How to Present Yourself Confidentially

We’re all a blank canvas of potential until we need to make an impression. There’s no middle ground in confidence - only extremes in the wrong direction. You’re either confident or not - push any further into either direction and you become arrogant or a recluse (or both; a compulsive YouTube commenter). But there are no/few commercially successful people who don’t give off a confident impression. No one wants to do business with someone who is unsure of themselves, and no one wants to listen to someone who can’t figure out if what they’re saying is right or not.

It’s not a secret that people make their first judgements of someone within the first few seconds. Conscious or not, the assumptions made about you early on will linger like school reputation at reunion day. Regardless of your experience, expertise or even knowledge - if you can’t convince your audience you’re not afraid of them (in a presentation or on camera) in the first few seconds, the next couple of minutes will be a case of clawing back confidence from the people who are hanging on your every word.

I’ve performed stand up comedy for a few years now in Asia and the UK, and I maintain that a first impression will always come sooner than you’re ready for it. From the point where you pick up the microphone, or even how you enter the stage, every element of your physique, your walk, your style, your facial expression - the list goes on - is analysed, broken down and reconstructed in the shape of how confident you appear to be to everyone watching what you’re doing. On stage it's a case of walking out like you're walking into your own room (minus the desire to fling your shoes off or sing into a hairbrush etc). Owning the stage, like everyone else is there because you let them. Personally I would try to seem cavalier about it - almost like I could take it or leave it - grabbing the microphone stand aggressively like I didn't care if it fell over. The last sentence, of course, doesn't quite apply in the corporate environment, but the philosophy is true to both scenarios. In all cases, owning the stage is essential. If you don’t believe you belong there, neither will anyone else.

There’s a lot of tell-tale signs when someone is unsure of themselves, and it’s because of how conscious you become of yourself. This is especially true when making a presentation where every movement you've ever taken for granted feels like it’s the most animated you’ve ever been, like lifting your finger will set off the bells in Notre Dame. The most common confusion comes from people’s arms - what are you supposed to do with them? Nothing’s weirder than someone talking at you for 20 minutes who keeps their hands straight and stuck to their sides like their having a nativity play flashback, and you can’t fold them or you’ll look like you’ve being told you aren’t allowed any more biscuits by your mother. Since you’re on stage, larger movements don’t look as big as they feel, so put emphasis into you words with your hands. That’s not to say cartwheels and cheerleading choreography will help you out, but follow Steve Jobs’ example - busying his hands (conveniently holding something, usually), and pacing where appropriate. Being aware of your space and using it can make you feel - along with the audience - that the stage is yours. Just try not to look at your feet as much as Jobs did; it’ll either make you look like you’ve forgotten what you’re saying or that you’ve put your shoes on the wrong feet. It’ll be very tempting to look at one space and focus on it; I would advise to constantly redirect your attention but to nobody in particular. A light in the room, someone’s bag, anything that won’t give you awkward eye-contact (unless the context calls for it) but will let everyone assume you’re just looking at somebody else.

On camera it’s the opposite problem - your movements are exaggerated to the nth degree and your eyes will usually say more about you than the rest of you put together. As bizarrely unnatural as it feels, focusing in one place wields a more confident look than wandering eyes. While in front of a live audience it looks more natural to redirect your attention regularly - so to share the presentation with everyone - on camera everything is exaggerated so movement or wandering eyes might give the look of a nervous person, or perhaps a person surrounded by bats. So relax and find a focal point in the studio that isn’t the sound guy’s curry stain and stick with it.

From this point, if you’ve come out confidently, the rest should come naturally. Assuming what you’ve got to say matters, and the information comes across coherently (all of this was for nowt if you can’t talk over the air-conditioning), then you’re ready to paint that blank canvas of potential and prejudice whatever colours you want.

CLIENTS -> Support your suppliers.

There's an idea that we can probably all relate to from a supplier perspective - but as we're all Clients of someone I'm sure we could manage to act on it a bit more than we currently do, 

"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" and all that...

With that in mind here's a pitch from a Senior Account Manager at one of our equipment hire companies On Sight. It turns out Al Eales is a budding script monger and has made it to the long list of Enter The Pitch 2013. He's made a brave pitch film and is now at the mercy of a public vote so get your watch on and check out what he's up to here, go-on push the boat out and give him a vote if you like it:


Vote for “The Denial” at The Pitch #watchitnow

FLETCHERWILSON become preferred supplied to KPMG

We recently heard the exciting news that we're one of a handful of film production companies that have been awarded preferred supplier status by KPMG. We've been working with our friends at KPMG for a number of years now and have been lucky enough to be involved on a range of interesting projects for them.

In the business we're in we are in a position to clearly see both the image that a company would like to present of itself as well as seeing what goes on 'behind the scenes'. Luckily for us all the companies that we work for these days have consistency between the image they'd like to present to the public of who they are as a company vs who they 'really' are - how they operate internally, how they behave towards clients and suppliers. We think there is a general trend towards more integrity of external message / internal behaviour within companies these days and that it's driven in part by greater demand for disclosure, in part by social media and in part by the recession we've experienced culling many of the companies with less integrity.

Our job is easier when a company is who they say they are. It's easier because the nature of what we do involves scratching beneath the surface to tell the 'real story' of who a company is and what they do, and if what you find beneath the surface differs from the public facing image then we have to work hard to find the commonality between what's going on behind the scenes and the public facing image. It's important to us to present a company in a realistic light not only because we believe that 'the real story' of a company is the most effective way to promote that company and to engage potential customers, but also because we are not in the business of making films that tell 'the real story' of a company, when in fact it's not.

Which brings us back to KPMG and our application to become a preferred supplier. The process of getting onto the PSL for KPMG has taken us about 3 months and has involved the provision of detailed information about our company and our philosophy. We've supplied detailed reports into our policies on diversity, business continuity, environmental impact, sustainability, social responsibility, crisis management and others. It's been an interesting exercise in introspection, ensuring that we measure up to a range of criteria and that we can deliver on our promises. It's the first time that a client of ours has asked us about the initiatives we undertake by way of Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainability and diversity and what this shows us is that when KPMG talk outwardly in their communications about being serious about these things, they actually mean it. This has been our experience in all our dealings with KPMG - specifically that they walk it like they talk it - everything they say they do and stand for externally, we see evidence of internally. It's the hallmark of a progressive, responsible, modern company that we're very pleased to be working with.