How to be Authentic with No Audience

Hint: Slides aren't the answer.

As much of the business world is scrambling to "go virtual" there are a few of us who have already been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Speaking with no audience I mean. We already know what it feels like to talk into a camera and have no idea who is listening. I'm not talking about training on a camera. Been there too. But today I'm talking about actually "performing" on a camera - telling stories, being funny, delivering content with no audience engagement at all. The difference in a Keynote and a Webinar or Meeting.

See that set up there in the picture? That's the set for my one-woman show that launched in January. The day before the show, we did a dress rehearsal and my video crew came up a day early to film the rehearsal for B-roll footage. "Okay," they said. "Do your show."

What? I was just expecting to show them where I wanted everything and make sure my hair looked good in that light. Surely they didn't expect me to do my ENTIRE show.

They did.

And here's the thing. They wanted me to do it in REAL TIME.

What? Can't I just speed through it and give you the highlights?

Nope. Lighting and sound needed to know what was going to happen at every moment. Camera crew needed to get footage at every moment in case they wanted to lift some from here and insert it into tomorrow's live film. It needed to match EXACTLY. I couldn't even change my lipstick!

Gulp.

So for two hours, I did my entire show in REAL TIME for a completely empty audience with eleven cameras placed everywhere, including two right up IN MY FACE. I had to do my show as if a REAL audience was sitting there.

Did I tell you it's a comedy show?

With storytelling?

And act outs?

Double gulp.

But I took a deep breath and I did it. Perfectly. Well almost. There was only one time where I stopped to ask a question and then we rolled on. In one take, I did the entire show. And when they put some of that footage into the next day's footage - it was an exact match. The timing for the empty audience was the same as the timing for a full audience.

The camera guys said they had trouble holding the camera still because they were trying not to laugh, and a couple of them said they cried. In a completely empty auditorium. How crazy is that?

Not that crazy. I knew what I was doing. I don't want to brag, but I do. My material was so tightly crafted and so well practiced to look as if it wasn't, that I already knew how much time to give for laughter, even when there was no laughter. I knew exactly when to slow down and speed up. And I knew exactly when I needed to look into that camera and deliver a powerful point. And I knew how to deliver my script as if it was coming to me in the moment.

THAT my friends, is NOT sitting at my couch and delivering content.

THAT is performing. Authentically. Conversationally. Powerfully.

Even with no audience.

It can be done. And if you want to grab that virtual business, you had better be one step up from the Zoom Room look.

As speakers on a stage, we are hired to create a live experience in that room. As speakers on camera, we are required to create a live VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE. Even if it's just content they want. But especially if it's a live virtual KEYNOTE. This requires different skills and a whole lot of practice. But let's shorten the learning curve for you. Here's what I've learned over time about performing to no audience:

1. SET THE STAGE! There's a reason our clients go to so much trouble to plan the stage, pick the backdrop, choose music - because the stage where you present the "show" MATTERS to the experience. I don't care how nice your background is, or how good you look, if we know you're sitting at your computer with your cat at your feet, we know you're sitting at your computer with your cat at your feet. It's authentic for a webinar, yes. But there's a reason a stage is elevated and the speaker is made to look like the "star" of the show. Somehow you have to find that on camera. I know, it's HARD.
2. YOU STILL HAVE TO SEE THEM. That's right. Do whatever you can to give them faces. Imagine what they are going through. Picture your last audience that is still fresh in your mind. They will feel your energy. I promise. Just like live they will know if you see them, and know if you don't.
3. ENGAGE AS IF STILL IN CONVERSATION. This is still a conversation. Just as the goal on stage was to be real and authentic, relaxed, and connected with them - and have a conversation as if they are talking back - the goal is to do it here too. You don't get a pass to turn wooden and act like a robot. You are NOT a professor in front of a whiteboard. People still buy from people they like. So to "buy" your message, they need to like you. Give them a chance. Share a couple of personal details. Not too many. And write a script that is conversational not flat.
4. AND ENGAGE DOESN'T MEAN LIVE CHATTING. We don't want to see you on stage saying hello to everybody who enters the room. Don't do it here either. Save your banter for the webinar or the virtual class or an after keynote Q&A. They didn't pay to come show them you can read. Save that for Facebook Live.
5. IMAGINE THE ENERGY. Okay. This one is hard for me to explain. I learned it when I told stories every week at the nursing home. Those people weren't even awake, much less engaged. Yet every week I had to bring my A game. So I would have to imagine the energy. It can be done. People in sitcoms and movies do it all the time. They don't have an audience either.
6. USE THE SAME TIMING AS IF THEY ARE RESPONDING. Timing is CRITICAL in a good live keynote, and it is critical in a virtual keynote too. Ten times harder since most timing live is just responding to the audience. Can't do that here. So you'd better already know, feel, or imagine how they are responding and react to what's not there. I'm sure you musicians are nodding right now. I guess, in a way, you are responding to the music you are playing.

