WEBVTT - Speak memorably, with Bill McGowan 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:09.280 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.760 This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.200 Today's episode is going to be a slightly longer one 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.279 part of the series where I interview fascinating people about 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.720 how they take their days from great to awesome and 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.160 any advice they have for the rest of us. So 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:28.120 today I'm delighted to welcome Bill McAllan to Before Breakfast. 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.320 Bill is the founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group. 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:33.760 He has an Emmy Award winning journalist and the author 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.920 of the book Speak Memorably. So Bill, welcome to the show. 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.279 Thanks Laura, appreciate it and looking forward to this. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:41.479 Yeah, I'm really excited to have you on this. So 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:43.559 why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself? 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:49.239 Twenty five years ago, I began Clarity Media Group on 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.199 this belief, having been a journalist for many years, that 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.520 when people sit down to do a Q and A 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.200 with a professional, it's not a level playing and that 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.280 the journalist has a game plan and they're well organized, 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:10.479 but oftentimes people mistake success as just doing the best 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:14.039 they can answering the questions. And so I brought a 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.120 lot of the experience and insights that I have as 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.480 a journalist, and I brought them to the world of 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.000 communication coaching, and a big part of what I do 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.440 now is helping people be memorable when they get up 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.040 to speak, whether it's in front of a room, leading 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.480 a meeting, whether you're delivering a keynote at a convention 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.880 or an off site a town hall, and ask me 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.959 anything any of those situations where you need to project 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:44.000 executive presence, where you need to be memorable and authentic. 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.320 I help people craft the content and I also help 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:48.440 them with the execution. 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.960 So that's an interesting juxtaposition there of you know, projecting 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:58.200 executive presence and being authentic, which I think something is 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.000 maybe more valued now than it in the past. I 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.160 wonder how you see the intersection of those two things 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.040 as you're giving people ideas. 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:12.240 Definitely, being able to convey to an audience your deep 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.560 conviction in your ideas and your point of view doesn't 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.560 have to be something that sounds canned. It doesn't have 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:23.240 to be something that feels like the person was trained. 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.200 And one of the things we really work on is 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:31.639 making sure that people display an enthusiasm for what they 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:36.360 have to share to an audience. I'm sure people listening 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.000 to us at some point have been told by people 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.800 they report to at work. You know, you have to 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:44.560 show a little more energy when you get up in 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.320 front of a room, And people have really been puzzled 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.120 as to what does that mean. Does that mean I 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.880 need to talk louder, faster, flail my arms? What does 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.360 that mean? And over many years of doing this kind 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:01.440 of work, it's become clear to me that our definition 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:05.840 of energy at Clarity Media Group is your palpable enthusiasm 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.440 for the value of the information you're sharing with the audience. 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.200 And I try to get people that I work with 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:16.880 and I coach to genuinely get enthusiastic for the fact 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.200 that the information I'm going to share with these people 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.480 over the next fifteen twenty minutes is going to be 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.240 incredibly valuable to them in the work they have to do. 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.440 It's going to provide them clarity on how they move forward, 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.079 and it's going to be enormously beneficial. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:32.880 Well, that's our first thing. Then we better be excited 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:34.320 about the content we're presenting. 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:36.840 It may be a fake it till you make it, 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:38.240 of course. 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:39.600 Yes, these sales figures are great. 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:43.080 I gotta tell you, well, let's say somebody listening to 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:47.640 this is, you know, been asked to give a presentation 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.880 to let's say senior leadership in a couple of weeks 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.600 about a topic. As they're going about preparing you, what 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.760 would you advise them to do? Because we don't want 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:58.320 to get up and just bore people with one hundred 0:03:58.320 --> 0:03:59.160 PowerPoint sides. 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.680 One of the hips that I give and speak memorably 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.320 is how to create the content. And the mistake most 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:10.080 people make is they sit down at a computer and 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.040 start writing it as they would write a document or 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:18.279 an email. And unless you've been trained in the world 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:23.760 of television or radio or podcasts, most of us write 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.040 stylistically for the eye. They don't write for the ear. 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.440 And when you write for the eye, you tend to 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:36.520 write in complex, prosy sentences, with introductory phrases and parenthetical clauses, 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.360 and we really don't speak that way in real life. 