A presentation works best as a series of one-to-one conversations.
The ease you have across a table is the style to aim for in front of a room. Talk to one person at a time, and nerves have far less to grab on to.
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Jerry Weissman
The most-loved lines from Jerry Weissman, drawn from 1 book in the library.
Eye Connect: hold one person’s gaze until you feel them look back.
A sweep of the room connects with no one. Speak a thought to one person, feel the click of them looking back, then move on to someone else.
Reach Out: move and gesture toward people, not across them.
Step toward one side of the room to talk to someone there, and gesture outward as if offering a handshake. It turns a speech into a conversation.
Animation is Eye Connect plus Reach Out, scaled up for the moment that matters.
Pick the story or line you most want remembered and give it your body, voice and stance. It takes nerve, and it is what people carry out of the room.
Adrenaline speeds you up; the pause slows you down.
Under pressure almost everyone rushes. A deliberate pause lets you breathe, find the next person and let the last point land.
Speak only when you are looking at a person.
Glance at the slide or your notes, then turn back and talk to someone. Talking to the screen hands the audience your back and your attention.
A filler word is the sound of the mind searching; silence does the same job better.
"Um" and "you know" fill the gap while you find the next words. Close your mouth and pause instead, and you look calm rather than lost.
Your natural conversational style is the one to bring on stage.
Most people become stiff and formal the moment they present. Weissman's method works by keeping the behaviour everyone already has: talking to another person.
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