I present today, but I lost my voice! What do I do?
By Isaac D. Castillo (@isaac_outcomes)

If you present enough, you will encounter the situation I have today at #Eval14: You woke up this morning and have lost your voice. And of course, you present later in the day. How can you possibly recover in time to present?

Well, don’t worry. I am here to offer some advice that comes from decades of experience presenting in less than ideal situations.

First, do not panic. You can easily recover your voice for a 60 minute presentation. The key with recovering your voice comes in awakening your vocal cords. So, how do we do this?

Start by drinking hot beverages. Hot tea with lemon and honey is ideal, but any hot beverage will do. The hot liquids will help to loosen and awaken your vocal cords – getting them ready for use. However…..

Stay away from dairy products. As any speech coach will tell you, consuming dairy before a presentation is a bad thing even when you are feeling good. But if you have lost your voice, dairy will make things worse. Dairy products coat your vocal cords, making them more difficult to use. So, you can still have your coffee, but make sure you have it without milk or cream.

Next, keep eating. You may not feel great, but it is important to keep eating for two reasons. One reason is that you need your energy, and food is energy. If you are hungry, you will feel tired, and it will make your vocal cords feel worse. Another reason is that food will allow you to again get your vocal cords ready to use – although you aren’t talking, you are still moving your vocal cords when you swallow, which helps get them ready for use.

Finally – don’t use your vocal cords more than you have to. That means that you probably need to limit the number of conversations you have with people, especially right before your presentation. You are simply saving your vocal cords. Many people encourage gargling with mouthwash or water before you speak – but I think this is a horrible idea – it stresses your vocal cords at a time when you want to preserve them.

Right before you speak – drink some hot liquid, have a quick snack and speak aloud for 60 seconds to get your voice ready. Then start speaking. Make sure to have plenty of liquids at hand to drink while you talk – you will need them, but you will make it through! I promise.

Good luck and have a great presentation!

Who is Isaac? Before Isaac began working in the evaluation field, he was an All American college debater. He has taught public speaking, presentational speaking, and debate to high school and college students, as well as adults, for over 20 years.

In February I tweeted this image of Johanna Morariu and I getting ready to give an Innovation Network webinar. I jokingly referred to our conference room’s careful setup as our Webinar Command Center.

Welcome to our webinar command center! Logic model training w/ @j_morariu & @GrantStation in T minus 2 minutes. pic.twitter.com/KDcMUZ78bN

— Ann K. Emery (@AnnKEmery) February 26, 2014

A bunch of people have asked how we set up our Webinar Command Center. Here’s how to structure your physical space to ensure that your mind is free to give the best webinar possible.

Three laptops

Yes. Three. Each laptop serves a unique purpose.

Laptop #1 is for viewing your slides and speaking points through PowerPoint’s presentation mode. We make the images really small and make our speaking points really large.

Laptop #2 is the “live” webinar laptop, which is registered for the webinar in the Presenter role. This laptop gets a special treat, the blue internet cord, to assure the fastest connection possible. We assign one person to advance the slides and another person to monitor the chat box.

Laptop #3 is registered for the webinar in a Participant role. We “watch” the webinar from the participant’s point of view from the corner of our eyes. We’re constantly glancing at this screen to check for technological glitches (blank screens, frozen screens) and slow slide transitions (fluctuating internet connection speeds). Sometimes we notice lag times of 2-3 seconds between slides, so we stop and take a breath as we’re waiting for the new slide to load on Laptop #3.

If your organization is hosting its own webinar, it’s easy to register yourself as a participant with a fake name. If another organization is hosting the webinar (i.e., you’re a guest speaker on a webinar that someone else has set up), just ask the host to set up a fake participant registration for you. It’s easy for the organizer to set up, and guarantees a higher-quality webinar for everyone.

Notepad

Here’s the notepad that Johanna and I used during a recent webinar.

We troubleshoot about pacing, timing, technological glitches, and questions that come in through the chat box. As you can see, most of our notes are related to pacing: encouraging each other to speed up during boring sections or slow down when the slides are advancing slower than normal.

Notepads are also crucial when you’re presenting solo: to jot down participant questions that you need to remember to address later in the webinar (“during Q&A – elaborate on Maria’s question re: strategies for using data for org learning”) and to reflect on what you’ll need to adjust for future webinars (“this section moved too slow; need to cut down content”).

