Trying something new before your presentation? Big mistake!

I happened to be at an event recently where one of my former clients was introducing the speaker. I've seen her speak before, and she's usually very confident, with good eye contact and a strong physical presence onstage.

However, at this event, she read the introduction, with low energy, from a piece of paper, and almost never looked up at the audience. I wondered if she had just been handed the introduction, because she didn't look comfortable or prepared.

Yesterday I ran into her and asked if she wanted feedback on the presentation I had seen. First she said, "NO. I know I was off. It wasn't a good day. And I think that people who haven't seen me speak before probably didn't notice." I agreed with that, for sure.

Then a few minutes later, she said, "Okay, what's your feedback?"

I told her what I had observed, and she completely agreed that her performance was sub-par. She went on to explain that she had been given some Chinese herbs by her acupuncturist that she hadn't tried before. The herbs made her feel "amped," and for this particular speaker, amped is the opposite of how she likes to prepare herself.

She likes to be grounded and calm; in fact, she's the client I wrote this blog post for, about getting grounded. She's found that, when she's grounded, she feels extremely powerful and confident onstage.

However, having taken these herbs, she found herself out of her groove, kind of like Lauren Graham on the Ellen Show, after having been on a juice fast for five days.

As I mentioned in that previous post, don't try anything new right before a presentation (or before a TV appearance!). If you can hold off on that new supplement, those new shoes, that new energy drink, that new software, until you've tried them out NOT in front of an audience, then please do so.

Most of us have rituals that help us prepare for presentations, conscious or not. We have certain clothes we wear, certain foods and beverages we do or don't consume, certain tools we bring along. Try out the new things well before your next presentation, so you don't get caught by surprise and end up with an "off" presentation for no good reason.

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