Category: Communication

Crafting a Good Presentation is Much Like Crafting a Good Song

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
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A new summer program called Songland caught my attention when I watched how three superstar professional musicians use their individual areas of expertise to help unknown songwriters hoping for a break into stardom get their song chosen to record for global release. As stated in the press release for the show:

“The panel assesses the lyrics, arrangement, rhythm, melody, and message and discusses ways to adapt the songs to fit the style, taste, and ability of the guest artist. In the studio, the producer and songwriter will then work to customize the song for the guest artist. By episode’s end, the artist will select a song to record for a global release.”

Wow, I thought! This is what I do for my clients in crafting and delivering their presentations.

Here are the similarities:
The songwriter is the expert because they wrote the song.
My client is an expert because they know their topic.

The songwriter needs to know their audience, in this case, they need to adapt their song to fit the style, taste, and ability of the guest artist. My client needs to perform an in-depth audience analysis audit in order to ensure it is crafted to meet the needs and wants of the audience.

The songwriter needs to present it in a way that connects with the guest artist through the music, words, and overall color of the song, including the rate/pace of the words, the tone of the song, and the feeling the song evokes.

For example, if the song is being pitched for a movie like The Fast and The Furious, which was the focus of one of the guest artists, it needed to be fast-paced, with a catchy rhythm, and an overall powerful tone. When pitched to John Legend, a more mellow singer-songwriter, the performance needed to have a soft, sweet and low-key tone.

This is the same for my clients. They need to identify and practice, through their body language and tone of voice, the ability to ensure their presentation matches their message and the style of their audience.

If the content of the presentation has excitement to it, the presenter needs to show this emotion through gestures and vocal expressions including, loudness variations, a more rapid pace and a variety of vocal inflections.

If the content has a more serious nature to it, the presenter needs to tone down gestures and voice attributes, including loudness, pace and pitch variations.

The takeaway is this: whether you’re crafting a song or a presentation, you must know who your audience is and create the emotion and content that connects with them in order to be successful.

Remember, every audience is tuned into the radio station WIIFM, What’s In It For Me!

If you’d like more information about how you can be a successful crafter and presenter of your message, I’d welcome the opportunity to speak with you. Contact me for a free consultation.

Important Listening Skill: Mind Flush

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
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In a recent training session I conducted for human resource professionals, one of the most important takeaways voiced at the end of the training was to remember to use the mind flush technique.

Have you ever had a disagreement with a colleague or difficult conversation or situation, personal or professional, take place prior to going into an important meeting? A meeting where it will be absolutely necessary for you to be an active listener and participant, however, due to the challenging situation that is foremost in your mind, it will be difficult for you to let go to be present in the meeting? That’s where the mind flush technique comes into play.

Immediately before entering the meeting, go to a quiet place, breathe deeply, and flush away the challenging situation that is monopolizing your mind. As soon as your thoughts go back to it, acknowledge it and let it go, at least until your meeting is over. This way you’ll be present and in an active listening state that will let the speaker know you are present.

Are You Connecting With Your Audience?

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
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 “Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can’t get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t even matter.” -Gilbert Amelio, Former President and CEO of National Semiconductor Corp.

  

“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” -Lee Iacocca

 

 

 

 

 

What’s the common thread between these two quotes?  CONNECTION! We find, in both quotes, the necessity of being able to get your message and ideas across to others in a clear, concise, and understandable way.  

Many times, I find my clients are experts in their field but are unable to get their expertise across to their audiences.

15% of your success is from your knowledge.

85% comes from your ability to effectively communicate your knowledge.

Taken from the Audience Analysis Audit in my book Loud and Clear: How to Prepare and Deliver Effective Business and Technical Presentations, here are a few questions for you to consider about your audience before your next presentation to make sure you CONNECT!

 

  • What are the benefits of your information to your audience? Every audience member is hooked up to the radio station WIIFM. What’s In It For Me.
  • What is their level of understanding of the types of information you will be sharing? This will shape the way you present your information to make your connection.
  • What is their knowledge of the subject? Too much or too little information= no connection.
  • What are their opinions about your subject? Dispel resistance, if any, upfront. Let them know you’ve done your homework!
  • How willing are the members of your audience to accept the ideas you will present? Get them on board as quickly as possible.
  • What are the desired emotional effects you want your audience to feel both during and immediately following your presentation? People “buy” on emotion.
  • How are you going to involve your audience during your presentation? If you tell me, I’ll listen; If you show me, I’ll pay attention; If you involve me I’ll learn!

