Does Tom Brady even eat bread?

Have you seen the new Subway commercial featuring Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady?

The dialogue goes like this:

Brady: This new turkey Cali Fresh is incredible
Stephen Curry: You even eat bread?
Brady: Steph, it's a commercial.

I don't follow Tom Brady, so I wasn't aware of his dietary choices and lifestyle. But Curry's question, "You even eat bread?" made me look it up.

Turns out Tom Brady has his own diet plan called the TB12 Method, that came out in a book in 2017.

Summarized on the Healthline website, "The Tom Brady Diet encourages eating minimally processed, whole foods and restricting processed ones. It recommends avoiding foods deemed inflammatory or acidifying and includes a few additional rules."

One of the rules is avoiding gluten.🍞🥖🥪

Hence Steph Curry's question.

Whether or not you find this endorsement hypocritical, there's something you can take away from this commercial to improve your presentations.

👉🏼Always anticipate objections.👈🏼

When you give a presentation, there will likely ALWAYS be someone in your audience who is critical of your message, who doesn't believe you, who has some concern about your topic.

Most of the time, the people who object to your message or ideas won't speak up. This means they're stewing, resistant, or at least distracted by their own objections... and they're not fully engaged with you.

Sometimes they will speak up, and you can plan in advance to have answers to their questions.

Or, you can build the objection into your presentation, by saying something like "I know some of you are probably thinking 'this won't work' or 'I've already tried it,' and let me address that."

When you KNOW there are objections, don't wait for the audience to bring them up. Build them into your presentation; acknowledge the audience's concerns and show them you've done your homework.

Brady's response to Curry's question about eating bread, "it's a commercial," doesn't really answer the question "Why is Brady endorsing something he doesn't eat?" He might as well have said, "I got paid." I'm going to go out on a limb and say his critics were not satisfied by that answer.

But the point I want to make here is that Subway built in the objection by having Steph Curry ask the question. It's the question on the minds of everyone who sees the commercial and knows about Brady's restrictive eating habits.

At least in a presentation, you have time with your audience to address objections. This commercial clearly doesn't say enough, and Brady is being called out all over for this endorsement.

Just remember: There will always be someone who objects to your message, your ideas and your methods, so don't be caught off guard.

At minimum, be prepared to address objections from audience questions, and ideally, 🛠build🛠 objections into your presentation so your audience knows you get them.

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Brands. Door. Money.

I, like most people these days, avoid commercials as much as possible by streaming and recording shows and movies. But from time to time, I catch a glimpse of something as I'm skipping through them that makes me stop and watch. Yes, I actually choose to watch an occasional commercial.

TV commercials are mini-presentations, mini-stories. Each commercial is trying to get a message across and influence those watching to do something, whether it's to buy (most commercials), to join, or to give.

Just like presentations, some commercials are engaging, some are boring, some are just idiotic. Some are funny, some are heartbreaking and some leave us angry.

But one thing all commercials have in common is their brevity. Commercials range from 15 seconds to a minute, with the majority falling into the 30-second range. You struggle to get your message across in ten minutes or an hour? Commercials don't have that luxury (when they do, they're called infomercials, but that's not what I'm addressing here).

What's the difference between your presentation and a commercial? Not much. Both must engage, inform, influence, and entertain. People act out stories in commercials, and presenters tell stories. Both use visuals, sometimes but not always.

Presenters can learn a lot from commercials, especially about getting your message across in a concise and brief manner.

Here's an old favorite for brevity and conciseness that I share when I'm delivering my workshops on micro-presentations. There's nothing superfluous here. There's no confusion about the main points or message. Visuals are simple and so is content. And yet, it catches your attention with both its simplicity and its originality. And it's only 15 seconds long.



What commercials have going for them is that those who produce them are expected to be creative and imaginative. Creativity is not only expected but welcomed and celebrated. 

This is not necessarily the case with business presentations, whose producers seem to believe that there is no place for creativity in a business setting. Hence the dry and boring presentations we're subjected to on a daily basis.

What can you learn from TV commercials that you can implement in your presentations?

How can you apply creative ideas and ingenuity to your presentations so they don't blend in with every other drab presentation your audiences have to sit through?

How can you use brevity and conciseness to get your most critical points across with nothing extraneous or irrelevant to cloud your message?

What commercials have you enjoyed as good presentation models?

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Some storytellers are just born that way

In 2016, Michelle Dobyne and her neighbors escaped from their burning apartment building. Michelle, who had been cooking breakfast at the time, gave an animated and upbeat interview with the local news, which immediately went viral.

