presentation business

Make Money on EBay by Selecting the Right Dropship Supplier - Part 1

2008-09-28T05:31:00.003-07:00

Many who have just started feel the only way they can make money on eBay is using a dropship company. They begin their search and find that while there are many dropship suppliers to choose from, there are also many problems finding just the right company. Some dropship suppliers don't carry the right products. Others charge too much money to yield a profit. Still others seem to take your money and run. This is the first of 4 articles that will cover methods for screening prospective companies to find just the right one for your business.

Locating the right dropship supplier is much like searching for gold nuggets. While there will be many rocks lying about, there are just a few gold nuggets. In fact, it may require sifting through rocks for days to find even a single gold nugget. If you are to make money on eBay your search for that gold nugget will require that you invest a great deal of time, and that you adopt a stick-to-it approach to the task. It may not be easy, but once you've found the gold nugget you seek, the investment you made to locate it will seem small indeed.

So what are some of the steps to take as you screen prospective dropship suppliers? How can you know when you've located the gold nugget you seek? How will you know when you've located the rare gold nugget to make money on your eBay business.

Each prospective dropship supplier must be put through a thorough evaluation process. Each must be screened to make sure you can in fact make money on eBay by using their services. Areas of concern start with the reputation and reliability of the company. There is no need to invest a great deal of time screening an unscrupulous supplier, so they need to be eliminated as soon as possible in the screening process. Prospects that remain should be screened for factors including product availability and processes that they use to notify you when inventory is not available. Other concerns include customer service, shipping processes, and communication. Finally, total cost requirements and your profitability must be carefully examined.

In the articles that follow in this series specific screening questions will be presented. Each question must be asked of every prospective supplier. Obtaining the right answers to all those questions is critical to locating the dropship supplier that will give you the opportunity to make money on eBay. Don't forget to start by thoroughly checking references. Many reputable companies will happily provide customer information so you can directly check references. As you begin to narrow down your search don't forget to check organizations like the Better Business Bureau and others.

Tips For Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations

2008-09-28T05:31:00.002-07:00

1. Make use of the slide master feature to make your presentations in a simple, attractive and most importantly, consistent design. While there is nothing wrong with varying the presentation of content (e.g - text in one or two columns, bullet points, images and so on), the other elements of your design such as color, background and font should be consistent from slide to slide.
2. Limit the amount of text per slide. Pare it down to the essentials and use key phrases.
3. Don't go overboard with punctuation and definitely do not use ALL CAPS. Leave empty space on the side to make your presentation more readable.
4. Make your text easier to read by using contrasting colors for the background and text. A light background and dark text is best; avoid patterned backgrounds, these make your text very hard to read.
5. Don't be tempted by gimmicks like text fly-ins. These distract your audience; who are likely as not already tired of them anyway.
6. Going overboard with sounds and animation may make for a very flashy presentation, but looks less professional and can result in your presentation not being taken seriously.
7. Use high quality images which will appear clear even at the resolution required for projection. Good quality images will enhance your presentation, while poor quality, fuzzy images will detract from your message.
8. If you do use builds, make your content appear in a simple, consistent fashion - for instance, from the top or from the left. Only use these slides when absolutely necessary to drive a point home; otherwise, they needlessly slow down your presentation.
9. Limit the number of slides per minute. If you rapidly transition from one slide to the next, you can easily lose the interest of your audience. One slide per minute is a good rule.
10. Be ready to navigate through your presentation in a non-linear way if needed. PowerPoint allows you to jump ahead or back without having to flip back through the slides in between.
11. Be prepared to move forward and backward through your presentation; your audience may ask you to repeat a slide.
12. If possible, view your slides on the screen you'll use in your actual presentation. Be sure that they can be read from any seat in the room. Make sure that your text and images are large enough to be easily seen but not so large as to be distracting.
13. Always have a backup plan in case that something goes wrong in your presentation. Keep in mind that your animations will not be visible in handouts or transparencies.
14. Show your presentation ahead of time to someone who has never seen you present. Ask them for their honest opinion about the content, the colors and graphics, along with anything else they may have noticed.
15. Do not read from your slides. Your slides are for the audience, not you. Have your own talking points prepared before your presentation.
16. Talk to the audience, not to your slides. A lot of presenters make the mistake of speaking towards the screen, rather than to the audience.
17. Don't apologize for anything in your presentation. If there's something in your presentation which you feel may be difficult to read or understand, it's best to take it out of the presentation altogether.

Present Like a Samuri

2008-09-28T05:31:00.001-07:00

SHARPEN YOUR SKILLS WITH PECHA KUCHA2

The next time you make a presentation, tell your audience you don't have a PowerPoint. Tell them you have a Pecha Kucha instead.

What is Pecha Kucha?

Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-cha ku-cha) is Japanese for "the sound of conversation," and refers to a presentation style invented several years ago by a couple of architects based in Japan. Tired of the tedium of typical PowerPoint presentations, they wanted to give young designers and others involved in the creative arts an outlet to meet, network and show their work in public, in an efficient and engaging way.

To view a presentation about Pecha Kucha, by Wired magazine contributing editor Daniel Pink visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZOt6BkhUg

What are the rules?

In the Pecha Kucha style, presenters speak to 20 slides, each of which is shown for 20 seconds, for a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds. The result is that Pecha Kucha presentations are concise, participants' interest levels stay high, and multiple presenters can share their ideas within a short period of time.

Now this "20 x 20" format is making its way into the meeting rooms of corporate America. Business presentations are being run the same way - strictly 6 minutes 40 seconds in length, with all discussion and questions held to the end of the presentation.

How is Pecha Kucha different from PowerPoint?

Sometimes compared to the "10/20/30" rule in PowerPoint (10 slides, 20 minutes, no type smaller than 30 points), Pecha Kucha is substantially different because the slides change automatically every 20 seconds and the format is designed to work with as few all-text slides as possible. This forces presenters to be more focused in their message and allows the story to flow uninterrupted.

In the June 2008 issue of SpeakerNotes I talked about the importance of incorporating pictures in a PowerPoint presentation. With Pecha Kucha, imagery is more important than ever.

Powerful Pecha Kucha takeaways

Here are four facets of Pecha Kucha that I find especially noteworthy:

1. It makes the presenter concentrate on essential information - what do my listeners absolutely need to know and understand? The format forces you to stay focused on what's really important, with no time for digression. Because slides are programmed to change every 20 seconds, you have to anticipate your next slide and ensure that your narrative is synced to your visual.

2. It forces you to have a storyline, a flow that allows your listeners to quickly and easily grasp your message. With PowerPoint, speakers often make the mistake of treating each slide as a separate and discrete data rather than part of a larger story.

3. The benefit of using a presentation format that relies heavily on imagery is twofold: It gives you the ability to transfer emotion in addition to information and knowledge. And it puts the focus more squarely on you and what you're saying rather than showing.

4. It supports my mantra of "practice, practice, practice" -- you absolutely cannot go on stage "cold." With just minutes to effectively convey your message and engage your audience, rehearsal is essential.

Synaura Not a "Me Too" Company

2008-09-28T05:31:00.000-07:00

Synaura is not a "Me Too" Company. It is not another "juice" or "High ORAC" product Company. Synaura has what it takes to be a huge name among Network Marketing Companies; in what way?

Synaura will attract many of the major marketers in the United States. The reason is that Synaura owner, Dan Maltais comes from a marketing background. He has explained Synaura through a" distributor's eyes". What did he mean?

He meant that through his personal experience as a network marketer he knows what Company's good's and bad's are and he has developed his Company with the adjustments needed to make it better.

An example of this would be the Synaura Compensation Plan he has chosen. Granted, it hasn't been released yet, but what has been disclosed is that it is projected that it will produce some of the largest checks in Network Marketing. Why so?
Because it is being fashioned after a Comp Plan that has done just that. It is a Comp Plan in Network Marketing but has never been used in a nutritional product Company. This means any Company you can think of that sells nutritional products does not use or have a Comp Plan like this one.

This particular Comp Plan will reward those who can bring in the greater numbers and therefore it should attract those that can do that. These individuals could be bringing home some of the biggest checks ever.

Synaura is bringing to market a product based upon the maqui berry. However, Avia is not just a mixture of "juices". Avia is formula based and designed with a time released delivery system. The maqui berry is considered the highest antioxidant food in the world. That means something.

However, it is what Avia can do to enhance what our body already does that makes it so outstanding. More will come on this later. Certainly, choosing a Company with such an outstanding product is very important. Some people will not be able to or will bring very few people into the Company, so having a strong belief in the product is important.

In addition to Synaura being the "first to market" this amazing maqui fruit, Avia will be a liquid supplement delivered with a natural "time release" Synplex technology. This will allow the benefits of Avia to be felt over a longer period of time.

Synaura has an exclusive contract with the largest exporter of this new botanical, limiting competition. One of the companies' investors is the same company that helped build the brands of Xango, Tahitian Noni, SoBe and Monster Energy Drink. They are doing it again with this company.

Ten PowerPointers

2008-09-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

Giving a PowerPoint presentation sometime soon? Probably the answer is yes. It seems like the PowerPoint program has become a constant of the modern business world. Yet PowerPoint speeches can sometimes frustrate more than illuminate. Here are ten ways to achieve an even better outcome with your next presentation.

1. Brand your slides. For a presentation to external audiences, put your company's logo in the corner of every slide and close with your logo and web address. This reinforces your authority and helps people learn where to go to find out more about your organization.
2. Plan realistically. Given the rate at which most people speak, a good rule of thumb is one slide for every two minutes. If your information is particularly dense, plan on a few less.
3. Openly state why your topic is relevant and important to your audience. Don't make your listeners try to figure out the context themselves, as it will distract them from hearing what you have to say.
4. Keep it simple with fonts and movement. Yes, you can really customize your presentation, but surveys have shown hard to read fonts and moving images merely annoy people. Stick to something clear, easily readable and professional looking. Sadly this rules out dancing animals of any kind.
5. Use bullets and be concise. PowerPoint is not a script. It's there to provide a summary and help you remember the things you want to say.
6. Lighten up. Do use visuals, including charts, graphs, photographs and even cartoons that tie to your topic. Non-stop copy gets monotonous after a while. Provide some imagery to break it up and help keep people focused.
7. Proof, proof, proof your copy! And then get someone else to proof your copy. When you give a presentation with typos and grammatical errors, you not only distract your audience, you make them question whether you really are the expert you seem to be.
8. Summarize. Wrap up your talk concisely and restate your main points at the end. Make it easy for your listeners to "get" the main takeaways of your presentation.
9. Give some thought to what you want them to do. Would you like your listeners to take action of some kind? Know in advance what that action is. For example if you'd like them to go to your website and take a survey, tell them so and provide a deadline and incentive for them to follow through.
10. Give handouts. This is especially true for presentations to external audiences. Useful takeaways help listeners remember and apply your messages, and they give them an easy way to follow-up with you.

The Necessary Dialogue

2008-09-16T07:54:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest misconceptions I've come across in the field of marketing is the notion that advertising is a one way form of communication. If you give this notion careful consideration, though, I think you'll agree with me that this is a faulty idea and one that can only hinder your ad campaigns. Advertising is more than just making a blind pitch to a silent, faceless customer.

Indeed, as soon as an individual takes note of your ad, they start engaging in an internal dialogue that determines their thoughts and feelings about your ad, your company and your product, which ultimately guides their desire (or lack thereof) for what you're selling.

Unfortunately, you simply won't be privy to this half of the conversation and the only solid reply you'll receive is a sale or a new business inquiry. There are a few conversational basics that can help you navigate the perils of a seemingly lopsided dialogue.

Be Genuine - Yes, honesty does work in advertising. It's actually the rule and not the exception, contrary to popular belief. You're either looking to sell a product or sell your business name and image, there's no two ways about it, so don't hedge your language. Make your claim and ask for a sale without a lot of flowery language meant to obscure reality. Consumers in today's market are very savvy about advertising and you'll find that potential customers will reject your ad if they sense you are making impossible claims you can't follow through on or if they get the impression you are trying to "snow" them. Instead of telling customers your product will change their lives, tell them how it will help them.

Be Direct - Ever been in a conversation with someone who rambles through a lot of seemingly unconnected and unimportant details while telling a story without ever seeming to get to the point? Of course you have. Do you remember how frustrating that conversation was? Well the same holds true for ads. You have a limited amount of time once a potential customer engages your ad before they judge its worth. In addition to that, you only have so much ad space available to get your point across. With that in mind, it should be clear how important streamlining your message is. Give your headline, make your offer and give just enough product information to pique your customer's interest.

Be Responsive - This is the tough part and the one that requires the most insight. You have to anticipate and respond in advance to questions your customer might have. Fortunately, the single most important question to answer is also the easiest to anticipate. Consumers have one primary question they'll ask themselves every time - "How do I benefit from this?" While they may phrase it differently depending on the individual, the basic idea will be the same. You have to appeal to a need or a desire to get your customer to pay any attention to your ad and to give you a response.

If you aren't engaging consumers in a real dialogue, you are losing potential business revenue. Instead of holding a one sided conversation, use your color printing to actively communicate with your customer base. After all, customers talk with their wallets, as the old saying goes, and that's just the sort of response you were hoping for, right?

Basic Presentation Skills

2008-09-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Presentation is a communication process of transmitting the message from the presenter to the audience. This message can vary in length and complexity. Different presentation aids can be used e.g. flip chart, PowerPoint presentation with the video beamer, whiteboard with erasable pens, laser pointers, etc. Presentation can be done in different circumstances in a more or less formal way.

In fact, everybody is in the position to be a presenter at some point. At school, at the university, during the business presentation or even you can be a professional presenter. Now we come to common problem for most of the people. This problem is "Stage Fright" combined with lack of technical skills of presenting.

Stage fright can be really terrifying to some people. Many people have the fear of the audience, lights of the stage, they are afraid what will be if someone ask them difficult question. This is causing nervousness, sweating, accelerated heartbeat, dizziness or even panic attacks.

On the other hand, presenting skills are technical aspect. Presentation skills are a broad area. It takes some time to develop this skill, for some people more, for the other less time, depends of a talent. Since all of us can be in situation to be presenters, to be in the center of the audience, it is useful to learn basic skills of presenting.

Anybody can prepare at least a decent presentation. Presentation takes some time and effort for preparation. During preparation try to follow basic rules:

· You need to have a minimum of expertise in the area of presentation. This means that you cannot just learn your lines that you will say during the every slide, but you also need to be prepared to answer to potential questions from the audience. Simply, you need to have at least the basic knowledge on the subject presented.

· Make concept for your presentation ( intro, main part, conclusion ). Your presentation needs to have meaningful flow. It should have a theme, the message and learning for your audience. Set up learning goals for your audience and check the results at the end. Longer presentation should have detailed agenda developed.

· Use aids ( power point or flip chart ), but remember that you are still one who is presenting, not the slides. Do not exaggerate with the presentation aids. They should assist you, instead you assist to them.

· Use not more 3-4 lines of text on presentation slides, with maybe 1 photo. If you put too many details, nobody will read it. Average audience is not reading the content of the slide, in case that there are too many details on it. Slides should be clear in content, visible for everybody in your audience, with graphic and color that will not distract audience, or make them difficult to read. If you are not skillful with graphic and colors, use predefined templates.

· Exercise your presentation, so that you get a feeling about it. Check all slides before presentation. Check the video beamer, cables, remote control, room lights and other technicalities before beginning of presentation. Check the colors and readability, since video beamer can present colors in different way than your computer screen. Distorted colors can make reading difficult or impossible.

· Assess the time needed for you presentation and check the timing during your rehearsals. If your presentation is longer, divide it in sections ( e.g. 45 min ) with breaks ( e.g. 10 min ). Time management is critical during the presentation, since audience might start to feel bored if presentation is too long. You can even not finish your presentation, if it takes too long time.

· Try to move around during your presentation. Use your body language. If you just stand still in one place, you will become invisible soon to you audience and their eyes and mind might start to wander around. By moving your self and using your body language, in accordance the dynamic of the subject presented, you are keeping the audience alerted.

· Use examples for your statements. That can be your experience or something you read. If you are using somebody's examples, quote source of information. You can even say a short story or saying, if you find it suitable for supporting your presentation.

· Use humor in your presentation. This can be planned or spontaneous, but within limits that will not change normal flow of presentation.

· Ask questions to the audience. Ask for volunteers, or pick someone to answer. This will help you to keep the audience alert. They will pay more attention to your presentation, since they know that you might ask them later on. Asking questions will make your presentation more interactive, more interesting to the audience and easier for you, since you will animate people to participate.

· Do not say something like "Sorry about my presentation" or "I am nervous". I remember some of my friends that used to say something like that during the presentation. I found that to be wrong, since their presentations were actually good and I wouldn't ever guess that they are nervous or unprepared, if they didn't say something like that. If you state that you apologize because you are not a good presenter, you are ruining your credibility before you even started. Even if you are a bit nervous there is no reason to say that.

Actually, everybody, even the most experienced presenters, have some "stage fright". It is normal. But as soon as the presentation starts, you will be released, since you will involve your energy into the presentation.

I am not "born presenter", since I am an introvert person, but I learned some basic presenting skills and I am using them during occasional business presentation.

Finally, you are born without knowledge of speaking any language, without knowledge of mathematics, without knowledge of driving the bike or a car. But you learned that and adopted these knowledge and skills as your portfolio. Why wouldn't you make Presentation Skills to be part of your personal competences?

Top Guest Speaker Hiring Tips

2008-09-16T07:53:00.002-07:00

Considerations for Hiring Entertainers and Guest Speakers

Great care must be used in selecting guest speakers for your meeting or event, because the right speaker or entertainer can make or break it. If you're hiring a guest speaker, be sure to choose someone who is motivational and inspiring or an expert in your field or business. Choose someone who will help you reach the goals for your event.

Consider how the group will benefit from the experience and from the speaker you choose. Consider how your event will benefit from the entertainment value the speaker or entertainer provides.

The best source for guest speaker referrals is from friends, colleagues and business associates. Still, you need to be sure to check their references. Do they have a reputation for being reliable? Are they professional? Do they fit your business's image? Will they be dressed appropriately or displaying or using offensive language or imagery?

Whatever your needs, be sure to have a realistic and well thought out budget. Remember that entertainment and speakers' fees are always negotiable, so don't be afraid to make an offer. Choose wisely though. While one entertainer might charge you $4,000 and be worth twice that amount, another could charge $10,000 and be terribly disappointing.

Money Saving Tips for Hiring Guest Speakers

The following are some money saving strategies you might employ:

-Hire local entertainers to save on transportation costs. With the recent hike in fuel prices, this could make a huge difference in your bottom line.

-If you have meetings in multiple cities or locations, perhaps your speaker will agree to multiple bookings at a "bulk" or reduced rate.

-Choose speakers who can also put on workshops. You can also ask your speaker, celebrity, or entertainer, without being overly imposing, to attend other segments of your event or to participate in other activities at your event. While they would be free to decline such a request, think of the added value it would lend to your event if they accepted your invitation. It doesn't hurt to ask.

-Negotiate a flat rate for the speaker rather than a fee plus expenses.

-Offer the speaker the opportunity to record their presentation and update their CD or DVD collection they sell themselves. This could save them thousands.

-Offer to buy books, CD's or other products from your speaker or entertainer in lieu of an entertainment fee. Providing these to your guests during your event brings an added value to it as well.

-Offer the speaker the opportunity to sell their materials at your event in exchange for a discounted fee.

Sources for Finding Entertainers and Guest Speakers

If you don't have personal resources to employ for your search, there are various places you can contact to seek a referral:

* Chambers of Commerce
* Convention and Visitors' Bureaus
* Professional Associates
* Phone Directories
* Online Directories
* Speakers Bureaus

Remember to check the references of the referring bureau as well as the speaker.

After you have provided a general profile of what you're looking for to the bureau, they can provide you with demos to assist you in your selection process. Pay attention to how the speaker or entertainer interacts with the group or audience, how well he delivers his message and what overall feeling you might come away with if you were present. Is this the right speaker or entertainer for your group? Does it fit your business image? If not, move on to the next one.

If you're hiring musical entertainment as well, be sure that it is appropriate and suited to the taste of the attendees. Obviously it wouldn't go over well to book a polka band for a college graduation event.

You should be aware that some bureaus may charge you a finder's fee for their services, especially for booking celebrities. A 10% finder's fee is normal and should be expected and budgeted for if you take this route.

Sometimes It's the Audience!

2008-09-16T07:53:00.001-07:00

Sometimes when you give a presentation and feel that everything went great because you really did your best to prepare for the event, but get evaluations below what you expected, it can be disheartening.

That happened to me recently and if I had not felt that my preparation was exceptional and the delivery was great, I may have started to think that the problem was with me. But then, I realized that the audience was totally made up of lawyers all with over 25 years of experience. Then I felt vindicated since I realized that all of the creative material in the presentation was somewhat foreign to them, since their life is based upon precedence rather than creativity. This is certainly not a knock on this highly respected group of lawyers, it just proves my point when I say that there are several different personality types that we will encounter in our speaking careers.

The topic was THE POWER OF ONE and I discussed how one person could make a big difference in the reputation and efficiency of the firm. I spoke about various principles and I backed up each principle with a specific story about a well known local or nationally known person. In the past, this format of explaining the principle and following with a real life example has proven to be a very effective way to reach an audience.

Upon reviewing the evaluations, which are a great aide in figuring out what to keep in or delete from upcoming presentations, I noticed that many of the attendees felt that I had included too many stories in my presentation. Evidently, they felt that they wanted more facts, while most other audiences enjoyed the stories.

Each time you are evaluated, you set yourself up for disappointment or elation. The real learning comes in realizing that different audiences require different styles and content. Take each evaluation seriously, but not serious enough to let it destroy your confidence. Get out there again real soon and chalk up some evaluations that will make you feel great!

Web As Desktop - Live Presentations on the Web!

2008-09-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Are you suffering the high cost and continual repetition of live presentations?

"As a president, I always join many meetings and trade shows to present our products or corporation. There is no problem with the live presentation. But I'm stuck when I want to sharing the meeting with others after it. Because I need present the same presentation again and again even spend additional high costs on driving or flying. The boring continual repetition makes me crazy. Is there any way to take my live presentation to the web? - Mr. Cooper"

PowerPoint is still the most popular tool for presentations now. It could integrate images, movies, narrations, animations to make the presentation animated and interactive. But the PowerPoint file is big and hard to share on the web, hard to integrate with the presenter's video and narration to live up the presentations.

How to distribute the live presentations to web to reduce the cost?

As everybody knows that, web presentation is a big cost and time saving solution. If we could run the presentation with the presenter's video and narration online, it will be perfect. The difficulty of the web presentation is hard to integrate the presenter's video and narration along with the PowerPoint presentation content. Is there any way to fix this problem?

A brand new service gives you an easy-to-use way to integrate the presenter's video with PowerPoint slideshows, sharing the results online. This simple tool makes it a piece of cake to run the presenter's video content side-by-side with PowerPoint presentations. So the audience could get the presentation running alongside with presenter's video and narration in action, likes that the presenter stands by them. This really has the power to bring online presentations to life. There are many tools such as Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional and services like Omnisio, Zentation to integrate the video along with the PowerPoint slideshows. Here is the comparability of the two ways.

PPT2Flash Professional converts the PowerPoint presentations to Flash with presenter's video and narration in one click. It works as a PowerPoint add-in. Presenter could easily distribute the Flash presentations to their website or training center for sharing. The Flash format is safer and smaller for web distribution.

Omnisio and Zentation are simple online applications for the synchronization and sharing of the Slideshare-hosted PowerPoint decks and Google Video-hosted content. You could upload your video to Youtube and then upload the PowerPoint presentation to Slideshare, use Omnisio and Zentation to synchronization them together. They will generate one webpage for you. You could share the content with others on this webpage.

For inner continual presentations, PPT2Flash Professional seems a better solution.
For external one time presentation, Omnisio and Zentation are better solutions.

How to Use Powerpoint Presentations As Coaching Materials

2008-08-20T22:09:00.003-07:00

Coaching is needed when we want to develop certain skills in order to accomplish some difficult tasks that require certain experience and skills. It can be done to unleash the potential of the trainees in which they are the assets of an organization. However, Powerpoint presentations for coaching sessions are not properly utilized in which cause trainees unable to perform to the fullest and disengage with the learning system.

Powerpoint is mainly use as an e-learning template during the coaching session. Normally, these presentation slides are converted into Flash format in which contain self-checks, quizzes, tests and surveys and then uploaded into integrated Learning Management System before this online coaching courses are created. These tasks can be done with ease by using rapid e-learning tools.

Let's us discuss about the Powerpoint ideas on how to improve the efficiency of the e-learning program.

The formality of a company has to be preserved when it comes to introducing the course structure during the employee coaching session. Notice that elegant-looking fonts are used in the presentation slides. Elegant looking fonts are commonly used by Microsoft Office users are Arial, Times New Roman and Century Gothic fonts.

An efficient coaching session only when business coach able to bring a system; a process for assisting them to discover the solutions of specific problems in their respective business areas. It is a part of the feedback process in which involves questioning and clarifying certain problems and issues based on their experiences. Therefore, proper slide layouts are used along with relevant puzzles and quizzes that associates with the objectives of the coaching session.

Expected outcomes from this coaching session:

* They will be able to realize their job description and what is expected of them.
* They will be able to clarify their main objectives of their job position.
* It able to create a stress-free working environment that increases productivity.
* Related skills are developed with positive mindset that encourages them to act as if they are competent professionals (or become more dynamic person).
* Problems will be solved within less time and effort - a.k.a. lean solutions.

Providing Lean Solutions With Your PowerPoint Presentations Via Google Documents

2008-08-20T22:09:00.001-07:00

You have attended many seminars, business meetings and workshops that are dragging your quality time. You'd wished for earlier dismissal of these particular functions because of lengthy presentations with complete boredom. If these presentations able to be shortened and optimized it with effective PowerPoint presentations, your audience's time and effort will not be wasted. It means that productivity can be increased when proper solutions are given without hassle your audience's quality time and work. These effective solutions are commonly known as lean solutions.

What do lean solutions mean?

Lean solutions are meant by effective methods are used to solve your audience's problems within short period of time without costing much for both parties. For example, if you are giving business solutions for your clients via your PowerPoint presentations, solutions have to be simple and clear to save your client's precious time and to improve your client's understanding towards your current service.

If you want to organize a small meeting to discuss your new ideas or issues, you can make use of Google Documents to create PowerPoint presentations and share or discuss it with your colleagues or subordinates. It can be done by sharing the URL of the presentation created earlier with people in order to include them in your audience. Your audience can raise questions or their feedback during this particular small conference meeting by typing it on a page that is displaying your presentation. It is like chatting online that brings convenience to all of us.

Bear on your mind that you must use less text-contents and more relevant pictures in your slide presentation. It is a total challenge if you are seeking more lean solutions to provide quality service to your clients and increase productivity of the organization.

3 Steps on How to Create Simple One-Line Business PowerPoint Presentations

2008-08-20T22:08:00.001-07:00

It is possible to create such a simple business presentation for your business meetings when you need to discuss important issues to your boss, clients and your subordinates? One-line presentations on your slides are indeed too short for elaborating your points to your audiences.

This applies the concept - "When less is more".

This concept has been fully utilized in advertisements and music videos in order to grasp the audiences' attention in which slices the large chunk of information into small parts (fragments) of important messages by eliminating unnecessary and redundant points that could affect your audiences' attention.

The presenter will be able to use his creativity on elaborating his slides in which it is much a challenging than presenting multiple slides with superfluous point within one slide. In productivity wise, you will spend less time and effort in making slides as your slides required minimal text-contents and more images to optimize your performance on your big day.

Step 1: Gather all the information for your current business topic/theme

This information can be taken from company annual reports and documents, whereas external information is from websites - Wall Street Journals, Business Times, financial blogs and other related readable resources. This information can be in form of texts, pictures, charts and graphs. Gather all of it as much as possible within given period of time.

Step 2: Elimination of unnecessary and redundant points

Accentuate on the most important part of information by eliminating long-winded facts. Summarize lengthy points as short as possible. You can use relevant pictures to support your truncated messages as it enhances the delivering of the messages process to your audiences. In the beginning, elimination process might take a long time to be accomplished but it will be much faster when you are able to identify the objectives of your presentation based on the information that you have compiled earlier.

Step 3: Place your one-line point on proper slide layout

As usual, your slide layout is important to display your one-line point so that it is visible to your audiences. It must be clear and simple in which your audiences able to perceive your messages efficiently within short period of time. Fonts for your one-line point has to be suitable - it is preferable to use Arial or Century Gothic fonts due to its letterforms and the spacing between characters that able to make it more readable on screen and at various resolutions.

It is optional to use additional effects for your slides. For example, you can use the "Entrance effects" on how you want your one-line point to be appeared on your slide. For optimal slide enhancement, transition effects are used to create a smooth change of one slide to the other.

What's Your IQ on Q & A?

2008-08-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

You've just wrapped up your presentation, and you're confident that you've conveyed your points clearly and persuasively. Now, it's time for the Q&A.

If you're like many speakers, you view Q&As in one of two ways: you dread them, worried about being caught off guard, or you breeze through them, thinking that the "real work" is behind you. Wrong and wrong, and here's why. Q&A is often the most valuable part of any presentation - it invites dialogue, provides feedback, and, when properly handled, allows you to conclude on an energetic and powerful note.

Q&A is definitely not something to fear; it's an opportunity to interact with your audience, and it can teach you a lot. But don't make the mistake of treating Q&A lightly. To take full advantage of its power, consider

Why should I welcome Q&A whenever possible?

Your audience wants to be involved, to connect with you and your knowledge, and the Q&A is their chance to do so. Q&A allows you to respond to the specific interests and concerns of your audience. It also provides immediate feedback on how your message was received, letting you clarify or redirect on the spot.

Finally, Q&A offers valuable insight to help you refine future presentations. If certain topics come up repeatedly, plan to cover them more extensively next time.

How do I encourage it?

Advertise your Q&A before and during your presentation. Say something like, "I'd like to thank our hosts for providing time at the end of the presentation for questions and answers, and I welcome your comments as well. Please jot down any thoughts so we can be sure to address them."

If an agenda is distributed, make sure it mentions the Q&A so participants can give some thought to their questions in advance.

How do I facilitate it?