 

By answering these questions, you’ll be on track with key information to help you design a presentation that connects with your audience. These questions may be applied to an audience of any size…even one. Take good care of your audience and you will get the results you want!

 

Here’s to presentations that connect!

Listen to Your Texts and Emails

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
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Have you ever thought about the value of using good listening skills to decrease the need for do-overs, increase your productivity, or save you and others valuable time while using texts or emails? Have you ever interpreted a text or email one way only to find out that’s not what the writer wanted?

Continue reading “Listen to Your Texts and Emails” →

Six Steps to Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
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How often are you asked, “What do you do?” Are you prepared to answer in a clear, concise, and compelling way? Or do you say, “I’m a ____________.” End of conversation. Creating your elevator pitch will take time to get it right. I think of a quote from Mark Twain, “Give me three weeks to prepare for an impromptu speech.”

Here are six steps to consider, keeping in mind that your approach will vary, depending on your goal.

  1. Determine Your Goal

Do you want to promote a product that you sell?, Do you want to promote your business or the organization you work for to potential new clients? Or do you need to pitch to a hiring manager of a company you’d love to work for during a networking meeting?

  1. Briefly explain what you do. For example, when I’m asked what I do, and I’m wearing my speech therapist’s hat, my response used to be, “I’m a speech therapist.” In order to keep from getting the usual response, “Oh that’s interesting.”, end of the conversation, I have now come up with the phrase, “I change brains!” referencing my work with people who have had some type of brain injury. Since changing to this approach, I will get a puzzled look and quickly be asked for clarification, which creates an opportunity for discussion. That’s the key! You want them to ask for more information about what you do.

Ask yourself this question, “What do I want my listener to remember most about me and what I do? Your pitch has to excite you first. People will remember your enthusiasm when presenting your pitch.

Here’s an example that was shared with me. “ I recently developed this pitch for a networking event to promote my company. “My company writes mobile device applications for other businesses.” Pretty boring, right? So I changed it to this. “My company develops mobile applications that businesses use to train their staff remotely. This results in a big increase in efficiency for an organization’s managers.” Quite a difference! This pitch is more interesting and shows the value that this company brings to its clients.

  1. Communicate your USP-Unique Selling Proposition. What makes you and your company different from others that do what you do? What is unique about it? When working with clients on developing their elevator pitch, I find this is the most difficult question to answer, but well worth the effort. When I’m promoting SmarTalkers, my public speaking training and coaching business, I’ll promote the fact that I’m a certified speech pathologist, which many public speaking coaches are not, and that I’ve co-authored a book on public speaking skills that has sold over a quarter of a million copies.

4. What is your USP?

If appropriate, engage with a question. Open-ended questions (questions that can’t be answered with a “yes” or “no”) are advisable to involve them in conversation. For example: I might ask, “How does your company prepare employees who have to give presentations?”

5. Put it all together

When you have completed each section of your pitch, put it all together. Read it out loud and time it. Your pitch should be no longer than 20-30 seconds. If it’s too long, you’ll risk losing the person’s interest or monopolizing the conversation.

  1. Practice

Practice makes permanent! Practice your pitch on friends and colleagues. Listen to their constructive feedback. Always share what your goal is before you present so they’ll understand where you’re coming from. Body language and tone of voice will also play a very important part in creating interest.

In summary, your elevator pitch needs to be a brief, persuasive speech that will create interest in what you and your organization do. You can also create one to create interest in a project, idea, or product.

What’s your elevator pitch? I’d love to hear from you!

Can you think and be a good listener at the same time?

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
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During important conversations, in order to absorb what others are saying, you must be an active listener first.

You need to pay close attention to the speaker’s ideas, concerns, arguments or frustrations before thinking of your response.

Active listening allows you to take the speaker’s perspective, not yours into account. When you hear the other person’s perspective, only then can you take the information, analyze it and respond in a way that lets the speaker know you have a clear understanding of what was said and an effective conversation can continue to take place.

Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
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A study that surveyed nine years of employee hiring and firing at Google showed that over that time, the company found that most of the firings were of people equipped with sufficient hard skills, such as business and technical knowledge, and that those with a good command of soft skills tended to stay and be promoted.

