Talk It Up!

The Backchannel Blues: what to do when you're on stage and the backchannel is blasting you

Something interesting happened at 140 Conference LA this morning. Until now, the range of content has been from excellent to very good.

This morning, however, Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen took the stage. Hansen you may recognize as the author of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series. The 10-minute session began modestly with the two men announcing they were Twittering their entire new book, Cash in a Flash, 140 characters at a time. Mild interest from the crowd.

And then it began. A barrage of the word "monetizing," vague overpromises of making us all rich and sound-bite tidbits worthy of Fox News.

The #140conf Twitter backchannel exploded with criticism, calling the presenters everything from spammers to snake oil salesmen to infomercial hosts. Snark abounded about their transparent sell and one-way tone:

 

Afterwards, I ran into Cliff Atkinson, author of Beyond Bullet Points and of a soon-to-be-released book called The Backchannel. That book is about precisely this phenomenon: how a lively backchannel at a conference can (or should) influence and change the live event.

If the presenters had been privy to the waves of snark accosting them via Twitter, what would they have done? Presenters in this instance have three basic options:

1. Ignore it and continue with the planned talk. If the criticism is petty or minimal, this would be a valid option. There is a difference between one person remarking "I really don't like the speaker's tie" and "this entire talk is a sales pitch that doesn't respect the audience." Know the difference.
2. Acknowledge and continue as planned. Acknowledge the criticism with humor. Audiences tend to appreciate and warm to  self-deprecating humor, especially in the social media space. (Note: it must be sincere, however.) A remark along the lines of, "well, I see from Twitter that the infomercial is a bust. So instead, I'd like to see if I could interest you in a Bass-o-Matic" might not go amiss. Oddly, having the humility to acknowledge a disconnect is a powerful way to reestablish a connection with an audience. You might not sell your product, but you could take a step to establishing a better relationship.
3. Acknowledge and change. Acknowledge the criticism with humor and change the talk. If the talk is failing miserably and the backchannel is reflecting that sentiment, the cure is to start a dialogue. Throw out your script and ask the audience what they want. Establish a connection by listening first (let's face it; if you'd listened before, you probably wouldn't be in this mess). Ask them what they would like to know from you. Be willing to be just yourself, even with some stumbles and some missteps. Remember that people will forget what you said; they will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.

In today's case, Hansen and Allen should have done #3. Or at least #2. The Twitter audience is far too skeptical and values transparency and dialogue far too highly to endure a direct sell, and they should have known that. Barring that advance knowledge, they should have been aware of the backchannel, acknowledged the criticism, thrown out their planned infomercial and just asked the audience what they wanted.

Most social media folks will avow that they hate "monetization," and yet, we all want to be paid for our work. Hansen and Allen do have a wealth of expertise that we as an audience could have engaged with. For example, they are published authors of a business book--perhaps the audience would have liked to hear about the publishing process and incorporating Twitter into it. Or anecdotes about the development process. Or how they combined charity with the book publication.

The backchannel does provide value, and it provides value to a live speaker as well. If you don't know your audience going in, monitor the backchannel and be prepared to change.

Your Slides are NOT Your Presentation

Whenever I give a talk on effective presentations, I repeat this phrase over and over again, like a mantra:

Your slides are NOT your presentation

My point is that YOU are your presentation: your experience, your anecdotes, your expertise, your opinions, your research, your enthusiasm, your passion. Your slides (if they are decent) are nothing more than visual representations of your key points. Your slides only exist because sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and they illustrate your point in a graphic manner more effectively than your rambling on for five minutes does.

If a participant ever asks for my PowerPoint "presentation," I am always happy to oblige, but with a caveat: it won't help much. Why? Because I am my presentation; the slides only occasionally help to support my points. Half my "presentation" is blank slides that I put up when speaking so that the focus will be on interaction with me, the speaker, instead of passively focused on the screen. What I recommend providing is an outline with links and bullet points in pdf format, usually available for download from the blog within 10 minutes of the presentation's conclusion.

