Mastering the Digital Keynote: Tips and tricks for improvement
Welcome to the world of digital keynotes.
As we continue to work remotely, many of us, both new and seasoned keynote speakers, are finding ourselves working with at-home recording equipment and PowerPoint as we attempt to translate our in-person presentations into a purely digital and virtual forum.
If giving an important keynote isn’t stressful enough in-person, there are some unique challenges when doing everything digitally. Sure, you can wear pajama pants and don’t have to travel, but you miss out on the feel, feedback and environment that is characteristic of giving a talk in-person.
While these tips are targeted specifically for improving your digital keynote game, many are relevant for any presentation, whether virtual or in-person. I’ve learned these through my own experiences as a presenter as well as helping others (from subject matter experts through to senior executives) prepare for digital keynotes.
A paradox; only the pros should memorize.
By pros I mean actual professionals. People who are paid to be on camera. It sounds funny because it’s a natural inclination to think that in order to prepare we should memorize so we make sure we cover our intended points.
But the truth is, unless you are skilled at hitting a mark, memorizing ends up being a crippler instead of an enabler. It can make the speaker come off as stiff and unnatural. View the script as your guide, not as the exact words that need to be said.
Instead of memorizing try…
- Hitting 3 to 5 words or short phrases for a particular topic
- Answering the questions over and over again in the mirror, a little differently each time
- Recording yourself (more on this next)
No one likes to hear themselves. Get over it by getting used to it.
We all have our own routines and rituals to prepare for a presentation. But many of us are not recording ourselves. It’s a bit weird and conveys manifesto vibes. Or perhaps doctoral transcriptions. Regardless, it’s the only way to get better on camera or in front of an audience.
You can use the voice memo feature on your phone or preferably video record yourself and play it back. Yes! The dreaded playing back. You must get used to how you look and sound on camera. Don’t avoid it. You must critique yourself, practice, iterate, repeat, and flex that muscle.
Think of it like this. Athletes prepare for sporting events in all kinds of ways. They eat well and workout. They have teams of trainers that stretch them and measure them. But at the end of the day, the most critical part of preparing for a game is by playing the game. A lot of games.
Many people try to prep for presentations by doing things you would never do in the actual presentation. Like quietly reading a script or outline. That would be a very boring experience for an audience. You must prepare for your keynote in as close to a context as the actual execution environment. So set up that recording equipment and a spotlight and start practicing.
Pause but don’t stop. It’s not long enough if it doesn’t feel awkward.
As a presenter, you have a lot to focus on. How you look, how you sound, your timing, your content. It’s easy to get wrapped up in yourself.
But as any fan of Hollywood knows, the editing is where the magic happens. It’s the folks behind the scenes who really make the actors come to life. The easier you make their lives, the better you’ll look in the final product.
It’s so easy to flub a line (especially when you are trying to memorize!) and instantly react by saying “oh I need to do that again.” What the editor really needs is silence. What you said before the flub may be utter gold! But if they aren’t able to crop it away from your outburst, it may as well be part of the blooper reel.
Pause but don’t stop. Keep the flow going. Don’t think of putting on the brakes, just think of coasting and then revving the engine again and then coasting…you get it. The pauses will make your on camera delivered content more valuable, more usable, and ultimately more relaxed for the audience.
Pretend you are live, even if it’s not Saturday Night.
Knowing something is being filmed is another crutch. Knowing you can do several takes basically tricks your brain into knowing you can mess up and therefore you mess up. A good old self-fulfilling prophecy.
When you are live and on stage, it’s showtime. No room for re-do’s. It’s do or die. A bit dramatic, but a good attitude adjustment to make. Try and embody the idea that when the camera starts, there’s no starting over (even if you actually have to start over, think of your speech as one continuous thing, see above).
The real benefit of multiple takes is not viewing them as real-life re-do buttons. Takes should come with a warning label, “for strategic use only.” The strategic benefit lies in mutually exclusive approaches. Want to try out a joke versus a serious intro? Do a few takes. Want to try two different metaphors and let the editors decide which lands better? Do a few takes. But don’t go in thinking, “I can do this as many times as I need.” It’s a mental game; don’t set yourself up to lose.
Smile you’re on camera. And she’s hard to please.
They say the camera adds ten pounds. Debatable. What’s not debatable is what the camera does with facial expressions. You have to go over the top just to be at baseline. Now, no need to look like a fool, but all too often we forget to smile, and forget to smile big enough, when we are presenting to the camera. You don’t need to smile if it’s serious, but just know that whatever emotion you are trying to convey, you’re going to have to lean into it extra hard for it to come across to your audience.
