Keep still in your business presentation! It will both add impact and amplify your gestures

“Where are you going?” said the acting coach to the business presenter who was pacing backwards and forwards as he spoke. “Over there”, came the rather weak response. “Why?” said the coach, as they both realised there was no good answer to the question. That coach, Rich Bloch, was speaking to us at The Magic Circle and he made me think afresh about the benefits of stillness when you are delivering a presentation.

Stillness is, of course, the body language equivalent of Pausing, which I discussed in another recent blog. I said then that many people struggle with pausing and I have to admit that keeping still continues to be one of my personal challenges.

I tend to fidget and shuffle my feet around, which is not a good thing for two main reasons. The first is simply that an audience cannot focus on a moving target! Most people need discipline (possibly guided by some video footage) to achieve stillness and they also need inspiration from other sources. The latter, I believe, has not been helped by the rise of stand up comedy, which has grown in scale from little clubs with no room to move at all to the O2 Arena with its massive stage. This means that we now regularly see comedians prancing around their stage, and even skipping and falling over in some specific cases.

Please don’t even think of taking inspiration from the comedy world. Instead, take a look – as I continue to suggest – at almost any Steve Jobs product launch. He prowls the stage a bit as he opens – to ensure that he has engaged with every member of his audience. By the time he gets down to business, however, he is keeping fairly still, usually from a ‘home’ position on the left of the stage (audience’s view).

The second, more practical reason for keeping still is that gestures can be very effective for adding impact to what you are saying – but only if they come from the starting point of stillness. If your arms and legs are already flailing around it’s going to be difficult for your audience to spot your gestures in amongst all the other action!

As I intimated, you need to work at achieving stillness, but you can start that work like this: 1) As a general principle aim to keep still. Rather than standing with your feet parallel to each other, keep your heels together, with your feet at a 45 degree angle to each other; this should anchor you to the spot. 2) Plan some specific moments of movement and some appropriate gestures at key points. 3) Plan some very specific moments of stillness – probably where you have planned some pauses.

Finally, let’s go to an extreme and listen to some tips from a movie star who brings together both stillness and pausing. I say an extreme because, as Oliver Reed says in this clip, when your face is projected on a big screen your eyes can be six feet wide and if you want to, say, convey a sense of menace, you can’t even afford to blink! This clip evokes special memories for me because I was lucky enough to know Oliver quite well in the 70s and 80s when he lived in the house featured here, just across the fields from where I grew up. One Sunday afternoon he stood on one side of a pond reciting poetry, as a small group of us sat mesmerised on the other side. What made it so special was the combination of his rich voice and the fact that he was utterly still, so that any body language had great impact when it came. Naively I whispered to his niece: “How does he remember all those lines?” “He’s making it all up as he goes”, came the reply. Wow, what a shame we never got to see him on stage, rather than just on screen!

Don’t let False Memory mess up your messages in business presentations

The concept of ‘False Memory’ has been in the news this week, with NBC news anchor Brian Williams being suspended after his bosses were forced to consider why he had claimed incorrectly to have been in a helicopter that was shot at during the Iraq war. Had he been lying, exaggerating or suffering from ‘False Memory’? The latter sounded unlikely but is perfectly possible, according to Chris French, Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths, who contributed to a Newsnight discussion on the topic. See here (until mid-March 2015, starting at 40.42).

Williams' slip up was less surprising to those of us in the magic community, who exploit the False Memory principle somewhat shamelessly. A lovely example came up last night when the much-admired American magician Wayne Houchin lectured at The Magic Circle. Among the items he demonstrated and taught to us were: 1) Sucking a thread into his mouth and pulling it back out through his eye 2) Swallowing a needle, followed by some thread; then pulling the thread back out, with the needle attached. Later he advised us that it was a good idea to perform both of these tricks in the same show – because False Memory Syndrome kicks in. Audience members, he said, come up to him afterwards congratulating him on ‘swallowing the needle and pulling it back out through his eye’. “I just keep quiet and thank them” said Houchin, “because that is a lot more impressive than what I actually did”!

So the message for business presenters is: ‘Don’t let False Memory get the better of you and your message’. I have written before in various ways about the need for high focus and aiming for the ideal of basing your presentation around ‘one big message’. The dangers of False Memory, it seems to me, provide another compelling reason to maintain high focus. If you tell your audience a list of things they might remember none of them; tell them one big thing and you’re in with a chance. And if your audience members are anything like Brian Williams - ‘America’s Huw Edwards’, according to Newsnight’s Evan Davis - they might get that list of things mixed up to create a whole new perception!

