Matt Eventoff

A sure thing to be able to hold her own during public hearings, that is! 

Whether or not she becomes the next appointment to the Supreme Court is yet to be determined. In less than ten hours there are already over 28,000 blog posts discussing the nomination, lots of controversy, and lots of opinions. 

Based on today, the only conclusion I can, and will, draw is that Judge Sotomayor demonstrated sound public speaking skills that will make her quite formidable during the confirmation process.

Every speaker, regardless of political affiliation, can learn from watching Judge Sotomayor’s acceptance of the President’s nomination. 

1. Speak Slowly/Pause -  Sotomayor’s cadence was perfect, period.  Every word was timed perfectly, and she made sure there was no where to focus except on her message — slow speech meant no slip-ups.  I can not stress the importance of this enough.  Every great prizefighter knows the key to setting up and controlling a fight is an effective jab — Judge Sotomayor used cadence as her “jab” very, very effectively. 
2. Eye Contact- Again, excellent.  She did not “ping-pong” back and forth, and her eye contact was strong throughout.
3. Annunciation – The tempo and cadence of the speech was very deliberate and allowed her to fully annunciate every word, as well as stress certain words, and even syllables.  It was a great display of confidence and power, and one that every speaker can learn from.
4. Use of Emotion – Again, the pace and cadence allowed the Judge to speak in the moment and actually feel what she was saying, and it showed.   Examples — Describing her niece “My niece Kylie — she looks like me!” Describing her mother “I am only half the woman she is.”

It was critical that Judge Sotomayor deliver her message effectively, as this was her first opportunity to do so, and her only opportunity to define herself before everyone else got a shot. 

As with all things, there was room for improvement (too much dependence on prepared text) but all in all, a very impressive performance on what is going to be a fascinating process.  As with any campaign this is only the beginning, but Judge Sotomayor took her best shot at Campaign 101 — define yourself before your opposition has a chance to.

There are two communication “killer apps” that I witness plague startups with frightening frequency.  These danger zones are lethal to a startup, especially one seeking funding. 

If you are pursuing venture capital funding, read this prior to presenting. You will be glad that you did.

Killer App # 1 – No Central Message

I have witnessed this over and over and over again.  Brilliant entrepreneur(s), fantastic concept or prototype, great ideas, detailed business plan…and no central message. You can have every fact, figure, and statistic on your side, but without a central message, it all doesn’t mean much.

This is crucial for a startup seeking funding.  We are in extremely difficult economic times, venture capital is much more competitive and difficult to come by, and every entrepreneur believes that their concept is different, special and deserving – every entrepreneur. 

There are countless books advising on how to stand out, what to say in a presentation, how to put together a funding request, etc., but very few, if any, on putting together a message. 

If you are the entrepreneur you must be able to communicate your message in a manner that anyone and everyone can understand.

What are you trying to accomplish with your concept? If you are pursuing funding, you must be able to identify how you will deliver a return on that investment, profits, and you must be able to do this in a manner that is clear, consistent, and easy to comprehend – remember, you are asking people to invest at a time when investing, no matter the size of the VC firm, is a scary thing to do.

President Obama had a solid message as to why voters should support him and what he would deliver to them – Change. His message – clear, consistent, and easy to comprehend, and he won.

Killer App # 2 – No Practice. No Preparation. No Funding!

This can, and often does, occur whether an entrepreneur has a central message or not.  The entrepreneur begins his or her funding presentation.  The slides come out.  There are lots of numbers, lots of writing, lots of information and not a lot of time to present it all. 

The entrepreneur is nervous because this is THE meeting with THE potential future of the company – the funders.  He begins to read the slides, all the while moving awkwardly around, or maybe standing still, resembling a statue.  “Well, umm, XYZ has, umm, developed what we, uhh, believe is, ahhh, a revolutionary way to, umm…” and the presentation continues on in this painful manner until mercifully, it is over.

Your product or idea might be THE biggest and best idea the VC has ever seen or heard. The VC just doesn’t know it because he or she has been so focused and distracted by the verbal noise – umm, uhh, ahhhs, the body language, the speed and the lack of clarity that he or she has not been able to focus on the quality of your concept or product. 

