Insights as NSA President

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Posted on 27th October 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Engaging Mindset |Group Interaction |Humor |Opening Activities |PowerPoint |presentation skills |Questions |Set The Tone |Speaking Trends |Stories |Uncategorized

It’s been a few months since I handed over the gavel of the National Speakers Association.  Oddly enough, most people expected me to go through PPD – post-presidential depression – a second cousin to post-partum depression.  I keep waiting for the funk to set in, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.  I’m just so excited about reconnecting with clients and re-engaging into the business!

Upon reflection, I thought I would share a few of my “insights” while serving as NSA President for the past year.

  1. Never check email after dinner or 7pm, whichever comes first.  Even the slightest nuance, idea, or member concern will rattle around in your head throughout the night.
  2. It’s the People.  I am often asked, “What’s the best part of being president? Hands down, it’s the people I have met.  Learning from and leaning on people who have been there before you, who are going through the same trials and tribulations, and helping those who are traveling the road you just traveled.
  3. Experience Matters.  I was chatting with a speaker who said his area of expertise was on leadership.  I innocently asked, “So what have you led?” and he told me it was none of my business.  I then discovered he had never managed nor led any organization!  Nothing beats experience when talking about your area of expertise.  Some call it practice what you preach.  I call it “eat your own dog food.”  If you talk about it, you should not only practice those same principles on and off the platform, but it should be so ingrained in your MO, your DNA, or tattooed on your rear end like one of my clients who manages assets.  You think I’m kidding, she actually got a tattoo on her ass…ets!  And I went and got myself a heap of experience at NSA when it comes to strategic planning, facilitating our board meetings and building a team!
  4. We are living in the Era of Engagement.  People want to contribute – to provide input, to comment on what’s happening in their world.  As professional speakers, the more we can ask for the audience’s contributions and comments up front, the better we can create an event that really connects with our audiences – and that they will want to keep the conversation flowing long after the presentation through blogs, listservs and discussion groups. Social networking is all about starting and keeping communities connected and the conversation flowing.  We haven’t even begun to tap into the possibilities to connect with our clients, prospects, and with the entire world.
  5. Keep It Small, Focused and F2F.  So here’s the curious thing.  When 9/11 hit in 2001 and then when the global economy crashed and burned in 2008, the prognosis for the meetings industry was well, not so great.   Theoretically, all of the meetings were going to shift to the virtual world.  But that has NOT the case.  What has happened is a global trend toward fewer meetings, smaller meetings and with the content more tightly focused.  The value on these face-to-face meetings has become much higher as people are investing their time specifically in order to meet face to face.  Meetings are also becoming smaller in number of attendees physically present, with an extended reach beyond the four walls of the meeting.  These hybrid meetings include streaming video and content discussions running at the same time as the actual event so people outside the room can participate in real time.
  6. The world is indeed flat.  We are living in a global economy.  NSA-US is  the world’s largest and oldest association dedicated to the art and business of professional speaking.  It was a pleasure to travel around the nation and the world representing the NSA-US – and seeing just how much we have in common..
  7. Leadership is not about immediate gratification.  Especially with a volunteer association steeped in tradition, suffice it to say that you won’t see immediate results.  It is the long term progress to our strategic plan that keeps us focused and motivated, providing even greater value to our members.

I am thrilled with the progress NSA continues to make on behalf of our members, and I will hold dear the memories, experiences, and relationships with my speaker buddies.  And, I am equally excited to get back to “work”!

 

I thank you for the tremendous opportunity to serve you and represent you throughout the United States as and world.  See you in Anaheim soon!

 

 

 

LOVE this Nametag!

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Posted on 21st June 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Engaging Mindset |Opening Activities |presentation skills |Set The Tone |U R #1 Visual

What’s not to like about a nametag?  It serves an admirable purpose: allowing others to know your name.  It is an invitation to say “hello.”  A conversation starter.  And when you are presenting, it allows you to call people by name and connect with the audience.