Finally, to anyone thinking of seeking help to exploit False Memories to their benefit in the way magicians do, I would have to say: “that would be devious; magicians are paid to be devious; it’s not such a good idea in the business world! Let's talk instead about 'underlining' and 'bringing life' to your message."

Why ‘doing nothing’ is usually the best solution if something goes wrong in a business presentation

It’s in the nature of life that things go wrong; sometimes they go wrong even when you have made every possible kind of preparation; it’s known as Murphy’s Law – ‘if it can go wrong, it will go wrong’.

So what should you do when something goes wrong in a business presentation?  The simple and best answer is usually ‘nothing’ but this advice can be extremely difficult to follow because our human instincts are to apologise to our audience, share our angst and explain the extent of our disappointment. 

The fact is, however, that if you just keep quiet, your audience may never notice the mishap. They don’t know what is coming, so they don’t know what they are missing!

I experienced exactly this scenario in the early days of my training career. At that time I used to run video clips from a separate DVD player – to avoid the risk of crashing the computer. I had checked everything was working on arrival, but as I came to cue the DVD I could see that it wasn’t going to work. I kept prodding at the switch and already my audience could tell something was wrong. I apologised for the fact that I was having technical problems and broke off for a moment to check the equipment more closely. Giving up, I apologised again and told them how frustrating this was because it was working earlier and now we would not be able to see the film that etc etc. I was now very much on the back foot. At the end of the day I received generally good feedback, but one person commented: ‘shame the technology didn’t work’, prompting an enquiry from the fee payer as to why everything had not been in proper working order.

Why did I put myself through this? It would have been nice to have shown the film, but not essential – it merely provided a bit of variety and it set me up to make a key point. The audience did not know that I had scheduled a video clip. Had I simply kept calm and carried on when I noticed the cueing failure no one would have been any the wiser. I would have continued in a reasonably relaxed manner and the disproportionate post mortems would have been avoided.

So it takes steely nerves – which come through experience - to carry on regardless of a problem and the best examples I have seen are certain members of The Magic Circle. Inherent in magic effects is a whole multitude of potential pitfalls, which is one reason that most working magicians simplify their routines wherever possible. James Brown is an award winning magician who is known as the ‘Professional Opportunist’ – for all sorts of good reasons, not least his skill at making the best even of a potential disaster.

James told us a story one night at The Magic Circle of a situation in which he had to make a playing card vanish using a particularly difficult sleight of hand move.  To his initial horror, he dropped the card. But he realised no one had actually spotted this error; moreover, the person who had selected the card had just shifted forward and was now standing on it. “Keep very still”, James said to his volunteer, “I am going to make your chosen card jump into your shoe”. Some magical gestures followed and the volunteer was asked to carefully remove his foot from his shoe. “Is it in there”? James asked. “No?....it must have gone a bit further”. The volunteer turned over his shoe and triggered applause for a miracle which, unbeknown to the audience, had much greater impact that the intended trick, while also avoiding a disaster.

One final tip. Technology ramps up Murphy’s Law to much greater degrees and there are all kinds of precautions and good practice you can follow. If, however, you are presenting in a scenario where there is official technical support, be sure to know that person’s name (eg Derek) as well as befriend him in advance. This means you will be well looked after and if anything should go wrong you keep calm and say: “Can we get Derek please”? This makes you look in control – however much you might be panicking inside – and it subtly places the responsibility elsewhere.

What is it that makes so many business presentations so boring? And what’s the (magic) trick to overcoming the affliction?

I was chatting recently with someone who had just sat through a whole day’s worth of dreary business presentations. “The trouble is”, he said, “that most people are fundamentally rather boring”. 

I could have gone with the flow and simply agreed with him, but I like to look at life in a more positive way than that and, anyway, I think the situation is a little more complicated. I explained my belief that many people climbing the corporate ladder feel they have to default to a certain type of corporate persona, with the result that they fail to make a significant impact and come across as rather boring. 

In my time as a PR consultant I was constantly frustrated when having to deal with the underlings of real decision makers. They never ventured to tell you what they actually thought themselves. Instead they told you what their boss would probably think; and because they were acting like rabbits caught in a headlight, they invariably got it wrong, making them even more timid in future. This situation becomes markedly worse when they come to do a presentation – they are ‘on show’ to people with influence on their careers so they switch into corporate mode – a bland version of themselves that smothers their personality.

