Quick review #1: Always dress a notch above your audience.
Quick review #2: Think neat, unobtrusive, classic. I suggest dark or darkish suits with a colored shirt underneath.

So much for the general stuff. But there are some things that have to be divided by gender. Big surprise — men and women have some different options regarding dress. And we might as well lead off with the one that will break some hearts …

Rule #1: No short skirts

This is important enough to repeat — NO short skirts. Yes, it matters. There are plenty of places to show off what you’ve got, but when you’re giving a presentation, you want the attention focused on your message; when you distract from that, it’s never a good thing.

Case in point: I interview a lot of judges and justices, usually when they speak at my trial and appellate CLE Boot Camps. And I always ask them for their best or worst story about attorneys presenting in court. One judge mentioned the time that a jury passed him a note after a break that asked him to direct the female attorney at counsel’s table to keep her legs crossed due to the length of her skirt. Need I say more?

So how short is short? I leave that up to common sense. But let’s just be clear: A skirt can be well below the knee and still be very attractive. There’s no good reason to flash your audience, and there are a LOT of negatives to it.

Thin line between flashy and trashy

Following Rule #1, you can figure out that other revealing or provocative clothing is a bad idea: low-cut shirts; tummy-revealing tops; skin-tight or semi-transparent tops or bottoms. You’ll want to leave them at home for the same reason as the micro skirt: You don’t want the audience looking at you nearly as much as you want them listening to you.

The same thing goes for a look that seems too “glam” for the office. For instance:

• No ridiculous nail polish colors or nails so long they scare people
• No ostentatious jewelry
• Avoid 4” spiked heels , open-toed shoes and sandals — any shoes that look like you’re headed for a night on the town or a day at the beach. Think “classy pump” and you’re safe.

Some of that may seem too stodgy, but it doesn’t have to be. These days, there are lots of top-line clothing stores catering to women going for the look we’re talking about. It doesn’t have to be boring to be professional. If you want to get real interest and energy coming your way, do it with what you have to say. It’s a much better long-term impression in any case.

So much for the general stuff. But there are some things that have to be divided by gender. Big surprise — men and women have some different options regarding dress. The list of specifics is a lot shorter for men than women, but that’s deceptive: Men are judged by what they wear as much as women are. It comes down to the little things, so you might as well give them some attention.

• Ties – color is fine, but ditch the sports ties, the political message, the holiday ties, the ties made by your kids. You want to wear something nice, but not something so flashy or distracting that people are paying attention to your tie instead of your words.

• Shoes – you want to make sure they are polished and have no holes in the bottoms. Do I have to mention no sandals or sneakers? Hopefully, I don’t.

• Avoid large flashy watches or jewelry. It may be tempting to want to make a statement with a little power bling. The problem is that if you do, that might be the only statement of yours your audience will take note of.

The bottom line is, you guessed it: you want your audience to be paying attention to what you are saying, not what you are wearing.

It is amazing how many speakers appear bored when making a presentation. There they are, up in front of a crowd with a golden opportunity to impart knowledge, create excitement or persuade a group to embrace a new idea and yet … they look as if they’d rather be almost anywhere else. Bored. Listless. Resentful.

You don’t have to be a motivational speaker to have permission to be passionate and enthusiastic about your topic. If you’re excited about what you have to say, show it. If, on the other hand, you aren’t passionate about your topic but you have to deliver the speech anyway, there’s only one thing to do: fake it.

Yes, I really mean that. Fake it till you make it.

Of course, if you’re not engaged in the topic, you probably shouldn’t be making the presentation in the first place, but there are many times when speakers, salesmen, lawyers and supervisors are forced to make speeches or give seminars against their will. In those instances, if the choice is between showing a lack of energy or displaying an enthusiasm that you don’t really feel, go with the fake-out every time: Fake. It.

Energy is contagious, yes. But the reverse is also true. If you can’t muster any energy for your presentation, how do you expect anyone else to?

The Hon. Michael R. Panter (Ret.) of ADR Systems is the latest Featured Speaker on the Pincus Pro Ed website!

Judge Panter recently retired and joined ADR Systems as a mediator.

Judge Panter has spoken at many of our programs over the years, including our Circuit Court Boot Camps and our Jury Selection seminars. He also created our Case Valuation program in 2013. We keep inviting him back because our attendees love and appreciate him and is such a pleasure to work with.

Thank you, Judge Panter, for your time and dedication to teaching excellence at our seminars.

Dee Dee Fischer of Akerman Senterfitt LLP is the latest Featured Speaker on the Pincus Pro Ed website!

