Published December 6-10, 2022
6
Presentations
I like making presentations. They are the best way to learn. To present to others means to distill one’s ideas in a manner that others can understand. It needs mastery on the subject. It also needs an openness to share.
In late 2021, my team approached me to do a fireside chat at a conference. I agreed. They were to pick a person and all I had to do was to ask a few questions to a guest. But with just a few days left for the conference, it became hard to get the time slots for the right people. And so, with five days to go for the conference, the fireside chat became a slot for a presentation by me.
My presentations tend to generally be a collection of slides with a lot of text. This time around, I decided to try something different. Could I do a presentation with very little text and more imagery and 2-3 words on a slide? I took that as a challenge. It was not an easy one for me, but as I started working on it, I began to like the story that was coming through. I realised it could become more gripping as I spoke through on slides that changed every 15-20 seconds. I had seen presentations like this done in the US, so I decided to give it a try.
In the process of putting it together (the title was “Winning in the Coming Martech Era: Driving Exponential Forever Profitable Growth”), I also started improving my own thinking about the topic. In the past year, I have done variations of the presentation multiple times to different audiences. I now have a core set of slides, and I pick and choose based on the audience and the time I have. With less text for people to read and eyes to glaze over, they have to listen – and that’s how I get their attention. It becomes a thriller with continuous action. To pull this off, I had to practise a lot to make sure I do not ramble or go over-time.
At an in-person conference in Goa, I covered 119 slides in 30 minutes – that is an average of 15 seconds per slide. But that is not the right way to look at it. I spoke about 5000 words and used the slides as a prop to keep the attention and engagement going. There was something new happening every few seconds and that ensured listeners had no time to check their messages or let their minds roam! I got very good feedback after the presentation. (There were many ideas presented so I offered to email the deck to whoever wanted it.)
I view each presentation as a way to sharpen my ideas. In that sense, like with my writing, I present for myself. The audience is a prop to help me make my story better. Doing presentations virtually is not something I like because as a presenter you need to be able to see the people, make eye contact, and watch their body language. Presenters are performers who need a stage – like actors and magicians.
As I have reinvented my presentation style, it is like I have found a new dimension to myself. And that’s why I believe we must always push ourselves to do things we have not done or tried before.
7
Time with Onself
To become better, we have to be comfortable spending time alone without distractions. Call it mediation or me-time, done with eyes closed or open, with a writing book or without. The idea is that one has to enjoy one’s own company – the self and the silence. As the last paragraph on “The Invitation” puts it:
I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.
For me, I create time with myself whenever possible. The early morning and late nights are the best. There is something about the “sounds of silence”. As the Paul Simon poem puts it:
Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
All my writing happens early in the morning (from 5 am) – when the darkness and stillness of the night has still not given way to the morning buzz. Weekdays, I think and write for about an hour, while on weekends it stretches to about 2-3 hours.
In this “me-time”, I am not distracted by emails and WhatsApp messages. There is nothing that cannot wait for a few hours. I recreate the comfort of the inflight experience: sitting in one place with just one’s mind to oneself. This is when the ideas “flow”. We need chunky time for this – and our devices and notifications have taken it away from us. The temptation to pick up the phone or switch from Word to Thunderbird must be resisted. It is only then, with each passing minute, that we get into a high productivity zone.
I am able to create a bubble around me at any time, even in noisy surroundings. All I need is my notebook. At times, I am stuck in meetings which I cannot exit or escape. My notebook comes to my rescue. I mentally switch off and start writing – it is time with myself that others do not notice.
The reason for time with oneself is so we can contemplate on what we are doing and what we need to do. Much of life is a reaction to events around us, so it is very important to create these extended periods when we can think deeply about the important rather than act on the urgent.
PS: My previous posts on flow and me-time.
8
Feedback
When I was living in graduate housing at Columbia University, a Russian roommate came up to me one day and said, “Rajesh, you have a very strong body odour. Consider wearing a vest and using deodorant.” I was momentarily taken aback – no one had told this ever in my life. And to this day, I am thankful that my roommate gave me that feedback – few would have the courage to tell another adult so candidly.
It was then I realised the importance of asking for feedback. It is not easy to ask and accept feedback. First, we are hesitant to ask because we do not like to hear negative things about ourselves. Second, we need to show sincerity in asking otherwise we will not get genuine and critical feedback. Third, we must have a commitment to take in the feedback and improve – also not easy because we have to accept our imperfections.
One of the questions I typically ask after a presentation to people who approach me is: what could I have done better? It is not an easy question to ask, because one then has to be prepared to receive critical (and at times, brutal) feedback. But that’s the only way to create a process of continuous improvement.
