In it’s purest form, this technique is something which you’ll find extremely useful for giving that killer presentation at work, to really impress the audience. However, the alpha male should carry the sentiment into his everyday social interactions.

Let’s say you need to present your latest (and greatest!) project proposal to senior board members, and your promotion is riding on giving an effective presentation. No pressure, right? Even if you are trembling like a leaf on the inside, it is vital that you project the right image, to let the board know you are destined for great things.

As you’ll learn in posts on my blog the most important thing about becoming an alpha male is BEING SEEN to be an alpha male. You must display the alpha male traits and characteristics to achieve this. The other thing you’ll have read, is that one of the most crucial alpha male traits is that of being, or at least appearing to be, relaxed.

So, you’re stood there in front of the board, wishing the ground would open up and swallow you whole, but it doesn’t and you still need to give that killer presentation.

Here are the four steps you should follow (PEEP) to do this.

P – Pause.

Even though your gut instinct will be to leap up there in front of the audience and rattle through your cue cards as fast as an ostrich with it’s tail feathers on fire – DO NOT DO THIS! Compose yourself. Force it if you have to. Remember it’s not about how you are feeling inside, but about how others see you.

E – Eye contact.

Make eye contact with the audience. They won’t pay you one iota of attention if you are constantly looking down at your shoes, or staring at the clock on the boardroom wall. This is more difficult if you have a large audience, but nonetheless you should make eye contact. If there are too many to make eye contact with each one, then use your judgement to pick out the most influential. If you only impress the CEO and HR director then you haven’t done a bad job.

Look down at your cue card. Get it ready in your mind what you are about to say. Memorise it. Don’t feel bad about having to look at a cue card. It will only LOOK bad if you try and pretend you are not looking at your notes.

E – Eye contact (again!)

Raise your eyes back to the audience. Make eye contact again – not necessarily with the same people. Now, with most people who I have taught to use this technique, this is THE MOST DIFFICULT PART. The tendency is for people to immediately begin speaking as soon as they have finished memorising the cue card (or even before they look up in some cases). Well – DO NOT DO THIS! Compose yourself, maybe count to three (in your head obviously, or that would look strange indeed!), and then begin to speak.

P – Pause again

So you’ve finished your previous couple of sentences. Resist the urge to dive straight back down to your cue cards. Take a breath. Then repeat the process.

I guarantee that, unless you are a natural orator, this will feel extremely uncomfortable and unnatural. It takes time and it takes practice. It’s useful to video yourself during rehearsal if you have the equipment to do so. People I have tried it with are astounded by how confident they looked when using PEEP, even though inside they literally felt sick.