Eyes Up, Script Down
Notes
“I can’t do it without my notes!”
This is a common cry I hear from clients. But I’m not saying they have to present without their notes, they just need to review how they’re using them.
Many of us write our notes as a script and then find ourselves glued to them. Nothing will disconnect you from your audience quicker than if you spend the majority of your presentation poring over what you’ve written rather than looking at them.
The problem is that if you’ve written a script and are trying to remember it with the help of your notes you will either be in your head trying to think of the next word, or searching it for where you are.
Reading from our scripts will affect our eye contact and vocal tone making our delivery seem robotic, disengaged, and nervous.
And that’s just it. Notes shouldn’t be a script at all, but a roadmap laid out in brief prompts. We need to create them as short bullet points rather than full sentences.
Then we are able to use them like a GPS, we can glance down, see where we are, and keep on driving.
To get used to doing this, rehearse with them beforehand, working at pausing at the end of one point, looking down quickly to pick up the next, and then looking back up to connect and deliver.
We must look at our audience at least 80% of the time or we will lose them. There’s too much “noise” in our lives, both literal and figurative. If we don’t engage them through eye contact, they will disappear into their heads or phones.
So how should we use them? If they’re in paper form, don’t have them on large sheets of paper that will flap about. Use notecards or something that’s firm. Hold them at waist height and don’t fiddle with them.
If they’re on a screen use big enough font so that they are easy to read, perhaps using colour coding for different parts. Place it at a high enough level so you’re not always having to look down, and make sure your device is fully charged, and doesn’t go to sleep mid-presentation.
Belts and braces: never rely solely on your tech - always have a printed copy of your notes, just in case!
For those of you who would like to speak without a script, I’ll give you a powerful method on this link