In many cases the switch into corporate mode comes automatically and without the speaker really being aware of it. A very senior IT executive I was coaching recently told me that the feedback he invariably receives is: “you were great in all the meetings and they loved you at the lunch, but when you did the presentation you became really boring”.

In the words of Mark Lee, a fellow member of The Magic Circle who advises Accountants on developing their careers and businesses, ‘boring is optional’. You really don’t have to be like that and there are so many benefits to letting your personality show through.

Anyone presenting a magic trick as part of their coaching in 

Presentation Skills is asked to sign a secrecy agreement 

- to ensure that Nick does not transgress 

The Magic Circle's strict rules

The good news is that you can be cured of slipping into corporate mode and my own treatment often includes getting the ‘patient’ to present a magic trick. Coaching sessions start with the patient giving a business presentation, which allows me to assess the severity of their condition and where the treatment should focus. Then I ask them to present a simple trick – tailored to their own company. Compared with their business presentation earlier a number of changes become immediately apparent:

• Their body language loosens up
• They show greater energy and enthusiasm
• A smile comes to their face and that can be heard in their voice
• They need to interact with their audience, so they start thinking seriously about the clarity of what they are saying and how to display visual aids to best effect
• Furthermore, they discover that they can communicate without the crutch of PowerPoint
• They tell us about themselves – so we warm to them and they become more convincing as a result
• Above all, they realise that the success of the trick depends on a ‘ta-dah’ moment at the climax that they want their audience to remember and talk about

All they need to do then is to apply some of those lessons to their business presentation – in particular the one about building to a ‘ta-dah’ moment that everyone is going to remember and talk about. Back in the world of business presentations this is known as a ‘Call to Action’, which needs to be focused and crystal clear; if it’s not, your presentation is likely to be worthless. Imagine, therefore, how powerful your presentation could be if its Call to Action was as memorable as the climax of a magic trick!

The German translation of Nick Fitzherbert's book 

Presentation Magic was published in April 2014

Public Speaking retains high position in YouGov's Phobias poll; but a few steps can turn fear into fun

So another poll has highlighted just how much people fear the idea of public speaking.  A survey by YouGov, no less, places the Public Speaking just behind Heights and Snakes in the rankings of our greatest phobias and it takes number two position if you combine ‘very afraid’ respondents with those who are ‘a little afraid’.

Full details of the survey can be found by clicking on the graphic, but we have heard this many times before – much more than we ever hear about solutions. The fact is that there are no direct cures or even answers, but here are a couple of pointers to bringing the scary side of public speaking under control.

First, the biggest cause of ‘stage fright’ is the fear of the unfamiliar. Much can be achieved, therefore, simply by making the situation familiar to yourself. I always urge those I am coaching in presentation skills to visit the venue in advance of their presentation. They can check out the logistics, but above all they can get a feel for the environment in which they will be working on the day. Then, as they prepare they can both replicate the situation and – even more importantly – visualise how it will be. If they cannot visualise the situation they will have a series of unanswered questions churning through their minds – and that it what sets the nerves alight.

I have proved this principle on a number of occasions. In the few instances that I have not

The Magic Circle HQ

been able to visit the venue in advance – such as when the conference cruise ship was in the South Atlantic – I felt noticeably uneasy. By contrast, when I was preparing to take my entrance exam for The Magic Circle I had the good fortune to be coached by Jack Delvin who is now the President. In view of the fact that I would be performing at the world’s most prestigious magic society, in front of the members, all of whom know exactly how the tricks are done, and many of whom are very eminent if not quite famous, Jack suggested I had a run through in the exact position within The Magic Circle HQ that I would be performing for my exam. I would be able to feel the atmosphere, get used to the lighting and check the sight lines. So I set myself up and waited for Jack to give me the nod. To my horror he made an announcement to the membership at large: “Anyone who wants to see a magic show come to the Devant Room now”. Suddenly I was faced with a substantial audience of magicians – and it was a horrible experience. But I got through it and when I came to do it for real the following week it was a lot less horrible because I had done it before – the situation was familiar. And I passed the exam.