You've probably seen it, but I was reminded of it recently, because my husband and I found ourselves saying "Not today," in Michelle's cadence, but not remembering exactly where we heard it.

Not only was Michelle's interview entertaining, it was memorable!

There's a lot of emphasis on storytelling in presentations these days. But now speakers think they need to overdramatize stories and stage them like performances, and this can get in the way—especially for a less-experienced speaker—of just connecting with the audience in an authentic way.

Michelle Dobyne is a natural storyteller. I'm pretty sure she didn't have time to write and rehearse this before the news media showed up. When asked if she was putting on a show for the cameras, her husband said, "This is what we do every day. Our household is a fun household."

Not all of us are natural storytellers. It's a skill to be learned and practiced. And even a natural storyteller like Michelle could improve her skills if she so desired.

But you can already learn a few things from Michelle. Her story is brief, just 31 seconds. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. It has characters, a plot, and a conflict to be resolved. She uses humor, vocal variety and facial expression to bring the story alive. It also has a happy ending, which stories don't necessarily need to have, unless you're a speaker who wants to end your audience's journey on a positive note.

News 6 in Tulsa caught up with Michelle two months after the video went viral to see how she was doing with her newfound fame. Her response pretty much sums up what we want to do as storytellers:

“I told the world what was going on and how it was going on,” she said.

See the original interview and read the story here.



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Is your life a constant audition?

“I was so happy with how Freaks and Geeks came out, that in my head I thought 'my career is basically over.' I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish, and everything else is gravy.

And so nothing else matters. I can experiment. I can do anything. Because I did what I wanted to do, perfectly, once.”  ~ Judd Apatow

How many of us can say we've done something perfectly, once? Probably a lot of us! Even if it was something seemingly minor, like nailing that Julia Child recipe or running your best ever 5K. (Technically, I'm all about "ditching perfection," because trying to be perfect is usually a futile exercise. But sometimes we do achieve the goal we set out for ourselves, and sometimes it really does feel perfect!)

But oftentimes we don't acknowledge it or celebrate it. Instead, we keep trying to top it, to beat the record, to beat ourselves in our own internal competition—or sometimes external competition.

There's nothing wrong with building on our achievements, setting bigger or more daring goals, or seeking a level of success or mastery that feels way beyond our current abilities.

But what if we took the time and made the mental space for acknowledging our current or previous successes? What if we didn't feel constantly driven to achieve someone else's definition of "success?" What if we stopped comparing our wins to others' wins and minimizing ours because they don't "measure up?"

Judd Apatow could have been a "one-hit wonder" with Freaks and Geeks. Because of his success with the show, he no longer felt the need to impress people with his brilliance, but rather felt free to experiment and—implied in his quote—fail!

In a blog post a few years ago, I shared a quote from Barbara Walters, referencing the title of her autobiography, Audition:

"As a child, I felt that I didn't belong — I was auditioning. I kept going to different schools — I was auditioning. Most of my professional life, I've been auditioning. I think for a lot of us, life is an audition."

The thought that some people can never relax, can never enjoy their successes, and continue to audition every day of their lives makes me so sad.

Here's a thought: What if you've already got the part? What if you're already in the perfect role and you're already playing your part perfectly?

Could you give yourself a break? Could you enjoy the freedom of experimenting and even failing sometimes?

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Two-time Academy Award winner needs an acting coach?

Billboard Daily Blog

Are you a fan of "Grace and Frankie," the hot Netflix series starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin? My husband and I arrived late to the party, but are now all caught up and attempting to savor season 3 instead of bingeing, like some of my friends have done.

If you don't know the show, it's about two women in their seventies whose lives are turned upside down when their husbands divorce them to marry each other. The premise is unusual, and the story is at times hilarious and at other times quite touching and emotional.

You might think that someone like Jane Fonda who, at 78, has been in the movie industry longer than many of us have been alive (not to mention her movie-star family members), would feel completely comfortable in her skin and with her abilities at this point in her career. Not so! After the first season, she hired an acting coach.

In an interview with Netflix, she said "I’ve never done episodic television before."

"I got an acting coach, that’s the extent to which I was insecure, and I sat down with her and we watched every episode together. And then we began working. And that was a revelation."

She felt that she was getting rusty. "I also didn’t think I was very good, and I’m a big believer that you can always do better. And just because you’re 78 years old, and you’ve won some awards, doesn’t mean that you’ve got a lock on it."

