I have no doubt you have been extensively virtual this past year. Me too. I’ve been coaching hundreds of people, trapped in a machine-based communication medium that feels stripped of soul and humanity, teaching them how to make all their virtual communications meaningful to their audience.
Mastering “Direct to Camera” presentation skills
Jake, the executive I was coaching, was looking at the camera like it was a snake. He had come for coaching for what’s called “Direct to camera” presentation skills.
Many executives are coming here for this coaching because so many are being asked to make Direct to Camera videos. They’re being asked to sit in a small room and talk to a camera, with no actual audience present, to create a solo video that will be watched by 200 or 10,000 people. Many of these videos will be posted online for the public to see. I recently coached an executive who posted a video to 5,000,000 views.
It’s a weird feeling to talk directly to the camera. It’s not a “natural” skill.
The magic of muscle memory
For two years, Jason had been in his home office, in front of a computer monitor not more than 2.5 feet from him. The camera was close up, and everything was within arm’s reach and easily under his direct control.
Today, his presentation was “direct to camera”. The only live audience was the crew. And they weren’t paying attention. They were running around, moving equipment, ignoring Jason.
Jason scoped out the room one last time. Located the main camera, boldly connected with it and told the crew, “Hit it.”
He looked directly into the camera and smiled, an irrepressible, irresistible smile. He brought forth all of his warm, eye-twinkling charm and charisma and said, “Hi. Thank you for being here. Let me tell you what I want to talk to you about today.”
The reviews of Jason’s talk from his worldwide audience were enthusiastically positive. Employees felt drawn in, they were captivated, inspired, engaged and they really liked listening to him. The Communications Department is suddenly getting requests for “More Jason presentations please!”
I was reviewing the recording with Jason afterward and he revealed the secret to his success.
“Muscle memory.”
KNOWING without looking…
Many, many people have been signing up for our online training. It’s very uplifting and, as one of my clients said, “It makes you feel good about the world and it makes you feel good about yourself.”
That’s one of my purposes, so it makes me very happy to hear that. It’s a good time for learning.
I’m coaching a lot of people on their virtual presentation skills these days. I have about 50 students this week alone, a combination of workshops and one-on-one coaching for execs.
Here’s one question that comes up a lot:
“I know I’m supposed to look into the camera, but I want to see their faces to see their reactions to what I’m saying. How do I look into the camera and see their reactions at the same time?”
My answer surprises them.
There’s a huge difference between:
A. Causing the reaction you want and KNOWING you caused it without having to look
B. Doing something and then stepping back to look and see what reaction they’re having.
When someone says they need to “see their faces” to know their reaction, it immediately tells me they don’t have enough ability or skill to simply cause their intended reaction and know they caused it. Without looking.
You have to be pretty good to do that.
This level of ability gives you a super high degree of certainty. It’s a, “I don’t have to look, I KNOW I did it.”
For example, when you can say, “I don’t need anyone to tell me no one was multitasking during my presentation. I KNOW they weren’t.” And you’re right.
Or, “I don’t need to see if they get it. I KNOW I delivered it so well that they absolutely got it.”
Or, “They don’t need to tell me. I KNOW they like me. I KNOW they agree with me.”
Or, “I don’t need to see if they’re inspired or are going to act. They are and they will.”
And they do.
In other words, you knowingly caused it and you’re sure you did.
This kind of certainty comes from being able to hit it out of the park, an expression describing an American baseball batter hitting a home run that makes the ball travel so high and so far, it flies way out of the stadium beyond anyone’s reach.
What I’m talking about is being able to tell by the perfect FEEL of your swing, by the impact when you connect with the ball, and the special sound of the crack of the bat … everything about that motion feels so right, you start running around the bases because you KNOW you have a home run.
It takes an incredible amount of intention to achieve that.
Intention is positive and deliberate purpose. Deliberate means you’ve decided. Positive means totally certain. Certain means no doubt. Intention means no doubt about the outcome.
When you have that level of intention, magic happens. Whether it’s baseball or communication.
Society encourages self-doubt, but surrenders to intention.
I think I’ve mentioned to you that my inbox is full of successes and wins from students. What a joy to read them!
This week one of our recent students from Mastering Virtual Presentations wrote that she’d been invited to present to 200+ people at a Virtual event earlier in the day. She wrote she created, “25 minutes of focused presentation, total connection with the audience, eye contact, Affinity, FUN and intention! It all came to life!”
She had 200 people watching her that she couldn’t see. Did she have any visible sign that she was connecting with them?
No, she just KNEW, just like the guy who hit the home-run knows.
It’s funny. When you have that level of ability, you can actually FEEL the energy of the audience coming back to you, even when you can’t see them. Don’t ask me how, you just do. It’s powerful.
What happened after her talk? Over 50 people spontaneously reached out and emailed her kudos. 50 out of 200. Spontaneously.