"Robust" is how participants should describe your Q&A if asked. To respond to as many questions or comments as possible, keep up the momentum by:

* Recognizing questioners briskly to keep things moving
* Setting up and using a "batting order" to establish who goes first, second, etc.
* Encouraging comments as well as questions
* Briefly repeating the question before answering
* Retaining control and keeping an eye on the time
* Concluding with a short summary to end the session smoothly

How do I follow-up?

Stick around. Many times an informal Q&A will develop after the formal presentation is concluded, so budget your time accordingly. Ideally, no attendee should leave with his or her question unanswered. If you promise someone additional information, be sure you have the necessary contact information and follow up as promptly as possible.

Love it, leverage it, learn from it

Hopefully, you've viewing Q&A in a whole new light by now. Far from a breeze or a chore, it's a way to engage audiences in a highly effective and rewarding way. Remember: The more questions asked, the more listeners are engaged in what you have to say. So if your next Q&A is a lively one, take it as a compliment!

Super-charge Your Presentation Style - 50 Great Strategies

2008-08-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

1. Preparation. Preparation. Preparation.

2. Rehearse. Rehearse. Rehearse.

3. Ask someone whom you trust to give you feedback on your presentation ahead of time.

4. Ask for the feedback to be specific, focusing in on commendations, recommendations and commendations preferably in that order.

5. In preparation, write down everything you want to say - without censorship.

6. Cluster what you consider to be the salient points and build your speech around these.

7. Present your speaking, life and work credentials very early on. This helps to build credibility.

8. Speak persuasively and authoritatively. The audience is coming to listen to you because they believe you have the answers.

9. Use interesting transitions that take you from one point to the next.

10. Create visual images with your words, remember the old adage; 'a picture paints a thousand words'.

11. Speak clearly, annunciating appropriately.

12. Speak enthusiastically, if you're not enthusiastic, why
should the audience be?

13. Start with a 'big bang' opening - something your audience will remember.

14. Close your speech with a call to action. What do you want your audience to do, say or think as a result of hearing your speech?

15. Research your audience. Who are they? What do they want to know? What do they know already? How large is the audience?

16. Find out what types of questions you might be expected to respond to.

17. Prepare answers to questions.

18. Deal with hostile questions by staying calm, receiving the question from the questioner and presenting the answer to the whole audience. Make sure you don't get into a two way dialogue.

19. If using visual aids, make sure that they are in appropriate working order, check this ahead of time and certainly make sure they are checked on the day, ahead of your speech.

20. Make sure you project your voice appropriately to the size of the audience and the room.

21. Use a microphone as appropriate, there's nothing worse for the voice than continually putting a strain on it.

22. Ensure you have appropriate inflections, no one wants to listen to a monotone voice

23. Pace your speech, not too fast, not too slow.

24. Avoid the use of jargon, unless you know your audience understands that jargon.

25. Decide what it is you want to do with your speech; entertain, persuade, inform etc.

26. Build rapport with your audience. Speak, using a number of representational systems: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic. This will ensure you are bringing most of the audience along with you most of the time.

27. The general format of a speech is: tell the audience what you will tell them, tell them and conclude by telling them that you have told them.

28. It's usually best to take questions at the end of a speech, each time you allow questions you lose control of the 'floor'.

29. Determine how long you will speak for and stay within
that time frame.

30. A speech lasting much more than 45 minutes will have much of your audience asleep.

31. Get your audience's attention from the outset with a quote, a story, a statistic, a joke, an anecdote etc.

32. If you can, it's best to have nothing between you and your audience.

33. If you wish though, 'cue' cards are acceptable to help you remember the key points you wish to make.

34. Join a speaking club such as Toastmasters International - a great learning ground for fledgling speakers.

35. Control your nerves with diaphramic breathing.

36. Be mindful of inappropriate body language - fidgeting for example will take people away from the speech.

37. Dress appropriately for your audience and for your own comfort.

38. Pause appropriately, a well timed pause adds intrigue and draws your audience in and is better than the ubiquitous uhmmmmmmmms and ahhhhhh's.

39. Have a glass of water handy, for the potential dry mouth syndrome - take sips during pauses, rather than gulp.

40. In order to combat shortness of breath it's best to inhale and then speak on the out breath. This may feel a little strange at first and gets better with practice.

41. Prior to speaking it makes sense not to consume alcohol unless you want to risk inarticulation and muddled ideas.

42. Be aware that milk causes mucous and so may make you nasaly, here again you might want to think about what liquid you intake prior to a speech.

43. Ahead of your speaking in public take a few moments to scan the audience, this gives the added benefit of enabling you to relax prior to beginning.

44. If speaking humorously, remember this really must be done with confidence or you could go down like a lead balloon.

45. A humorous speech has a number of benefits: acts as an ice-breaker, could win over a hostile audience, keep people interested and helps them to remember what you have said.

46. Use a range of resources to build your speech: books, magazines, current and historical news stories, movies, tapes, internet, themes from your own life and those around you.

47. Engage with the audience's own experiences, use information that they have given you during the question process.

48. Leave the audience satisfied, wanting more and wishing to hear from you again.

49. At the end of your speech undertake a self-evaluative review: what went well in the presentation? What could you do differently? How effective overall was the speech?

50. Please create your own list of tools for effective public speaking.

Strike a Pose - Tips For a Great Professional Headshot

2008-07-16T08:19:00.002-07:00

The lyrics to Madonna's song "Vogue" loop in my mind whenever I think of profile photos. Whether posing for a class or family photo or Glamour Shots, most of us have had our portrait taken. With online social networking sites flourishing, a good headshot can help generate business. Even if you have a stellar professional profile, your headshot is responsible for making the first impression. A great headshot can entice people to contact and hire you for your services, whereas a bad profile photo is well, bad for business.

Here are some tips to put your best face forward:

1) Choose a good and reputable photographer. Like hairstylists, most photographers generate business based on word of mouth. People who have had good experiences are more than happy to refer their friends, family, and colleagues to a good photographer. Many photographers have their own website. I encourage you to logon and review their portfolios online. It is also important to conduct a telephone interview with each photographer. Consider asking the photographer if they will help you choose the final pictures, how much they charge for reprints or enlargements, if they are able to save the photos to a CD, and whether they give guarantees on their services.

2) Choose the right outfit. Many photographers allow 2-3 changes of clothes. It is important that each ensemble fits properly (i.e. not too tight and lays well when you move). Do not wear white or light-colored tops. Instead, choose a dark or bright-colored shirt that compliments your skin tone. Scoop, V-neck and collared shirts flatter most women and will help draw attention to the face. Men should always wear a solid shirt with a collar.

3) Don't make any drastic hair style changes right before your photo session. Give your perm time to loosen up or you'll look like a curly hair Poodle! Simple hair styles are better as they are easier to fix between shoots.

4) Use a light hand when applying makeup. Wear the makeup, don't let it wear you. The idea is to look your best without looking like you're wearing a lot of makeup. For best photo results, use a base, concealer and powder specially matched to your skin tone and neutral toned shadows and lipsticks look best. Avoid glossy eyeshadows and lipstick and heavily lined lips and eyes.

5) The brows have it. It is important for both women and men to wax or pluck eyebrows before the photo shoot. Well-groomed brows help play up your eyes and accentuate your face.
Although photographers cannot make you look ten years younger, you can ask them to retouch your photo. Basic retouch services include removing blemishes, whitening teeth, and eliminating dark under eye circles.

How Pocket Folders Can Help You Succeed in a Business Presentation

2008-07-16T08:19:00.001-07:00

Pocket folders can help you make every business presentation and meeting a success. When you are in these events, you want to be taken seriously. You want people to listen and absorb everything that you are telling them. You want them as much as possible to decipher your ideas and agree to your proposals, if that is the case. So you have to do everything right to end the meeting the way you imagined it to be.

And how are you going to achieve such fate? The main thing about it is that you've got to be ready. By preparing well enough for your big day, you will be self assured come that time that you will be able to deliver well. To help you in this case, here are the phases that you must set up for before facing the music and explaining your thoughts out loud.

1. Your speech
What do you have to say? Make sure to practice your words so as to be able to deliver well come the set date. Learn every important aspect of the topic which you will be talking about. If the attendees would raise some concerns, you've got to be prepared with what you have to say. Know your speech by heart and take note of the most important parts of your presentation. Make sure to deliver them all.

2. Your appearance
You don't need to overdo anything regarding this matter. The least and the best thing that you can do is to be presentable. People need to focus more with the words coming out of your mouth than with how you look.

3. Your props
Having pocket folders can help you a lot come the big day. Use this with the other standard presentation accessories like a Power Point visual and other handouts.

Presenting with a Folder

You must choose the right printing company to avail quality folder printing services. Usually, this product comes in the standard size of 9" by 12". The use of this kind of folders is not limited to business presentation. It can also carry out your corporate identity. It can also be used to contain your portfolio. The common paper stock that is being used for such tool is the 14 pt. Gloss Cover stock. It will be better if it could have a coating like AQ. This will give your material a soft shine appeal.

You can also choose for your folders to contain slots for your business cards. Avail such service so that when you give out the tool, you are assured that the attendees would have your contact details.

Grab every opportunity there is to be able to present to an audience about your business ideas and proposals. You are not expected to knock them off the first time you do this. But at least, you must leave a lasting and positive impression.

Presentations - Delivering a Better Presentation - Seeing the Point

2008-07-16T08:18:00.002-07:00

A client, Bill, recently came to me to help him sort out a problem he was having with his presentations not being understood by the audience. Bill is a highly respected executive manager for a large international finance organisation here in Belgium, and he has many presentations to give, so this was a serious problem and he was very concerned about the situation. In fact it was his boss that had pointed out the problem to Bill in the first place. Bill knows exactly what the message is he wants to get over in his presentations, but his audience was ending up confused because he spoke too quickly.

Some Cutting Remarks

Making a presentation is about delivering a clear, coherent, concise message to the audience. Its about communicating. Its a bit like laser eye surgery! The laser in eye surgery is an incredibly precise cutting instrument. Its purpose is to make incredibly fine, accurate and precise cuts in the eye in order to alleviate or remove impediments to clear vision.

When a laser beam is focused, it cuts precisely, neatly and cleanly. It does this because the beam of light it sends out is coherent, its all going in the same direction at the same time. If the beam is not focused, it does not cut, it simply acts more like a torch and illuminates an area of the eye. The unfocused light beam is said to be incoherent when it is in this unfocused state, the beam is not tight, it is scattered.

After talking a while with Bill about the problem it soon became apparent that speaking quickly was just a symptom of a deeper issue. It turned out that Bill was not really 'focused' on the presentation. His focus was scattered, he was so keyed up he kept looking forwards to what were going to be the expected outcomes of the presentation during the presentation. So just like the incoherent laser, Bill, illuminated a great deal of what was being presented, but failed to make the precise, accurate cuts that a coherent presentation would have made. In other words Bill's incoherent presentation was coming from the simple fact that he was not 100% 'present' to the delivery of the presentation, he was, at least partly, in the future somewhere with a bunch of expected outcomes.

Not being 100% present to the presentation came through as the sped up delivery and the audience picked this up. If you're not '100% present' to deliver the presentation why should your audience be there?

Being Present - By being 100% present to what you are doing, you become more authentic, genuine about the thing you are engaged in doing, in this case delivering a presentation. There is a very simple but powerful technique that I use in order to develop this ability, its called conscious breathing, and here's how to do it.

1. To start with you'll need a quiet place where you will be undisturbed for 4-5 minutes. When you are there and sitting or lying comfortably then;
2. Close your eyes and simply focus your attention on the physical sensation of your breathing. Allow your self to become 100% focused and aware of the cool air moving into your body on the in-breath and the warmer air moving out of the body on the out-breath.
3. Do this for 4-5 minutes.

Its OK if you go off focus from your breathing. As soon as you're aware that you are off focus, just gently bring your attention back to the sensation of your breathing.

You may find that your breathing wants to speed up or slow down, become deeper or shallower, that's all OK, just let the breathing do what it wants to do, try not to control it at all. Similarly the body too may want to relax, so just let it. All you have to do is stay as focused and aware as you can of the physical sensation of your breathing.

This is a great technique to do regularly. I suggest that you do this for example just after waking up in the morning and just before going to sleep at night. Of course you can do this where ever and as often as you want, in fact the more you practise this simple technique, the more you will find yourself doing it automatically during the day.

Of course, take a few minutes to do this before a presentation, and then notice the difference in your delivery.

Bill practised twice a day for a week and started to see some real positive benefits from the technique. His presentations are now being delivered at a normal, slower and more relaxed pace. This in turn is being felt by his audience who are relaxed by his calm approach and equally engaged with Bill's material and presentation skill. His audience is now starting to see the point Bill wants them to see.

Two or three weeks into the using this technique Bill told me of other changes that the technique had allowed him to make, most significantly is his calmer, more mindful approach to his work, colleagues and his family. He is getting feedback from his colleagues and most importantly his boss about how much better things are, and Bill attributes this to the conscious breathing technique.

Get a Host With the Most

2008-07-16T08:18:00.001-07:00

You strive to produce the best meetings possible. You plan ahead, prepare, and work hard to make sure everything runs smoothly. There are many tips, ideas, and techniques that you have heard or read about to ensure a good conference, but what if there was one that ensures a unique meeting that you don't have to run yourself?

In face-to-face meetings and conference rooms, organizers have brought in guest speakers, lecturers, and MCs for a long time. The fresh face and different outlook of a professional speaker can not only greatly add to the point of the conference, but also makes it a unique experience for all attendees. Teleconferences have the same dynamic as these meetings - barring actually being there - and there's no reason that the same experience could not be brought to an audio or video conference.

Users of teleconferences may protest here by saying that they already have guest speakers and lecturers attending their meetings. While this is one of the best ways to improve a meeting, these guests are either part of the organization, an affiliate organization, or the industry. Their contributions are valid and vital, but you can take the guest aspect a step further by including a Master of Ceremonies.

A compere, or Master of Ceremonies, can really enhance your conferences. You tell them what you want, when you want it, and they take care of the rest. They can start your conference off with a bang, and keep the energy high. They can introduce you or your speakers. The compere can keep track of time and deftly cut off a speaker that has gone on too long. If there is a time gap somewhere, they can fill it with their own material, specially tailored to the occasion.

If you are having a long conference that straddles a break or even lunch, a compere is the perfect speaker for when you reconvene. After a lunch break, your participants are at their most unresponsive. It's up to the MC, not only to take the brunt of this lethargy, but to get the meeting flying again.

Towards the end of your conference, a MC will run your Q&A session, keeping it on track and on schedule. They can also wrap up the meeting with inspiring observations or witty remarks. Not only does this end your meetings on a high note, but it also gets your participants looking forward to the next meeting.

That is what a Master of Ceremonies can do for your meeting, but think of what they can do for you personally. Let's face it; even the best laid plans can have a bobble or two. If you have ever done a teleconference, you know that it sometimes takes a bit of juggling to get the conference started right while dealing with any issues that might crop up. If you have a compere working for you, they can get things moving while you are free to manage those last minute details.

Another benefit of a compere is greatly evident if you have any public speaking anxieties. They can project your professionalism and management skills, all while you are safely behind the scenes. Delicate situations arise in conferences with long-winded speakers, but the MC can help there too. They will do their best, but if the compere cannot cut them off without any hurt feelings, the situation can be blamed on the MC. You get to remain neutral while playing the diplomat and problem solver.

Looking past the advantages of hiring a professional, a Master of Ceremonies doesn't always have to be an outsider. There may be a particularly outgoing employee or member of your team that would make a perfect MC. With a little coaching and orientation, you could use your in-house compere with all of your meetings. Your conferences will become known as professionally run, if not efficient and entertaining. More importantly, they will have the same standard of quality time after time.

The use of an employee-compere doesn't have to be confined to just your meetings. As their popularity grows, the MC could be used at other company meetings and conferences, with just employees or with clients as well. Over time, your compere could become the voice of your company, not only in conferences, but also on the company voicemail or podcasts. Your logo is seen by all, but now your company can be identified by a voice-brand as well.

Custom Product Labels and Printing Methods

2008-07-16T08:17:00.001-07:00

Can you imagine a world without product labels? Bottles and cans would look pretty sparse on the shelves of grocery stores and other retail outlets. These bottles are an example of what the shelves would look like and it is not very pretty. There are many ways to make labels that can make your product pop off the shelf.

For small quantities and total flexibility, one of the least expensive and easiest methods is to print your own custom product labels with a printer like the LX810 by Primera. This little printer can give you the flexibility to make just one label or make five hundred labels in no time at all. Once you standardize on the label size you need, you can stock the blanks and pop them in anytime you need a new version for your product. No plates or dies needed here. This is a complete digital process.

The LX810 printer provides up to 4800 dpi in quality using an inkjet process and prints at a speed of 2 inches per second in black and 1.5 inches per second in color. The labels produced on this machine can be water resistant and may be used in many product labeling applications.

If you don't want to print them yourself, there are other methods for adding the flare of a custom product label to your items. If there are a lot of versions needed, then a digital printer can really save costs because there is no need for all the plates. One of the most popular digital processes today is finding a printer that has an HP Indigo printer. This printer is fast and has great quality. For short runs and custom versions, this is a great solution to get your product labeled correctly.

The Indigo ws4500 is a great printer for this type of demand. It is ideal for runs that are in quantities from 1 label all the way up to 50,000 labels. The color matching is great for 97% of the Pantone color range without compromising production. The print speed of this press is up to 52 feet per minute when it is in 4 color mode.

If your need is for a large quantity of custom labels then the solution is to find a label converter that has the volume capabilities that come with the Mark Andy narrow web presses. These presses use a flexo graphic process, which includes making plates and inks to lay down the most complex graphics and the highest quality for your label needs. Quantities from 500 to millions of labels can be run on these presses and a label converter that has the Mark Andy or other similar narrow web presses can meet the most demanding label requirements on the market.

An example of a custom labels press is the Mark Andy 2200. This press comes in 10 inches, 13 inches and 17 inches wide depending on the label requirements you generally run. For example a 13 inch wide press can run 4 inch wide labels 3 up making the productivity 3 times that of running the labels 1 up.

This 2200 press also runs at a speed ranging from 50 to 750 feet per minute. So if you have a 4 x 6 label with a 1/8th inch gap that is running at 750 feet per minute, that is 1470 labels per minute if they are running 1 up and 4408 labels per minute if they are running 3 up on the 13 inch press. Now that is a lot of labels per minute.

The 2200 custom label press also has a maximum of 12 print stations. That many print stations allows for all kinds of color combinations and varnishes to make your custom labels durable and to protect them against UV rays from sun light.

Whichever method you use for printing your product labels, the real key is the actual image you place on that product. Color and graphics really make your product pop and can make all the difference in a successful product and a dud. So contact your label supplier for suggestions and print methods to make sure the best method is being used to make your product labels to save you real dollars and provide the best quality.

Presenting With Gusto

2008-07-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

Last week I gave a presentation, for a distribution company, to about 35 of its dealer-customers. There was a limited amount of time so we compressed entirely too much material into a 75 minute presentation (a normal problem I seem to have). When the presentation was over, a number of the attendees complimented me on my enthusiasm and how passionate I seemed to be about the subjects covered. It made me remember a key to giving any presentation is the GUSTO with which it is delivered.

GUSTO is more than enthusiasm though...GUSTO, in my mind, also stands for: Genuine, Unconventional, Specific, Timely and Orchestrated. It is a set of ground rules I try to live by whenever I have to make a presentation to a group.

"Genuine" only works when you have a really good understanding of the audience. I try to learn as much about my audience as possible in advance (average age, experiences, personalities, are they business owners or sales persons, etc.). Then, if I can "put myself in their shoes" and approach the subject matter from a position that I know they understand and appreciate my communication and connection is much stronger. It seems much more genuine to them if the subject is approached from their perspective and with their goals in mind. Whenever possible, I try to use real-life examples to show relevance.

"Unconventional" is about doing something unexpected and unusual in the opening of the presentation, something that delivers the "hook" and immediately wows the audience or has them waiting to see what comes next. In this particular case, I was following a series of technical speakers, all of whom had important information that the audience had asked for but all of them were a bit bland and boring. I am sure that I was expected to open (like all of the other speakers" with, "hello, my name is ..." but I had quickly arranged a set of stereo speakers and opened with a 95 second video accompanied by powerful and up-tempo music. The video was very unusual and definitely focused on creativity and unique, remarkable and contemporary change in the world around us. It also showed contrasts through a series of powerful "old VS new" images and suggested to the audience that it was time to develop some "new" in their processes and proposals to consumers. When the video was finished, and my Power Point presentation began, the first slide was proposing an answer to the last question in the video, "Are you ready?" The first slide said, "Let's Get Ready!"

"Specific" is what happened next. I immediately walked into the audience and began asking questions of individual attendees. The questions were making sure that all of the audience were drawn into the presentation and had become a part of it. I was also making sure we had established a common ground and were all beginning this conversation from the same place. Because one of the video focuses had been on "old VS new", the initial targets of questions were folks who appeared to have been in the industry for awhile. So the questions were about remembering where the industry had come from and how things had changed in the past. We were finding some common ground so that we all realized that just as there had been a lot of changes in the past we now needed to change again to accommodate a whole new group of consumers. We were getting ourselves into a mind set with reference to three areas of change needed for the future, changes in the approach to new business, changes in the process of acquiring new business and changes to the product to accommodate the needs of a new generation of buyers. Getting the audience to participate is critical when we remember one of the tenets of education; adults retain a very small portion of what they "hear", a slightly larger portion of what they "see" but 90% of what they "do". Now they were all involved.

"Timely" in this case, was about making sure the audience could see the need for a new and contemporary way of doing business. "Timely" was about presenting statistics and examples to show a new generation of consumers (in their industry) were much more sophisticated in their methods of learning and information-gathering then previous generations. Sometimes the audience needs to be shown that change is necessary and that perhaps the consumer has passed us by. I never shared any of my own qualifications until this time in my presentation.

"Orchestrated" is about making sure that everything goes smoothly and all the elements of my presentation blend with each other. It all has to look really "easy and smooth" to be effective. Some of this is common sense. I always come in early (the day before, in last week's case) to check the venue and make sure my equipment is compatible with the AV equipment I am using. I make sure the seating arrangement works for my presentation. I make sure that if I have handouts, they will be striking, colorful and professional-looking. Does the hand-out tie to the slide presentation in look, color and feel? If I am going to ask the group to participate in an exercise (I try to do this as much as possible) I make sure they have pens or pencils and everything they need to be participants. And very much, I rehearse, rehearse and rehearse...to make sure I can make all of my points in the time I have allotted to me.

Business Presentation

2008-06-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

Wise to the Word

2008-06-27T05:52:00.000-07:00

Is it pronounced realtor or relahtor? Is it nuclear or nucular? Which is correct - supposedly or supposably? Whether it involves pronouncing a word correctly or using the correct word, what you say and how you say it speaks volumes about you. Regardless (not irregardless) of gender, race, age, educational background or position in the company, misusing, misstating, or mispronouncing words can affect your image and credibility in the eyes of supervisors, co-workers, family, friends and strangers alike. This is especially true with verbal communication, since the possibility that it was simply a typographical error is non-existent.

Job interviews and any type of public speaking, for example, present circumstances where a verbal error is highly likely to occur. In these settings, the communication is primarily verbal and the speaker/prospective employee is trying to impress the audience/prospective employer. Verbal errors may hurt your chances of getting hired or of being invited back to speak. In both of these circumstances, it is important to be familiar with and know how to pronounce terms related to the specific field.

If you've erroneously used any of the terms listed above or any of the millions of terms that could potentially be misused, misstated or mispronounced, don't feel badly, you're in good company. It can happen to anyone. In fact, world-renowned experts and top government officials frequently discuss "nucular" weapons on live national television broadcasts. Even some real estate professionals pronounce what they do as selling "relahty." A person addressing a judge made the faux pas of pronouncing it "fox paws." And just as we might have suspected, even supermodels are not immune to making such errors. I read once that a famous actor was openly critical of his then supermodel wife for mispronouncing the word "epitome" (pronounced e-pit-oh-me.) I don't know if there is any truth to that story, but it is a word which is commonly mispronounced.

Commonly used phrases are also susceptible to being mangled, usually due to being misheard. You should be able to "cut the mustard" not "cut the muster." If you really like something new it may be "the best thing since sliced bread" and not "best thing since life's bread." Then there is the confusion resulting from misheard music lyrics. Did Hendrix sing "kiss the sky" or "kiss this guy?" Was the Creedence Clearwater Revival singing about "a bad moon on the rise" or "a bathroom on the right?"

Names may also present a verbal challenge. How would you pronounce H-e-r-m-i-o-n-e? Did any of the millions and millions of people who read Harry Potter correctly pronounce (in their heads at least) the name of this character? The correct pronunciation, it seems, is: Her-my-oh-nee (not Her-mee-one as thought by my sister.) Since spelling and pronunciation of names can vary widely, it's best (if possible) to ask for the correct pronunciation. People whose names are difficult to pronounce get that question all the time, and generally won't mind telling you.

Another important factor to consider is that words may be pronounced differently in different regions of the country. The word "root," for example, is often pronounced "rut" by some of our Midwestern brethren. Also, a word may have two distinct pronunciations and meanings: The words invalid, close, produce and desert are good examples: The invalid signed an invalid contract. She was too close to the door to close it. His farm could produce the most produce. He decided to desert his wife in the desert.
If mispronouncing words is a recurring (not reoccurring) problem for you, there are preventive (not preventative) measures you can take to avoid the embarrassment of committing these verbal fox paws:

> Arm yourself with a pocket dictionary and/or thesaurus to which you can refer at a moments notice.

> Avoid using terms with which you are unfamiliar, unless you are certain they mean what you think they mean. It's better to use a synonymous term, which you know is correct.

> Don't rely on another person's pronunciation of a term. Specifically, if you hear someone pronounce a word differently than the way you thought it was supposed to be pronounced, don't assume they are correct. This is true even if it's in their field of work or study.

You may enhance your verbal communication skills and build your word power using any of the many resources available in printed or electronic format. A quick search at your local library, bookstore or the Internet, will yield more sources than you would imagine.

First Impressions Count - The Importance of a Top Class Exhibition

2008-06-27T05:46:00.000-07:00

Every business wants to find a powerful and cost-effective way to market their product.

For many, trade shows and exhibitions create the perfect platform to do so, allowing businesses to interact with large volumes of industry-focussed buyers in a short space of time.

Whether you're looking to launch a new product, revive sales of an existing product or raise your profile within the sector, trade shows offer the ideal space to showcase your brand.

But with so many organisations competing for attention in the same space, it's important to set yours apart.

Investing in a top class exhibition stand that's tailored around your product can make all the difference to its success at a show. Here's how...

Maximum impact

The type of stand you have depends on your budget, the space available and the nature of your product.

First time exhibitors on a limited budget often start with standard shell scheme spaces, but these identical structures make it extremely difficult to set your brand apart from the others.

Modular units create much more impact and can be instrumental in creating a buzz around your stand. They are also more flexible. They can be custom-built and tailored to match your corporate identity, or specifically designed for re-use at future events - making them more cost-effective in the long run.

Space and consistency

Building your stand around one central theme or message creates the feeling of consistency and flowing design, making it easier for visitors to stream through your space and interact with your product.

Every aspect of your stand, including your exhibition staff, should compliment that theme.

It's also important to ensure there are no physical barriers to getting onto your stand - think about how you arrange your stock and sales materials so that they're easy to reach and don't obstruct access.

Displaying too many products can confuse and overwhelm visitors, so try to keep it simple and uncluttered by selecting only key products or ranges.

Attracting customers

In a busy exhibition hall, sellers have less than five seconds to attract a buyer's attention. In that time, your stand should tell visitors who you are, what you do and how it will benefit them, in a clear, powerful and engaging way.

It's often harder to maintain their attention once they're on your stand, but there are several things you can do to stimulate interest.

For example, stands which allow space for movement through demonstrations and presentations often attract the highest level of participation and the largest crowds.

Incorporating visually-engaging materials such as state-of-the-art digital imaging is also a popular choice on top-of-the-range stands.

Lighting is equally important as it creates the right mood around your product, so give careful consideration to the lighting design and ensure it reflects your product's appeal.

More complex products and services that are less obvious to passing consumers will need a more vibrant design scheme to attract initial interest, and this can be achieved through striking use of colour and graphics.

The benefits of investing in a custom-built stand are significant, and provide a powerful and cost-effective selling aid that can be adapted and re-used time and time again.

Effective Presentations For Technical Professionals

2008-06-27T05:45:00.002-07:00

Though visual aids have changed tremendously since the late '60s when I gave my first presentation, the presentation style, in my opinion, has not significantly changed - especially for professional techies. As a chemist and as a business/computer consultant for many years, I have given and have seen many technical presentations at conferences, at work, and elsewhere. The presentations were generally quite informative, technically enriching, and the presenters were very knowledgeable on the subject matter. However, many of them (and I include my own), were rather unexciting and ineffective. I have also seen many exciting, motivational, and inspirational presentations for the general public and also for the technical audience. You don't need to be a professional speaker to spice up your presentation but by both knowing and understanding some of the same principles professional speakers use, you can enhance your presentations.

WRITING YOUR SPEECH

If you are doing a presentation, most likely you've written a report or submitted an article for publication. Perhaps you have used the text for your speech and created PowerPoint slides to help outline the structure. However, I would suggest you write your speech from scratch with emphasis on simplicity and conciseness.

In my commonsense assessment, speech writing is much different than writing a report or article for a journal. The brain processes spoken words differently from written words. When we read, we can see whole phrases at a time. As a result, we can instantly understand phrases and sometimes whole sentences (except for those long, drawn-out sentences we sometimes write). We also can go back and reread the text if we must.

However, we process the spoken message instantaneously, one phonetic sound at a time. We mentally accumulate these phonetic sounds in our memory until these sounds make sense. Once we mentally interpret these phonetic sounds into whole sentences, we can move on to the next spoken sentence. For example, if I said, "We mentally accumulate" and stop, you have no idea what I'm attempting to say until I complete the sentence; whereas, in reading this article, you can easily understand the meaning because the whole content is right here on this page. Although the spoken process is immediate, it is a slower process than reading so keep this in mind when writing and delivering your speech.

SIMPLIFYING YOUR MESSAGE

Use short, simple sentences. Your written report will likely contain comprehensive and long, drawn-out sentences describing the details and results of your project which is fine for a report, but rather long and tedious for a speech. It's important to break down the technical detail into a few short and concise sentences.