Garr Reynolds in the excellent Presentation Zen blog recently posted about the CEO of Toyota banning the printouts of PowerPoint slides as handouts or "slideuments." He reports:

The problem is that in Japan—like other places in the world—there is often no distinction made between documents (slideuments made in PowerPoint) and presentation slides prepared for projection. They are often interchangeable. Sounds efficient, right? And it would be funny if it was not so inefficient, wasteful, and unproductive. The slideuments produced in Japan make understanding and precision harder when printed, and when used for projected slides in a darkened conference room, they are the country's number one cure for insomnia.

Why on earth anyone would want a printed version of a PowerPoint presentation is beyond me to begin with, but I can't begin to imagine the waste involved here. Printing out 20 or 30 slides that, let's be honest, it's unlikely anyone will ever really look at again, is pointless and vastly wasteful. So I have to wonder, why is it that presenters are printing these decks out? Why is anyone even asking for the printouts?

An excellent question. What is the motivation behind the demand for printed PowerPoint decks? I suspect the reason is a very simple and human one: audiences expect to sit passively during a presentation and have reference material available later for concepts that they didn't pay much attention to in the first place. Folks believe that the information is valuable and therefore must be present somewhere in a tangible form for later reference in a file cabinet. However, if you can't walk away from a presentation being able to summarize the presenter's three main points, is it likely that you'll be able to recall them six months from now, know where the slideuments were filed and pull them out for easy reference?

It seems unlikely. Personally, I can only remember one main point and perhaps three other pertinent bits of information from any presentation that I go to; it's a casualty of Social Media Stupor Syndrome. Or perhaps it's just my own mind starting to go. At any rate, the expectation that every bit of information I hear during a presentation simply doesn't exist. I'm happy to go home with a few links or websites I can save to del.icio.us and tag for reference the next time I need to write an article. But expecting to absorb every bit of supporting evidence the speaker throws at the audience just isn't within my realm of reality. I was a teacher for too long to expect that even the best of students can hear something once and recall it the next day; I was happy for them to walk away from each class with one or two discrete bits of knowledge that we could build on the next time.

What do you think? What do you provide to participants when they ask for a copy of your presentation?

How to Communicate with Americans

As I spend more and more time with internationally-based clients, I've noticed some communication issues coming up that are specific to the cultural differences. In a recent conversation, I was speaking with a German executive about the structure of his latest presentation. It went over well, in truth, but there were a few improvements typical to this type of marketing presentation that might have increased the presentation's effectiveness that I was surprised hadn't been suggested. When I made the suggestions, his response was that he'd heard those suggestions, but the Europeans loved this type of presentation, and if they made those changes, it would be "dumbing down" the presentation too much!

Ah, yes! Half of me wanted to entitle this article "We Dumb Americans," or "Dumbing Down Your Talk for Americans," mostly because having a sense of humor about your communication style usually gets a chuckle from those not from this country.

The simple truth is that there is a way that Americans in general (and please forgive the HUGE cultural stereotyping) prefer to be communicated with. Here is what I tell those from Europe and Asia about Americans. This is the big secret to effective communication with us: treat us like we are dumb. Treat us like we have the attention span of a gnat.

Now, no, we're not really stupid, and most of us have a reasonable attention span. Some of us are darn bright. However, universally, when I explain to a European or native of India how to communicate with Americans, the response is, "but that would be treating them like they're so stupid!" 

No, it would be treating us like we want to be treated by respecting what we value and expect from a conversation or presentation. Let me explain. The tips I usually give for conversing with or presenting to Americans are these:

Get to the point quickly. Whether you are in conversation or giving a marketing presentation, within the first 30 seconds, you must tell us why we are communicating and what the ultimate goal of it is. If you do not share this information within 30 seconds, we will pull out our Blackberries or iPhones and get some work done. We are the kings and queens of Getting Things Done, and if you don't tell us outright how you are going to make our lives easier with this conversation or presentation, we're going to get back to work. We consider our time precious above all other things, so if it seems like you're wasting it, we'll find a way to end the conversation or ignore the rest of your presentation. Keep in mind that we don't mind long conversations or presentations--as long as we know the point and have its potential value to us stated up front. We'll get into it and talk for hours, but you need to let us know up front what you want from us and what we'll get from listening to you.