There are several things that drive me NUTS about nametags as well:  They don’t stick, they swivel so you see the back of the card rather than the name.  And the worst offense of all: the name is written so small, you can’t read it.

Imagine my delight yesterday when I attended the Arizona Association of Facilitators meeting.  LOVE this nametag!  I could see people’s names across the room! (okay, so it was a classroom, but impressive nonetheless!).

Are you making your nametags large enough for people to read your name from across the room?

Rainy Days and Mondays

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Posted on 13th June 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Engaging Mindset |Opening Activities |presentation skills |Set The Tone

I’ve been thinking about the Carpenter’s song, Rainy Days and Mondays….because they always get me down.  Funny, how it seems as if….

It’s gray and rainy here on Prince Edward Island, and usually I hit the deck running hard on a Monday morning.  But not today.  Is it the rain?  The gloom?  The wind?  Whatever it is, I am not running at peak performance.  And, because I have the luxury of not having to do something vital today, I can wallow in the grayness with virtually no visible pain.

But what if I had to give a presentation today?  I would certainly have to snap out of it.  Reframe my perspective.  Pull up the ol’ bootstraps and psyche myself into peak performance.  Sure, 90% of this is about thinking positively about your day.  The optimum outcome.  The journey you will take.

But there ARE things you can do to get you in a happier, sunnier place.  Go someplace quiet; take a deep breath and close your eyes.  Imagine yourself in a literally sunnier place with happy memories.  Linger on the images, the connections, and the smell of the day.  Connect with the peacefulness and happiness…and smile!  Laugh if you like.  And when you open your eyes, continue to smile.  And the next person you see, give them an even bigger smile (or a hug if you’re like me).  Say hello to the people in your audience and you’ll find your happiness becomes contagious!

Presentation Tips from the NSA Keynote Lab

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Posted on 24th January 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Opening Activities |presentation skills |Speaking Trends

Last week, I attended the National Speakers Association’s Keynote Lab in Las Vegas, NV.   With 146 people in attendance at the technologically sophisticated Meet Las Vegas, Rory Vaden and his faculty, Mark Sanborn, CSP, CPAE; Bruce Turkel; Mary LoVerde CPAE’ Jane Atkinson; Dan Maddux; Mike Rayburn, CSP; and special surprise guest Brian Tracy, CPAE; rocked the house – which is only fitting for the city that never sleeps!

I usually take notes at professional development conferences, and then type them up as a way to review my “keepers” (thanks Terry Paulson, CSP, CPAE!).  I also add my action items on my “to do” list (I use Things on my Mac).  And I thought I would share some of the presentation tips with you!

Rory Vaden encouraged Social networking by asking the audience to turn on your cell phones and do the following three things:  1. Take a picture.  2.  Tweet out #nsalab and 3. Email a friend

Presentation Eloquence by Mark Sanborn:

Keys to a successful Keynote:

  1. Begin with a strong premise
  2. Create the structure – strong opening to break preoccupation, then build out the what and how – end strong!!!  Design is dependent on the time. Don’t try to do too much!!!!
  3. More educated audience. They don’t want to be talked at.  Have a conversation.
  4. Give enough content for them to internalize it
  5. Look at repertoire of material – what’s most important for you to achieve the objective?

Authenticity has never been more important to audiences . They are very discerning.

Rory Vaden:  Then, now, and how – give this formula in your speech

Preparation is the breakfast of champions. Preparation is the mark of a professional. An audience knows if you are prepared.  That you care about your audiences.  Respect the people who make your life possible.  If you love your audience they can sense it.

