By Kristy Hesom and Adam Wakefield

Although this was Mulholland’s fourth Heavy Chef talk, it was the first one about what he actually does for a living - presenting. Mulholland says he is usually not nervous to do talks, but that this one was an exception; “If you don’t like what I have to say tonight, then my entire life’s work has been for nothing.”

The four horsemen of presenting 

Mulholland says there are four points that make up the fundamental structure of every presentation:

  • Give them a reason to care: “Why should you give a sh*t about what I’m telling you today?” If you can answer this question, then you can work through anything to find an answer, says Mulholland;
  • Give them a reason to believe: “Why am I a credible source for what I’ve just spoken to you about?” Mulholland says that as featured TED speakers, and one of the leading presentation companies in the world, the audience has a reason to believe that they are credible;
  • Tell them what they need to know. Give them the information that they need; and
  • Tell them what they need to do.

“You have to leave here with an action. If I want to move you, the easiest way to do that is to tell you where I want you to go,” says Mulholland.

Destroying presentation myths

‘Death by powerpoint’ was the first myth Mulholland wanted to dispel. “Blaming Powerpoint for a bad presentation is like blaming a pan for a bad meal. Powerpoint is not sh*t. You are sh*t.”

Another myth of presenting was that it is important to know your audience.

“I’ve never gone to an audience where I actually know anything about them … Here’s my number one rule for knowing your audience; you can’t.” Mulholland says, “What you can know about your audience, the one real truth about everything is the only thing that matters is not try to be who they are or who you want them to be, but to be the best version of yourself.”

Being liked is not important to presenting, though it helps. What is more important is being believed, and believing in what a person is talking about comes from being authentic.

“I know that some people will hate me and some people might like me. That’s all fantastic, but I’d like to think that everyone believes that I’m just being myself, and I’m being authentic and that’s the number one rule,” Mulholland says.

“If you bring the best version of yourself at every talk you do, good things will happen.”

The Missing Link

At his company, Missing Link, they don’t want you to hire them because you think they are interesting, but rather because you are not. Their aim is to make you interesting, because if you are not interesting, then you are not memorable. And if you are not memorable, then you have failed.  

One way that presenters often fail to be memorable is by giving too much information. Too much info never helps anyone, it is the “death and killer of presentations. It is not about what information you give, but what information they remember”, says Mulholland.

Mulholland stayed true to Heavy Chef's ethos of practising what you preach by giving a memorable performance that is likely to stay in the minds of those who saw it.

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