Editor's Note:  This is a guest post by Jon Thomas of Presentation Advisors.

Audiences expect a lot from presenters nowadays. Nobody can "wing it" anymore and hope to get away with it.  When you begin creating your presentation, you must set aside time to make sure you know these three important aspects, as noted in the book Khrushchev's Shoe by Roy Underhill :

1. Your Subject
2. Yourself
3. Your Audience

If you've left out just one of these parts, your expectations may not match the reality.

Know Your Subject
It truly surprises me the amount of presenters that I've seen who don't have an in-depth grasp of what they're presenting.  Remember, presentations aren't just in the conference room, or on a stage, or in front of a class.  We're always presenting.  A car salesman must know everything about the cars he is selling.  If you're an entrepreneur pitching to a VC, you better know the ins-and-outs of your product/service.  You must be totally prepared to handle the unexpected. 

Know Yourself
What kind of presenter are you?  What are your strengths?  What are your weaknesses?  How many times to you have to fully rehearse before you have it down pat?  What could the audience do that may upset you or throw you off?  These, among MANY others, are questions you must ask yourself to prepare for a presentation.  When you take an honest look at yourself and your strengths and weaknesses, then you can prepare a presentation that leverages those strengths and avoids the weaknesses.  Maybe opening up with some jokes helps you ease your nerves.  Maybe stopping every so often for questions helps you from getting ahead of yourself.  Try to get honest feedback from friends and colleagues and present in front of a mirror or camera to find out what suits you best.  Of course, there's no better way to figure out your strengths and weaknesses than going out there and presenting live. 

Know Your Audience
I realize this one is less in your control than the others.  You may have no idea who is going to show up.  But maybe you can learn some general facts about your audience.  Maybe they're college students.  Maybe they're a senior management team.  You may not know them personally, but you can make some inferences that will help you gear your presentation towards their wants and needs.  Forgetting to familiarize yourself with your audience can lead your right into a firestorm.  If you're presenting to an organization, inquire with the host as to who may be attending.  If you're making a sales call, learn about your prospect, what their pain points might be, and what they're looking for from you. 

Preparation is key to any effective presentation.  Knowing your subject, yourself, and your audience will help guide you to a successful presentation.

About the Author:
Jon Thomas is the founder of Presentation Advisors, a presentation consulting and design firm located in Connecticut. Jon has worked with corporations, individuals, and non-profits all over the U.S to design visually engaging and effective presentations.

photo credit: lachlan

by Terry Gault

My wife, Robin, asked me, “What do you want to do for your 50th birthday?”  I figured, “Hey – this is my 50th.  It’s a milestone number.  I am going to go for it and ask for what I really want.”

“I want to drive a Tesla.”

I have been a fan essentially since the car was first announced.  I have read about it in Wired (which I read religiously), Business 2.0 (which I read religiously until it sadly folded), and Fortune magazine.  Robin drives a Prius.  I am committed to a smaller footprint … but I also LOVE fast cars.  My brother is a mechanic who specializes in muscle cars.  I once owned a cherry ’66 Ford Falcon Futura Sport Coupe with a 289 V-8.

Yeah, that’s me parked in the Marin Headlands in 1989.

So, this seemed like a dream car … all electric … zero emissions … 2 door roadster … suspension by Lotus … 0-60 in 3.7 seconds.  MY KIND OF CAR!!!

When we arrived for our scheduled test drive, Mike Falcone greeted me.  Mike looked to be in his early 30’s.  Very friendly, cool, formerly managed an Apple store.  When I revealed my history with muscle cars, when I told him my brother recently owned a 1969 Pontiac Firebird with a 400 V8, Mike revealed that he owned a 1969 Pontiac GTO with a 400 V8.  It was clear that we were kindred spirits.

He showed us the car, the battery pack, the “trunk” that was designed to hold a bag of golf clubs (and no more).  He spoke about the carbon fiber frame and body.  He showed us where they prepare cars for delivery and where they drop the electric motor into the frame and body assembled by Lotus.  It was fascinating to tour the manufacturing facility of a car manufacturer practically in our own back yard – Menlo Park …. Silicon Valley.  (Yeah, take THAT Detroit!)

But it was all prelude to a dream – the test drive itself.