Second, when anyone tells me they are fearful or nervous of presenting I ask them for reasons – specific reasons – and I labour the point by going to the flipchart and waiting for them to dictate some suggestions. Typically they struggle to come up with actual reasons but may suggest: I have a lot of material to learn; I might freeze; they may ask difficult questions etc. I point out that rehearsal and planning can reduce or even eliminate all these fears and more, but the real issue is that we are afraid of being afraid. Malcolm Gladwell covers this in his latest book David & Goliath - the concept is called ‘Affective Forecasting’ and the prime example he describes is the bombing of our cities in World War 2.  The government forecast a complete break down in law and order as people fled from cities in fear of the bombs.  In fact, after some initial, orderly evacuation few people left the cities. They got used to the bombs, even when they lost their homes, the ‘spirit of the blitz’ took hold and some even went so far as to say: “I’m not leaving now, this is scary, but it’s also the most exciting thing that is ever going to happen to me”.

When coaching anyone in presentation skills for the first time I make a point of asking how they feel about presenting. In line with all the survey findings, many express a degree of fear. I make a promise that they are going to start to enjoy presenting – usually to a look of disbelief. Later in the process, but often on the same day I can see a little smile flicker on their faces as they achieve marked improvements. It’s a sign for me to suggest that they are starting to enjoy the process. Usually they become a little coy at this point but the fact that they are not denying my suggestion is good enough for me and we both go home happy people.

Is your communication remaining ‘hidden in plain sight’?

The brain filters out most of the information it receives, leaving only what it considers important.

So says Rule number 4 of the ‘Rules of Magic’ that I, as a communication consultant and member of The Magic Circle, apply to coaching the business community in Presentation Skills.

Psychologists argue about how much information the brain takes in every single second – I have seen estimates ranging from 500 to as much as 11 million!  What they all agree on is that the brain can only retain a small number of those pieces of information - between about 16 and 40. Modern life has of course exacerbated this disparity, what with marketing messages bombarding us through multi-media 24 hours a day.

Think about when you have chosen a new car or perhaps changed your mobile phone. You have probably devoted careful time and consideration to your decision and may even be congratulating yourself on the select nature of your choice. And then suddenly you seem to see that model everywhere!  It’s because it has become important to you. I had exactly this experience when my car was due to its annual MOT test. The local testing centre had closed down and I cursed the fact that I would have to go in search of another and fretted over how inconvenient it would be getting to and from an alternative supplier, once I had found one. I decided to peer down some alleys near my home in case there was a test centre I had failed to spot in the past. What actually happened was that I pulled out into the main road, just around the corner from my house, and 50 metres on the right was a giant sign saying ‘MOT tests and all your motoring needs’. I had been driving past this sign for nine years – it was even on the school run - and yet it had never registered with me before, because an MOT test had not been important to me. Now that it was important to me the sign loomed large.

This is how people and objects can remain ‘hidden in plain sight’; they blend in so well

with the surroundings that they become effectively invisible. The ‘watch test’ demonstrates this very weIl. It’s an old favourite with magicians, but this version is by former president of The Magic Circle David Berglas. Known as the ‘International Man of Mystery’, David is the guru and hero to many magicians including Derren Brown, who described him as ‘One of our greatest living magical performers’.  David has done much work outside the performance arena, including training police recruits at Hendon in observation techniques.

This is exactly as he described the watch test to me; you might like to try it for yourself.

Without looking, tell me if your watch has

Roman or Arabic numerals, or maybe dashes or dots?

Incredible as it may seem, many people do not know the answer, despite the fact they are looking at their watch all day, every day. Allow them to look to see or check the answer, then ask:

How is the three / six position marked on your watch?

In spite of having just looked at their watch, many are unsure or incorrect, having failed to register that the date or other device actually fills this position. Allow them to look to see or check the answer, then ask:

Has it got a second hand?

Some people will even be unsure about this, but if they answer with great confidence ask them a further question: does it move in steps or sweep motion? Allow them to look to see or check the answer, then ask:

Finally, what time is it?

They have just looked at their watch three times and yet most people will be unable to tell you the time – it simply failed to register.  As David Berglas says: “You looked but you didn’t see”.

So, as well as making our messages clear to our audience we need to make them important to our audience. This is why the best magicians borrow items from their audience rather than simply make their own handkerchief or whatever disappear – it ensures much closer attention.  The answer to how the business presenter can achieve a similar effect is usually staring them in the face – the more you personalize your message to your audience, the more you are talking about their favourite subject and the more important your communication seems to be.  

        Extracted and adapted from Nick Fitzherbert's book
        Presentation Magic, published by Marshall Cavendish