Success Secrets Exposed - How to Get Better Engagement Online

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Welcome to Success Secrets Exposed with Sally A. Curtis, where we share stories of challenge, success, and inspiration along with practical tips and strategies strategies to move you forward to your success. And now here's your host, Sally A. Curtis.

Good evening, good morning, and good day to you. Thank you once again for joining us today. I'm going to deliver with Warwick Merry a very, very energetic and dynamic episode for you. And I'm super excited to be sharing Warwick today. He works traditionally with leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs to actually help them get better engagement, energise an audience, and inspire people whilst online using online resources, etc. And our topic today is going to be how to get better engagement online. So for those that are new to the show, let me just sort of backtrack a little bit and tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a marketing and business growth strategist for coaches, speakers, and consultants, and it's my role to help you amplify your voice, your message, and your impact. Now, I do that through content repurposing and helping people with LinkedIn strategy. But I really want to tell you a little bit more about Warwick because, as you're going to experience, it's going to be lots of fun. So I've got lots of notes because there was lots of little things that I wanted to be able to share with you today. Warwick's going to pose some questions. We're going to talk about, you know, how do we now engage people online and create that inspiration and that true human connection when we have no physical presence beyond the screen that we actually see or our microphone speakers? And how do we use body language when you can't actually see it? And what are some of the technology tricks that you can use when you're a technophobe or you don't have tech. And I discovered a little bit more about Warwick and his technical prowess, which we'll share with you as well. So let me share with you about Warwick. He's one of Australia's leading MCs, and he's definitely the industry's go-to person as it relates to online and hybrid events. He's been phenomenally supportive of our Professional Speakers Association here in Australia and has literally been everybody's go-to person. Hosted more than 10,000 people online in events over the last 5 years, and he's super passionate about ensuring delegates are engaged, events are successful— that's probably one of his absolute criteria— and that the speakers are simply better at engaging online. So can you please help me welcome Certified Professional Speaking— sorry, Certified Speaking Professional, Certified virtual presenter and the under eight's Yarra swim champion, Warwick Mary.

Hooray! Ah, how much fun! Hey, thank you so much for having me here. I have to say, I'm laughing so much because as the show starts and then we hear that that legal advice, you know, they're really fast. You know, we take no responsibility. This may not really be a TV show. I I'm sad that we live in a world where we need to have it, but for some reason, that just cracks me up every. Every single time. It's sort of like a Simpsons episode with the Lionel Hutz attorney at law. Not a real lawyer. Please don't make any guarantees.

Yeah. Well done.

Anyway, that's just me. I just—

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm gonna ask you a question and then I'm gonna let you, let you go, Mr. Warwick. So tell me, I'm getting excited here. I've got the, the inner, inner all sorts going on. And I would love you to share a little bit about your background. And if you can take us from the Yarra swim champion to the IT to how you've become the professional speaker that you are, but also the go-to person for every other professional speaker.