Stick to the point--one main point. Yes, our attention spans are shorter than for most people you know, so the conversation or presentation needs to be about one main topic. Again, we are busy; we value productivity. Don't throw five other issues or benefits of your product into the conversation; some personality types can handle that, but keep in mind that most of us are insanely busy and won't have time to explore five topics at length. We value brevity and clarity. Don't ramble on and throw out jargon to look smart or show off your degree; we don't care. Give us topics/questions/issues one at a time and keep the conversation or presentation on that topic.

Provide concise supporting evidence for your one main point. Keep in mind that in grammar school, Americans all learn to construct the perfect Five-Sentence Paragraph. For those who didn't grow up in the States, this is the ubiquitous structure:

1. First sentence: Introduction. State your thesis. (Tell us what you are going to tell us.)
2. Sentences 2-4: Supporting evidence. Each sentence supplies one piece of evidence to support the main thesis. (Tell us why.)
3. Sentence 5: Conclusion. Sum up the thesis and supporting evidence. (Tell us what you told us.)

An example:

Introduction: Today, I will show you how to increase production line efficiency and decrease waste in your process, saving you time, money and your reputation with a product called WonderWidget.

Supporting evidence:
1. WonderWidget has been around for over eight years, and our customers report an average savings in production line waste of 22%.
2. It's easy to learn how to use; even beginning engineers become proficient after just one week of training.
3. Most of all, companies using WonderWidget report an increase in sales when competing against companies who aren't using this technology.

Conclusion: WonderWidget is the trusted tool for increasing production line efficiency and can save you time, money and your reputation with your customers.

If you want to have a successful conversation or marketing presentation with or for Americans, try following this structure. Yes, it can seem idiotic to those who didn't grow up with the perfect five-sentence paragraph mentality. You might feel that you are dumbing down your content or treating us like we're stupid. You're not. You're adapting to our communication style, which values brevity and clarity. What you are doing for us is summarizing out of respect for our busy, hectic schedules. You are summarizing your main point and presenting it to us in a nice, compact, concise package that we are familiar with.

Allow one-third of your planned or allotted time for questions. Keep in mind that AFTER you present us with the nice, concise package, we will then most likely begin to ask questions--and that is where you can go into more detail and expand on the five or six benefits that you didn't get a chance to mention in your summary. If you're giving a presentation, allow one-third of your allotted speaking time for questions. If you've done a good job of summarizing and supporting your main point clearly, we'll have lots of questions that allow you to delve into more detail. If you're in a conversation, the same thing is true--after you've made your case concisely, we'll probably want to ask questions and talk more.

Tip: You might be tempted to anticipate our questions and address them in your main presentation or conversation--don't. We also value engagement, and if you answer all of our questions up front, we'll see no need to continue the conversation. We'll just walk away, figuring we know everything we need to know. And you'll lose a valuable opportunity to communicate with us because you haven't given us a reason to engage with you. We want to be engaged; you need to provide us with a reason to continue conversation with you. Leave us wanting more! Give us the basics first, and then engage us by giving us space for two-way communication about your topic or product. We are a curious lot, and we'll learn more about your product or topic if we are asking the questions and engaged in two-way communication about it.

So while it may seem that you are "dumbing down" your conversation or presentation when you follow these tips, in truth, most Americans will respond well because you are valuing their time and giving them a chance to engage with you. You are respecting our desire for brevity and clarity and giving us a chance to direct follow-up questions about your product or service so that we can continue to engage in the conversation.

Plus, once you get the hang of this structure, presentations are dead easy to write. ;-)

Public Speaking Tip #8: Prepare, prepare, prepare

Just got out of an all-day training session with a phenomenal group of sales reps. Every one had excellent content knowledge and fantastic energy. The room was abuzz with chatter, jibes and jokes.

And I can share with you the one most valuable thing that we all learned today: the key to a fantastic presentation is in the first five minutes. The introduction is where you set the pace for the entire talk, whether that be all day or a 15-minute sales call. The introduction is where you share who you are and why those people should care about your product or service. The introduction is where you set expectations. The introduction is where you show your prospects that you're not wasting their time. The introduction is where you and your product make your first impression.

