Countdown to Tuck

Gifts come in all forms, and one of mine this year came in the form of an invitation to be a Visiting Executive and Lecturer at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Very exciting!

I will be on the campus in Hanover, NH, January 3rd through the 5th, giving a lecture to MBA students on Executive Presence, coaching students in one-on-one sessions, and meeting with the Dean as well as various faculty members and administrators. An amazing opportunity, a wonderful gift.

So, the countdown begins, and the preparation, which actually began months ago, continues. Yes, SmartMouth followers, I have outlined my "focal points" and my "messages" for each and every one of my presentations and important conversations. Who wouldn't, right?!

And just as a teaser, here are the headlines from the lecture on Executive Presence: Audience Awareness and Sensitivity; Professionalism and Preparedness; Tone and Behavior. But more on these after class ...

Tks

Omigosh, I had to laugh. "Tks" was the full content of an email I got from a client the other day. That was it, just ... Tks.

He meant thanks, or thank you, or thank you for your response ... or, more specifically, thank you for responding to my email and for editing my important presentation that was attached. 

Not to worry, I gave him a ton of grief for his Tks. And I reminded him that my work with him, our journey together, was to help him become a more robust and relevant communicator. He's an executive, with a lot of potential and a bright future, but I'm told that people cannot follow him when he speaks. He really had been making great strides, getting lots of compliments, feeling better about his presentations. Then Tks. 

But Tks is not just his pitfall. It's all of ours. Thumb fatigue from text messaging, the limits of the 140-character message, and the pressures of hectic and multiple communication modes these days have made for some pretty sloppy messages that assume a familiarity and casualness with your audience that might not always be appropriate or welcome. And let's be honest here, we've all fallen into a complacency with messages like Tks. We just generally trust that it's okay. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't ...

The moral of the story? U cud b gr8, but beware, these shortcuts could also shortcut your career if used too often or with the wrong audience at the wrong time. And so the few extra seconds it takes to type out a full word or two might be well worth it. Think about it next time you're in a hurry to send a message, and Tks for reading!

Always a Student

I’m always learning, usually from examples that others provide. Every client and every client situation reveals at least one lesson or nuance that is so instructive I cannot help but to make a note of it ... and then share it or use it later on.

So, when I’m asked for quick tips on presenting, speaking or executive presence, I often ask, “well, who do you admire, what do you find effective, are you observing others?”

One of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to improve your presentation skills, ramp up your public speaking, or polish your presence is to watch others and note – literally make notes for yourself – what-to-do and what-not-to-do. Oftentimes, the what-not-to-do is more glaring and therefore more immediately instructive. On the what-to-do side, though, I would encourage you to look and listen for some of the harder to hit fine points, such as how others connect with an audience, memorable openings and closings, the kind of stories that work, how people move and use the “stage” and how they use their voices. There’s so much to learn by observing and studying others.

Tip of the day? Go grab a journal or open a new document on your laptop. Some of your best moments at the front of the room may come from having sat and taken notes in the student section!

Communications Lessons from Otis

Otis is new to the family. I thought he was going to be just a pet. Turns out, he’s a teacher too. Otis is a Maltese mix, almost a year old, cute as a button and sweet as pie. And, to boot, he’s very smart. He’s been with us just shy of a week, but already Otis has provided multiple teachable moments.

In particular, Otis has been a case-in-point on good communications practices. Here are just a few of the important lessons Otis has re-taught me these past few days …

 Brevity. Otis responds best to one-word commands. Too many words, and it’s all a jumble, and then he’s unsure of what’s expected. And nothing happens. Hmmmm, sound familiar? Clarity and understanding often come from brevity.


Consistency. Consistency of message, voice and tone are vital in leading, managing … or in the role of master. Just with our being consistent in word, voice and tone, Otis already knows the drill around the house. Consistency is efficient and ultimately reassuring to an audience that knows you.

Positivity. Wow, the power of positive feedback! Dogs aren’t the only ones who like to be told they’re good. It’s universal. You get what you give, and positivity feeds everyone. Let’s face it, nothing is more motivating than a good stroking! It feels good to give it, and feels good to receive it.

Thanks, Otis, for inspiring this blogpost … and welcome to the family!

Me and Al Sharpton on the Same Page?

"A speaker has to determine what he is trying to do and what is the setting. You give speeches for different reasons, and you've gotta know going in:  Am I there to inform and inspire or am I going in there to entertain and impress? Then lock down two or three outlined points to inform them or razzle-dazzle them."

– The Reverend Al Sharpton

Amen, Reverend Sharpton, Amen!

Lessons Learned

Wow, I learned a lot. At last week's concluding session of SmartTalk – a year-long seminar for professionals who came together monthly to practice and polish their presentation skills – participants were asked, on the spot, to stand up and give a 3-minute talk on something they had learned in SmartTalk. They gave great talks, and it might well be that I learned more from them than they did from me!

So here are my takeaways from their "teachbacks" ...

1.  Flipping the switch in your brain to think about your audience – their needs, biases, expectations – may be all you need to do in some cases in order to communicate effectively. The tendency is to think about ourselves – our own needs, biases, expectations – when addressing an audience. But when you're communicating, it's simply not all about you, it's all about them. All the fancy preparation in the world may never beat just empathizing with your audience. Thanks for sharing the stories that illustrated this, SmartTalkers!

2. The disclaimers, explanations, apologies, and self-deprecation that precede many people's communications – formally at a podium, or when speaking up in a meeting – do nothing but make an audience uncomfortable. Communicating is all about them, your audience, and they expect speakers to be competent, together, successful. So don't put them on edge by trying to lower the bar for yourself and telling them you're not 100% prepared or that you're not very good at this. Instead, make everyone, including yourself, feel good about your presentation. SmartTalkers were compelled to approach the podium saying, "I love doing this!" It made such a difference in their performances. No more sandbagging!

3. Packaging and prioritizing are huge. We all have lots of information to share in meetings and presentations, but unless we package it inside a message – a point that conveys the value, significance, meaning, or context for the info – it can so easily get lost. SmartTalkers definitely learned, and demonstrated, that they know how to pare down information and share it selectively, so that what they say is understood and remembered by their audiences. Yes, there is such a thing as TMI!

Thank you, thank you to all SmartTalk participants, you were awesome! Isn't it amazing how long 3 minutes can be and how short 9 months can be? Lessons learned indeed.

Making Connections

Schmoozing today with my electrician and painter, and for way longer than I should have, I started to think about how people connect – even, and especially, people who don't know one another. From that, I extrapolated a few common themes that are good to keep in mind when you need to connect with an audience you don't know at all or very well.

