Ready, Set, Present: How to Prepare for Presentation Success Part Two

A young man and woman preparing for a presentation

start buttonNow that you have prepared your content well and have worked on being calm and focused, you are well on the way to feeling confident, focused, and ready for your important presentation.

Here is the rest of the story; what to do in the hours and moments before the big event.

1. Walk to calm down or gear up. There is something about movement; it helps you to loosen up if you are feeling tense, and helps you to calm down by dissipating excess energy. Before your presentation, walk up and down the halls, swinging your arms, loosening your neck and shoulders, and just feeling strong and loose. You might find it helpful to walk outdoors if you can, taking in fresh air and clearing your mind.

2. Take deep calming breaths. Whenever you feel anxiety beginning to build up, take a moment to breathe slowly and deeply. As you focus on your breathing, other thoughts can drift away. Remind yourself that you are prepared, you are ready, and now you are oxygenating your body and brain, giving it fresh fuel.

3. Relax your shoulders. If you feel physically tense and tight, be sure to release the tension out of your shoulders. Before you enter the presentation room, bring your shoulders up toward your ears in a tight scrunch, then release the tension out of them completely. As you drop your shoulders, notice the tension leaves your arms and hands as well. You look and feel more confident and relaxed.

4. Smile and face the audience. They are with you, and they want you to succeed. These are your colleagues, your customers, your leaders, and you have an important message to share with them. Take a moment to connect and feel them before you begin. Make eye contact. Smile in a greeting. You are really ready to begin.

Facebook and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

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[Editor’s Note: The following guest post comes to us from Rick Kelly, Vice President of Strategic Communications at Triad Strategies]

It’s called “confirmation bias,” and Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican/teabagger extraordinaire, is positioned to become its unintended poster boy this week after he asked his Facebook “friends” what they thought of ObamaCare, aka the Affordable Care Act.

“Confirmation bias,” per psychology and cognitive science, is the tendency of people to seek out information that confirms their preconceptions, often at the expense of reality. Call us crazy, but it always seems that the more dogmatic the individual, the greater the propensity for confirmation bias.

And when it comes to dogma, Senator Cruz is a pit bull.

So one morning late last month, Cruz (or his surrogate) posted this little nugget on Cruz’s FB page: “Quick poll: ObamaCare was signed into law four years ago yesterday. Are you better off now than you were then? Comment with YES or NO!”

As any litigator will tell you, never ask a question that you don’t already know the answer to. And Cruz (or his surrogate) must’ve been astonished to see the plethora of responses coming down on the “I’m better off” side of the issue.

“I’m a small business guy and I don’t have to worry because insurance companies can’t drop us anymore,” said one comment.

“My wife’s little niece who is very sick would have hit her lifetime limit by now if not for the ACA. The nation is better off,” said another.

“Impeach Ted Cruz! He caused the shutdown that hurt this country badly!” opined a woman sporting a “vote blue 2014” profile pic (and up until now we didn’t think Cruz had any “friends” of the “vote blue” persuasion).

“YES, YES & YES!! Hands Off My ObamaCare!! Something tells me this isn’t quite the response Mr. Cruz was hoping for ROFLMAO,” observed another, piling on and enjoying it.

As of this week, the “likes” on the original Cruz post exceeded 10,000, and the “shares” half of that (to read them yourself, click here.)

Cruz’s Facebook folly caught the attention of L.A. Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik, who regaled us with a couple of other high-profile social media fails.

“In October, Fix the Debt, the plutocrat-backed front group for deficit-cutters, staged a question-and-answer session on Twitter, evidently hoping to instill the younger generation with its message that Social Security and Medicare were a plot by seniors to land the millennial generation in the poorhouse,” Hiltzik wrote. “Didn’t play out that way. The group’s Twitter feed was inundated with impertinent queries (‘What’s more popular at your board meetings, the blood of workers or tears of homeless seniors?’)”

In the other, JPMorgan Chase had scheduled a Twitter Q&A with one of its investment banking honchos, only to draw sample questions such as, “Did you always want to be part of a vast, corrupt criminal enterprise or did you ‘break bad’?” The firm waved off the event.

If there’s a lesson here, it’s that the interweb is a dangerous place to ask questions, even ones you think you know the answers to.

