“Can I send you the feedback from my last presentation?”
Only a week earlier, Lukas had completed the Mastering Virtual Presentations workshop.
I said, “Of course! I would love to see it!”
He received glowing reviews:
“That was amazing!”
“I am so inspired!”
“That was unforgettable!”
And from his boss: “You are a great communicator.”
It was supposed to be “just another normal corporate presentation”.
When you see those two words together, corporate presentation, what do they conjure up for you. Something thrilling? Gripping?
Very few people find them exciting.
No one says, “Oh, I can’t wait! I’m going to a CORPORATE PRESENTATION this afternoon!”
You never hear that.
“Corporate presentation” equals “no personality, no life”, equals “dull, dry, dead and boring”.
Equals yawn.
Lukas was asked to give a “quarterly update,” which is the same low level of thrilling as a “corporate presentation”.
Except that Lukas surprised them all. And he was amazed by the response. He’d never gotten feedback like this before. No one had.
I told Lukas that his reviews were outstanding! And asked him, “What did you do to make this happen?”
He wrote very simply,
“I used what I learned. Two things in particular:
I decided that none of my presentations ever need be boring. They can all be interesting and exciting.
The second was that I had never thought about what emotion I wanted the audience to feel. I’ve always previously thought about what I want them to KNOW, but not what I want them to FEEL. I decided what emotions I wanted them to feel. It wasn’t just one emotion. It was different emotions throughout the presentation. High, low, there was a spectrum. And then I worked out, using what I learned, how to create an emotional journey for the audience as I took them through what happened during the quarter. I wanted them to feel exhilarated by the end. So, I took them through the data, but I took them on an emotional journey also. And they loved that.”
In doing that, Lukas brought the quarter his team had just lived TO LIFE.
Lukas engaged the audience, not only their intellect, not only their minds, but their hearts and their spirits.
Lukas is now reaching the beating heart of his audience, the heart and soul that is utterly ignored and neglected in most “corporate presentations”.
It’s a whole different way to see the audience. It’s a whole different way to communicate. It’s a whole different way to lead, to inspire, to influence, when the audience makes the journey with you, when you take them to the top of a new mountain to see life from a new vantage, a new height.
Audiences are a WHOLE lot smarter than most “corporate presenters” grant. Audiences are filled with good people, way more goodness than most “corporate presenters” grant. Audiences care way more, they’re more alive, they’re more willing and they’re way easier to communicate with than most “corporate presenters” grant.
When you get this right, who your audience really is and what they are actually capable of, you can reach people with the real power of your ideas. Really reach them.
Lukas is doing this. And you can do this too.
Be the cause!