I finally finished reading a book written by a magician. No, I am not switching careers. More importantly, Steve Cohen who is famously known as the Millionaire’s Magician (for obvious reasons) writes about his secrets to a winning delivery of his magic performances in his book “Win The Crowd”

Reading the book, I was pleasantly surprised that even as a magician and performer of his calibre, he still religiously practices the techniques that I have often shared with you in my earlier blog entries. The overlaps in techniques are especially evident in a particular chapter, where he writes about “Building Confidence before the Curtain Rises”.

These techniques, that by now you would have been familiar with include practicing intensively before the actual presentation and dropping snippets of your presentation into your daily conversations so that your presentation doesn’t sound alien to you when its time to deliver.

But this time, I am going to write about something rather unfamiliar and I’m convinced that his secret will do the trick for your next presentation!

Steve shares some interesting and fresh ideas on how to command a room in one of the chapters and here, I’m going to do you a favour and divulge you 3 of these!

1. How To Float Into A Room

Steve tells us how to do this; before you step in front of an audience, take a deep breath. Not just your regular kind of “deep breath”. Fill your lungs with oxygen until they are ready to burst. Really. Once you feel that the air has reached the top of your chest cavity, hold it in. Then and only then, walk into the room.

Once you’ve entered the room and start to speak, you will naturally exhale in order to start your presentation. This is a much more powerful entrance than if you were to walk in with your lungs deflated. The deep inhalation will increase the blood flow to your face, and you’ll appear more radiant and more lively.

2.“Maxim 1: be Bold”

This is one of the 5 maxims that Steve calls, The rules of magic. Here, he says that when you’re bold, you will get results that you’ve never had before, because you’re doing things that you’ve never done before.

I’d like to add a disclaimer here by saying that both Steve and I don’t mean that you should go rob a bank. And I think this Maxim is especially significant in our Singaporean society. The lack of boldness( or even initiative sometimes ) handicaps us and puts our presentations in a lull even before we begin. Now you may ask,“How can I become bolder?”

Steve suggests making “elevator friends” as your very first step. The next time you’re in a lift with a neighbour you’ve never spoken to or a member of staff working in the same building, break the silence and and compliment them! Find something noteworthy about that person and say it.

“That’s an exquisite looking brooch you’ve got there!” or

“Hey, I can’t help it, but I think that tie you’re wearing is really cool” or

“Is that a new wig? I like it!”

Now unless you want a huge slap across your face, I suggest you skip the last one, but you get the drift by now don’t you? Aim to say hello or offer compliments to 5 people everyday. To hit the target 5, you obviously have to do this outside the lifts of which, by then, you should be getting a hang of this. Make it a DAILY DAMNIT !

He explains that, people are fascinated by someone who is larger than life. You’ll become more attractive and your interactions with them will become more dynamic. And this is because you are unknowingly becoming what others desire to become themselves.

3. Charisma

Always envied that insanely charismatic guy or lady who has the whole room talking? Steve offers 6 observations of what qualities famous and charismatic people possess and they are

Enthusiastic
Confident
Comfortable in their own skins
Unconcerned about what other think of them
Masters of their subject matters
Symbols of something others desire

Out of the 6, I think the 5th one, being a master of your subject matter is the easiest to achieve and instantly up your charisma by a thousand times.

Jerr Dunn said,

“Be so good, they can’t ignore you.”

Audiences will always applaud skill. Why do you think the Olympic games never fail to enchant and inspire us? BUT, be sure to keep your ego in check. Never show off to simply make yourself look good. Instead, follow the Japanese proverb,“The clever hawk hides its claws.”Be understated about your abilities. Reveal your skill only when appropriate. People will be more impressed when they discover what you’re capable of on their own. This is especially so when you get yourself some ‘flesh-time’ with your audiences before you begin your presentation.

So there you go!