Wired Presentations

by someone who has never entered one!

What can someone who has never competed in a speech contest teach you, the competitor, about winning? I think that the answer to that question is, “A LOT!”

I have a couple of friends that have entered contests and I helped coach them. As part of this “coaching” I attended every contest I could easily drive to. Here are the lessons that I learned.

Do your homework

You should know how you will be judged. Read the judging sheet (you can find them here). Read the words of those who have gone far (Rich Hopkins). Read  Internet groups.

Your speech has to have a point

This is very important. During the humorous speech season I saw at least 10 presentations. I don’t remember any of them having a point. When a speech has a point you know it. There simply must be a reason that you are telling the story. At the end of your speech I should remember the story and the specific reason that you shared it with me. If your audience doesn’t know why you told it chances are you will lose.

Don’t bury the headline

Your point must be obvious. Many folks in your audience, including some of the judges, won’t “get” that subtle, clever, introduction where you let us in on why you are sharing your speech. You need to have the subtlety of breaking glass. If you don’t tell them EXACTLY why you are sharing your presentation, chances are they won’t get it. Face it, most of us are barely paying attention under the best of circumstances. Make it easy for us.

Have a compelling opening

All of the contest speeches that I saw had very weak openings. I don’t remember one that really reached-out and grabbed me. You need an introduction that says, “what I am about to share with you is going to make your life better — listen to me!”

I think that the compelling opening is the most important part of the speech. If you don’t have them at the start, you won’t have them at the end. I noticed this when teaching. People need a reason to listen. Give them one — be exciting.

Have a gripping end and ask them to do something

If you have them with you at the end congratulations. If you don’t a compelling end isn’t likely to help much.

The end of your speech should include two things:

• an OBVIOUS restatement of the point you are trying to make
• a call to action (something for them to do).

You need to make sure they remember the reason that you shared your speech with them. Restate it in a new, different, way.

You need to have a call to action. It can be something as simple as ask them to consider what you have said (pause for them to do it). It can be as specific as calling a charity and donating money (take their money). It could be that you want them to try a new computer programming technique (not likely to win a contest with that one). Ask them to do something; your speech will stick in their mind.

Here is the quickest way to lose a contest

Don’t practice and don’t rehearse. For heaven’s sake, if you are going to do something gimmicky like use a cute video, or fall down, rehearse it. Hopefully one of you friends will tell you “it sucks, don’t do it?”

A few days ago many of us presentation blogosphere folk were carrying on
a Twitter conversation. Somewhere during the discussion an idea was
born: Let’s do a group writing project on “Public speaking makes you
richer, thinner and better in bed.” Looking back on it I bet there was beer involved.

On Monday I was milling around a local Barnes and Nobles and wound up in the diet section. Man are there a lot of diet books out there. I just did a search on Amazon and the work “diet” returned 332,271 hits. And that was just for books. 179,000,000 hits for “diet” on Google. It appears that people are hungry to lose weight… I know, that wasn’t funny.

Thinner
What if public speaking were proven to make you thinner? Just think about it. I envision something similar to Dante’s 7th level of Hell. The problem is most people are terrible presenters and the question didn’t ask “what if great public speaking were proven to make you thinner?”

Public speaking and weightloss have something in common. People are seldom honest with you. You can be fat and people will tell you how good you look. You can suck as a presenter and guess what: people will tell you how good your presentation was. Since becoming obsessed with public speaking I notice such things. This applies to the famous as well as the rest of us.

The next time you go to a conference walk to the front of the room after a bad presentation. You will hear nothing but awesome, great, etc. The more well known you are in your field the more difficult it is to get real feedback.

Here is another “truth” that I have learned: public speaking won’t make you thinner but being thinner will make you a better public speaker. It is unfair but true. I am still overweight but I can tell you that losing 30 lbs did wonders for my speaking. I have more energy and am able to do a much more compelling job.

Richer
Sure, there are some people have gotten rich from public speaking — Tony Robbins, Barack Obama (he will cash in once his presidency concludes), and countless others. I think that it is true that developing your public speaking skills can help you in real life. On the other hand, being a crappy presenter doesn’t appear to hurt much. If it did I wouldn’t cringe in fear every time I am asked to attend a presentation.

