COACHING FOR THE CRITICAL KEYNOTE
Oratium is regularly contacted by individuals preparing for a critical presentation, or organizations developing a major conference or sales kick off.
It’s clear that success in such settings hinges on designing a deeply compelling message that will lead to action. But experience sadly shows that for most major presentations, conferences or kick offs, this rarely happens.
Because they lack clear guidance and an effective message design process, most presenters simply default to their own (bad) natural instincts and ingrained habits. The result is a presentation that leaves the audience overwhelmed by an avalanche of material, confused by random sequence, disengaged from uninteresting content – and unwilling to take action.
All this raises one question: how do I architect sparkling, memorable content? And even when you’ve answered this question, how can you most effectively deliver that content in the moment?
THE PROCESS IN ACTION
Oratium’s presentation design and delivery methodology is especially effective for coaching TEDx speakers.
A REFRESHING IDEA: A PROCESS
FOR COACHING
It’s so tempting to think an effective presentation is pure “art” – but it’s not. The path to compelling communication is a robust process that ensures you get your message exactly right.
At Oratium, an experienced coach will lead you through a 3-phase process of:
- Guided learning of the key principles of effective communication
- Hands-on supervision and support in designing the message(s) – developing the intellectual architecture of the message, and the most impactful visuals and scripting.
- Coaching and critique of final rehearsals to ensure maximum effectiveness on game day
The coaching process focuses on both the Design and Delivery of the message.
Design coaching helps you to focus on refining a small number of big ideas in your presentation, and ensures that those ideas are compelling by engaging different areas of the audience’s brain.
Delivery coaching is different from typical ‘presentation skills’ training, which tends to focus on the trivia of eye contact or body language. Instead, you’ll be coached on the much deeper and more significant issues of delivery, within the particular context of your own natural style.
The result? A compelling, memorable, audience-centric presentation that leads to the action you’re looking for – and a repeatable model for messaging that you can apply to all future communication.
GET GREAT ON VIDEO
If you are a business owner or entrepreneur who wants to connect and reach new customers through video messaging, chances are you a good communicator. It's likely one of the reason you were able to build your business in the first place. But are you great communicator on video?
It takes a lot of work to become a natural at anything....so if you cringe when you see yourself on video, you are in good company. The reality is that getting comfortable being on video is a skill. Just like learning to play a sport or a musical instrument, it requires training and practice.
5 WAYS TO IMPROVE CAMERA PRESENCE
Camera presence requires rethinking your boundaries. You need to fill the screen with your physical presence and know how you are framed within the shot. Recognize that your body language and facial expressions are in full view and should complement your verbal message.
My first on-air job was an anchor/reporter in Honolulu, Hawaii. I had the good fortune to work for great managers who believed in coaching.
Utilize Your Voice Be conversational. Use your indoor voice. There is no need to project to the back of a room. It's just you and the camera. Think of the lens as a face. A friendly face. Talk to the camera the way you would speak to a friend.
Articulate If you tend to mumble, consider making an effort to articulate more. Isn't it annoying that you can't understand Giovanni Ribisi in any movie? Leave the mumbling to method actors.
Practice Take notes on what you like and what you think needs work. Visualize your success. Keep practicing.
Be Yourself This is when it all starts to come together. You are no longer consciously thinking about your camera presence, voice or how you might be perceived by the audience. All tweaks and changes are now automatic, embedded in your muscle memory. Now you can relax...and enjoy sharing your message.