Mike finally pulled the car out of the showroom and around the block to the parking lot where Robin and I could take it for a drive.  (Yes, unattended.)  He asked if I wanted to go along for the ride.  I said, "Sure."  When he pulled out onto El Camino Real to drive the car one block to the parking lot entrance, he floored it.

Do you know the feeling you get when you are on a roller coaster … you climb the hill, you can feel the gears ratcheting your car up the climb, then you pass over the  crest and the car begins to plummet straight down and every cell in your body is screaming, “You’re going to DIE!!!” and the only thing that makes you feel any better, that makes any sense at all is to scream your lungs out?  That’s what it felt like.

WHAT A RUSH!!!   I loved it!  I have never driven a car with such torque and immediate power.

Since it is electric and the motor can rev up to 14,000 RPM’s, there is ONLY one gear. (Now, that’s user friendly!)  It tops out at 125 miles per hour and will go 244 miles on a charge.  Unless the car is in park or neutral, the motor is engaged the whole time.  So, when you let off the gas the resistance from the wheels / motor slow down the car. That energy is recaptured and charges the battery, much like braking and coasting in the Prius recharges the battery.  The only time you need to hit the brakes is when you come to a complete, dead stop.  So, the brakes get very little wear and tear.

This is a great car for commuting … assuming you don’t need to schlep any gear, only one passenger.  Since the car has very little moving parts, it will last almost forever.  Maintenance?  Oh, yeah.  Don’t forget to fill the windshield washer fluid once in awhile.

Mike and the staff at Tesla were all terrific – friendly, well-informed, enthusiastic, helpful, no pressure.  They clearly understand the importance of good presentation.  They intuited that people would embrace an electric car IF it looked super sexy, was fun to drive, and was blisteringly fast.  They nailed it.

I am excited to drive their next car, the Model S, a 4 door sedan slated to arrive in 2011, priced at $50K.  Compare that to the total cost of ownership to a loaded Prius – about $30K.  This car will cost you much LESS over the total life of the car.

So, here’s 2 videos you may enjoy:

1.    First, my video of my test drive.

2.    Followed by a video of Jay Leno speaking with one of the backers and Product Architect of the Tesla, Elon Musk.  Musk was one of the co-founders of PayPal.  In September 2009, Musk’s SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately funded vehicle to put a satellite into Earth orbit.  This is a guy who dreams big dreams.

Enjoy the ride!

photo: JoaoMaximo

Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Robert Graham of GrahamComm.

January 10, 2007: Apple CEO Steve Jobs was rolling out the iPhone at MacWorld. It was an event that, as he correctly predicted, would “reinvent the phone.” A third of the way through his keynote, however, his slides froze. He tried his clicker. He tried his other clicker. He went to his laptop. Nothing helped.

Most people, if rolling out a franchise product in front of thousands of people and something went wrong, would panic. But Jobs is a master. He casually said, “Guys, the slides are stuck.” Then he made a joke about “Somebody backstage is scrambling,” which everyone knew to mean, “Somebody is fired.”

Next, he launched into a story of a prank he and Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak used to pull in high school. They had invented a TV jammer and would wander the dorms of UC Berkeley with it in their pockets. They would go into dorm rooms where people were watching Star Trek. At the critical time in the episode, Woz would “jam” the signal and the TV would go to static. Someone would jump up in a panic and adjust the rabbit ears, and when they were in their most awkward position, standing on one leg leaning over the back of the TV, Woz would un-jam it, and Spock would return. The adjuster feared that if he moved, he'd lose the picture again, and would stand on one leg for the rest of the show.

By the time Jobs finished spinning the tale, the slides were fixed, and he seamlessly carried on with his now historic keynote.

What does a Steve Jobs keynote have to do with you and me? What he displayed in that crucial moment was calm. He was calm when by all rights he should have panicked.

There are many instances in professional and personal life where something goes wrong, and our instinct is to panic:

• Your projector freezes.
• You lose your place in the presentation and have no idea what to say.
• Someone asks a difficult or antagonizing question in a meeting, and all eyes are on you.
• You get an angry or emotional call from a client.
• Your wife asks you what you do all day at work.

Whatever happens, if you want to give an air of calm, poise and professionalism, you must be the duck. Picture a duck swimming across a pond; it glides across the water effortlessly. Under water, however, its feet are paddling like mad.

When presenting, your mind is like the duck’s feet. At any given point in a presentation, you are thinking about five or six different things (your content, the slides, your delivery, the person texting, the noise from the next room…). Inside, you feel that people can read your mind; they know how nervous you are and are judging you harshly.

