Of course when you eat right, engage in moderate exercise and get plenty of rest you are the picture of health. What might not be so obvious is that what you feed your audience, how you exercise their attention, and how often you let them rest determine the health of your presentations.
Take a breath. Yeah, right now. Breathe in and breathe out. Hopefully you were already breathing but you probably weren’t paying any attention to your breath. Take another breathe. The more you pay attention to your breath the deeper you will breathe. The deeper you breathe the more relaxed you feel. Now, whenever you are in front of an audience let them breathe a little. It can be as obvious as asking them to take a breath with you or by just taking a full breath yourself. As you start to relax they will relax. Healthy presentations flow naturally from speaking to breathing. Silent pauses give everyone an opportunity to breathe together. Remember wherever your breath goes, the mind will follow.
Following your presentation means paying attention, a price most audiences will pay. They will lose interest if you are uninteresting. Normally, you speak at about 125 words per minute, gusting upwards of 200 words per minute when you are really nervous. Your audience can easily absorb 400 words per minute. If all you do is stand there and speak, each listener has only 30% of their attention engaged. Adding vocal variety will capture a little bit more attention; however, there is nothing better than creating visual interest. (Please note that 4 out of 5 audiences do not have a healthy interest in PowerPoint. The 5th audience did experience health benefits because they slept through the entire presentation). So how can you create visual interest? Move. Every gesture, posture and each change of position attracts attention. Exercise their attention, not their patience. Frenetic arm waving and pacing about like a caged animal is not healthy. Purposeful movements that illustrate and integrate with your message give your audience interesting food for thought.
Don’t make it hard to swallow what you are saying. If your audience can’t digest your presentation, then your regurgitation becomes their indigestion. You are not what you eat, you are what you absorb and your audience is just the same. Good meals have three basic ingredients: protein, starch and vegetables. Great meals take the basics and present them in an elegant balance. Your health depends on balanced eating. The audience’s health depends on balanced presenting. Offer a few points (protein) on top of emotionally interesting stories (starch) and explain why it is good for them (vegetables). Your style is your special sauce which turns bland basics in appetizing articulations. A well fed audience is happy and healthy.
Savoring a tasteful presentation which moves your listeners is a breath of fresh air. Present appealing food for thought and your audience will dine with you. Move with purpose, and your audience’s attention moves with you. Breathe, and your audience will breathe with you. Rest, exercise and eat well and your health will always be present, so your presentation can be the picture of health.