"An acting coach worked with me and helped me understand my character better."

I like to remind my audiences (and myself!) that just because you have a lot of experience speaking, or just because you love speaking and have no anxiety, that doesn't mean you're doing it as well as you could be.

Are you impacting your audience the way you want to? Are you leaving them feeling motivated and ready to take action? Are you getting all the results you want?

If Jane Fonda, two-time Academy Award winner (and three-time Golden Globe winner) uses a coach; if Usain Bolt, eight-time Olympic gold medalist, uses a coach; if Misty Copeland, American Ballet Theater's principal dancer, still goes to ballet class every morning before seven hours of rehearsal—why do we think, as average Joes in the speaking world, that we don't need to keep training, learning and growing?

I work with several coaches; I've been with my business coach for five years. At other times, I've hired a coach or joined a program for the short term if there was something specific I wanted to work on.

In the past several years, I've had coaches for the virtual parts of my business, for my retreats, for my YouTube presence (still working on that one!) and to express my core message better. I also attend my industry's conferences and mastermind sessions several times a year to stay fresh on my speaking and training skills.

What are you doing to keep your skills fresh, your content current, and your message up-to-date?

If the answer is "not much" or "nothing," please consider joining me for my upcoming program Speak to Engage Mentoring and Mastery.

Registration opens today!

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

You have a platform, but are you making it count?

Whenever a celebrity—whether actor, singer, athlete or other entertainer—takes the opportunity at an awards ceremony or other public event to speak out about a political issue, certain segments of the public immediately begin scolding and lashing out.

"It's inappropriate!" they say. "Celebrities should keep their opinions to themselves!" "We pay you to act and entertain us!"

So let me ask you this: If you had a platform where you could reach hundreds or thousands or millions of people all at once—and you had something really important to say, would you use it?

You don't think of yourself as Meryl Streep at the Golden Globes—and you're not—but I guarantee that many of you are using the platforms you DO have every day.

Are you on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+ or Tumblr? Do you ever post your opinions about things (anything: food, people, music, politics, organizations, cars, football teams, Mac vs. PC...) on any of these social media channels?

Do you ever regale your friends with your ideas while you're sitting around having a drink? Do you share your ideas on a large or small scale at work, at the place you volunteer, in your committee meetings, at the dinner table? Yeah, you're using your platform.

You think it's different, that Meryl Streep went to the Golden Globes to win an award, so it's not appropriate. But you—you're just doing your thing, hanging out in your "virtual living room" on Facebook or Twitter, and everyone should expect you to say what's on your mind, right?

I just randomly scrolled through my Twitter stream to see what people were saying. Here are some of the opinions I encountered:

"Why do some people use the word feminist as an insult? A feminist is simply someone who believes that women should have equal rights to men."

"We need a lot more love songs."

"Vaccine-pushers calling for even more injections in children is chemical violence against them."

"If you're not pissing off someone you're not doing your job."

"Why Every Entrepreneur Needs to Start #Blogging Immediately"

"Need an influx of cash? Borrow from a friend or family member."

I may or may not agree with these, but the fact remains that these people are using their platforms, in this case Twitter, to share their thoughts, ideas, and beliefs.

See, we do this every day. All day. We share our opinions with the world.

Everything I say on Twitter has a chance of being seen by my 7,840 followers, plus others who don't know me who are scrolling through. Everything I say on Facebook has a chance of being seen by my 1,879 friends, plus their friends, plus others (my posts are public).

Is everything I say momentous? Nope. Is everything I say even worth your taking the time to read? Nope. Nevertheless, it's my opinion and I choose to share it, for various reasons, because I want to. Just like you do.

Your platform may be bigger than mine or smaller than mine. You may be standing in front of audiences, shooting videos, recording Facebook Live streams, leading webinars, facilitating small discussion groups or retreats. And your platform can always be bigger and more widespread, if you want it to be.

You have a platform. Don't kid yourself that you don't. Yours isn't as big as Meryl's, but you use it when you have the chance.

So knowing that you have a platform, that you can grow a platform, and that more people could be hearing what you have to say, how are you going to make the choice to be conscious about your platform?

Are you going to choose to use the platform you have wisely, thoughtfully and in an organized fashion to share your message with those who most need to hear it?

Here's a chance to make that leap from wanting to express your ideas better, more articulately, concisely and powerfully, to actually doing it, and using your platform strategically.

Join me March 20-22 in Santa Barbara, California for my 2 1/2-day retreat "Shake Up Your Speaking: Get Real... Get Results."

