Who is Alfred?
Alfred Poor is a keynote speaker, writer, and virtual event expert with an international reputation. He has been involved in presenting at and producing online events for more than 8 years, long before the global pandemic changed everything. A graduate of Harvard, he has written 15 books. While he gets excited about what technology can do to help make us more productive and effective, he is not one to be distracted by shiny objects and always starts by evaluating the practical applications for anything new.
Key Takeaways
Virtual events are not going to go away that a lot of people were hoping that we just get through the pandemic, and then we could go back to going on stage. And that's certainly going to happen.
One of the big pieces of advice I have for people who want to do online presentations, is don't look at stage performances. TV presenters newscasters, the hosts, look, what they do, they sit still. See how their images are framed on the camera, and their hand gestures are more subdued, so you can learn a lot just from watching the television news shows.
Standing makes a huge difference in your presentation. Not just what you're talking about the fit of your clothes, but also energy, it's hard to get pumped up when you're sitting in your chair. So I definitely encourage people to stand if, if their situation will support that.
Valuable Free Resource or Action
Speaker Springboard System Demonstration: a free session held monthly on the fourth Thursday – https://speakerspringboard.com/demonstration
Alfred Poor’s speaker site: https://alfredpoor.com
A video version of this podcast is available on
Transcript
Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Stuart Webb Alfred Poor 2:28
And we're live welcome once again to it's not rocket science, five questions over coffee. I'm here today with Alfred poor. Alfredo is a presenter and speaker. He has. He's a world class event expert. And let's face it, we all need an expert event organizer at the moment given that the pandemic has affected everything. You've been producing events for a long while Africa, we can get into some of that. And you're a graduate of Harvard University and have written a good number of books, 15 books, I think in total. So that's a really great sort of biography to have behind you. But as somebody who understands a bit about technology, but you're not too driven by it, I hope you're going to guide us through sort of what the speaker springboard is all about this afternoon. So welcome to it's not rocket science. five questions over. I have a coffee but today I have got a green tea in front of me. And I know you're sitting there in front of the moment. Yes, with Alfred's got a cup of tea as well. So at least we'll we'll read it up. So, Alfred, welcome to the podcast.
Alfred Poor 7:57
Thank you so much for the invitation. I'm thrilled to be here,
Stuart Webb 8:00
no problem. So let's talk a little bit about what the biggest challenge your ideal client has, and faces.
Alfred Poor 8:07
So my ideal client is somebody who speaks as part of their their job. They may be a professional speaker, but they could be an industry leader, they could be a corporate executive, talking to internal external audiences. And and the biggest challenge I think that they're facing right now is that virtual events are not going to go away that a lot of people were hoping that we just get through the pandemic, and then we could go back to going on stage. And that's certainly going to happen. But I believe that they're, they're facing a real challenge in learning how to make quality presentations online. Because it's a very different skill set than what you need for on stage.
Stuart Webb 8:53
You're quite right. You're absolutely right. There are a host of different problems you've got with real estate, you on estate, you've got a you've got a got a captive audience, but when you're online, there's the email pinging and there's the phone ringing and you there's nobody there to keep the attention is that
Alfred Poor 9:11
now Well, I have to say that I have been in events, where live events where the audience went to their email and their Facebook and everything. So you know, you're not immune from it even even when it's face to face. But yeah, you're the being virtual doesn't make it any easier.
Stuart Webb 9:30
Okay, so so what's that common mistake that those presenters at the moment doing other than sort of trying to assume that the world of online is the same as being being on the stage? Or what's the problem they're making without trying to solve the problem without actually getting any help?
Alfred Poor 9:47
So I think the biggest problem they have is thinking that they can do this that you know that they've got it, they can, they can wing it, they can, you know, they can do it on their own. And I think what They're not seeing is that when they're on stage, they're professionals who dress the stage, they're professionals who set up the lighting, the professionals who set up the sound system, you know that all you have to do is walk on stage and start talking. But when you're virtual, you have all those responsibilities and more that you have to take care of on your end. And so I think that a lot of them don't recognize that or figure that, you know, well, just me sitting at my desk will be good enough.
Stuart Webb 10:31
And let's face it, we all know that a large number of dogs wandering into the background of your shot, and kids screaming in the background don't help your presentation to be any better than it. It could have been on stage, does it?
