Running with the Olympic Blade Runner: Oscar Pistorius in London 2012

The biggest battle presenters face is the battle to push their comfort zones as speakers

by Peter Watts

Speaking to larger audiences, to more challenging audiences, or even taking those first few steps to speak at all can feel like enormous leaps. Sometimes it can feel like too big a leap, and we don’t even try, or we give up at the first hurdle.

Last night, yet again watching the Olympics on a ceiling-mounted restaurant television, I saw a man on prosthetic legs position himself into the starting blocks for the Men’s 400 meters at the London Olympics.

The man’s name is Oscar Petronius. He’s a South African athlete known as “The Blade Runner”, and when he competed last night, he made history as the first double-amputee to take part in the Games.

Reading his accomplishments in this morning’s press, I was struck by the words to which Oscar Pistorius attributes his strength:

“A loser isn’t the person that gets involved and comes last, but it’s the person that doesn’t get involved in the first place.”

Apply those words to public speaking. An incredibly good fit aren’t they. How many opportunities do we lose because we don’t get involved in the first place.

Here are a few web-links with coverage about Oscar Petronius, the one-man inspiration factory.

Las Vegas Review

New York Times

Huffington Post

The Guardian 

Take a moment to read one of them. Then identify a challenge that you’ve been wanting to take on, but previously hadn’t dared to.

How do you start down the road to that race, and run with The BladeRunner?

Call me maybe. US Olympic Swim Team show presenters the way to go gold

Gaining success is as much about enjoyment as pain as the swimmers prove

by Peter Watts

What is more dedicated than an Olympic athlete? Training, working, sacrificing. Their goal: the Olympics.

And now here they are. And it’s this moment. And it’s going to play out in front of their families, their communities, their countries, and the world.

And they are bopping up and down on the team bus, lip-synching to “Call me maybe”, and making fun of themselves for all the world to see.

The members of the US Olympic Swim Team have given us an aquatic masterclass in:

• How to be distinctive
• How to be Social Media visible
• How to have a life

Distinctive

Presenters can be a dime a dozen, and like the President staring back out of those dimes, they look pretty damned serious. They are taking their presentation and themselves oh so very seriously, and for their audiences, it’s oh so very boring.

I believe it’s important for audiences to enjoy presentations. In the vast majority of cases when we present, we are seeking to persuade, and as the ancient Chinese proverb states:

“A man without a smiling face should never open a shop”

Taking ourselves too seriously kills first our own smile, and then the audience’s. When we take ourselves too seriously we become rigid. Rigid leads to conservative. Conservative is seldom distinctive.

Mixing it: Being social media visible as a presenter:

Take a look at Brad Smith’s article in Social Media Today about the three biggest lessons big business can learn from small business.

Brad’s number one lesson is to “Have a voice”, and he explains how brand-meisters are muzzled by forces of conservatism. Playing it safe means playing it mute.

Which Olympic team is getting the most coverage? The one that’s not taking itself too seriously.

Having a life, as a presenter:

If you move into the type of occupation where presenting becomes the major part of your work, then taking yourself too seriously is a rapid route to a joyless existence. Your mistakes will magnify, and your stress levels sore.

The US Olympic Swim Team are exactly the type of people General Colin Powell described when he said he likes to surround himself “with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves.”

Not taking yourself too seriously, means you’re going to be limber enough to find triumph on the day.

Two golds, three silvers, and three bronzes are already testimony to that!

London 2012. Olympic Opening Ceremony. 7 points for presenters

by Peter Watts

What a show! London 2012 delivered the opening of the 30th Olympic Games, and with it’s magnificent Opening Ceremony, also demonstrated seven olympic sized ideas for building presentations:

1. Appeal to history

At the heart of history, lies the art of telling a story. As soon as you go historical, you go narrative, and you do it in a way that naturally structures into a beginning, a middle, and an end.

• Here’s where you’ve come from
• Here’s where you are
• Here’s where you’re going (with our help ofcourse!)

2. Put your strongest assets front and rear

Hit the audience hardest with your hottest assets. Take a look at last night; Paul McCartney, David Beckham, Rowan Atkinson, and James Bond parachuting in with the Queen (was it just me or did her Majesty look a tiny bit unamused at being flung in effigy out of a helicopter?).

Put heavy hitters first and last to create a powerful opening and a memorable conclusion.

Anything likely to puzzle, put it in the middle. (Mary Poppins v. Lord Voldemort. Really?)

3. Beware the moaning Minnie

Or in this case, it was a moaning Mitt during the #RomneyShambles! Whenever you attempt something new, grand, or adventurous, there will always be at least one whinging voice off-stage warning about what went wrong when they tried to do the same thing years ago.

Whenever you hear Moaning Mitt, do as David Cameron and Boris Johnson did; give them a slap, and ignore them.

4. And by the way, comparisons don’t count

How will the London Olympics compare to Beijing in 2008, or to Sydney in 2000?

Who cares!

Never worry about how you will appear when compared to someone else. They will have had their strengths, you will have your strengths. They are going to be different.

Comparisons are bogus. Never let them worry you.

5. Keep the visuals iconic

Good visuals carry instant meaning. If they need to be explained, they failed.

I was watching the show sitting in a restaurant in Connecticut, where the inevitable ceiling mounted TV peered down at us from behind the bar. The sound was off yet whenever someone glanced upwards to see what was happening, they could understand the visual narratives instantly.

In fact, the only bit that did have them scratching their heads was Mary Poppins v. Voldemort, but as we’ve already said; that was in the middle!

6. Sometimes be ironic

Throughout the pageantry, I did detect the slightest undercurrent of an ironic British raspberry being blown at the fat-cats and sponsors. The people celebrated throughout the pageantry weren’t the well heeled sponsors limo-whisked down express traffic lanes to private entrances and VIP seating.

The people celebrated were villagers, workers, and protestors. There was almost a tone of Occupy Wall Street, with the 99% represented by tableaux. Even socialized medicine was celebrated in a paean to the National Health Service. It was all beautifully below the radar; just a little bit tongue in cheek and leading directly to point number seven:

7. Know who hands out the medals

Who is going to judge you afterwards and hand out the medals? In the case of the Brits, is it the IOC or the sponsors? No it most certainly isn’t. It’s the viewing audience, and in particular for the UK government, it’s all those people who have paid for the event out of their tax money and get to vote again in two years time (or maybe even sooner!)

That’s why the opening appeared to some commentators to be “quirky and odd”. Brits ARE quirky and odd. If you’re trying to appeal to quirky and odd British voters then quirky and odd wins hands down.

Who else might the host country be looking to for a gold? How about the world’s tourists. Quirky and odd, tea and the Queen, are the comfortingly cozy metaphors that sell-out Japanese package-tours to the British Isles.

Quirky and odd demonstrated superb understanding of the UK’s true target market, and of who will be handing out the real prizes later.

A pageant, with a point, that persuaded the audience to stay tuned, and that will deliver long-term advantages.

What more could you want in a successful presentation, or Olympic Ceremony!