We’ve all heard the phrase a thousand times. But I have a few problems with it.

Traditionally as the saying goes, if you do a good job it cannot go unnoticed for long. You’ll be recognised and rewarded accordingly.

In today’s world everyone is talking and publishing how good they are, or so it seems. Everyone has their own publishing company in the form of social media and a wordpress website.

It’s entirely possible that someone who is doing very average work who markets that they are doing an amazing job progresses faster and more dynamically than the person who is studiously producing a high quality and quantity of work and not branding that to their immediate colleagues and the wider world.

So step one here is claim responsibility for your successes. I hate to say it but women are the worst here. Come on girls let’s hear about your amazing achievements, This is something Marshall Goldsmith talks about in his new book How Women Rise. But men can be equally as bad too.

Learn to take compliments when someone gives them to you. When someone says “that’s great work, well done”, rather than answer “well it was nothing really and I had lots of help” simply try replying “thank you” and then pause for a couple of seconds to digest the enormity of that statement.

The beauty of the cream rising is that it is entirely in our own control. We can control the speed, the timescale and we can also control when it goes stale or indeed if it ever turns sour at all.

Through my twenties I was pushing super hard to get to where I wanted to be as fast as possible. First this was working as a full time strength and conditioning coach in performance sport. I managed to achieve this at 23 working as the Head coach for Durham University with the English Institute of Sport and I’m proud of that achievement.

Towards my late twenties it became about building a strong business. Something that makes an impact, gives me the lifestyle that I am looking for and over time I can sell for a sizeable sum. Although it took me longer than I originally envisaged and there were a lot of challenges (and still are) along the way it’s something that I am happy with where we are at both with Strength and Conditioning Education and the Youth S&C Association.

Now I find myself in a place where I am ready to launch a new business. The idea is there and the impact of the business is clear. I now need to get my finger out and see it through.

I am right at the point where the cream could stop rising if I let that happen.

Well I can tell you now, at 34 years old that simply will not happen.

But I do need to make sure that I am accountable, take ownership and absolutely make it happen. Something Rob Moore talked about just this morning in a timely linked-in post.

There are natural times in life when you need some outside help on this, even the most dedicated and capable. The challenge is to recognise this and actually then reach out. This is the intelligent way, very often we convince ourselves that battling on is the only way to go and there is a badge of honour in doing so. There really is not. All that happens is you end up pissed off, poor and very likely hating life.

Why would we choose to slow down when we have so much more to give? Let’s never turn sour and always keep on rising. I’ve no doubt you agree with me here.

The real question is what is the right strategy for each of us to do so. This is something that deserves some time, effort and consideration, wouldn’t you agree?

Keep on pushing forwards.

To your strength and success,

Brendan

Earlier this week I gave a presentation to a large group of sports therapists at the NEC in Birmingham. Following the talk someone said to me that they’d really enjoyed the presentation but that they couldn’t imagine doing that themselves! It got me thinking about presentations and how scary they are for people. A quick search on google and it comes up as one of our top three fears alongside heights and snakes (I hate those things)…HERE is an article I found earlier from push doctor.

Although I often am told that I present well and people enjoy the talks I give, it really hasn’t been a skill that has come naturally to me. I would say that I’ve made it happen because I realised the value it would bring to me and my business. After around 250 live performances over the last ten or so years I still get really nervous but I can manage the nerves better than I used to.

Many years ago I was asked to present at a couple of fairly big conference in front of around 200 people at each event and I can remember the nerves that I felt. My heart was racing and I felt sick, and that was when I was initially asked to do the event, let alone performing at the event itself!

To help me overcome the nerves I hired a presentation coach as the reality was that although I’d been delivering workshops and courses for years I’d never really had any training on how to present in public so I was essentially ‘winging it’ (nothing wrong with that but you do get found out eventually lol!)…

Let me tell you that I learnt a TON of information from the coach who helped me and it really broke down the process so that I was able to deliver a good presentation and take the learnings from that into my career to date.

These days whilst I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered the art of public speaking it’s a LOT more comfortable for me and I really enjoy doing it.

So with that in mind I wanted to share some key points that work for me and that I hope will help you. In true coaching style I’ve put these together into what I call the POWER presenting formula.

