Here We Are Now, Entertainers

I’m on my last day in Las Vegas, having attended the Atlassian Team 23 event with my fellow fireflies from Appfire. From where I’m typing this, I can see the mountains, the airport, and then the grand facade that makes up this center of entertainment and commerce. Everything is different in Vegas.

I’ve spent quite a chunk of my adult life as a professional keynote speaker, but now my role is very much behind the scenes. It affords me even more time to think about how we move information from one person to a crowd of others: not just at speeches in front of a live audience, but also on webinars and in meetings.

Here We Are Now, Entertainers!

(If you want a soundtrack while reading.)

Communicating works best when it’s a blend of informative and entertaining. In ANY context, people need to be engaged for them to absorb what you want to share with them. Even two people rocking on a porch sipping lemonade requires the person talking to be interesting enough for the other to pay attention and not just stare at the lazy dragonfly tapping on the picket fence.

What I see a LOT of speakers (on stage or just in meetings) do gets in the way of their intent: to convey information of some kind. Anything from a project status update to a conversation on how to properly migrate customers to a cloud environment needs to incorporate two priorities: be informative and be entertaining/engaging.

What does it take to keep people’s attention, onstage or on a Zoom?

100 Pennies

There’s a concept I’ve used for ages called the 100 penny theory. Imagine your audience has 100 pennies worth of mental capacity at any given time. If you say too many words, they run out of pennies and stop remembering. If you use big words, it costs even more pennies. If you bore them, there’s a penny tax on that, too. So, how do you spend your pennies wisely?

• Be clear at the start of your talk as to what it’s about and what you’re hoping to convey.
• Use short, simple phrases to explain key points.
• Repeat anchor phrases.
• Speak dynamically. That means get louder and softer. Add some pep. PERFORM.
• Avoid parenthetical or explanatory statements. “As you know, we are all humans on this planet, and as such..” <- pennies
• Leave some air in your points. “We have to migrate to the cloud. That deadline is coming faster than you think.” Then pause. Don’t re-explain what you just said for a moment.
• Remember: any talk is part one of an interaction. You can follow on with more later, if you’d like.
• Any talk that doesn’t end with takeaways that wrap up the main points or give people next steps to take is a wasted talk.
• Small words beat big words. Eschew obfuscation.
• Repetition is magic. Repeat anchor phrases.
• The less you say, the easier it is for people to remember.

Those are some of the details I wish more people knew. But I saved one for last.

Peanut Butter is the Enemy

Humans, many of them, have a habit of spreading lots of words out thickly around the points they intend to make. They say things before the point, make the point, and ramble after the point. Some people talk so long, not only do we run out of mental pennies, but our brains get gooey with peanut butter.

Mixed metaphors, but you get it.

Avoid peanut butter. It’s delicious on a sandwich, but horrendous in talking.

Finish Strong

Sometimes, when people present information, the time goes on such that the people consuming your information forget where you started. You can sum it up, which is nice, but another way to finish is to give people a next step.

The BEST way to get better at speaking is to practice. There are two (kind of three) elements to practicing:

1. Watch other speakers. TED talks. Comedians. That stuff.
2. Record yourself speaking as if you’re performing. (Use Photo Booth or similar.)
3. Suffer and watch the recordings and listen to the ways you can improve.

And also: repeat anchor phrases.

Are you a speaker, or do you have gripes when people present on Zooms? Let’s open up the comments and talk about it.

Chris…