But they can’t, and they don’t, and they aren’t. You remain calm. You pause to collect your thoughts. You make a self-deprecating joke that breaks the tension. You admit that you don’t know the answer to the question and promise to get back to the hostile questioner with the answer.

And you move on. If you’ve ever seen yourself present on video, then you know the difference between how you feel (horrible, nervous, panicky) and how you appear. Usually, you appear much calmer than you feel.

Be the duck. Don’t make a big deal of the situation. If you’ve lost your place, choose something to say; they have no idea what you were going to say. Refocus and move on, because perception is reality. What’s real for your audience is not the panic you feel, but the calm, poised professional they see in front of them.

An entertaining video of Steve Jobs making dozens of blunders over the years.

photo credit: Danny Novo and brendan.lally.

Once a quarter The Henderson Group holds a "By Invitation Only" Art of Presentation workshop in San Francisco, led by our VP of Services, Terry Gault.  The last of 2009 will be held Nov. 5-6, 2009. 

Using interactive methods, rather than lectured instruction, participants cultivate a personal style – a style that gains the audience's attention through confident composure and meaningful interaction. Through the Henderson Group's unique and proven feedback model, participants receive immediate feedback from instructors, peers and videotape, enabling them to rapidly learn, reflect and improve their presentation skills.

We will also be holding a Complete Communicator workshop on Dec. 14-15, 2009 in San Francisco. 

The Complete Communicator work combines the communication techniques of several mediums in an intense, highly individualized, skills development program. Leaders learn to communicate effectively one-on-one, in small groups, standing before large audiences, and over the phone and Internet.

Our work has to be experienced to truly understand its value.  We use these workshops as a way to introduce our work experientially to new prospective clients.  Learn more or reserve a seat >>

by Terry Gault

Konstantin Stanislavski, the famous Russian director and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theater, was a major force in the arts of theater and film.  No one since Shakespeare has had a stronger impact on the theater.

Stanislavski devised a simple technique to help actors overcome the artificiality of the theater.  By this I mean that when you are acting on a theater set, you are not in a real space – it’s a representation of a real space.  It’s not a real living room or a real office or a real battlefield.  It’s a set.

 

When you speak to the other actors you are not speaking to your sister or your work colleague or a fellow warrior, you are speaking to another actor.

 

The problem for the actor is, “How can I behave and act in a believable and real way when I am acting in a false world?”  When playing Hamlet, how can I know how to behave when my uncle hasn’t married my mother, I haven’t seen my father’s ghost, and I am not a prince?

 

Stanislavksi’s system was taught to me by Phil Bennett at the San Francisco Theater Academy and later the Bennett Theater Lab in San Francisco in the 1980s.

 

Stanislavski discovered a key to unlock the imagination and he called it the Magic If.

 

The actor is encouraged to ask the question, “What would I do IF this really were my sister?  How would I behave IF this was a battlefield and I was a warrior?  How would I act IF I really did see my father’s ghost and IF I was a prince?”

 

Then the actor makes choices based on their own instincts and imagination.  They fulfill the actions that would seem appropriate given the circumstances. 

 

Stanislavski’s system demonstrates that the fulfillment of simple physical actions in pursuit of an objective using this Magic If will lead to genuine emotional involvement and truth.

 

This same principle can be applied to presentation.  It can more deeply inform the notion of authenticity and style.

 

As we ask the questions, “What do I want my style to be?  Who do I want to be?”, the Magic If can be extremely valuable.

 

If we ask these questions and determine that we want to be more charismatic or even inspiring, our ego may rebel.  “Oh, no, that’s not me!  I am neither of those things.”

 

Instead, try on the question, “If I really were inspiring and charismatic, what would I do?  How would I behave?”  Then simply DO THAT BEHAVIOR.

 

You have countless examples to draw upon from in your life experience.  In fact, the beauty of Stanislavski’s Magic If is that you don’t even have to consciously remember or recall the people who you saw as inspiring or charismatic.  Your brain retains that memory in the unconscious mind and your mind and body are quite capable of mimicking that behavior if you can get your own ego out of the way AND if you have developed strong technique.

 

You may find it helpful to watch videos or listen to recordings of speakers and leaders that you feel are inspiring and charismatic.  These elements of style may be easier to mimic having listened to Martin Luther King or Winston Churchill or watch video of John Kennedy or Barack Obama.