Stop fantasizing about having a platform for your ideas. Stop using the platforms you have in a slipshod or haphazard way. Get organized. Get clear. Be compelling.

You may not have millions to share your ideas with, but you do have an audience. Make your ideas stand out. See you in March!

Photo credit: MTSOfan The Woman With the Bull Horn via photopin (license)

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Workable idea + bad execution = puppymonkeybaby

If you didn't see the Super Bowl ad with the puppymonkeybaby, you may or may not want to watch this. It's pretty creepy and disturbing. So let's just get it out of the way, shall we?


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First of all, I had no recollection of what company this ad represented, nor could I even remember anything about the product it was advertising. I found the creature so distracting and weird, that I missed the point entirely.

However. I do believe that this commercial is an example of an idea that COULD HAVE worked, but the execution is where it went wrong. Just like many presentations I've witnessed over the years!

When we create a message for an audience, we want to make sure that all the pieces work together: the core message, the content, the structure, the delivery and the call to action. Within those are many smaller pieces that must fall into place.

You might have a great idea, but not know how to put it together in a way that is compelling or makes an impact on your audience. All the pieces have to come together. An idea is just an idea until you bring it to life. And once it becomes concrete, you have to be sure that your audience understands it, connects with it, and maybe isn't horrified by it - unless there's a good reason!

I get that Mountain Dew wanted us to know that there are three awesome things that they're putting together into their beverage. And I get that they wanted to use some kind of metaphor/example/imagery for three things that we all like that don't normally show up together. I also get that they were going for the quirky randomness that has worked well for brands like Old Spice. And furthermore, I DO like puppies, monkeys and babies! So, they totally could have scored with this (and no, not just in getting people to talk about the commercial... talk does NOT equal buying).

I'm going to share an example of a re-do, where the idea and execution are better aligned, and I would love to have you share an example if you can come up with one. Let's revamp. Same message: "Three awesome things combined." Same creatures: Puppy, monkey, baby.

My version goes something like this: Guy pulls a can out of the cold case, with a curious look on his face. What's this new drink, he wonders. Either in a voiceover, or in words on the can, we see or hear something about how this drink contains three awesome things combined.

Now, the camera shows his face again, and he starts to imagine three things he likes and how they might go together. Above his head, we see what he's imagining: First a puppy (um, no offense to pug lovers, but a cuter puppy than a pug). Yep, pretty cute. He smiles. Now a monkey joins the puppy. Maybe they interact and play. Maybe not. Then a baby. Now he's nodding at the cuteness of these three critters and enjoying his vision.

They finally fuse into the puppymonkeybaby, which waves at him and startles him from his reverie. He pops the can, takes a drink. Yum. Three awesome things combined.

Okay, I'm not a director, so don't be too hard on me. :-) This is how I envision the same basic idea being executed TOTALLY differently, but perhaps in a way that might be more effective. I don't think the initial idea of three things we like - combined - is necessarily a bad idea. It just went wrong in the implementation. 

How about you? Would you share your revamp of the Mountain Dew commercial with the same basic message and ideas in place? I'd love to read your ideas in the comments!

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Storytelling in 30 seconds - can you do it?

It's been a while since I posted about a TV commercial (ah, the beauty of the DVR), but here's one I came across recently that perfectly demonstrates the concepts of concise, compelling and clear storytelling. The message is delivered in 30 seconds, through visuals, music and exactly two spoken sentences.

Can you be this concise, compelling and clear in your messaging? Can you paint a picture with a few words and some visuals? I dare you to try!



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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Is being emotional a positive in business?

Barbara Corcoran posted the following question on Twitter during last week's Shark Tank episode: "What do you think - is being emotional a positive in business?"

Of course, as a speaker, my immediate answer was "Yes!" Then I pulled up the responses, and they were overwhelmingly negative:

"No!"

"Negative."

"Never."

"Nope."

"Can work both ways. Most of the time, it's not a good thing."

"Was just saying 2 myself crying in business 2 me is such a turn off. No matter how moving."

"I think it's good to be emotionally vested but not a good idea to let your emotions run the show."

"No. emotions can make you look weak and you never want to look weak in business."

Huh...

To be fair, there were a few people who saw the positives of emotion in business:

"Emotional investment is a must, however, know your audience. Know when to pull back & when to show passion."

"I think the old saying is flipped...it should be, 'It's not business, it's just personal.'"

"ABSOLUTELY! Passion breeds hustle!"

"Yes! passion lights the fire to move your business to a whole new level."