I want to say the important part again: “being a crappy presenter doesn’t appear to hurt much.” I know one guy who kept his job because he gave a “great” presentation. I don’t know anyone who has been fired because of a terrible presentation.

The problem is that there is no way to tell how being bad hurts you. I would love to see definitive statistics on how much bad presentation costs in a given year. I bet it is almost as much money as the bailout. Give a terrible sales presentation; Walk away talking about the potential customer who just isn’t savvy enough to “get it.” Denial … denial … DENIAL! Most people who present a lot think they are great at it. Unfortunately, they never hear otherwise.

Folks who write books may get a little richer on the speaking circuit — Malcolm Gladwell is doing well. His presentations are interesting but he obviously hasn’t put the same effort into developing his speaking skills as he has his writing skills. And you know what? It doesn’t matter. I would pay to hear him speak.

Better in Bed
I asked my wife about this one. She said that there was no way that this one is true… Sigh… always a comediene.

The Lesson
I think that the lesson here, if there is one, is that you strive for presentation excellence because you strive for excellence. Add to that a little compassion for your audience. Compassion is a wonderful thing. I wish more presenters had it.

Here are the other posts from this group writing project…

Laura Bergells, Lisa Braithwaite, Michael Cortes and Olivia Mitchell.

The Virtual Presentation Handbook by Roger Courville

The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook by Roger Courville is the 4th of 52 books that I will read this year.

How did I find Roger’s book, The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook? I found this book because I am a webinar nerd. I just love delivering them. I think that I enjoy delivering them because it may be the most challenging presentation environment there is. Well, that may be an overstatement. “Do you have any final words before we flip the switch?” would be worse. Oh back to the book…

A few years ago I was a Technical Trainer at SAS. Part of the job was delivering courses over the Web. I had never done this before and it scared the life out of me. I asked for advice and no one had any. I looked for help everywhere. There was very little to be found. I decided that I would have to learn how to do it — on my own. I started by watching hundreds of hours of recorded webinars (virtual presentations). I learned what made one webinar better than another and then I taught myself how to do it.

Periodically, I will search Amazon for books of presenting over the Web. During one of those searches I found Roger’s book.

Why did I read the book? Although I am no longer an instructor I still love learning about virtual presentations. I still deliver them, just not as often. Plus, the skills using in virtual presentations apply to using Camtasia. Finally, I want to see if others concur with some of the things I discovered on my own.

Lessons learned. The insight that Roger provides here is very good. Even though the book doesn’t address teaching, or technical presentations, the topics covered can be applied to those fields. I really enjoyed reading about using the Web for sales and marketing presentations. It is an environment that I don’t encounter very often.

There are no discussions of specific tools in the book. The vendors do a great job of documenting their offerings and how to use them. Their tutorial videos are a great learning tool. There is no reason to waste space in the book for that. One of the things that makes the book great is it’s size. Or lack of size. It is a small book and gets straight to the point.

Roger makes a point of emphasizing practice. This was born out in my learning adventure. You have to know the tool that you are using. There is no time to try to figure-out how to make something work during a real presentation. It is hard to make that case to people and Roger does a great job at it. Every once in a while I teach people how to get started with virtual presentations using WebEx. The only way I have found to hammer this home is to make a “mistake” with the tool. I always use polling. Yes, I have a scripted procedure to intentionally screw it up. It highlights the need to practice very effectively.

The book contains a discussion of PowerPoint as well. The tried and true advice extolling the joy of bullet free slides is covered as is a neat trick for building slides without using animations. You see, many of the tools have issues with animations. I won’t spoil it for you but I can vouch for the technique. I use it all the time and it works very well.

One of the joys of virtual presentations is the unmuted phone. During our training classes we heard lots of interesting things. Most of which were quite funny and just a little embarrassing. I can honestly say that I have never heard a story as good as the one from the book. It is a hoot. Plus, the presenter’s reaction is incredibly funny. Seriously, it is almost worth the price of the book just to read the story.