 

Subscribe to our weekly updates here>>

 

photo credit: KalinaSoftware

by Terry Gault

 

This is compelling evidence that empathy is most important when engaged in communication with others.  It speaks specifically to the importance of empathy when practicing Empathic Paraphrasing or Interchangable Empathy technique in our Dialogue, Listening and Influence workshops.

"People just don't sue doctors they like," is how Alice Burkin, a leading medical malpractice lawyer, puts it. "In all the years I've been in. this business, I've never had a potential client walk in and say, 'I really like this doctor, and I feel terrible about doing it, but I want to sue him.  'We've had people come in saying they want to sue some specialist, and we'll say, 'We don't think that doctor was negligent. We think it's your primary care doctor who was at fault.' And the client will say, 'I don't care what she did. I love her, and I'm not suing her.'"

 

Recently the medical researcher Wendy Levinson recorded hundreds of conversations between a group of physicians and their patients. Roughly half of the doctors had never been sued. The other half had been sued at least twice, and Levinson found that just on the basis of those conversations, she could find clear differences between the two groups. The surgeons who had never been sued spent more than three minutes longer with each patient than those who had been sued did.

 

They were more likely to engage in active listening, saying such things as "Go on, tell me more about that," and they were far more likely to laugh and be funny during the visit. Interestingly, there was no difference in the amount or quality of information they gave their patients; they didn't provide more details about medication or the patient's condition. The difference was entirely in how they talked to their patients.

 

The psychologist Nalini Ambady listened to Levinson's tapes, zeroing she removed the high-frequency sounds from speech that enable us to recognize individual words. What's left after content-filtering is a kind of garble that preserves intonation, pitch, and rhythm but erases content. She had judges rate the slices of garble for such qualities as warmth, hostility, dominance, and anxiousness, and she found that by using only those ratings, she could predict which surgeons got sued and which ones didn't.  -excerpt from Blink

Read more:  Doctors often shift focus from patients to themselves

 

This is about the tendency that some people have to tell their own stories as a way to build rapport and relationships.  However, I believe that keeping the focus on the other party or the customer is the BEST way to build rapport and relationships. 

 

That’s what we focus on in our dialogue-based workshops.

photo credit: bobster855

by Terry Gault

The founder of Simple Green, Bruce FaBrizio, tells a compelling Creation Myth in this video profile on Lou Dobbs segment titled, “Business Unusual”.

FaBrizio was delivering chemicals in college when he watched a man fall into a tank of acids, cyanide and boiling water; “All the meat fell off his body before they got him out… it started there.”

He created a non-toxic biodegradable cleaner, and to start a business he borrowed “street money” at 60% interest to pay to have the product tested.  “Rocco” would show up to collect interest.   FaBrizio takes money to Las Vegas to win payroll.  He loses…

Download the segment here: business_unusual_v2 or here under Lou Dobbs - "Business Unusual"

Read about The Henderson Group Creation Myth here

photo credit: annai316

Editor's Note:  This is a guest post by Phyllis E. Thesier of The Articulate Advantage and a continuation of the post, Speaking to be Understood

Remember, you are working toward becoming extremely good at speaking English which is a primary requirement to being a top manager.  Let’s review the first three strategies.

I. Speak English EVERY DAY for 16 hours. In the car, on your way to work, rehearse…out loud… the names of each person in your office. Are you saying each correctly? Rehearse what you are going to say in your morning meetings.  Do you have your ideas organized? The appropriate vocabulary?  When you get to the office, write down what you wan to say and say it out loud. (If you do not have a private office, say it in a whisper….).  We must make our mouth move to the sounds in order to reprogram the speech sound movements.

II. Audiotape and Listen to yourself. Preferably while you are on the phone. This way, you get the best idea of how you sound to others.  (Note: Do not record the other person’s side of the conversation as it illegal in many areas of the USA). Record your “outgoing” telephone message every day.  Change the day and date on it.

III. SLOW Down! An average of 110 words per minute is best.  Sound interesting by speeding up an introduction phrase (to 140 WPM) …then pause for 1 second.. And, then list your points at 130 WPM, with a ½ second pause between each of them.  It will get others attention.

Now on to the next set of three effective communication strategies.
Western communication style has some pragmatic communication features that are very different from Eastern speaking styles.  Western communicators want an open, accessible communication style. This style is connoted by several types of body language.