1. Ask questions, be curious.
2. Show interest in what you know about the other person's work or mission.
3. Tell relevant stories.
4. Get personal, reveal just a little bit that makes you human and real.
5. Treat everyone as if they're the most important person or group you've talked to all day.

Incorporate a few or all of these in your next presentation, and see how it feels. It worked for me with Shane and Matt today, we could've talked forever!

Do You Deliver?

Do you deliver when you speak? Do you engage and connect physically as well as intellectually? It's not enough just to prepare some remarks or show some slides. You've got to literally show up and deliver ... with your whole body!

Here are 5 keys to being physically present and engaged with your audience:

Eyes. Use your eyes to connect. Look around the room at everyone, being very careful not to get stuck on one person or one section of a room. I’ve often heard the “Z” formation recommended; start by looking in the back corner of the room and slowly allow your gaze to move forward on the diagonal, from side to side, as if making a Z with your eyes until you reach the front. Then do it again …

Hands. For some reason, talking with your hands has a bad rap. It’s okay to talk with your hands, as long as your gestures aren’t wildly distracting … and as long as your hands aren’t blocking your face. If it’s natural for you to use your hands for emphasis, then go for it. Better to be animated than stiff.

Voice. If your body and your visuals are the video, your voice is the audio. Play it! Use pace, volume, and intonation to keep the soundtrack moving and interesting. Use silence too. Turn off the audio for a few seconds of pause to recapture attention. Being able to modulate your voice while speaking, versus droning through a presentation, makes you appear confident and in command of the material. And it’s a heck of a lot easier on the ears of your audience.

Body. Don’t cross your arms. Don’t jiggle the coins in your pocket. Don’t play with your hair. Yada yada yada. You know all of the don’ts. How about the do’s? Do use your body … move toward the audience, lean into the audience, have all gestures open to and embracing of the audience. If at a podium with a fixed mic, be on the balls of your feet, reaching toward the audience. It’s a lot more engaging than the slouched podium lean, or the side-to-side sway, or the hanging back on heels stance.

Movement. Use the room. If you have space to move around, and proximity to a fixed mic isn’t an issue, then use your floor space as if it’s a stage. Move into and around your audience. Be super present and in their face and space, and you will have their attention. 

Have a Big One? Help is on its Way ...

Introducing SmartMouth Communications “Need a Consult?” button.

If you need a second pair of eyes on a speech or presentation; if you need someone to write or rewrite your opening or closing; if you need input or feedback on your slides; or if you simply need to talk through your ideas with a trusted consultant, give us a shout!

Go to Smartmouthgroup.com, "Need a Consult?" to see the menu of online services. Check it out!

Work, Work, Work

That’s what a lot of presenters make their audiences do … work. Work to sift through heaps of detail and information. Work to make sense of dense, complex material. Work to follow along. Work to figure out the point …

If you are the presenter, you should do the heavy lifting for your audience. It’ll pay off; the audience will appreciate you, have a good impression of you, and, most important, they will understand and remember what you said!

So here are 3 tips on the kind of “work” you can do so your audience can sit back and absorb, then leave the room satisfied:

Provide guidance. Identify what it is you want your audience to think, know, do, or feel about your presentation. Then weave that into your opening and closing. The mere power of suggestion has a lot of power indeed.

Eliminate waste. Cut out extra detail and information just because it’s interesting to you or because it’s so cool you just have to share it. Be selective with your detail and info. Your audience can digest and retain only so much.

Narrate. Let your audience know where you are, what you’re doing, and where you’re going during the presentation. If you tell them you’re going to cover three main points, let them know when you’ve moved on to the next point. When you’re diverting to a quick sidebar, or you’re backtracking, or you’re stopping to tell a funny story, tell them that’s what you’re doing so they can follow along appropriately.

Audiences don’t want to work. But they do want to get it. If you do the work, you’ll get the reward … your audience’s attention and respect! 

It All Comes Down To ...

Self-discipline.

Even just a little bit of self-discipline can make a big difference in a meeting or presentation. Here's a 5-point checklist for you to consider while keeping yourself in check:

• You can't cover everything, so don't try. Be selective and prioritize.
• No one is as interested in what you have to say as you are ... unless, of course, it pertains directly to them! It's all about them.
• Observing the boundary of a time allotment shows respect, restraint, and command. Going over a time allotment shows the opposite.
• Winging it is not cool. Winging it is simply the intersection of avoidance and false hopes. You're better than that, so prepare.
• And above all, take a second to identify what it is that you want your audience to think or know or do at the end. If you're not solid with the takeaway, how can you expect them to be?

Child's Play

Ever wonder how to get a group of adults to pay attention and stay engaged? Have you ever tried toys, crayons or games? You should, it can totally change the dynamics in the room … in your favor!

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly I can transform a room of "hostages" – i.e. adult participants in a training they didn’t exactly beg to attend! – into a room of giddy "vacationers" just by engaging them in a game. Or by leaving crayons and paper on the table. Or by putting Slinkys, squishy balls, Rubik's Cubes and even candy in the middle of the table.

Talk about unspoken messages! Toys, games, and candy are the language of fun, of childhood, and they loosen people up. Studies have been conducted, showing that adults will be more open and even more honest when sitting in an environment that stimulates their inner child. Whether those studies are conclusive or not, I can tell you from my own anecdotal experience that adding elements of “child’s play” in a meeting, presentation, or group training sends the message that you expect your audience to have fun, to occupy their hands, to need stimuli, and that you’re okay with it.

Try it and see. You might just find a group of fully grown adults warming up to you a lot faster than you expected and a lot easier than usual!

I Don't Know

I am not young enough to know everything.

– Oscar Wilde

We never know everything. We never will. Even experts get stumped. There are a lot of great questions. Yet so many people say, “I get so nervous before a presentation because I’m afraid I’ll get asked something I don’t know.“ So?

What you get asked can’t hurt you. What you say in response can. Be comfortable in not knowing something, it’s human. Be ready to openly admit it and offer to help find the answer, or to help find someone who knows the answer. It’s more authentic, and therefore more appealing.  Even subject matter experts explore with, and learn from, their audiences. And it’s best when the presenters are completely transparent about their limitations; trying to cover up or make something up is also quite transparent, so don’t go there and risk compromising your credibility unnecessarily.

Just because you’re the speaker does not automatically mean you’re omniscient. “I don’t know, I can find out for you” is a brilliant answer!

A Picture is Indeed Worth a Thousand Words

Using figurative language – e.g. stories, analogies, metaphors – and painting a picture in people’s minds can literally save a thousand words. Certain complicated communications, whether it be a business situation, a technical explanation, or a recommended solution, are often hard to express and even harder to understand with just layers and layers of words and sentences and paragraphs.