In this case you are better off simply dropping the presentation off for the VC to review at his or her leisure but for one problem.  Once you have received the funding you are going to have to sell the concept to other investors and to the marketplace.  Think that first VC is going to be confident in your ability to do that?

Some people are better presenters than others.  Some people are more naturally charismatic than others. Some people are better storytellers than others. Having the benefit of a communications trainer is priceless, but often not in a startups budget.  Practice does not cost anything other than time. Every person benefits from practicing before presenting. 

You will identify verbal noise, tendencies toward awkward movements or word placement, pitch, tone, mannerisms, etc., you will identify places in your presentation or pitch where there is duplicative information (happens constantly), you will identify when you are providing TMI (too much information). If you practice, review, practice more, review again, and continue practicing – you will improve and you will give a better presentation, guaranteed.

I encourage practicing in front of people who are not on your presenting team or even in your industry – chances are that if they don’t “get” what you are delivering or are bored or distracted by your delivery, there is a decent chance the potential funder won’t either “get” it either.

***A note to Venture Capitalists – once you have invested, or made the decision to invest, make sure whoever is going to be the “face” of your company before the marketplace is a strong presenter.  The landfill of lost investments is littered with great ideas that have been poorly presented to the market.

***A note to Startups – there are a number of fantastic blogs dealing with venture capital that provide great advice.  A few of my favorites include Ask The VC, A VC, VentureHacks, VC Ball and Seeing Both Sides.

Thousands of messages appear every second, and nearly every one of them disappears just as quickly.  Messaging is an art, and creating a truly compelling, sticky and actionable message is both rare and extremely powerful.  Yesterday, a powerful messenger delivered an equally powerful message.

For those that don’t know the story, in 2004, Connie Culp, a 40 year old waitress from Ohio, was shot in the face at point blank range with a shotgun, by her husband.  After life-saving surgery, all that was left of her face were her upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin.   Connie couldn’t eat solid foods, smell or smile. 

A face is something that we all take for granted – “Our faces are more than visages to be adorned or veiled. They are essential to our communication with the world … No other aspect of our anatomy is capable of even a fraction of the complexity of motion and emotion allowed by the muscles and tissues of the face,” Dr. Maria Siemionow, director of plastic-surgery research at the clinic, wrote in her book Transplanting a Face: Notes on a Life in Medicine.

Connie was left without one due to no fault of her own.  Think about that for a minute.  Think about how much you express every day through your face, and then think about every single one of those thousands of signals we all send every day being….gone.  

Connie was the recipient of the first facial transplant in the United States, and bravely faced cameras for the first time yesterday.  It was no less than amazing. The messages she could have sent, and would have been completely justified in sending, were endless.

Connie could have talked about the raw deal she was handed.  She could have talked about her circumstances, and how hard life has been since the tragedy occurred. She could have talked about the fact that her husband was only given seven years in prison for doing this to her.  She could have talked about how the judicial system failed her. She could have talked about the controversy relating to face transplants and the obstacles she faced. She could have talked about….anything yesterday, and that would be her right.

But Connie gets it — she realized that she had an opportunity to deliver a powerful message, one powerful message, and she did it!

Watch the clip carefully — to Connie, it wasn’t about Connie.  It was a thank you to the donor and the heroic surgeons who have given her this gift.  Then it was about all of us.

“Don’t judge people who don’t look the same way you do, because you never know, one day it may all be taken away.”  Unbelievably powerful. 

Connie gets it — it wasn’t about her — it was about her audience, all of us. 

Her comments, including this story about the young child who thought she was a monster, make you think, and for at least a second, put yourself in her position. 

Her message was clear, concise and compelling — don’t judge.  She did not cloud it, bury it, or complicate it, and it was very clearly a call to action. 

I was deeply moved watching this press conference yesterday, and spoke to a number of folks who were as deeply moved, including a dear friend whose young daughters cried after watching it, and volunteered, on their own, that they would never tease anyone or stare at someone who looked different, ever.  

My guess is that there are thousands of children and adults across the country (hopefully millions!) who felt the same way, and will think before staring or commenting long after today passes.  A very effective message indeed.