  • Entertainment is the tool – not the result
  • Anchor the familiar with the unfamiliar
  • Be relevant
  • Have a broad bandwidth – come up with good questions that are interesting to you
  • Trap the listener to do their own thinking – adapted from a quote from Christopher Marlowe – “Trap the reader in their own thoughts”
  • Eliminate the excess.  Brevity is the essence of wisdom – mark twain

Presentation Pointers from the Faculty:

  • Be relevant helpful and provide edutainment.  Adults only learn if it is enjoyable with stories and humor.
  • Give something of value that they can take home.
  • Start strong to catch the audience and end strong with the audience being happy!
  • Opposite lines – whenever you ask a question, trick em into raising their hands and then drop a funny line as the third option
  • After you have described a “truth”, concept or principle, ask the “you” question e.g. “When have you….”
  • Make fun of yourself first before you make fun of the audience
  • Pausing separate story, idea, important point
  • Pepper your speech with good, memorable, tweet-able phrases

Post Presentation Critique:

Two magic questions to ask yourself immediately after your presentation:

  1. what did I do right?  Write down everything you can think of!!!
  2. What would I do differently next time? Both demand positive answers.

Review your notes often.

Review your presentation video:

  1. Watch it on mute  to check your gestures
  2. Fast forward to see if you have any nervous tics
  3. Watch it backwards
  4. Watch it regular

Mike Rayburn’s PotPourri of Advice:

  • Entertain your audience.  It’s the vehicle vs. the outcome- connecting with an audience and taking them somewhere
  • Study the entertainment side.  Learn from entertainers.  Ask, “What am I doing to maximize my entertainment value?”
  • If your speech is no good, everything else is like polishing a turd.
  • Become a virtuoso. Make it a lifetime ambition to be the best
  • Spend every day maximizing your art form
  • Get lots and lots of stage time!!!!
  • Develop a sensitivity for what works and what doesn’t
  • Write and rehearse daily first thing
  • Get speech coaching
  • Read the book, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
  • Be funny. Hire someone to punch up your speech.
  • Script your program and take out anything that is not funny or relevant take out the fluff. If you can say it in two lines don’t use five.
  • Get feedback. It’s the breakfast of champions. Although painful, you will be better!
  • Be sure to learn from the feedback.
  • Be the expert.  Know your topic inside and out.

Brian Tracy:  Make a commitment to be the top 10% of your field and do whatever it takes to get there!!!!  Invest 5-7 years to get there!!!!  The harder you work the better you get!

That’s about it for the Keynote Lab.  Maybe there is some nugget in there that will help you be a better presenter!

Trend #8 Presentation Co-Creation

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Posted on 28th October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Engaging Mindset |Opening Activities |PowerPoint |presentation skills |Speaking Trends

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Brad MacMillian, president of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) says that “the number one thing an audience wants is to feel involved in the actual creation and development of the session.  When they are involved, they are much more connected, they feel it is more personal to them, and they get more out of it.

Now let me give you an example.  When Don Tapscott, author of the best-seller Wikinomics, was our keynote speaker at MPI, he did a great job in advance of reaching out to all our attendees.  He blogged with them, invited questions before the event, and considered them; he built them right into his presentation.  So, in essence, he built his presentation around the interests of his audience even before they got there.  The audience felt like they were personally involved.  They felt like they could see their fingerprints all over the content he delivered.  And so they got more out of it to.  And Don went the extra step and engaged with people after the fact, too.  It really was an end-to-end experience.  It was personal, and the people who were in the audience felt that they had collaborated and created something remarkable.”

And for those of us who use PowerPoint, I believe the Ipad is a game changer for presentations. Why?  Because it makes it much easier for the presenter to go where the audience wants to go – right there on the stage in real time!

Most PowerPoint presentations are linear in fashion – unless you have figured out how to insert hyperlinks to help you “jump” from one slide to another or remember the slide number so you can “go to” a specific slide in your presentation.  But, it requires a bit of finesse to go over to the computer and hit some keys or manual dexterity to move your mouse over the just the right spot.

The Ipad changes all that.

The “computer” is in your hand, and you can simply tap on the screen.  Doesn’t require much finesse or dexterity.

So, you may ask, what’s the big deal?  It allows the presenter to easily go where the audience wants to go!

