You may not feel like you’ve put out a vibe since your early 20s, but nothing could be further from the truth. Your moxie, attitude, energy, goodwill-towards-men, or magnetism–whatever it is you want to call it–is out there every day. It can work for you or against you, like a standard carried into battle, or like a shirt tail flapping through an open zipper. The standard bearer knows what he is doing; the zipper ‘fail’ needs to be made aware of his issues.
Of course, for presenters, the situation is more dire, and the effects more immediate. With karma, your middle school bullying days can take decades to circle back around. But with presentations, your bad vibes stick around like an airhorn in an echo chamber.
What I mean is this: projector screens are very large. Details that seem insignificant on your little laptop suddenly become grotesque exaggerations of errors–if errors exist. Your colors are going to shine through. If you are not detail-oriented, if you are not thorough, if you periodically space out and fail to generate targeted copy or sensical charts and graphs, everyone is going to notice.
The same goes for your script, and for non-verbal communications, too. You are speaking into a microphone that amplifies everything you say. If the things you say are boring, they are going to be more boring over a loudspeaker. And if you’re up on stage, those awkward, jerky arm motions are only more visible.
But it’s not all bad: the good is magnified, amplified, and elevated, too. When you have a presentation to give, you need to understand where you have control and where you do not. You can’t help but put out the vibe, but you can determine what that vibe. When the vibe is good, you’ll unlock the most thrilling part of delivering presentations: good vibes sticking to you like an angelic choir in an echo chamber. Pay more attention. Make it good. Last forever.