How are your communication soft skills including active listening, public speaking, and assertiveness skills?

Could you benefit from individual coaching in these areas? Let’s connect and see how I can help. wendy@smartalkers.com

It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
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You can come into a conversation with a clear message, but the person receiving your message will hear it through their filters, including their emotions, preconceptions, prejudices and pre-existing beliefs.

How your words are understood is strongly influenced by the experiences and biases of the listener.

When a mutual understanding of a conversation is important, the only way you can be sure your message is received the way you intended, is to ask the listener to paraphrase what they heard you say.

Merely asking close-ended questions such as, “Does this make sense?” or “Are you clear with the next steps?” allows the listener to answer “yes” when in reality their response is channeled through their filters or the way they heard it resulting in the strong possibility of a misunderstanding. It only takes a minute for clarification, with costly consequences of time and money if not taken.

The Value of Soft Skills

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
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LinkedIn identified the soft skills companies need most. Regardless of industry, communication ranked as #2.

Communication skills allow people to work together more efficiently and effectively because they understand each other.

Would improving your soft skills possibly lead to a promotion, make you feel more comfortable speaking up in difficult conversations, or help you feel more comfortable giving a speech? Let’s connect and see how I can help. wendy@smartalkers.com

Six-Step Guarantee for Powerful Presentations

Posted on by Wendy Warman MS CCC
SmarTalkers | Wendy's Blog

by Wendy Warman MS CCC

Dec 12, 2018
Step 1

Establish Your Objectives

Without a doubt, this often overlooked step is the most important one in the planning process. You need to ask. “Why am I making this presentation?” not “What am I going to say?” Start by determining what you want to accomplish with your presentation. Your objectives must be realistic and achievable, immediate, and essentially selfish. They represent what you want to have happen during and after your presentation.
Step 2

Analyze Your Audience

Next, turn the tables-think about your audience’s needs and wants. What do you need to know about your audience’s knowledge, attitudes, likes, and dislikes to increase the probability of achieving your objectives? What is likely to get your audience to do what you want them to do?
Step 3

Prepare Your Preliminary Plan

The preliminary plan is not a speaking outline. Think of it as a conceptual guide to help you determine what will most logically lead to accomplishing your presentation objectives. This should be a blueprint for developing your ideas and deciding how much and what kind of information you will need.
Step 4

Select Resource Material

Finding enough resource material to supplement your talking points is not difficult. The challenge is selecting what and how much material you should include. Ask yourself the following questions:
  • What is the purpose of this presentation?
  • What should you cover? What can you eliminate?
  • What amount of detail do you need?
  • What must you say if you are to reach your presentation objectives?
  • What is the best way to say it?
  • What kind of audience action or response are you seeking?
  • What material should you withhold from your presentation but have available for reference?
  • Finally, submit all your resource material to the “Why?” test. Be sure you can justify why you selected the material and how it will contribute to achieving your objectives
Step 5

Organize Materials

Like any good story, your presentation needs a beginning, middle, and end. Presenters often spend most of their time organizing content and very little on their opening and closing statements-perhaps the most important parts of your presentation.
  • An audience is most attentive at the beginning of your presentation, but it can turn off quickly. Take advantage of this small window of opportunity with a well-honed opener that grabs your audience and conveys the main point of your presentation in the first few minutes.
  • Follow your main ideas with analogies, quotes from current newspapers or magazines, personal stories, examples, illustrations, relevant statistics, or visual aids.
  • Audience attention and retention peak again with your closing statement. Integrate your opening points into your closing statements. This shows cohesiveness and gives your presentation a powerful ending. Closings will impress your audience if they are challenging, a summary of your key points, suggest an agreement or recommend specific action, or present quotes, facts, or statistics.
Step 6

Practice Your Presentation

IIt’s a rare individual who can take even a well-prepared presentation and deliver it effectively on the first attempt. Most of us have had the experience of planning a presentation that looks good on paper only to have it fall flat in the real world.
  • Preparation is not complete until you have rehearsed your presentation, whether practicing aloud to yourself, using an audio-or-videotape recorder, or giving a “dry run” before someone who can respond like your intended audience.
Each of these six steps offers a separate and distinct contribution, and none of them should be overlooked. When you take the time to move through this six-step process, it should guarantee that your next presentation is delivered LOUD AND CLEAR!
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