Pacing Schedule

Our pacing schedule, written on large paper, is the secret weapon in our webinar success. You can see it in the background of the image I tweeted.

In the weeks or months leading up to the webinar, outline your content. I use Google docs so that I can add ideas from work, from home, or from my cell phone as I’m riding the train into work (via the Google Drive app).

A major step in outlining is to allocate time to each section. I ask myself, “How much time does this particular story, example, or resource really deserve? 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes?” I practice explaining the content aloud and time myself with my cell phone’s stopwatch feature. I need to know exactly how long each story takes so that I don’t overemphasize boring sections or underemphasize the most useful sections. By the time I give a webinar, I’ve practiced each section 3-5 times (or, sometimes 10, if my initial time estimates were way off).

And of course you’ll want to allocate time for participant activities and questions, but that’s a different post.

Notice how the introduction only gets 5 minutes, max. The most boring part of your webinar is the background information about you and your organization. Give people the meat of the presentation (the information they paid to learn) as soon as possible, or you’ll lose your audience (and get awful survey ratings). In our February webinar, we knew we would purposefully begin the webinar 1-2 minutes late. Then, the hosting organization would welcome the participants and introduce their own organization. Once the webinar was handed off to us, we still needed to introduce Innovation Network… and ourselves… and the agenda… and the learning objectives for the webinar (slides 1-6 in this excerpt). We spent those 90 seconds very carefully.

When your outline and time allocations are 90% finished, build your slides. Section breaks should be indicated by divider slides (like slides 7 & 11 in this excerpt).

Finally, the day of the webinar, write your final pacing schedule on large paper. We star the sections that are most important (in this example, the logic model components and the awesome FAQs, which went into advanced-level logic model details). This is where we pause frequently to address questions coming in through the chat box, elaborate on our stories and examples, and go off-script to make the tone more conversational and interesting to listen to. These starred sections contain valuable takeaway lessons and can’t be rushed. In contrast, we also remind ourselves when to rush through less-crucial information with notes on our pacing schedule like “hurry here!” During these sections, we rarely stop to address chat box questions in the moment, although we certainly answer these questions at the end when we have extra time.

Then, tape the pacing schedule somewhere extremely visible. We often tape the schedule onto the window that’s directly across from our chairs so that we can glance up every few minutes and make sure we’re on track. Why large paper? 8.5 x 11 papers will get lost in the clutter on your table, no matter how clean your desk is.

Additional tools

Landline phone. Notice how the phone is located between the two presenters’ chairs so that it picks up both voices equally.

Smart phone as a backup for the occasional landline fail.

Water, filled only halfway. Everyone who’s co-presented conference presentations or webinars with me knows that I get ridiculously thirsty after speaking for 60 or 90 minutes straight. Give yourself just enough water to soothe your dry throat, but not so much that you mindlessly drink more than you need. (You can’t run to the bathroom in the middle of your own webinar.) Avoid coffee. The best way to sabotage yourself is to throw unnecessary caffeine on your adrenaline rush and nerves.

Chapstick for the dry lips.

Printed slides in case Laptop #1 explodes.

What’s not in the room

Garr Reynolds discusses how we need to be fully present when speaking with our audience. Remove all the clutter from your desk–your purse, wallet, extra notepads, project work, etc. Better yet, lead your webinar from an empty conference room. A simple, well-designed physical space will give you the mental space to focus all your energy and attention on your audience.

Want to see our Webinar Command Center in action? Register for Terms, Tips, and Trends: Evaluation Essentials for Nonprofits, a webinar from Veena Pankaj and I on April 24, 2014.

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Part 3: Is Your Audience on Facebook?

When people ask me what is going on in my mind when I give a presentation, I answer them by saying: “I’m reading the audience.”  But what exactly does that mean? 

In presentations, nonverbal communication works both ways.  In previous posts I have discussed how your movement and gestures as a presenter can further emphasize your presentation.  However, your audience is using nonverbal communication as well – and learning how to interpret these cues can help you turn around a struggling presentation or allow you to make your content truly inspirational. 

As a presenter, you not only have to present your material, you have to observe audience members to see if they are paying attention to you or if they are updating their Facebook status.  But how exactly do you do this?  

I look for people’s behaviors.  Engaged audience members will look right at you, will shake their heads in agreement or disagreement, will take notes, or ask questions.   Audience members who have lost interest will be taking notes or working on devices but never look up or at you, will be holding side conversations, or will yawn or look around the room continuously.   All of these are signs that you have lost some members of the audience and that you will soon lose many more.  This is the time to change things up and re-engage people.

