Heads Up

10 Oct Heads Up

Tenor Robert Dean Smith was appearing in a French production of Tristan and Isolde. His character Tristan had just died. Smith suddenly felt a 467-pound prop rock inches from his face. To the shock of the French audience, Tristan suddenly rose from the dead and ran offstage. A stagehand dispute had almost killed this opera star.

Our clients have also experienced crazy and traumatic events while speaking. If you’ve ever used PowerPoint or Zoom, you undoubtedly have stories about how the power failed, the program froze or slides began advancing on their own… Props that didn’t work… Co-presenters whose flight was cancelled… Or, as one visually impaired client recently experienced, the airline lost her luggage for most of the 2-day Eloqui workshop she was attending. The point is, whenever you present, the only thing you can count on is you and your voice.

Always have a Plan B. Make sure you can proceed without your planned visuals, script or props. You’re the most interesting thing, anyway. And if you press on in the face of difficulty, the audience will empathize with you and be impressed with your courage and skill.