During an Adele concert in Birmingham, the sound system failed mid-song. The lights stayed on – the music vanished.
But Adele didn’t stop.
She kept singing acapella. The audience stepped in, humming the melody and completing the lyrics until the audio returned.
That moment left an impression.
It’s a lesson in keeping your connection with the audience – something every presenter needs.
For example, if the projector freezes or your slides don’t load, don’t pause. Don’t say, “Can we hold while I fix this?”
Author Kevin Kelly introduced the concept of 1,000 True Fans.
He argued that a creator doesn’t need millions of followers to succeed – just a small group of people who truly connect with and support their work.
The idea has stuck for a reason.
It challenges the way we often think about success.
And it applies to presentations too.
When you’re preparing a talk for a large audience, it’s tempting to aim for a message that pleases everyone.
In an interview, musician Jacob Collier said this: “It’s not ‘How many people have I reached?’ It’s ‘Of the people I reached, how many did I move?’”
That line is worth thinking about.
As presenters, we often focus on numbers: how many signed up, how many attended, how many clicked.
But numbers don’t always measure impact.
Entrepreneur and author, Gary Vaynerchuk put it simply: “One is better than zero.”
If one person walks away from your presentation with a new perspective, doing something different or feeling something they hadn’t felt before – that counts.
In just eighteen minutes, David Christian told the history of everything. From the Big Bang to the internet, his TED Talk, The History of Our World in 18 Minutes, covered 13.8 billion years.
He didn’t include every detail. He couldn’t.
Instead, he chose what mattered most to his audience so they could understand the big picture.
That’s what great presenters do.
If everything is important, nothing stands out.
The real skill lies in deciding what to leave out.
In 2012, the UK Government’s Behavioural Insights Team ran an experiment to increase tax compliance.
Instead of rewriting policies, they changed the message in the letters sent to taxpayers.
One version of the letter said: “Nine out of ten people pay their tax on time.”
That’s it.
This line worked. More people paid on time.
Why?
It delivered three things:
It told them something useful (most people do this) – what they needed to know. It created a subtle emotional nudge (social belonging, a bit of pressure) – what they needed to feel. And it led to action (pay the tax) — what they needed to do. That’s a useful model for your next presentation.
Organisational psychologist Adam Grant published Give and Take, a book that challenged a lot of assumptions about success.
One thing that stood out was his view on authenticity.
He pointed out that “be yourself” can be confusing or even counterproductive advice – especially when you’re trying to grow.
It’s a helpful reminder when we think about communication.
We often hear things like “be more confident” or “be authentic”. But those phrases focus on identity. They sound good, but they’re hard to act on.
Swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. But in the years leading up to it, one of his most important tools wasn’t in the pool – it was video review.
Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman, often analysed footage of his races and training sessions. They looked for every detail: his start, his turns, his stroke timing.
Even when he was winning, they still asked, “Where’s the gap?”
Kenyan marathon runner Abel Kirui prepared for the Daegu World Championships in his own style. Rather than trying to outmatch competitors in a sprint finish, he focused on what he did best – maintaining a strong, steady pace and breaking away early.
He chose a quiet approach that aligned with how he worked.
He won gold, nearly a minute ahead of the next runner.
That story comes to mind when someone asks me if they should give a talk on a topic they don’t know well.