Yes, certainly. It's a long story. I'll try and keep it nice and short. So I grew up in a small country town called Yarram down in South Gippsland, which is for those international guests, Picture the very bottom of Australia on the right-hand side, just before we have to go overseas to the island of Tasmania. That's where it was. And yes, I was the under-8s Yarram Swimming Club champion. It's the only sporting medal that I have, whereas my brother had shelves of it. So therefore, it's important to me. So I went to school, went to university. I didn't know what to do at university. So I did 2 degrees because it's nice to have a backup. One was in accounting and one was in IT. So when you go to parties and they were like, what do you do? Oh, accounting and IT. So I didn't get many dates. But anyway, so I then spent 10 years in the IT industry and was lucky enough to work for a company that had a multinational presence. And I spent 12 months living in Dallas, Texas. And that was an experience. I get so much culture shock when I go to America because I think, well, they're the same as us. We sort of, sort of speak the same language. We sort of watch the same TV. But there are so many little differences. But it was a fun time. And then after spending a bit of time there, came back doing some more IT work here. I then— I always spent a lot of time asking myself that question, what do I want to be when I grow up? I had no idea what the answer was. And then one day, my wife at the time came home from a conference and talked about this keynote speaker. And I'm like, oh, I could do that because I love the sound of my own voice. Just ask my wives, they'll tell you. And so, I thought I could do that. I could stand on stage and inspire people, but I had no idea what to talk about. Little side note here. The philosopher Kierkegaard said, life has to be lived forward but understood backwards. So, growing up, I was the school captain. So, on stage every Monday, I had an amateur radio show. I did amateur theater. I did all the speeches at my friends' 18th, 21st, weddings. I hosted weddings. In any of the clubs and groups I was part of, I was the one always sort of hosting and helping organizing the events. So when it came to the— and I'd never heard of a keynote speaker. So when it came to looking at getting into the speaking world, I actually already had so many of the skills that I'd used for years. And so I joined the professional association for speakers. And this was back in 1999, back in the old days. And there are some of us who might remember a thing called the Y2K bug. Well, I was working in IT. It was 1999. '99. I was working on Y2K. I gave a little presentation for 10 minutes at one of the monthly meetings, and a guy came up to me afterwards and said, oh, I like your energy. How would you like to be a trainer for me, and you can do your keynote stuff on the side? And I'm like, well, how, how do you say no to that? And so I quit my job. Um, and it's so funny when you quit your job, your parents who think they're being supportive are like, what would you do that for? Stay in IT, it's secure. And I've got to tell you, It was killing me. I was not enjoying it at all. I jokingly say I had too much personality for IT. And it just was— and it's really interesting, you know, they're like, oh, it's so secure. The company EDS no longer exists. It was bought out by HP and shut down and retrenchments and blah, blah, blah. So I then got into the speaking world. And yeah, so that was back in 1999. And I started talking about Beyond the work, living life based on choice, you know, work style plus your lifestyle. So you work, yeah, your work plus your life gives you your work style. And so I did that for a few years but found that I had a real penchant for hosting and emceeing. And so for the last probably 15 years, most of my work has been hosting and emceeing. I continue to do, I sing in choirs, I continue to do improv work and theater work. And so, and I've, because of my technology background, I'm an absolute nerd. I've got so many gadgets and push-button things just here on my desk. And so what it meant was I've been doing virtual presentations for a very long time. Like it's, it's been, well, for a long time in, in the IT world. So 6 years, 6, 7 years, something like that. So therefore, when COVID hit, it really wasn't much of a transition to go online. And I love the concept of speaking to the world from the comfort of my own home. The idea of traveling being fun is great when it's a holiday, but when it's work, it's like, could be any hotel in any country anywhere. I might as well be at home. So yeah, so for that, like, and because I have the gift of being able to understand technology but speak English, a lot of my friends who have struggled have just like, how do I, how do I do this? And I'm pretty good at searching for the answers for stuff. And so I just collected a whole lot of knowledge base and I was helping share it because the events industry has struggled for the last 12 months, 18 months now, really struggled. And so anything that helps everyone, I'm a firm believer in that a rising tide rises all boats. And so I'm like, if I can help share this, it's got to help people. And it's— and that has opened opportunities to me. And for me, from a business perspective, The last 18 months have been very successful because I've been able to be standout. I'm now writing for the Asia Pacific Meetings magazine and I'm being interviewed on different shows, etc. But I continue to make sure that the events that I run are really focused on the individual. And some speakers hate me for it because my underlying message is always get better. And I think that that's been a challenge for some to come online. So that's sort of the That's a very compressed story of how I got to where I am.

Yeah, beautiful. Now I was going to ask you, and I've just— I'll come back to that question. As it relates to the technology, because I know through COVID, just with a little bit where I was tapped in with some of the consultants that had great word-of-mouth businesses, that it actually never even used Zoom. And it was like, What could I do? How can I connect with my audience? So I've sort of, and I love tech gadgets, I often collect them, I'm a guilty collector, and I might not always get around to using them or unboxing them for 6 months or so later. So I get the nerd, but I'm not the nerd. I'm a, actually, I'm a wannabe nerd. That's probably the truth, a wannabe nerd. So for those people that aren't, that are either frightened of it or don't have the technology, how do they improve and get better with what they've got?

Yeah, that's a good question. So the thing for me is technology is a brilliant tool but a very poor master. So don't let technology drive what you're doing. Do what you want to do and get the right technology to help. And it was interesting, I was watching a video the other day. I like— I do a bit of woodwork and I watch some craft stuff. And this guy's like, let me show you, I've got a new way to— he installed this amazing cabinetry and he said, let me show you the way to get this painted really easily. And he says, all you need is your phone. And he picks up his phone, he calls the painter, he said, can you come and paint this? Sometimes for your technology— and I've had a few tech friends, uh, speaker friends do this, um, and corporates as well— is they call someone else who comes in and says, righto, in this room you need this mic, this lights, this camera, this— let's just set it up, and then this is how you use it, press these 5 buttons, that's it. So sometimes if you are that scared or not comfortable with the technology, get someone to help. Now, it may not be a professional. It may be your 12-year-old child because they usually have a good head for technology. But my thing is play, have a practice, have a go, like just use the technology. It's that you come, you become better at something by doing it and actually playing with it. One of the things I first did when corona kicked in is I thought people are going to be out of touch. They're going to want to stay connected. So I started what I call WhatsApp Wednesday.

Yeah.