Dee Dee most recently spoke at our 5th Annual Circuit Court Boot Camp in Ft. Lauderdale. She has spoken at our Circuit Court Boot Camps since 2012 as well as several of our other litigation seminars and always receives top reviews from our attendees. Dee Dee has more than twenty years of experience in state and federal court, making her commentary invaluable. She is also a pleasure to work with and provides fabulous outlines for our attendees.

In a presentation setting there is the “us” – the audience – and the “them” – the speaker(s). As a speaker, you want to always try to breach the “us/them” dynamic. Makes sense, doesn’t it? The last thing you want between you and your audience is a barrier. Especially one that doesn’t need to be there. How can you overcome it?

By including some details in your speech — especially at the beginning — that show an interest in your audience, individually and as a group. Remember my advice to arrive early? If you found the time to interact with the audience one-on-one before the presentation, your introduction is an opportunity to connect more directly with the audience by mentioning someone by name in relation to the topic or your pre-speech discussion.

There is a concept in both psychology and marketing called “affinity.” It explains how people tend to like people who appear to like them. Dale Carnegie was a big proponent of this line of thinking. Show an interest in another person or find a connection with them and more likely than not they will reciprocate.

By using this engagement technique, you help to bridge that gap. Or as I sometimes say, you break down the audience-speaker barrier.
Shared experiences

Another way to immediately engage your audience is by tying your talk into the overall event or something that has occurred since you all arrived at the venue. This is most applicable when you’re speaking at a multi-day conference but it can also be applied in court or at various business settings.

If you have a funny story about something that occurred at the event or the courthouse, it can be a nice, light way to start off, grab everyone’s attention (everyone wants to hear about what is going on around them) and it helps you tie yourself to your audience and your surroundings. If you have a serious story, it can be a dramatic way to kick off a presentation, as long as you are careful not to touch on raw nerves.

This last method can be risky, as your story will not often be time-tested, but if pulled off with the right degree of dramatic flair, it can be just the trick to get the crowd on your side from the start.

Let me tell you a story. I teach my 3 to 3.5 hour in-depth training seminar on public speaking to law firms, corporate executive groups, businesses, bar groups, associations, public agencies and the like. I fly all over the country to do this. And when I do it, no matter where I am, I am “on” for that entire 3 to 3.5 hour program.

Lack of sleep? Jet lag? Small or unappreciative crowd? It doesn’t matter. I smile, jump up in front of the group and let ‘em have it with both barrels. Even the most listless crowd will perk up if you attack your subject with gusto and there is no better way to win them over than to get them to enjoy something they start off thinking they’re going to hate.

So…what happens after the program is done? As you’d expect, I crash like a diabetic after a pie-eating contest. I’m so exhausted after these sessions I no longer schedule anything afterwards because I know I won’t have the energy to participate. I used it all up in the program. Why go to such lengths and put myself in such a state? Because it works. I repeatedly get comments about how exciting these programs are and how passionate and enthusiastic I appear to be.

And you know what? Even though I love teaching this seminar and I love the topic itself, there are times when I wake up at 6:00 am (an ungodly hour on any day) and think to myself, “Why am I doing this? I’m tired. I don’t want to do this.” It doesn’t happen often, but with my travel schedule and running two businesses, it happens some.

But when the time comes, I still turn it on for the presentation. And on the rare occasion when I have run out of steam in the last 20 minutes or so, it inevitably comes up in the evaluations. Audiences notice.

So if you want your audience to believe that you’re a good speaker and to hear what you have to say, you must be energetic. Give yourself the permission to show enthusiasm and get excited about your topic. Trust me — it’s contagious.

Bruce Givner of the Law Offices of Givner & Kaye, APC is our newest Featured Speaker!

Bruce recently spoke at our Advanced Estate Planning seminar where he was a favorite amongst our attendees for his thorough information and his entertaining delivery.

Bruce has also joined the panel for the intermediate level program Protecting Your Client’s Assets: Your Legal and Strategic Options which will take place in San Francisco this Thursday, September 15th. Bruce is highly experienced with tax law so you won’t want to miss the opportunity to hear from him on this subject.

Congratulations to Marc Lewis and Paul Llewellyn of Lewis & Llewellyn LLP who have been named as Northern California Super Lawyers.  Marc and Paul have both spoken at many of our litigation programs in the past and we couldn’t be happier for them.

Virginia Milstead of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is the latest Featured Speaker on the Pincus Pro Ed website!

Virginia recently spoke at our 12th Annual Federal Court Boot Camp in Los Angeles and will also be speaking at our upcoming Superior Court Boot Camp in Los Angeles on October 21st.  She has spoken at most of our state and federal court boot camps since 2011.

Virginia is well-liked by our attendees, fellow speakers and the staff at Pincus Pro Ed.  She is especially well known for her thorough handouts.