How Can Tension be Effectively Built to Keep the Audience Engaged? Presentation Review 9: Diane Shepherd

Do you struggle with fear, doubt and worry in your public speaking? Do you find it difficult to connect with your audience and deliver presentations that leave a lasting, positive, unforgettable impact? If yes, then let's dive in the world of public speaking and presentation skills with your host, Eric Edmeads. Welcome to the Unforgettable podcast with guest host David Wood.

Eric Edmies. And I'm here with David T.S. wood and we're doing another presentation breakdown review. This one is really fun. This is Diane shepherd. And Diane shepherd just has such a delightful style. She uses the ability to build tension in a story. You know, you kind of, she's taking you one direction and then maybe there's another direction. I don't want to give too much away, but I, I think it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Yeah. Yeah. And again, if you are watching, you may be listening, but if you are watching it, you could actually turn the sound off. And her physical movement is so enjoyable, you can almost go along with the story, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's, let's, let' hear what Diane has to say.

Let's roll disclaimer. My husband is generally a very efficient and on top of it man. A good husband, a good father. And the following events are 100% true and absolutely do not reflect his ability to function properly as a human being. My husband is an insurance agent and if you do a really good job, they give you a free trip at the end of the year. He is a good man and a good insurance agent. So we are going to Ireland tomorrow. And this is not just a trip to Ireland, it's a trip to Ireland. They put you up in the best hotels, they take you on excursions. It's top notch. One of those places that we would never go ourselves because it's way out of our budget. But we thought we'd spend a little bit more money this year and take our kids with us. We want to do a two for one special. My son is graduating and we thought we might as well bring him along and take him as a graduation trip. We're getting along. Everything's going as planned. We're leaving tomorrow. My husband is at work. It's about 30 minutes away. My daughter's at a sleepover. My son is upstairs sound asleep, completely normal. And I'm just doing my regular check off to do list before we go. And the good thing about these trips is they plan them for you. So they send you an email about six months before the trip and they give you the dates and it Says, save the date. And we say, okay, no problem. We put it on the calendar. A little bit later, the travel agent calls and they book the flights for you. Super easy. They give us the times. My husband's super happy. These are great times. Everything is perfectly, perfectly done and done for us. Six months go by, we know we're leaving tomorrow. We've got the calendar, we got the dates right there. And then my husband's going to make the parking arrangements for tomorrow. So he gets out the airplane itinerary and he looks at it. August 6th, looks at the calendar. August 7th, August 6th, August 7th. So, you know, I get a call from my husband, I pick up the phone and I realize I am now talking to a hysterical human being. He was, oh, my gosh, I've messed up. How can I do this? I'm so stupid. There's no way we're not leaving for Ireland tomorrow. Our flight leaves in three hours. We normally leave for the airport three hours before our flight. So he's like, there's no way we can make it. There's no way we can make it. So I realize I have to go into my superhuman mode. There is. Somebody's got to take charge, and obviously he's not the one. So I reach through the phone, I grab him by the shoulders and I'm. Get a grip, man. Missing that flight is not an option. We will make that flight. I've got to go. I got a lot to do. I hang up the phone and I get busy while he's driving home doing a bunch of girl screaming all the way home. So I round up the kids, I tell them what's going on, I get ready as fast as you can, and now it's time to deal with me. So I, I go into the closet, I throw the suitcase on the floor, and I realized I hadn't thought about packing. I don't really plan ahead. I'm used to doing this at the last minute because I'm usually working up until all hours. Night. 11 o' clock is when I. PM is usually when I start packing. So this is a little bit different. So I start grabbing. I grabbed jackets, I grabbed sweaters, I grab pants. Oh, don't forget the underwear. Super important, grabbing everything. There is absolutely no time to put outfits together to coordinate. We just gotta go for it and trust the process. So I zip up the suitcase, I yell at the kids, we go out, and sure enough, we are standing by the door by the time my husband gets home. So we're super, super proud of ourselves. We've done an amazing job. He comes in, still a little bit all frazzled. We're not going to make it, honey. We're looking pretty good right now. So he grabs his stuff. We get in the car. We thought we need a little bit of extra help. So we all pray. God, please help us make the flight. Please help us make the flight. We've got a few more obstacles along the way, so number one, we make it through the traffic. Thank goodness. Check. Thank you. Then we make it through security. Check. And we get our bags on the plane. That's amazing. But we have another problem. I show up, and all the other wives look amazing. And here I hadn't showered in two days. There was no time for that, no makeup. So I'm running interference behind my husband doing self stealth mode. Please don't let the women see me. But fortunately, he had to admit to why I didn't have any makeup on, why my hair looked so messy. But we went ahead and we were able to get on the plane. We sat down, we had a huge sigh of relief, and I don't think there was anybody more happy to get on that plane than us. So remember, when things look absolutely grim and impossible, just believe, have faith, don't give up, because anything's possible, and you're stronger than you think you are.