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.960 So what I recommend they do is to just create 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.520 yourself an outline of what it is that you want 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.320 to say in this presentation. It can be as sparse 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.560 or as extensive as you want, but really just a framework, 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.440 and then take your phone and launch an app that 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:02.520 will record and transcribe what you say. Otter Ai is 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.960 a good one, and just get up with your notes 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.280 in your hand and roll record and just say it 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.800 as would naturally come to you, and don't worry. If 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.680 it's full of starts and stops and mistakes. You can 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.600 go back and clean that up later, but just keep 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:24.039 plowing forward. Then take the transcription and export that to 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.480 a word document or whatever you're working in, PowerPoint or keynote, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.400 and make that your rough first draft. And I think 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.360 you're going to find two benefits from that. One is, stylistically, 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.760 it's going to be much more casual and conversational and 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.760 as a result, authentic than something you sat down to write, 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.920 which tends to be more stilted and formal and jargoning 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.560 when we sit down and write it. And two, you're 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.240 never going to be at odds with that content because 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.480 it's going to represent instinctively how you meant to say it. 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.920 And I think sometimes it's a long bridge for people 0:05:59.920 --> 0:06:03.039 to cross when someone else creates the content for them 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.440 and they have just a hard time committing it to 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:07.920 memory and feeling like they own it. 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:12.080 Yeah. No, it definitely is something you can get help with, 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:14.880 but ultimately it has to be your voice. I want 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:20.039 to actually ask about the speaking with slides aspect, because 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.120 I know a lot of people do. I tend not to. 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.960 I prefer more to just get up and talk. But 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.920 a lot of people are speaking with slides, and from 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.400 what I understand from your writing, people kind of approach 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:34.560 this in the wrong way, like they might just be 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.279 putting whatever words they're going to say up on the 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.039 slide as opposed to thinking of this as a visual medium. 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:45.800 Yeah, your people confuse their presenter's notes with the text 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.400 on the slide. The two should have absolutely no resemblance. 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:55.360 And our theory at Clarity is if they can see it, 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.840 you don't need to say it. It just winds up 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:05.559 creating Londons. And ultimately the worst the worst mistake people 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.160 can make is engaging in what we call slide karaoke, 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.440 where you're basically just narrating the slides, and that's the 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.480 quickest way to make your audience feel like you're wasting 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:17.880 their time. I like to I like for people to 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.720 think of the slide deck and themselves as a sports 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:26.120 broadcasting team. And if you think about a sports broadcasting team, 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:27.840 you have a play by play announcer and you have 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.840 a color commentator an analyst. I'd like to think that 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:36.840 the slide is the play by play person. They're calling 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.640 the action, they're telling you what's going on, and you're 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.240 the color commentator, the analyst. You're providing the insight and 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.400 the context and the stories behind it. Those two things 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.600 are very different. If you listen to any sporting event 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.320 and the analyst came on after the play by playperson 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.160 called the play and said the exact same thing, you 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.239 couldn't listen to that, And that's what reading your slides. 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.360 So I try to make people feel as though they're 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:05.760 the star of the show. The slide deck is just 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.440 a visual adornment that's behind them. And in fact, the 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:13.240 words slide deck, bullet presentation should never come out of 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.600 people's balance. It should be a separate entity altogether. 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.080 And so given that, I think the reason a lot 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.720 of people are doing it is because the notes are 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:26.920 what they're trying to remember coming off of the PowerPoint. 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:28.880 So you just keep your notes separately, or else you 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:30.840 know it so well. It's like telling stories at a 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:32.480 cocktail party. You don't need notes for that. 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:38.880 The ratio of rehearsal to length of the length of 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:41.280 the presentation. Think of it as an eight to one ratio. 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.839 If you have a fifteen minute presentation to give, after 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.160 the content is all set and locked, you should be 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.560 practicing out loud for two hours. That's how long it 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:57.240 takes to really commit the content to memory and rather 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.600 than memorize every single thing you're going to say or batim. 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.000 There are three things that are important on each slide 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:09.760 to know. Cold one is what's the concise, punchy, declarative 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:13.280 statement I'm going to make when that slide first pops up. 