For example, in my report, I wrote, "It is useful for our purposes to distinguish between two types of substitution procedures: 1) a true substitution procedure, in which the amount of the metal-DTPA complex added is equal to or greater than the amount of the sought-for metal ion; and 2) a pseudo-substitution procedure, in which only a small amount of the metal-DTPA complex is added to activate the indicator mechanism." Whew! What a handful of words to say all at once.

For a presentation, I would re-word the sentence to read: "For our purposes it is useful to distinguish between two types of substitution procedures. [pause] One type is a true substitution procedure. In this procedure, the amount of metal-DTPA added is equal to or greater than the amount of the sought-for metal ion. [pause] The second type is called a pseudo-substitution procedure. Only a small amount of the metal-DTPA complex is added to activate the indicator mechanism in this procedure." Thus, I split one long sentence into five shorter sentences.

REDUCING UNNECESSARY VERBIAGE

In the example above, I simplified the sentence structure, but I didn't rework it to make it more concise. I helped rewrite speeches. An example of reducing verbiage is the following sentences: "Let me tell you about Mary Smith. Mary Smith lives..." I changed it to "Ask Mary Smith. She lives..." Not only did I reduce it from ten to five words, it became more active in tone. In essence, be short, concise, and to the point when writing a speech for a presentation.

REFRAINING FROM USING JARGON

As professional techies, we use technical terms, acronyms, and other jargon everyday. These terms are second nature to us, but may not be to others. As the program chair for our Rotary club, I invited the public relations person from the regional water replenishment district to give a talk. During his presentation, he used words and phrases such as micro filtration, groundwater basins, saturated zones, heterogeneous aquifers, and injected recycled water after recharge. I understood the terms and perhaps one or two others, but I'm certain most of our members had difficulty understanding the terms and, thus, his talk. For computer techies, we use or are familiar with GUI, ASP, IRC, DSP, WIC and many other acronyms. In fact, there is a report of Computer Acronyms Archive that list more than 150 pages of acronyms.

To be effective in your presentation, refrain from using your industry's jargon, even if you are presenting in front of colleagues. However, if you do, explain the terms in a simple and understandable way.

FOCUS ON BENEFITS, NOT DATA

In my experience, most techies focus on technical data. This is natural because this is what you do for a living. You research, you synthesize, you investigate, and you analyze. Then you formulate a conclusion based on the data of an investigation. As a result, the presentations are based on the collected evidence. But what are the benefits of your research? Let's say you have been researching a cure for cancer for years and recently discovered a specific structure in DNA that would prevent all cancers. Of course, all the data and results leading up to the cure are necessary to submit to the science community, but what is more important to the listeners when presenting, the data or the benefits of the research?

For example, what is more valuable for the audience to hear? Data such as "...by doing this and that, we were able to reduce the growth rate of the cancer cells from 90,000 cells per hour down to only 10 cells per day; thereby virtually eliminating the growth of cancer," or benefits such as "Based on our research; we can save 250,000 lives within the next three months if this DNA alteration is approved." In essence, benefits emotionalize features (data); thus benefits grab the audience's attention more than facts and figures.

Overall, if you speak in short, concise sentences, refrain from industry related terminology, and discuss the benefits of your findings, you will give a more effective presentation.

WRITE YOUR CONCLUSION FIRST

Many presenters write their speeches in a logical order; first, they construct the opening, followed by the body (where they add the details and supporting data), and then finish with the conclusion. However, by the time they start writing the conclusion they tend to adapt the conclusion to the supporting data rather than ensuring that the data fits the conclusion. What is your call to action? What concepts do you want to leave the audience with? What is the specific purpose of your talk?

With these questions in mind, develop your conclusion first. For example, if you're seeking a grant for your colon cancer research, you might end your presentation with "Are you prepared to invest in saving the lives of 250,000 colon cancer patients over the next five years?" By focusing on your closing message, you can then add and arrange the specific details of your talk to support your conclusion, and then create a powerful opening statement based on your conclusion.

START WITH AN ATTENTION-GETTER

How long do we have to grab the audience's attention? Some have said as little as seven seconds. Others say ten to 15 seconds. Surely, we have no more than 30 seconds to capture our audience's attention.Yet, how many times have we seen someone begin with a statement such as "Thank you, Mr. Chairperson, for allowing me to speak this evening. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm honored to be here tonight to discuss this most pressing issue of...." This would take about ten seconds to say. Ten seconds to get to the point. Ten seconds before the audience begins to know, "Why am I here? By then, you may have lost your audience.

Instead, grab the audience's attention immediately, then, if there's a need, compliment or thank the organizers and the audience. For example, you may say, "More than one million people die each year of colon cancer. Our research team has developed a procedure to reduce the number of colon cancer deaths by more than 70% over the next five years. Thank you Mr. Chairperson, fellow colleagues, and welcomed guests. We are on the verge of reducing colon cases by introducing..."

MAKE A POINT BY TELLING A STORY

What's remembered weeks, months, or even years after your presentation? It isn't the data or the details you presented. It's the stories. You may wonder how you can incorporate stories in your technical presentation. It can be done and it is powerful when you do it.

Several years ago, I was in network marketing. The company hired two biochemists. Both developed great products, both were very knowledgeable and both gave good presentations. One of them was, in my opinion, the typical presenter. He was very informative giving us a series of data, but quite dry in his delivery. To this day, I don't recall any information he discussed. On the other hand, the other biochemist told stories and illustrated his points. Fifteen years later, I still remember the picture he verbally drew as he described how the lungs are affected by smoking.

REDUCING YOUR AHS, UMS, AND OTHER FILLER WORDS

Though filler words such as "ah," "um," and "you know" can be a distraction to the audience, rarely are we consciously aware of making these utterances. But you can become aware and learn to speak and pause without having them infiltrate.

Let me tell you a story to illustrate this point. I saw the 1986 air crash of the AeroMexico DC-9 flight 498 in Cerritos, CA. A single engine Piper Archer crashed into the tail of the DC-9. The airplane lost total control, turned over, and plunged into the Cerritos neighborhood like a bomb. It crashed within two miles of our home and within yards from friends and relatives. My wife was out of state and didn't experience the disaster. About a month after the crash, my wife and I took a 30-minute walk around a nearby park After we returned from the walk, I asked her how many planes she heard. She said none. I was so sensitized to the air crash that I had heard 31 aircraft fly over.

Similarly, you can become sensitized to your filler words. First, make a conscious effort to listen to others on TV or talk radio, at work, at seminars, at home - everywhere. Mentally count the number of filler words. As you become aware of others saying them, you will become conscious of your own filler words. Eventually, you will reduce, minimize, and even eliminate your filler words. In fact, you may become so sensitized to filler words that they will become a major distraction when others speak.

ANSWERING QUESTIONS

Have you been to a presentation where the speaker ended with a powerful conclusion, you were excited and ready to take action, and then the presenter asked something like "Do you have any questions?" After a few questions and answers, your excitement from the powerful conclusion waned and you left without taking any action.

Typically, presenters will conclude their presentations and then ask for questions. However, asking questions at the end will generally reduce the impact of a strong conclusion. Then, when should we accept questions?

Some presenters may encourage questions anytime during their presentation; however, they really need to be on top of their presentation to assure that they don't lose track and complete their presentation on time. This can be a challenge for many - even for the most experienced presenters.

I generally ask for questions after each main topic. Typically, I will have an opening, a body, and a transitional conclusion for each main topic. At the end of each transitional topic, I will call for questions. For example, I may say, "Before continuing, do you have any questions?" After accepting no more than three to four questions, I'll proceed to the next topic. To let the audience know that you need to conclude the question and answer section, you can say something like, "I will take one more question" or "I'll be available after this presentation to answer any individual questions." If appropriate, I may transition to the next topic by incorporating the last question. At the end of my last topic, but before my final conclusion, I will ask for a final set of questions.

What Does Today's Business Speaker Have to Offer

2008-06-27T05:45:00.001-07:00

Why is it that some people and businesses seem to benefit during economic downturns while others only suffer losses? Are there things that can be learned to help people to overcome the challenges that todays unstable business climate present? These are all questions that can be answered by a business speaker that has expertise on doing business in a modern global business climate.

The Voice of Experience

Business is a fascinating topic and a good business speaker is not only able to educate his audience but entertain them as well. This is why more and more corporate and business events are featuring them. Many of the best business speakers are retired or semi retired business executive that are anxious to share some of the knowledge that they have gained over the years that they have spent in the business world.

A Few Questions to Ask

However; there are a few things that you will want to know before you hire a business speaker for your next event. To begin with, you will want to view a DVD of one of their presentations. Also, if they are traveling from out of town you will want to know if they have someone to take their place in the event of an emergency, such as bad weather that prohibits them from flying.

Flexible Topics

Also, you will want a business speaker that can adjust or custom taper their presentation to fit with what ever business you or your guests are in. For instance if you are hosting or promoting a real estate convention your business speaker should be able to cover topics that pertain to the real estate business.

Are They Reliable?

Another thing that you will want, is some verifiable references. Ask the prospective speaker that you are considering if he or she has ever missed or canceled out of any events that they have contracted for. Also, you should only hire a business speaker that is affiliated with a reputable agency.

Some Thoughts on Using a Professionals Keynote Speaker at Your Next Corporate Event

2008-06-27T05:44:00.000-07:00

If you are given the task of planning your next corporate event then there are a few key decisions that you have to shoulder. One of them is who is going to host the stage, also who is going to do the speaking at any special presentations that you have planned.

Take No Chances - Hire a Pro

Are you going to do it? Is one of the company supervisors going to do it? If this is so, the odds of it working and being of any benefit to you or a company supervisor that is considering taking on the task are slim to none. In fact, you run the very real risk of you or any other person that is connected to the company that should try their hand at hosting, looking like an incompetent fool in front of their peers for the duration of the event.

A Professional Polished Routine

A seasoned professional keynote speaker will have a polished routine that they can bring to the event. Their jokes will be funny and on time and they know how to keep an audiences attention. You will be able to go over the content of your staged events that you have planned and they will be able to work your content in their tried and proven routine.

Don't Hire Friends of Family

Finding a profession keynote speaker or a motivational spokesperson is far easier than it used to be in the past. Simply go online and start reviewing their demos. What ever you do, don't hire any one that is a friend or relative of someone that is affiliated with the company. Even if they are highly competent, if something should go wrong you are stuck.

It's a Time for Your Star to Shine

Remember that in the end you benefit from your companies event being a success. This means that it is in your best interest that you procure the most qualified talent possible. A professional keynote speaker is crucial to a successful event and those that tell you otherwise are the same folks that are going to be talking behind your back if the event that you oversee is anything less than successful.

A Professional Keynote Speaker Can Be Key to the Success of Your Next Event

2008-06-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

For some time, it seemed that just about everyone that spoke on a professional basis was labeled in a group known as Motivational Speakers. However; over the course of recent years some things have changed to more keenly dictate and what actually defines a professional keynote speaker. This in turn has been a great help to people everywhere that choose to employ their services at their events.

What Defines a Professional Keynote Speaker

What precisely motivates people has been a subject for debate for many years. It is a subject that has been studied well and the result is that many things have been learned about this science. If a person is well versed in the subject and has a certain level of experience behind them then they may qualify as a professional motivational speaker.

Truly Great Speakers

Are they good at it? Do their presentations make solid sense and are they able top hold an audiences rapt attention? Are they in fact, charismatic when they are on stage? These are just a few of the things that separate truly gifted professional keynote speakers from the rest of the pack.

Reliability and Professionalism

A few other things that you may not think of but none the less are vitally important, are things such as their reliability and professionalism when they are working. This is why you will always want to hire a professional keynote speaker that has been pre-screened by an agency.

Flexibility is Important

Another thing that truly great professional keynote speakers all have in common is a willingness to work with their clients on the content of the presentations that they have been hired to do. This is very important, because your event will most likely have some type of theme or topic and you will want your keynote speaker to elude to that theme during his or her presentation.

Kick it Up a Notch at Your Next Event With a Humorous Motivational Speaker

2008-06-27T05:41:00.000-07:00

With the U.S. business climate in the doldrums for the time being, far too many employees across the land are finding themselves in the doldrums also. Its hard to stay motivated and positive when your mind keeps wandering back to better days and dreaming of the good times to come when the economy finally picks back up again.

Laughter is a Good Thing

A motivational speaker is definitely what the doctor orders for your next corporate or company function, but what type of motivational speaker? All things considered, the only logical choice would have to be a humorous motivational speaker. This doe's not mean a "comedian" of course, but rather a motivational speaker that has polished the craft of intertwining light humor into their presentation.

Remember Funny Things

Some of them are actually quite funny and they also have a good message to share. Also, the truth is that you don't have to hammer people with a message to get it through. Commercial advertisers discovered this long ago and that is why so many TV commercials are funny. People just tend to remember things that are funny far better that pieces of information that are presented in a mundane format.

Get a DVD and Watch it

You will definitely want to see a DVD of any humorous motivational speaker that you are considering hiring for your next event. Also, it is important that the DVD not be a conglomeration of pieces, or "highlights" of previous performances. This means that you are going to want to see a DVD of a performance uncut and ran straight through.

Hire One that Will Work With You

Also, you will want to hire a humorous motivational speaker that is going to work with you on the subject matter of their presentation. For instance, if you are in the real estate business, you don't need to hear jokes about the automobile retail business. This is why most good, humorous motivational speakers will have a questionnaire that you will fill out to provide them with information that they can use to custom craft their presentation.

Three Ways to Win Over Your Audience

2007-10-12T04:13:00.001-07:00

Last time we talked about keeping your audience from falling asleep during your presentation. Now we’ll start to discuss ways to make you memorable. As a professional speaker, I’ve learned that while most audiences want you to succeed, you will lose them if you’re not properly prepared. .
Start and Finish Strong: As a broadcaster, I only had about 10 to 15 seconds to grab the viewer’s attention or they’d change the channel. While your audience won’t have a remote control, they’ll tune you out if you’re not holding their attention and capturing their curiosity. Studies have found that you can only focus on a presentation for about eight minutes before your mind will wander. If you’re talking longer than that, you need to make sure that your conclusion sums up the main points of your presentation. If it’s good information, there’s nothing wrong with saying it twice.
In order to start and finish strong, you need to spend extra time rehearing your opening and closing and really have it down cold. Your first and last impression will stay with the audience so make it count. It’s also a great way to get rid of any pre-speech nerves.
Believe in What You’re Saying: Enthusiasm feeds an audience’s interest. Never treat a topic as if it’s not the most interesting thing in the world. Don’t fake excitement but rather show that you like what you’re talking about. Remember as a child how you’d light up when you’d tell your parents about an exciting part of your day? If you can make the ordinary interesting, you’re on your way to being memorable.
So Make the Ordinary Interesting: How many times have you heard the pre-flight safety messages from a flight attendant? I bet most of the time, you blocked it out. But every once in a while the flight attendant might throw in a joke or a funny observation and suddenly you’re listening.
Think about your material. Is there a shared experience that everyone can relate to like oversleeping your alarm clock, losing your keys, or finding less than a cup of coffee left in the office coffeemaker when you need some serious caffeine? Your audience can immediately identify with those situations. Your challenge is to relate it to your topic. This will play a key role in letting the crowd know why they should care about what you’re saying.

Video Seminars for Business Success

2007-10-12T04:12:00.004-07:00

If you run a business you are well aware of how important communication can be. This holds true when dealing with current clients as well as potential prospects that you are trying to get on board. Even if you are not a business owner, it is safe to say that you know the different methods of communication. After all, everybody has to communicate if they are going to be successful at their job. One of the newest ways to communicate with others in the business world is through video seminars. These are not right for every industry, but many have found that video seminars have a lot to offer.
The main benefit of a video seminar is quite simple: you can communicate with whoever you want without having to leave the office. This includes everybody from clients to home based employees to potential prospects and anybody else you can think of. The nice thing about not having to leave the office is that you can save time and money. You no longer have to head out into traffic, or purchase an expensive plane ticket. Instead, you can use a video seminar to get your point across.
Of course, video seminars are also beneficial because they can be set up on a dime. If you run into an issue it can often times be difficult to book a flight or get to where you are going by car in a reasonable amount of time. Instead of fighting this flow you would be much better off relying on a video seminar. This way, all you have to do is get everything set up on your end, and then let others know what is going on. Many businesses keep their video seminar equipment set up at all times so that they can use it when necessary. This is a great idea if you know that you will be making presentations on a regular basis.
As mentioned above, one of the main reasons that video seminars are becoming more popular is the money that they can save businesses. But with that being said, the initial outlay to set up the technology is going to cost some money. You need to look at this as an investment in the future. Sure, you are going to have to pay now, but you will more than save this money in the long run by not having to travel nearly as much. The long turn investment is something that a lot of people forget when they are deciding whether or not to get involved with video seminars.

7 Tips for Successfully Presenting in an International Context

2007-10-12T04:12:00.003-07:00

…or , just because you are all speaking English doesn’t mean that you are speaking the same language
I recently had the pleasure to be engaged in an international project. Nothing seems more glamorous (from the outside at least) than jetting from one major European metropolis to another, dealing with difficult strategic topics in a team of exotic consultants and high powered executives. Imagine telling your co-workers and friends this: “I’m off to Rome for the day to meet with the head sales for product X and then will be flying tomorrow onto Madrid with a short stop the next day in Frankfurt. But I should be back by Friday. You want anything from Duty Free?” It has a nice sound doesn’t it?
Well, the brutal reality of working in this kind of international project is that, beyond the cumbersome travel (yes, travel can get cumbersome), working in an international context can be more stressful and more difficult than anything else you may have done previously. One major contributing factor for this is that there are different kinds of presentation and communication techniques taught abroad. That’s right. All those articles and speaking coaches which told you the “correct” way to present something may not have known it all, at least as regards business presentations in an international context.
Here are a few things that I learned, on the ground, on the front lines, the hard way. Profit from my experience and keep these 7 points in mind when preparing for and presenting to an international audience.
1) Jokes don’t always translate and in many cases aren’t wanted in business meetings and presentations. Most Northern European countries compartmentalize social time and business time and ne’er the two shall meet. Starting with a joke can be uncomfortable and at worst seen as a sign that you are neither serious nor competent, otherwise you wouldn’t resort to such cheap distraction technique.
2) Don’t skimp on the detail. A few slides in 30pt font, each with six bullet points is not going to hack it in countries like Germany. Many cultures expect to hear all the details in order to judge whether you have come to an appropriate conclusion or not. It’s not enough to say, “in my experience…” or “we find that …” and testimonials like “it worked in our other market” are all considered weak argumentation points. If you want to convince abroad, you sometimes have to be ready to dig out the numbers and talk your way through them explaining how you got to your conclusion. Better yet, you have the details ready in the back-up portion of your presentation.
3) Remember to speak slowly and clearly, always recap and always allow for questions. No matter how well your counterparts speak English, listening and speaking in a foreign language for an extended period of time (about the time of a normal workshop or strategy meeting) can be extremely exhausting mentally. Therefore, do your foreign colleagues a favour and slow down. Take the time to ensure that everything is understood by recapping at the end of long presentations and allowing for questions.
4) Don’t use cultural “insider” analogies or references. Once again, your international colleagues may seem to speak seamlessly in English but that does not mean that they are privy to all our cultural references and phrases. Do your best to speak “cleanly” as apposed to colloquially and you will achieve much greater understanding in your audience.
5) Learn about your audience and how they present in their culture. You don’t have to completely try to be one of them, but do make an effort to understand the important points in their rhetorical styles.
6) Mind your P’s & Q’s. Nothing is more embarrassing than having your English spelling, grammar or otherwise corrected by a non-native English speaker. Believe me. Apologizing for mistakes in your presentation can be seen as a weakness, so don’t over do it. A quick “sorry about that” will suffice. Acknowledge a mistake that you may see (co-opt any sharp-shooters in your audience), correct it verbally and move on. Do the same if someone brings a mistake to your attention.
7) Reading from your slides is boring in ALL cultures. Do I really have to elaborate on this point?
Last but certainly not least, you should be ready and aware of differences in rhetorical style of your foreign colleagues. As an audience member, do your best not to squirm and yawn when listening to someone else’s presentation. You’re not 6 years old anymore, for heaven’s sake! Some cultures teach a more strict and formal rhetorical techniques than our Anglo-American style. Be patient and wait it out. Also, don’t get offend if your question is waved off till the end. As mentioned before, “different strokes for different folks”.
Participating in an international project or just having the chance to present to an international audience can be an exciting and rewarding career step. It can even be successful too, if you are mindful of the differences in presentation and communication style. Remember, just because you are all speaking English doesn’t mean that you are all speaking the same language.

Presentation Planning - Know Your Audience

2007-10-12T04:12:00.001-07:00

There is a saying that the effective presentation is the relevant presentation. And it is equally true that the effective presenter is the one who provides relevance to their audience. In both instances we note that relevance is the biggest determinant when we come to judge the effectiveness of any presentation. But what is relevance if it is so important? Well, for starters it is incredibly simple for something that is so important. To be relevant, in the minds of our audience, our presentation has to associate its title, subject matter, content and findings with the immediate cares and interests of the audience. I did say that it was simple.
But for something that is so simple it is often overlooked. If we think of the presentation from the mindset of the audience. The value that the audience extracts from their participation has to outweigh the costs that they incur in their attendance -- time, travel and reputation costs. None of these costs can be overlooked -- particularly that of time which surely has the largest value. If the audience judges that their time is better spent doing something else or listening to someone else then we have hardly been effective. Knowing the costs incurred in participation, therefore, our task is to make the presentation as relevant and topical as it can possibly be -- looking to outweigh the costs of audience participation with our added value. That is the immediate hurdle.
Knowing our audience better is the first step in achieving relevance and getting to an effective presentation. And like most marketing activities there are some useful techniques to help us know our audience or market better. These techniques give us the means to segment our audience, to profile their likely drivers and gauge their responsiveness to our presentation. There are several methods that we adopt to help us get started:
We can refer to former participants at an event. First of all we should speak to colleagues and acquaintances about the event in which we plan to speak. We can easily establish who attended the event the previous year and their rationale for being there. They could also clarify what benefit they expected to derive from their presence and the success of the outcome.
We can refer to the event organisers. The organisers will give us access to a participant list -- perhaps last year's list and a summary of delegates for the planned event. The listing will provide details on the participants by name, job title, organisation and industry sector at the bare minimum. It might go further with geographic base details for instance. With these records we can establish a picture of the "typical" participant and gain some insight into their likely requirements. You should note here that for many organisations the event organiser is likely to be an internal team member and, very often, is either the Executive Assistant of the VP or Director -- discretion is needed!
We can always contact other speakers. Organisers will put us in touch with other speakers for earlier events in addition to the planned event. If there is any difficulty with earlier events, note that where the previous year's event was publicized on the web there will inevitably be a string of contact details still available. Other speakers will give us further insight into audience characteristics, their likes and dislikes. They can also tell us what worked and what did not in their presentations -- how effective were they? Knowing how our audience is selected for an event can also be telling, not least because their selection impacts how we know and understand them and how we prepare material that is relevant. Typically our audience can be selected in one of 3 ways:
Self-selection -- where the audience has actively chosen to participate in a conference, discussion forum or association meeting. This audience will give us the most information about their likely needs. But they are also likely to be the most demanding.
Selected -- where the audience has been co-opted to attend a meeting in-house or off-site. In all likelihood this will be an organisation briefing, a sales conference or some kind of distributor event. This audience is likely to be the most homogeneous and there will be plenty of information about them. If not demanding, they will certainly demand relevance to keep their attention.
Passing traffic -- where the audience attends an event spontaneously or without any prior arrangement. We come across these passing traffic audiences at trade shows, exhibitions and expositions where the organisers offer seminar opportunities that are available to all show attendees. If we plan to give such a seminar we will have little prior knowledge of who will join us on the stand or in the seminar room -- but analysing the previous year's list of attendees is essential.By analysing audience data we can establish the framework for strong and relevant presentation content. We should now have a good idea of the particular interests of our audience, their requisite needs, their dislikes, and their primary drivers. With this information we can incorporate topical elements into the presentation's content. We can introduce industry sector news and key issues into the subject matter. We can make reference to key figures in certain organisations or industries -- we can demonstrate that we have a rapport with the people and concerns that fill our audience's working days. In demonstrating relevance we also demonstrate effectiveness. We still have some way to go, not least we have to ensure that our presentation is useful and meets our mission requirements, but we have achieved relevance by knowing our audience. We are well down the path to being an effective presenter.

Five Ways to Make Rental Trade Show Exhibits Pay Off

2007-10-12T04:11:00.001-07:00

There are times when renting, versus owning, a trade show display makes good sense. It could be that your primary trade show booth is already in use at another show; you have budget or turnaround time constraints; or you may be testing the trade show experience for the first time.
Whatever the case, here are five fundamental guidelines that will make your trade show exhibit rental experience trouble free and successful:
1. Find a highly transportable solution
Find a rental trade show display that can be easily and quickly setup to save on trade show display installation and dismantling costs. Choose trade show exhibits that are built to survive unpredictable transport and are constructed to ensure fast, flawless trade show exhibit assembly and rapid, fool-proof trade show exhibit breakdown.
2. Choose lightweight structures
Today you can find exceptionally stable, yet lightweight, platforms such as high tech aluminum extrusion profile forms that can act as the backbone of your trade show display. Straight and curved modular elements in varying lengths also work together in virtually limitless combinations to create unique, personalized rental trade show exhibit booths.
3. Look for versatility
Being flexible is a key to providing a solution for rental trade show exhibit environments—from trade show booth interiors and dividing walls to free standing podium additions or other options. You can define your trade show exhibit area’s space starting with a freestanding platform. You may want to create a quiet island for serious prospects amid the noise and chaos of the typical show floor. Today’s versatile rental trade show display systems even have modular wall elements that can act to enclose some or all of your exhibit space.
4. Go for clean, clear, crisp and creative functional designs
By using advanced high tech design solutions, you will be able to have a rental trade show booth that can relay your company’s message in a focused and powerful way. Contemporary rental trade show exhibit structures can be custom designed to create a personalized trade show floor statement that expresses your company’s marketing goals and objectives.
5. Create environment for interaction between your sales force and hot prospects
Whether it’s a rental trade show exhibit or a permanent trade show exhibit, the ideal trade show display encourages person-to-person interactions through attention to traffic flow within the exhibit and careful placement of exhibit design elements for maximum efficiency and accessibility to product demonstrations, product displays, and marketing literature. Make it easy for your attendees to feel at home with visible and accessible literature. Set up exhibit demonstration areas designed to draw the attendee in and make the experience comfortable.

Five Ways to Make Rental Trade Show Exhibits Pay Off

2007-10-12T04:10:00.002-07:00

Writeable Laminating Pouches To Protect Your Documents

2007-10-12T04:10:00.001-07:00

Lamination is the perfect solution for protecting your documents from becoming damaged. However, sometimes it would be really nice to be able to write on your laminated documents. This can be difficult since the glossy finish that you get with most laminating pouches isn't usually writable. To solve this problem, matte laminating pouches can be used allowing you to write on the finished surface with a regular ball point pen.
Matte laminating pouches provide the best of both worlds. You get the protection that comes from regular laminating pouches and you get an elegant writable surface on the finished product. Generally speaking, matte laminating pouches are available in two different styles.
1. Matte / Matte laminating pouches provide a soft non glossy writable coating on both sides of your document. These laminating pouches are ideal for signs that are posted in sunlight since they won't have the glare that comes with glossy pouches. These pouches are also ideal for providing an elegant finish on business cards or other marketing materials.
2. Matte / Clear pouches have a traditional glossy coating on one side (non-writable) and a writeable matte coating on the other side. These pouches are ideal for documents such as sales flyers or presentation materials where you want the finished gloss look for the customer to see but where you need the ability to write on the back of the document.
Writeable pouches are also ideal for business cards or other materials where you might want to leave your customers with your phone number, email address, or website URL. With matte laminating pouches you can have the rigidity that you get with normal pouches but you can also easily write this information for your customers to have for later. For sales people this is ideal.
Matte-Matte and Matte-Clear pouches are available in a number of different sizes including: credit card size, business card size, note card size, file card size, luggage tag size, military size, drivers license size, letter size, and menu size. These pouches are available in a 5mil thickness (5mil on each side) for laminating documents that need protection but are still flexible. Pouches are also available in a 10mil thickness (10mil on each side) for documents that require extra rigidity such as signs, point of purchase displays and materials that will be handled with regularity. Both thicknesses have the same matte properties some are just heavier than the others.

Effective Presentation Skills - 3 Tips to Engage Our Audience

2007-10-12T04:09:00.000-07:00

The process of engaging our audience goes beyond the simple act of speaking in public. Many public speakers fail to engage their audiences with their enthusiasm or knowledge of their subject -- just being on the podium does not guarantee that we will make the all-important audience engagement. But, with an understanding of some techniques and a feeling for the dynamics of an audience we can become much more effective. In common with all effective presentation skills, there are organizational tools and techniques that we can apply to great effect. Mastering these techniques is crucial to forming the vital link with our audiences. Here are three main pointers to becoming more effective when we reach the podium.
Appear knowledgeable. There is a natural play-off between our presentation skill and subject expertise. When an audience knows we are expert in our field they do not expect our presentation skills to be so casually slick. In essence they are less demanding. Note, of course, that the reverse also applies -- if we are not knowledgeable then we had better be slick! Being an expert presenter allows us to radiate passion and interest in a subject, enthusing an audience. It is true that no one can possibly be an expert in everything but most of us can expect to be expert in something -- the sweet spot of presenting success. With the combination of an appropriate subject, our own knowledge and expertise we become unbeatable.
Use a presentation theme. Our audience will adopt a theme in the same way that they adopt a slogan or a logo; because it is simple and memorable. A consistent theme to our presentation, conveying practical benefit and familiarity will be remembered best -- proving most effective for helping our audience to follow the presentation. Themes are essentially memory aids. They provide presentation continuity. When we develop a theme it is best to consider the main issues that preoccupy our audience and hook into these. In a competitive industry with low barriers to entry we might try themes along the lines of..."Compete to Win" or, "Perfection is Completion" or "Being First". These are suggestive of competitive survival. They imply benefit and are short enough for memory retention. Take some time when considering a theme and it will really pay off.
Present the right points. We should expect our audience to retain no more than 10% of our presentation. If we present too much then it will either be forgotten or not absorbed at all. Typically we should aim to present some 3 to 4 main points during a 30 minute presentation. Yes, there might be room for sub-points but the focus has to be on the 3 to 4 main points. When working out our main points we should also note that our audience is thinking ahead at a rate of 600 or so words a minute and we will be speaking at a rate of around 150 words a minute. Such a speed difference has huge potential for the audience to disengage and wander off at a tangent -- probably jumping ahead of us dramatically in the process. Too many points will simply make this worse. If we add linguistic interpretation into this potent mix then we have even more room for uncertainty. The main points in our presentation should be:
Unambiguous. They must be certain and clear.
Self-standing. They must be capable of standing alone without the support of others. If we have points that merge into one another then they are not strong enough. We should edit these.
The task of engaging our audience can be easily and readily undertaken. With expertise, area knowledge and advocacy we can engage an audience and keep their attention. All audiences respect expertise even where it is in areas of arcane detail. Everything has its importance somewhere. It just goes to emphasize that prior to reaching the presentation podium we are fully prepared and well-versed in the detail of our subject.