IV. Eye Contact: The easiest way to accomplish this is to look at the other person’s Right eye.  One can maintain relaxed eye contact this way.  Especially when listening.  Your listener’s deeply appreciate this attention.  That said, it is not appropriate to maintain constant eye contact.  If you are speaking, you will periodically need to look away as you formulate an idea yet come back to the eye contact when you want to make a point.  It keeps your head up and relaxed.

Brian Tracy, a world renowned success coach, devotes four chapters to eye contact in his book “The Power of Charm: How to win anyone over in any situation.”   For those of you in China, Chaterhouse bookstore carries this book.  (When I was living in China, I bought my copy there).

V. Smile while speaking. A genuine smile draws people to you and your ideas.  Smile even if you don’t feel like smiling.  Physiologically, a smile accomplishes several critical voice and speaking needs.  A smile opens the airway allowing for effective replenishment of air while speaking.  We have often heard people speaking on residual air and sounding strained and too soft.  This loses the listeners attention. A smile also relaxes and opens the articulators for more effective targeting and pronunciation clarity.  When we speak with a more closed mouth, tension sets in and minimizes movements, making words sound mumbled.  Smile and be clear.

More on How to Harness the “Power of the 10,000 Hours”: Strategies Four through Six

In over two decades and more than 15 separate productions, Cirque du Soleil has never had a flop. By comparison, 9 out of 10 shows on Broadway — productions aimed at the same sophisticated, big-ticket audience as Cirque — fail to earn back the money invested in them.

Cirque's reputation for never missing is so strong that, in exchange for half the profits, four Las Vegas resorts, as well as Disney World, each agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars to build a custom theater to house a Cirque show and foot half the show's production costs, which can hit $25 million.

Cirque du Soleil was hatched in 1984 by two high school dropouts — Guy Laliberté, a 23-year-old Montreal fire breather, and Daniel Gauthier, 24, a youth hostel manager. In what had to be one of the entertainment industry's most audacious acts of persuasion, they talked the Quebec government into granting them just over $1 million to develop a show around local street performers as part of a festival celebrating the 450th anniversary of Montreal's founding. The pair hired Dragone in 1985, and what he calls the "transdisciplinary experience" of circus blended with stagecraft, live music, and song became Cirque's trademark and a hit across Canada.

The moment of truth arrived in 1987 when Laliberté and Gauthier took their act to the L.A. Arts Festival. The pair knew that if the show flopped, they couldn't afford to fly the cast and equipment home. They needn't have worried, however: The standing ovation went on for five minutes, and by the time the box office opened the next morning, 500 people were standing in line. Cirque du Soleil was no longer a nonprofit organization.

Business 2.0, The Phantasmagoria Factory by Geoff Keighley

This is a great creation myth and captures the spirit and ethos of this remarkable organization, their audacity and their willingness to take huge risks to deliver a great experience to their audiences.

Learn how to Create a Story

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photo credit: StuSeeger

WomenEntrepreneur.com recently had a feature on Francesca Kuglen, HairZing: Social Responsibility in Action.

Francesca Kuglen is not only a client, taking The Henderson Group Art of Presentation workshop in 2005, but she is also the sister of our very own sales guru, Chuck Kuglen.

HairZing has a fresh, innovative and socially-responsible approach to both hairstyling and manufacturing.

HairZing Mission: bring business to female entrepreneurs in areas with limited resources and economic infrastructure.

Advice for would-be social entrepreneurs:

1. Do not pick a recession. "Timing is everything," Montgomery says. "Be sure you not only have your own life savings but about four other people's life savings," she jokes.
2. Have an open mind and be willing to adjust as needed. Kuglen and Montgomery figured they could communicate and make business work halfway around the world. "The answer is, we couldn't. They need managers," Montgomery says.
3. Be consistent. Kuglen and Montgomery want to help needy women everywhere, and they want to do it in an environmentally responsible way. See even in the U.S., those who sell the product tend to be single women or women who are struggling. Consistency also demanded that HairZing change its packaging to be more ecological. "We changed from a toxic plastic to a biodegradable plastic," Kuglen says. "That took a tremendous cost. We'd already designed a fabulous package. And we said, 'Let's go back and redo that.' "

- WomenEntrepreneur.com, Eve Gumpel      

Read the whole story >>