There are some things each of us know to be absolute truths. For me I know that:
The planet is round;
There is something seriously wrong with people who think it is OK to be cruel to animals;
I will never stop loving my wonderful wife; and
People learn much more effectively when they are having fun.
For webinar presenters, the last bullet point above is critical. To create fun you must be having fun yourself, which makes the following video relevant and important.
The starting point for having a fun class is for the presenter to be having fun themselves. After more than 25 years of teaching, the last half of which has been teaching trainers, I have a very long list of stories telling me that if the presenter has fun then the class has fun and that everyone learns more effectively. How to have fun as a webinar presenter is as easy as 1-2-3, as explained in the video above.
Having Fun as a Webinar Presenter is as Easy as 1-2-3
Get these three things right and I think it is inevitable any webinar presenter is going to have fun. And a fun webinar is the best environment for a presenter to achieve their objective.
1. Love your content
Research your content. Study it. Learn it. If you love your content your voice will shine with your enthusiasm for what you are teaching.
2. Find awesome participants
We are all human. Innately, we want to associate with others that we like. If you can find an audience that appeals to you so that you want to genuinely help them and you webinar content that will enable you to do that then you just arrived at webinar heaven. If you don’t like the people who are attending your webinars then that’s a much tougher proposition and it is understandably difficult to have fun.
3. Enjoy the technology
Every webinar software program has fun features waiting for you. Jump in the sandbox and test out your options. Find the features that are fun for you to use and that are going to help you achieve your webinar objective. Keep experimenting, playing, testing and improving your use of the technology and your webinars are going to become much more fun for you and your participants.
What do you think is required to have fun as a webinar presenter?
What do you think about my 1-2-3. What makes being a webinar presenter fun for you? Please share your thoughts in the YouTube video comments.
It all happened at the new local skatepark this afternoon. I took my son to the park so that he could test his developing scooter skills and have fun. He rides around for an hour and I watch. Typically, because I have zero experience in scootering or skateboarding, I just sit back and enjoy watching my son teaching himself new skills. I am also on stand-by for first aid if required.
Today, however I met Theo George. I kept an eye on my son but I also became a student as I watched Theo teach how to do “drop-ins” to a group of six pre-teenagers. Theo is an amazing skateboarder. He is an even better teacher.
I watched as Theo helped these kids despite them have varying levels of confidence and skills. For every kid he unfailingly gave them lots of individual attention when it was their turn. You could tell he was living in the moment. He wasn’t distracted in any way. He was having fun celebrating every little success moment. He made it fun for them too. He laughed. A lot.
Every time one of the kids did something impressive he laughed. They did something silly. He laughed with them. They fell over. He laughed with them. And he had them laughing and having fun too.
Theo was also very supportive, encouraging, nurturing. When they were unsure or afraid he held their hands. Yes, literally. By doing this, he stopped them from falling awkwardly and removed any scope for them to suffer any serious injury. He was very safety conscious, and given my role at the park as a stand-by first aider I was impressed.
Theo’s words and actions gave the kids the confidence to believe in themselves. He did this by constantly talking with them. If he wasn’t laughing he was talking. And listening too. His communication skills were first class.
As I watched Theo I started to think about how his teaching example demonstrated how we should teach during our webinars. As a result, I have identified 3 skateboarding teaching skills to aid webinar presenters skills. Take action on these 3 items to drop-in to greater success with your webinars.
1. Maintain regular communication with all your webinar participants
Theo was masterful at keeping half an eye on all the kids at all times. Better still, he kept them engaged at all times. If one of the kids waiting for their turn was starting to become distracted or bored Theo would call their name and ask them a question or tell them something encouraging. All the kids would listen to everything Theo said, so even though Theo would say something aimed at only one participant everyone else would hear it and also remain more engaged with him and his training.
Webinar presenters need to also maintain regular communication with all of our webinar participants. We have multiple tools at our disposal to help us, including our voice, chat and poll/test functions. Pro-actively asking questions and listening and acknowledging our participants’ responses is a very helpful approach for maintaining regular communication with all our webinar participants. We need to always remember that communication is a two-way street. Our webinar participants will be more engaged if they feel that we are talking “with them” rather than “to them”. For maximum effectiveness we should make a deliberate effort to give them chances to contribute so that we can sometimes listen to our participants rather than have them exclusively listening to us.
