This is what I learned.
If you are a young and attractive female presenter at a class, do not do the following:
- Wear a scarf that slips around a lot creating tension in your audience about when it will slide completely off your neck
- Say "ahhh" repeatedly (every third word!) as you search for your next point
- Reach into your clothing to rearrange straps
- Flutter your eyelids toward the ceiling as you talk
- Tell long convoluted stories meant to illustrate a particular point but that go far afield and into minute detail that does not contribute to the proceedings
While your tag-teammate is speaking, do not:
- Sit directly in front of him
- Fiddle with your materials, pushing them here and there, straightening them up, squaring up the edges
- Highlight things on your papers and click the cap back on and off and on and off
- Constantly work your head around at odd angles to loosen up those neck muscles
- Unscrew your water bottle, take a sip, put the cap back on . . . repeat . . . repeat . . . repeat
In a former life, when I was a young and attractive woman, I was, on numerous occasions, such a presenter to roomsful of middle-aged men. Once I became comfortable with the public speaking and began to enjoy it . . . perhaps a bit too much . . . I received an excellent piece of advice from my boss.
He said, "Don't start believing your own P.R."
