Episode #191: One More Critical Key for Both Online and In-Person Presenting Success

Previously I talked about the importance of eye contact when presenting, whether online or in the venue with the audience. Another major element is how presenters use their voice when in front of their audience, be they sojourned in tiny boxes on screen or live in the room, standing right in front of us. You would think this was the easiest thing in the world. We talk to our friends, family and colleagues, so what is the big deal about talking when we are presenting? Good question and yet so many erstwhile presenters make a mess of it.

The online world is full of traps for presenters. The audio quality of every system I have used so far has been dodgy. This means that our voice is not easily heard and what we are saying is not always being comprehended. Some presenters just use the built-in microphone in their computers, rather than using a more specialised, sophiticated headset and microphone combination. This adds to the underlying issue with the various already flawed broadcast platforms. The lesson here is use a good quality headset and microphone combo.

In the live audience situation, we have those individuals who flee from the microphone, those who manhandle it, rendering it ineffective and those who know what they are doing. Leaning over to speak into a rostrum mounted microphone stand should only be allowed for those with lustrous and ample hair. Bald spot spotting is never a pleasant pastime. Actually even those with amply hirsute proportions, are forced to look down when they address the audience, when using a low microphone stand. Get there early and ask for a better microphone stand or a pin microphone. Lavalier microphones have the added benefit of freeing you from penal servitude, locked away behind the rostrum. You can move across the stage and engage members of the audience seated to the extreme left and right as well as those in the middle.

When holding a hand microphone, hold it by the handle and speak across the mesh. A common error is holding the microphone too low. Amazingly, I see people holding it at waste height and then expecting the equipment to pick up their sound waves. Please do not wrap your paws around the top, in a savage attempt to strangle the implement. I can never understand why some people cover the microphone top with their palm and then expect it to broadcast their contribution. By the way, if you are nervous and the microphone is now frantically wiggling in your palm, just pull your hand to your upper chest, hold it there and speak across the mesh. If you are really nervous, use both hands.

Apart from the tech issues there are the human own goals being scored with alarming frequency and consistency. The most common is the lack of understanding of that most wonderful instrument – our own voice and what it can do. When we are online, the microphone technology in headsets is very good, so we don’t have to yell to be heard. Before you start your online presentation and before the participants are allowed into the virtual room, do a microphone check, for the right speaking level you will need throughout you talk. We normally do this in a room, before the audience arrives. Online presentations need this sound check too. Remember for online, we need to be able to speak with more energy than normal, without becoming deafening.

When we are speaking with friends, we don’t need to project our voice very much because even with social distancing we are usually physically close to them and if we did, they would ask us to stop shouting at them. On stage, in front of an audience, we need to up our energy levels. When we push out our ki or our intrinsic energy, we connect with the audience physiologically. I have been practicing traditional Japanese karate for 50 years now. When I speak in public, without even thinking about it, I am directing a lot of ki to my audience. The audience literally feels the power of my conviction, in what I am saying and what I am recommending to them. This ki projection allows you to reach every member of the audience, no matter how far away they are seated. It also creates a type of powerful magnetic field that turns their mobile phones into kryptonite and keeps them attracted to what you are saying.

Online and in-person, the absolute message mangler is the monotone delivery. I hereby expose these nefarious presenters as card carrying members of the Guild of Public Speaking Flat Heads. This is not an organisation you want to join. They assault us with their flat delivery, flat energy and flat commitment.

In Japan, this means immediate and automatic audience slumber permission has been granted. It has a hypnotic effect on many Japanese, similar to the gentle swaying of the trains. Off they go to the Nipponese equivalent of the land of Nod. The cure for banishment to purgatory by monotone voicing is variety. There are three elements: tonal, strength and speed. European languages have that rise and fall tonal variety, whereas the Japanese language is spoken in a flat manner. Regardless of linguistic chauvinism regarding tone, all languages can access the acceleration and deacceleration of speaking speed. We can speed it up and slow -it - down. We can also vary the strength output, to go from a roar, to a conspiratorial stage whisper.

I opted to personally narrate my own two books “Japan Sales Mastery” and “Japan Business Mastery”, despite the excruciating stamina involved, dragged out over many painful hours. There was only one reason for this insanity. I know which words I want to emphasis in my sentences, whereas a professional narrator won’t have a clue. Whether we are speaking to people in the virtual world or those sitting in front of us, we must keep in mind that not every word in a sentence is created equally. Some are there for more emphasis, to help us sell our message. We have to either hit those words harder or softer for effect, to be an effective speaker.

Virtual or in-person, our voice carries the day. Presenting is a world of its own and we need to rise to the occasion to match its requirements. Variety is the key, so focus on that and your audience will be with you from the start until the finish. In this Age of Distraction, that is a big achievement.