Presenting under pressure is tough. In your mind’s eye, you’re hoping for the silky, easy going delivery of a TED talk. In reality, it’s stumbling, stuttering, sweating, stomach aches and a steady internal monologue of swear words. 

If you’re me, you’ve sweat and sworn a lot. 

But I’ve also learned a secret. 

Being a great presenter is not a you-either-got-it-or-you-don’t thing. The ‘naturally gifted’ presenters you admire most likely worked their way from stringing sentences together to really holding a room. Presenting can be, and should be, practiced. 

It gets easier. It can even be fun.

Like the strategy magpie I am, I’ve hoarded some tips & tricks over the years. 

Here are 3 lessons I can share for less sweaty presentations. 

LESSON 1: ENERGY

The simplest thing to start with is energy.

And while we all know energy is important, it’s easy to forget. Ever hear someone open a meeting with “We’re so excited about what we’re going to share today” in a voice that suggested they were about to take a 45 minute nap?

Often, our role as a strategist is to inspire: our team, our clients, our partners. In any given meeting, you’re setting the energy for the room (or Zoom.)

People are looking for cues—do you truly care about what’s being shared? Are you invested? Bored? Mad? Mutinous? Happy to be there? … Hungry? Those signals come across loud and clear depending on the energy you’re projecting. Different energy is right for different moments. But when in doubt, default to fun. This is advertising. 

• Present with your face: Body language counts for a lot. Smiling (are you forgetting to smile? Seriously, that’s easy to forget), nodding, gesturing communicates that you really want to be there. 

• Present with your voice: Sometimes your audience is looking at something other than the Zoom window. The lure of email has stolen them away. So you need to draw them in with your god-given instrument: vocals. Nothing is worse than a monotone, so it’s up to you to mix it up. Are you slowing down and speeding up your rhythm? Are you raising and lowering volume? Delivering with sincerity and a smile, then swapping for serious and pointed? Are you pausing for dramatic effect? All good presentations build to a crescendo—a listener should be able to tell you’re reaching a major inflection point even if they speak another language. 

• Watch the clock: Pacing matters. Too fast and no one can follow the argument. Too slow and you’re stealing time away from the creatives or the discussion. Be conscious of your timings. And don’t be afraid to ask your account lead for cues to speed up or slow down. 

• Focus your energy wisely: Nothing sucks the energy out of the room faster than a line-by-line narration of every piece of copy on a slide. Each section, each slide, even each sentence has a focal point. Choose where you want to bring your audience’s attention by devoting time and emphasis there. 

Pro tip: Professionals do warm up exercises and you can too! Or just turn on a song 3 minutes before the meeting for the dopamine kick. My go-to is “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone.

LESSON 2: CONFIDENCE

A step above looking & sounding like you want to be there is commanding the room. 

Persuasion takes more than having the right evidence. True persuasion relies on the power of your delivery as much as the power of your argument. 

• Beware of ums, ahs, errrs & likes: Everyone relies on filler words and phrases. They help us connect our thoughts and fill pauses. The trick is replacing those unhelpful, clunky fillers that sneak into your speech without your consent with a more intentional vocabulary of your own choosing. If you’re having trouble banishing a case of the “ums”,  try slowing yourself down and keeping a mental list of alternatives handy: “If we take a beat here” is a favorite of mine. 

• Avoid underselling: There’s a fine line between sounding humble and unsure. “I guess” sounds one way. “As we dug in and started to think about it…” sounds another.

• Look well prepared… by being well prepared: You’ll never regret scripting out your voiceover. It takes time—maybe you only read it aloud once or twice—but it will always pay off. When drafting a presentation, your script (not slides) can be an excellent place to start. Some of the very best presenters in strategy swear by it.

Pro tip: Record yourself presenting. Then watch it once all the way through. Re-watch it without the video, listening only to your voice. Re-watch it a final time sound-off. Glaring mistakes that were once totally invisible to you will suddenly appear and make themselves known. (This exercise is as useful as it is painful, and you will both thank and curse me for it.)

LESSON 3: INTIMACY

The third presenting super power in your arsenal is human connection. 

This is tougher than ever to achieve over Zoom, so you must be deliberate about it. 

• Make it about you: Clients want to know what you really think (Do you buy what you’re selling them?) So tell them what makes you, a fellow human person, really believe in this idea. Never underestimate the power of a personal story—these things can stick harder than data.

• Make it about them: Dale said it best: “A person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Did your client say something smart in the last meeting? Give you the insight that got you to the strategy? Name drop them. Their ears will perk up.

• Make it about the team: Clients also like to feel chemistry. Bringing them into the team’s dynamic (AKA some good-natured banter) shows them you genuinely like working together… and have more to talk about than the weather. 

• Make it a conversation: Perhaps the overarching theme here is: don’t treat presenting like a one-way street. Chances are you’re not behind a podium delivering the national address. Most meetings are actually pretty intimate affairs. The more you treat them as a conversation amongst friends, the easier it is to bewitch yourself into forgetting there’s any damn reason to be nervous in the first place. 

Pro tip: Don’t forget—people love to talk. It’s human. Sometimes a successful meeting is one where you’ve actually gotten everyone else to do the talking.

BONUS LESSON: SURPRISE!

It is my opinion that all presentations are better, and more effective, with a bit of fun.

This is what takes virtually any meeting from good to brilliant.

Whether it’s a brief or a pitch, an element of surprise can do wonders to jolt people out of their meeting malaise. Maybe it’s as simple as a moment of unexpected humor. Or it’s a cheeky slide, your singing voice, a costume or releasing a live butterfly out of a box. (John King, the first and perhaps best Head of New Business I ever knew reportedly did this in a pitch once. I can’t remember why, and I believe the butterfly actually died by the time he opened the box. But the ambition was there.)

DON’T SWEAT IT

If you got this far, let me leave you with this: there is no single way to be a great presenter. How you apply these lessons (energy, confidence, intimacy and surprise) is up to you. 

The power of a Zag is difference—and that same law of physics applies to a presentation. The best presentation style is one that’s uniquely and truly your own. And with time, practice, and a bit of self-given grace, you will find it. In the meantime, give it your best shot. Take risks and don’t sweat the mistakes-even if the butterfly dies. 🦋💀