2. Make a deliberate effort not to leave anyone behind without compromising the effectiveness of the webinar for everyone else
During Theo’s session one of the boys was visibly scared. Theo would help him get into position but the youngster would freeze and be unable to reposition his foot to start the manoeuvre. It reminded me of my teenage years when as part of our school’s diving program I would climb up the 5 meter platform full of confidence, position my feet at the front of the platform, and then look down. Despite doing this many times I have never taken a dive from the 5 meter platform. As a side note – I really need to do that one day, don’t I?
I loved Theo’s response to the boy’s difficulties. He held his hands, he asked the boy to hold onto Theo’s shoulders, he counted down 3-2-1, Theo tried lots of strategies. Then, when it became clear that the boy wasn’t yet ready to commit, Theo asked him to take a breather for a few minutes while Theo took time to help others.
Like Theo’s example, we should made a deliberate effort not to leave anyone behind without compromising the effectiveness of our webinar for everyone else. All presenters to groups, whether they are delivering their training through face-to-face training or using webinars or other live streaming technologies have to perform a balancing act. How do we move through our training at a speed that is optimal for both our fastest and our slowest learners? This is difficult, especially if you are not aware of this issue and its potential consequences of not deliberately pacing yourself.
Our instincts will typically tell us to present the content at a speed so that we could absorb the information effectively if we were the participants. However, this is often a flawed approach. It doesn’t matter who we are relative to the skills and mindsets of our participants. We need to pace our delivery based upon their needs (not ours).
The good news is that we can almost ensure our success with #2 if we are already succeeding with #1. This is because the best way for us to optimally pace our delivery is to keep the communication lines open with our participants. Their feedback can guide us as to whether or not we are progressing too quickly or too slowly. We can then make adjustments, which leads us on to #3.
3. Adjust your webinar delivery to provide maximum value
With about 30 minutes remaining in his session Theo indicated that he was about to relocate his group to another section of the skatepark so that they could develop another skill. However, many of his groups were just starting to develop confidence with their drop-in technique. As a keen observer I could see that most of the group did not want to move on but instead wanted to keep improving their drop-in technique under Theo’s guidance. Theo noticed this too and consequently delayed moving the group for another 10 minutes. Nice work, Mr. George.
Don’t rigidly stick to your plan that you created before your webinar. Adjust your delivery methods and timings so that your webinar provides maximum value to your participants. Don’t hesitate to make reasonable adjustments so that all your learners’ experiences are optimised. I know I preach that “Perfect Preparation Prevents Poor Performance” but being flexible enough to make adjustments as you deliver your webinars will also produce improved performance. Be willing to make adjustments and your webinar participants will be the winners.
Do you have my Webinar Platforms Guide?
To learn more about webinars click here to grab my free Webinar Platforms Guide. It includes:
What are Webinars?
What are the 4 Types of Webinar Platforms?
What are the Pros and Cons of the Webinar Platforms?
What do you think about the 3 skateboarding teaching skills?
Have you had success using any of the three skateboarding teaching techniques? Please click here to share your experience in the YouTube video comments.
I weigh 121.3 kilograms (267 pounds). When I weighed myself this morning I was horrified. 9 months ago I weighed 100.0 kilograms. My attitude to eating is screwed up. I need to change my mindset so that I will change my results.
Having the right mindset is critical to succeeding in any part of your life. With respects to presenting webinars or using any live streaming options, there are 5 ways you can develop a winning webinar mindset.
Enthusiasm is a magical tool. It has a gravitational pull that invites others to want to participate.
2. Serve others
If you remember the focus of the webinar is upon providing value to your participants then this should take a lot of pressure on you to perform. Think about helping your participants instead of worrying about your private fears and inhibitions.
3. Remember you are the expert
Participants choose to attend webinars because they expect to learn something valuable. By choosing to attend they have already concluded that you have valuable information to give them. You are the expert. They will give you the benefit of any doubt about this until you conclusively prove otherwise to them. It is difficult for you to lose their faith unless you overtly lose your self-confidence first. Be confident and trust that your participants will be on your side, because almost always they are.
4. Expect success
Have a positive expectation that the webinar will be a winner and you are more likely to accomplish your objective.