Three Steps Before Your Next Event

2007-09-27T04:46:00.002-07:00

I suggest you go through event planning in a similar fashion to how I advise my clients to prepare for a engagement.
Just use my I-A-P formula.
I = intent…what’s the intent of this event; what is your organization’s goal for the event? Figure it out and then make sure everyone is on the same page.
Everything you do in planning, delivery, and post-activity should match your Intent. Keep in mind your organization’s business goals or mission may differ from the goal of this particular event. Perhaps you want to entertain and celebrate at this event, but you’re part of a cancer research organization.
It’s okay to have fun at the event even when your overall mission is cancer research…not a big party of a topic--but serious work.
A = audience analysis…who will come to this event; who else are you targeting? Cater elements of the event to these people. Sometimes this means dreams, hopes, and fetishes of the event planners need to go out the window. Maybe there are some celebrities in your membership or stories of amazing courage; is there something you can showcase around that?
P = powerful presentation…make sure the look of the event and the people who will speak to your crowd are top-notch, easy to listen to, entertaining; keep the visual and musical aspects of your venue strong and consistent with I and A.
This could require tough decisions by event planners: perhaps you need to “Just Say No” to that opening speech from the chairperson; maybe a silent auction won’t work in this venue. Maybe you need an event host who’s a professional emcee or neutral third-party instead of relying on the event chairperson, who might not be the most effective public speaker.
Once you apply I-A-P honestly and thoroughly, you are on track to have a great event. So good luck and great partying! Please feel free to write me with any questions.

Internet Marketing Webinars - 10 Tips for Success

2007-09-27T04:46:00.001-07:00

Internet marketing webinars are one of the most powerful ways on the planet to increase your market reach, find hundreds of qualified leads at a time, and establish powerful credibility with people that have never met you face-to-face. In your Internet marketing plan, webinars are as critical as your website, your e-mail marketing strategy, your responsive opt-in list, your podcasts, and your blog. An Internet marketing webinar is an interactive session with a remote group that is linked live through Web conference at audio conference technology. Unfortunately, too many businesses are giving "Death by PowerPoint" presentations, which hold down results. Interaction is a central part of what makes Internet marketing webinars so successful.
If you are currently using tele-seminars for Internet marketing or training, webinars are a significant step up. In tele-seminars, people can't see you, your face, or your presence. On the other hand, webinars give you a significantly improved ability to fill that gap with fabulous, intriguing audience interaction. In your marketing presentation, when you get the interaction piece right, webinars can act like magic to catapult your business growth.
Here are 10 tips for creating successful Internet marketing webinars.
Choose a reliable, proven Web conference technology. The foundation for a successful event is great technology. Be absolutely sure that your web conference technology is technically excellent and has instant technical support for meetings in progress. Does your web conference technology have a proven record of working well across firewalls? Is it easy for first-time users to get into your webinar? Does the technology involuntarily eject people during live sessions? On your slides, dothe background, images, and text on your sides look clear and free from all distortions? Importantly, if the technology doesn't work right, people will be upset with you and their experience in your webinar, not with the conferencing provider. Choose a technology that lets you and your presentation shine.
Use an interactive Web conference technology. Don't make the mistake of using a web conference technology that only shares slides. At minimum, your Web conference technology must include two interactive features, and three is even better. First is a polling feature that handles single-or multiple-choice questions. Importantly, the polling feature must let you instantly share the results graphically (not just numbers) with everyone linked to your session. Second is a live Q&A or chat feature. At minimum, the audience can ask questions immediately, in real time, during your webinar, and get an individual typed or voice response. Far better is if selected audience questions can also be published to the group, along with the response. Third is a spontaneous audience response panel or feature where the audience can quickly respond with a simple response (like yes/no). During your presentation, it is also important to use all of these interactive features several times.
Use a headset. Never use the speakerphone capability when you give a presentation or speak in a webinar. Even if your phone has an echo-reducing feature, there will always still be echo. As a result, you'll sound far away, like you're talking from an empty auditorium. Your voice will sound muffled; your words, unclear. All of these are very fatiguing to the person that is trying to listen and understand you. On the other hand, a headset lets your voice sound close and clear. Avoid wireless headsets, as the people at the other end may hear a humming sound from your wireless connection that you can't—like you may have experienced on a mobile phone. Wireless headsets and wireless laptops often escalate this problem. When in doubt, test it out.
Design your webinar presentation and for rich, relevant interaction. When you can't see your audiences face, it's very easy to get into an "all presentation" mode. Effective face-to-faced presenters always interact with their audience. They pay close attention to nonverbal cues. They ask questions that elicit an overt response. They have the audience observe each other's reaction. Consciously engaging their audience is what makes them successful. In interactive webinars, effective presenters must do the same. When an online presenter can't see the desktop audience's the nonverbal cues, they have to get very creative about using polls and other means to fill that void.
Use mute to eliminate background noise. In small group webinars of up to ten, you may want to ask people not to mute, unless there is distractiing background noise at their location. In larger group webinars of 30 to thousands, you will always want to mute your entire audience. Know how to mute and unmute individuals and everyone in your audio conference bridge or on ther audio panel of your web conference platform. The audience must know that they are muted. If your webinar has hundreds of people, you may want to engage a live operator to manage audio problems and muting.
Plan-plan-plan. Webinars are very elegant events that showcase you and your business in a very professional way. Webinars not something that you want to do spontaneously. If you're planning your first webinar, allow six weeks to three months. You'll need to plan a compelling title, design the look and feel for the invitations and slides, write all promotional copy (pre- and post-event), create a marketing and media plan, design the registration page, schedule the Web and audio technology, assign the announcer role and presentation team roles, write the introduction script for the event and the speaker, create and refine the presentation message, design the presentation slides, design the kiosk slides that played before the session begins, create the closing script and survey (for your opt-in list), can reate your free white paper or bonus gift, among many others.
Take a team approach. Successful webinars are the reflection of successful teamwork. The better people work together to plan, execute, and follow-up the webinar, the more successful its result. Create a very specific plan and very clear roles, including how to work together to make a great session.
Rehearse-rehearse-rehearse. Great athletes make sports look easy, but in reality they are the result of focused, intense rehearsal. The same is true with webinars. For your first webinar, you should have two or three rehearsals, the first beginning about two weeks ahead of the event. Ask trusted colleagues to give honest feedback to the presenter so that the presentation is nothing short of awesome. The day before the event, do a front to back rehearsal, including the operator, announcer, speaker, annotation team, and any other role that was assigned. Make sure everyone is happy with the rehearsal.
End the presentation with a bang. Make the introduction of the sponsor and speaker, 5 minutes; your presentation, 35 minutes; interactions during and/or after the presentation, 20 minutes; and the closing and special bonus, 5 minutes. At the end of the session, drop your audience on a webpage where they can get more information or where they can opt in for further contact.
Multiply the moment. Record the session for playback, and post it on your website for others to view, and also sign up for your opt-in list. Of all the people you invite to your webinar, approximately 1 to 5% will show up. 10 times that amount, however, will view the recording at their leisure. To record the audio with the slides, it's easiest to use the integrated web-audio capability in your web conference platform. Clear voice is important, so do a test-recording before your live event.

Effective Presentations - The First Step

2007-09-27T04:45:00.002-07:00

How familiar is this scenario? Do you typically click on the PowerPoint icon immediately you are tasked with preparing a presentation? If that is the case then you definitely have common cause with most of us. And regrettably it is a big mistake. It's a mistake because our presentation focus is already upon the mechanics of slides, decks, visuals, clip-art, logos and templates. Such a focus will be needed -- but much later. For now the focus has to be on our expected achievement and outcome.
Before we click on the PowerPoint icon we should draft in a single sentence the planned achievement of our presentation. In today's business language we would recognise this as a mission statement. But unlike many vacuous mission statements the purpose of this one is to capture the planned impact of our presentation upon our audience. That is, how do we plan for our audience to respond? We should consider the following questions at this stage:
After my presentation what will the audience do that is different?
After the presentation what will they know that is different?
Once they have heard the presentation what will they believe that is different?Before we begin to physically lay the foundations of an effective presentation, let alone build its structure or prepare the PowerPoint slides we must have a firm grasp on the expected outcome of the presentation -- what it is that we are aiming to do. To be effective our presentation will have an impact upon our audience beyond that of a management report, an email or a document. Our direct face-to-face presentation aims to change the actual behaviour, thoughts and beliefs of an audience. That is why we do it.
If our successful presentation has to impact our audience in a way that simply reading its content would not achieve then our mission statement has to capture these planned expectations. So, taking an example from a recent manufacturing presentation in the South West, our mission statement was:
"To ensure that the team understands the HR (Human Relations) impact of factory closure."
What can we say about this? It meets the requirement for a single sentence. It is succinct and to the point. It is measurable -- we should be able to gauge the team's understanding of the HR consequences quite readily. It also sound achievable within the context of a single presentation. And that should not be overlooked. We can not expect too much from only one presentation!
With the mission statement prepared, what is next? Well, my advice would be to park the mission statement for an hour. Then try to recall it from memory. If you can do so readily then you have got something that is fully workable and from which we can hang the working objectives of a quality and effective presentation. And that is the second step.

Manage Difficult Participants Who Don't Want To Be There

2007-09-27T04:45:00.001-07:00

Have you ever taught participants who have been forced to attend your training session but they didn't want to be there? These learners, I often call 'training hostages', are not bad people, they're just frustrated and annoyed that they didn't have any say in going to the training program. Some of these participants will simply put up with the training, but many won't. Some of these participants will let you know that they don't want to be there in a variety of ways. There behaviors may get in the way of a great training program. These behaviors include:
shutting down and not participating
being rude to you or other learners
distracting other learners by chatting or playing with their cell phone
reading a newspaper or book that isn't part of the course
or any number of disruptive behaviors
These people can really distract and undermine you and make it difficult for you to deliver your training smoothly. These people don't really want to destroy the training program, they are simply frustrated that they didn't get a say in attending the program. They may also feel that it just isn’t relevant to them so why should they have to sit through it?
So what can you do about these challenging participants? Here are a few tips that can make a real difference to your training sessions when you have training hostages:
In your introduction to the course explain exactly how the training will benefit the learners. The more value a learner realizes they can get out of a course, the more willing they'll be to learn from you.
If they own up to not wanting to be there try and be empathetic with them. You can say things like "I understand it can be frustrating being forced to attend a course when you are so busy at work" or "I get that you are annoyed with your boss for sending you today." Just being empathetic can really turn difficult people around.
If they are distracting other learners then you need them to stop. If they don't want to learn and participate then that's up to them, but you can't have them stopping others from learning. Have a private chat to them and let them know that if they don't want to learn that's their choice, but it is unfair to stop others who do want to learn. Give them a choice to stay and not distract others or to leave the course and return to work. I find most people choose to stay and behave.
Have a private chat with the unwilling participant and ask them what is stopping them from participating. Also, ask them what you can do to help them get the most out of the course. It is amazing how people open up when you confront them and offer to help them.
Explain to them what will happen if they do not participate and learn. For example, if they don't participate then they may need to redo the program at a later time. Sometimes when these resistant participants learn that their actions have poor consequences they are more motivated to get on with learning.
So try these strategies out and see if you can turn training hostages into willing participants. You may be surprised how people can change with your support.

How to Insert Flash Into PowerPoint 2007

2007-09-27T04:44:00.002-07:00

Ensure the Flash Player is installed on your computer, and then please follow the steps below:
1. Click Microsoft Office Button on the top left corner > click "PowerPoint Options" at the bottom of the panel > go to the "PowerPoint Options" window > click "Popular" on the left column > select "Show Developer tab in the Ribbon" on the right column > click "OK" at the bottom
2. On the "Developer" tab > go to "Controls" group > Click the icon of hammer and nail for "More Controls" > go to the "More Controls" window
3. On the "More Controls" window > select "Shockwave Flash Object" in the list > click "OK" at the bottom > use your pointer to drag on the slide to draw and resize the control
4. Right click the control you draw > click "Properties" in the right-click menu > go to the "Properties" window
5. On the alphabetic tab > click the "Movie" property > type the full drive path in the value column (the blank cell next to Movie), including the file name (e.g. C:a.swf) or URL (e.g. http://www.a.com/b.swf)
6. To make the Flash paly automatically when the slide is displayed, set the "Playing" property to "True"; To embed the Flash into PowerPoint, set "EmbedMovie" property to "True"
7. Finally close the "Properties" window and save your presentation.
On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, you can click Slide Show or press F5 to preview your presentation.
An alternative solution to insert Flash into PowerPoint 2007
Actually it's sort of troublesome to someone who needs to insert Flash into multiple sildes within PowerPoint 2007 directly. You may want to know: is there a shortcut to insert Flash like inserting other media files in PowerPoint? Probably no.
An alternative solution is using some third-party tools to achieve this, such as Wondershare PPT2Flash, which has a feature of "Insert Flash" to add Flash files instantly. Through PPT2Flash, you can directly select Flash files and manage to insert them into any slides in PowerPoint 2007 and any earlier versions

Presenting Ideas Effectively - Speak To The Audience's Interests

2007-09-27T04:44:00.001-07:00

Presenting ideas effectively to audiences that are at best indifferent, and at worst skeptical, is a challenge. But if getting your idea adopted in the workplace or getting your boss to buy into it is important to you, making an effective presentation is still the best way to go.
Your first challenge may be to get them to actually show up for your presentation. Why should they take the time out of their busy schedule? The question you must answer to accomplish this is, "What's in it for them?"
Of course you know why your idea is important to YOU, but why should THEY care? People are busy, and the higher their level the busier they are and the more expensive their time, so you must convince them that your idea and your presentation will be worth their while. How do you do that? Learn to put yourself figuratively inside their heads.
Let's say, for example, you are a supervisor in the Accounting Department. You have been short staffed for some time. To make matters worse, one of your clerks is on maternity leave, and her work has been divided up and covered by the other clerks. Everyone is stressed because of work overload. Your idea is to hire a temp to handle the missing employee's work until she returns, which will be about four months.
The worst thing you can do is approach management on the basis that this would make your job, or the jobs of the others in your department, easier. That doesn't speak to the immediate interests of your employer. Let's consider a few approaches you might take:
• Everyone is overworked and stressed. No good --- senior managers are probably also stressed and this won't move you onto their priority lists.
• Work is piling up. No good --- just makes you sound incompetent.
• Invoices are going out late. Now we're getting somewhere --- this begins to get their attention, but it's not quite there yet.
• Because of late invoicing, customer bills are being paid late. Much better.
• We have a cash flow problem. Bingo! This is something that's important to the company and speaks to management's interests. This is the best approach of all.
So you might say something like this:
As you know, the firm is experiencing a cash flow problem because customer payments are coming in much later than they should. This is caused by a temporary issue in Accounts Payable, and is unlikely to improve unless we make a change. I have some ideas on how we can quickly and easily remedy the problem and return our cash flow to the way it should be. May I present my ideas to you on Friday morning in your office?
Now when you do the presentation itself, your job will be to frame the problem by expanding on this message before presenting your solution. Make them fully understand the issue in financial terms, in business terms. Then clearly illustrate how your solution will bring the cash flow back into alignment, thus saving money. This will not only give you a chance of getting what you want, but will also illustrate your ability to think like a manager --- which can only be good for your career.

Six Steps for Operating a Fixed Die Modular Comb Punch

2007-09-03T02:56:00.001-07:00

Fixed die modular binding punches are designed for users who have outgrown a combo binding machine but don't need the ability to punch multiple hole patterns. These punches are designed for higher volumes of punching and for use with a stand alone finisher. Here are some simple directions for using a modular comb punch.
Prior to punching your document, determine the number of holes required for the document (depends on the side of the document that is to be bound - 11" edge requires 19 holes - 8 1/2" edge requires 15 holes).
1. Deselect the Die Pins you do not want to punch by lifting the Selector Pin Lid and pulling the pins up.
2. Set the Depth-of-Punch Lever (on the left side of the punch) to either under or over 9/16". This refers to the diameter of the comb element being used. Plastic binding is the only bind style that uses this measure, and its main purpose is to adjust the margin from the edge of the paper to the holes being punched so the element is properly filled. If the margin is punched too deep into the paper for a small element (i.e. 1/4"), the pages will not open or turn easily because there is not enough room inside the element. Conversely, if the margin is punched too shallow for a large document (i.e. 1/2"), the pages could tear out if the document was roughly handled or dropped.
3. Using a test lift of paper (or covers if using oversize covers), insert the sheets into the Punch Throat, moving them until they are flush against the Edge Guide and all the way into the bottom of the Punch Throat. Hold the sheets in place with one hand.
4. To punch, press the Punch Button or Foot Pedal.
5. Now, take one sheet of the punched material and fold it in half to check for hole alignment. If it is squared you're ready to continue punching the document.
6. When the punching is complete, remember to lift the front lid up, remove the chip tray, and trash the debris.
Note: As mentioned earlier, Comb Binding frequently uses oversize covers. This simply means the covers are manufactured 11-1/4" X 8-3/4" (instead of 11" x 8-1/2"), leaving an 1/8th inch margin at the top and bottom of the document and a 1/4" excess margin on the unbound 11" side of the document. This is to prevent dog-earing of the material contained within the covers of the document. It also makes the document look neater, as the pages do not stick out when the element moves in the punched holes. This does not happen with our other bind styles, as the holes are smaller, and there is less movement of the binding element.
What this means to you, is that the Edge Guide must be reset to "center" the holes of the oversize cover. Follow the same steps for setting the Edge Guide and checking the setting that you just completed. If you were punching a number of documents using oversize covers, you would set the Edge Guide for the paper, punching all the paper - then set the Edge Guide for the covers and punch all the covers.

Public Speaking - Top 10 Tips

2007-09-03T02:55:00.002-07:00

Is there anything more terrifying than facing an audience of strangers and knowing you have to deliver an entertaining and informative speech?
OK, some people thrive on this type of challenge! But the vast majority of us are at least a little nervous every time we have to speak publicly. In fact, fear of public speaking is probably one of the most universal fears throughout all walks of life.
Thankfully, public speaking is a fear that can easily be overcome with a little practice and the right approach. You can use the tips below to improve your public speaking skills.
1. Be prepared and practice.
The more you know what you want to say, the better you'll get at it. First, brainstorm the topic of your speech and research it, if you need to. Write down all the points you want to make and then organize them into an outline. Fill in the details. Once you have the essential content of your speech written (at least in your head), transfer your main ideas to index cards. Write the main idea in dark ink on the front of the card, and if you think you'll need cues, write them on the back of the card in pencil. Then, practice your speech out loud at least 3 to 5 times. If you can, practice it in front of a friend or family member and ask them for feedback and if that's not possible, at least practice in front of a mirror. Do it until you can talk naturally, with only a glance at your cards. Don't ever read your speech word for word!
2. Know your audience.
The better you know your audience, the easier it will be to connect to them as you speak. When you are able to make that connection, you'll hold their attention. And seeing that you're doing so will increase your confidence and comfort level, making it even easier for you to speak well. So, find out everything you can about the people you'll be speaking to. Know what their "hot topics" are, inside jokes and so on. The more you know about what makes them tick and what interests them, the better speech you'll be able to give.
3. Dress the part. When you're standing up in front of an audience, all eyes are on you. Like it or not, your image is important in this situation. So, dress to impress this particular audience. If you know your audience well (see #2), then you'll have an idea how to dress. For example, you might dress in a conservative navy suit if you're speaking to a group of bankers, but in a more casual, fashionable outfit when the audience consists of artists and designers.
4. Pay attention to the old KISS principle, that is, Keep It Short and Simple.
The key is to get your points across as quickly as possible. Don't beat around the bush or try to impress with complex metaphors. Stories, however, can be a powerful public speaking tool, especially when they contain at least a hint of humor. But again, keep them short and on point. Shorter messages leave the impression of a savvy, smart speaker. They're also easier for your audience to remember.
5. Speak clearly and at just the right tempo.
The mark of an inexperienced, uncomfortable public speaker is someone who speaks all in a rush, slurring words in her desire to get it over with. Don't be this kind of speaker if you want to hold your audience's attention. On the other hand, don't speak so slowly your audience's minds start to wander.
6. Use visual aids to illustrate your points. Many people will understand your message more clearly when it is more visual. What we see often leaves a more lasting impression than what we hear. You can use slides, photographs, PowerPoint presentations, or even a simple whiteboard to add visual cues to your speech. One caution though—don't turn your back on your audience as you use your visual aid, and don't turn the lights on low for long periods, or you might be surprised to look up and see they are all sleeping!
7. Interact with your audience.
Lectures will rarely have the same impact on an audience that an open discussion will. Look for opportunities to involve your audience in what you are speaking about. Ask for validation of points you are making ("Am I right?" "Has that ever happened to you?") or allow time for questions. Also, make sure to establish eye contact with your audience—and keep it—throughout your speech.
8. Speak with sincerity and passion. You want to leave a lasting impression with the audience about your speech topic. So be sure you are true to yourself and your topic as you speak and don't be afraid to inject passion and enthusiasm into the speech as well.
9. Come out from behind the podium.
You'll project confidence and a sense of comfort when you have the courage to let go of the podium and stand in front of your audience with nothing to "protect" you. As you speak, you can walk back and forth across the stage, making eye contact with different people. Some speakers even walk out into the audience to get "up close and personal." Be respectful of people's personal space, though, if you decide to do this. You don't want to be perceived as threatening or overbearing.
10. Close your speech in a memorable way.
Give your audience something to think about as you finish up your speech. Certainly, it's a good idea to summarize your main points one more time, but then finish up with an inspiring story or quote, or leave them with a thought-provoking question.
Public speaking is an essential life skill that every person should strive to master. The ability to speak confidently in public will serve you in every part of your life, whether you are sharing opinions in a small group or delivering a planned speech in front of a group of hundreds.

Why Humorous Motivational Speakers Can Help to Unlock the Secret Powers of Motivation for Employees

2007-09-03T02:55:00.001-07:00

The factor that sets humorous motivational speakers apart from the other motivational speakers is – the power of humor. In these days of shorter attention spans getting the ears of the meeting attendees is a difficult task, if not an impossible one. Executives now are bombarded with a glut of information on everything. Unless they hear something very interesting or funny they just do not pay attention. So to make them sit up and really listen to a speaker is a job that only humorous motivational speakers achieve with ease. Of course, they work and practice hard to achieve this. The use of humor makes even the most disinterested participant in a meeting to take notice and join in the fun. Once there is interest shown by the meeting attendees the rest becomes easy.
What Humorous Motivational Speakers Do
Humorous motivational speakers use liberal doses of humor to lighten the entire meeting atmosphere. Their cheerful and funny talks bring the meeting attendees out of their shells of defensiveness and make them amenable to suggestions. The easy manners and friendly attitude of humorous motivational speakers help in developing a rapport with the audience instantly. These gurus of motivation and humor slowly and effectively goad the participants to join them in the process of unlocking their own unrealized potentials.
Humor Works Well
Let’s face it – nobody loves to sit through a boring lecture, speech, or workshop. Chances are that while an ordinary motivational speaker rants off on a topic, the participants are mentally preparing their next sales call or even struggling to stay awake. Humor is the only factor that livens up the proceedings of a speech or seminar. Hearty laughter relaxes the mind and the body muscles. It gives the inner organs of the body a work out that physical exercises can give. The audience instead of drifting away starts paying attention, because no one wants to miss out on a good joke. And the humorous motivational speakers have plenty of funny rib ticklers.
They succeed in getting the attention of their audience and gradually bringing out the best from them. Their wisdom, insight in to the human psychology, and sense of humor helps in motivating the participants in giving their best. They prod the participants with their motivational talks to increase the quality as well quantity of their productivity. At the end of a humorous motivational session the audience gets completely motivated and learns how to motivate themselves as well as others using principles enunciated by the humorous motivational speaker.

Presentation Skills

2007-09-03T02:54:00.003-07:00

Where do you start with the presentation? Well, first find out the title and the key points you are expected to address. It is very important to find out who else is talking and what they are going to talk about. You want to make sure that you do not cover exactly the same ground as someone else, otherwise the audience will just get bored. Determine how long you are going to be asked to talk for as this will help you to work out if the time you have means you can only give an overview or whether you are required to give an in-depth presentation of your topic. If you only have time for an overview then identify what you must say, what it would be good to say and the points that you will address only if you have time.
Try to think about how many slides you will have on a PowerPoint style presentation. If you are not comfortable with the technology design 3 or 4 slides that are general and will cover several themes so you don’t need to change them that often. If you are using slides or overheads limit the technical data as you don’t want the slides to be too busy. Remember graphs or data tables are a waste of time if people either can’t see them at the back of the room or they haven't time to read them during a presentation. Don’t put too many bullet points on each slide, consider using diagrams or photographs instead of words if they convey your message, because they are much more effective.
Practice what you are going to say and check the presentation before the day, especially if someone else has prepared it. There is nothing worse than standing up in front of an audience with a presentation full of typing errors or slides in the wrong order.
Most important of all believe in what you are going to say, because lack of conviction comes over to the audience immediately in a presentation. People will forgive beginners nerves but they will struggle with a presentation that lacks personal belief or one where the presenter just reads from the slides parrot fashion – well they could have read it as a handout themselves! Show that you care about the topic and remember practice makes perfect.

Plastic Comb Binding Isn't Just Black and White Anymore

2007-09-03T02:54:00.001-07:00

If you are looking to add a little bit of color to your report and make sure that it gets noticed this might be your chance. For years plastic comb binding spines were only available in black and white. Even today, more than ninety percent of the plastic comb binding market is represented by these two colors. However, many individuals don't realize that plastic combs are actually available in more than a dozen colors. These different colored combs are perfect for adding a splash of color or for matching with your companies colors.
The most common colors of plastic comb binding spines are: Black, White, Navy Blue, Clear, Maroon (sometimes called Burgundy), Brown, Royal Blue, Red, Hunter Green, Grey (or Gray), Kelly Green, and Yellow. In addition to these colors combs are also available in a black matte finish, a clear frost matte finish and in several transparent gel colors such as Steel Blue and Amber.
Although the matte and gel combs are only available in select sizes, all of the other colors of combs are available in sizes from 3/16" up to 2". Plastic combs from 3/16" up to 1-1/8" are round shaped and combs from 1-1/4" up to 2" are oval shaped.
Many companies choose to match the color of their comb binding spine with the color of their logo. Additionally, binding covers can also be purchased to match the color of the plastic combs providing a uniform look and feel to your documents, reports, presentations and proposals. This co-ordination of colors can results in more eye catching and professional looking proposals that will catch the eye of your clients.
Plastic combs can also be imprinted with a company logo, a company name or even a title of book or report. Using either silk screening or foil stamping it is possible to print almost anything on the spine of a plastic comb. If you have ever seen a cookbook bound with plastic combs you might have noticed it was imprinted with the title of the book. In the same way it is possible for you to brand your presentations and proposals for a highly professional look and feel.
Unfortunately, plastic combs are not readily available in custom colors. Currently, in order to order a custom color of plastic combs you would have to buy an "extrusion" of plastic. In numbers, this means you would have to look at purchasing at least 10,000 combs. For most users this type of volume is simply not plausible. It is possible to have combs flood printed with a custom color (or a metallic finish such as gold or silver). However, this process is still very expensive and isn't realistic for most users.

Presentation, Pricing, Planning and Promotion - a Business Plan in Action

2007-09-03T02:53:00.000-07:00

What is Marketing? It is the planning, pricing, promotion, packaging and sales of any product or service. Okay then, lets practice in writing up a pricing and promotions statement for a product in a business plan. If you price your product too high, no one will buy it, too low and you will not make any money and you will go out of business.
For our example we will use an Oral Hygiene Product designed by Charles Shooster PhD in the 1990's - this is a real product from a real business plan during the rough draft first revision phase of the business planning process. Please read the example below:
Pricing
We will have a 100% mark-up for our costs. Our current costs are about $.05 each and thus 10 for $.50 and thus we will sell these for 5 for $.50 wholesale and have a price of about $1.00 retail. On our website, we will sell them for $1.45 for 5 as to not undercut our retailers or distributors, who will most likely be selling them for $.99 for 5 or 5 for a dollar.
Promotions - Advertising
We will employ a series of tactics in promoting this product and will seek out interesting ways to promote our product such as sending samples to Natural Disaster areas to assist. We will spend little on advertising, but will entertain co-advertising opportunities with sufficient orders from customers and buyers. It is our intention to make ourselves newsworthy and we will employ on a per piece basis writers to promote our brand in trade journals and popular news magazines. We will use syndicated online articles sources and the associated press when we come up with interesting PR pieces or innovative newsworthy stories. We will maximize the creative genius of our team

Effective Listing Presentations

2007-09-03T02:52:00.000-07:00

The listing presentation is your moment to show a prospective client all that you’re worth. With the value of your services and the relationship you hope to have with a client on the line, it’s hard to believe that the less said, the better. But it’s true -- the longer a listing presentation takes, the worse it gets. The client’s mind begins to wander, and the Agent begins to promise more in marketing and advertising to keep the client’s attention and procure the listing. The commission rate will have a tendency to decrease and the listing price to increase. This will lead to longer marketing, less profit, or eventually an expired listing. Truly, the longer your presentation goes, the weaker it becomes; a short, focused presentation is the one that will speak volumes for you.
I realize that many speakers and trainers have been teaching Agents for years how to do a two-hour listing presentation. But think about it: in today’s busy society, does anyone really want to listen to an Agent talk about himself and his company for two hours? In the seller’s position, after an hour or so, wouldn’t you find yourself thinking about what you would rather be doing with your family? Once the owners begin to think about things other than listing their home with you, it becomes very difficult to get them refocused on signing a contract or agreement. Remember that the length of your listing presentation is critical to your success.
One key to making the most effective presentation in the shortest amount of time is to ask questions. To be an effective Agent, you need to find out the desires and expectations of the prospect. The only way to do this is by asking questions, and one of the biggest mistakes I see Agents making is not asking enough of them. The person asking the questions is the one who controls the conversation. Develop a series of questions for your listing presentations; this will help you stay focused. By asking each client similar questions, you will learn to evaluate each client’s motivation, compatibility, and expectations. Working with a standard set of questions will also help you remember to ask all of the necessary questions. By developing a series of questions, you will be able to standardize your presentation and control the time that your presentation takes. Without a standardized presentation based on a set series of questions, you will have a tendency to take listings for too high a price, too short a term, or with people whose expectations are not compatible with what your skills and experience can offer them.
As you gather information from the sellers and present yourself to them, keep in mind that presentations should be directed, first and foremost, to price rather than to secondary issues such as marketing or advertising. Price is king in real estate; it is the dominant reason a home sells or fails to sell. Our presentations need to accurately reflect this reality. Rather than focusing on marketing, focus on the issues that will really affect the sale of the home. I advocate rolling up your sleeves and getting down to the business of price, sooner rather than later. If you and the seller cannot agree on price, then nothing else you might say is going to make this relationship work; you should politely excuse yourself and move on to the next prospect.
Above all, you need to show the clients the benefit of working with you. This is, after all, what the clients will be paying you for. You need to show them how your skills, experience, and strategy will benefit them. They need to know and understand the benefits of your approach to selling their home. Determine a few of the advantages you offer, and share them with the listing prospect.
If you create a step-by-step presentation that is well prepared, concise, focused on price, and clear about what your business offers to the client, you will see the time you spend on each presentation reduced. You will also see an improvement in the number of listing presentations that lead to signed contracts, and your clients will thank you for demonstrating respect for their time. You may even have a few minutes left over to spend laughing with your new clients at their stories of “the REALTOR® who was here for two hours doing a listing presentation”.

