The Best Place for Your Notes During an Online Presentation

Ultimize. Most people assume that if you're presenting online, the best place for their notes is on their screen. Feels logical. Everything's already there. You can read it easily. No one can see it. But that's exactly the problem. The moment your notes are on your screen, your eyes give you away. You start scanning. You look slightly off to the side. Your eyes move in a pattern that looks like reading, not speaking. And even if people can't pinpoint it, they feel it. You lose that direct connection. You lose that sense that you're talking with them. There's also another issue. When your notes are on your screen, you're tempted to read them more than you should because, hey, it's easy. Everything's right there. So instead of speaking naturally, you start following the text, and that changes your voice, your pacing, and your energy. Hear how awful that sounds? A much better approach is to use paper notes on your desk. Simple. One page. One, two, maybe four or five words at most per line. Big enough that you can glance down quickly. Here's what I use. Those of you listening to this, you can't see it. I'm holding up a simple sheet of paper. It's got numbers on it, and then it just has bullet points in large bold. One single sheet. It's less than a sheet of paper. This is everything I need to give an hour-long presentation. So I can glance for a second. I see what a point is, and then I go from there. So I feel like I'm talking to people. I am talking to people, and yet I have a roadmap. I know exactly where I'm going at all times. So instead of scanning across the screen, you're making quick intentional glances down, then immediately coming back to the camera in a way that feels natural. It looks more natural, and most important, it keeps you in control. I don't have to remember what I'm going to say next. I've got everything right here on my roadmap. But since it's not whole sentences and whole paragraphs, I'm not tempted to have my head down staring at the script because it's not really a script, it's just notes. You're not pulled into reading, you're just using the notes as a guide. So set it up this way: your camera is in front of you, your notes are just below it on your desk. You speak to the camera You finish a thought, you glance down briefly, and you come right back up. That's it. It's simple, it's controlled, and it keeps you sounding like you're speaking and not reading. Because here's the thing: most people hate to be read to. It reminds people of being in kindergarten and having to sit through a teacher reading a story. You might enjoy stories in kindergarten, but adults don't like to be read to.