Present like a television anchor: the vulnerable - empathic - fearless circle.

Thanks to the TV anchors Cristina Ferreira and Robin Roberts, I understood that there is a winning circle that can, even if you commit some failures, make your presentations successful. I call it: «the vulnerable - empathic - fearless circle».

My "life project", in the Business category, that I defined for year 2021 was «Communicate like a leader!». My interest in improving my communication came from the year 2009. In that year, I was asked «Do you want to be a Project Manager?» On that day, after work, I thought a lot about that proposal: to be a Project Manager. I was organized and diligent but not good in communication. Do you know what project managers does much? More than 90% of what a project manager does is communicating. Can you guess what my decision was? Of course, I accepted the job, otherwise I would no have being here writing this article or having create the ProjectYourLife community. The reason why I accepted was, that the most a project manager do is, communicating; and I was poor in communication. It sounds like a contradiction right? The truth is that we have better chance to upgrade ourselves to a better version if we leave our “comfort zone” by accepting challenges, at a higher level, and being exposed in the field where we want to improve ourselves. My former boss in Germany called it – “train by the job!"

The picture in the left, that is a selfie with Cristina Ferreira, considered the most successful TV anchor in Portugal, was taken in the Web Summit 2021. This picture was not supposed to happen. Here why:

1) I was not expecting to watch her presentation in Web Summit,

2) I am not the kind of person looking forward for selfies with someone famous,

3) she was someone that I didn’t like.

Prior the Web Summit, my wife was teasing me, that I should watch her presentation. I didn't understand her relation, with an event that it is, all about technology. At the time of her presentation, I was supposed to be with one of my managers, having lunch together, but "luckily" he cancelled. I was lucky to be at the right place, at the right moment and free of appointments. I heard the announcement of Cristina coming to the stage. I said to myself «OK, let’s be open minded! Maybe I will learn something». What happen? In the next 20 minutes, I learnt a lot about communication!

Cristina presentation was made to first connect and after deliver a powerful message to the audience. A presentation needs to be target to the audience. So, you need to know the audience to whom you will deliver the presentation. For that, simply characterize the audience as a "persona". Give a name to the group, define what the group is looking for and characterize.

Example: Creators (the "persona"), looking forward to be successful with their ideas (characteristic 1), that needs to accept failures (characteristic 2), be resilient and good advocates of their ideas and beliefs (characteristic 3). This process is described in the "Life Charter" that I created here.

After that description, you can derive to the target message you want to deliver. The message is created by outlining each take-away. Then, you just need a storyline that connects all the above points, providing connection and substance to the message. The storyline must become your "voice". A storyline made of your own experiences to become authentic. As Cristina said, "the power of your truth is your voice". The storyline from Cristina started by presenting her own failures, accepting them and moving forward. "Don't be afraid, never!", she said. Even if you don't speak well (English) or don't have the best voice, those are not ultimate problems to not perform a presentation. "The most important is what you say" - your message - that can only be presented by one person - YOU!.

"the power of your truth is your voice" -- Cristina Ferreira

The picture in the right was taken in the masterclass from Robin Roberts, anchor from the TV show "Good Morning America", called Robin Roberts Teaches Effective and Authentic Communication. This masterclass belongs to the platform where you can find other very interesting classes from other celebrities and related to other skills. It is such a nice platform for learning new skills that, in my first year subscription, I did 14 masterclasses that totalized 300 hours of learning from the best of the best.

Robin Roberts masterclass refers, in more details, what I described already above about knowing and engaging the audience and having a prepared script with your major ideas, that represent the outline and storyline of your message. But she also teaches some other important things about public speaking. She talks about the importance of boosting confidence before the presentation. For that, you can adopt a posture that itself gives self-confidence, like the superman or wonderwoman pose. She teach, as well, where to look and where not to look during a presentation. The message to deliver should be simple, with short phrases and quick personal stories in the middle. To make it well received, you must speak slowly, with some breaks, and highlighting the necessary take-aways.

Apart of the super-skill that both Cristina and Robin created "authentic connection". I could feel it with a short example, when I asked "Cristina, can I take a picture with you?". She answered with a deep eye contact “Of corse Tiago!” Yes, she said my name! But how? She was quite fast to read it from my badge. The other super-skill that both have is to be fearless durimg the presentation and if something goes wrong, they don't hesitate to talk about "the elephant in the room". As Robin Roberts says in her masterclass, related to her cancer situation that challenged her success, the lesson is make your mess, your message.

"Make your mess, your message." -- Robin Roberts

If you are someone that would like to give more presentations but somehow fears to be exposed to possible mistakes, then present like a television anchor. Be fearless and for any given mistake, show vulnerability, that would allows you to connect even further with the audience. Failing and showing vulnerability, can even be a presentation asset. I would even say that this is a winning circle:

• If you don't show any mistake, then technically it was perfect.
• If you do some mistakes but you show vulnerability in accepting them, then you create a deeper connection with the audience.

"Failing and showing vulnerability, can even be an asset. Therefore, be fearless in your presentations!" -- ProjectYourLife

Training material recommended:

• Masterclass: The Power of Empathy
• Masterclass: Robin Roberts Teaches Effective and Authentic Communication
• Video of Cristina Ferreira in Web Summit 2021
• Project Your Life: Set your project "life charter" to succeed