I used to think it was a (bad) joke when I heard presenters checking the microphone was turned on by asking if it was. If it is, or course, the whole audience can hear you asking and your credibility takes a tumble before you even start. If it isn’t, no one knows you’re asking in the first place. Microphones seem to panic people, but every professional (or anyone wanting to look professional!) will do a few simple checks before the audience arrive…. not while they’re filing in. Doing that has got to list amongst the highest crimes against presentation skills!
Check what kind of a mic you’re expected to use. Lectern Mics are probably the most robust but also the most limiting. Radio mics can be hand-held (a nightmare if you’re not used to it) or lavalier (button). The latter is preferable unless you’ve practiced with microphones… and even then it’s probably the better option as a speaker.
Check if you need to use a Mic. Some times it’s just not worth the angst. Do that checking before your audience arrive though, and remember that when people come into a room they’ll absorb sound, so what might have been loud enough in rehearsal isn’t loud enough in performance.
Check the batteries. Amongst theatre professionals, microphones are notorious for eating up batteries and most places will change batteries between shows – every show. It might be wasteful but at least it’s secure: I mean no disrespect to your venues here to suggest that they might not have the same protocol. If in doubt, take your own batteries with you; if you’re worried about the environmental impact, take re-chargeable ones (remembering they go flat faster, so charge them fully!)
Check where the loud-speakers are. Don’t walk in front of them with your microphone or you’ll get that horrible howling sound called ‘feedback’.
Check you know how to turn it on and off and that you’ve agreed with whoever is running things who is going to control the on/off – you or the person on the sound desk! You’d be surprised at how much chaos you can create simply by turning a microphone off at the wrong moment!
Check if you’re going to be recorded. If you are, you’ll have to wear a microphone, obviously, but that doesn’t automatically mean that you must have your voice fed through the speakers: it’s perfectly possible for your voice to be recorded without being broadcast! If you don’t want to be broadcast over the speakers, make sure you’re not, whether you’re being recorded or not.
Okay, so none of that is exactly rocket science…it’s the most basic of presentation skills… but believe me, it’s important. How do I know? Well you’ve no idea how many presentations I’ve cringed through!
Long term readers will know I’m a great fan of the whole style of Presentation Zen. The books cool – but if you want to get a brief overview, this video takes less time to watch than the book takes to read!
I read a blog recently which suggested that putting the content of your presentation on 3-by-5 Index Cards wasn’t such a good idea. I don’t think I agree with the logic. (I should add, before I go on, that I like the blog in general – and in fact I wouldn’t have read-it-to-disagree-with-it if I didn’t read it fairly often because I like it! )
The main reason for ditching 3-by-5s, it seemed, was that they force you to write small and can’t hold much text, so you’re constantly changing cards. The replacement idea was to use a large, single piece of card on the lectern.
My take on it is this…..? Who said anything about putting your script on 3-by-5s?!?! They’re for notes and occasional keywords, not a script. No one should use a script. Complaining that you can’t get your script on Index Cards is a bit of an Aunty Sally, isn’t it?
Besides, putting coloured (good, good idea!) notes onto a large sheet of card ties you to the lectern, which pretty much everyone agrees isn’t a good thing. What’s more, there’s a bit of me that things that if you can reduce your presentation enough to get it onto a single sheet of card in coloured not form, you can get it down to something that will fit on a set of 3-by-5 Index Cards!
Or do they – have I missed something significant in the way presentations should be made?
Two word of warning. One – if you’re going to use Index Cards to hold your notes, check that they’re small enough to be comfortably held in your hand so you can gesture with them without undue inhibition. Index Cards come in a range of sizes and if your hand suits smaller cards (or bigger!!) then use smaller cards (or bigger!!). Two – when you’ve got your Index Cards set up, number them and connect them via a Treasury Tag in a corner: that way if you drop them you won’t be flustered.
Mostly, presentations are about something specific and to a specific audience. Mostly they want you to do well. Mostly they’ll forgive you a glitch here and there.
Mostly.
But not if you get something significant wrong. Something important to your audience as people. Things you really (and I mean really) need to get right are things like who the group is you’re speaking to, where they are and so on… Geographers have a term for loving places; it’s topophilia… and topophilia tends to be particularly strong in relation to the place you come from.
Even the great Guy Kawasaki can get it wrong. Imagine dropping a clanger like that live in a presentation! You’d have a hard job recovering.
It’s worth just doing a quick check, before you go on – particularly if you’re doing a presentation you’ve done before. Business or sales presentations would be prime examples of this. Personally, I’d suggest that if you’re using notes for your presentation your first paragraph should be the basics…. name, date, place, title! I know it seems patronizing but believe me, in the heat of the nervous moment you might be grateful that you covered the basics!
Believe me, this is the voice of bitter, bitter experience!
Get those wrong and you’re in more trouble than if you got your wife’s name wrong…. allegedly!
This is turning into a bit of a series, isn’t it, although I didn’t mean it to when I started, with my first post on this topic. I’ve carried out the ‘experiment’ with the sweets from this post a couple of times now and it seems to work, for me at least.
So here are a few more semi-random tips.
Breath in through your nose. That’s generally good advice, ‘cos that’s what your nose is for after all, but it’s particularly important if you’re ill, or have travelled in the cold. The reason is that the extra ‘piping’ inside you warms that air that little bit more before it arrives in your lungs, getting it closer to the temperature of your body. I can vouch for this one personally, as I’m still fighting a chest infection, sadly….
Tea (and coffee) will dry your throat out. If you’ve got a dry cough or anything similar, try and avoid them. On the other hand, there are drinks which will encourage your body to produce more fluids – milk, if you can drink it (I take mine in hot chocolate, which makes it so so so much easier to drink! ). If you’ve got a flemmy cough, avoid these. A little bit of common sense and self-medication can go a long, long way!
Make a really serious effort to remember to breathe with your diaphragm – keeping your chest relaxed if you can. If you’ve got some kind of bug, it’ll inhibit your breathing in your upper chest quite a lot (potentially) so getting the power from the lower parts of your lungs makes more sense.
Warm up! You should always do this, of course, but if you’re not feeling 100% you may find you’ve ‘retreated into yourself’ a little bit so that you are more inhibited and less expansive in your gestures and so on that you normally would be. (For some people that’s a good thing, I know, I know!). Onstage that can come over as a little less credible. Get the blood flowing and get your face/lips working before you start, not as you go along.
I hope those help. Don’t forget though, that my very first bit of advice is the best: if you can avoid making presentations when you’re ill, do so!