"Yes - if you're in control of them."

The reason she asked this question is that one of the entrepreneurs pitching the sharks started to cry when he explained why he was trying to get his business funded. His girlfriend's parents don't approve of him and won't let her leave Japan to be with him. When he becomes "respectable," he hopes her parents will relent.

It was a moving scenario, and I imagine there was just a little bit of nervousness and anxiety underlying this outburst due to standing in front of the five sharks!

But here's what I interpreted from the answers to Barbara's questions: The "good" kind of emotion is called "passion." The "bad" kind of emotion involves crying and leads to being perceived as weak.

I found it an incredibly narrow and shallow view of what constitutes emotion.

Do you want to intrigue your prospect (or your audience)? Do you want them to be curious? Do you want them to feel frustrated with the way things are going and to buy your service or product so they can improve their circumstances? Do you want them to laugh and feel connected to you when you're on stage or when they see your funny commercial? Do you want them to feel superior to others who don't buy your product (there are companies who do)? Do you want to piss them off so much that they take action?

Do any of these emotions I've mentioned above involve crying or weakness? Or even passion?

I also understand that Barbara asked the question very specifically with the words, "being emotional," which has its own connotation, that is, using emotion inappropriately.

But I'm going to argue that using emotion, or "being emotional" (because after all, we're human, and humans are emotional creatures) is a critical tool in business and for speakers.

Emotions are complex, varied, universal (but individually triggered in different ways) and powerfully motivating.

Why would you limit your use of your own emotions to move your audience to take action?

Why would you limit your ability to affect your audience's emotions in a way that makes them feel connected, curious, enthusiastic, greedy, hungry, hopeful or one of a hundred other touchy-feely words that -- by the way -- prompt your audience to engage with you in a way that serves them and brings you more clients, more visibility, more income, or whatever else it is you are trying to achieve?

No, don't get up on stage and bawl your eyes out. And haranguing and yelling at your audience is only going to make them hate you.

But hey, even a heartfelt and spontaneous catch in the throat or slight tearing up is okay with most audiences. And if a show of emotion from a speaker or businessperson is truly not welcome, then you must be speaking to a roomful of cyborgs. That's an article for another day!

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Leave your audience wanting more, not less

While scrolling through channels looking for movies to record one weekend, I found the following one-line movie descriptions:

1. French policeman hounds bread thief for life

2. Victorian orphan drifts, finds good people

3. An enslaved British doctor turns Caribbean pirate

4. An officer and shipmates overthrow a cruel captain

Can you guess what these movies are? (Answers are at the bottom.) More importantly, can you write a description this concise?

Here are some examples of when speakers might need to think concisely in both speaking and writing:

* When writing your bio
* When creating the title of your presentation
* When creating the description of your presentation for a printed or online conference program
* When writing a press release
* When communicating with busy event planners by e-mail
* When tweeting!
* When writing and delivering your presentation
* When creating and delivering your personal introduction (aka elevator speech)
* When giving a report at a meeting

Well, I think we can all agree that the list goes on and on, and in the interest of a concise post, I'll stop there.

Really test yourself and push yourself to be as concise as possible while also remaining clear and compelling. Nobody likes waiting for you to beat around the bush, hemming and hawing and saying the same thing five different ways. And nobody wants to read through all of your personal achievements just to get to the "good stuff."

Get to the point... and leave them wanting more, not less.

Did you guess the movies? The answers are below.

1. Les Miserables
2. David Copperfield
3. Captain Blood
4. Mutiny on the Bounty

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Diet Coke: Just say no

An actress prepares to audition. A student prepares to speak in front of her class. A groomsman prepares to make a speech at a wedding. Taylor Swift prepares to perform.

But before they take the stage, each one takes a swig. Of Diet Coke.

I laughed when I first saw this commercial, because taking a swig of Diet Coke is the last thing I would recommend doing before going onstage to speak or perform.

For two reasons:

1. You very likely do NOT need caffeine when you're already hyped up on adrenaline. Caffeine is just going to make you more nervous and jittery. No thanks.

2. You also very likely do not need to BURP when you're speaking or singing, which is exactly what's going to happen when you're drinking a carbonated beverage right before performing.




I'm really not sure what their message is here. Is it that you need the caffeine to get through the next challenge? It's certainly not that Diet Coke is going to relax you and help your nerves.

Whatever the message is supposed to be, please take my word for it: Caffeine and carbonation is only going to make things worse for you onstage!