The book has a wonderful discussion on how to make your webinars interactive. Interactivity is required for a great webcast. The vendors all have a common set of features to support this. Polls, chat and annotation tools that allow you do draw or type on the screen are common to all of them. Roger covers them in the book. We differ in our opinion of the annotation tools but that is probably a function of the subject matter we present.

The book is chock-full of useful tips and tricks. I haven’t scratched the surface. I guess you will just have to read it for yourself;)

The final verdict: Experienced Web presenters and newbies will both benefit from reading this book. I wish it had been around when I started.

Be sure to follow Roger on Twitter. You can also learn more at The Virtual Presenter Web site.

Fans welcome tired swimmers to the beach

When a guest shows up at your club meeting, how do you treat them? If your organization is like most, one or two of your members will make the cursory introduction while the majority doesn’t make an effort. In fact, most people will not acknowledge that there is a guest even there.

What kind of message does that send to your visitor? The answer to that question is obvious. It sends the wrong message. You are telling the guest that they don’t really matter.

The message that you want to send is, “Hey, we want you to be one of us!”

Here are 5 ways you can make a visitor feel like they belong:

1) Everyone, and I mean everyone, acts excited when a guest takes the risk of attending your meeting. You goal here is to make them feel the love. Done properly there should be no way for the visitor to remember the names of all the people they met. There should be, literally, a line of people waiting to meet the guest.

2) Announce their presence during the meeting. “Let’s welcome Bob to our meeting. Bob is a computer programmer on finance team. Bob, we thank you for taking time to attend our meeting.”

3) After the meeting ask the guest if they have any questions. If they do, answer them. If they don’t, make sure they know what the club is all about. Ask them why they attended and then describe how the club can help them.

Tell them about Web site or give them a flyer. At this point someone in the club should make sure they have the guest’s contact information. Make certain you include the mailing address.

4) Tell the guest how the club can benefit from having them as a member. This is perhaps the most important thing that you can do. People need to feel valued and this is a great way to do it. Do not skip this. Do not be vague about this. “Our club would really benefit from having you join. We currently have no members with your background and we could learn a lot from you.”

5) Follow up with a hand written thank you note. There is nothing, NOTHING, like receiving a hand written note. It just makes you feel great to get one. Here’s a huge secret: as good as it is to get one, it feels even better to write one. Make it a part of your organization’s processes.

If you don’t make an effort to let your guests know that you value them they will leave thinking that you don’t want them in your club. Don’t let that happen. You want them to feel like “one of us.”

Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun

Confessions of a Public Speaker is the 2nd of 52 books I will read this year.

How did I find Scott Berkun’s new book, Confessions of a Public Speaker? Oddly enough, it started on Twitter. I believe it was Kathy Sierra (@KathySierra) that tweeted about Scott’s promo video and the weighty cognitive load it placed on the viewer. The comment stream is pure gold and well worth reading.

Why did I read the book? I didn’t like the promo video, but Kathy seemed positive about the book. So I decided that I should read it. Besides, I do a lot of presentations and writing at work and figured that I would learn something.

“… the “Confessions…” book is amazing (I was one of the lucky ones that got an advance look and it “grabbed me by the throat, pinned me to the wall, and did not let up ’till I’d finished.” — Kathy Sierra

Lessons learned. Great presentations don’t just happen, they must be pondered. When it comes to presentation design, thinking is one of the most important ways you can spend your time. Scott’s book is the only book I have read on presentations what talks about it. I am obsessive about this portion of design and now I find that I am not alone.

Plus, Scott preaches … practice … practice … practice. This is a hard sell for most, but it is THE most important that you can do to ensure that your presentation is successful. Sure, you can immediately fire-up PowerPoint if you want to, but know this: The most beautiful set of slides in the world is useless if you suck. And if you don’t practice there is a good chance that your presentation will do just that, suck!

The book does not follow the usual recipe for a presentation book. There are no recipes for content development, no talk of gestures, etc. In short, this book is like sitting at a bar with your friends discussing presentations. It is highly engaging and dare I say, hard to put down. It’s a great book.

I really enjoyed the chapter, “You can’t do worse than this.” It contains presentation horror stories and shines a light on the fact that even expert presenters have things that go worse than expected. It’s hard not to like “train wreck stories.”