Recently, after I presentation, I asked the same question to a person who came up to me and complimented me. She was taken by surprise. At half my age (that’s the new world of entrepreneurs in India), she was shocked that I would ask her how I could do better. She then went on to give me some excellent feedback – you should have had more case studies, you should have explained some of the terms more clearly, and so on. And then she said, “You are the first person who has ever asked me for feedback on how to become better. It is such a good thing to do.” I replied, “Once we set aside ego and bring in the humility to learn, we can do so much more and do it so much better. That is the only way to improve.”
The change in my presentation style was also an outcome of me asking a friend for feedback after another “texty” slide deck. He said, “You have very good ideas, but the way you are communicating the story is not right. It leaves the audience bored and distracted. You have to grab them in the first 30 seconds and not leave their attention right till the end. Think how you can do that better.” And from there came a reinvention of my presentation style.
9
Saying Sorry
I was in Pune for a customer meeting. My team had briefed me that the customer had had a very unpleasant onboarding experience a few years ago with Netcore and did not want to consider us at all for any of our products. We still managed to get a meeting for me. I was meeting the marketing manager. I began the meeting by apologising to her for the past – never an easy thing to do because it makes one vulnerable right at the start. But I wanted to address the elephant in the room. I knew that whether she mentioned it or not, that past would always cast a cloud on the future. So, it was best for me to accept our mistakes, and see if we could move past it.
It was the best thing I could have done. With my apology and promise to ensure that we would go the extra mile to ensure the next experience would be smooth, the conversation immediately switched to the new products that Netcore had and how we could help them.
In the ideal world, we would not make mistakes and thus never have to apologise. But life is never that simple. We are humans, not machines, and so we err. In most cases, the natural reaction is to put the blame on other people or circumstances beyond our control. The non-obvious action is to accept one’s mistake and apologise. An apology can be disarming and can set the stage for a better future, but it is our ego that prevents us from opening the door to accepting that we did something wrong.
At a recent conference, an attendee walked up to me and said, “I liked your presentation. But let me tell you the reality of my experience with your company. A few years ago, one of your sales persons came for a meeting. His first question to me was – So, what is your business? I ended the meeting right there. For me, that question spoke a lot about the culture of the company.” I was not prepared for this direct criticism. I had no idea about the incident. Instead of defending the indefensible, I replied, “I am really sorry for what happened. It is not the Netcore way. I hope you will give us an opportunity to re-initiate a relationship because the products we have can very much help improve your customer engagement and retention.” The “sorry” helped and a conversation began. After the meeting, I called up Kalpit (Netcore’s CEO), narrated the incident and suggested that we make sure such incidents never happen again.
In personal or in corporate life, saying sorry – and meaning it – can help bygones be bygones. For that, the first step – actually looking the other person in the eyes and apologising – is the hardest and the most important.
10
Daily Discipline
The day is a repeating unit in our lives. It is therefore possible to create a system at the level of the day. It helps in bringing discipline to how we live. Of course, there are many events that take place which we cannot control. I am not talking about those – my focus is on what is in our control.
I wake up daily by 4:30 am. I set two alarms: 4:24 am and 4:27 am. To ensure that I still don’t oversleep, I have made a habit of listening to the BBC World News 5-minute bulletin (via their app) at 4:30 am. There is no exception on weekends – my waking up time daily is the same.
On weekdays, I do my thinking and writing between 5 and 6 am, and then go for a 35-minute walk in the building. Earlier, I used to write in my notebook. Now, I open up a Word document and write. On weekdays, it is typically some Netcore-related themes – the early morning brings a lot of clarity of thought. On weekends, I write for the blog for about 2-3 hours. I skip the walk so I get a longer time window to write much more. I can write about 1,000 words in an hour, which is the equivalent of 2 blog posts. These are not edited; I let the raw thoughts flow. I then send the blog writings to my friend (Atanu) for proofreading.
The pandemic ensured I set up a home office. I have two desktops – one at work, and one at home. I use Dropbox to sync files across them. I like the big screen and a proper keyboard.
To wake up on time, one has to sleep on time. I normally sleep by 9:45/10 pm. This gets me about 6.5 hours daily. On some days, I will take a short nap during the day – when I wake up, I feel fresh and it is almost like having a second morning.
Once the day starts, I go with the flow. Over the past few months, I have started going to the office daily. I like the feel of in-person meetings over Zoom. I try to keep some time in between meetings so I can think about what just happened and prepare for the next meeting.
I also try to stick to regular timings for meals, especially breakfast. Post-pandemic, I started skipping dinner. My breakfast and lunch are quite heavy, with a light evening snack (typically, apple and a banana). Combined with the daily walk, this ensures I do not put on weight – I have stayed at 65-67 kgs for the past many years.
Each of us should figure out when we are at our most productive. For me, it is the morning time. That then should become the anchor for organising the rest of the day.
PS: My previous post on life’s daily clue.