I attend quite a few networking groups and as a result I hear a lot of  elevator pitches.  Some are hot and some are not but recently I heard one which really grabbed my attention.

Picture the situation, It’s 8:45  in the morning and  20 keen networkers are  seated at a horseshoe of tables in near Romsey in The Potters Heron Hotel in Romsey Hampshire having just  had a delicious full English breakfast

At one end our speaker rises,    An impassioned cry erupts from his lips quoting the immortal lines  “Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?”

As we sit stunned, our speaker scuttles across the room and starts typing on the keyboard of a laptop he had previously set up. “Sorry Jules!   I can’t come out tonight, my PC has a virus!” Laughter erupts from the group as he scuttles back to take on the persona of Juliet again.

“Romeo! Why haven’t you signed up for a maintainance contract with Zuumedia?” “For only £10 a month they can take care of all that” – More laughter and another dash across the room and more typing on the laptop.

“Good idea Jules, I’m signing up with them now online.” The typing stops and there  is a pause.    “Look out Jules,  here I come!”

A final scuttle back across the room.  Our intrepid presenter turns his back on the audience, puts his hands on his shoulders and mimics a passionate embrace.    The laughter transforms into warm applause.

Now that’s what I call an elevator pitch with a difference.

The presenter was Brian Skeggs, ex-teacher and now internet and computer guru at zuumedia.com

For me Brian hit all the right points in this 30 second commercial.

• It was attention grabbing and different
• It was memorable
• It was funny
• it was relevant
• It was clear
• It was concise

There is no one right way to do an elevator pitch however I feel that Brian’s one was brilliant in the context of a regular networking group with a fairly light hearted approach but wouldn’t work everywhere.   My take home message  is this:

Take a leaf out of Brian’s book and dare to be different. Don’t be scared of experimenting and  making a few mistakes.  Don’t trot out the same old tired cliches every time.  I know that Brian rehearsed, refined and practiced this particular pitch several times before  he went public on it .

Now I can’t wait for his next one!

Gavin Meikle, The Presentation Doctor

I heard a great presentation this morning in Southampton. I was attending the 4N Networking group and had the pleasure of hearing local accountant David Anderson give a ten minute insight slot on how to use tour financial reports to improve your business.

So what was it that made Davids talk stand out?

He had a great opening : “How would you like to make an extra £2000 this year?”  -

He kept his content simple: He focused in on 4 key ratios  that help to asses business health

His delivery was engaging: Despite using a script, he made excellent eye contact with us all, used appropriate gestures and vocal variety and he responded well to audience comments and questions

He had a strong memorable conclusion: He summarised to reinforce his key messages and he rewarded us with a fantastic cup cake made by his wife!

In short he implemented many of the suggestions I had made when I delivered my own 4sight speech at the Winchester group a couple of weeks earlier.   well done David.

A  recent comment to one of my earlier posts by Stephen Hendren prompted me to review some of the research on positivity and performance.
Thanks to his post, I found a great video interview by Positivity researcher Barbara Fredrickson.  I thought you might like it so I have included it in this post.  Dr Fredrickson’s key message is that there is a proven 3:1 “positivity ratio” needed to generate the positive emotions required to enhance self esteem and personal performance.

The other day I went into the studio to record some short video clips for my website. As part of the process I wrote three scripts and emailed them to the videographer so that they were loaded onto an auto-cue ready for the shoot.

I don’t know about you but, despite having given thousands of speeches and presentations, I have never used an auto-cue before and I was a bit nervous.

In front of the camera there was a sloping glass screen upon which my words magically appeared, scrolling up the page as I spoke.

To be honest I had some reservations about using the auto cue. I feared that it might make me sound robotic and flat but thankfully this wasn’t the case and I was very pleased with the end result.

I learned a lot in the process so I thought I’d share my top tips for getting the most out of using an auto cue.

1) Prepare and rehearse your scrips well in advance. Spoken English is quite different from written English so it’s important that your scrips are natural and authentic.   Rehearsing and editing the script so that it flows naturally will help you when it comes to using the auto-cue live.

2) Practice! The more you practice your script the more natural and comfortable you will sound. If you happen to have an iPad there is a great auto cue app called teleprompt that turns your device into an auto cue.

3) Don’t be a slave to the auto cue.  Despite having edited and rehearsed your presentation before you go live, you may still feel the need to tweak the words you use on the fly. Changing the odd word is fine but don’t deviate big time otherwise you will lose your place and the auto cue operator will blow a fuse!