And every Wednesday, I just said to anyone who wants to come, come in, we're going to have a chat. Here we go, 4 o'clock my time, away we go. And I had a couple of my American friends say, I really want to come, but that's in the afternoon. Can you do a morning one? So I now do, and I've done this now for 18 months, every Wednesday at 8 AM and 4 PM my time, I run WhatsApp Wednesday and whoever wants to come, we just come and we talk about whatever turns up. Originally, we talked a lot about the technology, then we're just talking about life and it's just a way to connect. But what it did for me was I was— I had an audience I could play with and fail with. And that's the thing. You want to be safe so you have an audience you can fail with. This is why family meetings over Zoom are great because you can tell your family to be quiet as you're playing with stuff and try it and it doesn't work or friends or whatever. So having these safe places. But the other thing also is places like Zoom, StreamYard, MS Teams, whatever the software is you're using, they typically have a really significant support area which has a stack of resources. I'm a big fan of Zoom. I just find it really easy to use. And their support area has so much great stuff. And so I learned so much from doing that. And I've got to tell you, YouTube University has been amazing. And by that, I just mean basic YouTube. If ever you want to know how to do something, you just go to YouTube. It's amazing what people do and then think, I'll video this just in case someone else knows. And you're like, who in their right mind would think this is how you paint poodles' toenails? And someone has done it and shown you the technique to get it right. It's unreal. So I've used a lot of YouTube to find out how do I take that skill level to just another level. And it's that slow increments of slowly getting better and more comfortable with what you do.

Beautiful. Now I'm going to ask you an IT— oh, I've got my pen out, means I'm going to be bossy. I'm going to ask you an IT question because I get this a lot. Now I intuitively will put into a search bar an entire sentence of what I'm looking for, and I've always done that, and apparently that's weird. But I have friends that try to search for things with too little information. So do you have a trick being a researcher and an IT person as to what is the best way to actually Google stuff when you're trying to find it?

Yeah, no, no, I don't. Basically, because Google keeps changing all the time. But this is what I will say. I'm a big fan of the big sentence, but don't make it too waffly. It's always the keywords. It's always what's the key things that you're looking for. For example, if it's How do I rename breakout rooms using Zoom? So you're talking about breakout rooms, Zoom, rename. They're the 3 keywords that it's going to pick up with. But how do I— you can type the how do I and it doesn't make too much difference. But smart users of the internet know that's what's the question that's being asked. So they will often put in their text, people often ask me, how do I use breakout rooms for Zoom? And so that's the phrase that'll be searched for. So It changes a lot. And the thing is, change it. Don't just put one search term in and go, oh, there's not many results. Change it around. And it's that keep being flexible, keep trying, keep tweaking, keep doing different things until you find the result that you're after.

Yeah, persistency. Beautiful. Love that. So how do people utilize with this, with just the screen and just the speaker, how do they play and actually people feel that play? So it's all about the body language and increasing the energy. What are your tips and

your I loved your comment before about how do you read body language when you can't see the body. And as, as many, many workplaces, and I've got to tell you, and I'll be right up front here, in my workplace, I have a dress-to-the-desk policy. So what that means is no one knows what's happening downstairs. Right? And it's like, and they don't need to. But it's, and it just, you know, I like to be comfortable. If it's cold, I may be wearing my UGG boots. If it's hot, I may be wearing not a great deal. But what that means is what you can see, I have to engage with. You might have noticed that I've just gone, what you can see. So what I've done is I'm using some little bits of body language. I have a bit of an eye on the camera frame so I can sort of see that I'm not sort of out of shot. So I'm just— so I'm playing within that. And part of it is, tell your face what's going on. If you're the kind of person who doesn't have a responsive face, oh man, you're out of luck. Unless you want to be a newsreader, because they never get too excited about what's going on because they're just the channel. But it's like, tell your face, tell your voice. You might say, you know, I'm just doing a little bit of movement. I sometimes lean into the microphone and whisper because it's these little things that'll help you with your engagement. But I suspect the number one thing, and if you take nothing else from watching this show, viewers, look at the camera. Look down the barrel of the camera. So many people don't. Now, and I've In my studio, I've got a couple of cameras for different reasons, and it's sometimes a challenge to work out which camera am I using today. So there's a piece of technology that always helps. You might have heard of it. It's called a Post-it note. And if you write on it, look here, and stick an arrow up and stick it under the camera, works a treat every single time. So it's the kind of thing that just helps looking down the barrel of the camera. Because here's the thing, If we've got, let's say, you know, because this show is awesomely popular, so we've probably got, I don't know, 1,500 people watching at this time. As I look down the barrel of the camera, they're watching on their screen wherever they are around the world. We are connecting one-on-one. And we have that level of intimacy that you have when you look into somebody else's eyes that you won't get if I'm looking at you on screen over here and you're looking at my magnificently thinning, you know, hair. So it is look down the barrel of the camera. It's so important for it. Now, that doesn't mean you have to stare down the camera all the time. I will often say in my sessions, look, I've got 3 monitors here and I'm monitoring chat and I'm doing a few things. So if you see me look away, I'm just monitoring some stuff. I will come back to you. And all of a sudden, they're like, okay, great. And that then gives me permission to sort of look away, but I have to keep coming back. And the focus has to be on the audience, no matter what session that you're running. It's always about the audience. So you have to connect, and looking down the barrel of the camera is the best way to do it. But using your voice, using your face, using your hands, not in a, hey, here we go, but in just continuing to use them, it just changes the scene a little bit. It conveys your message. It has your energy. It's an important way to really sort of engage with people.