Thank you, Diane. There's something you can do with your body, which is without moving. You move so much, you're able to expand. It's incredible to watch you. You know, you can bend, and it feels like you move four paces. So for you to fill so much space as you talk, it's really beautiful to watch. So I really, really loved it. Thank you.

Diane. I think one of my favorite things was your F15, the disclaimer about your husband. I feel like that really set the tone for the talk. So great job.

Yeah, that. That was very nice. It kind of sets up a little suspense and, you know, intrigue. Your. Your delivery is so delightful. Delightful. Like you just kind of. You're in. You're hooked. You want to pay attention. Each moment kind of teases that there's another moment coming, and you want to be there. You're. As David said, your physical humor is just wonderful. The way you act your way through the whole thing. You were fantastic. Congratulations. Well done. I think you needed to hear this talk right after your wedding fiasco. Things are grim when things.

That's episode one, if you want to listen to it. Yeah.

So this is such a delightful talk. You know, you mentioned earlier in the intro to Watch out for her physicality. If you're. If you're watching, if you're not, if you're listening what you need to know. And you can probably, by the way, you can probably even in a sense, see it when you're listening, because you can hear in her voice that she's moving around, she's using her body. It adds such animation to the whole thing.

Yeah. The other thing she does, she gives permission. A lot of people think to be in front of a room, you have to have achieved something or done something. But life, it's like great comedy. What's great comedy is life. But these are stories about everyday life. And I love the way she throws her husband under the bus.

I wonder if he loves it.

Yeah, we'll find out.

But that is a really good point to the idea that we all have these life experiences that are valuable to others because she's using this life experience to teach some things about pressure under fire and having a great family life. And one of the things I liked about it is, I mean, how many families, you think if they found themselves in that same situation, that it would have gotten into, whose fault is this? You know, like, she never went there. She never went to. Whose fault is this? She went to. What do we need to do to get this on? We're going to make it. We're going to get on that plane. We're going to have this vacation. And I think that's a great attitude to teach. And she's shown it to us in a really delightful way.

Yeah. And just one last thing on the physicality, again, how elegant and physical it was. It wasn't. Sometimes, you know, even I can overdo it when I'm hamming something up. And I've seen you do it.

I don't know what you're talking about.

We throw our whole body into everything. But she was able to do it in those little, you know, like, tick, tick. Right. So it was lovely. Yeah.

Yeah. Very nicely done. So remember that this is a perfect example of a. What could be just an everyday, normal life experience of having some kind of flight fiasco and how she's turned it into a really delightful story with a poignant message and a good moral. And I think if that doesn't prove the point that we have to get out there and tell our stories to the world because they're valuable, I don't know what will. So remember, get out there and share your stories. Become comfortable and confident. Your stories have value to everybody else out there.

So that's it. For today's episode of Unforgettable, head on over to itunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on itunes will win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a private $25,000 VIP day with Eric Ed Meads himself. Be sure to head on over to Unforgettable show and pick up a free copy of Eric's gift and join us on the next episode.

Sam.