So how do you re-engage your audience when you have lost them?  That is where you can use some nonverbal techniques such as movement around the room, verbal techniques such as changing the volume of your voice, or even changing the flow of your presentation.   Telling a personal story or giving a real world example also frequently gets people re-engaged.  

The key thing to remember once you have lost your audience is that you need to do SOMETHING different.  That something different may be something as simple as moving around the room or telling a new story, or it may be more drastic like taking an unplanned break.  Don’t be afraid of these situations – like a good evaluator, just keep in mind that sometimes an approach will fail and you will need to implement a different presentation approach to improve the outcome for the audience! 

Additional Resources:

• More tips on specific things you should be looking for when reading your audience: Supercompetent Speaking: Reading Your Audience
• Why should you care about reading your audience? 4 Geek Excuses for Bad Presentations
• You have lost your audience, now what? What to do when you’re losing your audience

Tips for Beginners:   See eye to eye.  Making eye contact, even only briefly, is important.  It provides you with the opportunity to make a connection with an audience member, and it holds their attention.  Try to make yourself switch eye contact with a different audience member every minute of your presentation.

Tips for Veterans:   Improve your ability to read the audience quickly.  Try this little exercise (you’ll need help from 1 or 2 people to act as an audience).  Give a practice presentation, and have your helpers sit in different parts of the room.  At regular intervals (no more than 1 minute, no less than 15 seconds) the helpers should hold up SIMPLE math problems (1+1= ; 5-3= ; 2×3= ; etc.) in the audience, and you should be able to read them, and answer them (aloud or in your head) while still giving your presentation.  This will train your brain and your eyes to be looking for cues from the audience, interpreting them, and doing something about them during the course of your presentation.

Tips for Experts:   Engage the daydreamer.  Nothing brings someone’s attention to you like actually directly engaging them in your presentation.   When I see an audience member losing focus or working on something else, I often directly engage them in one of several ways.  I may ask them a question or ask them to provide an example.  I stand or sit down next to them and tell them one of my stories or examples directly.  These approaches get daydreamers to re-focus and provide a change of pace for the rest of the audience.

–Isaac Castillo, @isaac_outcomes

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Related Posts from Isaac:

• Part 1: Getting Handy in Your Presentation
• Part 2: Movement as Speech
• The Volume of Your Presentation
• The Best Presenters Focus on their Audience

He writes, “When presenting in person, many people focus intently on what they will say and on the slides or other content that they will present visually.  However, there is an equally important component of in-person presentations that can greatly improve your affect on the audience:  nonverbal communication and body language.   In this three part blog series, we will cover how you can make the most of your movement, your hands, and your eyes to improve your presentation.” I hope you enjoy learning some of Isaac’s strategies.  — Ann Emery

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Part 2: Movement as Speech

Isaac Castillo, Movement as Speech

How and when you move around a presentation space can greatly improve your presentation – particularly when speaking to a large audience.   Far too often, speakers remain rooted to a podium or table – using it as some form of crutch or security blanket.   But leaving those safe confines (if done effectively) can further emphasize your points and keep your audience engaged.   How can you make sure you are using movement most effectively in your presentations?  Here are some tips…..

First, plan out where you are going to move to during your presentation.  Try to get to your presentation space early and look at the layout.   Is there ample space for you to move from one side of the room to the other?  Are there chairs and obstacles in the way?  Will the projector shine in your eyes if you stand in a particular spot?  Actually walk the space and make a determination if there are bad spots to move through and avoid them.

Second, reconsider things once people show up.  If you end up with a crowded space, or many people in the front, you may want to limit the total area where you will move.   Conversely, in a very open space that is not crowded, you’ll want to move more to keep everyone’s attention and to make the room feel smaller.

Finally, remember to move with a purpose.  Do not wander across the room or pace across the stage.  Move to make a point or to keep the audience engaged.   If you find yourself wandering during a presentation stay still for several minutes and then only move again when there is a natural break in your content.

Additional resources:  this blog post offers some interesting things to keep in mind when considering movement for your presentation:  http://www.nosweatpublicspeaking.com/non-verbal-communication-element-5-body-movement/

Tips for Beginners:   Make yourself move at a certain time!  Keep an eye on your time, and remind yourself to move at certain time intervals.  When I first began speaking regularly, I would make myself move every 5 minutes.   Moving at certain intervals keeps your audience engaged (since they should be following you with their eyes) and also provides good natural breaks in the flow of your presentation.

