Better Communications, Effective Presentations: Conversation with Matt Krause

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  Matt Krause is a Californian who now lives in Turkey. He runs the international communications consultancy Recipient Labs and spends his free time reading, cooking, and walking distances that should probably be driven. In Turkey, for example, he walked from one end to the other end of that one and wrote a book about it.

In this conversation, Matt talks about communications and presentations.

Geetesh: Matt, tell us more about what you do, and how you help people communicate better and present effectively to audiences?

Matt: I help companies tap into the larger international bloodstream of foreign investors and foreign customers. There are a lot of ways they can do that, but at some point, they have to talk to these people, which is where I come in.

I work mostly with small- or medium-sized companies, because larger companies tend to already have this challenge nailed, or at least to be pretty good at it.

Typically, when a company is bridging that gap between being a strong player in their domestic-only market, and tapping into the international investment and sales bloodstream, it has months, not years, to do it. So, I don’t focus on learning the language (in this case, English), because learning a language, even if you are already advanced, can take years (I’ve been a native speaker of English since birth, and I’m still learning the language!).

Instead, we focus on four main things most people can do that will get them the “low-hanging fruit” from their existing language knowledge. Those things are:

1. Use a story structure.

There are many, but most of them are variants of a couple of the most common ones. Story structures are not complicated, and in fact an entire story can be told in two or three sentences. People have been trained since childhood to listen to stories, and they tend to be more patient and forgiving of language errors when a story structure is being used, which makes stories great for non-native speakers.

2. Reduce your filler-word count.

These are the ahhs and umms that people put between their words. Some people are quite insistent about driving this count to zero. I’m not one of them. The magic number seems to be about 6 per minute. If you’re below that, you’ll be fine. Above that, and people will find you hard to listen to.

3. Make mirror neurons work for you.

In other words, relax, so the people listening to you will relax too. And one of the best ways to relax is to practice a lot. In fact, practice what initially will feel like an unnecessary and counterproductive amount. You don’t need to hit every word and sentence perfectly. But you do need to be able to give your presentation in your sleep. That’s when relaxation comes.

4. Use vivid vocabulary.

Vivid, active vocabulary puts images in your audience’s heads, and keeps your message alive even when you’ve left the room. Knowing which words have life and movement, and which don’t, takes years. Our clients don’t have time for that. So, what we do instead is record their presentation and then, using a native English speaker, rewrite it with more colorful vocabulary. The client then practices the more colorful version with the new, more expressive, words.

Geetesh: Are there some not-to-dos in such scenarios?

Matt: In my experience, the biggest not-to-do is to break Rule #2, the filler-word one. If you break that one, your listeners’ heads are going to hurt, and they are going to start counting the minutes before you leave the room.

Rules #1, #3, and #4 are how you go from being allowed into the room to rockin’ it. But break Rule #2, and they’ll wish you would just close your mouth.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.