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.880 What's the first line out of my mouth? What's the 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.680 big idea in this slide? What do I want them 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.640 remembering more maybe than anything else I say? And what's 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.640 the finish line look like? What is the crisp finish 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.040 to this slide? Or what is a segue line that 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:34.160 helps me foreshadow the next slide coming up? And all 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:38.040 three of those things should be crisp and concise. If 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.160 they're lengthy, it's going to be harder to commit them 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:43.080 to memory. But those three things I find are what 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:47.120 usually give a presentation a nice, well produced feel to it. 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.679 Everything you say in and around those three things can 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.640 have a little conversational wiggle room, and if they come 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.400 out of your mouth differently each time, that's fine as 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.840 long as you're still following the navigational directions you set 0:09:58.840 --> 0:09:59.920 for yourself in advance. 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.559 Well, let's talk about that practicing, because I think that ratio, 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:05.840 I think that just blew a lot of people's minds 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.640 that they heard. But getting up on stage is a 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:11.480 big deal. I mean, you've taken all these people's time. 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:13.360 They're watching you. You know you want to make it 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:17.160 good for them. How should those practices be conducted? Would 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.240 you recommend doing it exactly like you do it with 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.160 the presentation? I mean, should you have friends watch you? 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:23.600 What would you suggest you do? 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:25.960 They used to say practice in front of the mirror. 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:30.679 And your phone has completely displaced that. Your phone is 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.600 the greatest rehearsal tool on the planet. Now you can 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.880 prop it up anywhere, record yourself, and play it back. 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.600 The video does not lie, And oftentimes I will see 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:45.800 things in recording myself that I realized, Oh, that transition 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:47.679 from slide three to slide four, that isn't very good. 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:50.520 I got to smooth that out. It really does help 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.960 you edit yourself so I think that that's very important. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.240 But you play the way you practice. Every superstar athlete 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.880 will tell you that that they go one hundred and 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:07.240 ten percent in practice, so that that becomes the muscle 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.960 memory and the mode they just are conditioned to play in. 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.840 And for anybody who's thinking, well, I'll just sort of 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.800 read it silently to myself or quietly to myself, we 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.680 have an expression. No one ever makes a mistake silently 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.160 in their own head. You have to hear it come 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.319 out of your mouth, and you have to put everything 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.760 into it because you do play the way you practice. 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.480 And the other thing that I recommend people do in 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.120 rehearsal is never, when you make a mistake, say let 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:40.600 me take that from the top, let me start over. 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:42.760 You're not going to be able to do that in 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.360 front of an audience, so you should not be doing 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.600 it in rehearsal. In fact, one of the muscles you 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.960 need to build in rehearsal is how do I pull 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:55.600 myself out of the spiral downward when I've made a mistake, 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.160 maybe in my mind goes blank. You have to get 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:02.880 accustomed to getting that chip writed in practice, and if 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.120 you don't know how to do that, you'll never be 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:06.520 able to do it in front of an audience. 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:08.079 Excellent advice. 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:09.840 Well, We're going to take a quick ad break and 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:19.000 then i'll be back with more from Bill Mcowen. Well, 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:22.040 I am back talking with Bill Mcowen, who is the 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.160 founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group. 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:26.679 He is also the author of the book. 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:31.720 Speak Memorably has helped many people prepare better presentations. So, Bill, 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:33.560 I'm sure you've been on stage in front of a 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.240 lot of people. I wonder if any particular talk has 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.160 gone not as you intended it for some reason or another, 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:41.760 and what you did in that situation. 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.880 I find I always learn something new from each of 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.520 the times I present. And I had a talk to 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:57.720 give at NBC Universal one time, and I always try 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.439 to make sure that I use my own life laptop. 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.520 I don't love it when I give the laptop to 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:09.600 the av team or I even email the deck ahead 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:15.440 of time. But they gave me a clicker, and I said, 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.080 you know, let's let's pair this. Oh no, no, no, 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:22.640 it pairs automatically famous last words. Right. So I start 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.079 in and I push the button and I see it's 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:29.800 not advancing it and I look over and I realize 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.960 that I see a screen over at the AV table 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.360 and it's the screen where you are trying to pair. 