5. Become a positive problem solver
Sometimes despite our very best efforts something can go wrong, especially if technology and humans are working together. If you notice that there is a problem trouble-shoot your options and, as I believe they say at NASA, “work the problem”. Pause, take some deep breaths, be a positive problem solver and identify your best options for moving forward.
Do you have my Webinar Platforms Guide?
To learn more about webinars click here to grab my free Webinar Platforms Guide. It includes:
What are Webinars?
What are the 4 Types of Webinar Platforms?
What are the Pros and Cons of the Webinar Platforms?
Webinar nerves are a good thing. I am serious. I am confident that by the end of this article you will agree with me.
Public speaking of any type is a huge fear for many people. Massive. Scary. Fear. I get that. I have been training people in how to improve their presentation skills for the past 12 years. In this role I have seen first hand many times how difficult and debilitating it can be for people to overcome this fear. I have helped hundreds of people conquer this fear and I cannot remember one person whom I was unable to help rise above it. I have seen very scared people produce perfect presentations. Watching their transformation is exciting and inspiring.
Nerves are not the enemy. Fear however is a potential problem. Fear stops us from doing things that might or might not hurt us. It sometimes stops us from doing things that would be enjoyable for us. This reminds me of Mammoth Falls. My wife and I recently took our 6 year old son to Wet ‘n’ Wild. Their website describes it perfectly:
Wind around the raging rapids in mammoth four-person tubes on this 250 metre long slide.
I was a bit nervous and our son looked very nervous as he climbed the stairs. He requested some reassurance and after a few encouraging words he stepped into the tube with his parents and off we went. It was out of his comfort zone, but he loved it. We all loved it.
If the idea of presenting webinars is beyond your comfort zone then be careful that you decide not to climb the stairs and cause yourself to miss out on the fun. Being nervous is totally fine, and in fact it is a good thing for five reasons, as described in the video below and the following notes.
We only get nervous when we care about something. For this reason, I actually get nervous when I am not nervous. Huh? Let me put it another way – If I am not nervous about giving a presentation, either face-to-face or during a webinar, then for me it is a signal that I don’t care about the outcome. Maybe I am tired, a bit burnt out or distracted by other life problems. Either way, if I don’t care about the outcome and I don’t get nervous then I know I am not going to be at my best. I won’t give the extra attention required to do my very best. I am probably going to just “go through the motions” and that isn’t consistent with my commitment to helping people as best I can.
I want to care and as a result I welcome the nerves. Yes, seriously.
2. No-one will notice
When we are fearful about something we tend to presume the worst-case scenario. This is an evil trick that our brains play on us. If you are nervous it is human nature to perhaps presume that (1) everyone will notice and (2) everyone will care and (3) everyone will think bad thoughts about you. Normally, none of this is true.
I know it to be true that if you are nervous it is unlikely that others will notice. I say this because most presenters confide in me that they are very nervous, especially at the start of a presentation. However, when I ask others if they saw any signs of nervousness they almost always say no. In fact, the common reaction is for the attendees to express surprise to hear that the presenter was nervous. I see no difference in this between face-to-face classroom facilitators and webinar presenters.
I can prove this to you. Have you ever watched a Ted Talk? They present “Ideas worth spreading” through curating and showcasing short live presentations in front of substantial audiences. They are consistently very high quality and can be very addictive. After you watch Ted Talks have you ever sat there and thought “That was no good. The presenter was very nervous and it distracted me totally from enjoying their presentation”. If you ever think that please email me. I don’t expect to ever receive an email of that nature. However, I can assure you that almost every TED Talk presenter will be going out of their mind with nervousness about presenting what is potentially their most important presentation of their lives, and they know it.
Whether you are a world class speaker giving a TED talk or a relatively novice presenter learning your trade in one of my classes I can confidently assure you that no-one will notice your nerves.
3. No-one will judge you
Only rarely, but sometimes, people might notice that you are nervous. This is where your fears of being nervous should dissipate. This is because something really interesting happens when people notice that you are nervous presenting to them. Several words express people’s reaction.
Empathy. Compassion. Understanding. When you are presenting a topic to people and they notice you are nervous it evokes strong positive (not negative) reactions. If you are so nervous about presenting to them that you get nervous, then they know that you care and they will desperately want to support you. They will not judge you, hate you, think bad thoughts of you. Instead, you will win them over to you. Seriously. This is a bit weird, but true.