Get the idea that the introduction is important? Good.

If you don't have time to rehearse the entire presentation, don't worry. If you can just rehearse the first five minutes and make sure it shows you and your product in all your glory, you'll still set the tone for a great talk.

What should a great introduction do? Glad you asked. Four things:

1. Show appreciation for those who invited you. Thank them for coming and for inviting you. Honor their investment of time and attention from the get-go. They probably believe they have better things they could be doing--tell them up front you appreciate the chance to help save them time and money (with your product, of course) by spending the next hour with you.
2. Introduce yourself. Why should they listen to you? Are you someone they know, like and trust yet? Most likely not. So introduce yourself. Create a 20-second benefit statement for you--not your product, YOU. Why are you here? Why should they care?
3. Introduce your product/service. Again, why are they here? How can you help? How is this time investment going to make their lives easier? How are you going to save them time, money or their reputation? How are you going to make them look good to their bosses or clients? Create 20-second benefit statement for your product that shows not just what you do but why they should care.
4. Set expectations. Let them know what you want them to learn during the talk. Good starters are, "At the end of this hour, you should... " For example, "At the end of this hour, I want you to identify and be excited about one thing you can implement right away that will improve your presentation skills." If you have time, try asking what each person expects to take away from the talk--let them tell you why they're willing to be there and listen.

As you craft your introduction, rehearse it. When I say "prepare, prepare, prepare," I don't mean that you should spend the time on your PowerPoint. I mean live, speaking OUT LOUD to your mirror or the dog. I mean saying what you're going to say at least five times OUT LOUD, in real time, just the way you plan to say it. And repeat every day until it flows like butter. (BTW, that's when the fun starts; then you can improvise and change it up).

The secret to a great presentation? Make a great first impression by preparing, preparing, preparing your introduction. And then rehearse, rehearse, rehearse until you can recite it in your sleep.

Fortunately, unfortunately

Unfortunately, my flight was late.
Fortunately, I still caught my connection to Philadelphia.
Unfortunately, my bag didn't.
Unfortunately, this was discovered at 11:00 p.m., when all stores were closed.
Fortunately, I carry my ear prompter with me, so I could still give presentations the next day.
Unfortunately, the tape with the presentation script was discovered to be corrupted at 8:00 a.m. today.
Unfortunately, the backup tape was in the lost luggage.
Fortunately, I carry an iRiver and a paper script with me, so I could record the script digitally.
Unfortunately, my iRiver doesn't have the proper port to connect with my ear prompter.
Fortunately, I carry earbuds with me, and they do connect to my iRiver and can be tucked behind my hair, so I had could present at 10:15 a.m.
Fortunately, the client was going to Radio Shack this morning and got me a backup tape as well.
Fortunately, I found a quiet place to record the script into my original prompter and earpiece. The iRiver officially became a backup.
Fortunately, I always travel wearing business casual, not jeans. I was wearing respectable khakis and leather shoes, not jeans and sneakers, so I had acceptable attire for the trade show today (until such time as my luggage made its appearance at 5:00 p.m.).
Fortunately, the only thing I was lacking to appear as a professional at 9:00 a.m. today was makeup, which the client generously let me borrow.
Fortunately, the client is a woman.

What, you think it's easy making it look this easy? I can say a  few things about this:

• Thank goodness I always carry a printout of the script with me.
• Thank goodness I always carry my prompter with me.
• Thank goodness I usually have my iRiver with me.
• Thank goodness I always travel wearing business casual, not jeans or sweats.

If any one of those four things had not been the case, I would not have been able to present this morning.

Fortunately, they always are. What do you always do so that silly airline delays don't ruin your talk?

Public Speaking Tip #7: Get your passion up!

One of the remarkable things about what I do for a living is the sheer energy required for it. You think I'm kidding? At the Radiology show this week, I gave 13 presentations a day. Yes, that's 13 ten-minute presentations, every day for four days straight. Fifty-two presentations between Sunday and Wednesday.

