveness of
your presentation.
0:28
Now beyond that there are lot of reasons
0:31
that people get nervous before and during
presentations.
0:33
One of the top things I've found is that
some people
0:38
believe that just one mistake, any mistake
will cost them their credibility.
0:41
As if saying something wrong even the
littlest
0:47
thing means that everything they say is
wrong or
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that people will immediately tune out or
they'll leave.
0:53
They'll walk right out, say get off the
stage you said that name wrong.
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It's not gonna happen.
0:59
There are other reasons too.
1:03
But what everyone should remember is that,
if you've been
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asked to give a talk, it's because people
already trust you.
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You know, they wanna hear what you have to
say.
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Whether it's a big keynote address or it's
a five minute
1:15
talk in a staff meeting, you've been asked
to say something.
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They trust you, and they wanna hear from
you.
1:22
So you've already got some, some good will
stored up there.
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But you don't have to be perfect.
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You know, you just have to sort of be
1:30
honest with the way that you give a
presentation.
1:31
A way that's true to who you are.
Now if you over prepare.
1:34
You try to be perfect.
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When you do make a mistake it's going to
distract you.
1:42
Don't try to memorize every single line or
word of a script
1:45
and think that you're gonna get it 100%
right, because you won't, right.
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When mistakes happen, just own them.
Everyone is human.
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One of the stories that I like to, to
2:01
share with people when they talk about how
they
2:02
might be nervous giving a presentation or
they imagine
2:05
like the worst thing that could happen to
them.
2:08
I tell them about a story of maybe about
10 years ago, I
2:10
was working at an event and this company
was running a, a conference.
2:13
A lot of breakout sessions, a lot of, a
lot of
2:18
sessions where different people from big
million to billion dollar companies,
2:20
big important CEOs were getting up there
and talking about
2:26
their companies or talking about this or
that in the industry.
2:29
In this particular example this CEO got up
there and gave his talk.
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He was really good, and you know, real
solid,
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and he went to sit down, and his chair
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was just a little bit too far back on
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the dais, and that dude [SOUND] just
spilled right off.
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I mean, he just fell right off and it was
2:52
me, it, it kind of shook everyone up in
different ways.
2:55
At first there were people in the front
row who jumped up, oh no, are you okay?
2:58
And then other people were like oh, man,
I'm glad that wasn't me.
3:01
And other people were just like oh, man,
that's great.
3:05
I wish we had YouTube ten years ago.
And but what this guy did was great, okay?
3:09
He didn't let
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this whole thing affect him.
3:17
He got up, and waved everyone, and even
took a bow.
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He said, I'm cool, I'm good, right?
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And then when the next person spoke and
they did their thing and they were about
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to sit down, he leans into the mic, he
says let me get your chair for ya.
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And then it like the whole crowd loved it,
it was great.
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And it was a great way to save kind of
this you
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know, this from this big mistake this
total accident that happened.
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And it's because he was human and he owned
it
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right, he didn't worry too much about it,
he didn't get
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nervous, he didn't get totally red faced
and think I'm
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a failure, this ruins me, I'll never be
asked back again.
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You know, he was okay with it, right?
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And the rest of the crowd was too.
So he came up with a great way to
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overcome that and it's something that, you
know, that's
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like one of the worst-case scenarios I can
think of.
4:11
Where you fall off a stage or something
like that.
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That's pretty bad, but you can always save
your presentation.
4:17
You can always save yourself and your
reputation.
4:21
And you will get asked back because they
can
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see that you're cool, and you're a human
being.
4:26
And it's you know, and it's all good.
4:28
Alright.
Now, at the same time
4:30
you don't wanna rely on the technology
that
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you've got in front of you as a crutch.
4:35
Anytime you read directly from your notes
for too
4:38
long or, you know, you might lose your
train of
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thought because you're trying to, to get
something to load
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or, or you're in here and on your laptop
and.
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And you're not making eye contact.
4:50
And, you risk losing the audience's
attention.
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Now, put it another way.
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A good friend of mine, C.C.
4:57
Chapman, also replied to my Twitter
request wanting to ask people for tips.
4:58
C.C. has spoken all over the planet,
literally.
5:02
He's all over the place The TEDx talk and
has keynoted many times.
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And he says, know your presentation.
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Know, all caps.
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Know your presentation so well that if the
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power goes out you can still 100% deliver
it.
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And this
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is great advice and it's a great indicator
of if you actually know your stuff or not.
5:23
When accidents happen can kill your slides
or you know, keno
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crashes or the projector fails you can
plan for it and recover.
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And you know, there are a few things that
you can do in
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case some kind of worst case scenario pops
up you know, for example.
5:40
Carrying a portable copy of your slide
deck is a fantastic idea.
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Don't just have the only copy on your
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laptop and think that that's going to save
you.
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Because if the laptop fails, keynote
fails,
5:56
your presentation dies, whatever, you've
got nothing.
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Now years back, having a hard copy might
have
6:03
helped you and it still might in meetings
where
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you've got say a small group and
particularly some
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data or things that you can pass out
amongst
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a group.
6:16
So yes, you could fire up the copy machine
and you
6:17
can print out multiple copies of your
notes and your presentation.
6:19
But these days, the more convenient
approach,
6:25
the more logical one is to have a
6:29
cloud copy of your presentation, and that
might
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even be for some people, the first option.
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For giving a presentation, and who was
ever, whoever's running the show
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with their laptop, just link to that, and
we
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can run it right off of there instead of
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monkeying around with your own technology,
do I have
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the right connector for your projector and
all that stuff?
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Avoiding disaster, if you can do any of
these three things, You will be much
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more prepared, and there, and you won't
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be as nervous when you're giving your
presentation.
7:00
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