Part One of this series was an overview of how to make a great presentation.   I listed a rather lengthy number of “do’s” and “don’t’s” that many otherwise good speakers either omit or fall victim to. The speaker who pauses with every breath to utter an “umm” or an “ahh” is the most annoying of all to me. In 10 minutes this speaker can spew out 200 to 300 of these guttural sounds.   Even more astonishing, they rarely know they are making these noises. Listen for them when others speak and discover for yourself just how much they contaminate the presentation. Hillary Clinton is a big violator of the “ahh” distractor.   I’m surprised that no one has told her about it. Maybe it’s because she has such an imposing presence she intimidates her staff into a permanent state of silence about it. I cannot imagine how she might ever ascend to the presidency with this annoying factor present in her speeches.  Show me an articulate person who never “umms” or “ahhs,” and I will show you someone who is well on his or her way to stardom.

 

Becoming a great speaker is largely a matter of building confidence in yourself—and then projecting that confidence outward to your ready audience with a message that is honed and polished to your specifications. And guess what? Ninety nine percent of your audience wants you to succeed. Yes! They love good stories told with passion, courage, wit, and charm. They don’t want to watch you cry, or faint, or pee your pants—or apologize for anything. The last thing they want to witness is another dreadful, wimpy, fearful loser of a speaker. After all, if they are over the age of 10 they have already seen and heard enough of them to last a lifetime. 

 

In this Part we are going to concentrate on two external distractors and how to deal with them. They are the Intimidator and the Heckler. These two are opposites in behaviors, but equals in results. Both can be upsetting to your plans of becoming the speaker of the year with all the adulation flowing your way that you so richly deserve.   

 

The Intimidator. This person is largely imaginary. Every member of your audience wants you to succeed (except the hecklers, and we’ll deal with them).  But if you discover that you have 20 experts in your subject area all seated in the front row…great! Here is your chance to mesmerize them.   Remember your job is to instruct, to persuade, or to inspire the audience—and do it in an entertaining way. Meet those objectives and the experts will almost certainly be your biggest fans.

 

But here is how to meet them in the initial face-off.  

 

If your heart is pounding from fear of failure in front of those you admire, follow an old trick that works. Imagine they are all naked! Unless you are speaking to the Miss Universe contestants, you will see a sea of humanity at its funniest—hairy and scary, sagging and wagging, tattooed and unglued. You may begin to laugh, but your fears will fly out the window. It also helps to know your subject matter really, really well.

 

And now let’s go after that rabble-rousing rat, that villain known as the heckler.

 

The Heckler.   Eventually, all speakers will find a disgruntled person in the audience. We call them hecklers, but they really are interrupters and troublemakers. They want attention and/or they are lashing out for reasons that typically are not related to you. They just got fired, or lost their girlfriend, or fell down the stairs. Whatever! Now they want the satisfaction of being able to stop you and deny the audience their right to hear you out. It’s their way of asserting their will to make up for their own shortcomings.  And they are prepared to hurl more than one grenade at you. But you have a big advantage over them because the audience is almost always on your side. 

 

The first rule in dealing with interrupters is this: You must keep the audience on your side. If the audience turns against you, all is lost. You are done for the day. So do not engage them in verbal combat. They know why they are interrupting and you do not. Perhaps they will find others in the audience who are sympathetic to the same issue that you know nothing about. It’s better to defuse than to lose.

 

Most of my presentation experience has been in a classroom or instructional setting where the objective was to fulfill some portion of a learning curriculum. Others have been forums in which the objective was to lure new clients. The presentation was centered on how the audience could tap into a pool of expertise consisting of a confident and cooperative set of people who carry out the service you represent—the kind of people you would enjoy doing business with.   Doing combat with hecklers does not fit into either setting. My observations of other’s travails go back more than 50 years.

 

Way back in ancient history when I was a student, I saw many classes get interrupted by other students. The interruptions quickly turned hostile between student and professor, and many ended in disaster with students or professor leaving the room, sometimes both. In almost every circumstance, the professor tried to do verbal combat and got outgunned.  I resolved that such disruptions would not happen if I ever became the “guy in front.”   Well, I did become that guy. And here is how I dealt with it:

 

I taught economics. During the first day of class, I drew up a pact with my students.   I explained that we all have opinions about how well or how poorly the economy works for them.   But their task was to learn how it works in theory and in practice, not about how it can or should be fixed.   That task was reserved for those who signed up for a seminar in which they could discuss how to make it work better.   I asked if it made sense to get involved with how to fix something before you understand how it works? The entire class nodded their agreement. In the seminar we would explore all their ideas in a “no holds barred” format where everyone gets the chance to put his or her best ideas forward, and you can really dazzle us with your thinking. Are we in agreement?  

 

With no objections, I never once encountered a student who wanted to interrupt the class with the notion that somehow the textbooks, I and all economists were wrong, and he was right.

 

In a corporate setting, I once was making a presentation to the entire executive staff on the importance of forecasting and how it could help their bottom line. All was going well when someone in the back of the room shouted out “I understand you economists predicted 8 of the last 5 recessions. Is that right?”  A lot of laughing and snickering rippled through the audience.   I was ready for him.   I smiled and laughed in agreement.   “You’re right. Some economists do go too far with their forecasts. That’s a good reason why we need to rely on good data, good analyses, and let everyone know how much uncertainty there is in our forecasts. That’s how I am different from those in your experience.” 

 

That reply stopped the laughter, but it did not stop my interrupter. He came back with “Give me one prediction that you believe will come true tomorrow. If you can I’ll buy you a case of wine.”   Again, I was ready. I said “You’re on.” I pretended to gaze into my invisible crystal ball and said “Tomorrow the Atlantic ocean will be…right where it is today!” He yelled back “That’s not fair.” I continued, “Tomorrow this building will be…right where it is now.” Again he shouted “Unfair again.” Undeterred, I predicted “Tomorrow I will be here to collect my case of wine.” The audience roared with laughter. The situation was defused. I thanked everyone for their attention, and told the interrupter I would settle for one glass of wine.

 

In Part Three we will discuss the elements of a great speech and how to deliver it with style, class, and panache.