Episode transcript:

M.K.:
So, Alper. I was thinking for today, let’s do a lightning round. The three mistakes that we see people making the most often. The three most common offenders. And since there will be three from Matt and three from Alper, so that’s six total. So in order for this podcast to not go for like three or 4 hours, we’re going to have to place a severe time limit on ourself.

M.K.:
And thus the name Lightning Round. Okay. And so for each point, I figure we have Max two and a half minutes, and at that two and a half hours mark, the other person is going to have to go. And then at that point, ideally, ideally, we would just shut up and let the other person do their next point.

M.K.:
But if if that.

A.R.:
Doesn’t happen the way it does, it.

M.K.:
Doesn’t happen very much at all. So if when you hear the end or the buzzer, if you need more time, Max, 30 seconds. But after that 30 seconds, you totally got to shut up and let the other person do their point. Does that sound okay to you.

A.R.:
Like the Toastmasters table topics?

M.K.:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So basically, this is the Matt and Alpers six things in table topics format.

A.R.:
Okay, that sounds good. Let’s do that. So. So start.

M.K.:
Yeah. You want me to start? Okay. So you got your timer?

A.R.:
Yes. So I’ll start coming.

M.K.:
Okay, Here we go. Okay, So my my first thing is that I see people using their jargon a lot in their presentation. That’s probably the most common mistake that I see. And the key is the key word in here is their jargon. You know, it’s perfectly okay to use the jargon of your audience. Like, for example, in my world, I deal with a lot of software developers and let’s say they’re developing some software for customer service.

M.K.:
Bad is using software developer jargon. It’s okay to use customer service jargon if you know customer service jargon, but if you’re using the jargon that you would use as a software developer, then you have a problem. So that’s that’s my first thing. Am I in under the two and a half? So that’s Simon.

A.R.:
Yeah, that’s it, man. You’re rocket this. Yeah, you’re right about this. You’ve spoken only for one minute. Wow. I want to follow your remaining, and.

M.K.:
I yield my extra time. So what’s your first? Thank you.

A.R.:
Thank you. Because my first one is one of my pet peeves. The saying that, you know, fake it til you make it. Oh, and I have seen this. I have seen this literally put into practice so many times. And I’m sure it has worked for a lot of cases for so many people. So God bless their souls. But when it doesn’t work, it becomes excruciatingly painful to watch someone faking it on the stage till they make it.

A.R.:
And that you that never happens and that will never happen. They will never make it on the stage. Yeah. If they’re if they’re faking it so much. So that’s, that’s, that’s my first pet peeve and I hide and there’s a cure for that. It’s called rehearsal. It’s called setting the time before the presentation, before the engagement. It’s taking the time to actually go over what you’re going to talk about and structure it in such a way that you don’t actually have to fake it.

A.R.:
You just need to stick to the agenda that you, you think will be the best. Now, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to ace the presentation. You can make mistakes again, like if you miss certain points, but that’s okay. That’s all learning for for, for the for the next for the next engagements. So, yeah, I’m going to stay in time.

A.R.:
I’m not going to speak on borrowed time. Okay? And I’m going to declare that my first one is instead of instead of faking it until making it. How about putting the time to rehearse, to practice and do your best and then see what happens? Wow.

M.K.:
Good point. Okay. Should I go with my point number two?

A.R.:
Your time starts now.

M.K.:
All right. So point number two is burying the lead and this is a phrase that comes from the newspaper world or the magazine writing world. And burying the lead basically just means taking the most important thing and putting it at the end. And especially this year and in in a presentation environment, often by lead, it’s the ask, you know, what am I what do I need from you?

M.K.:
I need I need more budget or I need more people. I need more resources of some sort. What do I need from you? I need more time, whatever. And so burying the lead is putting what you need, putting the ask at the very end. So and this is especially dangerous if you have a calming voice, which you know, by nature in my section of the world, I work with a lot of software developers and also financial people.

M.K.:
And those two professions, which is basically engineering and profit and financial, requires calming personalities. And so you put a calming personality burying the lead. And the result is that if you have a common personnel or a calming personality bearing the lead, then they’re going to put people to sleep before they get to the ask. So I suggest putting the ask at the front.

M.K.:
And that’s my that’s my second point.

A.R.:
You don’t give me the auction. You don’t give me the option, the opportunity to do two to go crazy about the time warning. Oh, wow. Okay. A little less than 2 minutes of cancellations are. So that takes me to my second one. Okay. Which is it? Which is either leaning too much on the emotional appeal or the rational appeal when when the time comes to speak to people?

A.R.:
Because, you know, for for a very long time presentations, I believe for a very long time, the presentations for just about informing the audiences. So here is a data, here are facts, here is information. And they were missing one point, crucially, which is although I would like to think that we are rational human beings who act on logic and etc. almost all the time we take the decisions on an emotional level.

A.R.:
Okay. And when this became the new the the the fashionable way to go see, ten, 15 years ago. So suddenly people started feeling like, okay, I have to incorporate something emotional to it. And sometimes they overdo it. And this, this I think we talked about this before putting stories into narrative became became the the norm for a very long time.

