“Powerpoint leads to unoriginality, unoriginality leads to boredom, boredom leads to suffering.”
When Yoda meets Anakin Skywalker for the first time, he declares that he sees his fear, and predicts that it will lead to anger, then hate, then suffering. And let’s face it, he has a point. Perceptive chap.
But in the world of the stand-up comic, anger can be very useful indeed, particularly when aimed at the everyday, the trivial, the mundane. Despite being negative, this anger is a passion.
In a speech or presentation, a passion is the fire that burns brightly, holding the audience’s attention. When I’m listening to someone speak, I don’t really care about anything that they don’t care about; if they don’t appear to be interested, then why should I? But if they show real passion, then I’m hooked. It actually doesn’t matter what the subject is; if I think this person really cares about the subject, that it gives them both joy and pain, that perhaps they’ve even suffered for this thing because of their love for it, then I’ll listen to them for hours.
Admittedly, that’s quite a stunt to pull off at a Tuesday morning meeting about sales, but it’s possible. Not sure how you can be passionate about the Q3 numbers in Europe? Well, then how can you expect your audience to be? Look for a connection, something personal, that links you to the material, that makes it real. Because then, through you, you’ll connect your audience to it.
And that, my friends, is better than any Jedi Mind trick.