If you have a complicated communication, spend a couple of minutes in your preparation time thinking of a story with parallel relationships to your situation, or an analogy that is commonly understood, or a metaphor that presents a more tangible image of what you’re trying to explain or propose. If you can do that, you will save yourself and your audience the trouble of sifting through a lot of words they won’t remember nearly as well as they will the picture you draw for them verbally.

Figurative language has impact … literally!

The 411 on 411

Today’s blog is one of those periodic reminders (yup, I’m still on it!) that too much information, or the wrong kind of information, or information that’s really only interesting to you can kill a speech or presentation.

The kind of info and how much info you bring to a talk is completely driven and determined by careful, thoughtful consideration of your audience. Some specific questions can help:

Will they be in the room by choice, or do they have to be there? The answer to this question will help you prioritize and be extremely selective about amounts of info.  And the amount of time you spend sharing info. If they’re in the room by choice, you have a heck of a lot more time and latitude. If not, well then, you do the math!

What do they really care about? Once again, not what do you really care about, but what do they really care about? Okay, so your topic is one thing, but is that what they really care about? Or is there something deeper? For instance, let’s say you’re a doctor addressing a group of senior citizens, and your topic is ‘Geriatric Healthcare Trends’ … hmmmm, I’m going out on a limb and guessing that one of the issues they really care about is cost, $$, healthcare reform. Whenever possible, think a little more deeply and anticipate your audience’s needs, interests and expectations surrounding your topic.

Where are they in terms of knowledge or sophistication or interest level? It’s tricky at times, but talking either over or under an audience is a turnoff. And talking about things that excite you but may not be at all interesting to your audience is also alienating. Let’s say you’re technically savvy and speaking to a general audience about some hot new phone app and how it works, you may want to use analogies or metaphors to convey your information in an interesting and understandable way.

Info comes in lots of varieties – e.g. data, statistics, examples, anecdotes, even analogies – and is used to support a point, a message. Let your audience be your guide when you're selecting the quantity and quality of your info.

Oral Surgery Sounds Fun Right About Now ... ?!

My 10 am client canceled this morning. At 9:45. “Something came up.” Surgery? Family emergency? His boss called him in at the last minute? Not sure. “Something.” It was his third cancelation in less than a month.

If I had to guess, “something” would be along the lines of avoidance … fear, dread, or oh-please-anything-but-speaker-training! Even oral surgery. Understandable. Totally. But only understandable when it’s avoidance of an actual audience of 100. Avoidance of the training though? That just digs the hole deeper. Training demystifies the process of public speaking and therefore significantly reduces the need for avoidance. And we have fun in the training; this client’s colleagues all have done it and they had fun. Here’s what two of them had to say after their sessions:

“I wanted to let you know that I found this session very interesting. I went to it out of duty, but after it was completed, I thought it was time well spent.”

“I found the session interesting and it did get me to think about the topic in a different way.” (And this guy was very late to the session … low priority perhaps?)

Yup, they come into the room somewhat reluctantly, but they leave the room with a new perspective, with useful tips and tools. They didn’t say in their emails that they had fun, but I can assure you there were lots of smiles and laughs.

Avoidance is probably the number one killer of public speaking and speakers. But that’s why there’s training available… to arm folks with the tools and equipment they need for when it’s the real deal and they actually have to get up and be a speaker. Trusting that the training can help you become a better speaker is kind of like driving down a steep hill in the snow and trusting that your all-wheel drive will help you get to the bottom safely. Speaker training builds in the same kind of confidence as your all-wheel drive.

So, accept the gift of training if it’s offered, don’t avoid the support and assistance. The training will give you some super easy tips and tools, and then off you go, downhill in the snow. You can do it. It’s safe. Fun too.

Quote of the Week

"It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."

- Mark Twain

Presence

“When I’m dancing, that’s what I’m doing.”   - Merce Cunningham

How perfect! I recently was exposed to the philosophy and technique of modern dance master Merce Cunningham, and this quote of his grabbed my attention. The suggestion that everything else fades into the background and that he’s immersed and fully present in what he’s doing is instructive for all of us …

Being present when you’re communicating actually involves you and another party – the audience, of course. Being present as a speaker means being willing to “listen dynamically,” with all five senses, to your audience so you can respond, adapt, be relevant, and stay in the moment. And ultimately connect. It means clearing your head of all other noise, including your own ego, in order to be there for and with them.

Rather than thinking about your exact words, all the specific material you want to cover, whether you’re forgetting something, and whether or not you’re going to actually survive (ha, I caught you!), envision being engaged and being present with a person or a group of people. Envision yourself with them; talking to them, maybe even literally talking with them, but definitely not at them. Envision yourself seeing them, sensing their level of receptiveness … without allowing it to be personal and about you (caught you again!). And if that doesn’t help, then at least envision yourself being present enough that you’re open to changing tacks if necessary – e.g. inviting Q&A earlier than planned, turning off the PowerPoint and telling a story, breaking up your talk and asking the audience to reflect back to you what they’re hearing and understanding.

So that when you’re communicating to people – which is, by definition, a two-way street – that’s what you’re doing. And then let everything else fade away …

Vocabulary Word of the Week

ob·tuse/əbˈt(y)o͞os/Adjective

1. Annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand.

2. Difficult to understand.  

Props to Dictionary.com for helping me with this blog post ...

We're all professional audience members, so we've heard the obtuse speaker before. That's the one who leaves us thinking we missed something we probably should have known or picked up? Or we leave thinking s/he spoke in circles but never got anywhere? Or we're frustrated because the s/he spoke over our heads and never bothered to find out or figure out if we were keeping up?

Obtuse speakers are egocentric, not audience-centric. When it's your turn to speak, give more than just superficial thought to your audience. And if you don't know enough about them ahead of time, throw (what you think is correct) protocol out the window and ask them ... ! Yep, just ask. That's right, either open, or take a pause, and solicit input from your audience to gauge their interest or knowledge levels. It will accomplish two things: 1. you will earn big engagement and connection points with your audience; and 2. you will avoid being obtuse. Thankfully.

Prepare Your Plan, but Be Ready to Change It

Adaptability is key. In the May issue of Harvard Business Review, veteran mutual fund executive Robert C. Pozen authored an article on “Extreme Productivity” and in it he addresses 6 principles for greater personal productivity. Principle 4 is “Prepare Your Plan, but Be Ready to Change It” … Amen, Bob!

