Leveling up and the Prestige of presenting
What do we do when we think we know all there is to know about presenting and public speaking? We level up.
Diablo is one of your all-time favourite games. You think about it nearly every day because of one line of text: "You can't do this yet".
It's a metaphor for personal journeys, echoing the levelling-up mechanic of many video games that I've found translates to real life. You want to do something, but you've yet to gain the required experience points (XP), and the game tells you, "You can't do that yet." You've found a magic item but can't use it yet because you simply don't know how to.
Public speakers, much like players of games such as Diablo, must gain experience, learn skills, and tackle challenges to advance. That takes patience. It takes years of work.
Want to present at a global TED event? Chances are, you can’t do that yet.
Early in our careers, presentation success is mainly dependent on intuition and raw talent. Later, we realise that relying on these things is unhealthy because it isn't sustainable. We must discover and use new tools and strategies and be experienced enough to use them. We must do what you call, The Work.
You realised that to improve your skills, you must, in a way, abandon those you've acquired.
In gaming, this is called The Prestige. Once you've reached the highest possible skill level, you must decide between remaining at Level 55, content to settle with the skills you have or moving up a level to a new Prestige Rank and forefitting the skills, tools, magic items, or, as in Call of Duty, your ability to use certain weapons. This is frustrating because you become accustomed to these objects and skills. You’ve become lazy.
The smallest of Needle Nudges is all it takes to open up a new, more exciting and impactful world of presenting and push us into a new and better Prestige Rank of presenting.
You've helped experienced keynote speakers stumble into a new prestige and push through the fear and confusion of a brand new level. They appear on the other side as a sparkling new master of something altogether more accomplished – until it isn’t anymore, and the Prestige Button is pressed again. This is The Work.
There's always something to learn, improve, tweak and polish. When people say to you: "It's gone, I don't know what I'm doing, I've forgotten how to present, you've broken me, what on earth have you done with me!", you know that the needle has been nudged towards speaker excellence. They’ve pushed the button. They've Prestiged. The Work has been done.
You know that they've levelled up.
The Speakery Presentation Canvas
The Speakery Presentation Canvas is a very effective way of nudging the needle and hitting the Prestige Button. It is the centre piece of what I call The Work. It’s simple to use but it isn’t easy. Thousands of people use it. It’s fun. Have a go!
I hope you enjoyed today’s note. I'm currently working on a new keynote about mastery called "Nudging the Needle" and will share a few ideas from the talk in the Newsletter from time to time.
Thank you so very much for reading. I genuinely appreciate it.
Marcus.