Here's what I'm excited about

Let people know what you're excited about, so they can get excited too

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that when you are presenting your work, start
by identifying what you are excited about so you can

(00:24):
get your audience excited too. Today's tip comes from the
book Broken Wrong When the career latter breaks for women
and how they can succeed in spite of it. Authors
coiln ellingrid Lorena Yee, and Maria del Mar Martinez draw
on their experiences at Senior Partners at Mackenzie to offer

(00:45):
strategies for women in particular, but really for everyone to
thrive in their careers. They recount the story of an
associate brand manager who was about to present her annual
plan to the president of her company. The president said,
before you dive in, always explain why someone should be

(01:06):
excited about your plan. This employee took the advice to heart.
Ever since, they say, she never starts a presentation with
the deck. Instead, she opens with, these are the things
you're going to hear about that I'm most excited about.
They continued, It allows her to intentionally position any conversation.

(01:30):
This seems like smart advice when you are getting ready
to give a presentation, get clear on why you are
excited so you can get others excited too. You want
to sound conversational when you say why you are excited,
but I would still be inclined to plan what you
are going to say and rehearse it. You want to

(01:50):
be sure that whatever you are excited about comes through clearly.
You don't want there to be a disconnect between what
you are excited about what you spend most of your
time talking about. For some presentations, it will be easy
to articulate what you are excited about, and for others
it may be a little harder, but there is probably

(02:13):
still something. If you are presenting on a new set
of options for health insurance, you may be excited about
how a new plan will give your employees the same
level of care while saving your company money. In a
presentation about a marketing plan, you might be excited that
you've identified an emerging market of customers and a strategy

(02:35):
for reaching them before your competitors do. Maybe you are
excited about your role in executing whatever plan you're presenting.
It might be a chance to use new skills you've gained.
You could mention that too. You want to be strategic
in choosing what you say you are excited about. I
mean it should be something you are genuinely excited about,

(02:58):
but also something that will be relevant and meaningful to
your audience too. So do some thinking. Nobody likes a
dull presentation. You don't want to give one, and your
audience really doesn't want to sit through one. When you
convey your excitement as a prelude to your presentation, you

(03:20):
liven things up. You connect with your listeners and get
them excited so they will be engaged and invested in
you and in what you present. You show you care
so they care, and that is as important as however
fancy you have made your slides. In the meantime, this

(03:45):
is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

(04:14):
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.