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:38.280 You know, they're trying to do with the pairing. And 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.280 I realize, okay, this is a process. I know it 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:44.360 takes five minutes, so I am going to have to 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.679 fill and just start in and go. You know, there's 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.640 no other way to do it. But one thing I 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.520 learned from that experience is always get the name of 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:59.199 the audio visual technician. And the reason why you want 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:00.960 to do that is, let's say the clicker doesn't work, 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.480 or let's say your MIC is not working. There are 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:08.000 lots of technical glitches that can happen. If you know 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.720 the name of the person, you can say, Diane, would 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.000 you have another clicker? You can just toss up to me. 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.120 I think this one might need new batteries, as opposed 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.200 to I think there's a problem here. You know, with 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.880 tension in your voice, and it makes a huge difference. 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.760 It makes it sound much less stressed. So from that 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:32.760 day on, I've always committed to knowing beforehand. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.960 Go say hello, yes, right, Diane, you and I are 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:37.720 in this together. It's running. 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.280 If anything goes wrong, I'm gonna mention your name. 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.680 So I know you've also heard a lot of presentations 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:46.520 that people may be nervous if they know you're in 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.480 the audience, but you have a list I believe of 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:55.400 speaking pet peeves, things that people do more often, possibly 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.120 because they're just not thinking it through. 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:58.440 What are some of those. 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.280 One of them is all this warning people about what 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.440 you're about to do in the presentation, or what we 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.800 call talking about what you're going to talk about, and 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:16.320 you can it's amazing listening to somebody else. If you 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.280 find you need some extra stimulation sitting through other people's presentations, 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.400 just do a running tally of how many times somebody says, 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:25.560 so I want to talk a little bit now about this. 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.400 Those words should never come out of anybody's mouth. Our 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:33.920 motto is inform, don't warn, get right to it. You 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.880 don't have to announce what you're about to do. It's 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.320 just waste time for everybody. But I think we've learned 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:43.920 how to present through us Moses, and everybody does it. 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:48.440 So I think it's become this mistakenly has become this 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.280 acceptable practice. The other thing that's very funny is that 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.480 when people come up and let's say they've got notes 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:59.480 in front of them on electern and there's an audience 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.560 in front of them. They tend to look down when 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.360 they say their name and their title, and I'm thinking 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:08.400 that is something that you don't need to read. You 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.600 should be making eye contact with the audience. But it 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.320 is simply people's desire to break eye contact with the 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.880 audience because it can be very intimidating looking at all 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:23.480 those eyeballs on you. So those are two things right 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:31.880 off the bat, or just having this disjointed timeline. I 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:37.120 think having an over doing the over agenda setting is 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.720 not good. Also saying so I want to talk about that, 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:42.840 but before I do this, let's take a couple steps 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.640 back and let's do this. I feel a little whiplash 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.240 coming from that style. So I like to try to 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.040 get people to speak in a linear, smoother way. 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:55.920 All right, so we don't need to warn the audience 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:56.560 what we're doing. 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:57.520 No, do you No? 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.720 Well, unfortunately I am about to warn our audience. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.840 Well that's okay. Do you have to set their expectations. 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.359 To set their expectations of why we're not listening to 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:07.280 Bill for the next two minutes, but I promise he 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:16.680 will be back. Well, I am back talk with talking 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:20.359 with Bill McGowan about how we can speak memorably, how 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.679 we should not over narrate what we are about to 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.320 tell the audience. So Bill, I wanted to look a 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.879 little bit more at your schedule and how you manage 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.359 your life, because this podcast does talk a lot about 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.199 time management. I'm curious what your days tend to look like. 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.040 I tend to get up on the early side and 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.119 try to monitor and respond to emails from clients in 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.719 Europe in the Middle East because they've been sitting in 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:52.520 my inbox for probably five or six hours already. I 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.720 balance that with giving a read of the news, whether 0:17:55.760 --> 0:18:00.320 it's axios or the AP or the information to get 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:04.600 a broad sampling, because when we work with clients, it's 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.480 really important that we flag them on what's trending in 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.960 the news cycle. Because if they're doing a fireside chat 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.639 or they're on a panel, journalists, if they're in that 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.320 moderator chair, love to bring up something that is currently 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.560 cycling and they really need to have a POV or 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.240 they need to be able to respond to the latest 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.480 news on tariffs or an escalation of hostilities in the 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.119 Middle East, or what's going on in Minneapolis with ice, 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.359 people are not immune to being asked what their take 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.480 on things is today, so I want to make sure 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:40.719 that I have the latest news so I can advise 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:45.720 them properly. And then I usually say around eight o'clock. 