Tips for Veterans:   Match verbal transitions with movement transitions.  Movement in a presentation is best done when it complements your words – so try to match your movement around a room with good transition points in your presentation.  One of my favorite things to do is to move to emphasize important points or to transition from one concept to another.

Tips for Experts:   When appropriate, try to move into your audience.  There may be times in your presentation where moving to the back of the room, or even sitting down in the audience can help make an important point.  You could move to the back of the room to keep less interested audience members engaged or focused, or sit down next to an audience member to recreate a situation.  You will certainly get people’s attention, and hopefully add another layer to your words.

— Isaac Castillo, @isaac_outcomes

Enjoy! Ann Emery

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Isaac Castillo

“One of the most difficult things for many presenters to master is volume control of their voice.   In most situations, we are used to talking in a normal conversational tone and volume.  But normal volume usually doesn’t work for a presentation – and it certainly doesn’t work if you are presenting without a microphone.   On the other hand, you don’t want to be screaming at your audience, particularly in a small space.

So how do you know if your volume is correct?  Here are some tips to keep in mind.

If at all possible, get to your presentation space early and ask someone to help check your volume.  This could be a friend or colleague, the person responsible for audio/visual needs, or even that eager person that shows up first.  Keep in mind that what sounds loud enough at the beginning of your presentation in an empty room will NOT be loud enough when dozens (or hundreds) of people fill the room.

But sometimes you won’t have the chance to check your volume in a room before you start.  In these cases, here are some things you can do to make sure everyone can hear you.

First, you can simply ask your audience if you are loud enough.  There is nothing wrong with this, and really is one of the best ways to check your volume.  The key is to make sure you get feedback from the back of the room – those in the front row will always be able to hear you, you want to make sure the same is true for those in the last row.

Second, you should look for signs that members of the audience are having difficulty hearing you.  Looks of confusion, people leaning forward, and tilted heads are all good signs that you are not being loud enough.  And again, pay attention to those in the back row.

Tips for Beginners:   Talk slightly louder than you think you should be talking.  If you feel like you are talking in a normal voice, you are not loud enough.  You should really feel like you are talking slightly louder than necessary – that will be your correct volume for a filled room.

Tips for Veterans:  Work out your diaphragm!  Your diaphragm is where you get your vocal volume.   Do this exercise to increase your capacity to talk louder:  lie on your back and place a book (nothing too heavy) on your stomach directly below your ribcage.   Take a deep breath in and lift the book by inflating your diaphragm.  Breathe out and let the book fall with your stomach.  Practice this for five minutes a day – increasing the weight of the books.  You should eventually be able to lift two telephone books with no effort.

Tips for Experts:   Use different volume levels during your presentation.   Telling stories or communicating content at different volume levels can add a different level of emphasis to your presentation.  I like to use a softer voice when talking about difficult work or when telling emotional stories.  Louder voices are good for exciting moments.  Varying your volume intentionally within your presentation can help make a good presentation great.”

–Isaac Castillo

Here’s a guest post by my former supervisor, Isaac Castillo. Isaac is one of the most talented public speakers in the evaluation and performance management field. In fact, I watched this video a few days before I interviewed with him and was sold by his comfort in front of the camera. I thought to myself, “Here’s a guy who really knows his stuff and can explain it to others!” Unfortunately those skills are much too rare in the evaluation field.

I hope you enjoy reading Isaac’s reflections about presentations.

– Ann Emery

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“Good presenters, and good storytellers, can work their magic in any setting, using many things (or nothing) to help communicate their points. So the best presenters have to be flexible enough to respond to their audience, their environment, and the pace of their presentation.

On Sunday, I delivered an opening plenary for a national conference, and got through the first part with good audience feedback and energy. But I noticed a lag in interest halfway through my time, and did something rarely done: I stopped and encouraged the audience of 100+ to take a break. There was no break called for in the schedule, but I read the audience and recognized that if they were to get the most out of my last few messages, they needed to relax for a few minutes and come back refreshed.

I think most presenters focus on their content – and will deliver this content in the way they think is best. The BEST presenters focus on their audience – and these presenters will rarely deliver the same content in the same way. They will make changes based on what they read their audience and environment to be at the time.”

– Isaac Castillo