Put Your Best Face Forward

2007-07-31T21:48:00.001-07:00

Blink--a recent book by Malcolm Gladwell--cites research to support the concept that a person's face can do more than mirror the individual's mood. . .it can create a mood for that individual. That is, if you start your day with a defeated look, before long you will become downhearted, even angry. This, of course, reverses the most commonly accepted thought pattern, that the mood comes first, then the facial response. The moral: Set the tone for your day with a happy, confident face, and good things are likely to follow.
Well, if our facial expressions impact us that much, how much does our countenance impact others? Plenty, as you know. How we look to people shapes the impression we convey. Example: When I speak or direct a seminar, within a couple of minutes I can identify audience members who are highly interested and supportive, along with those who appear bored, distracted, confused, and sometimes hostile. You can do the same in conversations and in business meetings. Sure, once in awhile we will misinterpret the way someone looks. Yet our guess will be accurate most of the time.
Here is a classic case of a man who felt misinterpreted: Though he was highly successful and prominent in his community, what struck most people was his very dour—almost sour—expression. He confided to a friend: “You know, people consider me glum and unfriendly. They think I’m a scowler. I try to assure them I don’t mean anything by my demeanor, because I’m not aware of a sullen expression. Even my mother used to tell me I needed to work on the perception I’m creating.”
Remember that the face includes the eyes. Cicero said it well: "The eyes are windows to the soul." Look away from someone while you are reporting on a work assignment, and your shifty eyes might suggest you are hiding something. Blink excessively, and you could appear insecure. Close your eyes even for a short instant, and they will thinkyou are ignoring them, or—even worse—drifting off to sleep. More positively, maintain steady eye contact to reflect poise and credibility. Notice how many people remove their glasses when they want to impress you while they talk. They want no barrier between you and their eyes.
Beware of frowning. When you are making a sales call, a frown indicates to your prospect that you don't feel good about the course of the presentation. You create discomfort for both of you, and lose the likelihood of making a sale. When your supervisor tells you about a new approach for operating the department, your frown could suggest your unwillingness to consider the change.
The most pleasing look: One that fits the tone of the meeting or conversation, and reinforces your message. Johnny Carson and Bob Hope mastered the art of smiling and beaming at the appropriate time. They could milk more laughter out of a joke, even a botched joke, than other comedians could because of their reinforcing facial expressions.
Similarly, the best photographs taken of athletes in the most intense moments of a game showcase their faces, which mirror determination, confidence, exertion, exhaustion, disappointment and resilience. Golfer Tiger Woods has attracted millions of fans by his wide range of grimaces, grins and concentration—just as Arnold Palmer did during the 1960s.
From an opposite viewpoint, we dislike the speaker who smiles or smirks when talking about life and death matters. When you break bad news, you need a solemn face that matches the message.
The next time you're in a social setting, pay special attention to the people around you. I'll bet the ones you will want to meet are the men and women with animated, cheerful expressions. Likewise, people will consider you attractive, even think of you as a leader, when you smile, nod in agreement and give other signs of warmth and openness.
When I coach executives and other professionals, we videotape our simulated conversations. The taping and the critique that follows pinpoint what my clients need to improve in their demeanor. Once we have discussed problem areas, we videotape follow up conversations, to see what improvements we can foster. So, while you work diligently on the content of an interview, sales call, meeting agenda and speech, remember to "put your best face forward."

Public Speaking Guide - Overcome your Fears

2007-07-31T21:47:00.002-07:00

It’s inevitable. We all can’t drift though life without doing it. We each have our own level of nervousness about it. But alas, the art of speaking to a group of people is a skill that we must all learn, and a basic act of communication that successful people must master.
But, that takes time. We can’t all be stand up comedians over night and it’s a skill that takes forced practice - no matter how uncomforting.
The origin for our immense fear of public speaking derives from our own mental criticism. We are all consciously thinking of how others perceive us; and it’s a feeling that gets hugely magnified when we are up in front of others spilling our guts out.
Here’s the scene:
You glance out into the crowd – a million faces it seems like – as everyone stares blankly back at you. Each person’s widened eyes seem to demand the best performance out of you. You begin to think if what I have to say is even worth their time - did I prepare right? Do I look fat in these pants? Do I have a sprig of parsley in my teeth from lunch?!
Your palms are sweaty; your leg begins to twitch from the nerves. Your heart races; the thumping in your chest is all you begin to hear. Your dry throat cracks as you try to open your mouth and introduce yourself to the audience…
“…Want to get away?” (Suddenly those Southwest Airlines commercials make sense!)
Truthfully, I think we wouldn’t have such a problem with it if we just knew the proper protocol for speaking publicly – What works, and what doesn’t. Unfortunately we aren’t all conditioned to this when we are young, so it’s difficult to grasp it as normal when we’re older. With a lack of knowledge in the art, it’s usually with our first bad taste of public speaking that we stop right there. We claim it’s not our thing… and just move on – not furthering the learning process.
In all reality, humans don’t like to learn the hard way… and you don’t have to. The smart ones learn from others that did it first. That’s why people like me are here to help you.
Preparation
1st - You shouldn’t be talking about any subject that you aren’t thoroughly interested in. A fault of many is that they don’t incorporate themes that naturally peak their appeal. Pick topics that motivate you and inspire you to want to express your passion for. That’s possible for most cases, unless you are forced to speak immediately – if so, and you’re already in the field of speaking publicly anyways… so, you better already love what you’re doing, and be over and past this part of the process…
2nd – Research the crowd and the environment for whom your about to speak for. Know beforehand the age and gender ranges, as well as the interests of your audience. Why are they there? Why are you there? Learn the placement of where you will be speaking in relation to the listening audience. Auditory positioning is very important, and vital if you want everyone to hear you clearly.
3rd – Don’t OVER prepare. Everyone feels that they need to memorize their lines or know all their points by heart. That’s what note cards and outlines are for – and there is no shame in using them. Tip: Write a few quick, important sentences about each point of your subject (stats, important dates, logistics, etc.) on each note card and number them in the order of which you’ll use them. As you move along in your speech, simply rotate each card to the back of the pile… At this point, you should be able to talk naturally about your subject with out reading word-for-word off a piece of paper – the note cards are all you need.
Now, on to the important part – the bread and butter…
The Art of Public Speaking
Believe it or not, this is the easiest part of the process. Honestly…
You’ve already done the hard part – You’ve gone through the research, you know your material, and you know the crowd. Now, you just have to stand up with confidence and deliver the goods that the audience came to see…
Remember, they are there because they need to be – they want your information, not to judge you. In fact, they probably won’t care who is in front of them as long as the person giving the speech holds their attention and has something informative to say. So, make it worth their while!
How to do that, you ask?
Stand up straight, shoulders back – don’t slouch; yet be comfortable. Reach down into yourself and pull out that bit of courage your storing and put it on display for all to see. View out into your audience – embrace the visual presence of your subjects (remember, you’re the master here – It is your time). Tip: If eye contact frightens you, here’s a trick. Simply glace at an invisible point in your mind’s eye directly over top of the audiences’ heads. In actuality you’ll be giving the speech to the back wall, but the people watching you won’t notice the difference. This helps making the process a lot less… personal.
Speak loud and clearly. Have a deep voice? Mesmerize the crowd with your low gentle tones (the ladies dig it too!) If you have a higher pitched voice, incorporate more energetic passion to your delivery and you’ll keep the audience on their toes and concentrating on your every word. Volume and clarity makes you sound mature and confident in your subject matter.
Use gestures and body language to help emphasize your points. Gestures also help those sitting in the back of the audience to see your presence more clearly and keep them interested in what you’re saying. Remember, you’re not a mime - so don’t go over the top. If it’s a really big crowd, walk around and make sure you address your audience as a whole – Everyone deserves a piece of your ‘verbal pie’… so to speak.
Use multimedia or displays (though not always necessary, but encouraged). Video clips, audio clips, and pictures make great visual aids. They should always support your subject matter and the statement you’re trying to get across. Keep them short and to the point. TIP: not much of a talker no matter how hard you try? Assemble a montage of various media clips to support you in between segments of your speech – you won’t have to talk so much...

Humor Me! Why Meeting Planners Need Motivational Humorous Speakers!

2007-07-31T21:47:00.001-07:00

Who does not enjoy a good laugh? Most people do. Humor is therapeutic to the soul and motivational humorous speakers that incorporate humor in their speeches will create a special and lasting impression with the audience. Motivational humorous speakers inspire people and make them want to make a difference in their lives. Through humor, motivational humorous speakers help people to see that there is more than one way to look at things. Often people take life a little too seriously and listening to an effective motivational humorous speaker can provide people with ways to look at the brighter side of a serious situation. When people are laughing and having a good time, they become absorbed by what the motivational humorous speaker is saying. Soon people become relaxed and attentive.
Everyone has a funny bone and when motivational humorous speakers connect with an audience on that level, the bond is unbreakable and the experience is memorable. Often it has been said that laughter has the power to heal the soul and empower the mind. Of course, everyone feels better when they are laughing and having a good time. Therefore, stress is greatly reduced and they become open to learning new ways to change various aspects of their lives. When people are not feeling stressed, they will perform better at work, home and at everything that they do in life. Their creativity will be stimulated and ideas will foster and grow. They will become more productive in work and in life. They will vastly improve their lives and learn valuable new ways to cope with difficult situations.
Motivational humorous speakers, who use humor, create a pleasant atmosphere where people feel good and want to learn how to make changes to better their lives. People who attend speaking engagements where humor is used are more likely to be motivated to set and achieve goals. Humor is a productive tool for motivational humorous speakers. It has helped to heal the sick, improve people’s overall morale and has helped people become powerful and dynamic leaders and assured speakers. It has also helped to build confidence in people, relieve overall stress on the job and in everyday life situations. Moreover, it enhances creativity, productivity and builds confidence in people. One thing is certain, motivational humorous speakers, who use humor when speaking to audiences, make a significant impact in people’s lives. Laughter is powerful and with one laugh at a time, motivational humorous speakers can truly change the world for the better.

Decipher The Law Of Attraction

2007-07-31T21:46:00.001-07:00

Law of Attraction is turning up all over the place it seems (actually that is part of the law!). Perhaps you have been hearing about it? Its getting a lot of play in movies like The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know, etc. My favorite teachers of it, Esther and Jerry Hicks (ala Abraham), are topping the charts with their books on the subject: Law of Attraction, Ask and It Is Given, and The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent.
I’ve been studying LOA for about five years now and it can take a bit to really start to comprehend it. But once you do, it turns out to be an elegantly simple concept.
What is LOA? Law of Attraction is an energy concept - kind of like Newton’s Law of Gravity. It is a proposed universal principle. Advocates of the principle (folks on the cutting edge or the kooky edge --- depending on how you look at it) believe that there is an underlying ‘attraction’ law that governs how things work in the world.
The basic premise is that everything in the universe/world/whatever you want to call it, is made up of energy. And every energy (or thing) has a particular mark or frequency --- a ‘vibration’ if you will. Law of Attraction states that similar energy is attracted to similar energy, or more simply: Like Attracts Like.
Thoughts and Feelings are Things: In this theory, thoughts and feelings are counted as things – and as such they have an energy to them (they have a specific frequency or vibration). There are obviously a whole spectrum of thoughts and feelings in the world --- a full range of them. This range moves from ‘good feeling thoughts’ to ‘bad feeling thoughts’. Not in the moral or values based kind of good and bad. But in how those thoughts actually ‘feel’ in you as you think them. The kind of mood or effect they have on you. Some thoughts that you think feel bad (as in uncomfortable, uneasy, sick, etc), while other thoughts you think feel good (as in comfortable, easy and nice).
The Power of Your Focus: The ‘so what’ around LOA really starts to kick in when you consider the power of your focus. What you focus on expands. What you choose to think about, ponder, feel, consider, return to, etc – is what you get more of. Like a big laser beam or giant photocopier. Like is attracted to like. You will get what you focus on. So if you want to start changing what your reality is made up of (i.e.you want to change or shift your life), you need to get aware and conscious of what you are choosing to focus on. Because that is how you are getting what you are getting. And by changing what you are focusing on, you change what shows up in your reality.
Situations, things, people, circumstances, etc don’t just randomly show up in your life. They are a visible and tangible symptom of where the majority of your thoughts and feelings are on a regular basis.
An Example: An example of this is ‘right livelihood’. A good percentage of my coaching clients are people who want to improve the state of work or career in their life. They want more joy, satisfaction, creativity, prosperity, etc out of the work that they do. They want to make a shift.
My job as a coach (and a coach who uses LOA principles) is to get them feeling as good as they possibly can overall, and most particularly about the subject of ‘work’. I need to get their focus off the negatives that have them feeling bad and onto things that feel better. To do that, we become ‘selective sifters’ --- we choose to focus on the aspects of work (in the past, present and desired future) that feel good (or at least somewhat better, if they are really entrenched). Sometimes people are so used to complaining, worrying and ruminating about the subject that it can be a real challenge to ‘flip them’ onto things that have an improved vibration.
Now, this might seem simplistic or not a big deal – but when you understand what is going on, it really is a BIG deal. It is the difference between making a shift or not. How you ‘feel’ is everything. The trick is to get people to feel better and to literally ‘vibrate’ differently than perhaps they ever have before. (Or, in the case of my clients who have reached heights of satisfaction and success and then lost them, to get them back into the vibrational state that they once had.) Once they consistently hold a different vibrational pattern, the Law of Attraction will kick into effect. Instead of attracting things that match their negative focus, they will start attracting things that match their more positive one. Better things will start showing up (in this case, improvements in the career area of their life). Yes, action has a role in all of this. You can’t escape that. But the better feelings come first, then aligned action.
Why Graphics Work So Well With LOA: I am a pioneer in graphic coaching. That means that I use visual or ‘graphic’ methods to help clients make shifts in their lives. The use of visuals is particularly useful when one is using LOA principles. Drawing and writing out what is going on inside your head and heart helps you literally SEE what you are doing (and how you are getting what you are getting). You can choose to map out what feels good (as opposed to what doesn’t). Markers, pens and paper force you to funnel and harness your focus for the better. Make things more visible, conscious and understandable. Indeed, the pen really is mightier than the sword!
Additional Resources: Obviously I’ve just touched on the subject of LOA in this article. Just given you a taste or tease. I’ll be writing more about the Law of Attraction and graphic coaching tips in future articles so you can get an even greater handle on this powerful concept. In the meantime, I’d suggest you check out the movies and books listed above and keep an eye and ear out for LOA principles (now that you have read about them they are bound to start showing up in your life more and more). Next month I’ll be freshly returned from an LOA cruise --- so I’ll have more to share then (after I get done asking Abraham all my LOA questions!).

How To Create Work You Really Love

2007-07-31T21:45:00.002-07:00

Life is short. We spend such a large percentage of our time earning our livings at ‘work’ --- doesn’t it make sense to actually do something we like and enjoy? Most of us don’t instantly fall into work we love. We have to find it or create it. And it emerges over time as we bump up against what we don’t like, which helps us determine what we do. Here are a few things to consider as you set about creating or improving the work that you do:
Define What You LIKE Doing: Forgot about other people. Or what you ‘should’ do. Or even what you can supposedly make money at or not. What do YOU actually LIKE to do? Do you want to improve your current work situation? If so, what is it that you actually like doing in the work that you do? How can you spend more of your time doing those things as opposed to others? Is there a way you can offload or outsource the things that you don’t like to do? If your role doesn’t have much of the things that you actually like to do, determine which other roles do. How can you get into them? Nobody makes you do anything. You are the one either saying yes or no to things in your life. Stop being a victim and start empowering yourself to create a situation that you truly enjoy.
Flip Your Ingrained and Limiting Beliefs: People create and stay in limiting situations because of deeply held beliefs and attitudes. They get stuck in a rut, believing that this is the way it has to be. Perhaps you grew up being told (directly or indirectly) that life is hard, you have to work hard, that work is not meant to be enjoyable (after all it is called ‘work’) or that work is a means to an ends. Or that only certain kinds of work or behaviors were things that you could do. Or that would earn you an income. Your beliefs, at a very deep level (and sometimes not so deep!) create your reality. Uncover what your negative and limiting beliefs are about ‘work’. What was modeled to you growing up? How did you interpret or react to what you saw? What messages did you receive about money, prosperity, possibilities, what your relatives or community did? Were you trained to belief that work and pleasure can actually go together? [See Archeology of Beliefs article: Vol. 1, Issue 3 in E-zine archives for more about the power of early programming].
Where There Is a Will, There Is a Way:No matter what you like to do there is most likely somebody, somewhere, who has figured out a way to make a living out of it --- and a lucrative one to boot. A few years back I was on a flight with this middle-aged guy next to me who was this crazy skateboard character. Turns out his passion was skateboarding and all things crazy. He made a good living traveling the world as an extreme sports commentator. I actually saw him on MTV a while later. He had figured out how to make skateboarding, good times and talking work for him. Go figure.
Whatever your passion is, there is a way to make it happen. Look at me, I make my living ‘doodling’, working very deeply with people about their work, lives, etc --- many people in my life have mocked the nature and seriousness of what I am into. After several years (and a lot of effort), I have woven all of my supposedly strange interests into a creative and successful livelihood. Where there is a will there is a way.
Seek Out Positive Role Models: There are plenty of nay sayers in the world. Forget about ‘em. Seek out and surround yourself with people who believe things can be done and are doing them. You can jump start your SHIFT-IT process in the work / right livelihood department by being around people of a more uplifting and positive vibration. Their positivity and mindset will rub off on you. Even reading about people you resonate with can be very powerful. So hone up on biographies, interviews, and the like. These resources can open your perspective and shift your thoughts.
Other ways to meet positive people: attend conferences and events. Every year I make a couple of personal development travel trips (last month’s Speed Copy-Writing workshop is a good example). This can be pricey, especially when I’m juggling cash flow and other priority issues in a growing practice. But it’s ultimately worth it to me because of the people I am exposed to and their reality.
Most of these folks play in a bigger league than I currently do. By being around them, I start to see myself in them. If they can do it, so can I. I hear and see what their worlds are like. What they think. What they have accomplished. What their norm is. All of this impacts my own vibration. I go away humming at a higher level than I began. My ideas about my self and what I can accomplish expand exponentially. Consciousness shifts. Like attracts like.
Problems Are Par for the Course: Talking about biographies --- I am currently reading Mark Burnett’s book called “Jump In”. Mark is the television producer that created Eco-Challenge, Survivor and The Apprentice, among other TV shows. This guy has made an incredible livelihood for himself after emigrating from England with next to nothing. One thing that comes across again and again in his book is the naturalness of problems emerging –in fact, he writes: “the only thing you can be certain of in business is that problems you have not thought of are headed your way.”
Yes, there will be problems when you go for creating work that you really love (whether you work for someone else or do your own entrepreneurial thing). It is par for the course. Its unrealistic to think there won’t be. But by anticipating them and accepting them as natural you’ll remain calm when they occur. Problems happen whether you are doing work you dislike or doing work you love. So, if problems will exist regardless, why not go for the work you really enjoy and sort them out as they happen?!
Right Livelihood: A Continuous Process: Creating work that you love is and will continue to be a process. Just when one thing gets worked out, another thing emerges. Things that seem to be catastrophic, with some hindsight and a bigger perspective actually turn out to be blessings. And visa versa. And, what was once enjoyable can become mundane and boring. It is an ever-evolving process. And, that is ok. Just keep asking yourself ‘what feels good to me now?!’. And organize your work and life around the answers. You can create whatever you can imagine and believe. So stretch your thinking to believe you can create work that really works for you.

How to Become a Professional Speaker

2007-07-31T21:45:00.001-07:00

So you've decided you want to make a career of public speaking and want to be the best professional speaker you can be. You have some experience, really enjoyed yourself and feel you have something to contribute. The financial rewards are terrific, you get to travel with all expenses paid, meet new people and see new territories and even new countries.
Whether you are trying to learn more about the speaking industry or you are trying to move from an occasional speaker to professional speaker, there are several resources that you should become familiar with. The best place to start of course is with free resources on the web. It has the best compilation of data available on this topic.
Another excellent resource for information about professional speaking is through newsletters. Many of these are free to join. Two of the most highly recommended sources are: Speaker Fripp News and Great Speaking E-Zine. They can both be found on the web.
Speaker's organizations are another great source for information. The National Speakers Association is the leading organization for people who speak professionally. NSA has excellent resources and educational materials designed to advance your skills. Toastmasters International has long been known as the number one source to gain public speaking experience. They have local chapters in almost all major cities. Another organization to consider is the American Training & Seminar Association. It provides a resource for professional speakers, corporate trainers, and seminar providers. See also The Advanced Public Speaking Institute, which has a huge catalogue of free articles on the speaking profession.
Even the top speaking professionals in the world work hard to keep demand high for their services. As your career moves forward, it is important to keep working at building customer loyalty and expanding your exposure. You can advertise on your own web site, but word of mouth has proven to be the best form of advertising and as your reputation grows people from outside your local area will approach you to present to their group.
Becoming a professional speaker can be rewarding in many ways. First of all it can provide you with an opportunity to earn a fantastic income. You get to travel, set your own schedule, and public speaking will build your self-esteem. You'll be regarded as the expert in your field and that always feels good. Start small, gain experience as you grow, but start. The rewards and benefits are tremendous!

Keeping it Structured - 3 Steps to a Better Presentation Structure

2007-07-31T21:44:00.002-07:00

How many times have you asked yourself during a presentation "wait a minute, how did we get here"? That question is the result of feeling lost in the presentation and not necessarily because you were dozing off. A well thought out presentation structure will help your keep you listeners on track and make your presentation much stronger.
One of the inherent problems with a slide-based presentation program like MS PowerPoint is that takes you visually from one picture to another. So there is often times a break between the various pieces of content. It's easy therefore for inexperienced users (and even some old pros) to concentrate too much on the content of the individual slides and to give less thought to slide order and transition.
A good presentation is a logical progression of ideas that should build up to an ultimate statement, question or call to action. If you are not building good arguments step-by-step you will lose the listener and you will be less effective in your presentation.
So, how do we give our presentation a good structure, you would be correct in asking. Here are three things that I have learned and used successfully over the past few years in my consulting career. I hope that you consider them and that they will be equally successful in your presentations:
1) Ensure that you are using a uniform slide design template for your presentation. Most companies have proprietary PowerPoint template designs, a so-called CI (Corporate Identity), but if your company does not or if you are a student, it is fairly simple to make one (I have tutorial about this coming soon). In either case, company CI or self-created template, use it! This will surprisingly help keep your listeners on track.
2) Always include a "goals" or "target" slide at the beginning of your presentation. This will tell you listeners immediately what your are hoping to achieve with the presentation (not dissimilar to writing a good paper) and helps keep you honest and on track when doing the final checks of your presentation.
3) Separate main points with an agenda point slide. If your presentation is longer than 10 slides, I would encourage you to separate your main sections or chapters with a slide that introduces the fact that you are moving onto another section. It can be simply a blank slide with the name or purpose of the next section on it.

No Virginia, PowerPoint is Not Evil

2007-07-31T21:44:00.001-07:00

Whilst doing some background research for a blog that I wanted to write, I stumbled upon an article by Prof. Tufte of the Yale University entitled "PowerPoint is Evil" in the popular magazine Wired, dated from 2003.
Okay, so this is really old news in Internet years (which are exceptionally similar to dog years) since it came out in 2003. However, Prof. Tufte's article (now one of many on the idea that PowerPoint is evil) as well as his book on the subject is still at topic of discussion today. And so I ask myself, why should such an absurd proclamation still hold our interest today? Further still, I wonder at the many who continue to bandy about this ridiculous statement.
The obvious answer is that most of us have suffered through more than one bad PowerPoint presentation. In the absence of reliable research, I'd wager a guess that we suffer through bad PowerPoint presentations more than 60% of the time.
With so many wasted hours and achingly dull and oftentimes embarrassing presentations lived through, it's no wonder that we seek something to blame. Blaming Power Point, however, is sloppy thinking. Might as well blame a car for all the speeding tickets and parking violations you get.
Clearly, I'm laying the blame for poor presentations squarely at the feet of the presenter rather than naming the tool used to present with as evil. This is an argument that Professor Tufte anticipates to a certain extent and counters by saying that it is the very nature of the pitch which is expected from PowerPoint presentations and their presenters which is corrupt.
But that is, again, not the fault of PowerPoint. It is the fault of an insidious culture of "just give me the headlines" that one finds all too often our businesses today. As I all too often find myself telling clients: business is complicated so do yourself a favor and try to master some of the details.
How we chose to communicate with PowerPoint is very similar to how we chose to drive our cars (or use any other tool to get something done). Misuse a car and you'll get tickets and perhaps even put your life in danger. Misuse PowerPoint and you will thankfully not face the same degree of danger. You will, however, probably not have been able to get your point across and neither been convincing nor successful.

Professional Printing Services

2007-06-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

If you need professional printing services, find out from colleagues, or research the internet to find a good printer which can offer you professional, speedy services. Often choosing a printer will rely on their quick and reliable performance, professional quality and hands on support and customer care on all printing jobs. Your chosen printer should be able to use state of the art printer equipment and technology which will enable and deliver unbeatable value at competitive prices.
Professional printers should be able to offer full color printing services for drawings, plans, manuals, reports, presentations, brochures, newsletters, business cards, folders, postcards, posters, stationery, price lists, leaflets, flyers and more. Often when using a printer the most influential factors are quality and speed of service, many businesses and private customers work to a deadline or a time frame, and it is a professional printing service which can deliver these on time at the best quality possible.
It is recommended that you use a printer which can deliver other useful services such as copying, scanning, document finishing and more. If your printer has had the opportunity to build a strong business relationship with you and your business, this can be advantageous to both parties in terms of delivering and receiving quality at a good response time.
A professional printer can conduct and perform full color printing in all formats, a convenient method to get printing jobs done is to email the file to your chosen printer and they can print it for you. This is a stress-free and easy method of getting printing jobs done. Most good printers will do re-prints of the document if the customer is not satisfied. A good printer will concentrate on customer care and service delivering quality printed documents every time, and building good business relationships with clients, along with delivering quality printed products.
Expect to receive top full color printing services along with digital photo printing, digital printing, general printing services, digital imaging, banner printing, marketing and advertising printing, business printing, print finishing, mounting and laminating and more. Your printer needs to offer a full range of document finishing for expert presentation. Enhance the quality of your printed products by using a printer which can finish your printed item professionally. Choose a printer which can offer comprehensive and quality services at affordable prices.

Facelift Your Website

2007-06-07T06:10:00.000-07:00

How many times have you refreshed the graphics or content of your website? Twice? Once? Not at all?
Many businesses are still hosting first-generation sites that went up at the turn of the millennium. Likewise, the majority of these sites are passé by today's "make-it-useful" standards. Sometimes embarrassingly so.
Internet-savvy businesses will refresh the content on their websites regularly. Think about the impression a site that's a year out of date will have on visitors.
It takes a little dated information for visitors to conclude they've hit a dead end . Plus, when a big-deal client clicks on your "urgent" invitation to attend an upcoming seminar, only to find that the event came and went a year ago he will feel annoyed and foolish. And you'll be toast.
So consider this a noisy wakeup call. It's the 21st century. Is your website still looking like it's 1999?
Site Specific Suggestions Small business sites obviously run a gamut. But for the purposes of site facelifts, differences boil down to how frequently you must make changes. Consulting services may update sites only quarterly or even annually. Ecommerce sites or research companies may require updates by the hour.
Whatever your needs, you can now find appropriate and affordable off-the-shelf software and third-party service providers to do the job. You can, for instance, put a fresh "skin" on your old site without disrupting any functionality.
Here are 11 ideas culled from web marketers and developers that can modernise your site without excessive costs.
1. Reduce the Number of Site Pages Focus on redesigning only the core 10 to 15 pages, suggests Matt Greer, chief executive at Zeeo Interactive, a Web design services company. You can then archive any remaining popular or highly trafficked pages into Adobe PDF or Microsoft Word documents that are suitable for download.
2. Make the Site a Marketing Tool If you're not yet capturing data basics, such as which sites and search engines visitors are clicking from or which pages get most visitors, get started now.

