211: Low Energy Doesn't Work When Presenting

<p>If we don’t grab their attention and interest, then our message is lost to them as they head off to the internet. </p> <p> </p> <p>“The good is the enemy of the great” is a clever saying and very true.  In presenting terms we can have people who are competent but not even close to maximising their potential.  They are sitting there in the lukewarm bath, never experiencing or understanding the joys of an extra ten degrees of heat.  In presenting terms, turning your inner thermometer up ten degrees when facing an audience has a tremendous impact.</p> <p> </p> <p>Our presenter was intelligent, well read, well researched and had good content.  The presentation was workman like.  It got done.  The content was covered.  The points were made, the slides were run through, the questions got handled.  And then…. </p> <p> </p> <p>This is the point. There was nothing.  It wasn’t retained in the audience’s mind.  There wasn’t that feeling of WOW.  It just dribbled out and ended, disappearing into the void with all of mankind’s other mediocre speeches.  What was missing? Where was that ten degrees of heat which was never applied?</p> <p> </p> <p>The opening was flat.  It just started.  The level of voice strength of the speaker, chatting with the attendees before the talk and the start of their actual talk, was at the same strength.  The body language was at the same calibration for before and after the start.  It was if the speech was just a continuation of the dialogue that had been going on prior to the kick off.</p> <p> </p> <p>Everyone has a full brain when they walk in to hear us talk.  We have to get out the crow bar and jemmy our way in there to be heard.  That means the first words out of our mouth have to signal the talk has now begun, pay attention, listen up, cease and desist what you have been doing prior.  We have to clearly draw a line for the audience to get them to concentrate on what we are saying.  We only have a few seconds to capture their attention so they will grant us their permission allow us to hol