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 June 2003 Your Presentation Success Is Our Passion Present It Right...The First Time! TWO WINNING PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC SEMINARS Goal: Learn how to develop, design, and deliver a persuasive, results-oriented presentation. In the last public seminar, three people created real-work presentations the first day, and presented with their slides the second day. This is a real opportunity to take your presentations to the next level of professionalism! Dates: August 5 and 6, 2003 and September 24 and 25, 2003 Location: Boston area Time: 9 to 5 Cost: $650, 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 have those, I’ll give you some slide design ideas you can use. NEW SERVICES! IMPACTFUL, CRISP, FOCUSED SLIDES! Captivate your audience! Whether your presentation slides need critique, design, or a makeover, Wilder Presentations can now offer you all these services. To see our new services click here. FOR PRESENTERS: STEP 10: TAKE THE LEAP USE HUMOR WITH CARE (From the book Presentations Kit: 10 Steps for Selling Your Ideas) How many times have you pretended to laugh at a joke that you didn't find funny? How many times did you wish the speaker didn't start with a joke? Especially a joke that did not have anything to do with the presentation. How can you use humor? Any of you who work in big corporations know that you had better be sure your humor isn't racist, sexist, prejudiced, or offensive to a group of people. That means, if you plan to tell a joke, you better ask some people to give you their opinions of it before you use it. I remember being in a country that shall remain unnamed and hearing all this sexist humor in class. I was shocked, but everyone in the room was really laughing, not pretending to laugh. For those people at that time, they saw nothing wrong with the humor. What was said then would never go over today. So what is the best type of humor to use? If you are good at ad libs, tell jokes on yourself. They go over very well if you do it right. Jerry Lewis said, "My best ad lib took seven hours to write." Some presenters have ad libs for such situations as equipment breakdowns, technical questions for which the they do not know the answer, and something unexpected on the screen. Unplanned ad libs are usually good when you have an excellent rapport with the audience in a give-and-take experience that is more than you talking and them listening. If you do the same type of talk over and over, you might be able to plan some of those jokes on yourself. If not, have fun with your audience. Focus on them, not on yourself, and you may be surprised by what comes out of your mouth. I mean, interesting, funny comments. Some salespeople try to put a funny cartoon in the middle of a talk. But the audience doesn't laugh. Why? Imagine. The salesperson is going along in a serious tone; the audience is equally serious. Then, without warning, a joke is told or a cartoon comes on the screen. The audience needs to be prepared for such a change of pace. If you do plan to use humor, be sure you set up your audience. FOR PRESENTERS: HOW TO COMMUNICATE BAD NEWS You have to tell your group that due to changes in the product, they will need to work an additional 20 hours this week. To communicate bad news: Give a short background. State the bad news. Present and explain options from among which to choose. Conclude by affirming options. Ask which option the audience prefers. HERE'S AN EXAMPLE Short background: We have been working on this project for months. We were right on schedule. Last week several of our beta customers made some recommendations that we need to implement. These suggestions will make this product sell even more. Bad news: We figure we have about 100 hours to make this change. We have to do it this week. I figure that, with the 5 of us, we each have 20 extra hours to do this week. It is Monday and we need it done by next Monday. Options to choose from: Work extra every day. Work the weekend. Do some during the week and the rest on the weekend. Advantages and disadvantages of each: Work extra every day. Advantages: Have the weekend off. Get into the groove and keep going. Disadvantages: Exhausting. One of you has to be home for your children. Work the weekend. Advantages: Have an easier schedule during the week. Have a life in the evening. Disadvantages: Don't get the weekend off. Miss out on the nice weather now that it is spring. Do some during the week and the rest on the weekend. Advantages: Makes the week easier to get through. Less tired. Disadvantages: Working every day, a normal day and more. No life outside of work this week. List options: Here are the three possibilities: (1) Work longer each day. (2) Work on the weekend. (3) Do a combination of working longer and on the weekend. Which option do you each want? DESIGNERS: TURNING OFF THE AUTO RESIZING IN POWERPOINT Are you like me and wish the auto resizing in PowerPoint would only be on when you need it? Here’s how to turn it off. PowerPoint 2000: Tools to Options to Edit. Uncheck AutoFit text to text placeholder. PowerPoint 2002: Tools to AutoCorrect Options. Uncheck the two AutoFit options. MONTHLY CHALLENGE Presenters: Find some way to use humor and get your audience to chuckle during a talk. Designers: Turn off the PowerPoint features you don’t want. FOR OVER 200 BEFORE AND AFTER EXAMPLES see my interactive CD-ROM "SLIDES THAT WIN!" LOOKING FOR PRESENTATIONS I am creating a CD with Jennifer Rotondo - more on that in a month or so. Right now we are looking for presentations we can fix and then use on the CD as examples. If you have one that falls into this category, and you are willing to have it be on a CD that we sell, please e-mail me. What we need: Sell a Product or Idea, Company Overview, Work Update, Convince People of a Problem, or Investor Relations. 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.