4. Nerves make you better
Being nerves is your body’s physical reaction to preparing itself for peak performance. Seriously. Yes.
Being nerves is your body’s physical reaction to preparing itself for peak performance. Yes, I just repeated the same sentence. I did that because it perfectly sums up the science. I am not a scientist. I figure you don’t care about the details, but if you do, google it.
Put simply, being nervous makes you better. That is why your body reacts with nervousness when you are preparing to give a Wedding speech and doesn’t do anything when you are telling your friends about the Netflix episode you watched last night.
5. Everybody gets nervous
Being nervous is not a challenge that is unique to you. Please be reassured that when it comes to presenting online there will be thousands of nervous people in the same situation as you today. From Bangladesh to the Bahamas, today there will be nervous webinar presenters switching on their audio and squirming around in their seats so they are sitting directly in front of their webcam.
Please be reassured that I get nervous and so do most (if not all) of the best webinar presenters. It is OK. It is natural. In fact, it IS a good thing to celebrate.
Do you have my Webinar Platforms Guide?
To learn more about webinars click here to grab my free Webinar Platforms Guide. It includes:
What are Webinars?
What are the 4 Types of Webinar Platforms?
What are the Pros and Cons of the Webinar Platforms?
Have I convinced you that being nervous about presenting a webinar is a good thing? Please click here to tell me and share your thoughts in the YouTube video comments.
I love the spotlight. I am a born performer. However, I promise to never sing while I am a webinar presenter.
My Mother recalls the story of when my family went to a Gold Coast restaurant (Italian cuisine, I think) where their feature attraction was an old pianola. It played the popular tunes without anyone needing to have piano playing skills. The songbook was a classic list of family singalong tunes that even I as a child knew. Sure enough, my family settled in to sing and I remember proudly exercising my lungs having a great time belting out the tunes. Later my Mother told me that the restaurant owner confessed to her that after having heard thousands of patrons sing I was the worst singer he had ever heard. I suspect the unfortunate souls who sit near me at Church each week would also agree.
If you have attended one of my webinars this story might make sense to you. I proudly take centre stage when I present. I love welcoming everyone into the room and then teaching with enthusiasm from go to whoa. I am busy and I never hesitate to put my best foot forward. However, I don’t present webinars with energy and excitement because I want to be the centre of the Universe. Instead, I just want to teach to the best of my ability. My style is to do this by providing education while being entertaining. Being a confident edutainer is part of the package as to how I optimise the effectiveness of my webinars. Your style might be very different. Regardless of your style however, I believe there are 5 essential habits to become an in-demand webinar presenter. This video identifies and explains these 5 essential habits, all of which anyone can develop.
What are the 5 essential habits to become an in-demand webinar presenter?
My thoughts in this article are based partly upon my experiences presenting webinars. However, most of these ideas are centred around the many webinar presenters that I have had the opportunity to watch. A talented webinar presenter at full throttle is a beautiful wonderful thing to behold. OK, maybe that sounds a little over the top (to you, at least). However, I do know that a webinar presenter who lacks confidence and is unfamiliar with their equipment or content is a train wreck that none of us want to witness.
I present to you the 5 steps for you to become an in-demand webinar presenter.
1. Watch others
Watch others. Carefully. If you want to become an accomplished opera star then watch lots of high quality operas. Webinars are no different. If you want to subconsciously pickup the nuances and habits that the best webinar presenters possess then watch them ply their trade. Take notes if you like but watching without any conscious effort to learn will be helpful in itself. Also, just as importantly, don’t watch poor webinar presenters.
2. Be fully familiar with your content
You may have already heard me mention the 5 Ps elsewhere. Proper preparation prevents poor performance. As someone who has assessed presentation skills for more than 12 years, I can assure you that the 5Ps is more relevant than almost trainers typically recognise. Even if are not intuitively a planning person, it pays big dividends to comprehensively understand the content you are going to cover, including your session plan and likely questions.
3. Get ready early and prepare your equipment methodically
Whenever I am preparing to present a webinar, I block out my schedule for 1 hour before the webinar. I am fanatical about this because it gives me sufficient time to get my equipment ready and my head primed. Delivering a webinar requires a lot of mental focus so that your energy levels are ready and so that you are able to focus on multiple items at the same time (especially if you are doing everything yourself).