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

"You are all rock stars... literally!" Speech lessons from Oscar winners.

Today I want to give a shout out to Robert Lopez and his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, for their fun and engaging Oscar speech last night.

The pair won the Best Song Oscar for "Let it Go," the hit single from the animated film "Frozen."

Here's why this was one of my favorite acceptance speeches.

Teamwork:

Most pairs or groups who take the stage to accept their awards aren't prepared. One person does all the talking and then someone else, if they're lucky, gets to blurt out a few words before the orchestra plays them off.

The Lopezes had their acceptance speech prepared in loosely rhyming structure and recited it together, alternating the names of people they wished to thank. It both saved time and made the speech more entertaining. They had clearly practiced!

Humor:

They started off, "To our fellow nominees, you are all rock stars... literally." (Best Song, remember?)

Most of the humor was in the rhyming of the names, but the Lopezes also threw in a little ditty to the tune of "Happy Birthday:" "Happy Oscars to you. Let's do Frozen 2," directed at Pixar executive John Lasseter.

Their comic timing was perfect, and they knew exactly when to shout out together for extra emphasis ("Mom and Dad!")

Emotion:

At the very end, the couple stopped rhyming, and Kristen said a few heartfelt words to their daughters. It was a touching moment as Kristen's voice broke and she appeared to tear up.

When winners bring a list of names to the stage, I tend to want to tune out. After all, I don't know who any of those people are. I couldn't care less which executives the recipient feels the need to flatter and fawn over.

In this case, however, the Lopezes kept their speech short (under a minute), and incorporated humor, singing, rhyming and sentiment in a way that kept my attention, kept me smiling the whole time, and didn't feel like the gratuitous butt-kissing that so many speeches are.

Here's the speech if you didn't see it:




Watch here if it's not showing up...

What was your favorite speech of the night?



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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Visuals are the emotional heart of your story

Even though television is a visual medium, I don't find most commercials as visually compelling as they could be. There's also very little originality in how most advertisers are telling and selling their stories.

This one caught my eye, however, and I bet you can guess why. It reminds me of a simple image-based slideshow that enhances what the speaker is saying by conveying the emotional impact of her words. And by emotional impact, I mean that there are a variety of emotions triggered by the images, that help to "sell" her story.

Without the images, you don't get the full impact of what the narrator has experienced. The images fill in the blanks as though she were telling you her story in much more detail. The images are, in a way, a shortcut to understanding what she's been through, giving her story an emotional heart.




If you can't see the video on this page, click here to view on YouTube.

Are you using compelling visuals to make an emotional impact on your audience and help sell your ideas, or are you still dwelling in the dark ages of bullets and paragraphs of text?

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Deposit your tuppence in the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank!

Here's a fun example of what happens when you suffer from the Curse of Knowledge. Watch these bankers try to explain to little Michael why he should invest his tuppence in the bank. (Lyrics are below, but the song is more fun.)



Mr. Dawes Sr, Mr. Banks and Bankers:
If you invest your tuppence
Wisely in the bank
Safe and sound
Soon that tuppence,
Safely invested in the bank,
Will compound
And you'll achieve that sense of conquest
As your affluence expands
In the hands of the directors
Who invest as propriety demands
You see, Michael, you'll be part of
Railways through Africa
Dams across the Nile
Fleets of ocean greyhounds
Majestic, self-amortizing canals
Plantations of ripening tea
All from tuppence, prudently
Fruitfully, frugally invested
In the, to be specific,
In the Dawes, Tomes
Mousely, Grubbs
Fidelity Fiduciary Bank!
Now, Michael,
When you deposit tuppence in a bank account
Soon you'll see
That it blooms into credit of a generous amount
Semiannually
And you'll achieve that sense of stature
As your influence expands
To the high financial strata
That established credit now commands
You can purchase first and second trust deeds
Think of the foreclosures!
Bonds! Chattels! Dividends! Shares!
Bankruptcies! Debtor sales!
Opportunities!
All manner of private enterprise!
Shipyards! The mercantile!
Collieries! Tanneries!
Incorporations! Amalgamations! Banks!
You see, Michael
Tuppence, patiently, cautiously trustingly invested
In the, to be specific,
In the Dawes, Tomes
Mousely, Grubbs
Fidelity Fiduciary Bank!

From "Mary Poppins"

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Monday motivation with Heshy!

If you missed this Saturday Night Live Sketch with Nasim Pedrad playing Heshy Farahat, you are missing out on some pretty darn motivational speaking. I'm ready to sign up!



