Do You Know the Way to Spanish Bay?
July 31, 2009 by Jerry
The Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, California, is 85 miles from the heart of Silicon Valley. This proximity, along with its first class golf course and attractive seaside location, make the resort a popular destination for conferences run by the Valley’s many technology organizations. As a presentations coach, I am often invited to such conferences to give a presentation about how to give a presentation. I usually deliver the same subject matter, adapted for and oriented to each unique audience. My subject matter is drawn from material I have been delivering for over two decades, and so I am quite familiar with the content.
Nevertheless, I practiced each of those presentations thoroughly, utilizing a technique I recommend to every client I have ever coached and which I recommend to you. That technique is Verbalization, which means speaking your presentation aloud in advance just as you will to your actual audience. This powerful rehearsal methodology has analogues in sports, music, theater, and adages: Practice makes perfect.
To demonstrate the power of Verbalization, let me turn to a literary device used by Robert Greene in his bestselling book, The 48 Laws of Power. Greene describes each of the laws and then proves the power of the law by illustrating the consequences of what he calls “transgression of the law.” So here’s what happened when I transgressed my own advice and failed to practice my own presentation aloud in advance:
Of the many presentations I have delivered at the Inn at Spanish Bay, four were to the annual conferences of one major investment bank. Each of those four conferences had the same agenda, so each of my presentations covered relatively the same content. True to my own advice, I practiced my presentations aloud and did so during the nearly two hour drive from my Silicon Valley office to the resort. (The advent of Bluetooth made speaking alone in my car appear less strange to other drivers on the road.) I Verbalized each of those annual presentations—except for the fourth.
Just as I was about to leave for that event, an important business matter arose and I had to spend most of the drive time on my mobile phone dealing with the matter instead of Verbalizing my presentation. Having transgressed, I paid the price; when I got to the hotel and stepped up to dais to speak, my delivery was choppy. Imagine that, my delivery was choppy with familiar content, and I am an experienced presentations coach who presents almost every business day of his life!
Do as I say, not as I did on the way to Spanish Bay: Verbalize for every one of your presentations.
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I remember going there with you! The persuasive power of this advice is in the vulnerability of your example. Shotto, as they taught me to say in South Africa! The online Urban Dictionary even defines that term as “something that is incredibly awesome.”