Now, I've also just picked something else up there that you also talked about. Letting the audience and those people you're interacting with know what you're actually doing to seek that permission. And I think that's such a great tip that we perhaps forget to do. And I know I'm super guilty of it, which is why I've just sort of picked up on that. So that was awesome.

Let the guilt go. But yeah, it's framing and you'll do it whether you're face-to-face or otherwise. It's just a quick explanation to say, hey, this is about what we're going to do. You might see me doing some things like this. This is what I'm doing. it for. So whether you're in the room, whether you're on stage, even if you're talking to friends or kids, you know, often if we're out at dinner, we don't just all of a sudden stand up and leave the table. We might just say, look, I'm just gonna go to the restroom. I'll be back. So they know what's going on. Otherwise, they're like, where are they going? What's going on over there? You know, so it's, it is that framing and context so people understand, so they can realize, I don't have to worry about that. I'm safe. And this is the thing. It's all about safe. And I don't mean sort of physical safe, but it's like, I'm energetically safe. I don't have to worry about other stuff. I know I'm in good hands. I know, you know, there might be something surprising about to happen, but I know I'm, I'm going to be looked after. So I feel that safe. I'm allowed to be pushed. And I'm happy to be, you know, pushed and grown. And but I'm not going to be exploded. You know, I'm safe because I know what's happening. And framing does that very, very well. And look, I'm no NLP expert. And there are a stack out there. And there's ways you can change your language and questioning that gets a better response or enables your audience to feel more comfortable. And it's worthwhile spending a bit of time or getting some help with that if you haven't been exposed to NLP.

Yeah, that was awesome. I've just been busily writing down framing. So in our household, my son's 17 now. But when he was little, you had to give him a 5-minute warning of what was going to happen next. You couldn't rush him because he just, he would rebel. So we always had this 5-minute warning, which is effectively the framing side of it, Right, in 5 minutes I'm going to ask you to do this, this, and this, or we're going here, there, and there, and you're going to be okay with it because it's all part of the process, it's all normal, it's what we do. But without that 5-minute warning, it was just like, yep, not happening.

And you're going to find you're going to want that framing from him as well, because as he's now 17 and he's starting to go out with his friends and stuff, you're going to say, okay, great, you're going out, what time should I expect you home? And if he says 11 o'clock, you're not going to worry until about quarter past 11, and then you're like, Righto, where is he? He said he'd be home by 11. And if you get that phone call saying, oh, we've got a flat tire, we're just fixing it, or I've drunk too much, I'm going to stay at a friend's place, or whatever it is, you're like, great, now I know. And it's just a framing. It's that feeling safe.

Yeah, absolutely. Beautiful explanation. Love it. Now I'm going to ask a very, very selfish question. And that is because I've— it's in relation to improv and how that has Mm-hmm. Helped you with your body movements? Because I've— I did some work with Ming Ngang, who you know, and he said about doing improv, and it was like, oh my God, you've got to be kidding me. Really? And I was terrified. I certainly wouldn't be doing the onstage, you know, comic stuff from that perspective, but I did want to learn the techniques. And I— the first The first session, I absolutely loved it, loved it. So I would love to hear from a professional, you know, somebody that's doing it regularly. How has that helped you with your craft? And what are some of the things that we can learn to improve our engagement through that?

Yeah, great. Look, I've got to say, improv is a magnificent tool. Now, here's the thing. When you say improv, people think, oh, Whose Line Is It Anyway? And how do I make people laugh? That is like 25% of impro. With impro, because impro is not just mayhem for the sake of it, there's actually some real rules and structure to it. And what that means is I have boundaries within it I'm allowed to play. And if I step out, I know what the consequences are. So I know how to get back in. That is the joy of impro. But what it does is it gives you permission to be truly you and go wherever you need to. So for me, what it means is there is no longer a surprise if I get a question from the audience or if something happens. Now, I use this a lot with my hosting in that if I'm an MC of an event or if I'm running an event and something happens, and let's face it, if you're using technology, it's gonna happen and something's gonna fail or the question will be like, blah, blah, blah. And so rather than just giving a boring, oh, I'm sorry, could you repeat that again? You can say, oh, we're speaking alien today. Fantastic. Well, my response would be, You know, so you can play with it. It gets a laugh. And then you go back and say, look, obviously something's going wrong. Can you get the question right on a bit of paper, throw it on a plane, get it to me, however, get me the question. So it enables you, it gives you more options. And it gives you, I mean, I've been on stage for 20-plus years in audiences up to 3,000, 4,000 people. And it's, it was at the point I'm very, very comfortable on stage. But after doing improv, all of a sudden my comfort level was massively increased because I knew no matter what happened, I could deal with it and I could make something of it. And I could— if there was an elephant in the room, I'd be pointing the fingers at it going, look at the elephant, and then move on. So everyone saw it and we could, you know, I could, I could do something with it. And I had enough practice and skill at doing it. So I knew my brain would give me something I could work with. Now, here's the thing. Improv is not always about funny. Some of my most memorable improv scenes that I've done, I've got to say a big shout out to Improv Melbourne. I'm a huge fan of them. I've been with them for 10 years or so and done a whole lot of fun stuff. But some of the most poignant work that I've done is when it's deep emotional and not— so not trying to go for the laugh. It's easy to get the laugh. But once you've got the laugh, there's a, and now what? It can leave a vacuum and actually can backfire. But if you can have that emotional connection and go deep, and it actually, when you're on stage, depending on your presentation, it can help really get a genuine, deeper connection. And it gives you, again, it's that feeling of, I know I'll be okay. Everything's going to be fine. I will be able to go deep and then back out of it and get back on with where I need to go. So I'm a huge fan of it, and and basically it gives you the structure. And the most powerful thing coming out of impro is the concept of yes and. So that is no matter what's given to you, we can then build on it. Now too many people will do a yes but.

