But Jenna Lange can relieve you of that fear!
I’ve seen many times the statement that people are more afraid of public speaking than of death. In which case, Jenna Lange may be more valuable than a doctor! I have a smile on my face as I write this, because I worked with Jenna when I was at Russell Investments, and she was a joy to work with. And I saw her again, for the first time in decades, at a conference arranged earlier this year by PGIM (Prudential Global Investment Management), at which we were both speakers. And Jenna gave me a copy of her book Please Don’t Picture Them Naked (what a delightful title) and autographed it for me.
Jenna and her firm (Lange International) teach executives not only not to fear public speaking and making presentations, but how to do so effectively. At Russell we needed her help as much as any organization does. And my abiding memory is actually not about the lessons she shares in her book, but about her instinct. We didn’t need to fill out forms. As soon as any one of us started to make a presentation, she immediately sensed what concerned us and so enabled us to overcome both our fears and our shortcomings. Heaven knows that’s valuable!
When I returned home from the PGIM conference I at first misplaced her book. (Of course I’ve found it again, thank goodness – imagine the embarrassment of telling her I needed another autographed copy!) Deprived of the opportunity of reading it, I went to Kindle and downloaded their version of the book – which struck me as shorter. And now I know: indeed it is shorter, even shorter than the short paperback. And constructed differently. So in fact there are two versions of the book, both enormously helpful.
I love the way she gets right down to business with every facet, whether psychological or content-related or presentation-related. And the points she makes (indeed, stresses) are not obvious, but often reassuring. For example: The main thing is to connect with your audience. This is not a natural skill. The whole thing should be about them, not about you: so, find out about them. Try to make your content emotional. Get to the point right away. Be prepared, so that even without slides you’ll be in control. What to do when things go wrong.
You’re feeling: sure, that makes sense, but don’t just tell me what good presenters do, show me how to actually do that myself. So, all the way through, everything comes with a “Here’s how” section (thank goodness!). Many points need to be made more than once (because you might well miss the significance of a point if you read it and move on) – so Jenna repeats them. And one of the repetitions says: “Remember: record yourself and review.” So you can practice privately – something that helped me enormously, because who wants to be embarrassed in front of others? – and I’ve made hundreds of presentations and speeches in my time.)
The shorter Kindle version is structured differently, but just as effectively. It has ten “Strategies,” and each is explained, followed by sections entitled “Prepare” and “Practice” so that you get practical input on how to do those each of those ten things.
I don’t do this sort of speech-making much any more, and that gave me all the more pleasure to remind myself of the past, and I remembered hints I’d forgotten.
As I re-read this, it sounds a bit like a puff piece. It isn’t meant to be. It’s simply meant to be an expression of appreciation and gratitude to Jenna. Thank you.
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Takeaway
No need to fear, any more, the burden of making a speech or presentation.
4 Comments
I have written about retirement planning before and some of that material also relates to topics or issues that are being discussed here. Where relevant I draw on material from three sources: The Retirement Plan Solution (co-authored with Bob Collie and Matt Smith, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009), my foreword to Someday Rich (by Timothy Noonan and Matt Smith, also published by Wiley, 2012), and my occasional column The Art of Investment in the FT Money supplement of The Financial Times, published in the UK. I am grateful to the other authors and to The Financial Times for permission to use the material here.
Like you, Don, I have given many presentations over many decades. Fortunately, I’ve never had a fear of the audience, having , since my childhood, always been willing to express myself to as many people as could fill a room or auditorium. And, as one would expect, I was always learning, adapting and refining.
I have taken a few courses, but the one that stood out above all the rest was “The Executive Technique”. Why ? It was a two and a half day boot camp. Now, fifty years later, whenever I’m speaking to a group, all the discipline and methodology comes back without a thought.
Key elements I’ve learned include “Listener Train of Thought” (‘The Executive Technique”) – I often start by asking the audience what they hope to get out of my presentation, thus enabling me to tweak my delivery. (For nervous speakers this interaction removes the perceived barrier between you and the audience.) We have greater recall of the visual than the audio – visuals should be very simple and impactful. After following a series of incredibly outstanding speakers at a conference in Bangkok, I gave a 5 minute address with one concluding visual. Years later I met two Bangkok audience members in London – they said that I was the only speaker whose content they still remembered. Why ? A short focused address with one simple visual ! Perhaps that is a timely point – the average adult attention span used to be 20 minutes. I suspect it’s less today.
As is evident, I could go on, but I won’t take the reader for granted.
Thanks, Ted. Well, I’ve heard you speak, and it works!
Thank you for this additional reference.
Steve Levitt (you introduced me to his Podcast, so I have no hesitation in referring to it now) did an episode a couple of months ago, https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-captivate-an-audience/ with Bill McGowan. It was enlightening and illuminating. I will now have to follow up on that, and pay attention to Jessica Lange.
It’s ironic that great speakers like you are the most interested in how to be even better!