Am I complaining? Not in the least! I genuinely love what I do. I love getting up there and talking. I love hamming it up. I love getting the audience into the booth and getting them out of their trade show stupor and excited about the technology products I'm demonstrating. I like seeing a smile cross a bored face during a demo, and I love hearing someone who was tired when he walked in yelling out an enthusiastic answer to one of my questions so that he might win an iPod five minutes later. :-)

However, yes, it does take a tremendous amount of energy. And since not all of us are C.C. Chapman, how do we go about getting that energy when we have a schedule like that?

Well, here are my tips for getting it up (your energy and passion for your product, that is) when you just don't feel like it:

1. Jump up and down a dozen times. Yes, in your suit. Yes, in your heels. For a variation on this, try jumping jacks if your clothing allows for it. Get that physical adrenaline pumping and get that blood flowing. Just bounce, bounce, bounce! It feels silly. Do it anyway.
2. Smile and laugh like an idiot. Pretend you're on camera and have to fake laughing at a joke cue. Laugh like crazy. Laugh like you just heard the funniest joke. Pretend to laugh and smile. Feels oddly energizing, doesn't it?
3. Answer the question, "How are you doing?" with "FANTASTIC!" instead of the usual "fine." Fake it 'til you make it. If you say it enough, you will eventually feel fantastic, no matter how tired you were to begin with. Seriously.
4. Do a pirouette. Just for the heck of it. Doing something out of character for you can refresh you and your attitude in ways that formal presentation training can't.
5. Love your product. Nothing replaces good, old-fashioned passion for your product or service. If you don't believe in your product, hey, you shouldn't be giving the presentations, should you? Remember why you do this and remember why your audience should care.

Yes, I really do these in the booth. Ask anyone. With my job, I can't afford a single yawn or even a so-so presentation--every single one needs to be dynamite and picture-perfect. What about you? What do you do to keep the energy and passion alive?

Public Speaking Tip #6: Cold, hard facts

Here's the thing. For most seminar presentations at conference, you have an hour. You are not going to be able to change our lives in an hour. You are not going to be able to give us 10 things we are going to be able to absorb and implement in an hour. You are not going to be able to change our entire way of thinking about something in an hour.

We are humans; we need to respond, consider, ponder, digest and react to what you're saying. Listening and learning is a process; it's not just writing down what you say. You need to take us along for the ride.

Mistake #1 most inexperienced presenters make: their ideas are too broad. You've probably been to talks like this. Motivational speakers do this (I used to be one; I should know!) This type of speaker talks in broad generalities--life, truth, simplicity, here's how cool new media is. Everything is boiled down to axioms, simple ideas and broad statements with no underlying explanations. Let me stress that there is nothing wrong with this type of talk--it has a place in getting us out of our comfort zones and motivating us or getting us thinking (just as it's supposed to do). But it is  NOT generally useful in an educational setting. Speaking exclusively in generalities  and broad ideas without giving specific examples, case studies and anecdotes to demonstrate your theses is useless for the audience and is guaranteed to produce this post-seminar conversation:

"How was the talk?"
"Great! He really knew his stuff."
"What did you learn?"
"Um... I don't know, but he was a really good speaker."

Personally, I set a goal for each workshop or presentation I give. And usually, it's something to the effect of:

I want for every person in the room to walk away with ONE THING that he/she can go home and implement today.

So as you go through your next seminar or talk, look at those broad ideas that you're discussing and check for holes. As you discuss the conversational nature of Web 2.0, did you give an example? Did you cite the number of blogs Technorati is tracking today, maybe the Edelman Trust Barometer to show how people distrust mainstream media and find more value in blogs written by people like them? Did you talk about the Kryptonite lock fiasco and what that shows about what type of communication people expect from companies?

And, more importantly, did you give your audience a reason to care? Did you show the significance of that broad idea and what it means for them? Did you give them an example, a case study, an anecdote that they could take back to their bosses to demonstrate the value of that point? Did you give them a call to action and show them a few things they could do, right now, today, to adapt to that broad idea you keep talking about?

End your talk with a call to action.

Give them broad ideas backed up by facts, stories, examples and case studies. Give them something they can use. Check your talk--if YOU listened to it, can YOU pick out one thing that you would take home to change tonight? If YOU listened, would YOU have a clear action to take? This is a great way to guarantee this conversation:

"How was the talk?"
"Great! She really knew her stuff."
"What did you learn?"
"She said this one thing about compiling a list of 10 questions, having a friend do the same, and then merging the two lists into one that I think I'm going to try."

