{"id":3544,"date":"2023-07-04T12:29:08","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T12:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/?p=3544"},"modified":"2023-07-04T12:29:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T12:29:08","slug":"the-sneaky-way-that-princess-anne-is-delivering-presentations-better-than-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/the-sneaky-way-that-princess-anne-is-delivering-presentations-better-than-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The sneaky way that Princess Anne is delivering presentations better than you"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hey Reader,<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m sorry I\u2019m speaking in front of….who?!\u201d I say in shock.<\/p>\n
\u200b<\/p>\n
(Grammar pedants don’t @ me, it’s just how I speak).<\/p>\n
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I’ve found out I’m giving a conference presentation in ONE WEEK and there will be someone Very Important<\/strong> in the audience….<\/p>\n \u200b \u200b \u200b<\/p>\n Real Royalty. PRINCESS ANNE.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n But there’s more.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n After I deliver my presentation, she’s going to join me on the stage and deliver her own speech. Gulp.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n This was going to be a looooooong and stresssssful week.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n Here’s the surprise when the day finally arrived:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n We all know what to expect. Princess Anne is going to be a boring speaker. Right? Wrong!<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n She was funny and wise (we’ll come back to her joke later).<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n If you do what Princess Anne did then you will deliver a presentation that your audience loves.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n Let me explain.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n It’s so simple. But most of us don’t do it.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n Because we get so stressed and inside our own heads (yes, I’m looking at you).<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n We become oblivious to what’s going on around us. But not Princess Anne.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n She listened.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n Princess Anne could have been thinking about a gazillion other things. But she listened to my presentation.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n In fact, here’s a picture of her doing exactly that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div> Don’t be the guy who has a stock presentation on a topic and delivers the same presentation every time.<\/p>\n I’ve done this before and I was always left feeling like there was a disconnect.<\/p>\n Princess Anne didn’t make this mistake. She gave a talk that was for us.<\/p>\n She researched in advance, she listened to me, and she ‘read the room’.<\/p>\n That’s my goal each time – find out about your audience and deliver a talk, especially for them.<\/p>\n<\/div> Here’s what she did next.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n She adapted.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n This is her getting on stage after my speech.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div> (Ok, she’s not perfect, she did use the lectern).<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n She connected what I said in my speech with what she wanted to say in hers. And made a joke about it.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n Here’s what Princess Anne said to close her speech:<\/p>\n “I’ve been told by the previous speaker ”<\/p>\n (-that’s me)<\/p>\n “that before I end a presentation I should give my audience a Call To Action. *Endless laughter from the audience*<\/p>\n What do you mean ‘it’s not that funny’<\/em>?<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n The audience LOVED it. Because she made the effort.<\/p>\n<\/div> The audience appreciates it when you adapt to what they need.<\/p>\n I find it hard to do this when I’m nervous, but I’m working on it. I’m also terrified of making a joke that doesn’t land.<\/p>\n The more I try this the less stressful it gets. (I’m not sure my jokes are getting any funnier though).<\/p>\n If you reference something the speaker before you said, the audience will warm to you.<\/p>\n If there’s an inside joke that you can find out and slip into your presentation, that’s great too.<\/p>\n It shows you care.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n<\/div> But most of all, do you know what I realized?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n Princess Anne is a human being like the rest of us. She used all the same strategies that I try to use. It’s a skill that any of us can learn.<\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cI\u2019m sorry I\u2019m speaking in front of….who?!\u201d I say in shock. (Grammar pedants don’t @ me, it’s just how I speak). I’ve found out I’m giving a conference presentation in ONE WEEK and there will be someone Very Important in the audience. How did I end up here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3544"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3551,"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3544\/revisions\/3551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tessardavis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHow did I end up here??!!<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nSo now I’m spending the whole afternoon Googling the etiquette for addressing Royalty.<\/p>\nListen Up, Don’t Blabber<\/h2>\n
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\nWell here’s yours…
\n\u200b
\n…go have lunch.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nBend, Don’t Dig Your Heels In<\/h2>\n