March 2007

Tell a story: Before --> Plot point--> After [more]

Be optimistic - Look for creating the best [more]

"I know, not "I hope" [more]

Turning text into a slide look [more]

Presenters: Send me a short "story" you've told.

Designers: Send me your best PowerPoint slide.

TELL A STORY: BEFORE --> PLOT POINT--> AFTER

How do you tell a short vignette about a particular situation? How do you honor the emotions of your audience? Let's take a simple situation. My kettlebell instructor is talking to a group of people about how kettlebells are a wonderful way to exercise.

Data Scenario: A kettlebell is a cast iron weight, which resembles a basketball with a handle. Kettlebells come in many weight sizes. The Russians have been using them for over 100 years. When weight lifting with kettlebells you do such exercises as: kettlebell snatch, kettlebell squat and kettlebell swing. You can make amazing strength gains and get in excellent condition by using kettlebells.

Story Scenario:
Before: Joe came to class. He was 100 lbs overweight. He hadn't exercised in years. He couldn't jump rope being so heavy. He had so much trouble feeling which muscles to use in the different exercises. He got discouraged when he couldn't do what the other people were doing and kept wanting to go sit down.

Plot point: One day after about two weeks of his coming to class a student took him aside and said, "You know Joe, I used to look like you. You will look like me sooner when you just exercise and stop complaining. Focus on what you can do."

After: After that conversation, he started to change his attitude. I remember the day he lifted twenty pounds over his head and walked around the room. Then there was the day that he swung a 40 lb kettlebell 30 times. He was ecstatic. Imagine this, he got so he could jump rope for 5 minutes at a time. This was only after about 4 months in the class.

Of course, somewhere in your talk you will share information about a kettlebell and what it is etc. But don't start with data.

BE OPTIMISTIC - LOOK FOR CREATING THE BEST

At some level in their beings, your audience senses your attitude and beliefs about your topic and ability as you speak. Optimism is essential when speaking to others. Here's a quote from the book, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. "Albert Bandura, a Stanford psychologist who has done much of the research on self-efficacy, sums it up well: 'People's beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities. Ability is not a fixed property; there is a huge variability in how you perform. People who have a sense of self-efficacy bounce back from failures; they approach things in terms of how to handle them rather than worrying about what can go wrong.'"

Frequently, I hear people telling me things like, "After the Vice President asked me a question, and I just went downhill in presenting." The person lost all his optimism. He stopped trying to create the best for his talk. He lost his audience.

What happened? The person was presenting very well by being in the moment and sharing information. Then by some external event, or perhaps even internal self-talk, worry and anxiety took over and the flow of the talk stopped. So what can you do to begin to keep your abilities at a high level? Practice. Practice. Practice. For example, you are walking down the street and spill your coffee on your leather shoes. You keep calm, you see what happened and you go on without getting all emotional or wrought up. Or you are working on a report and your boss points out some mistakes. You look at them, acknowledge them, fix them and then continue. You don't start telling yourself that you are stupid and will probably lose your job.

Every moment you have an opportunity to practice optimism that will then serve you very well when in front of a group. See how you do in those moments when you aren't in front of people. I read somewhere the quote, "How you do anything is how you do everything."

"I KNOW, NOT I HOPE"

"I hope you have learned some information about our company this morning." This sounds like you really aren't sure. You only spent hours putting together the information and now you are just hoping maybe you said something useful. Better you say, "I know that the information on how we position our products and services in the market will demonstrate our ability to meet the needs of existing and future customers."

TURNING TEXT INTO A SLIDE LOOK

Here are a two slides showing how you can take text and put it in a slide design look. Julie Terberg, of Terberg Design, www.terbergdesign.com made this slide look for Harvard Medical International (HMI). HMI extends internationally the mission of the Harvard Medical School in improving the quality of health care through excellence in clinical medicine around the world.

Notice how when the information is in chunks on the slides, rather than just text, your eyes have a much easier time looking at it and processing the information. Think about your slides. What slide design would make the information more interesting to see? What slide design would make the information more interesting to present?

Winning Presentations Public Seminar
June 12 and 13, 2007, Boston, MA

This seminar is open to those who both create and deliver presentations.

• Increase your presence in front of a group.
• Use opening, closings, and transitions focused on your audience's "need to know."
• Redo a presentation, including, if necessary, a new background and many slide design ideas.
• Learn how to create PowerPoint slides that enhance your presentation's objective.
• Leave with a personalized action plan and a video of the six presentations you gave during the seminar.
  
  

Visual Makeovers
Do you want your slides to be more professional looking? Do you want your slides to convey the key messages of your talk? Learn how to create slides that enhance your ability to present with confidence and enthusiasm.

Corporate Consulting: Presentation Performance Process for Your Company or Division
Save days of time creating a presentation. Put my process in place and save at least one-third of the time you used to spend putting together a talk. Guaranteed!

My clients include: The Gillette Company, Genzyme Corporation, CVS, Harvard Medical International, State Street Global Advisors, Mercury Computer Systems, Harvard Medical School, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Avid Technology.

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