4. Cast fear aside
If you are nervous that is OK. In fact, being nervous is a really good thing. It reflects that the adrenaline is pumping and your body is ready for a challenge. More importantly, it is a signal that you care about your level of performance. I have heard about football players who routinely vomit before commencing a game. Gross, but true. I get personally concerned when I AM nervous, because it might be a sign that I don’t care. Being nervous is OK, but not controlling your nerves and letting them compromise your performance is a problem. I have heard sportspeople and stage actors describe how the nerves abate once they get started. I find it is the same. Within a couple of minutes of getting started with my presentation (either online or face-to-face) my nerves settle and I can concentrate fully on what is happening in the now.
5. Be brave and engage
This is probably my primary theme of this website’s content. Be brave. Put yourself out there. Engage with your webinar participants. Let them know that you care to case your inhibitions aside and open up to them about who you are and the content you want to teach. You are not an aloof lecturer, but someone who wants to share what you know and teach your participants while you learn from them too. This is the magic that draw your participants into you and your webinar. It creates trust and forgiveness if you have a technical problem or make an error.
What do you think is required to become an in-demand webinar presenter?
What do you think about my 5 essential habits to become an in-demand webinar presenter? Have I missed something that should be on the list? Please have your say in the YouTube video comments.
What is the secret sauce the best webinar presenters share? I have thought about this many times and I always identify the same answer. My answer makes me think about Betty Gatewood. I wish that I’d had the opportunity to teach Betty Gatewood how to present webinars because I am certain Betty would have been awesome.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Pam Crawford
I am saddened that Betty Gatewood recently died. Betty wasn’t an international celebrity of any kind, but she possessed something I think we all need, especially if we want to become our best as a webinar presenter. Betty passed away suddenly at age 93 and her list of achievements included:
Loving parades, circuses, and upon retirement from the US Postal Service graduating from clown college
Soaring in a hot air balloon in Atlanta on her 70th birthday and then celebrating the day with a dinner party at Hooters
Parasailing over the Gulf of Mexico at age 79
Soaring in a glider over the Hawaiian Islands when she was 82
Riding in an open cockpit helicopter touring Stone Mountain Park, one of her favorite places to visit, at age 85
Embracing the latest technology to keep up with her family and friends on Facebook, using her iPhone and iPad
Having 31 children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren who adored having Betty as an amazing role model
I only spent time with Betty on a few occasions, all more than 12 years ago. Betty however was one of those people you alway remember. She had an amazing list of positive attributes, including an amazing attitude of servitude to her family, but for me she was a stand-out in one area – Bravery!
I am a massive fan of bravery. It is the one character attribute that separates ho-hum webinar presenters from those who embrace the challenge of presenting online and who make magic with the microphone and webcam. Bravery is the secret sauce for webinar success.
Why do the best webinar presenters need to be brave?
Bravery is an incredibly powerful asset for a webinar presenter. Bravery is a prerequisite for webinar presenters to be willing to:
Confidently share themselves and their personal experiences with others they don’t know well
To show their face and risk publicly showing their embarrassment if they stumble or something goes wrong
Present with authority on camera without being able to read scripts
Answer questions without advance notice
What are the benefits of being brave during webinars?
This question is central to this article, but I find it difficult to answer in a detailed way. I have no statistics or compelling analysis that explains why bravery is critical. However, I believe that bravery is essential to being a great webinar presenter, because it is the conduit to obtaining:
Connection
Engagement
The human factor
Relationship building
These things are all slightly different, but they are essentially the same. Each of them empowers us as webinar presenters to help our participants more effectively. We have a better opportunity to effectively teach, inform, motivate or sell, whichever is the objective of the webinar. If you want to have participants that appreciate your efforts and who will forgive you when you make mistakes then be brave, put yourself out there on show, and make the extra effort to connect and engage.
If you want to be a great online presenter for webinars and other live stream technologies then take a deep breath and make a commitment to yourself to be brave. You won’t have to parasail or ride in an open cockpit helicopter. However, you will need to be brave, just like Betty.
What do you think?
What do you think is the top character trait the best webinar presenters share? Please click here to have your say in the YouTube video comments.