But perhaps the most important lesson for Cruz or any other person/company/association/cause that has a public Facebook page, as opposed to a personal one, is that “followers” are not to be confused with “friends.” Many of the people who follow you might just be folks who are waiting to weigh in and post comments because they vehemently disagree with you.

It is a pretty safe bet that Ted Cruz knows that fact very well today.

Rick Kelly, VP of Strategic Communications
Triad Strategies LLC
@rkel2y
www.TriadStrategies.com

Crisis Management Advice for Those Ugly Online Reviews

concerned-male-thinking-about-company-problem-solution

Take care of your reputation and it will take care of you

Whatever your organization does, it’s a safe bet to assume you’re looking for ways to manage your online reputation. After all, with pretty much all of us carrying a teeny tiny research machine in our pocket in the form of a smartphone, what comes up when someone searches your name is a major concern.

Along with search results, web reviews, whether on social media platforms like or Yelp and its kin, will be the first thing most stakeholders see when they go looking for more information, which makes keeping things positive a core aspect of modern crisis management.

We came across a useful infographic, put together by the folks at Search Influence, that can help you understand what exactly is involved in managing online reviews:

Infographic: Reputation Rescue: Dealing with Your Business's Online Reviews – SearchInfluence.com
Infographic: Reputation Rescue: Dealing with Your Business’s Online Reviews, Courtesy of SearchInfluence.com

We use the phrase, “your reputation is your most valuable asset” a lot because it’s true. Put the time in to care for yours, and you’ll reap the rewards. Don’t bother, and you’re all but guaranteed to find yourself in need of crisis management sooner rather than later.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

What’s Coming – The Next Seven Weeks of the Fundraising Blog

April 23:

 

Keeping Your Bucket Full … With Direct Mail
by Jonathan Howard

The national average rate of donor retention (that’s the number of donors who gave in two consecutive 12-month periods) is a horrendous 35 percent.

April 23:

 

Events In Private Homes: Part II
by Hank Lewis

Education, Cultivation & Stewardship – What can/should happen at an event in someone’s home.

April 30:

 

Who Are Your Planned Gift Prospects? – Part I
by John Elbare

Planned giving works best when you target your efforts toward a segment of donors who are most inclined to consider a planned gift. Avoid the common misperception that planned giving is mostly for wealthy donors.

April 30:

 

Events In Private Homes: Part III
by Hank Lewis

Asking attendees to write a check … at an event in someone’s home. Should you or shouldn’t you ?? It all depends!!

May 7:

 

Evaluating The Chief Development Officer – Part One of Three
by Tony Poderis
>

Will you to say “Nice job,” or “You are not up to what we expected,” or worse – “Your services are no longer needed here?”

May 7:

 

The New Donor’s Journey
by Jonathan Howard

Direct mail is old-fashioned. And that’s a good thing. What works by mail has been time-tested and documented in countless books and blogs over many decades.

May 14:

 

Preserve Institutional Knowledge to Ensure Better Proposals
by Jayme Sokolow

… although organizations “spend a lot of time and resources developing knowledge and capacity . . . most of it resides in the heads, hands, and hearts of individual managers and functional experts.”

May 14:

 

Evaluating The Chief Development Officer – Part Two of Three
by Tony Poderis
>

There are many factors that can impact the success of a development program, and, thereby, affect how the CDO’s performance is perceived.

May 21:

 

The CFC and Non-Profit Sustainability – Part I
by Bill Huddleston

a non-profit’s “financial sustainability and programmatic sustainability cannot be separated.

May 21:

 

Evaluating The Chief Development Officer – Part Three of Three
by Tony Poderis

Not all of a CDO’s responsibilities are directly related to fundraising … another reason why his/her performance should not be evaluated based just on dollars-raised.

May 28:

 

Who Are Your Planned Gift Prospects? – Part II
by John Elbare

The one thing we know for sure about donor behavior is that most planned gifts come from loyal donors. They are already sold on your mission, they believe in your cause, and they probably would like to do more to help….

May 28:

 

The CFC and Non-Profit Sustainability – Part II
by Bill Huddleston

You may be familiar with the concept of the fundraising pyramid, but one problem with much of the fundraising literature is that there’s often a built-in presumption that the pyramid has already been built.