And here it is:

Preparation, plan and Perform
Opening Line
Words, worse case
Energy, Engage
Rapport, be real

Lets break down each point one by one:

Preparation:

An absolute critical piece of the presentation puzzle is you must know your content inside out. You need to know it so well that if someone said to you before the presentation that you didn’t have any power point slides or whiteboard you could still deliver your presentation comfortably from memory.

If the presentation is important enough you want to have rehearsed it at least three times prior to actually delivering it and mastered your timings.

Your Plan:

The story you tell to people and the journey you take them through is your plan. A good presentation should have a start, middle and an end. Don’t be afraid to communicate this to people when you’re giving the talk. For example in my talk yesterday when I reached the end of the introduction I explained that I was going to take people through why injuries occur, then how we can assess to prevent them, then the training interventions that we would use, before a summary at the end. This is a clear start, middle and end. It makes people feel comfortable and allows them to relax and actually learn from you. In your preparation you can storyboard out each section of your talk and the key points you want people to take from it, ensuring you have that structure in place.

Perform:

These days anyone can find content and information online. The value of attending a live event or presentation is hearing it from the expert, but also that the audience are in a learning frame of mind and have chosen to be there. With that in mind as presenters we need to put on a performance. We need to be memorable for those people. Our goal is to inspire them into taking action when they get back to their home environment.

Opening Line into story

When you see a 100m sprinter preparing for their heat on TV it’s very clear that they are going through some kind of pre event routine to manage their nerves and energy before the race begins. If they get a bad start it’s really tough for them to make up lost ground. Similarly if they get a flying start they are often unbeatable.

Your pre-event routine and your opening line is the way you can get a flying start when you’re presenting. My strategy with this is to talk to as many people as I can and ask them questions. They will be pleased to share with you and it helps to keep you calm. Something as simple as ‘where have you travelled from today’ or ‘what have you learnt so far at the conference’ are great ways to break the ice. It also shows that you are comfortable and confident which is an important element to a successful presentation.

Incidentally, that reference to the 100m sprinter is what’s referred to as a metaphor and this is a very good strategy to help people to learn more efficiently. A metaphor is when you compare two things that aren’t the same but have some things in common with a goal to get your point across more effectively. To an extent I would say that the better you are able to use metaphors in your story telling the more impactful your presentations will be. Here’s a few examples:

• He drowned in a sea of grief.
• She is fishing in troubled waters.
• Success is a bastard as it has many fathers, and failure is an orphan, with no takers.

Another good tactic to include within your presentations and storytelling is analogies. These are similar to metaphors, a well known one being Forest Gumps ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’. Here’s a few other examples:

• Finding a good man is like finding a needle in a haystack.As Dusty Springfield knows, finding a small needle in a pile of hay takes a long time, so the task at hand is likely to be hard and tedious.
• That’s as useful as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.It looks like you’re doing something helpful but really it will make no difference in the end.
• Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.

You can read a lot more of metaphors and analogies at THIS link.

Your opening line or opening few lines need to be absolutely clear and memorised. These need to be what I describe as softeners into the main content. Maybe you saw something on the drive to the event that you can share, or you have been chatting to someone earlier and you can re tell that to the whole crowd. I usually try to get a laugh of some kind from people in these opening few lines. The value of this is massive. It puts you at ease, but more importantly it puts your audience at ease and begins to bring you together rather than they’re being a divide between you and them.
I remember giving a talk in Ipswich a few years ago. As I was driving down from Leeds on the A1 I kept noticing there were loads of sex shops on road going through Lincolnshire and into Suffolk.
After I was introduced to the attendees at the conference I told them this story and there were a few sniggers from the crowd. I then ended with a line I’d thought of which was simply, ‘those lorry drivers must be big spenders or there must be nothing else to do around there’! The audience laughed and whilst I’m not going to win any awards for stand up comedy anytime soon it made everyone feel at ease. Job done.

Words VS Pictures VS Stories and Worst Case scenario

Words:
The better your preparation process is the more effective your words and delivery will become. Say less and give more is a good mantra here. If you can be succinct with your points and know clearly what the key point is from each slide or section of your talk the more impact you’ll make on your audience.
The same goes for your slides, try to have less information on them and purely use the slides as cues for you to expand on in your storytelling.
I went through a phase of trying to have no more than one word on each slide and use pictures to make the impact. The picture would signal a story and a key point at the end of that story. It was a good grounding for my presentations that I give today.