A.R.:
And now everybody starts telling stories. Yes. But at the end of the day, the story, of course, should serve a purpose. I mean, true. Just because you need to connect with me on an emotional level doesn’t mean I want to hear about what happened to you 25 years ago. And yeah, right. So so yeah, I think I think the most important thing is, is to to create the right balance between the emotional appeal and the rational appeal and independence from whatever topic you’re talking about.

A.R.:
So if you’re if you’re talking about a cultural the results of a financial institution, I’m sure you can find some ways to incorporate some emotional appeal into your speech. And if you’re talking about saving dolphins from and from endangered ecosystems, I think you can incorporate some some rational element into that. So I the important thing would be to strike a nice balance between those two.

A.R.:
Okay. With that, I’m going to end the second one.

M.K.:
Wow. That’s so. So we’ve gone through No.

A.R.:
One so far.

M.K.:
Yeah, four points. Two for me and two for you. And no warning so far. Yeah. And even that last one that you did still came in at only 2 minutes. So I think we might, if we’re lucky, we’re going to get through this whole thing without having to, you know, hit the buzzer. All right. So are you ready for for point number three for me?

M.K.:
Go.

A.R.:
Okay.

M.K.:
One. And it’s kind of funny in you know, in this lightning round format, my my third thing is people going over, people going over time. Let’s say that their time limit is 15 minutes or 10 minutes or 5 minutes or 20 minutes and 30 minutes or whatever. So they go over time and there are many problems with with going over time.

M.K.:
It’s I mean, no one no one ever complained about getting out of school early. So there there are many problems. But the main cause of that, the main cause that I see is the thinking that everything that’s important to you needs to go into the presentation and so you see people saying, Oh, well, I’ve got to mention this and I’ve got to mention that and I’ve got to mention that.

M.K.:
And so pretty soon they’re mentioning 9 million different things because 9 million things are important to them. And it’s absolutely true that those things are important and it’s absolutely true that they’re important to you as a speaker, but they’re important to you, comma the speaker. However, maybe they’re not important to your presentation, maybe they’re not important to your audience.

M.K.:
And if they’re not important to your presentation and if they’re not important to your audience, then don’t mention them. It doesn’t matter if it’s the most important thing to you that ever existed. It doesn’t need to go into your presentation. And that’s the most common thing that I see that causes presentations to drive over The time on that is people thinking that a bunch of stuff needs to be in there just because it’s important to them.

M.K.:
So how did I do? Did I come in under my time limit on that one?

A.R.:
I was really hoping you would go over time with that one, and that would be Ira. And the ironic thing about going all the time and yeah, and the buzzer.

M.K.:
All my three points that scream three.

A.R.:
Congratulations. Yeah.

M.K.:
Of all my points, that’s definitely the one that I didn’t want to hear a buzzer on. So what?

A.R.:
Well, maybe if we gave ourselves too much time to begin with. Maybe.

M.K.:
Yeah. What’s. What’s your third point?

A.R.:
My third one is using multiple speakers for a very short presentation. And I see this usually in, in the in the investor pitches when startups talk about their projects. Okay. Usually the CEO of the company or the or the founder of the company starts by explaining the project what the problem was, what the solution is. And then like one third of the way into the presentation, he or she says, So this is the product.

A.R.:
And to talk about that, I would like to invite our, I don’t know, Chief Operating Officer or something like that to the stage. Oh yeah, there’s this whole confusion between what, what how do they take the stage and, and there’s, there is the issue of transition and everything and then towards the end of it they sometimes they can say something like, well to tell you how we’re going to spend the investment, we would like to invite this person, third person, which is the finance director or something like that, to talk to you about.

A.R.:
And then there is yet another promotion. And all of this is happening during a three, four or five minute presentation, five minute pitch. So it’s too much. Okay. I strongly recommend instead of a first of all, I strongly recommend getting away from the idea that, well, we’re a three person team, so everybody should take the stage. No, there are so many successful presentations which are done by by one person, which is usually the CEO or the main funder of the project.

A.R.:
Of course, in the team, if there is a person who is better suited to to talk in front of the public or to express themselves, put them on the stage, of course that’s that’s possible. That’s also doable. But at the end of the day, I think it’s also important for the founder or the CEO of the project to get more comfortable and efficient on the stage.

A.R.:
It’s not obligatory for all members of the team to to take up the stage, especially in the short minutes, in a short period of time. With that, I’m going to end and I will not give you the pleasure of buzzing me out of the stage.

M.K.:
Well, I was thinking, I guess we were almost there. We were in like 15 seconds of getting there. And I thought, Man, if Alper just keeps talking for 15 more seconds, then I’m finally going to get to break out my buzzing sound. But I didn’t even get to do that, Not.

A.R.:
Based on my friend, man, this time.

M.K.:
Okay, well, we got through our six points. And so these are basically six points. Hit these six points. Make sure you avoid making these six mistakes and your presentations will be a lot better just by avoiding these six simple things. And with that, I guess we’ll will wrap it up and we will see you next week then.

A.R.:
All right. I’ll talk to you as always.

M.K.:
Yeah, good talking to you. I’ll talk to you later.