June 4:

 

Successful Proposals Find Common Ground with Funders
by Jayme Sokolow

… selling and fundraising are about finding common ground. Raising money via grant proposals is pretty much always about finding common ground with your funders.

June 4:

 

The CFC and Non-Profit Sustainability – Part III
by Bill Huddleston

Another aspect of the CFC that is often not recognized, because all the results are reported annually, is that many CFC donors are multi-year donors, giving for five, ten and twenty years during their Federal career.

 

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The Fundraising Series of ebooks.

They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99 – $4.99)
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Praise Ye with Joy – Happy Holy week

african-american-handsome-jazz-musician-playing-tambourine-singing

I created this music video with the lovely music of a Sufi friend, Mahbood. He’s a marvelous singer-songwriter. I kept thinking of his song, ‘Ivdu Hashem B’Shimcha’, as we approach this Holy week of Passover and Easter.

Enjoy this video —> “Praise Ye with Joy“.

heart with wings inside 6 sided star

May you find Joy to renew your Spirit this week and every week.

~ Linda J. Ferguson~

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Linda J. Ferguson, Ph.D. is the author of two books on spiritual living. Linda is a Job and Life Coach helping people move through their doubts and worries to live more joyfully and spiritually grounded. http://www.lindajferguson.com/coaching/

Follow Linda– https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson

Click HERE to order Linda’s book “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand: Awakening Soul Consciousness for the New Millennium”. Available in paperback and ebook- Kindle, Nook and iStore

Ready, Set, Present: How to Prepare for Presentation Success

A prepared young man presenting in a meeting

successPeople often struggle to prepare themselves for a major presentation. They spend hours reworking their slides, and rehearsing lines in their heads. Yet, they often end up feeling frazzled and unfocused. How can you prepare yourself so that you are ready and able to present your ideas successfully? Read on:

Have a clear goal for what you want to accomplish. What is the purpose of this presentation? What do you want the audience to do, think, or feel at the end of your presentation? By focusing on your goal for the presentation, you can drive home a message instead of just providing data. Consider as well the underlying goals of the presentation, which might include relationship-building, responding to questions, or just connecting with the team.

Plan out your opening and close. Research tells us listeners tend to remember what they hear first and last. If your opening and closings are weak, that may be all the audience remembers. So plan this part of your presentation carefully. Make sure your opening leads directly to the content within one to two minutes, and make it simple and easy to follow (and for you to remember.) Try opening with 2 or 3 questions, or stating a major concern the audience has that your presentation can address. Keep it brief and to the point. Same with the ending, if you wind down and end with “well, that’s about all I have…” you will have missed the opportunity to close with impact. Instead, prepare and rehearse a one or two sentence ending that drives home your message.

Practice out loud. Practicing in your head or by reviewing your slides on screen each have their merits, but nothing can take the place of a rehearsal in front of a live audience. You need to say the words out loud to really feel them, even if you do so in front of even one person. If you think you may have a critical or hostile audience, be sure to practice Q&A out loud as well, so you are prepared to answer most any questions that come up.

Use positive self talk. At some point in the preparation process, you are going to have a few doubts; did I prepare enough? Can I respond to all the questions? Will I look nervous? Will I stumble? When doubt hits, be prepared with a positive comeback. Repeat to yourself: “I am fully prepared, I know my material, and I will be fine.”

Get into the room. Walk around the room, sit in the chairs, and stand at the front. Rehearse in the room if you can. Look for the remote, try out the equipment; make sure you have everything you need. One of my clients has a conference room that is large and intimidating to present to customers. I encourage them to spend as much time as they can in that room, observing other presentations and just becoming more comfortable there.

Stay focused. Train your thoughts so that they do not wander. All that matters is your audience and your message to them. Don’t worry about the words; they will come as you focus on getting your message across. Your preparation has paid off; you are ready, focused, and powerful as you share your ideas.

Preparing your content well and getting your head in the right place should help you show up feeling focused, ready and confident.

Questionable Crisis Management Call from Christie

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Why renew focus on an issue you’d clearly rather avoid speaking openly about?

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) would probably love to have this whole George Washington Bridge scandal just…go away. It seems Christie felt he was expected to do something to explain things, but his choice to appoint a friendly lawyer to “investigate” the allegedly politically motivated lane closures reeked of nonsense.