So

it's like a good point, but as the expert, da da da da da da da da. So it's like how do you validate a question and then build on it? So they might be wrong. In what they're saying, but the intent is good. So you can say yes, that's a great perspective. And if you look at it from here, or how would you think that would react with da da da da? Then they might have the awakening and go, oh wow, there's a different perspective versus me trying to shove it on them. So I think that that yes and is so powerful, and they I think I've subconsciously used it in relationships, friendships, working with other people. Like it's. It's helped me just really progress so much more. And so, if nothing else, that concept of yes, and is incredibly powerful.

Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. And that was a great reminder for me. Thank you. So when we're talking about the yes, and, and keeping the conversation going, what are some of the— what are your top sort of 3 tips as it relates to presenting online to get the engagement, to keep the energy up? And then I want to go from that, I'm going to go into picking your brain as it relates to the event organizer. Because I remember you sharing with Adelaide some gold about being an MC and what the MC's real role is. So I want to dive into that if I may as well.

Yes, certainly. So one of my underlying beliefs as a performer, which, or as a speaker, or as someone, if you know, whether it's in a business meeting or whether you're presenting online or whether you're just hanging out with friends, I love the concept of be yourself amplified. So you have to be authentic. You have to be you. But you have to let them know it's you. Now, some of the best performers on stage I've seen are introverts. And like, when you meet them in public, they'll happily just, they're listening. They don't say much. But what they do say is really worth listening to. But on stage, they take that, but they then amplify it and they share that good knowledge and they have a great deal of self-awareness about who they are and how they operate. And some, you'll find some entertainers as well, they're true to who they are, but once they're performing, it's themselves amplified. I've seen too many people who are almost schizophrenic in the person you meet face-to-face and the person on stage are 2 different people. And that doesn't work. It's too conflicting. So as a presenter, performer, as someone using digital technology, yeah, be yourself amplified. Lift your energy a little bit. Go like state your beliefs a little bit stronger. Give it sustenance. Give it chutzpah, as some of my Jewish friends would say. But they'd probably say it a lot better than I do. So, you know, give it give it some some extra oomph so that people know that it's you. Now that doesn't mean hey everybody here I am I'm going to talk about this here we go we're going to get on to today because it's like that's not sustainable. But it doesn't mean

yeah

I know exactly. So it means like, if you're gonna do a pause, do a bit longer pause, you know, just really tap into it and don't be scared to really try these things. And yeah, it really, it all to me all falls back to be yourself but amplified because I really think that helps connect that little bit more. And look, and when it comes to online, Shorter is better. Shorter sessions are so much better than longer sessions, and speaking a little bit faster is so much better as well. Because if you are a naturally slower talker and then you've got quite a bit of riveting content to get through, people will reach for their phones. And that's the thing, your competition for any online event is Facebook, because if people get bored, they're going to go straight for their phones. So speaking a little bit faster with a little bit more energy and a little bit more variation is a natural way to keep people engaged. In the same way as like, you want to maybe gesticulate a little bit more than you usually do. But again, not frantically gesticulating the whole time. But it's just, it's a way to sort of, it keeps people engaged. It keeps a bit of movement.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Love it. Now I'm going to go over to the conversation. I remember, I'm going to say 3 years ago, it might have been 5. I'm not very good with timelines. When you came to Adelaide and you shared your, at that stage, it was your one-page brochure as it related to MC work. You were talking about MC work. But I really loved the way you spoke about what your role as an MC was. Now, it's not for the delegates this time, it's for the organization that's got you in as an MC. And obviously, this is why you're such a successful MC and you've done so much work. So can you perhaps share a little bit of that and how that may be different from when we were only doing live or effectively doing live, even though you've been doing it for a long time, but the difference between that live version of Being of service for live and hybrid.