Go forth and present. (With specific examples.)

Five Common Interview Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Just in case you don't have time or inclination to listen to this week's Diary of a Shameless Self-Promoter:

Ever catch yourself bored to death in your own interview of a CEO or book author you thought would be interesting? Ever meet with an interview guest to discover she's just a pompous blowhard spouting corporate jargon? Or worse, that you can't remember what she just said two minutes ago?

I'll soon be giving a seminar on Interviews that ROCK: Getting the Most out of Your Guests at the New Media Expo later this month. In my research and anecdote-collecting, I came across five common pitfalls that every interviewer, whether an independent business owner, podcaster or PR professional, invariably runs across:

1. Your guest is dull as dirt. It happens sometimes--we choose a dud of an interview subject. Could be that he's just not media-trained or microphone-shy, but the best you can do is get the heck out. End the interview and edit the content to something useful.
2. Your guest is a pompous blowhard. Sometimes a talkative guest just loves the sound of his own voice and won't stay on the topic that your listeners or readers want to hear about. In episode 34 of her Trafcom News Podcast, Donna Pappacosta suggests something like, "This is really interesting, but I don't want to take up too much of your valuable time. So could we get back to the topic of XXX?"
3. You space out and discover you weren't paying attention. This also happens more than we non-media-trained types care to admit. It's late; we're tired; we know it's a good interview and are checking sound levels... and then hear that crushing silence that means the guest is done speaking and we have no idea what she just said. Of course, the best thing to do is to pay attention to begin with--active note-taking can help with being fully engaged for the entire interview. But if you do space out, try this, "Oh, that was so interesting that I lost track of my next question! Let me check... To switch topics a bit, can you tell us about... ?"
4. The guest uses jargon you don't understand.CorporateSpeak--you know what I mean. "Pushing the envelope" and "thinking outside the box" and "shifting paradigms" and "achieving critical mass with core competencies." What the heck do those really mean? If you don't know, your listeners or readers won't, either. Solution? Just ask. And if you don't understand the answer, ask again. And again. Ask to be spoken to as if the guest were explaining it to a small child--or his mother.
5. The guest is on a cell phone, and you can't hear her clearly. For a good list of reasons why doing any interview over a cell phone is a bad idea, see Leesa Barnes' post on this. Just don't do it. Insist he or she use a land line. If she isn't near one, reschedule for when she can be. Your podcast will be a million times easier to edit, and you won't pull your hair out trying to understand your guest!

Shining up interview skills

NME is less than two weeks away!

My iRiver is all polished and ready to go... my Giant Squid is up and running... and I've devised a good system of attaching the lapel mics to the lavaliere and the iRiver to the waistband so that I can interview at the push of a button, on the spot, ready to go! Sure, I look a bit like a Cylon, with wires coming off me at all times, but I'm a podcaster. This is how we live!

As I put together the session on Killer Interviews: How to Get the Most from your Guests, I'm discovering I have too much information to cover, and I'm aiming to simplify. So I'd like some feedback on the types of things you consider most important. Join the discussion at the forum or answer here: what would you most like to hear about in a session on interviews? Folks have already given input that they'd like to hear more about techniques for conducting on-the-spot interviews with zero prep time rather than more about how to prep for planned interviews.

So, to be (semi-)methodical about it, here are the topics to cover. How would you rate them, 1-8, with 1 being the most important (must cover) and 8 being least important (meh; if there's time).

• Pitching an interviewee via email
• Before the interview: research and creating questions
• Prepping the interviewee
• Going with the flow: ad-libbing and flubs
• Technical stuff: Skype, equipment, double-enders, headphones, etc.
• How to prep for on-the-spot interviews
• Pitching the on-the-spot interview
• Technical stuff: portable rigs for on-the-spot recording

Feedback is most appreciated! I don't think anyone wants this thing to be three hours long!

