“To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.” - Ben Johnson
Determining what you are going to say is merely half the battle, if that. So much importance is placed these days on proper presentation technique that many individuals have built careers on speaking nonsense, presenting it confidently with an authoritative tone so that we all accept it as truth. This alone should prove the importance of how you present yourself in your MindBite to making the sale.
Below are some tips on presentation strategy that should instill you with confidence about your own ability to engage an audience.
Excitement and enthusiasm are incredibly infectious. If the passion for your subject is strong enough, it will jump off the computer screen and grab hold of the potential buyer, making it almost irresistible to pass up. Simply going through the motions is boring and hardly captivating. How can you expect the viewer to care about learning if the teacher is impassively slugging through the material. Remember Ben Stein’s role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Teach like that, and you’ll have more than just one student absent from your lesson.
Viewers are hardly interested in seeing their teacher hung-over and in a bad mood, suffering from a case of the “Mondays”. Down that espresso, do a couple jumping-jacks, get that blood pumping, put on your game face, and take charge tiger. Hoo-Ah!
All right, this is probably the most difficult of all the pointers in this article. Still, it’s probably the most important. Nerves will be a huge issue for most, appearing insurmountable even, as many have never been in front of a camera before. Well, speaking from experience, we can sympathize. But trust us, it’s not as bad as you think; the camera can’t do anything to you.
Always remember to breathe, deeply and with a steady rhythm. This will lower your heat rate and expedite fresh blood to your brain, spreading a sense of calm and lightening your demeanor. Also, consider having a friend or family member sit behind the camera, and talk to them instead of addressing the cold, dead lens of the uncaring machine.
Finally, before you press the big, red record button, shake out all those nerves from your body. Envision the tension turning into a liquid, and wiggle your body about so that it pools at the bottom of you limbs. Then, once all that tension is concentrated in a few places, just shake it all out of your body. Take a deep breath and begin.
If all of your attention is on simply getting through the presentation without a stumble or fall, you are going to deliver a stiff and wholly unviewable lesson. Perfection is the last thing you should be concerned with. Remember, MindBites are made by REAL PEOPLE, not professionally trained actors or stodgy, seemingly omniscient professors. We want you to stumble and mess up, that just makes you human. So don’t sweat the details. And hey, if you get off track and can’t find your way back, you can always edit that part out in post-production. Thank goodness for modern technology, huh?
The last thing we want is for you to stifle or hide those unique characteristics that make you who you are. Some may fall into the trap of imitating other instructional video hosts they may have seen elsewhere. Don’t let this happen to you! Again, the only thing that makes your lesson unique is YOU! Characters are welcome here, in fact, they’re encouraged. We’d much rather see a video by an eccentric and socially maladjusted oddball than a vocally trained announcer in a business suit.
Well, don’t just smile for the sake of smiling. HAVE FUN, and let us know you’re having fun. If you’re not passionate about your topic, then we won’t be. So relax and enjoy the experience.
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