When does that ever happen? Home-run.
By the way, she’s not a senior executive. She’s not someone people have to play up to. She’s an individual contributor. With noticeably amazing communication skills.
You cause the reaction of the people in your audience. Or you are the effect of their reaction.
It’s all up to you.
That’s why it’s so important for you to have a clear decision about what reaction you want to cause and the ability to do it. Then you can go ahead and cause it.
And KNOW you did it, whether or not you see their faces.
Work on your abilities. Work on your intention. Work on your certainty. They will lead you down the path to magic.
If you want to fast track your journey down that path, I invite you to get involved in one of the events below…
Be the cause!
Virtual is REAL
I woke up this morning to an email from a recent student. She just got promoted and could not be more excited. She’s a Millennial. It’s her first promotion. She’s flying high. Another student was promoted to SVP of a major Silicon Valley multinational corporation. Someone took a screen shot of the joy in her face when she was told the news during a virtual staff meeting and this beautiful photo has been shared a thousand times.
My inbox is full of good news. Some days I can’t even keep up with it.
I’ve been wanting to create online training for years. My staff will tell you it’s been on my “goals for the year” for a loooong time. I never had the time. We were always so swamped with in-person clients, there wasn’t a moment to sit down and design training for a whole new medium.
And then “now” happened. When I pulled the staff together and asked them what they thought about the situation, they didn’t even have to think. They said, “Great opportunity to do what we’ve been wanting to do for years.”
And so we are.
In the last several weeks we’ve built an online business overnight. Everyone working overtime. It’s going better than even we expected.
We’ve been overwhelmed by the client demand for this training. It turns out we have people all over the country and the world who have been wanting to do our services, but weren’t able to travel or have us come there.
We’ve trained hundreds of people in the last several weeks, WAY more than we were ever able to do in person, and the wins are pouring into my inbox more than ever. I was delighted to discover that the amazing wins our clients have always had working with us in person also happen when they work with us virtually. I can’t tell you how relieved I am! I was worried the client wins would be less. Not so! Whew!
We were able to offer free webinars for several weeks. But we’re now being asked to do so many sessions for individual corporations, we simply don’t have time to continue them at the moment.
There’s one exception. A number of organizations asked me to put something together specifically for engineers. We have so many of them around us. So you’ll see a free webinar just for them below (or for you if you are one!).
I’ve learned so much in the last several weeks. Some I already knew, but it really came home to me seeing so many people win in such a short period of time:
When you have the ability to engage any audience or any individual and create a powerful impact when you’re virtual, there’s no one in the world you can’t reach.
Despite what most people think, the word virtual does NOT mean, “Not there.” It means, “MAKE IT REAL.” The word virtual literally means, “Having the power of being real.” Even though it’s not actual, it is AS POWERFUL as if it were real.
That means your virtual presence should be as strong, powerful and real as if you were in the same room. It means your communication should be as strong, powerful and real as if you were right in front of their face. It means your impact needs to be REAL. That’s what the word “virtual” means.
When you can do that, no one tunes you out. No one multi-tasks. They listen. They get it. They respect you. They’re inspired. They buy-in. And, if you’re really good, they admire you.
That takes some serious skills. They’re easy to learn.
When it comes to communicating effectively, even very capable people are operating at less than 10% of their potential. Bring out the other 90% of yourself. It’s there waiting for you. There’s nothing more thrilling. You’ll fly high.
Don’t listen to feedback that’s not helpful. The only feedback you should listen to is feedback that gets you excited and makes you feel your true power is being released.
Find a good source to work with. If you didn’t invent Jedi, you’ll need a Jedi Master to help you become Jedi. You won’t figure Jedi out on your own. Work with a Jedi Master and you’ll achieve extraordinary results so fast it’s exhilarating.
We’ve had many organizations have their folks do live group online training together. It’s crazy awesome fun. I’ve never seen groups have such a good time! Learn new skills together and support each other and keep the skills alive when the training is over.
Possibly the most important thing I learned is that ALWAYS is a good time to develop your skills. It’s always a good time. You are alive and have goals that matter to you today. Don’t back-burner your happiness.
You are important to the world. We need you. We need to hear your voice. We need you to win at the game of life. Whatever way you do it, gain the communication skills you need so life is not directing you, but you are causing it to go the way you know it should. We will all be happier because of it.
Be the cause!
Upcoming Online Services
NOTE: Please check with your company’s Learning & Development department to see if our programs are in their catalogue. If they are, that’s the best way for you to sign up. The free webinar for engineers is not in catalogues yet.
1. FREE Webinar: Virtual Communication Skills for Engineers
April 28, 2020
11:00 – 12:30 PST
Click here for information and to register.
2. Live Group Webinars for Teams or Employees to Keep Morale High
Click here for information and to schedule.
3. One-on-one Virtual Coaching to Build Life-Changing Skills
Click here for information and to schedule.