And I quote from Pozen's Principle 4: “Most executives must give talks to various groups. They often prepare by writing out the full text of their remarks. But that makes them feel compelled to deliver the whole speech even if the audience is not receptive. Speaking is very different from writing. You need a much clearer line of argument, and you have to connect with your listeners at a given time. They may be bored or excited – you won’t know in advance. To prepare for a speaking engagement, you should jot down on one page a list of your four or five key points and a concluding paragraph.”

Nicely put. Less wordsmithing, more dedicated focus on key points. The only part I might take issue with – and those of you who have been through my coaching will smile! – is that I believe four or five key points is too many. Sometimes it’s too many for the speaker to remember, and always it’s too many for an audience to retain. Other than that, Bob nailed it.

You may feel better having prepared a full-text script, rather than putting yourself in a position that feels a lot like ad libbing or winging it. But by being wed to your words, sentences and paragraphs once you're at the front of the room, you risk sacrificing the real-time connection with your audience. So even if you do prefer a full-text script, be sure to also know your key points and promise yourself that you'll remain adaptable … if the audience is fading, be ready and willing to ditch the script.

Thanks for this reinforcement, Bob. As I always say to clients, it’s not all about you, it’s all about them … the Audience!

Leadership Development Redux

Fascinating! I find it absolutely fascinating that conferences and summits and institutes and seminars on leadership and leadership development boast agendas chock full of topics, except for the one that matters most … communicating effectively. Wow, really?

Can a leader really lead without communicating effectively? Can a leader succeed on these topics alone: managing tight budgets for profitability, maximization of social media, cutting edge HR programs, understanding corporate social responsibility, or fostering a culture that’s comfortable with change? Um, I don’t think so ...

My own obvious bias notwithstanding, you could argue that true leadership is almost exclusively about communicating effectively, and success is almost exclusively dependent on the ability to communicate effectively. Think about it. No one succeeds alone. No one leads alone. “Leadership” implies the involvement of, and need for, other people. And how does one lead other people? Through budgets? Through HR policies and programs? Through Facebook? No. Those are management issues and tools. Leadership is different. One leads other people by engaging, connecting, inspiring, persuading, informing, motivating … all communications tasks.

Successful leaders are people who communicate with a steady, dependable “voice” … a voice that’s clear, open, appreciative, and affirming. The true work of a leader is to be able to find his/her voice, the exact style and tone, and then stick to it. The trickiest part is to remain clear, open, appreciative, and affirming even when times are tense and the message is difficult. This is absolutely the distinguishing characteristic for leadership, though; it’s how one engages, connects, inspires, persuades, informs, motivates, etc. even under duress.

I am not suggesting that managing can be done by a trained monkey and that leadership is for the elite few. Not at all. In fact, managing well also requires the effective communications skills of a leader. What I am suggesting, though, is that, in one way or another, we are all leaders or in leadership positions. And so the single most important skill we can develop is good communications skills, beginning with a clear, open, appreciative, and affirming voice. And then the finer points will come with time … or with reading this blog!

Power Points on PowerPoint

Here’s what we know …

• Less is more.
• A picture is worth a thousand words.
• Microsoft named it PowerPoint, not EveryPoint.
• Slides are a visual aid for the audience, not a script for the speaker.
• Visual aids are meant to reinforce and illustrate, not narrate.
• Screen + darkened room + speaker taking time to boot up technology = naptime.
• Slides + bullet points with sub bullet points + handouts + speaker = audience overload.

Nonetheless, PowerPoint is to meetings as negative campaigning is to elections: something we don’t like but feel helpless about and resign ourselves to accepting; something we complain about, but rarely take steps to change.

Soooooo, just a few SmartMouth ideas for changing it up:

Write on a whiteboard or giant sticky notes for visuals. It’s animated and dynamic; it’s as though you’re engaging the audience in the process of creating your “slides,” which is far more entertaining and memorable for them.

Use video footage instead of slides when and if you can. People love to watch TV! There’s so much available out there (YouTube, etc.), and it’s easy to embed a video into a traditional PowerPoint presentation.

Think about creating slides that use one word or one sentence to capture the “so what?” of your points. You should know your stuff well enough to be able to speak to the topic without needing to read a paragraph off the screen anyway. If you don’t, that’s a whole other problem, isn’t it?

Be brief. Be animated. Be present. Be engaged. Be open to a dialogue with your audience. If you do all that, you might not even need visuals. Brevity is so impactful just on its own.

Be adaptable! Be open to shutting down the PowerPoint if you notice you’re losing your audience. When all else fails, connect with the people in your audience. It’s all about them anyway. Don’t kill them with your slides just because you worked hard on preparing them. It’s not all about you!

The word “presentation” is not automatically synonymous with PowerPoint. You have choices ...

Learning to Tell Time

Why do speakers go over their allotted time? If there was ever a presentation buzzkill, it’s the speaker who keeps on going … and going … and going.

You know you get aggravated with the long-winded speaker when you’re sitting in the audience, but what happens when it’s you standing at the podium? Are you aware of time? Do you know what 5 minutes of talking feels like? Do you know what 20 minutes feels like? You should. You need to learn to tell, or keep, time.

In the speech prep arena, I’m going to put it out there that minding your time trumps all your excessive fretting over content. Yup, I’m saying that content alone will not leave a good impression with your audience. You need more than that. Great content needs the added ingredients of audience connection (more on that another time!) and time sensitivity.

We talk about people who are “brief and to the point” with awe and admiration, so let’s work on being one of those … Practice delivering your material. Know how much time it takes. Know what 5 or 20 minutes of talking feels like. Prioritize in order to make any necessary cuts. And when you’re at the mic, don’t go off on a tangent just because you have the floor and you thought of something super cool to share. Keep to the time limit; your audience will be grateful, and you will have succeeded in leaving a good impression … with or without perfect content!

Tick tock, people, tick tock.

Storytelling 101

And I really mean 101, nothing fancy. No once upon a time stuff here, no professional storytelling tactics. Just some basic tips for telling a story – as in, sharing a case example or an anecdote – during a talk. So here goes …

First, there has to be a point. Stories or anecdotes or examples must illustrate a point. And, as mere illustrations of a point, they fall under the category of “information” (see http://smartmouthtalks.blogspot.com/2011/03/putting-engine-back-together.html). As with any information you share to support a point you’re making, you’ll want to pick out and prioritize the stories you tell and the detail you share based on your audience (their needs, interests, concerns, etc.).

