Boring or Enticing? It’s Your Choice

What’s the difference between getting yawns and really nailing it?

I am especially proud of a long-time client who has chosen to go where others in her field have never gone, as the newly departed and beloved Mr. Spock might have said.

She could have taken the familiar route, delivering a lecture-type presentation of facts and trends.

Instead, she made her remarks personal and relevant, thought-provoking and enjoyable.

To introduce the idea of Cloud technology, she asked for a show of hands about how many had experienced a computer crash – at home or in the office. To replace a recital of the role apps are playing in our lives, she challenged her audience to admit how many hours they spend on mobile devices, and what exactly they were doing on them.

She wrapped up with an animated discussion of technology trends and how her firm has been tracking them on their clients’ behalf.

No matter what your topic is, I firmly believe nothing ever has to be boring. While some material is admittedly more interesting than others, from my experience, a presentation is boring because the person delivering it wasn’t willing to invest the time and energy to discover how to make it relevant and fascinating.

How can you ramp up the enjoyment factor in your next message? Share a real-life experience you had, or perhaps someone close to you or a client may have had. Use that episode to create a bridge between your facts or trends and your audience. Here’s a mini-outline:

Personal story.

Fact 1. Trend 1.

Different personal story.

Fact 2. Trend 2.

For years I struggled against my journalistic training which opposed the idea of putting myself into the story, as opposed to being neutral or just reporting the data at hand.

If you are not a journalist, neutrality has no place in your speaking – unless you really do want to be boring. It’s your choice.

Best Regards,