Here are a couple of snippets, from the Washington Post’s coverage of the report:

Christie didn’t know in advance

“The Governor Did Not Know In Advance And Was Not Involved In This Bridge Lane Realignment Decision. … Before September 9, 2013, The Governor Had No Knowledge Of The Bridge Lane Realignment.”

Shocking, right?

The lane closures were originally Wildstein’s idea

“That Fort Lee was favored with these dedicated toll lanes was an issue periodically raised within the Port Authority. Indeed, Wildstein himself first raised the issue in late 2010. For some reason yet to be determined, Wildstein seemed to be driving this issue again in 2013. It was Wildstein’s ‘idea,’ like so many other ‘crazy’ ones he’d had before that never got off the ground.”

We’re not sure we’ve ever heard an impartial investigator say someone’s ideas were “crazy” before, but maybe it’s a first…

It seems Jonathan Bernstein’s take on the situation summed up the feelings of most after reading this report:

“It’s like conducting your own colonoscopy, you’re likely to just end up with your head up your ass.”

The credibility of the so-called investigation was doomed from the get-go because it was A) self-imposed, and B) conducted by people who have clear reason to be beholden to Christie, begging the question, why do it at all?

Nobody’s going to believe the results if they’re coming from a clearly biased source, so why not just try to let the whole thing die down and move on as much as possible? From where we’re standing, putting out a bogus investigative report is only serving to re-focus attention on the reputation threat, not the ideal direction for crisis management at all.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Want to get noticed on LinkedIn?

Women holding a LinkedIn signage

Killer ways to improve your LinkedIn profile

Social Media ExaminerMichael Stelzner has a great gift. The social media marketing tips he shares through his Social Media Examiner newsletter are valuable, concise and easy to apply. That’s why I’m eager to share the wisdom of Debra Eckerling, one of his expert authors.

If you want to stand above the crowd on LinkedIn, here’s what you need to do:

#1 – Possibly the most important part of your LinkedIn profile, your headline is your hook. It should be memorable with a hint of a tease that makes people want to read more. He gives you a link to 10 examples that help you stand out from the crowd.

#2 – Now that you’ve gotten your readers’ attention, cast a spell on them with a detailed profile summary that gives a glimpse into who you are. Three examples help keep you on track.

#3 – Your job history should be more than just a list of paid positions. As with the summary, it should be written with your audience in mind. It should also have all of the bells and whistles that highlight your experience. He also talks about 7 ways your LinkedIn Profile and resume should differ.

#4 – You know the old standby, “Do unto others…”? Well, endorse others and they’ll likely endorse you, too! Endorsements validate your experience and accomplishments. Take an active role to make sure you have recommendations from a variety of people. Also included: 6 things you should know about LinkedIn recommendations.

BONUS: The Perfect LinkedIn Status Update can bring desired attention to your profile. Jennifer Burnham and SalesForce show that whether you’re sharing news, trends, products or just your opinion, thoughtful and targeted status updates can help you solidify your expertise.

For all the details in each of these categories, you’ll want to go to the Social Media Examiner article. And I’d highly recommend subscribing to Social Media Examiner. I’m very selective, but I wouldn’t miss it.

For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman

Ms. Chapman’s book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:

Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. She helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

HootSuite Forgets Compassion in Hack Crisis Management

A-man-frustrated-while-laying-a-complain.

Forgetting this key ingredient can sink your crisis communications efforts

Heavy social media users probably noticed the recent HootSuite outage which left many, including us, unable to access the popular utility during the evening hours. Having any service you use regularly to do business go down is a big deal, and even more so considering HootSuite is used by not only individuals, but also a massive number of organizations which rely on it as a platform for marketing, reputation management, stakeholder communications and more.

Of course these days when the service has your name, credit card, and other personal information stored, when we see an outage we get a bit nervous about some nefarious net activity. To its credit, HootSuite expected this fear, and explained exactly what had gone down in an email sent to customers:

As you may have noticed this morning, HootSuite services experienced downtime, which might have impacted you or your organization. At approximately 6:45 am PST we experienced what’s known as a denial of service attack (DoS). I’m writing today to let you know that the HootSuite Engineering and Security teams are working to mitigate the DoS attack and that there are no inherent security risks to your accounts, nor has any customer data been compromised.