How To Make Effective Presentations

2007-05-28T21:26:00.003-07:00

Have you ever had to make a presentation to a group? Maybe it was to a client. Or, maybe to a group at your Church about an idea you had? If you have avoided making a presentation so far, you are probably, more lucky than good. Eventually we all have to make presentations. Sometimes it is good to make presentations, to inform, educate, and motivate others for a specific purpose. When it is either your responsibility to present, or your opportunity to present, here are some guidelines that will help you make your point effectively.
Visual impact has the greatest, longest lasting impact – show as much or more visually as what you say. Use pictures, use color. Use diagrams and models. Use people, especially children, when safe and appropriate.
Use whatever it takes to make your point. Be safe, be practical, be appropriate, but be memorable. Bring in props, use music.
Build up to points in logical steps that lead your audience to the obvious conclusion you want them to make.
Use spaced interval learning on major points. Reshow visuals, repeat points and ideas several times during your presentation. Put them in your summary too.
Use timing, silence, and “the pregnant pause” to increase your impact. Think about how comedians and serious actors use these devices. Ask questions, and then wait for the answers. Lead, tease, and make them wait.
Develop a list of zingers. These are statistics, quotes, pictures, and concepts that stop your audience. They make them say, “Wow, I didn’t know that!” Spread your zingers throughout your presentations. This will keep your audience listening and wondering, “What will she say next?”
Interact with your audience where practical and not disruptive. Draw them into your presentation. Play games with them. Have them role-play a scenario. Ask questions and make them answer.
Always maintain control. Give a short break if a heckler or other person is disruptive. If you see people nodding off or talking to others, stop, have everyone stand and stretch. Before you begin, ask politely but firmly for everyone to turn off his or her cell phone and beeper. If they cannot, ask them to sit in the last row, ringer on silent and leave the room to speak if called.
If you make a goof or mistake, admit it, smile and go on. It will eventually happen to you. Do not allow it to disrupt you when it does. Let it go and keep moving. If it is a funny mistake, laugh at it yourself too.
If a person questions a statistic or statement or asks for your source, if you do not have it immediately available say, “thank you, I’ll check into that. I do want to be accurate,” and go on. Do not argue or engage them, even if you are 100% certain. Finish your presentation and then privately discuss the issue if it warrants it. If you verify your sources, this will seldom occur.
These ten suggestions should allow you to make effective presentations and enjoy it at the same time. Practice will help you improve. It is a good idea to rehearse a presentation several times before the actual presentation. Time yourself when you practice. Make sure you stay within your time limit. It is better to end a little early than to drag on a minute too long. Experience will teach you the most about presentations; however, these guidelines will certainly get you started.

To Be Early Is To Be On Time

2007-05-28T21:26:00.001-07:00

I’ve been in the classroom for the past 29 years. During that time, I’ve had the opportunity to travel a lot with my choirs and bands. To prepare students for these trips, I had them learn my “mantra” concerning time ( I don’t know where I got it from, but I’ve been using it professionally and personally for over thirty years).
“To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be in late, and to be late is to be in trouble”. For those of my students who followed the “late” timing, they quickly found that late night running solved their problems. I also “left: my fair share of chaperones at the hotel for not being ready to leave. Sounds harsh? Maybe--- but, it does teach us lessons that can be moved into the presentation arena.
As a presenter, being early to a presentation is a “win-win” scenario for both you as the presenter and the audience. The following is a listing and explanations of the benefits of being early to a presentation.
Benefits for presenter:
- You can check out the layout of the venue--- sometimes the chair/table layout of the room may not be what you desire
- You get a chance to check the lighting of the room--- the room itself may not reach the “specs” that were sent to you. Instead of adjustable lighting, your room may have fluorescent lights only.
- The audience “goodies” may not be in place--- your audience will always appreciate water at the back of the room. You may even want to provide mints or hard candies of some type.
- Set the room temperature. It will take time for the room temperature to adjust. You don’t want a room where you can hang meat or feel that you’ve just gotten into a tanning bed.
- Focus on technology. If anything can go wrong, it will be technology. Does the slide show run, can the audience see the screen, does the projector work, is the microphone enough or too much for the room. This is the time where you test all of the elements. Run your presentation with the technology to find any potential glitches
Benefits for Audience:
- The audience will have a better chance in seeing a successful presentation. Audience Advocacy contains important concepts… design/deliver the presentation in the way you as an audience member would appreciate participating. “Prior preparation prevents poor performance”. Make each presentation successful for the presenter and the audience.
- You’ll be able to “bond” with your audience as they enter the room. This interaction and “getting to know the audience” will help create a positive rapport between the presenter and the audience.
To interject a “personal” learning moment about being early to a presentation site as a presenter… I recently presented at the ASCD (Association of Superintendents and Curriculum Developers) convention in Anaheim, CA. Prior to the convention, we were to send in out requests for equipment for the room. Due to changes in airline carry-ons, I opted to rent a projector at the convention site (first mistake). When I got to the room, there was no LCD projector but an overhead projector instead. By arriving early, I had an hour and a half to find an LCD projector and have it sent to the room. From that point, I went into normal preparation mode. Moral of the story--- if I hadn’t arrived early, the presentation would have still been delivered, but without the PowerPoint support materials. To this end, I’m a firm believer in living the mantra…
“To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be in late, and to be late is to be in trouble”. I suggest you incorporate this into your “presentation lifestyle” as well.

Humorous Motivational Speakers Add Laughter To Meetings, If You Ask The Right Questions!

2007-05-28T21:25:00.003-07:00

The process of hiring a Humorous Motivational Speaker for your next meeting or event can be a daunting task. In today’s politically correct work environment choosing the right Humorous Motivational Speaker that can add appropriate and relevant humor can be a challenge.
The ideal Humorous Motivational Speaker you hire should have proven expertise in the speaking business and an exceptional command of the spoken word and humor. There are several questions you can ask the speaker to minimize any questions you have before you hire them, they are:
1.) Is the speaker a member of the National Speakers Association –NSA or the International Federation of Professional Speakers – IFFPS.
2.) How many paid presentations has the Humorous Motivational Speaker provided for your specific industry or association.
3.) Has the Humorous Motivational Speaker ever missed a speech and if so, does he have a backup speaker in case of bad weather or airplane mechanical problems.
4.) Does the Humorous Motivational Speaker have a pre-program questionnaire that asks detailed questions about your company or association so they can truly customize their program to speak to your issues and challenges?
5.) Does the Humorous Motivational Speaker have a video demo of their speech that you can view?
6.) Does the Humorous Motivational Speaker have several testimonial letters from past satisfied clients that you can contact?
If you ask these simple, yet thorough questions, you can mitigate your risk when hiring a Humorous Motivational Speaker and have a truly successful event with lots of laughs! Meeting Planners have enough stress just planning a successful event, they don't need the added headaches of hiring a speaker that represents themselves as a professional and then fails to deliver. As they say in the Army "forewarned is forearmed" and if you take the time to interview the speaker and ask him a few simple questions, you are sure to have a fun and memorial meeting!

Conference Call Services

2007-05-28T21:25:00.001-07:00

When I think back about how I used to communicate with my business associates 10 years ago it boggles my mind that conference calling wasn’t a part of my tool set. It’s easy to look back and critique the inefficiencies of the past but I simply couldn’t operate without a conference call system today.
Anyone in sales can appreciate the many benefits. It wasn’t long ago that I was logging thousands of air miles to simply make presentations that can now be accomplished with a conference call or even a web conference. Business owners are truly reaping the benefits as a result of the cost savings and productivity has increased dramatically as a result. For example, what once took 15 hours can now be accomplished in 30 minutes.
The ability to communicate with a few as three and as many as a thousand people at once appeals to the smart businessman and it’s not uncommon for small business owners to host conference calls as well.
So how much does it cost to host your own conference call? Well that depends. Some providers are still charging a premium and they appear to be living off their existing customer base because the costs have plummeted. I’ve actually used free conference call providers and had no issues. The call quality and features are in line with paid services, however if you’re looking to provide your clients a toll-free number to call then you’re going to need a paid service. Additionally, paid conference call providers typically offer a larger conference size.
So how expensive are paid conference calls? Like anything, the costs vary but on average it’s about 10 cents per minute per participant on a toll-free line. That may not seem like much but if you have 150 people on the line it’s costing you $15 per minute and that’s just under a grand for an hours worth of talk time so it’s important that your agenda is planned out.
At first glance paid conference calls may seem a bit steep but consider the cost to fly 150 people to a conference center, add hotel charges and of course, down time, and at point conference calling looks to be a bargain and perhaps free conference calls are the best deal in town.
So if your manager is still living in the stone ages, find a tactful way to recommend conference calling as a cost savings measure. Take a few minutes to create a cost analysis based upon the number of participants in your company and it’s an easy sell. And don’t forget, make sure you take the credit!

For Healthier and Happier Employees, Hire A Funny Speaker!

2007-05-28T21:24:00.002-07:00

Insurance Companies in the United States spent over 300 billion dollars in stress-related compensation claims last year. It is estimated that in Britain work-related stress is responsible for six million days of sick leave a year, with stress also being linked to many minor and major illnesses. Technology and globalization was supposed to make all of our lives less stressful and simpler, but the opposite is true. Every day thousands of employees sit through boring, poorly planned and stressful meetings to hear about “Making the Numbers” or “The latest Benefits cut”.
Why not make your next meeting or event less stressful and add some humor by hiring a “Funny Speaker”. Laughter is the great connecter to all people regardless of race, gender or religion. Laughter also has significant health benefits that can reduce work related stress, they are:Helps control high blood pressure and heart disease. While there are many factors for these like heredity, obesity, smoking and excessive intake of saturated fats, stress is one of the major factors.
Laughter definitely helps to control blood pressure by reducing the release of stress-related hormones and bringing relaxation. Increasing stamina through increased oxygen supply Alleviates pain and gives a sense of well being by releasing endorphins, the body’s painkiller hormones. Effective antidote for depression, anxiety and psychosomatic disorders: laughter boosts the production of serotonin, a natural anti-depressant. Gives an excellent internal massage to the digestive tract and enhances blood supply to important internal organs like the liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys and adrenal glands. Brings a happy glow to your face and makes your eyes shine with a thin film of tears which are squeezed from the lachrymal sacs during the act of laughter.
Laughter helps to remove the negative effects of STRESS, which is the number one killer today. More than 70% of illnesses like high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, depression, frequent coughs and colds, peptic ulcers, insomnia, allergies, asthma, menstrual difficulties, tension headaches, stomach upsets and even cancer, have some connection to stress. So, next time you want to add some more mirth to your meeting, consider hiring a “Funny Speaker!

Visualizing for Success or "I Can See It Now"

2007-05-28T21:24:00.001-07:00

Probably one of the most important weapons in the toolbox of successful speakers and presenters to improving delivery is to visualize being successful. Many people may assume that this no more than daydreaming, but I believe if you see yourself visually succeeding… chances are, you’ll ultimately be successful. In reality, this concept is an extension of “power of positive thinking”. Success and good things generally happen to those individuals who think positively. As a presenter, if you think positively and visualize your presentation as being successful… chances are you will succeed. Does this happen in every circumstance? Absolutely not! There are many outside parameters that are going to affect the success or failure of your presentation. The next question most people would ask would be… “If I visualize success and it doesn’t happen, should I stop wasting my time visualizing”? Again, I say no. We can learn from our failures even if we visualize success. The best way to do this is to analyze what actually occurred versus what we visualized. By doing this, we’ll soon discover that some of our techniques may not be as effective to the audience as we have perceived them. Here’s a great example at my own benefit…
I was recently involved in the International Toastmasters International speech competition. I won the club, area and division competitions. Now it was time for the state competition. Prior to the weekend, I watched recordings of speakers for a month. I practiced. I visualized incorporating some of the physical concepts they used into my speech. I visualized my delivery, facial expressions, gestures, the vocal inflections I used. I visualized every detail that I could imagine that I would use during the course of my speech. Needless to say, I didn’t win. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even place! Not only did I feel that my delivery was wonderful, as many other toastmasters present thought so as well… after analyzing the speech--- where I fell down was the content of the speech. It was a good speech, but it wasn’t International Contest level material. That’s where I failed and the aspect I’ve learned that I have to correct to improve. By comparing my visualization of the speech with the actual delivery (a recording), I can see the technical elements of the delivery that I successfully visualized versus the delivery elements that I unsuccessfully visualized as being “good”. By using self analysis to compare the visualization with reality, I can become a better speaker and presenter. I know and “see” what I need to do to relate / react to the audience… I know and “see” what I need to do to keep an audience involved during the speech… I know and “see” what I need to do to use emotional “grabs” to touch the emotions of the audience.
By combining the concepts of visualization, post-presentation analysis and re-visualization, I will continue to improve the techniques I already possess which will keep me on course to make me a better speaker/presenter. Visualization is a valuable tool that everyone should use to help make themselves a better speaker/presenter. This is something that I recommend you incorporate into your toolkit as soon as possible!

Lithographic Printing

2007-05-25T03:14:00.003-07:00

There are a breathtakingly enormous number of printers around the world. These range from Lithographers to screen printers and include a variety in between. I will discuss lithography in some depth for those interested.
Lithography begins with the process of taking a design that has been created by a designer, who in the modern world uses a computer based software design tool, and transferring it to a transparency, which is done in turn by a reproduction expert or team thereof, so what is produced is a kind of template that can in turn be transferred to a Lithography plate, via a particular chemical process. The purpose of this endeavor is to produce a surface that will transfer a liquid ink impression onto a piece of material, most commonly paper, to be used as a graphic stimulation for the purpose of conveying some sort of message to a perceptive human being. The usual uses of this process include book production, newspaper production, magazine production, packaging for goods production, Flyers, notebooks, business cards, pamphlets, brochures, letterheads, compliment slips, tax invoices, receipts, delivery notes, bibles and Korans, and a whole collection of other stationary and media applications.
Some of the services of litho companies include, Lithographic printing, where using the abovementioned procedures, individual colours are transferred onto sheets or reams of paper, one at a time. A separate litho plate is used for each colour, and therefore a separate transparency as well. Also die cutting, where the sheets of paper are cut into specific shapes and sizes, to create aesthetic or practical items. Folding involves a machine that automatically receives and folds paper pieces or boxes into the required form. Embossing is the pushing up or down of specific areas on a printed page to create a three dimensional impression, it can be quite impressive. Varnishing is where a machine will coat the surface of a sheet or ream of paper to create a glossy and highly protective finish, this is practical and pleasing to the eye. Gold Leaf is where areas of the print are coated with a gold paint or ink to make it stand out more. Numbering is utilized in cases where a book has numbered entries in duplicate, singular, or triplicate, such as a tax invoice book or delivery book. Guillotining is where they cut the final product into its neat and completed form, such as trim the edges off of a pile of brochures or what have you.
A Printing firm or factory typically consists of various departments that correspond to the abovementioned itinerary. One will see a paper store, where reserve paper is kept in reams or rolls (in the case of web printing). A store manager will be employed to control the income and usage of paper materials. One will also see a die cutting section, where the machines and the store of dies will stay. One will normally encounter a series of lithography printing machines, which require constant attendance by an operator, and also maintenance by a technician. One would see a group of workers manually folding and finishing work that is too complex for a machine to handle.
These are to name but a few of the many aspects of lithography. The modern advances in the technology are to vast to continue discussing in one article, but rest assured, more knowledge can be found abundantly online or in libraries.

How To Make Effective Presentations

2007-05-25T03:14:00.001-07:00

To Be Early Is To Be On Time

2007-05-25T03:13:00.003-07:00

Humorous Motivational Speakers Add Laughter To Meetings, If You Ask The Right Questions!

2007-05-25T03:13:00.001-07:00

Conference Call Services

2007-05-25T03:12:00.001-07:00

For Healthier and Happier Employees, Hire A Funny Speaker!

2007-05-25T03:11:00.000-07:00

The Death of Bullet Points

2007-05-23T02:26:00.001-07:00

When was the last time you went to a presentation and came away impressed by the slides?
It is, of course, fashionable these days to speak negatively about PowerPoint, and how most on-screen presentations put audiences to “death” with an onslaught of one bullet-pointed paragraph of words after another. It is also true that the same people who like to trash PowerPoint often create mind-numbing program themselves, and then claim that it’s not their fault – their bosses make them beget slides that turn brains to butter.
Although businesspeople are pretty much stuck with PowerPoint these days, and probably will be for the foreseeable future, there have been a few pioneers out there who are trying to change the ways we use slides to convey information or persuade others to see things our way. And so even though PowerPoint is still very much alive and kicking, we think that bullet points as knowledge builders might be doomed: some designers at the cutting edge are trying new forms and structures.
One person whose work you should know if you don’t already is Cliff Atkinson. According to Michael McLaughlin, coauthor with Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants, “Cliff Atkinson believes he's built a better mouse trap. He wants us to dump boring, bullet-riddled slides, and he has a creative solution: he taps Hollywood-style storytelling to transform PowerPoint presentations from endless lists of bullet points into compelling communications.”
Atkinson’s book Beyond Bullet Points shows you how to use the power of storytelling to make PowerPoint presentations effective communication tools, not just speaker notes. With Atkinson’s method, you not only produce presentations that are not boring, but you are also forced to think about what you are saying in a way that all audiences relate to: telling them a story.
You should also be aware of Lawrence Lessig, who has created a buzz over the last couple years with what he believes is a "minimalist" presentation design approach. It's interesting, and definitely worth getting up to speed on it if you're in the presentation business. The best example of this style that we've seen is in a keynote given by a guy named Dick Hardt. You really need to watch this performance to appreciate its power as an antidote to the common business presentation. Here is just one link: http://identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/.
The problem I have with this approach is that while its followers consider it minimalist because there is typically no more that one word or image on the screen at a time, virtually EVERY word in the narrative is projected, so that with a little practice, the presenter simply delivers a completely pre-written script. It is interesting to watch and definitely holds your attention throughout, but rather than putting the presenter at the center of the process, the result is that 99% of the audience's attention is drawn to the screen.
The really scary thing here is that it probably will have huge appeal to NewGens and younger, who unfortunately have no idea how to relate to another human except thru the interface of some electronic device. So this is presentation as video-game / hip hop / text-message-me-from-the-end-of-the-bar. The presentation IS the screen, and the presenter gets kudos for his electronic design skills rather than her ability to be human.
Of course, your Master of the PowerPoint Universe here has not been asleep at the switch for the past couple years, and this May 23rd will see the World Premiere of what PublicSpeakingSkills.com is offering up as a whole new language of presentation design, with its own very tight grammar, all based on using minimalism to focus the audience on the presenter.
We haven't yet decided how to brand it ("Beyond Bullet Points" is already taken, and "Pointless" doesn't sound very value-added). Internally we've been referring to it as The Language of the Bar because we use vertical lines (bars) instead of bullet points to both set off paragraph levels and also presage to both the presenter and the audience how much more (if any) will follow on the screen after the last reveal.
It occurred to us a while ago that whereas bullet points do work to set off one huge group of words from another huge group (the 3-line 'paragraphs' we usually see), they don't make a lot of sense when you do what you should do and never have more than a few words on each line. The line itself sets off the one point from the next. So if you're using PowerPoint properly, that is, to simply key the audience where you're going and key you to what you're going to say, bullets become superfluous. Bonus: your slides look a lot cleaner without them.
Back to this new presentation language: although both Atkinson and Lessig dispense with bullet points, we believe that rather than just throwing out structure altogether, there are increases in both comprehension and retention when the presentation conforms to a set of predictable rules - a grammar, if you will. We believe that when your grammar presages what's to come (in a haiku, for instance, you know exactly how many words are coming next), you create both heightened expectation and the comfort of knowing how much brain RAM you have to reserve.
Long-term readers know we’re committed to showing the world that PowerPoint (and also Apple's Keynote, which we’ve been using lately) is NOT the problem. We don't know if this is the answer, but we know you'll really, really like what you see. See you on the 23rd?

Passion and the Pause

2007-05-23T02:25:00.003-07:00

Just this week I was invited to San Jose for two days to train and assess over 30 speakers at a conference of high-tech companies eager to hear what predictions these presenters had about the future of the industry.
My overarching assessment of the group of five who presented to the entire assembly: unlike any other organization I have worked with in the past ten years, these people ALL possessed the one ingredient that makes the whole presentation process work – passion. The truth is, you can almost break all the ‘rules’ about proper delivery if in the end you deliver your message with true passion, and the five main presenters all did exactly that.
Peggy Noonan, the WSJ columnist and speechwriter for President Reagan, is fond of saying (speaking about the audience), “They won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. In the high-tech business, there are many people who know a great deal. But their knowledge matters very little if they can’t convey what they know with a level of passion that drives people to sit up and listen.
After all, it’s not likely that anybody in the audience is going to care more about your topic than you do, so to ensure that audiences come away interested and motivated to learn more, it’s incumbent upon the speaker to stretch to the point of almost going over the top with passion and enthusiasm for their topic.
So for this group, my suggestions for improvement would actually be for them to back off a little on their preparation. That might sound odd, but the reality is most everyone spent tens of hours practicing their material to the point that they knew their “scripts” by heart. And though it obviously returned great results, the approach we teach for successful delivery involves working less, rather than more. In fact, that’s our Number 1 rule:
1) If you’re working too hard, you’re doing it wrong.
The other two tenants of our teaching are:
2) When you’re doing it right, it’s always a Win-Win for both the speaker and the audience, and
3) People only Start listening when you Stop talking.
Getting back to Rule #1, it is our long-held belief that the bedrock for presenting well is having a thoroughly comfortable presenter. A comfortable presenter doesn’t only make the audience feel comfortable, and thus conducive to new information uptake, but sets the stage for the presenter to let go with her passion, which, as I’ve said, is what it’s all about.
For the speaker to be as comfortable as possible, she must have learned two skills: the ability to engage in structured and controlled eye contact with individuals in the audience, and the understanding of how much and of what type of information one can bring onto the screen at any one time. With just these two skills (of the many we teach), the speaker frees himself of the huge, huge burdens that most carry to the platform. And with the incredibly lighter load our students bear, they find the ability to expend their excess energy in directed, meaningful output that audiences read as, that’s right, passion.
Unfortunately, most presenters (understandably) believe that their content is the most important aspect of the presentation process. Yet research proves this to be undeniably not true. The sad fact is that no matter how important your content might be, if you don’t both look good (confident & comfortable) and sound good (with the solid timbre of sincerely and expertise in your voice), nobody will take what you say seriously enough for you to have any impact. Concentrating on the content too often results in losing the big picture – people need to hear and see how much you care about what you say.
These presenters could also benefit from learning the other 2 rules, especially rule #3, which is the rule that separates very good speakers from memorable ones.
Please understand this: Unless they’ve been trained differently, when people get up to speak before a group, the most important thing on their minds is always the next thing they’re going to say. Most speakers know that as long as they keep hearing words come out of their mouth, things will be fine. But God help them if that stream ever stops – what if they can’t get it started again? What if they forget what they’re supposed to say? So they abate that fear by speaking constantly – one word after another, usually in appended phrases instead of full sentences – until (thank God!) they get to sit back down.
Once again, standard behavior works against efficient Knowledge Transfer. When audience members are forced to sit through a never-ending barrage of verbiage, it’s just like trying to read a college physics textbook that goes on for page after page without a paragraph break. After a short while, the brain surrenders and just shuts down, deciding to wait for the handout.
In order for audiences to hear, and more importantly retain, what was said they need frequent and constant breaks in the monologue – the equivalent of the paragraph in written text. Next time you pick up a newspaper, note that the average number of sentences in a newspaper paragraph is 1.5. Short bursts of information and then a break.

An Example of Insolvency Practitioners in the United Kingdom

2007-05-23T02:25:00.001-07:00

An insolvency practitioner is also known as an administrator. An insolvency practitioner is a professional advisor who works for a firm such as Wilson Field located in the United Kingdom. Wilson Field is a firm that is dedicated to helping individuals and businesses get back on their feet financially. An insolvency practitioner is hired by a company in order to assist that company in a time of financial trouble.
An administration is a type of insolvency service that is a relatively new procedure that is aimed at assisting companies in financial distress. The administration insolvency service protects the company from creditors while a restructuring plan is being developed.
The administration service employs an insolvency practitioner who is deemed to by an administrator of a company. The insolvency practitioner is responsible for managing the company’s assets, business and affairs. An insolvency practitioner allows a company to see how to recover financially and to repay creditors.
An administrator or insolvency practitioner is appointed to a company by order of a court or the holder of a floating charge or by the directors of the company. The number one concern of the insolvency practitioner is to rescue the company financially.
An insolvency practitioner is someone who can set up a company voluntary arrangement or an individual voluntary arrangement. This is an agreement in which an individual or company agrees to pay back their creditors. The arrangement sets up a low monthly fee that allows the company or individual to pay off their debts. This ends the harassing phone calls and letters from creditors.
No one likes to fall behind on their bills. Many people struggle and strive to pay all of their bills on time but many times in life we fall behind for one reason or another. An insolvency practitioner is the resolution to financial freedom and future financial planning.

The Brown Bag

2007-05-23T02:24:00.002-07:00

Thirteen-year-old Gary woke up with anxiety. Today is the day, he thought. I have to bring it with me. Mom told me it was what I needed, so it must be okay, he assured himself. However, even that small effort of self-assurance was not enough to calm the doubt that plagued his adolescent mind.
Gary quickly got ready, gathered all his schoolbooks, some change for lunch, and “it” – The Brown Bag. “Boy, this is heavy”, he thought. He didn’t remember it being that massive the night before. His mother calmly assured him everything was okay and encouraged him out the door.
Upon arriving at school, Gary became immediately self-conscious. Where are all the other brown bags, he thought? Did I miss something, he wondered? Out of fear of embarrassment, he darted to his destination. Now at his planned location, Gary slowly pushed the door open as he made his way to make his delivery. He was given a task, a task that he was anxious to complete – to drop off the contents of the brown bag. The task was simple, place the item in the brown bag on the table and walk away.
What Gary saw that day was a neatly stacked row of what appeared to be the smallest urine samples of his peers for the school’s annual health examination – each small in size with the name of its owner. What was buried in his brown bag was the large mayonnaise jar his mother provided him the night before with his name in the boldest black font. Gary lifted the behemoth sample from the bag, quickly turned his boldly printed name to face the wall, and walked away in utter horror as his sample glistened in the fluorescent light of the nurse’s waiting room.
He wasn’t intending to outdo his peers, but the size of his contribution was obviously far superior. It communicated passion for the project and diligence with the task. In all seriousness, the perception that day was that Gary approached the task with an extra level of seriousness or maybe a misunderstanding of instructions. Either way, he was judged by the size of his contribution, but that is a story for another day.
Gary learned a valuable lesson that day – in a world of judges, the game of life is all about perception. As humans, we all get judged for what we present to others and the world. The delivery of a presentation is just the same – it is all about perception.
Here are some tips to help develop a positive perception of you the next time you step up to the podium.
The Power of SilenceSam Rayburn, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, once said, “No one has a finer command of language than the person who keeps his mouth shut.” The best way to begin any talk is with silence. Silence builds anticipation. Silence demonstrates command. Silence is the strongest start.
Talk Like a Human BeingGenerally, there are two kinds of speakers: the untrained and trained. The untrained speakers often deliver presentations that are unmemorable, difficult to follow, and wasteful of one’s time. The trained speaker comes across as memorized, rehearsed, and unnatural. Both fail in that they don’t talk like a human being. They lack authenticity and a natural voice. Great speakers are conversationalists. They understand that they are unique, different, and have a story to tell. They aren’t untrained or trained, they are sincere with their delivery.
Focus on a Child It’s amazing how many presenters use “business talk” that often leaves their audience guessing, wondering, and confused. Great speakers know how to deliver messages that are clear, concise, and simple. Here’s a great rule of thumb: If an eight-year-old cannot recite your three main points at the conclusion of your talk, you’ve delivered an unclear message. Keep it simple and you will keep it memorable.
The lesson here is that we live in a world full of judges. Keep your message concise. Keep it clear. Keep it simple. And most importantly, be yourself. People will judge you. That is the fact of life. However, let them judge you for who you really are – not a poser, but an authentic voice.

The Letterhead of the 21st Century

2007-05-23T02:24:00.001-07:00

I have been in business for 16 years in a variety of industries - but what was common for all, was I would never let my staff mail out a letter unless it was on a company letterhead.
It didn't matter if that letter was to a prospective customer, to pay an account, or to the Prime Minister, - any correspondence leaving our premises had to be on a letterhead and neatly presented.
So the question I pose - as a business owner would you/or do you, allow your staff to send out company quotes, mail outs, or even general correspondence on a plain piece of paper - or not on company letterhead? I thought not... In today's fast paced world - email and computer generated correspondence is fast replacing the old, print, mail and post scenario common from yesteryear. Thus it comes to a great surprise that a number of small and medium sized businesses and their owners have not adapted their circumstances to suit the modern cyberspace world and continue to allow their staff to send out plain paper mail - via email.
Yes - plain paper email - messages, correspondence, quotations, and letters without any company logos or references.
True Story My girlfriend was sourcing quotes recently, for some shutters at home.
She had asked 2 companies to quote - and they both came in approximately around $10 000.
She brought the two quotes home for us to both make the decision on who we would choose to install them. The first quote I looked at was professionally presented on a company letterhead and came with some colour brochures of the shutters.
However, the second quote (the least expensive quote) was on a plain piece of paper with no logos or company description on it. At the bottom it simply said - Thanks Craig.
My immediate and gut reaction was to go with the more expensive, better and professionally presented quote - as the shutters were costing a small fortune, I wanted quality work and needed to deal with a reputable company.
I was later informed that the second cheaper quote had come via email.
That may have been the case - but how many people are judging you and your company on the initial presentation, like I did in my shutter purchase.
Worse still - how many $10 000 jobs was this company losing because of the way they were presenting their quotes - via a plain email format?
Email has come a long way since its inception as a plain text form of correspondence. Today's email can be a combination of visually rich images and interactive elements, clickable links and interactive forms, which engage the receiver.Even the more exotic things can now be done in an Email, such as embedding sound or video data.
I pose another question? Do you or your staff currently have a signature file at the bottom of every email correspondence? If you are asking what is a signature file? - then I am assuming you don't. A signature file is the set of text that you attach to the end of all of your emails that identifies you, your company's products and services. A signature file generally contains the name of the person who is writing the mail, the business or company name, preferred means of contacting the person or the company, and the information showing the benefits of contacting the person or the company.
Dynamic Emails however are the next generation of signature files. A dynamic email is principally a 21st century letterhead, incorporating the basics of a signature file into a fully interactive letterhead for your business.
Dynamic emails let you and your staff
send personalised and professional emails that are company standard and consistent
have visually appealing messages that make your company stand out from your competitors.
incorporate interactive forms or clickable links to your website
keep your brand, service or product top of mind with your clients (become on-sellers of your business)
load automatically for ease of use and control of company branding
give you an electronic letterhead for every email message you and your staff send. Consistency and standardisation is the key when you and your staff are communicating your message to the outside world. You could probably build a dynamic email or letterhead for yourself by putting a few logos or images on an email in a html format. Chances are though that either you will make the resulting file way too large and it will take forever to download on the other end (upsetting the end user) - or the look and design of your email will not look the same on the other end (due to different email applications). As well there is a good chance of your email getting picked up by the SPAM filter. There are a number of techniques a professional will use in ensuring that your companys' dynamic emails are consistent modern day letterheads.