4) Get to know the person operating the auto cue in advance. They will be controlling the speed at which the text flows up the screen and building a rapport with them is vital if you want a stress free speech. If they are on your side they will pay clops attention to your speed of speech, pauses etc and will speed up, slow down or pause your script as you speed to keep the words that you are saying in the centre of the screen.

5) my fifth and last tip is relax and enjoy it. If you are in front of a live audience, remember that they are your focus not the technology. If you are in a studio, imagine your audience behind the technology. Your aim is to connect with them ins naturals and authentic a manner as possible.

I used to think that an auto-cue was an unnecessary crutch for poorly prepared presenters but now I realise that it has it’s place.

Like anything else you still need to prepare and practice if you are going to make the most of it.

Gavin Meikle
The Presentation Doctor.

In September, my local Toastmasters club is running it’s annual humorous speech contest and I am planning to enter. The problem is I find writing humorous speeches a real challenge. I can often weave a bit of humour into a serious speech without too much difficulty but for some reason, writing a deliberately humorous speech seems much harder.

Last year I entered the competition for the first time and wasn’t very successful. I basically researched a load of numerous stories via the web and attempted to string them together into a speech. Whilst I did get a few laughs, the whole thing was disjointed and contrived.

I think the main reasons for this were:

A) The stories I used weren’t mine

B) There wasn’t a strong storyline linking these various anecdotes together in any logical way

C) I was trying too hard to be funny

When I went to the Division H competition (SE England) to see and hear the area winners I was enthralled with their skills.  The  winner, Chris Billington, gave a hilarious speech without a single joke.   All he did was tell a story related to  a student job he had as a life guard.

In his tale, he described, in delightful detail, the unusual and sometimes bizarre behaviours of men and women in a mixed swimming pool. You had to be there honest!

What I learned from him was:

A) Don’t tell jokes, tell stories instead.

B) Tell your own stories rather than pulling them from the Internet. You will be much more convincing and congruent if you do

C) Don’t be afraid to exaggerate. Some of the funniest comedians on the planet don’t tell jokes They have us in stitches simply by exaggerating the things that real people do and say. So become an observer of people and look for things that make you smile.

D) keep a notebook handy and capture these little moments so that you can use them later on in a speech. Don’t rely on your memory.

So this year I have put together a humorous speech based on the above lessons. I have given it once already and it went down well. I did however get some really useful feedback that the beginning was a bit slow and so I am tightening it up so that I get hook the audiences attention and get them laughing from the start.

Wish me luck for our competition night on 21st September and I’ll let you know how I get on. I might even post a video of the speech and let you give me feedback too.

Let your voice be heard!

Gavin Meikle
The Presentation Doctor

I recently had an inquiry from a reader regarding the embedding of my avoiding death by PowerPoint video. This got me thinking. I quite often use video clips within a presentation for a number of reasons.

• They are great for demonstrating a particular technique. Ever tried to explain how do do something using only words? It’s very difficult and a short demo video does the job much more effectively.

• They can be used to compare different things. I use video clips of Steve Balmer and Steve Jobs to illustrate how different presentation styles can and are equally effective. It’s a case of finding your own authentic style rather than trying to be something or someone you are not,

• As a presentation skills trainer and coach I sometimes use a short video of an unknown speaker as a primer for analysing and feeding back. Rather than ask participants to comment on each other initially I show them a video of an average speaker and ask them to comment on what the speaker did well, what the speaker didn’t do well and finally what they could do to improve.

You are probably getting the picture by now that there are lots of uses for video in a presentation. I would however counsel against over use of video. I have listed three of the most common pitfalls below:

• Too many video clips. Less is more is always my mantra. Ask yourself, do I really need a video clip here? Remember you are your own best visual aid and anything else should add value.

• Clips are too long. I find that about three minutes is the upper limit if used within a presentation.

• Use of irrelevant clips. Sometimes I have seen people use funny video clips as energisers or mood changers during a workshop. These can work well but if they are seen as being irrelevant to the main content of the presentation you risk alienating your audience pretty quickly.

In conclusion, video can be extremely powerful and is very easy to embed within a PowerPoint, Keynote or Sliderocket slide deck. Just use them sparingly and think first.

Have a great weekend

Gavin Meikle
The Presentation Doctor

I was at a local business conference this morning and happened to be introduced to one of the speakers prior to the start of the meeting.

During our chat we discussed his presentation and he said that he had been told to remove the pictures from his slides and replace them with words because this was a “business” meeting.

Just because most people use bullet-point laden slides doesn’t make it ok!

