The audience @ Science at the Summit, originally uploaded by mars_discovery_district.

Audiences have blank faces a lot of the time. Here is an audience listening - the description by the photographer is of a "rapt audience". They have blank faces. Its normal! We just get confused if we are speakers who don't understand that we need different skills when we are in front of an audience.

for more pics of blank faced audiences look at my flickr gallery blank faced audiences are normal

By the way if you have pics of audiences please send them to me as I have an interesting project up my sleeve.

When people come on my course they often say something like "Oh, I thought i was the only one that suffered like this with stage fright. I thought everyone else could do it - but I can't".
So if we are not careful we think its just us that has got it wrong.  All sorts of people including managers, head teachers, barristers, psychologists etc do my course and most of them feel its just them who is terrible. It isn't. I have over 400 people a year saying similar things.

So what is going on?
Well, quite often there is a big mis-match between what we feel like inside when we are in front of people and what we actually show to others on the outside.
People say "You must be able to see me shaking" .
We can't.
"My voice is cracking up - it must be obvious".
It isn't.

Sometimes you can spot someone being very nervous but MOST of the time we don't show it as much as we think we do. This means that when we are looking at other people doing a speech they look fine. They look together. A lot of people will be going through their own hell but NOT showing it.

We are human, we are not perfect, we get things wrong, we don't know everything but somehow when it comes to presentations we think we have to get everything right and be perfect.

So couple this pressure to be perfect with the idea that "its just me who feels bad" and then we have created a recipe for our own hell.
Most people don't like speaking in public and nearly everyone has a bad day. So most of us suffer, lots of us limp through presentations and are jealous of other people who can do it without realizing that they are having a grim time too.  So you are not a freak!

Realizing that "its not just you" is not enough to change it of course. But its a very good place to start.

I've just been watching a video analysis on how Steve Jobs presents. At the end the trainer says the oft repeated advice "practice, practice, practice". It's advice you will get from hundreds of people offering advice on presenting and public speaking.
The problem with that advice it is two fold -

1) if you are not careful you create an overly slick and polished performance which the audience doesn't connect with, which is waste of all time for everyone involved. The audience wants to be able to see a real person. The previous blog entry has more on this.

2) more importantly, UNLESS you deal with your fear of being in front of people, practicing doesn't make it go away. In fact it can create more fear. It can lock it in. We don't need to practice being frightened. (Can you hear me ranting and growling as I react to that video?)
We frighten ourselves enough already - when we churn forthcoming presentations over and over in heads.
So the advice should be about learning how to be the centre of attention with ease. Then we can be ourselves and great presentations are far more possible. We need to get use to and enjoy being in the moment with our audience and creating a powerful experience for both the audience and us. And its simpler than it sounds!

Grrrr - rant now over.

PS Of course you can practice - now I've had 24 hours since watching the video to mull it over.
But its a different form of practicing - getting used to being in the moment, letting go of all the stuff that gets in the way, practicing being with one person at a time when you are public speaking, practicing getting used to being the centre of attention etc.
That does take practice. But its a practice about allowing, relaxing, letting go. And in the end that gives you a lot more possibilities than just locking in the fear.

again the list below is taken from participant work done on my courses.

audience wants the presenter  to be comfortable
audience participation – to feel included
to be with authentic people
to feel comfortable
for the presenter to be conversational
for the presenter to be engaging
eye contact - the ability to look at me
for the presenter to have a sense  of humour
inclusive
informality
interesting
it matters to them and to me
learn something
to feel motivated by the presenter and the connection
relaxed - both the presenter and the audience
some kind of connection
something personal
something real
something relevant
that the presenter is fully here
to find out about who the presenter is - from the presenter - from her/his presence
the audience wants to be comfortable

One thing to notice from that list is no mention of powerpoint.

My plans of having a new post every week have been overtaken by this new website design. However I love the freedom of design and the extra gizmos that using Squarespace has given me and I hope to get back to the blog once I've got the site running. If you have time  please let me know what you think of the new look.

Update on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 5:49PM by John Dawson

A few weeks later I'm getting more traffic but people are saying where is this and that. So today I re-vamped the site to make it simpler and more direct. Its a good lesson in keeping things simple