You can set up a “splash page” which is a main menu of topics you think you should cover – and then let your audience decide where to start and where to go so their fingerprints are all over the presentation.

Engage With the Audience Before Your Presentation

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Posted on 23rd June 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Opening Activities |Set The Tone

Your presentation starts the moment the meeting is announced – with your name on the agenda.  Pick up the phone and interview a few participants, email a simple survey, open discussion with a blog, post a question to a group on LinkedIn or Facebook, start a unique wiki about your presentation, etc. There are a ton of technologies out there to enable you to start the conversation before your presentation even begins.  And, the side benefit is that you are doing research on the audience (see prior post!)

Here’s what I mean by engaging early.  When Don Tapscott, author of the bestseller Wikinomics, was the keynote speaker at Meeting Professionals International (MPI), he reached out to the MPI registrants.  According to CEO Bruce MacMillan, “he blogged with them, invited questions before the event, and considered them; he built them right into his presentation. In essence, he built the presentation around the interests of his audience even before they got there.  The audience felt like they were personally involved.  They felt like they could see their fingerprints all over the content he delivered.  And so they got more out of it… it was personal, and the people who were in the audience felt that they had collaborated and created something remarkable.”

Question: Are you engaging the audience before you even step up to the front of the room to give your presentation?

Your Opening Gambit is Critical for Presentation Success

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Posted on 5th June 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Opening Activities |Set The Tone |Stories

Once upon a time, I was facilitating a strategic planning session sponsored by two senior executives at an undisclosed company. Each of the two executives opened the session in two distinct ways:

Executive #1 went to the front of the room and thanked the participants for coming.  He said he was excited about the work we were going to do.  Ho hum.  Nice, but boring.

Executive #2 went to the front of the room and started with a story about driving his car….to work? to their biggest client’s office? to the beach? to Disneyland?  He immediately engaged the participants by creating an analogy between his drive and the group’s strategic planning efforts.  The audience was much more interested in his remarks…they were different, they were personal, and all could see themselves driving to Disneyland!

It doesn’t take much effort to create an effective opener.  My longtime friend, Bob Heffley, President of QuadTech Marine Inc. was just telling me about his opening to a technical presentation about his innovative quadrimaran ship design.  He starts by saying “I have a 52 slide presentation.”  He then pauses to watch their faces while that sinks in.  Then Bob says, “But I’m only going to use 13 of them if that’s OK
with you.” It’s like commuting a death sentence. Go from Boring to Bravo!

Question: What do you do to engage the audience at the beginning of your presentation?

I Can’t Hear You

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Posted on 8th June 2009 by Kristin Arnold in Opening Activities |Questions

Do us all a favor….start with something snappy rather than saying “hello” and expecting the audience to chime in with a hearty “hello” back to you.  Start off with an observation, a poignant question, a quotation, a startling statistic, an anecdote, a piece of humor….

Anything BUT “Hello” (pause….waiting for a thunderous response, only to be disappointed with the audience).  ”I can’t hear you” or “You can do better than that!”.  Not only are you telling the audience they don’t measure up to your expectations from the get-go, but you are asking for feedback because YOU need their energy!  This whole intro is about YOU….and for a presentation to be engaging, your speech has got to be about THEM.

Punch It Up!

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Posted on 11th August 2008 by Kristin Arnold in Opening Activities

Your audiences are demanding you to be more engaging and interactive when giving a presentation. Whether you are selling an idea, sharing information, persuading them to action, they want to participate rather than be lectured to.

As a certified professional facilitator (CPF) and certified professional speaker (CSP), I have done an extensive amount of research on what makes a “speech” or “presentation” more facilitative, engaging and interactive – where you go beyond speaking at the audience and move them to participating with you.

As I write the book, “Punch Up Your Presentations”, I will be sharing some insights and video clips demonstrating specific techniques you can use to punch up your presentations. My hope is that you adapt these ideas to help make your next presentation more engaging. And, I look forward to hearing your ideas and techniques as well!