Frederik Imbo: How to start off your presentation strongly?

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Imboorling

Күн бұрын

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@dandm20 9 ай бұрын

I love how you present yourself. Your Ted talk was epic. Glad to have found more videos.

@johnt.inscrutable1545 4 жыл бұрын

The most exciting job I ever had was when I took a position with Oracle Corporation to be an an instructor and technical public speaker for their core product, the Oracle RDBMS Server. I knew that each week I would present technical training to 24 different people. And that eventually I would speak at conferences to groups of a few tens of people to several hundred people at a time. The first two weeks was spent at a “boot camp” in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, USA, where we were to learn about the administrative requirements of the job as well as hone our presentation skills. On the second day we got the agenda for the entire two weeks and when I read it my heart hit the ground. In a bit less than two weeks, on the Wednesday and Thursday before the last Friday we would each be expected to give a 10-15 minute presentation to this very group of our peers on the Oracle topic of our choice. It was at the moment I read that when I remembered the many times I choked up in school when I had to recite a poem or even read aloud in class. I am one of the majority of people more afraid of public speaking than of death. It was so bad that I called home to my wife in Dallas. TX and asked her if I could please quit and find some other job. Lol. She was sweet, kind and supportive and talked me into sticking it out. So I prepared my topic, Back Up & Recovery of an Oracle Database. I practiced every night in my hotel room. And when the morning of the first day of presentations arrived I jumped up and started to the front of the room to give my presentation before they finished the sentence asking who wanted to go first. After all, there were twenty (20) of us. Maybe they’d forget about me by the end. Though I stumbled a bit with a few of those nasty extraneous sounds speakers shouldn’t make, I finally got rolling. I did just as you suggested though you hadn’t suggested it yet because it was 1993. I got their attention, explained why my topic was important, then I delivered the facts, and an anecdote or two, followed by a summary of what I’d said. Despite almost quitting on my second day of boot camp, I got the only standing ovation in those two days, and I was congratulated by the lead manager and given my choice of assignments, and I’ve been speaking to large and small groups ever since. I had secretly hoped this would eliminate my fear of public speaking, which I still do on occasion as the former owner of an IT consultancy, and as an Oracle SME (and would love to do full time again in other subject areas, but don’t know how to make that happen), but it didn’t. I’m still terrified for the first few minutes. And, in almost every case, I can be found in a far off restroom wretching with the dry heaves. Or, as John Lennon once said, “I throw up before I go on stage!” Your tips on speaking are excellent and this one is one I sort of knew “in my bones” way back, but it’s also the thing I see left out of presentations quite often. Regardless of the length of the presentation or the audience, failing to establish a connection in those first few seconds or minutes will take a presentation exciting and useful to an induced coma. If the speaker doesn’t humanize themselves to me I find it very hard to care about what’s being said. And it only takes a little vulnerability through humor, or shared pain to make that connection depending on the topic. Keep on keeping on with these videos. I’m excited by them and if you ever make it to Houston, TX I’ll be in the audience. My thanks, my admiration and my best wishes for your continued growth and success, J The Inscrutable ora00000@icloud.com