In addition to this I would strongly recommend that when you want to make an important point you take the picture away. Maybe you have a really good metaphor or analogy to share, you really don’t want people to miss it and focus on the slide instead of your words. You can use your clicker for this. People will focus on you as the speaker rather than your picture on the screen. Combine your stories with pictures, videos and minimal words and you are well on your way.

Final point, don’t expect people to listen to your talking when you’re showing videos. Let people watch the video and then share with them. Or pre frame the video with the context then play the video. Don’t spoil an impactful video with you talking over the top of it!

Worst Case Scenario

Always go prepared for the worst case scenario. Things change at the last minute at events and you don’t want to be left in a position where you feel like you can’t cope. As I said in the preparation section above, if you know your content well you could deliver it without any slides or whiteboards. Think through what would happen if this was to be the case. What if there was a power failure and you cant use your laptop?
I’ve lost count of the amount of times that the schedule for the day changes, the IT people aren’t ready and waiting to go and you have to fend for yourself. To de-risk anything from your side happening make sure you take your adaptors, your power cables, slide clicker, water bottle and anything else you need to deliver your best performance.

Energy

As a presenter I am probably known for being quite animated on stage and I like to move around a lot and engage with people in the crowd. I don’t like to stand behind a lectern and talk at people, I’m all about the headset which allows me to move around freely and really get my points across.

With that being said the key point about energy is that variety is key. If all you do is jump around and shout at people your information will be lost in the noise. The art of presenting is to sometimes be animated, sometimes be calm and centred, sometimes in the crowd, other times back on stage. When you’re telling a story you could be moving around but then when you want to make that big important point you come back to the centre and stay still, lower your volume and make people really listen to you. The difference is powerful.
The best way to evaluate your natural style is watch yourself back on video and see what you do naturally. Or even better work with a coach and get their input. Then think about introducing some different styles into your next presentation to help you make your points more effectively. It’s a constantly evolving process.

Rapport, Be real

I mentioned earlier about how when I present I try to engage with people in the audience before hand. I’ve even sat down next to people and had a conversation before I’m introduced. Whilst this is part of my pre-performance routine to keep myself calm it’s also a great rapport builder. It helps you to connect with people, it helps them to be comfortable and it might just give you a great opening comment to make to break the ice with people when you are introduced formally to them at the start of your presentation.
Let’s be clear that your goal when you present is to inspire people into taking action, to teach them something they did not know before or to shine a light on something that they are not doing effectively to help them to get results. At no point is this about you being seen as the guru, it’s about working together to get the desired outcome. To help you achieve this keep regular eye contact with people. Focus your attention at different times on specific sections of the crowd or on particular individuals within the crowd. Go towards them and be a part of them. Reduce the barriers between you as much as possible. When I am on a raised platform or stage even then I try to get as close to the edge as I can and if possible I’ll step off and go into the crowd just to connect that little bit more. I’ve tripped over the cables a number of times to the annoyance of the technicians waiting in the wings!

My final point is be real. By that I mean be open and honest up there. No one engages with a martyr so tell them about mistakes you ‘ve made, lessons learnt and how it’s made you a better version of yourself. My friend and excellent presenter Ron McKeefery says show some vulnerability. Ultimately people buy into people. If you’re coming across as some kind of machine that never makes mistakes and always has an answer then you’ll always have a divide between reality and you.

So there you have it, the POWER presenting system! If you have a passion for helping people and a mission to make a big impact then you have got to get yourself in front of groups of people to share your message. It really is a huge opportunity. If you are reading this feeling energised and inspired then get a seminar or workshop in your diary and get promoting it.

If you are slightly nervous or worried reading this then try to reframe that. Your reaction is telling you that you just need to learn this stuff, practise it and build your confidence. It’s not telling you to avoid it.

If you would like my help then get in touch and we can arrange some coaching. I’ve had some enquiries recently about creating a presentations course for people to teach the principles I have described in more detail and allow you to develop into a great presenter. If you think this would help you then please do reach out and we can set something up. Just reply to this email and we can go from there.

In the meantime I wish you well and good luck at your next presentation, wherever that may be.

To your strength and success,

Brendan

If the word brand and the title of this article instantly turns you off lets firstly let’s talk about why you would continue to read this article.

Everyone has a brand. It doesn’t matter if you are a business person or not, you do have a brand of some kind and it can either work for you or against you. You have complete control.

