Vertical Horizon Rocks the Phoenix Zoo!

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Posted on 24th April 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Engaging Mindset

I’m a HUGE fan of the band, Vertical Horizon, so when I heard they were the headliner at the “Rock the Zoo” fundraiser for the Phoenix Zoo, I was thrilled to know that I would be in town to enjoy the music and libations.   What’s all this have to do with engaging presentations?  Like night and day, the opening band, Marcy Playground was ho-hum and Vertical Horizon was rockin’.  Let me explain:

Marcy Playground (claim to fame: Sex and Candy) is surprisingly a pretty decent band.  Unfortunately, they didn’t bother to talk to the audience and did some completely self-indulgent dueling guitars/drum “thing” for about five minutes.  No kidding.  Five minutes.  They played music, yes.  Did they care about the audience?  No.  I call this “phoning it in.”  Maybe the Phoenix Zoo wasn’t

Vertical Horizon (claim to fame:  Everything You Want, You’re a God, and their early music is just a compelling) was completely different.  Although I am slightly biased, Matt Scannell, the lead singer/guitarist started off by saying “hello” and  made a wisecrack about how the giraffes said it was okay to play at the zoo.  Right at the onset, Matt encouraged the crowd to sing along, and paused at key phrases for the crowd to sing along.  (I call this presentation technique “fill in the blank”).  He then proceeded to share a few stories about each song and why they were important to the band.  The band members actually looked at the audience, at each other and it was CLEAR they were having a blast singing, playing and entertaining.

We can take a cue from my favorite band, Vertical Horizon.  Rock on!

Engage vs. Interact

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Posted on 13th April 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Auto Responders |Engaging Mindset |Questions


Was trolling through the TED talks (great place to view short, insightful and interesting presentations on a variety of topics), when I ran across Tony Robbins ‘ presentation about the invisible forces that drive our behavior.

Tony is known as a hugely engaging and interactive motivational speaker.  But TED limits the presentation to only 18 minutes (he went four minutes over BTW – you don’t see that happen very often!) when he normally consumes 50 hours (his own admission).  In this presentation, he was very engaging for the first five minutes, and then ventured into the interactive space by polling the audience with an intriguing question: “How may of you have failed to achieve something significant in your life?”  After the hands went up in the air, he said, “thanks for the interaction.”

By encouraging a small degree of participation, he tangibly shifted the mood in the room. If you continue to listen to the video – whether you agree with what he said or not – the mood in the room became lighter.  He continued to interact with the audience when they “filled in the blank” to a question.  Robbins came into the audience and hi-fived Al Gore.  He had a bit of spontaneous reparte with the audience – including a bit of laughter. He used an autoresponder asking them to say “Aye!” if they agree.  He used more interactive techniques – not only connecting but conversing with the audience.

Question:  Are you just engaging your audiences or are you engaging AND interacting with your audiences?

Questions to Mingle BEFORE Your Presentation

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Posted on 10th April 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Questions |Set The Tone

I was at the Arizona Chapter meeting of the National Speakers Association today with Naomi Rhode, CSP, CPAE and Glenna Salsbury, CSP, CPAE.  I always learn something from these meetings, and today did not disappoint!  Both of these pros shared some of their best questions they ask the participants as they mingle before the presentation begins.

Naomi often asks, “What has become crystal clear to you in the last year?” or “What are you happy about today?”  Glenna asks, “What’s really important to you about the topic we are speaking on today?” or “What are you most excited about today?”

As an introvert, my personal favorite is an easier lob:  “What brings you here today?”  Chat with as many friendly faces as you can.  Introduce yourself.  Shake their hands.  Thank them for coming. Get to know their names.  You are not only establishing rapport with the audience, but you are also gathering information about them that you can incorporate into your presentation.  Then, during your speech, you can refer to them by name and even repeat what they said.  Just watch them puff up with pride when you mention their name!

Question: Do you mingle with the audience before your presentation?  How do you start the conversation?

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