During the pandemic, I decided to educate myself on online presenting as technology is not my strong suit. Using various platforms such as Zoom, Meet, Teams, etc., screen sharing became very popular during the pandemic. They’re all different in subtle ways and each has its peculiarities.
I needed to familiarize myself with them all, as I must use my client’s preference where possible.
The interesting observation I made is that in searching online for people to educate me, I found that some people and voices resonated with me immediately and others did not.
Let’s hear it for schoolteachers:
For example, I found that schoolteachers and lecturers were of particular value to me when explaining how to use whichever platform they were promoting. They put a great deal of emphasis on engaging with their students.
They wish to see their students while presenting, control their students in some instances, allow a student to contribute to the group, yet keep control of the session.
Engaging with your audience:
Many online business people who provided guidance spoke about business opportunities when presenting to an online audience, placing all the emphasis on the quality of their slides, notes, images, including video etc. With no discussion as to how to engage and interact with their audiences.
I want to do both but engaging with the audience is the most critical issue when push comes to shove.
When you connect and interact with your audience, be it an in-person audience [they are coming back] or online, when your audience reacts and comments, you can make a judgment as to how your talk is resonating with them.
Let’s Talk:
You will note that I often used the word ‘TALK’ to describe what you would probably refer to as a presentation, pitch, lecture. I would ban the word presentation, pitch, lecture, and sermon if I had my way. All to be replaced by the title of ‘TALK’.
I’m more likely to listen and engage if you talk to me.
What do you do?
On social occasions, when people ask you what do you do? Does your heart sink as you find it difficult to explain in a way that they will understand and be interested enough to listen?
When I founded Aristo, I had this exact problem. So, I would talk about what I did.
“Coach people to stand in front of an audience and get them to talk about their business or themselves”.
Eyes would glaze over, or more often, their response would be, I could not do that; I am terrified when asked to speak to a group.
It took me a little while to work out how to respond to the question, what do you do?
My response now is, “I give people increased confidence when speaking, be it to an audience of 1, 5,50 or 500 people. Is this something you would like to know a little more about?”
So, if this is something you would like to know a little more about, I would be happy to talk to you online and demonstrate my newfound skills.
Please click on the link below and I will come back to you within 24 hours.
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