Yeah, look, one of my underlying beliefs in life really is to just make it easy. Make it easy to do business with, make it easy to engage with, make it easy to have a conversation with, make it easy. I'm the kind of guy at a party, if there's a couple of people not talking to each other, I'll sort of drag us together and I'll do an introduction and not in a, Sally, this is Warwick, Warwick, this is Sally, but I'll be saying, Oh, Sally, this is Warwick. He's been an MC for 20 years and he's a pretty funny guy. And I thought you two would connect because he likes ferrets as much as you do. This is Sally. She's a leadership guru who's got a couple of pet ferrets. And I just reckon you two— So all of a sudden, all the hard work of, oh, who are you and what do you do is gone. And you've made it easy. One of the best compliments I've received, and to be honest, I get it from a couple of the conference organizers I work with, is, They'll go, oh, you're the host. Great. I don't have to worry about that anymore. So they know that things are going to run smoothly. Now, having said that, part of that now with technology is we all know technology works until it doesn't. And so therefore, it's how do we, you know, keep going? But it is about making it easy. So it's my job. When you're a host, it's very different to when you're a speaker. When you're a speaker, it's about you. There's a fair chunk of ego. There's, you're sharing a message and you're entertaining the crowd and it's all good. When you're a host, it's not about you at all. You are basically, you need to be almost forgettable, like memorable, but you know, you're just the glue that keeps everything sticking together and keeping it running. And so, it's your job to make the event look good. It's your job to make the delegates feel awesome and so pleased they're here. It's your job to make the event so good that people are signing up at the back of the room for next year's event because I don't want to miss it. So there's a real shift in your responsibilities and your roles. And one of the things that I will always do is be talking with the organizer and saying, what else do you need? And what do you need? And I gotta tell you, when it's live events, sometimes I'll just bring them coffee. And the look on their face of like, it's a real coffee! Yes! Because anyone who's had hotel coffee knows it's rubbish. So, but just doing little things like that, all of a sudden, you're part of the team. Yeah. And there's a couple of Event organizers who love working with me, so they put me forward when they need a host. So it's a—I don't do it for that reason, but it works if that makes sense. And and part of that is again being myself amplified. I like to be a generous person. I love that exercise. I think it was Stephen Covey talks about you know begin with the end in mind. You know what do you want people to say at your funeral? Well, I try to go what do you want people to say at your 80th birthday? And if you want to say oh they were a funny person, they were generous, they were giving in spirit. So I'm like okay what do I have to do today? So they think that one on my 80th birthday. And so that's part of— I really try and bring my personality to the work that I do. Now, you know, I'm not all sunshine and light beams. You know, I do have bad and rubbish days. But it's the— what's the intent? And the intent is what can I do to help make this event awesome, take the bit of pressure off the conference organizers where I can. And part of that is talking to the AV people. And now more than ever, AV people are so important. So to work with them, remember their names. Like, remember their names is hard for me, but it's so important thing to do. And just make sure they've got what they need because they can make you look good or not so good. Not that they're doing it with intent, but it is about, you know, having that good relationship really does make a difference. So it's just understanding, you know, again, it's the concept of how can I be of service? How can I make sure that this event

Yeah, that was one of the things that absolutely stuck in my mind when you came over to Adelaide. It was lots of stuff that you shared was so common sense, but because it was so common sense, it actually wasn't common.

I think you and I, we've both experienced enough to realize that common sense really doesn't exist. And it really is, it's always the basics. If you look at anything like We talk about going online and all the whiz-bang technology and all you can do and screens and, oh my God, it's always the fundamental basics that make the biggest difference. If you can just connect with the delegates and make them feel special, you've almost won and you haven't even started yet. So, you know.

One of the other tips, because I had a girlfriend that was asked to MC and she's never done it before, and I went, oh, you're MCing. Do you know what you're doing? And I went— because I thought of you straight away and all the things that we've discussed. And I've just sort of left it there and I just sort of said some pointers. And I said, just remember, I believe it's your role to make sure everything runs on time. And that was where I went, I'm not convinced this is going to be something that you're capable of. And that was very judgy of me, but that's something I'm not capable of either. So it was very much a reflection. So talk to us about the time element, because obviously that's such a critical thing from an event organizer thing.

Yeah, yeah.

You get speakers on stage, it's not an easy thing to get them off.