What's the Big Idea? vidcast

Mike Cornett has a zinger of a new business pod/vidcast called What's the Big Idea? And guess what the first topic is? Presentation skillz! Ah, it makes the heart of a shameless self-promoter happy.

Personally, I could do without the music bed, but Gary Mull's tips are solid. Same advice I'd give, and condensed into five nice, easy tips in a free vidcast. Give it a listen, and let me know what you think. Did you learn something useful from this? Anything you'd add?

Worst. PowerPoint. Ever.

You've heard me say it before--PowerPoint Bullets Are Evil. You've heard Chris Brogan say "Don't. Read. Your. Dumb. Slides." and then again. You've read about why it's so important to avoid using bullet points with PowerPoint and to let your speech stand on its own or at least use powerful images to back it up when necessary.

If you're still wondering why, look at this. Seriously, look. It will make hardened presenters roll on the floor with laughter and jaded audience members nod their heads off in agreement.

Again, PowerPoint actually isn't evil. I use it all the time. It's a powerful tool that, in the wrong hands, can become evil--an instrument of boredom and confusion such as this city has never seen!
 

Seth Godin and Being the BEST

[Edit: Charles Miller, a recipient of one of the four free copies of The Dip I distributed, has written his own, more positive, review here.]

A number of people have asked (well, Twittered) for my response to Seth Godin's talk yesterday. And I found myself putting off blogging about it.

Here's the thing. Seth gave an excellent talk. His use of visuals to reinforce his message could be a how-to on Using PowerPoint for Good, Not Evil. Technically, his talk was an example of how great speakers engage audiences, get through and help them see things in a new way. I even spoke with him afterwards to compliment a particular slide--he was speaking on the point of focus in one's work and life, and he created a slide that was just about the most perfect visual representation of the concept of "focus" that I could ever have imagined (no, I don't have a copy, so you'll just have to go hear him speak!).

But his concept of the "dip"? I'm not so sure the talk was actually very helpful for me in my business. In fact, I found his talk pretty darn discouraging. His basic concept seems to be (correct me if I'm wrong here) that the market will only support one absolute BEST at something, and if you're not going to be the #1 BEST, then you'll quit once you hit a dip, so you might as well just not start if you're not going to be the BEST.

If you're going to quit, quit before you start. Reject the system. Don't play the game if you realize you can't be the best in the world.
    --Seth Godin, the dip

Perhaps it's because I've recently experienced a very long "dip" in my own corporate spokesperson business and chose to change directions (focusing more on speaking and training with the new toys, social media) rather than stay completely dependent on the flagging trade show industry. Perhaps it's because I spent too many years focusing on getting straight A's (being the BEST) rather than on discovering or pursuing my passions. Perhaps it's because I avoided doing too many things in life because I didn't think I could be the BEST at them.

I gave up a huge passion of mine once: ballroom dance. I was a really good ballroom dancer. I won second and third place prizes in USABDA (that's the U.S. Amateur Ballroom Dance Association), and I had a damn fine time, learned a lot and met a lot of great people. But according to Seth, if I wasn't going to shoot for being #1 all the time, I should have given it up. Well, I did. If you take ballroom dance seriously, it can be fiercely competitive. And I bought into that competitive spirit, decided I couldn't put the time into it that being a champion would have required and pursued other things.

Thing is, I love to dance. I LOVE to dance. With my arthritis as it is now, I'll never be a professional competitor, no question. But is that really the point? Are we really supposed to give up everything we can't be #1 at? I gave up something I loved dearly and was really good at because I bought into the idea that #2 wasn't worth trying for.

I think this is a terrible message. When I taught French, the hardest obstacle I had to help my students to overcome was the idea of taking risks. When we first learn to speak a language, we all sound stupid. Every time we open our mouths to try to communicate in French for the first time, we make mistakes--a lot of them--and it takes a risk-taking attitude to be able to try to spit out a sentence, anyway. Will it be the best communication ever? No. Will you sound like a native French speaker (the BEST)? No, not for many years, most likely, if ever. But I don't think that means we should stop trying. And I don't think that anyone who can't be the Best French Speaker Ever shouldn't even try to learn French.