If you are new to presentations this should be the first book that you read on the topic. It gives a lot of great advice that many people take for granted. Plus, Scott points out that no one is perfect and no presentation is perfect. Although we strive for perfection, it is unobtainable. In short, do your best and give your presentation — it will be OK.

The final verdict: Presenters of all skill levels should read this book! I highly recommend it.

While you wait for your book to arrive be sure to check-out Scott’s blog. It’s full of very good stuff.

I happen to hear a couple of people talking about New Year’s Resolutions over the holidays. I bet you did too. Lose weight, exercise, eat better, eat less — I heard a lot of them.

I was reading Julien Smith’s blog (In Over Your Head) and came across this post “How To Read a Book a Week in 2010.” Julien’s article struck a cord with me;  this was the third time I had heard that goal mentioned in the span of 24 hours. I love to read, so I “bit the hook.”

Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron

The first book on my list, Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron.

How did I find Pema Chodron? I came across her name on one of Seth Godin’s “Book roundup” Squidoo page. The page doesn’t mention Taking the Leap, but it did recommend another book by Pema. I wrote her name in interesting reads section of my notebook.

Why did I read Taking the Leap? Just before New Years I happen to have some time and no book to read. Don’t forget your Kindle. I went to Barnes and Noble on a book hunt. I pulled out my trusty notebook. Saw Pema’s name written there. I headed to the religion section — she writes about Buddhism — to find one of her books. Taking the leap was the only one they had, so I bought it.

The book is not long, 99 pages, but then again page counts don’t matter that much. What matters is this, “Can I use the ideas to make my life better?” The answer to that question is a resounding YES!

The book begins with a story about wolves.

A Native American grandfather and his grandson talk of two wolves fighting in our hearts, one is vengeful, hateful and angry, the other is kind, understanding and compassionate. The grandson asks “who will win the fight”? The grandfather answers, “the one that we feed.”

That is the essence of the book. We can choose to be compassionate. We can choose to be vengeful. The point is: WE choose.

The problem we face is that many times we choose poorly. She suggests that we learn to recognize when we are heading into a rathole of despair (my words) or biting the hook. Then pause. Take a breath or three. And, this is the important part, make a choice that will make us and the world around us better. In Pema’s world this is going to be the non-confrontational route. It’s a good idea in Jeff’s world as well. How we choose to react is huge. We need to have that always in the forefront of our mind.

She reinforces the ideas in the book with many stories. There is one about a Klansman that is especially interesting. I won’t spoil that for you. You should read the book.

How can the lessons learned from Taking the Leap be applied to presentations? Taking the time to think before you act, or speak, is a great habit to establish. But, it’s hard and unfortunately, during a presentation, a second of silence can feel like an eternity. The compulsion to fill dead air is great. Satisfying that compulsion can get you into lots of trouble. Learning to be calm, take your time, and enjoy the moment are habits that can help us. Mastering the concepts from the book will help make the experience we deliver to our audiences better. In short, it will make us better presenters.

I am happy that I discovered this book!

You are never too young to start

Do you remember what it was like to take that speech class in college? At the time, was the thought of standing in front of a classroom full of people enough to make you call in sick?

If you want to relive that experience through the eyes of the current students in the Fundamentals of Effective Speech Class at Southern State Community College (South Campus) you are in luck. They are blogging about their experiences. There are some very interesting posts there.

There is a great quote in one of Shanna’s posts.

The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public. – George Jessel

Stop by and offer words of encouragement via the comments.

“What’s a manager’s job?” I was somewhat taken aback by the question for two reasons. One, I am not a manager. And, two, Alan and I weren’t talking about management or managers or leadership. Still, it’s a great question. Without much thought I replied, “To make his (or her) people better.”

A lot of people will pay lip-service to the development of employees, but when push comes to shove it often goes by the wayside. There are many reasons for this — strangled budgets or perceived lack of time. There are lots more, I am sure.

Just between you and me I don’t rely on my manager, and I have an outstanding manager, to plan my training or personal development. Heck, I have even taken a job just to learn a specific skill (i.e. course development and training). As Alan and I discussed this further I asked this question.

Why don’t we individual contributors have group meetings and don’t invite the managers?

