A Bird Ate My Microphone Cord! How to Handle Technical Difficulties in Public Speaking

Have you ever seen an animal show? One where an animal expert brings creatures on stage to show you their talents and party tricks -- while teaching you cool facts about nature? 

You'd be amazed at how many corporate presentation skills you can learn from those, especially handling technical difficulties. Here's an example: 

Two years ago, my 18-month-old son Tom and I watched the bird show at Animal Kingdom. 

Everything went wrong! The rats refused to exit stage left after their number, the crow flew too high to be seen, and one smart little bird snipped a presenter's microphone cord CLEAN IN HALF. 

The audience absolutely loved it. 

They loved it because the two animal experts -- let's call them "Sam" and "Josh" -- handled it so beautifully. What did they do?

1. Engagement. From the moment they took the stage, Sam & Josh engaged the audience every step of the way -- building a fun relationship with us so that when accidents happened, we were "in" on the joke. They asked questions to the whole group, invited audience members to stand or wave or fire bottle rocks, and told jokes. We weren't "watching" the show, we were actively part of the show. We felt what the speakers felt. When Josh said, "This venue had a rat problem until the birds arrived," and four trained rats ran onto the stage, we chuckled with him at the obvious joke. However, when the last rat went off script and refused to relinquish the spotlight, we absolutely roared right along with the presenters. Audience engagement is the emotional connection that turns listeners into aligned, active learners. 
   

2. Rehearsal. Sam and Josh bantered beautifully, trading jokes and puns throughout. They didn't sound rehearsed -- they sounded like they KNEW their content 100%. Have you ever heard someone say, "I don't rehearse, I don't want to sound robotic?" That's the greatest myth in public speaking. An unrehearsed presentation is long, rambling, and filled with filler words like "um" and "you know." Speakers sound robotic when they rehearse only once or twice and are still struggling to remember their lines. Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse like a Broadway star until you internalize the content and can deliver it without thinking. Then you can spend your mental energy on your personality, and naturally avoid sounding robotic. When technical difficulties happen, you can recover more easily if you know what comes next!
   

3. Humor. Have you heard the phrase, "Never work with children or animals?" Halfway through the show, Sam and Josh had weathered two technical difficulties already. Both the rats and a crow had struggled with their tricks. Sam transitioned to a new section of the show and started giving a lesson on a particular bird's features and adaptations. Josh cued a new bird to secretly untie Sam's shoe. The bird hopped up to Sam's shoulder looking for a treat... and bit his microphone cord, clipping it neatly in half. Now, after a THIRD technical difficulty, even the most seasoned corporate presenters can become irate. Have you seen high-level corporate folks start to melt down on stage? They're embarrassed, frustrated and wondering if they'll ever get back to their hotel rooms. Sam must've felt the same way, but instead of letting his anxiety take control, he laughed! Laughter is one of the best cures for frustration. He turned to the audience and mock-wailed: "The bird cut my microphone cord!" The audience, who already loved him from half an hour of fun, engaging content, melted with empathy. We all laughed together. 
   

4. Remember the Point. Next, Josh brought the audience back from their laughter by restating the point: birds have beautiful adaptations that make our world a better place. We must conserve their habitats and support safe places like zoos. Josh didn't need Power Point, a microphone or a trained rat to help us see that. 

When you experience technical difficulties on stage or on Zoom, remember: 

+ engage and rehearse your presentation in advance

+ use humor and remember the point in the moment. 

To practice this (and share horror stories!) with me, visit http://i-cue.com