Second, you can’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t matter how short you think it is, it’s probably not that short. You’re going to need to figure out how to be concise, so you can neatly support your point while holding onto your audience’s attention. So here’s a quick recipe:

1-3 sentences of problem/challenge

1-3 sentences of dramatic tension/suspense

1-3 sentences of solution/outcome

This recipe is doable. I have had people trim their 10-12 minute, multi-paragraph stories down to 1.5 minutes and fewer than 9 sentences by using this recipe. Stick to the recipe, stick to what’s relevant to the point (and the audience!), and you can do it in less than 9 sentences, I promise. It’s good discipline!

Third, you have to practice stories. Just like you practice the rest of your talk. Making a note to self – either on paper or in your head – that you want to include “the Uncle Joe story” is not enough. You need to map it out and practice it. Otherwise you’ll find yourself adding unnecessarily to the length of your talk and potentially losing your audience.

Try these tips, and hopefully you’ll speak happily ever after …

Being Audience-Centric: A Shortcut

The term “audience-centric” is worth more consideration and discussion than I can accomplish in just one blog post (although there are certainly many posts in this blog that cover how to think about audiences!). In fact, the ability to be an audience-centric – versus ego-centric – speaker is everything, literally. Just think about what you like … you tend to favor the speakers who talk to and about you over those who talk to and about themselves, right?

So, how would this work if you were preparing a talk? I recently gave a bit of super simple advice to a client in California as she struggled with finding a shortcut that would help her be more succinct and very focused on her audience. Here’s what I told her: Instead of sitting down and thinking, "ok, what do I want to say?" – which is so very normal for a speaker – sit down and think, "ok, what do they need to know or hear?" Start with them, not you.

In a nutshell, if you shift your initial thoughts away from your topic, and put your head straight into the needs, interests and concerns of your audience as the first step in your prep, it just might be all you need to do!

To Rehearse or Not to Rehearse, that is the Question

On the one hand, you are a pro in your field, you know your stuff, you present in meetings all the time, you’re sure you can pull it off, and you just don’t have time to practice.

On the other hand, you have been asked to speak in front of a slightly larger audience than usual this time, using slightly different visuals than usual, and the opportunity is somewhat higher stakes than usual, but you just don’t have time to practice.

The realist in me says, no worries, the world won’t end, you’ll pull yourself together and pull it off, you’ll be just fine if you don’t have time to practice. Organize yourself, review the material, and you’ll do okay.

But the Coach in me says, while there may be no particular harm done if you don’t rehearse, there might also be no particular good done either. What if you could get up and nail it versus getting up and doing okay? If you have to think, and wonder or worry, about whether you should rehearse or not, then you probably already know the answer.

Last week, I worked with a client three days and then one day before a bigger than usual presentation. She’s a pro, knows her stuff, presents a lot, was asked to speak to a larger audience, with new visuals, and it was pretty high stakes. She was organized and had reviewed the material quite a bit. Three days before, we met and mostly went over content and visuals, fine-tuning transitions and making a few edits. One day before, we met, did some more fine-tuning and then had her run through the whole thing – choreographing the speaker with her content and visuals – about four times.

How’d she do in rehearsal? Not so great. She fumbled, forgot, changed things, got frustrated, wanted to stop. But she pushed through.

How’d she do the next day in the actual presentation? Amazing. She nailed it. She was polished, the presentation flowed, she hit the high notes beautifully, and she ended just under her time goal without ever rushing. It all came together smoothly; she was ready, and it showed.

The lesson here is that even crummy rehearsals are valuable. Practicing as if it’s the real deal forces a level of intimacy and familiarity between you and your presentation that can only benefit you – your brain and your mouth – when it’s showtime!

A Speaker’s Must-Have: Focal Point

What do I mean by that? Isn’t your topic the focal point? Uh uh. Your Focal Point is actually the “so what?” or the “what next?” It helps to set the context for your talk, so that your audience knows what’s coming, why, and where to focus.

Let’s back up a sec. In March, I blogged about “putting the engine back together” and offered a very simple structure for putting together a speech or presentation. And I suggested that if you have a desired outcome for your talk – if there is something you want your audience to think, or know, or do by the time they leave the room – you need to spell it out for them. Literally, tell them what you want them to pay attention to and/or what you want them to take away. This is a Focal Point, and I recommended opening with it as well as wrapping up with it in the closing.

We all agree that attention spans are short and, in fact, getting shorter, which makes figuring out how to reach audiences pretty urgent business. We all have had the experience of sitting through a talk and wondering what we’re supposed to know or do next, which means we know firsthand what it’s like to be lost, not “get it,” or feel like we might have wasted time. And we all know that when we’re clearly directed to focus on something, we’re surprisingly compliant and we’re likely to focus on that certain something. As speakers, we simply have a better chance of achieving attention and retention with audiences if we spoonfeed them.

A Focal Point can be your entire opening, or it can be woven in as just a part of your opening, but it is the call-out that tells your audience what you want them to think or know or do next. For example, “I was asked to speak with you today about personal money management [topic], and what I’m going to ask of you today, as I’m covering my material, is that you open your minds and be thinking about how you might eliminate just one of your debts starting tomorrow [focal point]." Or “We’re here today to commemorate the grand opening of this new blood donation center [topic], but the larger task at hand is that I need each and every one of you to be an ambassador when you leave here today, to go out there and spread the word [focal point].” Or “We have quite a lengthy list of agenda items to cover today [topic], but I would like to zip through those and get to the last one, which is the most important and where I’d like us to spend the bulk of our time [focal point].”

The Focal Point is big, it’s important, it requires some thinking on your part. But it’s worth it, your audience will actually “get it”!

Perspective, People, Perspective …

Didja hear the one about the guy who was invited to the microphone to give a brief thank you and a few words of inspiration at an annual sales meeting but instead prepared a full script of remarks that included a narration of the original mission of the organization and a full reporting of its growth and successes over the past 25 years … ? Just like the company's founder did ... ?

Or maybe you heard the one about the woman who was invited to be a speaker at a widely attended opening of an important community exhibit but she never asked how many other speakers there would be and so she spoke three times longer than each of the other six people … ?

I betcha heard the one about the techie guru guy who was asked to deliver a presentation to a group of funders looking at their first tech venture and the only “ask” he seemed to make at the end was ‘so do you understand now how this works?’ … ?

Okay, I know you’ve heard about the nonprofit exec who addressed the group of longtime volunteers assembled in the room and then told them why they should consider signing up to volunteer and the good it will do … ?

Whether it’s time allotment, your place on the agenda, how many others are speaking, your role versus others’, the composition of your audience, or the angle of your message, get some perspective. An invitation to the microphone does not, on its own, convey the full responsibility of the event or occasion on your shoulders, nor does it give you carte blanche to guess or wing it or go where you feel like going. An invitation to the microphone is only as good as its relevance to the occasion and the audience.