Think about it. You can learn from and teach others in your group all sorts of things. When management is present at a meeting most of us peons are rather reserved. We tend not to be forthright and open. This is bad. Openness between the members of a group leads to trust and reliance. You know that others will help you when you need it. Keith Ferrazzi’s book, “Who’s Got Your Back” doesn’t specifically address this concept but it is close enough. With a little work it can be applied to the Managerless Group Meeting.

I discussed this idea with one of my younger coworkers this morning. She liked it. She even mentioned that this would be a great environment for learning presentation skills. Hummmmmm… I think that I like where this is going.

My journey to presentation Nirvana began with a huge failure. Perhaps catastrophic is a better word. All I can say is, it still bothers me.

It all began 10 years (Dec 1999) ago at a 40th anniversary party for my parents. My brother, Don, was speaking to the 100 or so people gathered for this special occasion. Suddenly, out of the blue, I heard him say, “I am sure Jeff has something to say!” At that point he signaled for me to come up to the podium.

I froze — gripped with fear — and did nothing. Don quickly went on to something else and I sat there — A HUGE FAILURE. I can’t begin to describe how I felt, but I can assure you it wasn’t good.

Fast forward 10 years. It is now their 50th Anniversary celebration. This time I wasn’t scared at all. I chose to say a few words but it would have been fine if I hadn’t. You see, it was my choice. Fear didn’t control me.

Being a prisoner of fear of is holding you back!

Assignment: Find a quiet place and think about how your fear of public speaking is effecting your life. Now, visualize situations where the confidence to face this fear will help you. The key is to imagine as much detail as possible. Make it real in your mind.

Make the choice to confront the fear and banish it! Public speaking WILL change your life — I promise.

How do you do banish this fear? Hummmmm … stayed tuned!

2009 is about to be history! Thank goodness, it’s been a rough year for many people. On the other hand, It has been a great year for presentations. Here is the best communicator of 2009!

My Favorite Communicator or 2009 … Sir Ken Robinson

Hands down Sir Ken Robinson is the best communicator of 2009.

I first became aware of Sir Ken years ago. I was in San Francisco to do some performance tuning on a SAS environment for a bank. In fact, I had just arrived. I turned on the TV after settling into my hotel room. As I placed my clothes in the closet I heard this mesmerizing English accent. It just so happened that the TV was on a PBS station that was playing a speech by Sir Ken Robinson. I quickly made note of his name name in my notebook and then sat down to listen as he discussed creativity and how our schools kill it.

Take a few minutes and view Sir Ken discuss this very topic at a TED Conference.

What makes Sir Ken so good?

• He is engaging – he brings you into his idea and makes you part of the story. Most of us have been to school so we can identify with many of the points he brings up.
• He is likeable – Sir Ken is a guy who you would love to run into at a dinner party. Yes, even though he is an educator (watch the TED video to hear the joke). Which brings us to …
• He is a great story teller - his presentations are filled with great stories and they are very well told. They enhance his presentations by bringing his ideas to life. You won’t find a better example of story use anywhere else.
• He is very, VERY, funny – his presentations are full of humor. Jokes. Funny stories. Humorous asides. They are all in there.
• He knows when to use visuals - in this case he doesn’t use PowerPoint. You won’t find any Zen-style get-a-photo-and-stick-a-quote-on-it slides in here. During his TED talk he does use a visual but it is subtle. He is the visual. He is speaking about a ballerina and them draws attention to his body. He is a polio survivor and ballett is not something you will see him do.

You get the picture. Sir Ken Robinson is the perfect role model for the modern presentation. Check-out his Web site for more videos.

I recently asked Sir Ken which of his many books is the best one to read first. He said, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. I am going to order it for my Kindle and in hardcopy just as soon as I finish this post.

Dr. Walter E. Willams

My runner-up for the Best Communicator of 2009 is Dr. Walter E. Williams. Dr. Williams is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. In addition, Dr. Williams is a staunch libertarian and often speaks on the topic of personal freedom.

Dr. Williams is a guest host on the Rush Limbaugh radio show. He can explain complex economic topics and make them understandable. Plus, he is funny! When I think back to my Economics professors I feel cheated. Here is an example of his work.