FREE! E-Newsletter Presentations Points is a free short monthly bulletin sent out by Claudyne Wilder. Every bulletin discusses two ideas for presenters and one for designers. There's also a monthly challenge for presenters and designers. Subscribe Now December 2003 Your Presentation Success Is Our Passion Present It Right...The First Time! WINNING PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC SEMINARS Goal: Learn how to develop, design, and deliver a persuasive, results-oriented presentation. Testimonials from the last seminar: "Claudyne customized her recommendations for each individual." "This is the best, absolute best training I have attended." Dates: January 15-16, 2004 and February 19-20, 2004 Location: Boston by the Fleet Center Time: 9 to 5 Cost: $700, with a money-back guarantee For a seminar outline click here or e-mail me at claudyne@wilderpresentations.com When you refer someone who comes to my seminar, you'll receive a free book or CD. If you already have those, I'll give you some slide design ideas you can use. PRESENTERS: HOW'S YOUR VOICE? A person's voice can capture the audience or make them want to run out of the room. Most everyone can cultivate a voice that makes the audience keep listening. There are certain practices you need to do in order to truly capture the audience with your voice. Misconception 1: I must talk slower.  "I talk too fast. I've just got to slow down." Reality: There are a few people who really should talk more slowly. But most people just have to learn to include pauses and silence between their thoughts. Presenters tend to stand up and start talking with no pauses. When speaking, to anyone for that matter, pause and breathe between your thoughts. Exercise: Some people are never still. They spend their lives running to planes, working late, and not resting in stillness. If you are one of these people, you need to train your body to stop and pause. Do this: For one minute a day lie on the floor or couch and do nothing. Close your eyes and feel the support under you. Then the next time you are in front of a group, remember the stillness you felt in your body and reproduce it between your sentences. Misconception 2: I'm soft spoken and can't change. "I have never talked very loud. That's just me." Reality: There is no sense giving a talk that the audience cannot hear. If this is your problem, you need someone to coach you in how to project your voice. Most people in my classes do learn to talk loud enough so the audience can hear them. This takes energy and focus, but can happen. Misconception 3: Podium mikes work fine. "I will just stand behind the podium, which makes me more comfortable, and then people can hear me." Reality: It is very hard to stand behind a podium and speak into the mike. You aren't trained to do that. It's better to use a wireless lavaliere mike so you don't have to think about keeping your head pointed in one direction. Try these experiments: Pausing: When driving to work or on errands, talk out loud. Hear yourself pause between your sentences. Hear the silence in the car. Take a breath and relax. Get used to this feeling.  Loudness: Practice speaking a soft tone, then middle volume, then very loud. Get used to changing the volume so that when you are in front of a group, you can easily raise your voice volume. You may not know what is loud enough, so be sure to ask someone, "Tell me at the next presentation if my voice is loud enough. If it's not, please sit forward in your chair, which will be my signal to speak louder." Remember, that these same issues apply to speaking in a meeting. You want to project confidence and clarity. Don't ramble. Speak loudly and pause at the end of your points. PRESENTERS: HOW TO DELIVER A CHANGE PROPOSAL Changes happen every day. Sometimes we prepare others and sometimes they are surprised. Change is easier for most people if they are prepared. Here is a format to help you structure how you can talk about a change. 1. What's not working with present situation 2. Change recommendation 3. Benefits of change 4. Next steps to implementation 1. Present situation Only one person can do this particular task of entering certain information on our system. That is you. When you are not here, then the task cannot be done. You are working much overtime to keep up with the changes that need to be put into the system. And sometimes the numbers are incorrect and I cannot check them as I am out of town. There is no one else to ask to check them. 2. Change recommendation Train someone else do to this task in the next month. 3. Benefits of change For you: You won't have to do this alone when I'm gone and worry about getting it done correctly. For you: You won't have to stay on the weekends to solve the problem. For me: If you are ill, someone else can take over and I won't have to do it. For other departments: They will get correct numbers the first time. No additional work involved. 4. Next steps to implementation Decide who should learn the program and then start the training. DESIGNERS: KEEPING THE ELEMENTS BALANCED I asked Jennifer Rotondo for some advice on making slides look balanced. Here is what she has to say: Use a grid Align your slide to an invisible grid. Use your Guides in PowerPoint (View>Guides) to create your presentation grid. Create margins First, start with a margin around your slide. For visual as well as printing purposes, I try to stick to a .5" margin. You will need four guides to create a margin. PowerPoint gives you two. To create more, hold down Control and drag an existing guide. To move a guide, simply place your mouse over it, the click and hold as you drag it to the margin. Create columns and sections for information Once you have established your margins, break your presentation background into two or three equal columns with gutters in between. (A gutter is a small amount of space between columns). Create either a two-column or three-column grid. Then, place at least three evenly spaced horizontal guides to break up the slide into sections. Set up your Slide Master Now you have a grid for your entire presentation. Use this grid to set up your Slide Master. Here you will format the background, select a font, place your text, bullets, graphics, and any other elements like company logo. For example, place the logo in the bottom right section of the grid. Thanks, Jennifer! Jennifer is the creator of FlashClips, which allows you to easily insert your own movies into a presentation. You simply insert a Flash movie (SWF file) into PowerPoint and control it! If you don't have any Flash movies, Jennifer includes 84 flash animations with FlashClips. To find out more, contact Jennifer at 770-966-7857 or visit her web site at www.creativemindsinc.com MONTHLY CHALLENGES PRESENTERS: Tape your voice and listen to where you pause and allow stillness. DESIGNERS: Set up grids for keeping your presentation slides balanced. NEW SERVICES: CRISP AND FOCUSED SLIDES WITH IMPACT! Captivate your audience! Do your presentation slides need critique, design, or a makeover? Wilder Presentations now offers you all these services. To see our new offerings click here. BEFORE-AND-AFTER SLIDE EXAMPLE This opening slide presents the company's products, but it does not focus on the customer's interests or concerns. Looking at this, don't you wonder what to choose first and how to choose? The company building is not the most important aspect for the customer and shouldn't take center stage. This slide shows your prospect the process you will use to electronically bring them up to date. The salesperson can discuss this process and ask the prospect questions during the discussion. Then the next slide lists, in categories, what the prospect will need. Presentation Points may be forwarded via e-mail, printed for circulation, and quoted FREE of charge. No permission is required, but please mention where you got this information. It’s also perfectly acceptable to post Presentation Points on your company’s Intranet. To subscribe to Presentation Points or visit my home page, go to www.wilderpresentations.com.