When you get invited to speak … Ask how much time you have. Ask what your role is. Ask how many other speakers there will be. Ask how big or how knowledgeable the audience will be. Ask why the audience will be there. Ask if your ideas for your remarks are on target or not. Ask. And then everyone wins.

Um, Ahhh, Ya Know …

With all the other speaker faux pas’s out there, it never ceases to amaze me how fixated people are on um’s, ahhh’s and ya know’s as the only issues they need to worry about. My view is that unless these “fillers” are used to a distracting degree, they’re pretty normal and typically go unnoticed if everything else is intact. However, if you feel you have a problem, and you or someone else has noticed that you have a bit of a filler dependency, then you can fix it … and to that end, here’s a quote for you to keep in mind:

“Awareness in itself is curative.” - Fritz Perls

And don't forget that with awareness come the twin P's ... preparation and practice!

All That Great Education, Oh Well ...

I recently sat with a very well-educated executive to help him prepare for an important presentation. It was our first time working together, and I began by saying, “Charlie (not his real name), we are about to go against everything you learned in school, from Kindergarten all the way through your MBA program!” This kind of statement, and I make it often, tends to cause consternation at first but eventually brings relief. Charlie was no different. Smart and motivated, he caught on pretty quickly and off we went.

After that meeting, I came across an interview with Guy Kawasaki, the former chief evangelist of Apple and co-founder of Alltop.com. Guy Kawasaki is one of the great thinkers and communicators to come out of Silicon Valley; he’s a widely respected author and speaker. Here’s an excerpt from a Q&A with him in The New York Times on March 21, 2010:

Q: What should business schools teach more of, or less of?

A: They should teach students how to communicate in five-sentence emails and with 10-slide PowerPoint presentations. If they just taught every student that, American business would be much better off

Q: Why?

A: No one wants to read “War and Peace” emails. Who has the time? Ditto 60 PowerPoint slides for a one-hour meeting. What you learn in school is the opposite of what happens in the real world. In school, you’re always worried about minimums. You have to reach 20 pages or have to have so many slides. Then you get out in the real world and think, “I have to have a minimum of 20 pages and 50 slides.”

I’m with Guy all the way. What works for learning may not work for persuading or informing or motivating in the workplace. But school can be a tough habit to kick!

Me Too!

I sometimes marvel at the extraordinary docility with which Americans submit to speeches.

- Adlai E. Stevenson

SmartMouth Note: Me too, Adlai, I marvel at the very same thing. Perhaps if there were a little more civil unrest, we'd be more entertained, better informed, inspired, and even highly motivated! Alas, we Americans are amazingly passive and polite audience members. Hmmmm, interesting food for thought.

The Golden Rule: Do Unto Others

This may sound harsh, but you’re not that special that when you get up to speak everyone is captivated the entire time, has the patience to sit through your lengthy deck of slides, and will be perfectly content to allow you to run over your allotted time. You know how hard it is to be 100% attentive, and you know you don’t like it when other speakers kill you with more slides than you could possibly remember and talk for longer than scheduled. It’s quite likely that you are more often the audience than you are the speaker, and so consider yourself an expert on what audiences like and don’t like.

The single best guideline for any speaker to use in preparing for a talk is The Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Plan and choreograph your presentations accordingly …

If you don’t like or can’t pay attention to a screen with dense text slides in a darkened room for a prolonged period of time, then don’t do it to your audience;

If you can’t sit through a 50-minute talk that isn’t broken up with visuals or video or interaction, then your audience can’t either;

If you get lost during talks when speakers ramble and provide no guidance as to where they are going or what their point is, then your audience will be lost without your guidance;

If you like stories and anecdotes, then your audience will like them too;

If you like someone who is brief and succinct, then your audience will like that too; and

If you like speakers who stay more connected with their audience than with the lectern or screen, then your audience will appreciate that as well.

Your preferences are your own best litmus test for what your audience might like, so remember that!

It’s All the Rage

Leadership development programs are all the rage these days. Helping people and organizations grow into what they need to be is happening through seminars, training programs, executive coaching, executive education, you name it. All good.

But if I may, I’d like to offer up one shortcut for “leaders” to think about … stay out of the weeds! Leaders shape and then maintain their leadership positions largely through communications. Yes, they review plans and budgets, set strategy and make decisions, but really it’s how they interact with their various constituencies – both internal and external, and up and down the ladder – that defines and predicts their success. The weeds are the detail, the information, and frankly that’s usually someone else’s responsibility. The leader is responsible for context, direction, the bigger picture, which is communicated through messages, not information.

It’s actually imperative for a leader to be able to identify and deliver messages … statements that convey value, benefit, or significance. Of course, there are occasions and audiences that require the communication of more in-depth information, but an effective leader should always be able to wrap that info inside the packaging of a darn good message.

Think about it … communicating a whole lot of detailed information can be done by anyone. Wrapping that information in a package that conveys something meaningful can and should be done by the leader.

Subject Matter Experts Listen Up!

Just so you know? If you’re an expert in something, you are in danger ...

You are in danger of being too smart, too knowledgeable, too experienced, and quite possibly too immersed in your subject matter … and therefore potentially disconnected from your audience’s interests. You are in danger of being boring. Yes, even you.

TMI (too much information) is the scourge of subject matter experts, so beware. Select information judiciously. That a bit of info is interesting and compelling to you is irrelevant. Interesting and compelling are in the eyes of the beholder, your audience. Think about where they’re coming from, what their interests and biases are, and what they might grab onto and remember. If you’re a subject matter expert, you’ve got more than enough information to go around, so be super selective and let what you know about your audience be your guide.

Even just being aware that you could be one of these people – that you might have “the expert problem” – will help you stay out of boring-speaker quicksand!

Fear and Loathing

I’m dealing with a little fear today and decided to address it here in my blog as it pertains to public speaking. Of course, my fear is related to the doctor (ugh!), not the microphone, but still … I’m very empathetic today!

I get asked quite often about dealing with nerves. The mere prospect of being nervous is what causes the fear and loathing – and ultimately the avoidance – around presenting or speaking in front of a group. And the avoidance then extends to preparation, ironically one of the very things that could help tame the nerves. The procrastination around preparation is the dread, the avoidance, the oh-no-I-don’t-want-to-do-this-tell-me-I-don’t-really-have-to-do-this .... sound familiar?

Couple of thoughts:

Nerves happen. They just do. Doesn’t mean you should avoid a speaking opportunity, it means you should prepare. Let’s face it, we all feel so much better about our prospects for success when we’re prepared.