Don't Scare Them Away: Great Tips for Giving a Stellar Webinar Presentation

2007-05-23T02:23:00.000-07:00

You have a product or a service you’re planning to market on the web. That’s great, but have you considered that a large part of your success depends on your personality? It’s easy to forget with the relative anonymity of the Internet that character and characteristics will show through. We like the idea of doing business in our bunny slippers, but whether it’s a phone interview, a webinar, or the making of a CD for customers, you still need to present yourself as a professional when dealing with the public.
1. Plan the time to do the job well.
Set a time and a duration limit for your presentation. In some cases these things may be set for you, but either way, assure that nothing interrupts. Turn off the phone, make sure there’s someone watching your kids, see that your pets are under control and contented, put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door (disconnect the doorbell if necessary). Nothing screams “amateur” like an unplanned interruption.
Allow yourself time before the presentation to prepare and focus. You’ll want to have everything you might need at hand, so think about it ahead of time. (Will you need a sip of water from time to time, did you visit the bathroom, is the temperature comfortably cool?) Then spend the last few minutes doing some relaxing stretches, deep breathing or meditation to make yourself as calm as possible.
2. Present the best you there is
The downside to remote contacts is that you can’t dazzle your listener with your beauty-queen smile. However, experts tell us that it’s mostly tone of voice that makes a person decide whether to believe a speaker or not. All you have to make an impression in cyberspace is your voice and your diction, so work on what you say and how you say it.
The first rule is “Be businesslike”. This does NOT mean overly formal. You can be warm and still project a professional attitude. Think about good game show hosts: Their language is proper, their grammar is correct, and they avoid overly personal remarks about themselves and their guests. That is professional behavior, and you should take note: your listeners don’t want to know your opinion of the U.S. government, and they don’t care if your mother needs an operation.
The best you does not include corny jokes, either. It’s scary how many lame attempts at humor we’ve seen on web-based contacts. The problem is that you don’t know your listener’s sense of humor, and he or she might not understand yours. It’s best to skip the jokes, although as an interview or question session proceeds, there may be opportunities to add humor to your answers. Again, think game show hosts: nothing off-color, nothing too personal.
One thing you may not have considered is that with the Internet, it is possible you will be speaking to someone from another culture, someone whose first language is not English. This is another reason for watching your diction and syntax carefully. Using slang and idioms might confuse listeners unnecessarily, and humor often doesn’t translate well between languages and nationalities.
3. The customer/boss is always right
There are bound to be times when problems arise. Whether it’s a prospective employer whose website just crashed so she has to reschedule or problems with your listeners receiving your webinar, you must be gracious and accommodating. While you can’t accede to every request, you must be willing to listen to every request. While it may not be your fault that things aren’t going well, be willing to apologize for any inconvenience the problems cause. After all, an apology doesn’t cost you anything, and you don’t have to accept blame. Just say, “I’m sorry you’re having difficulty.” Most people want their pain acknowledged; they realize that it can’t always be taken away.
4. Organize early and often
Long before you advertise your webinar or answer that ad, you should do your homework. What do you need to know to do this? How should you organize the information to best present it or find it when it’s needed? Start making notes as things come up. One good way to keep track of information is to put it on note cards, which can be set into stacks of related information. You can of course use your computer as a big notebook, but if you do, make sure you know where everything is. You don’t want to keep someone waiting while you do a file search to find an address.
However you record the info, familiarize yourself with it days in advance. It should be no problem to put your finger (or your icon) on the information you need in seconds.
5. Overcome obstacles
Things happen that mess you up. If on the morning of your webinar you break your ankle and spend the day in the emergency room, you may have to make some adjustments. The good news is that your audience will willingly forgive you for a real emergency. An account of why your advertised guest speaker won’t be here today, if honest and brief, will fly. Of course you should offer something of equal value to replace what’s missing: a free entry to the next webinar or a downloadable “goodie”. If it’s an interview, offer to reschedule at the other person’s convenience. Remember, the customer/boss is always right.
I went to hear a speaker once who arrived a few minutes late and a little disheveled. He used his excuse as an introduction, and the audience was soon on his side. On the way to the venue he’d seen a young deer caught in a fence along the freeway. Unable to stand seeing the animal struggle, he stopped, waded through the damp ditch, and helped it get free. Not only did we approve of his kindness, we applauded his courage-those little hooves are sharp!
6. Practice makes better
The final rule should be first, last and in-between: practice! Talk to yourself, talk to a friend, talk to a tape recorder. Listen to yourself and critique. Does your voice sound too high? This is usually easy to fix, just relax your throat. If the volume is too loud or too soft, you’ll hear that on the tape. Are you a fast talker or too slow? You want your speech to be varied in pace so you don’t lose your audience. Listen for mumbling, words slurred, consonants left out at the ends of words. Be picky with your enunciation, especially sloppiness with words like “comin’”, “coulda” and “gotta”. Practice saying “yes” instead of “yeah”.
Practice will help you get wording down so your communication falls into natural rhythms and convincing phrases. While you should not read from a script (reading sounds much different from speaking), you do want certain points to come through. Outline your presentation or make a list of points you hope to cover in an interview. Again, note cards are good. You can set each one aside as you work it into the presentation.
7. Be physically alert, even without video It may sound odd, but you may want to dress up a little for your presentation. True, your listeners can’t see you, but you know how you look. If you change your clothes for a webinar you may feel more professional (even if you change into your nicer track suit).
Sit comfortably but not sloppily. If you’re sprawled on the couch with your feet up, your voice will not come through clearly, and your attitude won’t be very lively either. A little tension makes us sharp: they don’t speak of keeping someone on his toes for no reason. If you feel yourself getting tense, take a deep breath and let it all out. This relaxes the chest and throat muscles, which will make your voice come out normally.
Smile as you speak when it’s appropriate. A smile comes through in a person’s voice, and listeners react to it. Of course when you’re nervous you may have a tendency to giggle, but that’s a no-no. You don’t want to come across as childish.
8. Relax and enjoy the ride
It’s probably the hardest item on the list, but think of it this way: once the presentation starts, you can’t change what happens. You’ve thought it out, you’ve prepared, and you’ve considered all the possibilities. The best thing you can do now is relax and follow your plan. You’ll be nervous, but that’s nature’s way of helping us do our best work. You can still enjoy the experience and, if you’ve followed the advice above, you may even want to repeat it at some point in the future!

Energizing Your Presentation

2007-05-21T20:50:00.001-07:00

Have you ever been to a boring presentation? Most of us have, and most of them are boring because there is no life or passion in what the speaker is saying. People remember more of what they see and hear as opposed to what they read. But to be really memorable, we need to add some life to what we present.
So how can we add life to our presentations and wake up the audience?
Ever nervous?
In a sense, getting nervous before speaking is a good thing, if you know how to properly channel that nervous energy and use it productively to energize your presentation. Think of yourself as a steaming, boiling pot. You have two choices. You can either try to keep the energy inside, or you can unleash it and use it to help vitalize your presentation, essentially, letting the steam out of the pot.
All too often, presenters choose to burn off that nervous energy by fidgeting, holding or grabbing on to things, and walking or rocking back and forth.
Learn how to dispense this energy in a productive way. This will make you feel more comfortable and will help you look better. You’ll also start to enjoy giving your presentation, you’ll relax, and the audience will feel it.
Working from the bottom up, let’s start with your feet and a balanced stance.
Balancing Your Stance
The first thing is to adopt a stance that both appears balanced and also allows you to keep from needing or wanting to rock or pace back and forth. Presenters often rock back and forth, lean towards one side, or pace around the room in an unconscious attempt to burn off all that extra energy that the flight-or-fight syndrome had filled the body with. Because the glutes and the quads are the largest muscle groups in the body, the brain knows that by moving these muscles, the body can burn off the most amount of excess energy per unit time. Unfortunately, none of these movements helps your cause. All they do is distract from your message and telegraph to the audience that you’re really nervous. That’s not the message that you want to convey.
You don’t have to be like Yul Brynner in “The King and I” with your feet way apart, or drag in like John Wayne. Consider instead a comfortable, balanced stance.
That means hands comfortably down to the sides (neutral position) with feet slightly apart and weight evenly distributed on the balls of the feet. Use your knees like shock absorbers supporting your upper body comfortably. This will help you to avoid favoring one side over the other, and “rocking” back and forth.
Pacin’ the Cage
Can you take a step forward or back occasionally? Yes, but don’t start dancing or rocking (We call this the hula-hoop). Try to stay in one place without appearing like a tree rooted firmly in the ground. Pacing back and forth constantly, for no apparent reason, typically drives the audience crazy. Yeah, a few overzealous motivational speakers or mid-night TV kitchen appliance hawkers may get away with it, but it generally doesn’t fly in the business world.
On the other hand, if you’d like to pause and take a few steps forward to elaborate on that special point or take a step back to reflect and consider something, that’s O.K. But constant non-purposeful movement is weak.
Using Hands Appropriately
Then, decide what you are going to do with your hands and learn to gesture from the shoulders, not the elbows. Use your hands to describe and emphasize. Drop your hands down to your side (neutral position) when you’re starting your speech or when you’re done gesturing.
When you gesture from the neutral position, your gestures become more emphatic. If everything comes from the middle magnet position it looks like you are stuck in a phone booth. Dropping your hands down to your sides is for many difficult to do without constant practice. With most people, the hands immediately come back together like magnets or start grabbing things like clothing, various body parts like your face, or they jump back into your pockets.
If you are talking about an increase in sales, show us by raising your arm up. If you mention something about reducing costs, again, show us and make sure that the gesture is different than the one you used for an increase in sales. It’s amazing how many presenters will use the exact same gesture for an increase as they will for a decrease. That’s confusing.
Keep in mind that gesturing helps you think. Have you ever noticed some-one talking on the telephone? What do they do with the other hand that’s not holding the phone? They gesture and they gesture continually. Why? Because it helps them think and it helps them find the right words. Gesturing helps you relax and find the correct dialogue. And, you have something to do with those darned arms!
Finally, you certainly don’t want to appear robotic, but most of us need to think about how we will gesture for whatever concept we’re presenting, and how we will bring our emphasis to life with appropriate hand movement. It takes time and practice, and it needs to be well thought out.
Peggy Noonan is fond of saying, speaking of the audience, “They won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Appropriate gesturing, getting your whole body involved in the delivery process, is the easiest and most emphatic way of showing your passion for your topic.

NLP - Voodoo Performance Improvement

2007-05-21T20:49:00.003-07:00

Ever been nervous, anxious, or downright fearful when having to speak to a group?
Try this: Imagine everyone in the group is looking at you with smiling adoration. Feel that they can't wait to hear the next thing you're going to say. See them nodding approvingly and occasionally glancing at each other, astonished at the depth and breadth of your wisdom. If you do, if you tell yourself you are the best speaker this audience has ever had the good fortune to hear, you will be. And when you realize that, your fear and anxiety will – poof!– disappear.
Didn't know it could be that easy?
Well, neither did most people, to whom speaking in public is their Number 1 fear, until NLP came along. NLP, shorthand for Neuro-Linguistic Programming, is today a sort of Linux of training beliefs; that is, a freely conglomerated set of performance improvement processes sold to corporate training departments based on the basic concept that if you tell yourself something is true, it is.
NLP was created by John Grinder and Richard Bandler is the early 1970’s. Grinder was a New Age-type professor at the brand new University of California Santa Cruz, an "experimental" new campus in the redwoods that would in a number of years become the heart of Silicon Valley. Bandler was his very bright but somewhat social skills-challenged student.
According to the website of the firm for which John Grinder, the seemingly more sane co-founder, now works:
"Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the process of creating models of excellence. Modeling is the complex activity of capturing in a learnable transferable code the differences that make a difference between an excellent performer and an average performer, between an excellent work team and an average one. NLP, then, is the process of identifying, coding and transferring precisely those differences in a learnable form to the interested participants and companies to allow significant upgrading of their performance to levels of excellence."
Not exactly succinct, but rather verbose enough to pass muster with corporate HR departments that spend more time developing mission statements than actually planning and executing the mission. Basic to this theory is that if you can define the objective vaguely enough, nobody will know when you fail!
Grinder and Bandler would soon split for reasons that neither has ever made public, but not before collaborating on a few books and a few world tours of speeches and mass-therapy sessions that quickly captured the imaginations of both the ascendant Human Potential Movement and Corporate America.
The Human Potentialists, who were flirting with Transcendental Meditation, Werner Erhard's est, Scientology, Hare Krishna and a host of other similar belief sets borrowed from the East, were attracted to the notion that real change could be achieved without real work. Believe this – be this. If there were a deep-rooted cause for the bad behavior you were trying to change, fuggitaboudit. No sense going through the pain of self-examination when all you needed to become a master of the universe was to tell yourself you were, and there you are!
Corporate America was buying into the process for similar motivations – reward without risk. In this case, NLP provided the route to success by simply getting employees to believe they could [pick one] sell, achieve, excel, lead, speak well, etc., without companies' having to bother with all the messy, time-consuming, and often inaccurate work involved in hiring the best employees. Everyone could now be the best (or at least everyone could be above average) simply by training everyone to believe they were. Why didn't Human Resources think of this sooner?
To bring this all back to speaking to groups: many self-anointed NLP "experts" have successfully intruded the corporate performance improvement market with promises of "programming" employees' public speaking fears and inadequacies down the drain.
There is, however, a problem with this approach. It doesn't work.
Although we can't speak to how well NLP might achieve other performance goals, one thing we do know a good deal about is what goes in the minds of people who are facing a audience - the classic "one-against-many" scenario that always occurs when the brain senses there are more of them than there are of you. The physiological processes that this scenario sets in motion are not something that the common conscious mind can control (not that you'd even want it to, as the processes exists for the purpose of keeping you alive).
The "fear" that so many feel when facing a group is not the same as one experiences when the tire on one's minivan blows out at 70mph, but the protective chemicals coursing through the bloodstream are, and all the mental gymnastics in the world are not going to slow the heart rate or metabolism or lower the blood pressure.
"Picturing" oneself in a calm frame of mind is not going to calm someone down as long the stronger forces in the body – the involuntary ones – are presented with specific pre-programmed stimuli. In the case of speaking, we were programmed to recognize the threat of being alone while facing a hostile tribe back in a Few Million Years BC, and some feel-good theories from the California redwoods of the 1970's are not likely to change that overnight. Or over a couple café-lattes.
The only way you can change the body's response is to change the stimuli, something that is easily achievable by changing specific behaviors in which most speakers engage when thrust in front of a crowd. In other words, it's not a matter of changing what you perceive – it's about changing what you do.
Here is where we really take issue with the NLP religion: people who are sold on drinking this "change your thinking and you'll be fine" Kool-Aid are much worse off when they step out in front of that corporate meeting and find it just doesn't work. Unarmed against the realities, they fail. And when they fail, whom do they blame? They blame themselves. They chastise themselves for not being strong enough to really tell themselves they're OK. They must not have tried hard enough, or practiced long enough, or believed deeply enough. These exact feelings, by the way, are why by far the largest market for self-help books is people who bought a self-help book on the very same topic six months prior. When the last book didn't produce the desired change, they don't blame the book. They blame themselves and try (read:buy) again.
If there is any doubt left about the veracity of the claims of NLP, we'll leave it to readers to determine for themselves. But it is helpful to know that from a linguist, someone who supposedly has a complete understanding of the power of assembled words, here is how Grinder offers "proof" that NLP really works:
"The primary criterion for the evaluation of a model is its effectiveness - that is, either the implementation of the model (or coded patterns) deliver the benefits proposed or it does not. Thus, while the processes of actually creating the model - the codification of the critical difference are wholly congruent with the general scientific methods of discovery and testing, models differ from theories by their independence from such issues as truth, fit with reality,… Models are, of course as part of the general scientific discourse, subject to criteria such as intersubjective verification, replicability, internal consistency,…"

Signaling Your Passion

2007-05-21T20:49:00.001-07:00

Peggy Noonan, former speechwriter for President Reagan and current columnist for the Wall Street Journal, has a favorite saying about presentation audiences: “They won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!”
Regardless of how compelling you believe your message to be, your audience won’t become engaged unless you physically demonstrate just how compelled you feel. To do that, you need to raise the volume of your voice, add some inflection to your key words, and bring your upper body into play. We emphasize upper, because with the possible exception of Elvis Presley, none of us can really add to the quality of our presentations with movements of the lower body.
The problem is most people really don’t know where to put or what to do with their hands. They would just as soon have their arms fall off before a public speaking appearance because they seem to both get in the way and, worse, accentuate nervousness. Having trained literally tens of thousands of speakers over the years, we’ve seen virtually everything that a person could possible do with their hands when up in front of the group. Here are by far the most popular things that we suggest you become aware of and avoid:
The “Fig Leaf”
The most favored position for most people’s hands is the clasped position. The hands come together like magnets right at the belt buckle point. We say magnets because once those hands come together, there’s no way that they’re coming apart again. It’s as though your hands have been super-glued together. People try to break their hands apart, but it’s very difficult to do.
When your hands are together in front and the back of the hands are facing the audience and covering your private parts, it’s commonly referred to as the “fig leaf position”. For some reason this position seems a little more popular with the guys. Worse is the “talking fig leaf”, where you gesture with your hands while they are in this position. Needless to say that can be a real distraction.
The reverse of this is when your hands are clasped together behind your back, which is commonly referred to as the “reverse fig leaf” or what we like to call “parade rest” for those of you with a military background.
The “Johnny Carson”
It’s also popular to put one or two hands in your pockets. It looks comfortable, but you simply handicap your ability to gesture, describe, and emphasize key points. Also, having your hands in your pockets typically leads to key swirling or change jingling, or what we term “executive worry beads”. People in the audience start to count to themselves silently, “Well, let’s see: that sounds like about 4 quarters, 3 dimes, and a nickel. I’ll bet it’s around $1.35.”
Obviously, this is distracting. And it is hard to describe ‘expansion’ or a ‘big opportunity’ to your audience when your hands are in your pants.
The “Spider on the Mirror”
Until his handlers taught him otherwise, Dick Cheney would use this annoying gesture every time he would do something embarrassing to the administration and have to go on “Meet the Press” or another Sunday TV talk show to explain himself. The “spider on the mirror” involves both hands connected at the fingertips moving back and forth. If you can’t visualize it, just think of ET touching all of his fingers with a human hand, but then imagine those two hands attached to the same body.
The “Pointing Dancer”
This one’s a real combo-platter of problems. It involves a “Saturday Night Fever” type of movement were the speaker dances and moves back and forth, while pointing up and down. While studying his steps, the audience misses the message. These movements should be reserved for the dance floor.
Actually, you need to stay away from pointing and using fingers all together. A single finger straight up in the air, no matter which one it is, looks ugly and appears arrogant and condescending. It conjures up images of scolding, road rage, and various cultural insults. Different fingers also mean different things and in a culture as diverse as ours. Why take a chance? Which leads us to another finger problem:
The “Bad Accountant”
We often see people hold up two fingers and say, “There are three things that I want to tell you about.” It’s inconsistent, and immediately takes the audience off your message. Still others will show a complete hand and name five things and count each finger for everything on the list. “The first thing is (grabbing first finger), the second thing is (grabbing second finger)”, and so on. It ends up looking like the nursery rhyme about “This little piggy went to the market…” Plus, it will get your hands together again causing potential magnet problems.
The “Phone Booth”
We know you’ve all seen presenters who spend the entire time in front of the group with their arms clasped around their chests, as if they are hugging themselves. Comfortable, perhaps, especially if the room is chilled, but not very user friendly.
What you should do…
Break out of the phone booth and take the handcuffs off. You have the whole front of the room with empty space. Use it wisely to visually mirror the story that you are trying to depict, and use your full wingspan to describe and explain. Adopt a stance that both appears balanced and also allows you to keep from needing or wanting to rock or pace back and forth.
Then, gesture from the shoulders, not the elbows. Use your hands to describe and emphasize. Drop your hands down to your side (neutral position) when you’re starting your speech or when you’re done gesturing.
When you gesture from the neutral position, your gestures become more emphatic. Dropping your hands down to your side is, for many, difficult to do. Yet it is from this neutral position that your gestures have the widest range, and thus the ability to show the extent of your passion.

Defending Your Slides

2007-05-21T20:48:00.001-07:00

How many times have you found yourself the victim of a sales call?
If 'victim' is too strong a word, then how about 'hostage'? Or maybe merely 'prisoner'? If you've ever been forced to sit through a sales presentation that has you asking yourself, above all, "when will this end?", then you know what I'm talking about. And one sure way you know you're likely going to be in trouble is when the salesperson walks into your office carrying a laptop. You see the computer bag, and your first thought is of your brother-in-law walking up your drive with suitcase in hand.
Why do we feel like prisoners during the 'dynamic' discourse that accompanies the flying words and paragraphs describing how life just can't go on without our buying this super new product or service? Because for the most part, the slides that make up the sales presentation are not designed to enhance your experience – they're designed to walk the salesperson through his spiel. In fact, the slides are often designed by the salesperson's manager as a way to ensure she will cover all the features that management deem essential to the sale.
PowerPoint does a great job of providing the memory-challenged salesperson with a structured way to remember everything he's supposed to convey to the prospect, but usually at the cost of the prospect's attention – or worse, his consciousness. And although its probably true that in many cases the prospect has been know to say 'yes' just to avoid having to sit through one more slide, the track record for most laptop sales presentations is not good. The negative experience of feeling prisoner to the 100+ slide deck more often counteracts any of the benefits that the sales-centric set of slides tries to show.
These days, PowerPoint is consistently called upon to perform tasks for which it was never designed. PowerPoint 1.0 was launched in April 1987, a Macintosh-only product that allowed non-programmers to put together simple black-and-white overheads without the need for a corporate graphics department. Dennis Austin, a software developer who was one of the originators of "Presenter", the program that would soon become PowerPoint, recalls finding an old business plan from that time describing the concept behind the new software. One phrase read, "Allows the content-originator to control the presentation."
Later that same year the originators sold the program to Microsoft for cash and stock.
Modern business would never be the same. Immediately, business presenters who had little or no background in design fundamentals were now able to do what thousands of recently empowered “desktop” publishers could do: produce very technically competent garbage.
The software improved over time, and new products made by competing companies offered increasingly sophisticated and sometimes useful enhancements. Eventually, it became apparent to some that instead of simply designing ever more impressive overheads, what this new genre was really all about was its ability to be a means to itself - that the computer was no longer the design machine, the computer was the presentation!
With each new version of computer-based presentation software we would find new ways to dazzle and impress ourselves with words and pictures in the dynamic environment of an LCD screen or projected image. By the time the first Windows95 version came out, Microsoft was touting on the box cover that the software was “For everyone who can’t wait to get a good idea across”. Were they suggesting that instead of taking the time to create good content, we should just use screeching brakes?
And somewhere along the way, the notion that the visuals were supposed to be about the audience, rather than the presenter, was swept away by the breeze of the flying text. By far the majority of the slides that our customers send us for review are crafted to be useful for keeping the presenter on track, period. When we asked a food-processing client of ours if they believed it was really necessary to list all 18 ingredients that went into their new vegetable soup concentrate on this one slide, they replied, "Well, probably not – but it’s the only way our salespeople can remember them"!
To know whether or not any given slide in your presentation deserves to be there, you have to be able to defend each of them like a junk-yard dog lawyer. And to do that, you must be able to make the case that without the slide, the customer's experience would be lessened.
For example: If you were designing a presentation to sell people on a 7-day Caribbean cruise, you probably would include a slide that listed all the features of the trip. The slide would likely have a set of bullet points like this:
• Spacious, luxury accommodations on-board• Dine each night to dramatic ocean sunsets• Visit over 7 exciting ports-of-call• Day-stops at sunny pristine island beaches• Free rum drinks and on-board dancing nightly
Your list would serve you well to remember to tell your prospects about all these great reasons to reserve their stateroom now, but what do they do to enhance the audience experience? Actually, a slide like this is totally indefensible.
What your prospects need more is a way to visualize what the trip is all about, and for that you need just that – visuals. So instead of one slide for you, you need at least five slides for them: One with a full-screen picture of their room, one of a happy couple enjoying dinner on the evening deck, and others with great shots of the ports, the beaches, and the nighttime parties. All these images should be good enough to need very little explanatory verbiage from you.
Next presentation, make sure you can defend every slide, every graph, and yes, every bullet point like your life depended on it. Because your sale does.

The Death of Bullet Points

2007-05-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you went to a presentation and came away impressed by the slides?
It is, of course, fashionable these days to speak negatively about PowerPoint, and how most on-screen presentations put audiences to “death” with an onslaught of one bullet-pointed paragraph of words after another. It is also true that the same people who like to trash PowerPoint often create mind-numbing program themselves, and then claim that it’s not their fault – their bosses make them beget slides that turn brains to butter.
Although businesspeople are pretty much stuck with PowerPoint these days, and probably will be for the foreseeable future, there have been a few pioneers out there who are trying to change the ways we use slides to convey information or persuade others to see things our way. And so even though PowerPoint is still very much alive and kicking, we think that bullet points as knowledge builders might be doomed: some designers at the cutting edge are trying new forms and structures.
One person whose work you should know if you don’t already is Cliff Atkinson. According to Michael McLaughlin, coauthor with Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants, “Cliff Atkinson believes he's built a better mouse trap. He wants us to dump boring, bullet-riddled slides, and he has a creative solution: he taps Hollywood-style storytelling to transform PowerPoint presentations from endless lists of bullet points into compelling communications.”
Atkinson’s book Beyond Bullet Points shows you how to use the power of storytelling to make PowerPoint presentations effective communication tools, not just speaker notes. With Atkinson’s method, you not only produce presentations that are not boring, but you are also forced to think about what you are saying in a way that all audiences relate to: telling them a story.
You should also be aware of Lawrence Lessig, who has created a buzz over the last couple years with what he believes is a "minimalist" presentation design approach. It's interesting, and definitely worth getting up to speed on it if you're in the presentation business. The best example of this style that we've seen is in a keynote given by a guy named Dick Hardt. You really need to watch this performance to appreciate its power as an antidote to the common business presentation.
The problem I have with this approach is that while its followers consider it minimalist because there is typically no more that one word or image on the screen at a time, virtually EVERY word in the narrative is projected, so that with a little practice, the presenter simply delivers a completely pre-written script. It is interesting to watch and definitely holds your attention throughout, but rather than putting the presenter at the center of the process, the result is that 99% of the audience's attention is drawn to the screen.
The really scary thing here is that it probably will have huge appeal to NewGens and younger, who unfortunately have no idea how to relate to another human except thru the interface of some electronic device. So this is presentation as video-game / hip hop / text-message-me-from-the-end-of-the-bar. The presentation IS the screen, and the presenter gets kudos for his electronic design skills rather than her ability to be human.
Of course, your Master of the PowerPoint Universe here has not been asleep at the switch for the past couple years, and this May 23rd will see the World Premiere of what PublicSpeakingSkills.com is offering up as a whole new language of presentation design, with its own very tight grammar, all based on using minimalism to focus the audience on the presenter.
We haven't yet decided how to brand it ("Beyond Bullet Points" is already taken, and "Pointless" doesn't sound very value-added). Internally we've been referring to it as The Language of the Bar because we use vertical lines (bars) instead of bullet points to both set off paragraph levels and also presage to both the presenter and the audience how much more (if any) will follow on the screen after the last reveal.
It occurred to us a while ago that whereas bullet points do work to set off one huge group of words from another huge group (the 3-line 'paragraphs' we usually see), they don't make a lot of sense when you do what you should do and never have more than a few words on each line. The line itself sets off the one point from the next. So if you're using PowerPoint properly, that is, to simply key the audience where you're going and key you to what you're going to say, bullets become superfluous. Bonus: your slides look a lot cleaner without them.
Back to this new presentation language: although both Atkinson and Lessig dispense with bullet points, we believe that rather than just throwing out structure altogether, there are increases in both comprehension and retention when the presentation conforms to a set of predictable rules - a grammar, if you will. We believe that when your grammar presages what's to come (in a haiku, for instance, you know exactly how many words are coming next), you create both heightened expectation and the comfort of knowing how much brain RAM you have to reserve.
Long-term readers know we’re committed to showing the world that PowerPoint (and also Apple's Keynote, which we’ve been using lately) is NOT the problem. We don't know if this is the answer, but we know you'll really, really like what you see. See you on the 23rd?

Passion and the Pause

2007-05-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Some Important Tips On Proposals And Price

2007-05-16T02:33:00.002-07:00

Here is an important copywriting technique that I use when writing proposals and sales letters. It refers to "price".
This is something that happens all the time. In proposals and letters the price is buried at the end of the documents.
People believe by explaining all the benefits in the first few pages and leaving the price till the last, that the buyers will be pleasantly surprised when they notice how much it will cost them.
However it doesn't work like that.
When you think about it, what do you do when you are a buyer?
I always flick through the document until I find what it will cost. If the price is more than I want to pay, I put the document away, never to see it again. I don’t go back to read it again.
A well written proposal mentions how much it is going to cost up front so the reader doesn't have to go digging for it.
They can see how much it costs and then react to the amount and, if it's more expensive than they thought it would be, they will keep on reading through the document, looking for ways to justify the price in their minds……..
Why is it more expensive than I thought?
What special results is it supposed to achieve?
What do they claim to be able to do to justify the price?
It has been tested dozens of times in our own proposals and campaigns, as well as with our clients. Putting the price up front always wins "hands down", every time we test it.
Two more tips on price:
1. Don’t say "price" or "cost" in the document. Use the word "investment" instead.
You may think it sounds like a small thing, but it has a major psychological effect on the reader.
When you use the word "cost", it makes the reader feel like it is an expense. However, the word "investment" makes them feel like they are making an investment which will give them a considerable return.
2. Don’t say "Your investment in the abc gizmo widget is $2456". Say instead, "Your investment in the abc gizmo is $2456 and includes 12 refills (valued at $xxxx), free life time technical support, and life time replacement guarantee etc."
What you’ve done here is, by ending a sentence with the price, you have given them time to reflect on the amount.
By mentioning the price and at the same time giving a brief snapshot of what it includes, the reader instantly makes the association between the price and the return they will get for their investment.
In this case, the buyer makes the purchasing decision based on what they see as value for money and not on the actual cost to them.

