Fwd: Your presentation is going bad ... panic briefly then do this to recover

Remember your last difficult and painful client call? It happens to me too. On Saturday, I was minding my own business when my speaking agent called, "Hey Oren, you need to be in London on Monday." uhhh, you mean the London Hotel in Los Angeles? No, she said, "London, London. You're going to England. It's 2,000 people, the other speaker backed out and I booked you. You. Are. Going." No brainer, right? Just jump on a plane, travel to the other side of the world, with jet lag and under high-pressure, give an amazing performance to 2,000 people who were obviously expecting a different (and better) performer. What a second. I wondered out loud... why not to do the presentation by skype? I proposed to the client: cut my fee in HALF if I can do it by skype straight to your Jumbotron. The client loved the idea. We signed the deal and I started thinking ... What could possibly go wrong here?? All I have to do to collect a payday is: - broadcast to a huge Dallas Cowboys-sized jumbotron 11,000 miles away - using a $900 Canon camera in a warehouse in California - operated by an intern named "Peter" who I have known for 3-weeks - while I deliver american-style jokes to European aristocrats So how did I do? Here's the politically correct answer: Oh, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present on the world stage to one of the world's greatest companies. Here's the truth: Farvegneugnan! My laptop froze 11 seconds into the presentation. It locked up on my test slide. I could see the audience looking at me on the Jumbotron, confused, and they definitely did not look "entertained" which is not good because I get paid to do one job: "entertain." Look, I'm not completely crazy: I know things go wrong and always prepare and practice backup content eg. a 4-minute long killer joke for such emergency situations. Always have a 5-minute prepared "piece" that you know cold. This will give your tech people a chance to fix the problem and reduce your panic attack. The joke I use in these situations is terrific and has a moral-to-the-story, but It's too long to print here,so just imagine something like this, below, a short story that highlights the true nature of man... A guy asks his neighbor in an apartment building: "Hey, you live directly above me and you have the same 2-room apartment as I do. How many rolls of wallpaper did you buy when you moved in?" "We got 18 rolls," answers the neighbor. A week later the guy meets his neighbor again and says, "It's really strange – I put the wallpaper on everywhere and I still had 10 rolls left over." Neighbor smiles, "Yeah, so did we." Ha! People can be so inconsiderate, in fact, when there is no immediate benefit to us, we can be thoughtless and careless to others. As I dropped the punchline, did the audience break out in laughter? NO. Instead, they stared at the Jumbotron like I was reading them page 97 of the Senate healthcare bill. Really? Out of 2,000 people, not a single one thought my joke was worth a half smile? With no slides to show, and no-love from the audience, this was looking grim. I had a mild panic attack, which lasted only briefly, because ... 5-seconds later, the audience exploded in laughter. The video feed delay had finally caught up to the punchline! roaring laughter! This gave me a chance to do two things: 1. Shift to my memorized back-up material, and 2. Adjust to the video-delay. Eventually, someone in tech got the slides working (the tech guys always come through if you give them a few minutes). The adrenaline rush of almost failing forced me to give one hell of a presentation. Where's the lesson in all this? It doesn't matter if you're broadcasting to an I-Max screen or a 2" Samsung watch, anyone who makes presentations for a living knows, video audiences only want four things from you: 1. New and useful business information 2. A narrative format 3. 5-simple slides 4. Solid Jokes that's it. So here's a question: If you're getting thrown onto video calls and into live presentations, are you fully prepared? Your next call has started, and let's assume: - there's a problem with audio & tech - time is cut short - your partner joins late, calling from his loud car so you have to mute him - the client didn't read your briefing - the slides are in the wrong order Only one thing can make this right. A great narrative presentation. No slides. No outside help. Just you, explaining why your product and your company is the best. Maybe you already have a great presentation. I'd love to see it and find out. And if your current presentation is "ok" but not great, consider joining me on July 28th to do three things. 1. Show myself and a team of professionals what your current pitch looks like 2. We will poke holes in it, shine a light on the flaws, errors and weak-spots 3. Then we will fix, upgrade and make it an enterprise-quality world-class presentation. If you want to have the best pitch in your industry, apply here. Oren   SHARE. If you found any value in this newsletter, or it made you laugh or smile, forward it to colleagues and friends who might be interested. They'll thank you and so will I. SUBSCRIBE. If you received this newsletter from a friend, and would like to subscribe (it's fr/ee!), just enter your name and email address in the box on my blog. If you wish to stop receiving our emails or change your subscription options, please Manage Your Subscription Pitch Industries, 5825 Avenida Encinas #110, Carlsbad, CA 92008