The evidence shows that when you remove most of the words from your slides and replace them with appropriate images and simple, easy to understand charts and diagrams recall goes up by 28%! What’s even more powerful is that knowledge transfer, i.e. your audience’s ability to understand and apply the content of your presentation goes up by almost 80%!

Come on all you “business” people out there. When will you learn that its time to change the way you present information.

Gavin Meikle
The Presentation Doctor.

Last week one of the members at Solent Speakers, the local Toastmasters club which I belong to,
gave a very powerful speech on the subject of hope. Afterwards many people commented on how the speech had touched them personally. Why was this? Well partly it was the speaker’s measured delivery, beautiful word picture painting and great use of pauses but there was more to it than that.

What really made the difference was the fact that he dared to share a personal story about how a member of his family had suffered from mental illness and how this had effected him and other members of the family.

This story was powerful and personal and it helped the audience to feel the emotions that he was feeling. Sharing personal stories such as this are not appropriate for every presentation but they are part of the presenters toolkit. All of the best presenters I know make a habit of collecting true stories of the things that happen to them and those close to them. Such snippets can then be used to bring their subjects to life.

My challenge to you is to become a story collector as well as a story teller and also to dare to share some of the more personal and poignant stories from your life in order to help you connect with your audience.

Have a great weekend

Gavin
The Presentation Doctor.

In have been living with my iPad for almost a month now and I thought you might be interested in my early experiences with this much hyped bit of gadgetry. I have used it at home and on the road and have performed a number of common tasks including checking and writing emails, reading books, mind mapping ideas, surfing the net, taking notes, running a presentation, managing my todo list, and watching videos. In this post I’ll focus only on using the iPad for presenting slides. Look out for future posts relating to my experiences in relation to other tasks.

Running presentation slides via a projector:
You cannot plug a projector directly into the iPad but you can buy a VGA adapter that a will allow you to show slides. Unfortunately there are some limitations. You cannot show the iPad home screen and the output of most apps. Only certain apps such as Apple’s own keynote iPad will send output to the VGA dongle.

Remote control:
Currently you cannot Control a keynote presentation with any form of remote control. There is no USB port to plug in a remote and the external keyboard does not allow advancement of slides. The only way to advance the slides by tapping on the iPad screen. This is a major drawback if you are the sort of presenter like me who likes to move around and get in amongst your audience.

Simultaneous charging:
You cannot charge the iPad at the same time as you are connected to the via adaptor as both use the same connector. This shouldn’t be a problem if you remember to charge up your iPad every night and give relatively short presentation. The ipads battery life is very good but running a presentation is quite power hungry.

Presenter view:
You can’t get see your slides simultaneously on the iPad and the screen. There is currently no “presenter view” like there is in PowerPoint.

There isn’t a PowerPoint app for the ipad as yet so you have to convert your PowerPoint slides to keynote to show on the iPad. So far this hasn’t been a major problem but the conversion process does change some fonts and may need some tidying up before your perfect PowerPoint presentation is good enough to display via the iPad. Apparently Mac owners running the full version of keynote will also have some conversion issues if showing their slideshows on the iPa

Portability:
This is where the iPad scores highly. It is light and much easier to carry around than a laptop or net book.

In summary:
The iPad is a fantastic tool and it’s uses are developing all the time. I love it for note taking, planning, organising and mind mapping but it’s not quite there yet as a full blown presentation tool. no doubt most, if not all, of my gripes will be sorted over the coming months as the Keynote app gets upgraded and new apps appear however, if you are looking to use it as a full blown replacement for your laptop or net book, think again.

Gavin Meikle
The presentation Doctor

When I ask the people who attend my workshops what is the difference that makes the difference between and average speaker and a great speaker they often come up “presence”.
When I go on to ask them to be a bit more specific about what they mean by presence, they tend to struggle.

So what exactly is presence? And more importantly how can anyone develop this quality in themselves? Well I am not sure I know all the answers but I have some ideas to get you thinking.

Presence is the label we give to someone who displays a number of distinct qualities:

Confidence in themselves
Being comfortable in their own skin and in the location
Charisma
A sense of deep connection with thier audience
A relaxed but focused approach
Being fully present I.e. Grounded in the present moment
The ability to flow with whatever is happening

I am sure you could add your own labels.

Presence is undoubtedly very important but is it something that can be learned? I think it can and in the next article I will be exploring some initial thoughts on how to cultivate it. I would also love to hear from you.
What does presence mean to you?
What behaviours create a perception of presence?
What sort of mind set is needed to allow someone to demonstrate presence?

Go on, don’t be shy, your opinions and ideas are valid and other people would love to read them so post your comments below.

Gavin Meikle
The Presentation Doctor.