tellingpeople

Women Into the Network (WIN) is a networking organisation based in the northeast of England: and we’re doing a free session for them on Feb 26th. We’re starting at noon, at the Sovereign Suit at The Assembly Rooms. Should be good ‘un as it’s pretty near to booked out already, apparently.

Me and a room full of women. Sometimes my job is hell!

How often have you struggled to hear a presenter? More than you care to? The good news is that you’re not along – even professional actors are having problems making their voices carry to the back of the room.

It’s ironic, isn’t it, that people are worried about not being “real” when they perform – forgetting that the very act of performing means that something isn’t real….? Presentations are no more real than Shakespeare (especially sales presentations! ) but there’s a really significant difference between something being ‘real’ and something being ‘realistic’. Using your voice as a performance tool when you make a presentation isn’t ‘real’ – it’s not how you normally speak, for example – but that doesn’t mean it’s not a realistic presentation of you, your beliefs and what you want to say.

When you present, you perform: you have to stop being ‘you’ and start being a special version of ‘you’. That doesn’t mean you have to be fake, or false (heaven save me from people pretending to be what they’re not!) but nor do you have to be ‘just the same old you’ that I’d meet down the pub!

The ‘performer you’ is an interesting concept to play with. The PY might be a bit bigger: might make bigger gesticulations; might have a bigger voice…

There’s an advantage to thinking of the PY – you can ‘put this persona on’ – and it’s a great way to deal with nerves when you do that… but that’s a post for another time.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2008 works out well for you. I just spent New Year’s Eve at Epcot in Disney World, Florida. If anyone can do fireworks, it’s Disney! They also ‘invented’ a technique for looking at projects and problems which I’ll talk about some time, but for now I wanted to start the new year with, ironically, re-visiting something quite old.

I while ago now I did an experimental teleseminar on how to deal with nerves when you’re doing a bit of public speaking. You can down load it here.

By experimental, I mean that the system of delivery was experimental, not the content! The content is sound but all I did to record it was set a copy of Audacity running in the background while we talked. That means the quality isn’t fantastic (which is why I’m giving it away – though it’s certainly okay at least) and you might struggle to hear questions, but you’ll hear the guts of it well enough.

It runs for over half an hour (nearer 45 mins) and it’s all yours. Have fun.

Simon

PS: A good backup to it would be to read a copy of “…like a brick wrapped in velvet…” !