Nerves are actually your adrenaline revving up your body’s energy to perform well. See? Even your body is on your side and helping to get you ready!

Nerves just might be your constant companion. You might be someone who speaks and presents often and still gets them. Know that and plan around your nerves … especially, if like most people, your nervousness peaks at the beginning of a talk.

Know that your audience can’t tell that your right leg is shaking. They are expecting you to be just fine, and so that’s what they see. Don’t call it out that you’re nervous … breathe, stay present with your audience and your material, and keep on going.

Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. And then be prepared to adapt and adjust too! In the event that you are flailing and the presentation is failing, you can always jump into the life raft of Q&A … and that way you share the floor with your audience.

More on this another time … it’s one of the biggies, I know!

Best Investment You Could Ever Make?

Your Opening … !

With just a couple of extra minutes to spare in the airport last week, I ran into the bookstore to see if I could find Frank Luntz’s new book on communicating. Frank Luntz is the author of Words that Work and is perhaps most famous for his contributions to conservative political jargon … terms like “energy exploration” vs “oil drilling” and “death tax” vs “estate tax” and “climate change” vs “global warming” are his creations. Putting politics aside (and perhaps behind him?), his new book focuses on how business people should communicate in order to WIN, also the name of the book. I grabbed it.

As I began reading, I came to discover that many of our philosophies about good communications are similar, but one caught my eye in particular, because it’s a drum I beat very often. And if you’re a client or a participant in one of my workshops, you have heard me say this quite recently …

Luntz says, “Your first words are more important than your last. You only get one shot to make a good impression, and what you say first colors everything that follows. It doesn’t only color it, but depending on how you frame the context, the initial impression you make will either cast a shadow over your purpose or provide a foundation under it.”

Set the tone and the context, condition expectations and emotions, use your first seconds wisely. It may be both the first and last moments that you capture your audience’s attention!

Putting the Engine Back Together

Either intuitively, or because you read my blog faithfully (ha!), you know the various parts and pieces that go into preparing for a talk. Whether it’s to make one simple point to one person, or to deliver a keynote speech to hundreds, you know to think about your audience, your message(s), and your desired outcome.

But then what? How do those pieces come together, and where do they fit? What’s the ideal structure? Here are three checklist items that will give you a super simple guideline for preparation:

1. Focal Point

If you have a specific desired outcome ­– e.g. to ask your audience to act on something, or to leave your audience with one thought – you will want to spell it out. And you’ll want to do that in the opening and then reinforce it again in the closing. I call this the “focal point” … it is, after all, the focal point of your talk and what you want your audience to remember. Your focal point can be woven into your opening and closing remarks, or it can stand alone as its own opening and closing.

2. Message Points

These are the key thematic statements that are the backbone of the body of your talk. They are bigger picture statements that accomplish your “job” – or your communications task – which might be persuading, informing, or motivating, just to name a few. If your “job” is to persuade, then your message points should be persuasive statements. You can have one message point, which is ideal for audience retention, or you can have more, but be aware that audience retention is a huge challenge. Please, no more than 3 message points to a talk!

3. Information

Information backs up a message point. It is the data, statistics, examples, anecdotes, and background that support each message point. How you determine which information and how much to share will depend on your audience … their level of knowledge and understanding of your topic, whether they’re in the room by choice or not, what their biases and expectations are. Be careful to choose and prioritize your information based on what will jazz your audience, not on what jazzes you, about your topic!

Very simply, when you put the engine back together, this is what you have:

• Opening, including a Focal Point
• Message 1, with supporting Information
• Message 2, with supporting Information
• Message 3, with supporting Information
• Closing, reinforcing the Focal Point

You’re ready to go … !

Another Yogi-ism ... So, So True for Speakers

Half this game is ninety percent mental.

- Yogi Berra

Beware of the Written Word!

So, let me guess what you’ve been doing when you prepare to speak: You crack open your laptop, create a new Word document, and you begin writing a magnum opus. You choose every word carefully, spending quite a bit of time creating pages of brilliant, gorgeous prose that will become your talk. Am I close? Probably. Is there a problem with that? Typically, yes.

All too often, what writes and reads as perfection to your eyes isn’t equally speakable as perfection for your mouth. All too often, well-written talks will sound like what they are … essays. And all too often, you, the speaker, will find yourself so committed to your beautiful words, sentences and paragraphs that you either 1) read from the paper, eyes down, and lose connection with your audience; or 2) you try to balance reading with audience connection and you end up flustered because you lose your place or leave something out when you look up.

What to do then when you prepare to speak? Crack open that laptop, but talk while you type. Test yourself by reading out loud what you wrote to make sure the sentences are deliverable versus just readable. Hint: if they’re deliverable, they’re usually short and crisp, without a lot of clauses and punctuation. Try bullet points, and trust yourself to fill in around those well-chosen points while you’re speaking.

However, if you are someone who absolutely has to have a full-text speech in front of them, then make sure you give yourself a hall pass if you end up deviating from your beautiful script; you are unlikely to deliver exactly what you wrote. Even folks with bullet points deviate. Deviating is okay, because it’s usually a sign that you are staying present with your audience. And the audience is, after all, what it’s all about!

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

The best way to navigate around a tricky audience or tricky situation is to ask questions. For example …

Feeling awkward in one of those networking meetings or events? Ask questions.

Looking to fill the awkward silence on the elevator with the big boss? Ask questions.

Not sure who’s in charge of the meeting and what the expectations are? Ask questions.

Delivering a talk and not sure you’re connecting with the group? Ask questions.

Suffering with incredible nervousness at the start of a speech? Ask questions.

If it’s an audience of one or one hundred, you can and should ask questions. The larger the group, the more daunting it seems, but it’s actually not daunting at all. It’s doable and it’s really quite endearing to an audience. Try it!

You Have Them at Hello

Audiences typically pay attention to and retain what a speaker says at the beginning and at the end of a talk. If you do it right, you have them at hello! The opening and closing count for a lot, so work it …

In the opening, you have the opportunity to condition or prepare your audience for what’s coming; you have a chance to grab their attention and set a filter in their brains for what you will be covering and how you hope they'll receive it. Use that opportunity. Tell them exactly what you want them to pay attention to and why.

In the closing, you have a chance to reinforce, leave a lasting (positive!) impression, and even offer up a call to action. The closing is arguably even more memorable than the opening simply because it’s at the end. Don’t squander that chance either … and don’t, whatever you do, ask “Any questions?” for your closing (see last week’s blog post!).

The middle – the body of your talk, probably where the meat is – is where your audiences drift, space out, lose focus, check their mental to-do lists. Sad and kind of ironic, because that’s where your topic is covered, the very topic you were invited to address!