Hey, it's entirely possible that I took the message too personally because my own professional life is facing a dip, and I made an adjustment accordingly.  Thing is, I really love being a trade show spokesperson. I love it. I love the packing crates and diesel fumes the day before the show opens; I love the godawfully-colored carpet aisles; I love the schwag giveaways; I love the crowds wandering into a booth to see what's what. I love gathering crowds; I love getting that live, real-time response to a new product or service; I love finding new leads for my clients and helping them forward the sale. I love being on stage talking so passionately about my client's product that everyone nearby stops to listen. I love when tech goes right; I love when tech goes wrong. I even love my aching feet and tired back that mean a busy day and a job well done.

But since my client flow has slowed down since 2005, according to Seth, I shouldn't even have started being a trade show spokesperson, because I wasn't the BEST. I didn't get 50 clients a year; I worked maybe a dozen shows a year for clients whose products I genuinely liked and cared about. I could easily have stopped before I started for any number of reasons--I'm not tall enough; I'm not blond enough; the arthritis in my hands can be seen as unattractive; my voice doesn't have that low, smooth, news anchor quality; my hair isn't big enough. Well, I think there are far too many people--and if I may say so, women in particular--who see those things, figure they can't be the best, and DON'T give their passions a try for the very reasons that Seth outlines in his talk.

By Seth's standards, I'm a failure. By my own... well, maybe a little. But I believe strongly in learning from our experiences, in following our passions and in taking risks and learning from failure. So I'm still a stronger, better professional person for having tried following my passion.

Don't. Read. Your. Dumb. Slides, Redux

In response to Chris Brogan's post on Lifehacks, Tom Comeau has written a YAPPIE (that's "Yet Another 'PowerPoint Is Evil'") post here, with an interesting quote from his book recommendation, The Cognitive Power of PowerPoint:

Tufte also argued that PowerPoint is what you use when you want to hide information, or want to hide the fact that you don’t have information.

Powerful quote, that. I suspect some folks do put up the charts and bullet points and text-dense slide for the simple reason that they believe the information will speak for itself, so they won't have to do all that pesky work of presenting it in an interesting and useful way.

Here's a hint: IT WON'T. Your job as speaker is not to present information, but to assemble it into one, easy- and fun-to-digest package. Your job is to gather information, organize it, and then juice it down to its very essence (preferably in an illustrative anecdote) so that your audience will walk away not with heads full of bullet-pointed slides but your actual message. Yes, illustrating points to back up your messages are fine, but let them be stories you tell, images you show and case studies you relate.

Don't hide your information (or lack thereof) in bullet points.

Don't. Read. Your. Dumb. Slides.

My response to Chris Brogan's smallest presentation hack: "Don't. Read. Your. Dumb. Slides."

Hear, hear! You should’ve heard the gasp that when through the room when, during a talk on presentation skills, I recommended against using PowerPoint and in particular, against using bullet-pointed slides.

“But how will we ever communicate??” seemed to be the murmur.

Um… how did we communicate before PowerPoint? We told stories. We told jokes. We showed powerful images. We had conversations. We laughed; we cried; it was better than Cats.

Oh, wait. Anyway, we managed to communicate before bullet points, and we’ll do it even better once we ditch them.

To clarify, I think in bullet points. When I organize my talks, they tend to be in outline form, with bullet points. Bullet points are great for clarifying your own thoughts and helping you remember what comes next. They are not great as visuals. They are terrible as visuals. The only visual you could have worse than a bullet-pointed slide would be a slide of solid, tiny, illegible text.

We can read. We didn't come here to read. Most of us came to whatever presentation you're giving to hear your ideas, process them and ask you questions. Mold those ideas for us--in the form of stories, images, case studies, charts, graphs and anecdotes. If we want to read, we'll go to your web page or read your handouts.

 

Grammar on Twitter?

The Grammar Girl has provided a grammar guide for Twittering!

I agree with most of it, but I still stay that "thru" and "nite" are wrong. They're not abbreviations; they're misspellings and should not be encouraged, no matter how few characters one is allowed. Using numerals for numbers, fine. Speaking in fragments, fine. But misspelling for brevity annoys the heck outta me, and there's no way I'm going thru that tonite.