Stop Presenting!

      Okay, we’re in trouble.  No one is leaving.  They are mingling amongst themselves and, oh boy, here come 4 of them in a group straight for me.  My knees are starting to get a little weak.  Boy, I sure thought I nailed this.  Maybe there was something in the plan that we didn’t think about.

      The first one to get to me started, “Hi Harold, my name is George Bishop and I’m from United Dyno, I don’t know if you remember me from the annual meeting?”

      I replied, “Sure you won the contest for the flat screen monitor, right?”

      “Good memory, well I just wanted to tell you that I have been coming to these types of events for 25 years, and this was by far the best.  Not that I agree with the entire plan, but you did an outstanding job getting right to the point, and making sure that all of our questions got answered.  There were several times that I was going to ask a question, and then the next thing out of your mouth was the answer.”

      Another distributor chimed in, “yeah, it was almost spooky how you seemed to know just the right thing to say next.  Normally, I’m a pain at these things because I ask too many questions.”  Two people from the group standing there agreed immediately with him, but he just ignored them and continued, “I couldn’t come up with one question throughout your presentation.”

      Finally, a woman made her way to the front and put her hand out; she was the President of our largest distributor, Sampson Brothers.  As I shook her hand she gave me the greatest compliment, “Thanks for not wasting our time.”

      Bob closed the door behind the last person as they left.  Now, I’ve known Bob for about 3 years and I probably have only talked to him 2 or 3 times other than small talk or “How’s the family?”  He is one of the most low-key people I’ve ever met.  As the door closed, he turned to me with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on a person.  He came running at me and gave me a bear hug.

      As he set me down, he said, “I can’t believe what you just did.  You took one of the hardest messages that had to be delivered to our distributors and made it look like you were feeding them cotton candy.  I was expecting to have my butt chewed off, and instead they are coming up to me telling me how they think this might just work.  If you don’t get a promotion for this, there is no justice in the world.”

      I was speechless, I thought I did a good job but all I did was answer the questions I would have wanted answered if I was in the audience.

      All I could muster was, “Thanks.”

      On the drive home I just kept thinking of how easy the presentation had gone.  I have been struggling for so long with my confidence and my presentation skills and really what was keeping me from being successful in front of audiences, was the structure of my content.