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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Maintaining composure as your top falls off...

Most speakers, no matter how experienced, still have the tiny thought in the back of their head: "What if something goes wrong?" It's part of our preparation to know what we would do if we lost our place, the computer shut down, or a heckler challenged us.

But most of us don't have to worry about wardrobe malfunctions, like this dancer performing with Ricky Martin on Ellen. Look for the one wearing the crop top with spaghetti straps.

Note her calmness and composure as she most certainly realizes her top is slowly coming off, and how she handles herself. She continues giving 100%, even as she feels herself becoming more exposed. She waits as long as she can to leave the stage.

At 1:30, you can see the top start to open in the back.

At 1:45, it's halfway undone (I'm sure she's feeling a breeze at this point and wondering why her top feels loose).

At 2:45, she's holding it in place.

At 2:55, she gracefully exits the stage, still completely in character.

At 3:22, she returns, and seamlessly joins the rest of the dancers for the final pose.

This is what experience and professionalism looks like. No panic, just thinking on your feet and handling the situation in the moment.



Are you an experienced speaker? Do you have all the composure and poise in the world, but get a little lazy with your presentations sometimes, just because you know you can?

Join me on October 10 for my FREE teleclass: "The Top 3 Mistakes Experienced Speakers Make... And What to Do Instead!" and let's reinvigorate your speaking!

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Excuse #923: "I'm not a presenter."

Okay, I haven't actually numbered the excuses people give for bad presentations, but maybe I should start...

Watching a recent episode of "Shark Tank," I thought the entrepreneurs' presentation was terrible. They hadn't fully thought through their idea, they didn't have the answers to important questions from the Sharks, and they completely floundered when they weren't using their memorized script.

The Sharks thought the presentation was pretty bad, too, and told them so.

In response, one of the entrepreneurs had this to say:

"We're not presenters, okay? We're physicians."

He was about to continue when Barbara Corcoran cut him off. She said:

"Guess what: I don't care what your background is. If you're looking for money, you gotta sell your idea."

Well said, Barbara!

And I would say that this is true for all speakers, whatever your background. Maybe you're not asking for money. Maybe you're trying to persuade your colleagues to take a business risk. Maybe you're educating the community about autism. Maybe you're sharing bad news with your employees. Maybe you're announcing a big change in your company. Maybe you're meeting with a prospect who might buy a house, your insurance services, your Mary Kay mascara, or any of a million other things.

Doesn't matter what the presentation is about: You are always selling an idea.

You always want the audience to do something as a result of your presentation. If they're not sold, they're not going to do what you want.

You don't have to be in sales to be selling. Selling isn't always about money (although in most of these cases, there will be some money exchanged or donated somewhere along the line).

So stop making excuses for delivering a bad presentation, figure out how to make it better, and go get what you want!

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Is your mental game up to par?

I recently watched a documentary about a group of cyclists who race 2,700+ miles from the Canadian border to the Mexican border along the Continental Divide. The race is called the Tour Divide, an "ultra-cycling challenge to pedal solo and self-supported the length of Great Divide Mountain Bike Route...as fast as possible."

Only a few people attempt it and fewer finish (in 2008, the year this documentary was filmed, 16 started and 8 finished). One competitor who had a particularly hard time was Mary Metcalf-Collier, who suffered physical hardships along the way, including severe swelling in her legs.

She came close to quitting many times, but she knew the key to staying in the race was her "mental game," and she continued to push herself past her discomfort, eventually becoming the first woman to complete the race.

She says in her blog, "The most important lesson that I picked up last year was about flexibility. As I read back through my journals from 2008, I probably had 3 days total that went exactly as planned."

Most of us aren't facing this level of physical pain when preparing for a presentation. But many speakers' mental game is not up to the challenge of overcoming anxiety and the resulting resistance and avoidance.

The mental game of speaking includes:

1. Planning and preparation for things that might go wrong

What happens if your computer crashes in the middle of your PowerPoint? What happens if you lose your place? What happens if someone gives you a hard time during Q&A? Are you prepared?

2. Reframing anxiety and nervousness into positive attitude and energy

There is no difference between "bad" and "good" adrenaline - it's your mind that makes it so. Thought stopping, positive self-talk, relaxation and other mental and physical tools can get you in a calmer state to face your audience.

3. Visualizing a successful presentation

Have you visited the venue in advance so you know the layout of the room and any challenges? Have you envisioned yourself in front of a satisfied and smiling audience, giving waves of applause? Successful elite athletes use visualization and mental rehearsal both to imagine a successful outcome of an event and to rest and relax.