Timing's everything. Timing is absolute everything. And again, when you've got some speakers on stage that their ego dictates that I can do whatever I want, that I don't, you know who I am, aren't I amazing? It won't matter if I just go 5 minutes over. And it's such a domino effect. And it's harder for digital because at least face-to-face, which I refer to as analog, is I can be there and holding up a big sign going, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, get off, right? Or say, if you find me standing next to you, you'll realize it's time to finish now. But digitally, we can't do that. Like, if I'm on a roll now and I keep talking, the only thing you can do, because you can't put something in the chat box because you've no guarantee I'll see it. Because I could be on a roll and I'm looking down the barrel of the camera because that's what the bloke said. And here I go. The only thing you can do is interrupt me and say, Warwick, you've got 1 minute left, please wrap up, which throws my chain of thought in the way I go. So it's very challenging there. But having said that, again, like a preframe, it's letting people know upfront, you've got 15 minutes for your session. Do not go over. I will interrupt you. And sometimes that threat of, I'm going to be interrupted, they go, right, I better make sure. And I'll How's my time? How's my time? And so I get asked, how's my time working? Yeah, good. 2 minutes to go. Okay, good. You know, so that, that can work. But timing is so important. Now, I'm flexible in that you can sort of get a vibe of when someone's going to finish. You can see that they're wrapping up. And nowadays, I can see if they're using PowerPoint or Keynote, how many slides they've got, what slide number they're at, where they're at kind of stuff. Yeah. So I can sort of get a feel of where they're going. So I'm happy to allow a couple of minutes over. Any of the events that I'm with, we'll make sure we build in time so that we can make up time in breaks or whatever we're doing. And, you know, or panel sessions that have a bit more flexibility. But as anyone who's presenting, be you the CEO, be you the sponsor, speaker, staff member, whatever it is, it is a sign of respect that you keep to your time. People will love you if you speak for less because the delegates will be like, woohoo, cup of tea quicker. The organizers will go, great, we've just got 2 minutes up our sleeve because they will be behind before they start because people don't even turn up on time. But if you go over and if you get a reputation for going over, you will not be invited back. Politicians are probably the worst. Politicians can just go on and on and on. But yeah, so timing is everything.

Yeah, and sponsors. It's been my experience with sponsors. Yes, we can give you 3 minutes to share what you are, and that was 3 minutes, not 15 minutes. Oh my God. And that's because somebody wasn't controlling it and somebody wasn't doing that, and it It was 15 minutes and that's a huge chunk of the hour before you even start, as you said.

And that's it. And sponsors will think, I've paid money here, so I'm going to push the envelope a little bit. Fair enough. But my thing with sponsors is what works always better, always better, is if they're interviewed versus presented. If you've got a facilitator or host who interviews them, who knows how to position it, because basically the sponsor's here basically saying to the entire audience, Buy my stuff. And so if you've got someone who's a good facilitator who knows what the problems of the audiences are and say, so tell me how your software enables everyone to finish their event on time. Oh well, we can do this. So you're pointing out the pain and then so it positions it well. I would, if you're organizing an event, that's what I would go for.

Yep, sounds awesome. Great tip there in itself. So I'm going to ask you now to share some of your Or repeat in potentially some of the cases, some of your greatest tips for people as it relates to improving and getting better online?

Yeah, and then think the skill set that I would say that you, or maybe not the skill set, but the approach is just do it, like do it more. And so if that means you want to do it privately with friends, just organize a catch-up and just do it. If you've got a mastermind group, present for them. You know, just do little 5-minute things. Like, the more you do it, the more comfortable you'll be at doing it. So it's that repetition. Just do it. Get started. And this is the joy of the improv, as we talked before, is whenever we would fail or something would stuff up, we would celebrate it. And we'd all shout out and go, again, again, again! And so, whereas in real, the real world, we're like, oh, I don't want to make a mistake. And it's like, well, how are you going to learn? So, so do it, stuff it up, point out where you've stuffed up, fix it, and keep moving forward. So, so keep practicing that. But look, I have what I call the holy trinity when it comes to setting up a digital series, and that is number one is your shot composition. Got to get that right. So you'll notice for me and yourself, we're centered, our heads are at the top of the screen, we've got some pleasant background but not too distracting. So get your shot composition still, and we're on tripod, so it's stable and it's good. That's one. Number 2, get your lighting sorted. So I've got an overhead light that's dispersed. I've got a spotlight over here, and I've got a little colored light behind me. So it's just, it's lit me up nice, but it's not too much and not too little so you can see me. So get that right. And the 3rd one is your sound. You must have your sound right. And it's, it's not about, oh, what microphone do I get? It's what does my room do and what's the best microphone for my room? So I call those the Holy Trinity, and I think it's really important to acknowledge it. It's really basic stuff. But if you don't get that right, you might as well not do it. Because if you're— and the number one of those 3 is sound. If your sound is bad, people will not listen. They'll turn off. It's just, it's too hard. I can put up with a dodgy video. I can put up with the light not bad. But if the sound's not good, I will not listen. And I'm sure the producers in the booth at the moment going, yeah, that is so true. So, you know, any professional was like, it's the sound. Got to get it right.

Yeah.

