Today We Are Rich!

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Posted on 30th March 2011 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Stories

Just devoured Tim Sanders‘ new book, Today We are Rich.  It’s an easy-to-read motivational book which is food for the soul – talking about increasing the confidence in your life. And when you have confidence, your life will be “rich”. Rich as in deep and meaningful, although wealth does come from your own internal confidence in life.

Tim is a consummate speaker and I can’t wait to hear the story of his grandmother, Billye and how she modeled the behaviors for total confidence as he was growing up on Oklahoma farm.  I say “hear” because I can hear Tim talking to me as I was reading this book!

And when you read this book, just take a look at how Tim weaves small vignettes from his life and then ties them to timeless truths about success, confidence, and significance.

If you liked Tim’s earlier books, The Likeability Factor and Love is the Killer App, then I KNOW you’ll like his newest book, Today We Are Rich.  But even if you haven’t read them or know about Tim’s work, check a free excerpt of his book here!

A New Way to Use PowerPoint

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Posted on 25th March 2011 by Kristin Arnold in PowerPoint

I recently attended a IMC-Arizona meeting where Robert Lane provided an amazing overview of a new way to use PowerPoint – that can absolutely revolutionize the way you look at presenting your ideas.

Using a series of hyperlinks, he recommends putting all your intellectual property into a series of powerpoint slideshows, and then allowing specific navigation strategies to let you go where you need to go.  Why is this important?

- Get a question from the audience, you can quickly locate the slide or slideshow that will support the answer to your question.

- Allows the audience to drive the program by seeing the “menu” of options (I talk about the use of a “splash page” in my book, Boring to Bravo, but Robert’s ideas is a splash page on steroids!).

- Enables you to give a presentation “on the fly” (not that we recommend you do this, but it does happen, from time to time!)

Most of all, it turns your slideshow from a linear train you can’t derail into a nimble story that can go anywhere!

I suggest you check out Robert’s free video series to see what I am talking about and let me know what you think!

Have a great weekend!

 

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The Truth about TED Talks

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Posted on 10th March 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Engaging Mindset |presentation skills |TED

I love TED – and here’s the good news: my husband is not jealous!  You see, TED is not a man; TED is an annual uberconference started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach (which just finished) and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer, there are a slew of opportunities for you to view the TED talks either on the website or through their YouTube channel.  I subscribe to the channel and watch the uploaded talks when I can (and now that I have an iPad, that just became much more convenient!)

So I was delighted to read Paul Dunn’s account for being able to speak at a TEDx Conference in the Global Speakers Association website.  In case you were wondering, TEDx is a licensed conference from the TED people, but not quite the real thing. It’s like the farm league, and they have to follow all the principles – so this still exciting reading!  Paul does a great job of telling it like it is – and you can see his presentation too!

I think the TED Ten Commandments are actually appropriate for any important presentation:

  1. Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick
  2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before
  3. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion
  4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story
  5. Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy
  6. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
  7. Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desperate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer

    8. Darkness.

  8. Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
  9. Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
  10. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee

Don’t you?

Related Articles:  Anna Kamanetz  in Fast Company

Are Your Presentations Just “Hairography”?

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Posted on 7th March 2011 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Props

Glee Season 1 Episode 11 - Hairography at its best!

I’ve been having a Glee marathon – Season One with four DVDs.  One right after another.  Ended last night with Episode 11 entitled “Hairography“.  I won’t bore you with all the detail, but the kids are doing a number from the musical “Hair” – complete with wigs and hair swooshes.  The idea is that if you swoosh your hair around enough, it distracts the viewers from the fact that your vocals and dancing aren’t that great.  It’s like cosmetic foundation covering over a pimple.

As I tucked myself into bed, I kept thinking, I wonder what is the “hairography” for presentations?  A snazzy slideshow?  A few canned jokes?  That story that you’ve told a few bazillion times?

In Glee, the teacher and the kids realized they didn’t need to hide behind the wigs.  Instead, they sat on the stage and sang from the heart.  Best version of True Colors I have heard.

Are you standing on the stage and speaking from the heart?

Speeches are Back…

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Posted on 1st March 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Polls |presentation skills |Questions |Set The Tone |Speaking Trends

Or so says Peggy Noonan in a Wall Street Journal article this weekend.

Contending that “the speech as a vehicle of sustained political argument was killed by television and radio.  Rhetroic was reduced to the TV producer’s 10-second soundbit, the correspondent’s eight-second insert, ” she asserts that the Internet is restoring rhetoric as a powerful force to connect with the American public.

Why?  Because anyone can go online and view the video and or a transcript of the speech and see for ourselves what was actually said.  Noonan points to two cases: Gov. Mitch Daniels and Gov. Chris Christie, as well as the plethora of speeches on YouTube and  TED conference speeches.

She exhorts our politicians to “settle down, survey the technological field and get serious.  They should give pertinent, truthful, sophisticated and sober-minded speeches.  Everyone will listen.  They’ll be all over the interwebs.”

Wish I could be so optimistic.  We still live in a Twitter-world where everything is boiled down to 140 characters to get the public’s attention – in order to inspire then to search for more meaning.  Why would I want to listen to a sober speech if there isn’t something that grabs my attention?

Sorry, Peggy.  I usually agree with you, but in this case, I think you need both.  The substance AND the sizzle.

What do you think?  Take our monthly poll just to the right of this posting!