You will have them at hello and be more likely to hold their attention in the middle if you give some thought to bookending your talk with a powerful, here-it-is-in-a-nutshell opening and a nice clean finish of a closing that sums it all up so your audience doesn’t have to do all that mental work on their own.

So, here's my advice ... if you have no time to prepare, use your few seconds or minutes to decide how you’re going to open and close, and then wing the middle (ugh, did I just say that?)!

Any Questions?

Standard operating procedure is not usually standout. Especially when it comes to speaking or presenting. Take, for instance, the age-old closer: “Any questions?” Let’s be honest, “Any questions?” is quite simply the international “I’m-done-here-and-I-want-to-appear-to-be-open-to-it-but-please-don’t-ask-me-anything” signal.

Business people who have been through my training have had “Any questions?” purged from their repertoires. Not allowed. Why? Simple: It's way too vague and open-ended, and it's all too often insincere. A speaker will typically say it at the tail end of a meeting or presentation when everyone is ready to go. And so in any given audience there are people who are too intimidated to ask a question; they recognize the speaker is done, time has run out, and anyway they have 50 questions, not just one. A lot of audience members are thinking, “sheesh, where would I even begin?” And so they leave the room not entirely sure of what they are supposed to think or know or do. Another presentation is lost.

What, you ask, should replace “Any questions?”? Well, first off, it’s nice to reach into your audience (even, and especially, when it’s small) to ask for reflection back. As in, “tell me what you heard/remembered from my talk today?” Or, “is there anything about what I just covered that still leaves you puzzled?” And even better, “what else can I tell you or provide you with that will help complete your understanding?” These questions will give you incredible real-time feedback about how effective you were at getting your point(s) across.

And perhaps more importantly, these questions do not need to be saved until the very end. They can and should be sprinkled throughout a talk, especially when audience comprehension is critical … e.g. with clients! If you have to save questions for the very end, then please make every effort to leave ample time.

“Any questions?” is so very superficial, I fear it has become a throwaway line. Be better than that, connect, dig deeper, get real and get open about it. Ask something meatier and more specific.

So, with that, I won't ask "Any questions?" Instead, I'll ask if you would now feel comfortable switching it up and trying out something new, something more specific, the next time you speak to a group? And if not, how can I help you with that ... ?

It’s Super Bowl Time!

I am not a football fan, but I love the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. These weeks are rich with athletes talking on-camera about winning, losing, how they feel, what they were thinking, predictions for the future, etc. Their performances on-camera vary wildly … for me, it’s more fun to watch the interviews than the games!

Here’s what so often perplexes me, though. (Listen up, you office types, this applies to you too!) All too often the athletes seem unprepared for the questions. Really? You weren’t expecting that? I’m scratching my head … there are only two potential outcomes to an athletic competition, winning and not winning. And there’s a set of pretty predictable questions. Surely, an athlete can mentally prepare for at least minute to get his head around how he’d like to frame up each of those situations.

This is really true for most of us who are called upon to speak … maybe not into a TV camera, but certainly in meetings and in other typical venues. We act like we weren’t expecting to have to speak. Really? Why aren’t we always at-the-ready? Are we working on that project, are we responsible for that client, are we a member of the staff that is having the staff meeting? Well then, we need to buck up … and spend a minute or two getting our heads around what we’d like everyone to know and remember about our work.

On the field or in the office, I say plan for and play good offense ... playing defense is a lot harder!

Go up to 30,000 ft: Messages vs. Information

Making a good impression. Being memorable. Commanding respect and attention. Having an elevator pitch. All worthy, all very fleeting, opportunities. But how do you get there?

Get out of the weeds and go up to 30,000 ft., that's how!

Easier said than done, so let’s start with baby steps. First, challenge yourself to recognize the difference between a message and information. A message is a visionary, thematic, or bigger picture statement … it’s the super high-altitude stuff. A message conveys value or benefit or significance. Information is data, lists, or examples. Information conveys features … it’s the weeds. Information obviously is useful and often necessary, but it can get lost – and your point can get lost – if it’s not packaged and wrapped inside of a message. Think WHY vs. WHAT; and think about why first, and then what.

Take, for example, the all-important personal introduction or elevator pitch for yourself, your organization, or your project. Needs to be brief. Needs to make a good impression. Needs to be memorable. Needs to command respect and attention. Rather than introducing yourself with name, rank and serial number (all hardcore info), go up to 30,000 ft and introduce yourself with a statement of why, a statement of vision, or a statement of value. Time permitting, you can then layer on some information.

Going up to 30,000 ft. and “going big” on messaging is hard, it takes some thought and some work. It may even take some poking and prodding from a friend or a coach. But if you can get there, the impression you leave will be enormously improved.

Your professional role may or may not demand that you be at 30,000 ft all the time, but certainly when time is limited and you need to be brief, you have no choice but to get out of the weeds and go straight up to 30,000 ft.

The view of you will be better when you're up there!

Last Call for Talkers …

SmartTalkers, that is. SmartTalk (www.smartmouthgroup.com/events) begins on Wednesday, and I can’t wait!

Two groups of intrepid participants have signed up to try out this new pilot program I’m launching in Salt Lake City this year. SmartTalkers will do two things: they will learn how to bust through some of the mediocrity we all tolerate in presentations these days, and they will practice, practice, practice. It’ll be a workout for the brain and the mouth! And it’ll be fun, of course.

The SmartTalk groups comprise interesting and diverse professionals, yet all are successful and ambitious. I’m honored to be leading these groups and to have this opportunity to enhance some already very talented skill sets.

So watch out, there could be a professional in your office who starts to knock your socks off in the coming months! Let’s hope so …

Are You Really as Interesting as You Could Be?

Last week, I pooh-poohed the mirror, I know. And this week, I’m asking you to take a good look at yourself … Are you really as interesting as you could be?

A couple of litmus tests for when you’re preparing to address a group:

• 1. Do you have something super useful, meaningful, or beneficial to leave them with? Regardless of your topic, you need to think about and identify what that little nugget of value might be. A play on words to help you remember: Give your audience a present when you present.
• 2. Are you talking about yourself or them? And if it’s about you, are you relating it to them? They say that a person’s attention span is significantly heightened when they hear the sound of their own name. Take a lesson from that; people like to hear about themselves.
• 3. Have you found a way to be entertaining or memorable? Do you have some presentation bling? Have you thought about what that might be? Anything from stories to poetry to pictures works. Think about what you might have in your arsenal.

If you can pass these litmus tests, you’re probably pretty interesting, congrats! If not, give some thought to the above … and we’ll talk.