23 Secrets To Win More Tenders

2007-05-16T02:33:00.001-07:00

When you think about it, sealing that deal is all about salesmanship using print. It is all about addressing the needs that your prospect wants to be fulfilled as well as proving you fulfill those needs in the most results-oriented ways. When preparing your tender document, these are 23 of the most important rules to follow.
1. To find out their needs, always call them.
When you phone your prospect, don’t just ask for a copy of the tender document or a list of specifications. You need to find out why they are calling for tenders, what is important to them and why they want to undertake the project. Have a conversation with them and get to know them a little better, to discover what they are all about.
You would be surprised how much information you can find out — priceless information when going through the process of creating the tender.
2. Follow the salesmanship formula that is already proven.
Instead of just talking about being able to carry out the work, start by identifying their problem, or the core reason that they included that criterion. Then you can talk briefly about the downside of the problem. When you’ve done that, you can talk about the solution — how you’re really going to get their needs fulfilled.
You need to include specifics about the mechanics behind the processes you use. Prove your claims by including case studies, results, guarantees and testimonials.
3. Send them a pre-proposal letter.
When you have made the initial telephone call finding out the facts, always send a quick note thanking them for their time. The letter should also say "thanks you for your information" and should include something that makes them feel good about what they want to have achieved. Finish off the letter by thanking them again and letting them know that you are looking forward to putting together a tender document for them, or some quotes and ideas.
An important factor in your success is to establish a relationship with your prospective clients, a relationship that begins from when you first call them.
4. Do research, research and more research.
Find out everything you can about the company — even if you are only submitting a ‘quote’ for an easy job. Do a search on the Web for a Web site; get them to send you a brochure; know what their competitors are doing; find out what their customer service philosophy is, their mission statement, and what their culture is about — regardless of the job you need to do. By doing this, you get a feel for what is important to the company, as well as some priceless ammunition that you can include when preparing your tender documents.
5. Follow the guidelines so precisely.
When you are tendering for Government contracts, there are always specific guidelines to follow. Structure your documentation around these guidelines, which makes it easy for the prospect to assess your tender. If there are any other sections that you’d like to include, you can place them towards the end of your tender document.
6. Use graphs and tables.
Show figures in a graph, rather than in text format. Include a comparison of your results with other companies’ results.
7. Make a list of your most impressive customers. By listing your customers, it gives prospects an understanding of how you can cope with a business of their size, reputation and type.
8. List results you have achieved.
List any great ‘claims to fame’, if you have any. Doing this proves that your company has ‘runs on the board’ and suggests to them that they can also get results from you. We always list our results, giving a brief description of the project, industry and the results which we have achieved.
9. Include a guarantee.
In the tendering process, people can be very sceptical. They are fearful of being ripped off and of not getting the results that they expect. If you include a powerful money-back guarantee that reverses the risk, it takes away one of their major buying fears. In effect, that lowers their barriers against doing any business with your company.
10. Include some testimonials.
If you say something, they may not believe you, but if someone else says it, then it must be the truth! This is definitely true when you are talking about selling your services to them.
When you tell someone how good you are all the time, it’s not until they can hear it from the ‘horse’s mouth’ that they will believe you. For this reason, you need to include in your documentation as many testimonials as you possibly can.
11. Talk about emotions.
It is true: people buy with their emotions, justifying their buying decision using their logic. It goes without saying that if you appeal to a person’s emotions in your body copy, you’ll get better results.
12. Write as you speak.
When you write effective sales copy you are communicating a sales presentation on paper. To do that you need to…
13. Talk in benefits.
Because people are basically selfish they don’t really care how big you are, or how professional you are, or even how long you have been in business. They just want to know what you’re going to do for them, how you are going to deliver those results and what it will mean for them. You need to tell them. Talk benefits, Instead of talking features. Tell them what’s in it for them.
14. Use the word YOU more frequently.
’You’ is the most powerful word in the English language, because people are so self-absorbed. Use the word ‘you’, instead of ‘we’ and ‘us’ to keep your prospect interested.
15. Present it professionally.
Have you heard the saying: "You never get a second chance at a first impression"? How you present your document directly correlates with what your prospects think of your company. A document which is professionally-presented makes prospects feel that you are professional. If it’s a poor presentation, then they probably think you are inefficient.
16. You should include action plans so your clients know what to expect and when to expect it. It is a bit difficult to know how a project is going to work, what needs to happen, and when it should happen — particularly with large projects. Include a comprehensive action plan which clearly sets out each step. This gives your prospective client a much clearer picture of how you are going to deliver these results.
17. Include some flow charts so your clients know how your business structure is working. Many people are ‘visual’ and they need to see things in a diagram format, so that they can understand how it works.
18. Include a corporate profile that shows your company background, expertise, skills and the qualifications of your key people, your philosophy and your results.
19. You need to use the person’s name frequently throughout the documents. Most people love the sound of their own name and love to see it in print. If you use their name throughout the document, it will give you an instant rapport with your client.
20. Use a serif typeface - not a sans serif typeface.
This may sound odd, but when you use a ‘serif’ typeface (like this one), it actually improves (by up to 300%) your document’s readability. These characters are easier to read as they have rounded ‘feet’.
21. You need to sign your tender in blue ink and make sure your signature is legible.
Blue ink is seen as friendlier than black ink, and it stands out better. And signing your name in a full, easily readable format, projects a more trustworthy, friendlier image than a scrawl that is illegible.
22. Implement a structured follow-up process.
Do not stop when you have submitted the tender. That is only part of your process. You need to develop a structured follow-up system, which includes some nurturing follow-up letters or a series of telephone calls, which are designed to ‘check-up’ and provide them with further information, if it is required. This shows that you’re committed to helping to get results for them.
23. Never give in.
Because you didn’t win a tender, it doesn’t mean that the company will not want to do business with you sometime in the future. Make sure you keep in touch with them, with telephone calls, newsletters, interesting news articles as well as ‘how are things’ letters. These show that you care about them.

Get the Audience's Attention: Your Opening "Hook"

2007-05-16T02:32:00.000-07:00

Let’s face it… regardless of the type of business; we’ve all sat through some pretty bad presentations. When delivering your presentation, you have to establish the audience’s attention and buy-in within the first 30 seconds. If you don’t have their attention from the beginning AND be able to maintain interest throughout the presentation, your message is lost. To make sure you have the audience in the palm of your hand at the start of the presentation, you have to deliver an “opening hook”. What is a “hook” you ask? Well, that’s the “attention getting” device a good presenter uses to establish audience attention and cause them to immediately respond with some type of reaction. Opening “hooks” can be a variety of different devices. The following is a listing of some of the most popular “hooks” used by presenters and why they’re effective. Remember, whatever “hook” you plan to use, make sure it relates to the message you’re delivering.
An anecdote (or short story) from your personal history that has a connection with the message you’re delivering.
Use humor. Not necessarily tell a joke (unless you’re a comedian)… but put a humorous spin to the introduction of your message.
A statement that creates doubt or disbelief. The statement doesn’t necessarily have to be true… just a statement that will peak the audience’s interest and attention.
A little known / interesting fact. Use something that would create interest, but make sure that it’s not common knowledge.
A controversial opinion. Nothing gets the “juices” moving faster than a statement that people disagree with on an important subject. Your audience will want to stay around to see what you’re going to say next.
An interesting statistic. This statistic could be a surprising revelation to members of the audience.
A current event. Everybody hears the news at some point, even if it’s 5 minutes of cable news during the day or glancing at a newspaper headline while in the convenience store.
A “Theatrical” performance. Being an actor, I have a tendency to use “hooks” that involve an element of stage performance. Now the audience wonders what I’m going to do next.
A quote. It doesn't have to be from someone famous. It just has to be appropriate and timely.There are others...
The “hook” forces the audience to make choices. Do they agree or disagree with what has been said? Are they or are they not engaged by the performance factor of the “hook”? Do they laugh or try to keep a stoic face? Regardless… the opening hook sets the tone for the remainder of the presentation. Now that you’ve got their attention, how do you keep it? That involves introducing “timely grabs” throughout your presentation to maintain interest and a topic for another article. Until next time.

Are You Using PDF Documents to Build Your Business - The Top PDF Software

2007-05-16T02:31:00.001-07:00

Benefits of PDF Software
What is PDF?
PDF (Portable Document Format), also computer users to view and print documents which have been downloaded from the internet.
If you would like to move files by e-mail or the internet to other PC users and to make sure that your files are readable, the best option is to convert them to PDF format. Some PC or computer users will not always have similar software (Word) to view your graphics and text files.
However the software to view PDF files is free of charge and broadly installed on many computers. PDF is often used as a 'print-friendly' format which can be made commonly available from the internet. PDF files will appear precisely the same no matter what computer you use.
A PDF file prepared from a document which was initially formatted in MS Word will look just the same on another PC or computer as it did on yours. This is true even if graphics were embedded in the original file.
Why would you want to use PDF?
The Portable Document Format (PDF) preserves the formatting of most documents better than alternatives like HTML and MS Word.
Features of PDF
1. It is extensively used by most computers.
2. It is a compressed format and does not take up much space.
3. You are able to include any table, graphics, tables as a single file.
4. Easily printable format.
5. You do not lose the appearance of your original document. Colors, fonts, graphics and appearance are maintained.
6. The Adobe Acrobat Reader software is free and easily available for most operating systems.

Little is Large - Making The Most of Customer Touchpoints

2007-05-16T02:30:00.004-07:00

Good restaurants put a great deal of time, money, and energy into crafting their menu. While they may be successful in satisfying their customer's taste buds, it's the totality of the dining experience that brings back repeat patrons. This means that little things count, actually they count a lot. Customers have many dining options these days and frankly good food often isn't enough to bring them back. According to Restaurants and Institutions New American Diner Survey nearly 43% of diners take into account all the aspects of the restaurant to determine if they'll return. Of course that's just one sample of what's going on out there but haven't we all experienced a restaurant with good food and attractive prices but then they completely drop the ball when it comes to all the many touch points: an unfriendly server, a dirty table, a stoic hostess, dirty windows, empty condiments, a funky restroom with little soap and no paper towels. Every negative touch point will cancel out any positive effort accomplished by good food and prices.
But don't fret too soon if you think you may be in this situation. Weak spots in the touch point grid are easy to see and fix. Do all you can to hire people who believe strongly in hospitality, consider them investments they make a big impression in the customers mind. And that's the mind that will later be deciding if they should return. When problems arise let the customer know that you see their point and not only are you on their side but you're working to correct anything that's negative for them. The nice aspect about problems are that they are opportunities. Everyone knows that nothings perfect, things go wrong in every business sometimes, but let them see you shine as you take care of the negative no matter how little, because little is large in the customer's eyes. Remember everyone likes a problem solver.

Keeping the Audience's Attention... The Timely "Grab"

2007-05-16T02:30:00.003-07:00

Now that you have the audience’s attention, your work is over. Now, all you have to do is deliver the content--- right? Definitely WRONG!!! Now that you have the audience’s attention focused on you for the beginning of the presentation, you’ll find that their minds will wander if feed a straight diet of content information and statistics. Even though they are similar in nature, during the body of the [presentation you have to introduce “grabs”. How are “grabs” different from “hooks”? In my opinion, “hooks” and “grabs” are essentially the same. The difference comes with the intensity of the opening “hook”. The opening “hook” is the device that will first attract the audience’s attention to listen to your presentation. To maintain audience interest throughout the presentation, you have to further “peak” their interest. What makes the “grabs” timely is they are placed at specific points in your message. Now, the audience has some new and interesting information besides the basic content. “Grabs” can include:
· Stories… make them personal
· Examples… make them current
· Analogies… make them real world
· Statistics… make them accurate
· Audience Interaction… make it effective
· Questions… make them thought provoking
· Repetition… use to reinforce, use to reinforce, use to reinforce
· Shock… make it lively
· Suspense… make it engaging
· Special Effects… make them in PowerPoint
If you’re going to use an analogy, try to make it as “real world” as possible. This way, the audience can transfer the benefits of the experience to the content. Some real world analogies would include references to household appliances, food, travel, transportation or entertainment.

Looking the Part - Dressing for Success

2007-05-16T02:30:00.001-07:00

There are some definite “do’s” and “don’ts” when it comes to what to wear when you present. I’ve found that it’s always good to go back to a BASIC look; your Believable Appearance is Simple and your Image is Conservative. You’ll find that the more conservative you dress, the quicker the audience will accept your credibility. The bottom line when it comes to your “dress”, it shouldn’t overshadow your message. Let’s break your overall appearance into distinct sections; the face, accessories and the outfits.
Let’s begin by focusing on your face. The face is responsible for delivering your message through the voice and facial expressions. When your audience looks at your face, they see three different elements: your skin, your hair and any eyewear.
· Ladies: make sure that you put on make-up close to the same lighting that you will have in your presentation venue. If you present under bright lights, make sure that you use powder to eliminate facial glare.
· Men: make sure that you are clean shaven. Unless your beard is extremely close shaved, your facial expressions effects and influence on your audience may be lost with a thick beard.
Your hair must be groomed and not interfere with your facial expressions. Any hair style that you have should not shift focus from your face to your hair.
· Ladies: if you have long hair, pull it back. You don’t want your hair inadvertently covering your face.
· Men: keep your hair short and cut in a traditional style. Long hair on guys is not going to be received well in a business presentation.
If you have to wear correctives for your eyes, I’d opt for contacts over glasses. When you wear glasses, you run the risk of the audience not being able to see any expressions that you make with your eyes. With contacts, the audience can see all the expressions that you make.
If you have to wear accessories, make sure that they don’t distract from the presentation.
· Ladies: collars and necklines shouldn’t be revealing. Be more conservative. Make sure that any ear rings or bracelets you wear aren’t so reflective that they distract your audience. Remember to be professional.
· Men: don’t wear that cartoon tie that your kids (or mother-in-law) gave you for last Father’s Day. These take away from credibility (so do bow ties).
When it comes to our clothes, make sure that your presentation suit fits properly. If it’s too loose, you’ll be perceived as sloppy, if it’s too tight, it will be hard for you to move comfortably. Think conservative and stay with solid colors (dark blue to medium gray). It wasn’t until my wife pointed it out, but complexion and clothes color can affect each other. Make sure that you match your presentation clothes to your complexion.
Shirts/blouses should fit for comfort, but make sure that you leave the short sleeves at home. When not wearing a suit (jackets/blazers), make sure that when you combine separates that you maintain a solid line of color from the floor to your face. This way, the attention is focused on your face.
· Ladies: you can vary your colors a little more than the men and you have the option of leaving your jacket unbuttoned.
· Men: your shirt should be lighter than your suit, the tie should be darker than the shirt (you can never go wrong with white). Remember to keep your jacket buttoned.
Clothes from the waist down must allow for comfortable movement. Stay away from separates since they give the perception of being “less formal”.
· Ladies: wear stockings that minimize audience attention to your legs. Remember to keep that “solid line of color” to the floor. Make sure that you maintain a “credible” hemline.
· Men: wear socks that match the pants of your suit and are long enough to cover your calf.
Any footwear that you use HAS to be comfortable (looking good doesn’t hurt either). Believe it or not, people will make perceptions of individuals based upon their footwear. Keep your shoes cleaned and shined. Ladies… In presentation circles, heels improve credibility. I’d recommend that you wear shoes with one to two inch heels.

Ten Stories That Can Sell Anything

2007-05-16T02:29:00.001-07:00

Advertising is all about telling your marketing story: a story that your audience can relate to, so that it builds confidence and credibility in your ability to deliver your product or service.
A well-crafted business story invites your audience to open a dialogue with you, a line of communication that will ultimately lead to a customer and sale for you, and a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment for your new client.
Effective marketing stories are about universal truths and primal needs; they provide a cathartic emotional experience for your audience. There is no point in spending a lot of money on advertising until you have identified that fundamental change your product or service provides to your audience.
Once you have isolated that hidden quality in what you do, you can then develop a video, audio, or print campaign that delivers your message in a memorable, meaningful manner that audiences will respond to.
There are only so many stories you can tell and the art of advertising, or corporate storytelling, is the ability to present that story in fresh new ways.
How Many Marketing Stories Are There?
An acquaintance of mine once pitched a Hollywood studio executive on a movie idea and was turned down flat. The executive told this fellow, "there are only seven movies and yours isn't one of them." When I first heard this I was appalled at the lack of imagination from someone in a creative business, but when you think about it, what financial backer is going to invest tens of millions of dollars in something that nobody knows anything about, certainly not the people financing movies. And when it comes to advertising the circumstances are the same; if you're paying the shot, you at least want a fighting change at success.
Where's Your Product On The Hierarchy of Needs
There are some disagreements as to what these seven stories are, and if there are really only seven. This magic number seven is interesting as it coincides with noted psychologist Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Maslow identified seven basic human motivations that guide peoples' conduct: physical needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, and self-actualization needs.
Develop a marketing campaign consisting of stories that satisfy one of these motivational triggers and you have a campaign that your audience will respond to and consider relevant.
Blake Snyder's Ten Story Scenarios
Not everyone limits the number of prime stories to seven, Blake Snyder, professional screenwriter and author of "Save The Cat,' says there are ten. Snyder approaches the problem with a more flamboyant flair than Maslow, but still based on fundamental emotional and psychological criteria.
Snyder's ten basic story scenarios are: Monster In the House, Dude With a Problem, Fool Triumphant, Superhero, Buddy Love, Out Of a Bottle, Institution, Golden Fleece, Rights-of-Passage, and Whydunit. This is all very interesting but does it help you develop an advertising campaign that delivers your marketing message?
If we look at Snyder's list of ten story scenarios and relate them to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs we can see how you can develop a marketing story that can be delivered on a website with a Web-video marketing campaign that will be remembered by your audience, and will likely generate an increased interest in your company.
Physical Needs - "Dude With a Problem"
Before people can concern themselves with intellectual or spiritual matters, they must first satisfy their physical needs: water, food, shelter, and procreation. If individuals cannot satisfy these basic needs they have a problem, hence your marketing story can be delivered using the tried and true "Dude With A Problem" scenario.
If you are in the business of selling bottled water, packaged food, physical fitness, real estate, or vitamins you are supplying your audience with a solution to one of life's most basic needs.
Safety Needs - "Monster In The House"
The need to be safe, to protect your family and yourself from harm, is fundamental to how people behave and what they deem important. The marketing of products and services that fulfill safety needs requires the audience understand the dangers that your product or service is designed to eliminate.
The "Monster In The House" scenario is your standard monster movie featuring some scary, frightening entity. This kind of scenario is based on our need to secure a safe and secure environment and life-style.
From a marketing perspective this approach is how you sell insurance, tires, health care products, alarm systems, or anything that protects you and yours from harm. Instead of some imaginary boogeyman or alien, your monster is disease, fire, accidents and crime.
If your product protects, then it can be sold by showing how it safeguards your audience from the "Monster In The House."
Social Needs - "Buddy Love" & "Rights-of-Passage"
We are social animals, we live in communities, we form family units, and we crave meaningful relationships with others. These types of basic needs are played out in scenarios that are commonly referred to as buddy and rights-of-passage movies.
If you run a dating service, nightclub, restaurant, or bar, or if you sell products like beer or wine that involve social gathers and interaction, then you can use the buddy movie scenario to tell your story.
If you sell products that clear-up acne or solve other kinds of teen related problems relating to becoming an adult, then perhaps the rights-of-passage scenario is the story to tell.
Self-esteem Needs - "Fool Triumphant" & "Superhero"
We all need to feel good about ourselves. If you sell a product that allows people to overcome some insecurity then you have a sure-fire hit if you tell your story in a convincing, compelling fashion.
The "Fool Triumphant" scenario delivers the message that no matter what your short-comings you to can be a winner. The "Superhero" tale tells the story of ordinary people who have been transformed into extraordinary achievers through some incident or action. In either case, if your product or service supplies that conversion from loser to winner then that's the story you want to tell.
Prime examples of businesses that could use these storytelling scenarios are exercise equipment suppliers, nutritional supplement companies, and self-help and motivational product and service businesses.
Cognitive Needs - Institution
The "Institution" scenario is the story of 'Everyman' versus 'Big Brother:' how we cope, or don't cope, with the demands of a complex society where we are worn down by bureaucracy, incompetence, and arbitrary rules and red tape.
Dealing with Big Brother, the government, or large oligopoly businesses can be traumatic and in some cases seemingly impossible. Telling this story is the bread and butter issue for companies that provide solutions to dealing with "The Institution."
Whatever the rules were yesterday you can be sure that they'll be different tomorrow. The skills you learned in school or on the job are no longer in demand, no longer relevant, and no longer work. Whether you're a homemaker, entrepreneur, accountant, or doctor, you have to keep pace with changing technology, and an ever increasing demand to know just about everything.
Knowing what you need to know in order to compete, comply, and to accomplish in a world dominated by remote, faceless institutions governed and managed by petty officials is a significant impediment to success.
As a result, products and services like private schools, self-help programs, and books and DVDs for self-confessed nincompoops can be sold by delivering a message that solves the "Institution" scenario.
Aesthetic Needs - "Out Of A Bottle"
Once we have satisfied our more basic needs, our desires move on to more aesthetic concerns. We all want to feel good and one of the best ways to feel good is to look good.
The "Out Of A Bottle" scenario provides the marketing message for cosmetic, beauty and health care products and services, weight loss and exercise products and programs, or any aesthetic issue that can be resolved with a pill, potion, or patch.

Telling Isn't Training

2007-05-16T02:28:00.000-07:00

Trainers and human resource development consultants sometimes do not recognize the “fuzzy line” that separates facilitation skills from presentation skills. For instance, we see a great deal of notice paid in our own “Interchange” to the presentation skills required of a competent trainer, but relatively little attention in the newsletter to what facilitation skills might be required of an adept trainer. In fact, I cannot remember the last issue where facilitation was discussed at all. Perhaps, then, there is an overemphasis on how to be an entertaining, dynamic, fun-loving, exciting presenter and trainer? If so, we need to remember that these skills are only a part of an effective trainer’s skill set.
What Are Facilitation Skills?
A useful distinction between the two is made on the group facilitation listserve website wherein training and presentation are defined as a process primarily to transfer information or skill (content) between a trainer and a participant group. Facilitation, however, is what we do when we are focusing primarily on processes in the group itself: how the group communicates, problem-solves, resolves conflicts, and makes decisions.
Janelle Brittain, author of Facilitation and the Speechless Speaker, makes the distinction this way: “Speakers view their mouth as their primary instrument. Facilitators view their ears as their primary instrument.”
Put another way, the facilitator listens without judgment, does not need to control interactions and outcomes, can think on may different levels simultaneously, and makes it possible for others to think and act.
The facilitator uses structured techniques and communication skills to “ease” this process, towards the end of the emotional and cognitive growth of the group and its members, and is neutral toward the content of the discussion, or meeting. A facilitator, then, is an expert on group process. Some examples of facilitated events are: strategic and other planning, decision making, conflict resolution, problem solving, creative development, and team initiatives.
This source further clarifies the distinction by noting that, “Where training and presenting involve telling and teaching the participants, facilitation involves helping the participants discover for themselves (emphasis added).” A facilitator must be able to read not only individuals, but the interactions between individuals, and the subtleties of group dynamics.
Michele Whitmore, a contributor to the IAF website, says that, “The facilitator notices patterns in group interaction and brings it up to the group for exploration.” A skilled presenter, too, “notices” these patterns, but at the same time is interested in knowledge and skills transfer.
Isabel Rimanoczy, another IAF contributor, suggests that the facilitator should
encourage the group to discover its own answers and solutions to issues it confronts, be attentive to group process, tactfully confront the group with its own behaviors and assumptions, use appropriate humor, and help the group to summarize and draw conclusions.
Presentation Skills:
When we turn our discussion to presentation skills, Max Messmer, CEO of Robert Half International, tells us that the presenter needs to be able to:
Have clear goals.
Tie information to the bottom-line.
Make sure your approach fits audience needs and characteristics.
Use appropriate materials in support of your presentation.
Make your point.
Connect” with the audience.
Similar advice on presenting is offered by Lois Geller:
Outline the points you want to make.
Think about how you're going to be creative.
Practice, practice, practice.
Watch the time.
Get to the meeting room early.
Talk to the person who will introduce you.
Give yourself a pep talk.
Have a good attitude.
Have fun and be enthusiastic.
Be engaging and interactive.
Never read.
Ask the audience questions.
Summarize your presentation.
The National Speaker’s Association recommends that the presenter master eight core competencies: of particular interest here is the “Presenting and Performing Competency,” which is defined as being able to communicate and work with audiences, mastering the mechanics of a presentation, acknowledging that the needs and interest of each audience vary, adapting the presenter’s role to the needs of the audience, and staying abreast of developments in technology and state-of-the-art presentation techniques.
Tom McCarthy, a former sales professional with Marriott and Hilton Hotels, makes these points about presenting effectively:
Say it simply.Talk to their backgrounds.Use brochures, pictures and demonstrations.
Present benefits, not just features Use trial closes to see where you stand.
While also in agreement with the above, Trevor Zieglestein, discusses the importance of using non-verbal communication to be effective as a presenter:
Be aware of and use your posture to effectively communicate.Don’t speak in monotones: vary the pitch and volume of your voice.Make sure your movements are relaxed.
Comparing Similarities:
While the differences between the two skill sets may be readily apparent, there are some important similarities:
Both must find ways to identify with and relate to the audience, or group.
Both require skillfullness.
Both require knowledge – although to differing degrees - of group process.
Both utilize similar – but not identical – tools (e.g., needs assessment, Socratic dialogue, summary, questioning, small group work, similar audio-visual media, action planning, etc.).
Both depend on a similar body of knowledge.
Final Thoughts:
The intent he is to both distinguish facilitation from training, and to draw parallels between them. We see that each shares interventions and a body of knowledge and techniques, but that being competent in one does not presume competence in the other.
This Chapter, I believe, owes it to its members to seriously examine facilitation separate and apart from the presentation aspect of training because being an excellent presenter does not equate to excellent training. Chapter membership, too, may profit from developing their facilitator competencies, which can only strengthen their presentation and training delivery.

Want A Great Meeting? Consider Laughter!

2007-05-16T02:26:00.000-07:00

Did you know there are over 5500 laughter clubs around the world in over 50 countries? After September 11th, 2001, people just want to laugh more. Our country and world certainly have changed after that tragic and eventful day.
Many meeting planners are requesting that even some of the more serious topics have some more humor and levity to them. If you are asking people to attend a 2-3 day meeting or conference, it not only has to have substance today it has to have some degree of fun and humor. Humor can help to illustrate key learning objectives and help bring to life dry, technically challenging and boring topics.
When you hire a humorous speaker to present at your next meeting, he or she will probably incorporate some of the following activities learned from their Laughter bank of experience. For example, many meeting planners have considered Laughter Yoga to add a punch line to their event. A typical Laughter Yoga Session has two components: 1) Laughter Yoga Exercises and 2) Laughter Meditation and there are some important guidelines one should follow to optimize the Laughter Yoga experience. They are:
All participants should start laughing at the same time, when the anchorperson gives the command 1, 2… start because, when a group laughs at the same time, the effect is good.
Do not apply too much force while laughing. It should be more of a feeling and enjoying of the process.
The duration of Laughter Yoga Exercises is usually 20-30 minutes, that includes laughter, breathing and stretching exercises.
The Laughter Exercises are suggested guidelines to get started, and it is nit mandatory to follow the same sequence of Laughter Exercises every time. A group can develop their own unique Laughter Exercise to make the session more interesting and playful.
Ideally, a group of 15-20 persons makes a good dynamic for an infectious Laughter Session. More people always help to create a better impact, but even 5-10 people can have a good Laughter Session, if they are committees.
Each Laughter Exercise lasts for 30-45 seconds, or a maximum of one minute. After each bout of Laughter or sometimes after two bouts, two deep breaths are taken, in order to provide a break. This avoids exertion and tiredness. Sometimes, various neck, shoulder and arm stretching exercise are done in place of deep breathing, between Laughter Exercises.
A typical Laughter Session is a perfect blend of various laughter techniques, interspersed with breathing, stretching, rhythmic clapping and chanting

There are 2 cardinal rules for anyone who wants to make sure that they can hold the attention of their audience.

2007-05-07T21:31:00.001-07:00

In previous articles, I have talked about strategies for creating a strong opening to your presentation. Once you've grabbed your audience's attention, it's time to move into the body of your presentation. Here, you'll discuss your topic in more detail. If your purpose is to inform, you'll use the body of your presentation to describe your topic and demonstrate how it relates to your audience. If you're goal is to persuade, you'll use the body of the presentation to define the problem and offer your solution. In this article, we'll discuss proven methods for developing the body of your presentation.
Remember, you have a limited amount of time in which to address your audience, therefore you must limit the number/breadth of main ideas covered in your presentation. Depending on the time allotted to you, it's best to stick to two to five main points. You need to provide supporting evidence for each main point, so allow enough time to develop each point in adequate detail. It's usually best to err on the conservative side - if there's a question in your mind about how many points you can reasonably discuss, go with the lower number.
Once you've determined the most important issues to illuminate during your speech, the next thing you should plan is the appropriate organizational structure for your speech. Yes, you really do need to plan your presentational structure. There's nothing more frustrating than listening to a speaker who jumps from one topic to another without explaining how the topics are related, repeats herself often, and never seems to get to the point. These are just a few the side effects of poor organizational structure. You should organize the body of our presentation in a manner that makes sense for your subject. In fact, most subjects naturally lend themselves to a particular structure.
The most common organizational patterns are:
1) Topical - use when several ideas relate to your theme, each distinct idea becomes a main point. This structure is useful for informative speeches.
2) Chronological - uses time sequence for a framework. This structure is useful for both informative and persuasive speeches, both of which require the presentation of background information
3) Spatial - organizes material according to physical space. This structure is useful for informative speeches.
4) Classification - organizes material by putting things into categories. This structure is useful for both informative and persuasive speeches.
5) Problem/Solution - organizes material by describing a problem and then presenting a solution. This structure is useful for persuasive speeches.
6) Cause/Effect - organizes material by describing the cause of a problem and then presenting the effects of the problem. This structure is useful for persuasive speeches.
As you can see, some subjects could easily be organized by a number of different patterns. Chose a structure that supports the presentation of the supporting materials you plan to share with your audience. Whatever organizational structure you chose, make sure to stick with it throughout your presentation.