Last time, I wrote about how to reach the “sweet spot” as a presenter. (LINK) The spot, where you are both powerful and effortless as a speaker.
You can tell a presenter is in this spot, when:
- The story is fluent. Hardly any ehh’sss.
- The presenter embodies what she/he talks about. Expression, gestures and vocal variety.
- The presenter is 95% connected to the audience.
You can get to the spot: by practicing knowing the structure combined with speaking in your own words. (LINK) This way you strike the right balance. Grip (structure), while being flexible (in your own words).
As opposed to “overgrip”, which consequently leads to losing overview, focussing on details and learning the presentation by heart.
You can recognize “overgrip” by:
- Quite some ehh’s, cause a lot of energy goes to finding the exact next word.
- The presenter is a bit static and has a monotonous voice.
- The presenter is locked in her/his head. Looks up, or down on the ground or at slides predominantly, not connected to the audience.
If you want to prevent his, the way to go is to practice out loud. Knowing the structure and essence of what you want to say, and practicing bringing that across in your own words.
This is a very practical way of integrating the information and it has a lot of advantages:
- Practicing out loud, is like taking the highway to integrating your presentation. By using multiple senses, you hear, feel and do it. You will very quickly integrate it.
- In the process of making it your own, you will also grow confidence. You have paved the way. You know you can bring the information across, you know you have the right terminology at hand.
- The quality and convincing power goes drastically up. Imagine a person talking from their head, in a monotone voice. Or a person, embodying what they talk about, really sharing the information with you and that is connected to you. Which person is more convincing to you?
Although this practical step is already a great help. Often, this is not enough to reach the sweet spot.
Because, without realizing it, the seduction of “overgrip” or control is often hard to resist for (expert) presenters.
Many presenters believe that more control will make them stronger. The deeper belief underneath is often something like:
- “I have to say it perfectly.”
- “I cannot mess this up.”
- “I should not pause.”
- “If I let go, I’ll lose my train of thought.”
- “I need to sound impressive.”
This deeper belief, will make it hard for many presenters to really apply the practical method and reach the sweet spot, because their belief will (un)consciously make them fasten their grip instead of letting go.
And this “pulling us back” mechanism can keep us captive for years, preventing us from experiencing true freedom and reaching our real potential in this area. Such a shame, because everybody can experience and reach this.
So, in the next blog, I will explain a bit more about these deep beliefs that can keep us captive and what we can do to reach more freedom and get too much control out of the way, so that we can really experience freedom when we present and start to present with real Impact ;-).
Until later!
Want to become a more confident, natural and impactful presenter?
On my website, you can find more articles, presentation coaching and practical training programs that help professionals speak with more freedom, connection and impact.
Read more here: (LINK)