It’s important that we keep you up to date on the status of the tools and services we provide to you as a valuable customer. This interruption was the result of a malicious attempt by an outside party to flood our services in order to shut-down the system. This primarily affected web traffic to the dashboard and mobile APIs, and did not impact previously scheduled posts. We are working with hosting providers to identify the source and block this traffic.

We will keep the HootSuite blog updated with current information.

For real time updates or support, please follow or tweet us on our dedicated Twitter support channel @hootsuite_help and see additional resources below. Lastly, I want to thank you for your patience and for your continued trust in HootSuite. Your success is our highest goal.

Best regards,

Ryan Holmes,
HootSuite CEO

Additional Resources

Today’s blog post on the outage
The HootSuite system status page for latest updates
HootSuite’s Managed Services for Security & Compliance
HootSuite’s dedicated Twitter support channel @HootSuite_Help

Pretty solid, with an explanation of the situation, plenty of links to further information, assurances that all data was secured, and even more reassurance that the issue is being resolved. However, HootSuite’s CEO forgot one invaluable ingredient when it comes to delivering crisis communications your stakeholders will take to heart – compassion. One more sentence acknowledging the fact that the folks at HootSuite understand how nervous or frustrated the attack may have left customers feeling would have made the mass email that much more effective, and better supported the good reputation of the social media platform in the process.

Compassion, competence, and credibility. Include all three in your crisis communications, or you risk having your messaging fall on deaf ears.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

 

How to Become a Natural Born Communicator

A nature born communicator giving a speech through her laptop

jackJack* is a natural born people person. And that makes him a natural born communicator. When you first meet him you’ll notice his calm, steady eye contact and his friendly smile. But as you begin a conversation with him, something special begins to happen. He asks a few questions until he finds something you have in common, listening with interest and respect. After listening fully to what you say, he adds pertinent comments or opinions, or tells a funny story that compliments what you said. As your conversation progresses, you move effortlessly from topic to topic, and his interest never flags. By the end of the conversation, you feel just a little smarter, a little cooler, than you did before the conversation. You feel….appreciated. And Jack does this with everyone he meets, from the smallest child to a powerful business associate, making everyone he meets feel valued.

What is Jack’s secret? Could it technique? Attitude? Charisma? All of the above? I think it’s not so much that Jack is fascinating; it’s that he makes you feel like you are fascinating. And I think we could all learn a thing or two from Jack that would help us engage in interesting and meaningful conversations.

Consider the following:

What is your intention? Are you trying to impress others, make a sale, or overwhelm them with your expertise? Try Jack’s approach; approach each conversation without an agenda, or else with an agenda of making a connection.

Are you curious? Jack is somewhat of a “renaissance man;” that is, he knows about a wide range of topics and can speak credibly on many of them. But more importantly, he is curious to learn from, and about everyone he meets. He isn’t acting interested; he really is.

Where is your attention? Are you thinking about yourself and the impression you are making? Are you looking at your watch, or looking over your listener’s shoulder to see who you could be talking to? Jack does none of these and that is why he never seems disengaged. He is into the conversation you are having, and his attention is on you.

Do you feel a sense of appreciation? Or do you find yourself judging the person you are talking to, just a little? Sometimes we fail to find the connection and feel the person we are talking to is “boring” or not going to be of interest to us. Maybe we haven’t approached them with a sense of appreciation. That person you are talking with might be fascinating, once you find out what makes them tick. Look for the good in people, and you make them feel valued.

Whether you are in sales, accounting, customer service, marketing, engineering, teaching, training or leading others, a good part of your day is spent communicating with others. Conversations with customers, team members, bosses, colleagues, friends and family– each presents an opportunity for friction or friendliness. Follow Jake’s lead and you too might become a natural born people person, and a natural born communicator.

*not his real name

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Author Gail Zack Anderson, founder of Applause, Inc. is a Twin Cities-based consultant who provides coaching and workshops for effective presentations, facilitation skills for trainers and subject matter experts, and positive communication skills for everyone. She can be reached at gza@applauseinc.net.

Web site: www.applauseinc.net

Blog: www.managementhelp.org/blogs

twitter: @ApplauseInc