Must we go through this again?

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a leadership conference hosted by the Mountaineers in Seattle. I looked forward to the event of speakers and networking - on of the speakers is a idol of mine, John Graham, who wrote the book on Outdoor Leadership. Through his book I began to understand the type of leader I wanted to be. Other outdoor leaders and educators would also be presenting and I was expecting a day filled with sharing information and refining our goals and objectives within ourselves and our activities.

I wasn't wrong. Each of the speakers I was privilege to listen to spoke with passion about their vocation and a desire to share what they knew. However, not all of them came prepared.

One presentation entitled Training Trainers and Coaching Coaches looked to be right up my alley. Excitedly I sat down to hear what words of wisdom the two speakers had for us. Within the first 5 minutes I knew they were going to be wasting my time and if I hadn't sat down in the front of the room, I would have quickly escaped.

They were sea kayakers. Not that there is anything wrong with sea kayakers as I am a novice one myself. But they spent most of their presentation talking about the specifics of gaining skills within the sport.

Ummm, how does this related to training trainers or coaching coaches?

Not to say they weren't experts in their field and have had years training kayakers and trainers and coaches. In fact, they were quite knowledgeable. Within the framework of their field. Try to expand out of it and they were lost. I actually began to feel sorry for them and so did other members of the audience who spoke up to try to help make the connections.

There are a few things they could have done to better prepare themselves for the presentation or to know whether or not to do it. And these are the same things you can do when invited to speak.

1. Ask questions. When asked to give a presentation, ask a barrage of questions about the venue, the organization, the audience. What does the organization represent? How big of an audience will you be speaking to? Who are you speaking to? What is there experience with this topic? Why do you want me to speak? How much time will I have? A/V equipment, will you run it or me? Do I need to bring it or you? Get as many details as you can so you can frame your presentation better.

2. Start your planning and writing with a topic. Your topic is why the organization asked you to speak. You're the expert. Based on what you know about your audience, you should be able to frame the topic/subject to help the audience better understand your presentation. Make it relate-able to THEM! You are not up there for yourself, you are up there for them.

3. And practice. Practice. Practice. Grab a few experts in the topic and ask them to listen and give you feedback. Grab a few novices in the topic, ask them to listen and give you feedback. Ask a few folks who know nothing about the topic, ask them to listen and give you feed back. Each time you are practicing. But also don't ignore the feedback. If someone has advice to make the presentation better, use it. Work with it. Then practice some more.

These are simple ways to give an audience the presentation they deserve. I wish more speakers would go back to the basics. I'm hoping you will.

How not to be a Ramblin Rose, Part 1

Ramblin' rose, ramblin' rose
Why you ramble, no one knows
Wild and wind-blown, that's how you've grown
Who can cling to a ramblin' rose?
 - Noel Sherman and Joe Sherman

I love Nat King Cole. His sweet and silky voice makes me weak in the knees and sends shivers along my spine. His is the voice that soothes the savage breast.

After sitting through a photographer's presentation a while back, I thought I could use a little Nat King Cole. I was frustrated, angry and felt betrayed.

Why?

Because the photographer rambled about himself and how wonderful he was for two stinking hours. That is two hour of my time that I will never get back. Nor will I ever get the money I paid for this frustrating honor back into my pocket.

Money and time lost. For nothing.

Have you ever had that experience? Eagerly heading into a presentation and then getting to the end, the presenter is answering questions and you're wondering what was even the point? There wasn't a single statement throughout the whole presentations that you could cling to and you begin to wonder why you wasted your time.

You didn't waste your time. The presenter wasted your time. And shame on them.

A rambling presentation isn't just damaging to audience members, but it's damaging to the presenter also.

When you are speaking to a group of other photographers, you are representing your photography brand. Which is you. You are your brand. You are the photographer. You are the one with your vision. And the folks who have come to listen to you want to know about you and your vision.

Who are you? What is your inspiration? How did you get to where you are?

Do you want to inspire? Or confuse? Please, tell me your answer is to inspire.

What inspiration do you want them to take with them as they leave? Answer this question and you are well on your way to being a solid speaker and not a rambling rose.

Remember back in school when you had to write an essay and the essay revolved around a certain thesis statement? Well, the answer to the inspiration question above will be your thesis for your speech. Yes, speeches have a "thesis statement." If you make every point in your speech connect to your thesis PLUS make every image you show and example of the point that links to your thesis you can become a successful speaker.

You can make people excited to listen to what you have to say. Dare I say maybe become a Nat King Cole and soothe your audience.

5 easy steps to losing your audience

I recently attended a lecture entitled something like The Art and Business of Landscape Photography presented by a photographer whose work I admire. I was hoping he might have some insight on how he has been able to create a business from his photography.

Oh and did I mention there was an entrance fee?

I sat down and excitedly waited for him to come discuss his business. At the appropriate time, he approached the front of the room and announced that he really didn't have anything prepared so he was just going to show us some images and talk about them.

Whah?!?!

That wasn't what I paid for. I thought I was paying for a lecture, not a slide show

But the truly sad thing is, his wasn't the first photo lecture I'd been to where this happened. And as I chatted with friends who also attended the presentation, I discovered that they expected this.

EXPECTED a slide show with no other information except that the photographer can create pretty pictures. I already knew that and so did they.

Even with the title the presentation, they EXPECTED to sit through a slide show of pretty pictures and be told not much at all. If I wanted to watch a slide show, I'd just call up my father for one. At least he would have let me sit through his vacation pictures for free. But alas, my dad is dead and I'm paying for the privilege of sitting through this, for lack of a better word, crap.

So with my communications background, I decided to help photographers understand how to give a presentation that works by pointing out the 5 best ways to lose your audience during a photo presentation.

#1. By all means let your audience know from the start that you care not one bit about them by telling them you have nothing prepared. Let them know that you want to waste their valuable time with your rambling and unorganized slide show.

#2. Title-Schmitle. There is no need to pay any attention to what you have entitled your presentation because you know that all the audience wants is to sit in rapt silence and admiration as you show them pretty pictures that you made.

#3. Because you are such a marvelous photographer and have a room filled with eager slide show viewers, make sure you tell them that you discovered this really cool technique like the Rule of Thirds or photographing during the Golden Hour. That will impress the heck out of them.

#4. As you ramble along make sure to tell your audience that if they want more information then they need to register for one of your workshops so you can teach them everything that you promised you'd teach them in the presentation.

#5. During the question and answer period, go off into unrelated tangents to the questions. Also focus on your computer looking for that one really cool image that exemplifies not the answer to the question, but your ramblings (generally an image you forgot to include in the slide show and you have no idea where you stored it).

We've all been there and did you really feel like you got your money's worth? Or that the speaker wanted to impart some knowledge?

Let's hold ourselves to a higher standard than what has gone before. Let's start giving presentations that are prepared, succinct, organized, and on point.

Oh and come back next week as I explain just how to counter these 5 steps to have an amazing presentation that will keep your peers coming back for more.

(The above image is from Point Reyes National Seashore - I just thought you might like e pretty picture to look at.)