Alfred Poor 10:45
No, no. And and another point that I'd like to make is that just about everything we've been taught about how to speak on stage is wrong. When you're speaking online, I mean, you know, we're taught to own the stage to strike over here and anchor yourself and make your statement and then come back over here to talk to this part of the audience and anchor yourself and then make another point. And, and you're gonna make your audience seasick. If you try to try to do that online, the one of the big pieces of advice I have for people who want to do online presentations, is don't look at stage performances. Just ignore that the people you ought to watch our I guess you'd call them presenters in the UK, the TV presenters who Yeah, yeah, do the news shows, in newscasters, the hosts, whatever you want to call them, Look, what they do, they sit still, you know, see how their images framed on the camera, and it's not a big close up on their nose. And, and their hand gestures are more subdued, you know, and hopefully more on point than the flailing about, that some people do on stage to, to be big. And so you can learn a lot just from watching the television news shows.
Stuart Webb 12:06
Yeah, and I was listening to a to an interview with a CEO who quote is, obviously absorb some of the lessons you're talking about here, Alfred. And they were saying that during the pandemic, she was she was female. So she sort of probably more aware of it then than many men around here. But she was saying that she spent a lot of money on lighting in order to give the best light, she'd rethought her wardrobe, because she knew that the wardrobe she normally wore on a stage wouldn't look good on camera. And she'd spent a lot of time thinking about sort of how to make sure that when she was on camera, people were able to follow what she was saying. And it just it was it was the lesson that you've just sort of said to me, without without sort of help, I would not have thought about even considering my wardrobe. And yeah, I can remember when I was I went through some presentation training in my corporate career. And I can remember being told that the cut of your jacket had to be different. Because if you sit in a jacket, normally it rides up. And that looks bad on a camera. So there are a load of things that you really do have to rethink when you move from the online to the offline and back again,
Alfred Poor 13:15
well, actually, I'm standing, yes, I have, I have not sat at work for either presentations, or for my just my day to day work. probably in about seven or eight years, I was early convert to standing desks. But standing makes a huge difference in your presentation. Not just what you're talking about the fit of your clothes, but but also energy, it's hard to get pumped up when you're sitting in your chair. So I definitely encourage people to stand if, if their situation, you know, their setting will support that.
Stuart Webb 13:57
And his benefit for your health as well. So we could talk about that for for many hours. So what's not valuable free resource or free action that you could point the audience towards in order to start their journey down thinking about some of these problems.
Alfred Poor 14:11
So So last year, when the pandemic started, I knew a lot of speakers who were panicking. And you know, now what do I do? And so I offered a free one hour webinar for a number of times for different groups, a speaker's bureau that I'm part of, and so forth, to try to give them some basic ideas about how they could improve their their online presence. And that's turned into this whole speaker springboard project that I've got going. And I'm now offering a free demonstration once a month. That goes into not just practical tips that we've been talking about here. A number of different tips that that people can put to use right away, but also it gets to the foundation of it. what's what's the reasons behind that? Why change your mindset about how you present and what it means to be an engaging presenter, in an online event, and so on. I'm offering those every month. And you can find it at speaker springboard, comm slash demonstration.
Stuart Webb 15:18
Speaker springboard.com forward slash demonstration speaker springboard, one word, no spaces or hyphens or anything like that. speakers.com
Alfred Poor 15:29
totally free. But you have to register. And I will warn you, there are no replays. So if you don't make it to the live event, then just hang on for a month and come to the next one.
Stuart Webb 15:42
exams to me, like it's an important one, if you've got a presentation coming up, you get on to the next one without hesitation. So guys, Speaker springboard.com forward slash demonstration, get onto that, get on to the next one. So what's the concept or or books that's been most impactful in your experience?
Alfred Poor 16:02
Well, I, I hope like most speakers, I have a full shelf of books that I I turn to, and and and for inspiration and support and reference. But you know, if I had to pick one, this is this is the one that I would turn to. It's called the naked presenter. And it's by an author, Gar Reynolds. And the naked presenter. This is not about imagining your audience naked. This is about putting yourself out there being present, when when you make your presentation, and that's about on. It's primarily about onstage presentations, but it applies really well to virtual presentations as well. And he goes almost to a Zen like philosophy behind presentations. Yeah, you know, provide what you need, but no more. So one of the things about being a naked presenter is presenting without slides, which is, which is my preference I, if it's a training, where there's, you know, points that you want to make, then yeah, I can I can, I definitely use slides. But some of the more abstract kind of presentations, the more thick pieces Steve Jobs was, was a master at putting the minimum amount of information up on the screen. And you could take the screen away, and it still would work. And that's pretty much what the naked presenter is about. So at the end, it's a good touchdown for me to keep me humble and not get carried away.