But why does it matter? Well in short, having an appropriate personal brand will literally allow you to get to where you want to be whether it’s getting that next promotion, getting the discount on that new car, hiring the best people or meeting the right partner.

Here’s 8 reasons why you need to care about this:

1. More opportunities for you in your business or career.
2. Better, more fruitful partnerships.
3. Greater credibility.
4. Greater exposure and presence.
5. More clients.
6. A higher perceived value.
7. More ownership of your space or niche.
8. Greater income.

How many of these would you like to have more of? If it’s one or more you need to pay attention and keep reading.

What is a personal brand?

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos puts it so succinctly: “your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Let’s think about that for a second. Do you think people talk about you in the way you want them to when you’re not there? If not why not?

Very quickly you can see that the presence you have, the image you portray, your behaviour historically will all influence what people think about you and therefore what they say about you. Whilst you can’t change your history you can certainly influence tomorrow’s history by the actions you take today and everyday forward.

So how to you approach this process? Here’s my 5 steps to taking your career to the next level through personal branding!

Step 1: Who are you?

Your first job is to actually understand more about yourself.

What do you stand for and what are your core values?

Maybe you are all about driving for excellence with integrity. Perhaps you’re all about doing it differently with speed and purpose.

You need to really think about what it is you stand for and what you want to drive for.

 

Step 2: What is your desired brand ?

What do you want people to think about you in a work, business, relationship realm?

Think about the role you want in life, what does that person have that you currently don’t possess? Or more importantly you might possess it but you are choosing not to show that to the world.

 

Step 3: What do other people think of you?

Have a look at something called the 360 assessment. You can google it and get one for free or very low cost online. Invite people in your network to take the assessment which literally gives you anonymous feedback from the people you invite. I would suggest asking your friends, family, work colleagues, clients and anyone else you can think of to give you direct feedback on this. Even if you ask them to come up with 3-5 words that describe you on an email that’s a start.

The results of step 3 is what’s called your default brand. This is what people currently think based on the behaviour you exhibit and the experience people have with you. Don’t be surprised if you get some left field results here.

If you’re default brand and your desired brand match up then you’re all set. My guess would be there are two or three elements you may want to work on.

If you’re struggling with this then ask yourself the question ‘do I have everything I want right now in my business, career, relationships etc? If the answer is no then that would imply there are some areas you can work on in your personal brand for each area.

 

Step 4: Who do you need to become?

Quite possibly you might now be in a position where there is a gap between your default brand and your desired brand. Your job is to close that gap.

Famous author Kurt Vonnegut’s quote is huge here…”We are who we pretend to be”…

Ultimately we need to become the person who get’s the top jobs, gets the business investment, gets the relationships they want.

I remember when I was a young S&C coach and was meeting with a more experience coach. I thought I knew it all and at the time I had a good job and was satisfied. During that meeting the more experienced coach picked me up on how my tracksuit consisted of nike bottoms, Adidas top and asics trainers. He also picked me up on my notepad which had some dog-eared edges and didn’t look tidy.

I did not appreciate the feedback but I was too arrogant at the time to take it on board. Looking back he was essentially saying that my default brand did not match my desired brand. If I didn’t change it I wouldn’t progress to where I wanted to be. Very valid points and I’m glad that I raised my standards albeit not directly from this meeting. Sometimes it takes someone else to point this out.

In your case what do you need to look like, how do you need to behave, who do you need to know, how do you need to communicate in order to close that gap?

Step 5: Your media activity

In this social media era you and everyone else is their own media publishing company. Everything you say online is trackable and makes an impact. That’s why high profile people have teams of staff that manage their online presence and trigger lawsuits regularly when something is said that doesn’t match their personal brand.

If you’ve got pictures of last Saturday night when you’re dancing on the tables how on earth would you expect to be taken seriously by your clients or get that job you’re applying for? Would you commission that piece of content if you were looking down on yourself from above? More than likely not.

Of course there is a balance but consider why your life needs to be documented online. It probably is not serving you well.

Step 6: It starts today.

Go through the steps. Identify the gap. Decide who you need to become.

Then start. Today.

If you put time into this now it will pay dividends down the line I assure you.

What do you think of this article? Drop me a comment on instagram @Brendanchaplin.

As always thank you for reading this and keep up the great work,

My best as always,

Brendan