4. Giving 100% when you only feel 50%

Got the flu, but can't find a replacement? Performing on two hours of sleep? Distracted by personal problems? Your audience can't and shouldn't know this. Give them what they came for and rest later.

5. Handling mishaps onstage in the moment with grace and humor

Everyone makes mistakes and most of the time your audience doesn't even know you've messed up. Suck it up, laugh it off, and move on!

6. Being flexible

Sometimes you're prepared to speak for an hour, but the speaker or meeting before you goes long and your time gets cut. Sometimes you expect an audience of fifty and it ends up being an audience of five. Sometimes you get stuck with a microphone that's attached to a lectern. Having a strong mental game means being able to shift gears at a moment's notice, take what you're given, and run with it.

As you can see, the mental game of speaking parallels the mental game of sports, and speakers can learn a lot from athletes who use these tools. Read more posts about the connection between athletes and speakers here.

What else would you add to my list? Please share in the comments!



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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

It's not how many words you use - it's how you use them

Here's an inspiring message for a Friday morning. Four things stood out to me as I watched Ashton Kutcher's speech from the Teen Choice Awards (video's at the bottom of the post):

1) It's short but sweet.

Remember: You do not need a lot of time or a lot of words to get your message across. Kutcher's message is delivered in under five minutes. Was it too short for you? Was there something missing? Did you not have enough time to understand what he was trying to say? Nope. He said what he needed to say concisely, clearly and with no question as to his meaning. And he even recaps his three points at the end!

2) Stories carry the message.

In under five minutes, Kutcher delivers his three points through stories of his own life and lessons he learned when he was still "Chris." Yep, you can still fit stories into a short speech!

3) It's relevant to the audience.

Kutcher knows his audience: teenagers and young adults. What do they care about? What can he talk about that will mean something to them and also convey his points and his message?

When he says "Opportunity looks a lot like hard work," maybe he doesn't get the kind of cheer he does when he starts to talk about what's sexy, but these young people are hearing from a successful actor what he did to achieve success in a highly competitive and dog-eat-dog industry. What young person doesn't want to hear that? (And those jobs sound a lot like jobs these young people have probably had.)

4) It's emotional.

Kutcher's clearly speaking from the heart. He uses humor. He shows his distaste for the marketing of "sexy." He's animated and impassioned. He uses his face, his body, his words and his voice to express authentic emotion. This is how you make an impact on people.

Do you care that his gestures are not polished and rehearsed, or that he spends some time twisting his fingers together? Are you offended that he's pointing his finger at the audience? Were you horrified that he said, "Like" and "You know?" I bet you didn't even notice most of these things (unless you're in the biz, like I am, and it's your job to notice.) Because who really cares when a powerful message is delivered so succinctly and so passionately?

Take a look and share your thoughts in the comments!



Not seeing the video? Click here to go to YouTube.

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!

Transitions: Making the connection between ideas

You've probably never noticed this when you're watching TV, but commercials have only a vague connection to the TV shows they interrupt. Commercials are chosen for a particular time slot based on demographics - the age, gender, income, education and other details about the people who watch shows on that network. There's rarely a transition or any relationship to the program besides these demographics.

Which is why I found this ad that plays during "Major Crimes" to be so clever. At the end of the scene, there's some imagery of police lights and sticky notes on a whiteboard tracing the timeline of a crime. The following text plays over the images:

"Great cases are solved by innovative thinking... Great cars are designed by it."

There's a voiceover while the Major Crimes, TNT and Volvo logos are shown: "Major Crimes on TNT is presented by Volvo."

Then the Volvo commercial begins. Unfortunately, I'm unable to find this clip online, so you'll just have to imagine it.

It's a very clever and original transition from TV show to commercial, actually making a connection between what we've been watching and what advertisers would like us to watch next. (If you DVR your shows like I do, you probably wouldn't watch the commercial anyway. But because it doesn't go straight to commercial, this transition caught my eye and kept me engaged for an extra few moments.)

In public speaking, transitions are like the links in a chain, connectors between our ideas. They keep the audience intrigued and interested enough to keep listening for what's coming next, and they help your content flow and make sense as one cohesive package. Here's a post I wrote about ten ways to transition to your next idea.

Are you making these connections for your audience?

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On The Everything Page you'll find everything you need to build visibility, credibility and influence through engaging presentations that move your participants into action: freebies, low-cost products and courses, and 1:1 coaching!