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.960 I am the person who makes breakfast at home. I 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.600 have a twelve year old who loves the pancakes I make, 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.760 and if I have the opportunity to walk into school, 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:01.480 I will. If not, I need to research. It's a 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:03.560 client that I'm going to be training that day, and 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.399 in any given day, I'm probably training three, four or 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:11.600 five different companies or one company for the full day, 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.280 and I try to squeeze in a little business development 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.480 in the breaks of the day. But it's, you know, 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.240 it's a challenging juggling act. I was talking to a 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:27.040 friend today over coffee about just how much down the 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:31.879 road business development vision can you squeeze into the day 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:35.760 When you'ref client saying Hey, I got a big type 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:37.359 talk coming up next week and I really need your 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.560 help right away. It's just a balancing act. And then 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.600 when the sessions are done for the day, I usually 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:46.040 send follow up notes to clients look at trying to 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:48.760 get a steak peak of the materials for the next 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.120 day's clients. So it's it's that wheel that turns. 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:54.439 I love pancakes as a morning routine. 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.600 Now yeah, it's either a pancakes or like a kissidea 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:03.040 in the breakfast cassidea breakfast. I find my time to 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.800 zone out, not zone out, but just become very focused 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.760 on something other than work, as the kitchen and cooking 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:10.159 for me is a great release. 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:12.840 Yeah, I'm curious that you mentioned meeting with a lot 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:14.240 of different clients over the course of the day. Are 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.399 you often doing most of this via you know, tools 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:18.159 like Zoom. 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:22.480 Or it's a combination. Now, obviously a few years ago 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:25.199 it was one hundred percent. But I really love the 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.719 fact that the sessions have resumed in earnest in person, 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.159 and I travel a fair amount, so oftentimes I'll be 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.680 at one company for an entire eight hours and three, 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.240 four or five people will cycle through. So but yeah, 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.280 a fair amount of is still done over virtual. 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.760 And I'm curious, I mean moving back towards speaking advice 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:51.479 for people who are giving presentations virtually, which I've you know, 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.240 found a number of places are still interested in because 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.960 it allows people to come to it that weren't going 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:01.240 to come if they had it to be in purpose person. 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:06.000 Any advice for keeping those engaging. 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:10.080 Well, it's a whole chapter and speak memorily called zoomgenics. 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:14.800 And I had a guy the other day who asked me. 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:18.639 I was helping him with messaging about his tech firm, 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:22.000 and he said, how do you think the shot looks? 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:27.399 And so I gave him five pointers and he said, 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:29.359 oh my god, I think you just made me about 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.960 five million dollars. Is it really? He goes, yeah, I mean, 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:36.880 look at how different this shot looks Now. I look 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:42.040 so much more authoritative. And he had never been told 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.920 how you should look and how you should show up 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:52.520 on virtual So I find one tip that has worked 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:57.040 for me really, really well is if I'm giving a presentation, 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:01.280 I close all the video windows of the participants on 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:04.920 the call, because if you are going to look over 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:07.600 at the video of the people on the call and 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:11.280 expect to get that affirmation that they're riveted on every 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:14.359 word you're saying, it's not going to happen. You know, 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:16.399 you can read a room which I cannot read a 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:21.000 zoom and people look more disengaged and bored and tuned 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.600 out on virtual than they actually are, and I find 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.320 it's a distraction when you need to be focusing on 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.960 delivering the best you can. You can't have that little 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:34.560 voice on your shoulder telling you I think I think 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:36.840 you might be losing them. They're looking off screen. 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:39.880 You can checking their email. 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:42.800 Yeah, and they can be taking copious notes and you 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:44.720 may be thinking, oh, I think they're texting their friend 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:50.240 right now. So being overly concerned about how people on 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:52.960 the call show up it can really hurt. 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:55.360 One of the things I loved in your book, though, 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:59.600 as you mentioned, putting like planting a friendly colleague in 0:22:59.840 --> 0:23:03.480