If you don’t this, you will look robotic. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and record yourself. It’s amazing how much newscasters and actors have to emote just to create the appearance of a normal level of expression. This a big difference from presenting in-person where our normal, daily facial expressions land well with the audience as we constantly scan the crowd for affirmative facial feedback.
Multiple speakers calls for asynchronous alignment. And recordings.
To be fair, mastering asynchronous alignment is a skill worthy of it’s own article (or book). But for the sake of this article, we are talking about asynchronous alignment in the case of multiple speakers and how to prep even when your schedules don’t line up.
Whether you’re an executive or not, you’re busy. And so are your colleagues. Add preparing for an important digital keynote on top of your to-do list and you’re bound to be strapped for time.
Here’s the simple hack. Record your part. Yes, I am going to mention recording yourself as many times as necessary throughout this article. It’s that effective, that obvious, and yet still not done enough.
If you have a 20, 30 or even 60 minute keynote slot, and you are presenting with another teammate there are two common hand-off paths:
- Opener to middle (presenter A), middle to closer (presenter B)
- Opener (presenter A), middle (presenter B), and closer (presenter A)
While in an ideal world, you’d be able to a do a few dress rehearsals together, the real world is full of time zone differences and packed calendars. What you need to do is record you part or parts, get a time stamp on them to ensure you are within not only your overall time, but your specific allocated time, and send this recording to your co-presenter.
This will help them ensure their part also fits within time and fits within theme. No need for both of you to say the same things over and over again. It will help with flow during the final recording when you two are together or prepare you for an entirely asynchronous recording experience where the editing team will then stitch everything together.
Tell a story. No really, tell a story.
You’re telling your friends about the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you at a bar. About halfway through you mispronounce the name of the bar. Do you…
A. Go back to the beginning of the story and start all over again (the whole while on your second go-round nervously thinking about and waiting for the part where you have to pronounce that really difficult Irish bar name…)
B. Correct yourself in real-time, perhaps with a smile or a question, and continue on with the story.
Hopefully you chose B. Otherwise, your friends are real-troopers to listen to your stories. We are all human. Better to come off as personable, collected, and charismatic with a mistake or real-time correction than sounding militant and rehearsed, always going back to the beginning.
Of course critical product or person titles need to be said properly but still keep this ethos of real-time corrections in mind when you are recording. It also creates far more usable content for the editing team. With the plethora of digital and virtual content streaming today, it’s okay to have imperfections as long as you’re still engaging and genuine. Aka the person with the great bar story.
Make it music to their ears; varied cadence is key.
The best writers and storytellers have mastered a trick. It’s called cadence. It’s in their ability to artfully pull you from one sentence to the next, juxtaposing short and long, poetic and terse, emotional and logical. The receiver has no choice but to be engaged; they don’t know what’s coming next!
Now when all of your sentences are the same length, with the same tone, and the same flow, it becomes very boring and monotonous. The audience does know what’s coming next (in their subconscious musical minds) and they don’t care. They are slowly disengaging. Not with the words you are saying, but with how you are saying them.
Again, record yourself. Listen to yourself. Not just your words but your cadence. Your rhythm or lack thereof. Develop one for yourself. Learn what can be said in one or two punchy lines and what needs more poetic description. Keep it varied.
Lean into yourself; don’t resist that force.
While it’s true that you’re amazing and complete and perfect the way you are, the real reason to lean into yourself is because the force is already moving in that direction. And it’s stronger than your resistance to it. Unless you’re an Academy Award winning actor, you’re not going to pull off being anyone but yourself.
Are you naturally pointed and sharp? Keep it clean! Are you more of a poetic, coffee-shop talker? Get floral with it! Don’t try to emulate someone else because you think you need to speak like them. The best speakers are the best because they speak like the best versions of themselves.
Play up your unique tone of voice, way of answering questions, and communication style. Ask close friends, colleagues, and family to describe how you communicate with them in 3 to 5 words (direct, descriptive, gentle, etc.) The more you lean into what is natural to you, the more comfortably you’ll sit in your unique domain. And before you know it you won’t just be sitting there, you’ll be owning it.
Best of luck on your next digital keynote — let me know in the comments if you used any of these tips as well as other ideas to help speakers prep!