Get those things sorted. But also use what you've got. I know a lot of people go, well, I've got to go I've got to buy the whiz-bang ATEM Mini Pro and a Stream Deck and a DSLR camera and a mirrorless, and I've got to have a green screen and lights. And it's like, it's thousands of dollars. It's like, just start where you are. Can I say some of the best presentations I've seen have been done with a laptop? And so all they've done is use the laptop camera and the laptop mic. Yeah, it wasn't perfect, but the content and the context was good enough so that you didn't really care. And you were engaged. It was fantastic. So it's not the equipment that makes the difference. Again, this is going back to that whole concept I said at the very beginning: be better, get better. And so it is looking at how do I keep it snappier? How do I keep it tighter? How do I, you know, don't use animations in your slides because the digital does not like it if you're sharing online because you've got bandwidth issues up and down, you know. So Less animations. I would say less slides because no one needs to see you. No one cares about your slides. And if you're using slides as a point holder for you as a speaker, come up with a different way. I'm often— I'll have on one of my screens a simple Google Doc which has the key points I want to cover. And so I can easily refer back to them and then back to the camera and just keep having that conversation. You know your stuff. Trust yourself. But get started with it. And the other thing also is you don't need an audience to practice. You can just practice straight to camera. Zoom gives you a— even Zoom Free, you can record locally. So why not give it a shot? Don't obsess about the video because if you've recorded for, I don't know, 10 minutes or something and you're watching all 10 minutes going, oh, that's so much to fix, just pick one or two things. It's that gradual improvement. Again, we're talking the basic stuff here. So that's the kind of stuff that I would focus on.

Yeah, beautiful. And I think too, just, I'm going to just add to the Zoom, recording yourself on Zoom. I think that was one of my greatest things, actually doing that, but listening to the voice, then watching the body movements. And I remember at one point ringing Gary Edwards up, what the hell do I do with my flapping arms? Because my arms were going like this and it was like, oh my God. And so those sorts of things, it's very good to To see where you're failing forward, because to have success, we have to actually fail.

Yeah. And it is that very much that Socrates thing of know thyself. So we're knowing how we present. Again, we're going back to the basics of the classics, know thyself. So it's like, watch yourself doing something and realize, okay, I flap my arms. And here's the thing, I call it the 3 A's: awareness, acceptance, and action. So be aware of what your issues are and just accept and go, oh, well, that's what I do. That's okay. And then how do I change that? Because too often we go, oh my God, I flap my arms, I'm such a bad presenter, my life is over, I'll never be a presenter. And it's like, no, no, no, it's just like you flap your arms a bit, now you know you can do something about

it. Yes, I did, I did do that, that was great. Totally, you've been in the book with me, no surprises there. So can you just quickly share, because we've got a few minutes left, I know you've got a free downloadable resource and it's just going across the bottom of this There it

is.

So can you just—

so yeah, so that's the, the, the 7 keys I believe to be a better online presenter. And so I put together a short video and a PDF which has a bit of detail there. So yeah, head to that website onlinepresenterpro.com/get7keys, uh, and yeah, enjoy that. I'm sure there'll be something of value. There might even be a little bonus in it, I'm just saying. So head on over and check it out.

And where can people best connect with you?

For me, I'm all over the place. So warwickmerry.com is my website, but if you go to any social media and just look for Warwick Merry, there's not many of us. In fact, I think I'm the only one. So you'll find LinkedIn. I'm pretty prolific on LinkedIn. That's probably a nice place for business people. If you want to see more poodle pictures, because I've got a pet poodle, Winston the Wonder Poodle, Go to Facebook. So facebook.com/warrickmerry. LinkedIn is linkedin.com/in/warrickmerry. Just search Warrick Merry, you'll find it. I'm there.

You are. You are very, very, very much there and certainly always very, very supportive. So I would like to thank you very, very much for coming on and sharing so much with me today. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you very, very much. And I'm just going to share a couple of tips of who we've actually got coming on next week. So next week is our normal monthly Marketing Magic with Celeste and I, and we're going to be discussing all tips around marketing, customer service, and increasing profitability. And for those that haven't had, you know, been on for one of those episodes, we are both marketing strategists, but Celeste works more with small businesses and corporations that are service-based, and I work with more speakers and coaches and consultants. So we have very different perspectives because our audiences are different, but we cross over quite a lot with our strategy. So we always have an interesting conversation. And as always, the audience's questions are more than appreciated, and we can certainly share more tips when we've got those questions as well. So again, thank you very, very much for joining us on Success Secrets Exposed. And if we can all give a virtual round of applause to Warwick Merry, please. Thank you so much.

Yay!

Happy hands. Happy hands.

Happy hands. Fabulous being here. Thanks everyone for joining us. Don't forget next week on the Live Success Secrets Exposed, it's Marketing for Mayhem with Celeste and Sally. Join us. It'll be fun.

Thank you very much and see you next week.

That's it for this week's episode. Thank you so much for joining us. I trust you got some inspirational tips to move you forward. See you next Thursday at 7 PM Eastern for more Success Secrets Exposed.