Stuart Webb 17:45
It's a good job. You mentioned Steve Jobs there because as you were talking about the the idea of doing things without slides, my immediate thought was a great presentation I saw Steve Jobs do which was just a window with curtains. And he stood up and said, You know, I'm going to talk to you about it's curtains for Windows. And that was the slide and the presentation just continued. And there was nothing else that came out other than that was the image that was behind it. And you just, you know, you were left with the fact that he had one point. He didn't need to make it any clearer. He was talking about the, you know, what he got, and that was curtains to Windows. And that was that was the presentation and the image was burned into my memory. I shall never forget it. And it was a it was a beautiful presentation. Yeah, partly because he didn't use slide which try to try to sort of confuse anything. Yeah,
Alfred Poor 18:36
I mean, we all know the advice about don't make an eye chart. But that I mean part of the problem either online or on stage, the more texts you put up there, the less people are going to listen to you and the more they're going to spend time reading. And so don't don't let them get ahead of you just control the flow and don't put up information that doesn't have to be up there.
Stuart Webb 19:01
Always the worst thing that I've seen in terms of people doing that is what they've handed out the presentation before they started doing to slide 57. And they're already asking the question before they've even had the opportunity to get halfway through the presentation. Yeah, day two, anything you're trying to do? Yeah.
Alfred Poor 19:17
And, and, for me, the big risk on that is that they'll read ahead and say, Oh, yeah, I understand what he's got. But the point he's gonna make here, and so they tune out until you get past it. And you may have other stuff that's really important. That's not on the paper. But they're not going to hear it because they already figured they know what you're gonna say. So yeah, yeah. Brilliant.
Stuart Webb 19:37
Brilliant, a good message. So So, you know, what's the one question that I should have asked you in these last few minutes that I haven't and, and when you tell us what that question is, please answered it. Otherwise, we'll all be hanging, wondering what you were gonna say.
Alfred Poor 19:51
Sure, sure. So I guess it is. Why do I have this affinity for virtual And I guess the answer is, I'm one of those people who embraces technology, but is not blinded by it. So, for me, the concept of using the appropriate tool is central to what I do. So, you know, don't don't use a sledgehammer when you know, but when a knife and fork will do. And so technology has made so many things possible. And the fact that here we are an ocean away from each other, casually talking with, with no real fuss or must to make it happen. It To me, that's a miracle. That's just amazing. And so I've pretty much spent my career explaining to people how technology can help them. I wrote for PC Magazine for over 20 years. And so this is, I guess, part of the might, my general mission is helping spread information that's going to make other people's lives easier and better.
Stuart Webb 21:11
brilliant, brilliant. I love that. I love that and the fact that you embrace that, sort of but don't don't get overwhelmed. I think it's great, Mr. Alford, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you talking to us about this, I think it's a great thing, I'd encourage anybody yet to my demonstration. Because, you know, presentation online is going to become a bigger part of your business life, whether you believe it or not. The world is going digital. I know that for my life, it's been revolutionary. I wouldn't be sitting here having a conversation with Alfred, if it hadn't been for the fact that I've embraced the digital world and I know, operate like this. And we can all learn how to be better speakers, better presenters, on our our small televisions in front of us in the way the television presenters, the news anchors of the world actually presented. So get onto those demonstration systems. And if you'd like to hear more about what we do is completely broken and get up to date with some of the stuff that we're going to be putting out in this podcast in the future. Go to tcaa dot FYI, forward slash subscribe, that's just TC a dot FYI, forward slash, subscribe, get on the list, and you'll hear replays of people are kelford, the opportunity to hear about women got upcoming speakers and get in and listen to those after it has been an absolute pleasure listening to you this afternoon. I really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you so much for bringing your tea to be five questions over coffee and enjoy a little bit more by now. But thank you very much data. I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
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Five Questions Over Coffee with Alfred Poor (ep 23)