I played classical piano, and when I performed a 16-page concerto with the symphony playing behind me, I didn't react to an audience. I reacted to the music. I think, in a way, I do the same thing in my speeches. We can do this virtually too. You don't need a live audience to respond to the words you have written. (Wow. That's deep.)

7. RAMP UP THE PERSONALITY. Don't change who you are, but ramp up your personality a little. You have less to work with, so use more here. I'm always a little more silly on camera.

8. HAVE A STELLAR SCRIPT. People don't want their time wasted, and everybody is telling you to say less because they think virtual is boring. But virtual is only boring if you are boring. Don't tell me that the video should be cut in half if they have to watch it online. Okay, maybe if your keynote was three hours. But a 45 minute keynote? Hello? You sit longer in front of a crazy guy with a tiger and a mullet. Why? Because you are ENTERTAINED, ENGAGED, COMPELLED, and you CARE. Actors have been doing it for years. You don't have an excuse. Problem is most speakers aren't actors, which is why "oh I can do virtual" is a statement one should not make quickly.

And stories matter MORE here than they do live. NOT LESS. Stories still serve the strategic purpose they always did. Stories still activate the brain and connect in a way data can NOT. If you think you don't have time to tell stories, you are wrong. Everything we watch online is about story. Think about it. Look at what goes viral on social media. Hint: It's not content.

9. YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT. Chat rooms are great. And chat room engagement in a virtual meeting is awesome. Usually they are chatting because people are bored and they'd rather talk to their friends. But we need to be careful about making chat rooms the star of the show. If I'm watching a good program, I don't need to text my family at the same time. If people are chatting to the side, they aren't that interested in the person talking. So change that. And the key is not to ramp up the chat room entertainment.

10. RENT A STUDIO. Is it absolutely necessary? I don't know. I'm sure there are people who will tell you no. But I also know that bureaus and clients are starting to get really specific on just exactly what you are using to create your virtual program. I'm just as proud of the content I deliver from my home computer. But keynotes are about way more than just content. Again - difference in keynote or webinar. If it's all about the experience we create virtually, a studio gives us more options.

11. HIRE A PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR AND VIDEO EDITOR. I'm sure they would be willing to negotiate right now. Some of us just don't have these skills, me included. I'm hiring all of these people for virtual keynotes. Not only is the writing really important here, so is the lighting and sound, stage, production value and EDITING. That's right. Someone to take that video and enhance it even more to make it amazing. And they need good footage to start with. There's only so much they can do if you bring them in too late. There is so much more we can do than slides dropped in.

12. THINK TEN MILES OUTSIDE THE BOX. I believe that in our business most speakers play it safe and predictable. We don't see them doing anything THAT unusual or clever or creative. Some do. But not many. Most are quite predictable. If they are predictable live, imagine how predictable they are virtually. I think if you want to gobble up what virtual business there is, you'd better figure out how to do it differently than everyone else.

Have I freaked you out? Are you thinking like I have a million times, "Holy Toledo! That is a LOT of work! How much work should we put into something that we're not sure how much we will even do?"

I get it. Those are the things I'm thinking too. The one thing we do know about this Corona thing, is that we know nothing. We can't predict. We don't have guarantees. And each one of us is going to need to figure out what is best for us.

But here is the really cool thing. There is tremendous opportunity here. Tremendous opportunity to do something nobody is doing. Tremendous opportunity to step out of the norm and get creative. And maybe, just maybe, once you start batting around ideas like I am with people who get it, you'll go from "No way. Not touching THAT" to "Wait! This sounds cool as crap! Let's do it!"

And who says you have to do it alone? Two brains are better than one. Maybe this is the time for collaboration. I'm interested if you have a good idea!

And the even better news, is that we all know we're all trying to figure it out. So we get a little more grace than usual. And at the end of the day, there will be people who don't do anything I suggested above, and it will work out just fine. I've always just been one of those people who didn't settle at good enough.

Have fun and see you online!

Same game, different playground, different rules.