Charles Greene III Presentation Magician

Three Magic Keys to a Successful Presentation – Your next great presentation starts now

March 31, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Reading this means that you have some interest in improving your presentation skills and becoming a better presenter.  You want your audiences to listen, learn and act.  You want to be a more confident speaker.  Great.  You’re in the right place.

The key to becoming a great presenter, one who is comfortable delivering information in front of a live audience, is to focus on three critical areas. They are Audience, Preparation, and Practice.  That’s it.  I call them the “Three Magic Keys to a Successful Presentation.”  Work on these three areas, and you’ll go from bullet point boring to picture perfect presentations.

Audience – With presentations, 80% of success is meeting your audience’s expectations.  Address their concerns in your presentation and you’re off to a great start.  Remember, it’s not about you.  Your presentations should not begin with an agenda, a list of your company’s accomplishments, or other items that are of little interest to the audience.  Focus your presentation on the concerns of your audience.

Audiences hope you’ll meet their expectations and respond to their needs.  Nancy Duarte exhorts, “Realize that you’re not the hero of your presentation. Your audience is the hero of your idea.”  An audience changes everything.  They define your words.  They frame your images.  They set your worth.  The audience is the final judge of your success.   Without an audience, your words become a mere recitation of information, facts and stories.  The audience IS the reason for your appearance.  Perhaps Stephen Soundheim most aptly put it when he said, “When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you’ve written.”

So, how do you attain that of “80% of success” plateau with your presentation?   Meet the expectations of your audience.  To create an audience-centered presentation, read the full text and learn how to know, meet and engage your audience in “Audience – Magic Key #1.”

Preparation — How many times have you listened to a presenter who went off on tangents, didn’t seem to have a point, or had too much information?  Yes, I know that this would never be you.  However, even if you know a subject well, spend time to thoughtfully plan the structure of your presentation.  It will assist your audience and increase the memorability of your message.

Can you sum up your main message in one sentence?  If not, you should spend some time defining the core of your message.  Make sure that you clearly know the essence of your message and can convey it in a simple statement.

What’s your conclusion?  It’s as important as your entire presentation.  As you prepare your presentation, you should have a decisive conclusion in mind.  At the end of your presentation, your audience should know why taking action is important.  They should also understand the risk of not acting upon the information they heard.  Regardless of whether or not they act upon what they hear, they will have the information necessary to take the next step.

Once you have established a clear message and a desired outcome, you can move onto the next phase – framing your message.  One time tested structure that works is the “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve just told them” format.  One reason why this structure works so well is that it the repetition of your core message creates emphasis.  People generally give greater importance to something that is repeated.  This repetition also aids in making your message points more memorable.

To create a well-structured presentation, read the full text and learn how to know, frame, and refine your presentation message in “Preparation – Magic Key #2.”

Practice – Presenting well is a skill that can be acquired by most.  Yes, some people are natural speakers.  But some of the most memorable speakers did not start out that way.  John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, overcame dyslexia.  James Earl Jones overcame stuttering.  All the greats got great by working at the basics and then applying massive hours of practice.  If you want to be a better speaker, you must practice.

If you want to improve, you must practice.  The best way to practice is to just start doing it.  Don’t wait until the night before the big presentation to do a full run-through of your presentation.  This is especially true if you are presenting with slides or technical props.  Practice with all of your items so that you become comfortable with them.

So, how much should you practice your presentation?  You should work on it until you know it like you breathe, without thought or hesitation.  When you reach that level you’ll be speaking from a base of practiced technique instead of a base of casual preparation.

For practicing and developing your base of presentational technique, read these 10 practice tips, “Practice – Magic Key #3.”

Audience, Preparation, and Practice are the essential elements of a successful presentation.  You must pay attention to all three.  Like a three-legged stool, remove one of them and the other two can’t stand on their own.  Deliver a well-prepared and practiced talk to the wrong audience, and it will fall flat.  Have the right audience, present a well-prepared message, and don’t practice and your nerves could cause you to fail.

It’s within your grasp to be a better speaker.  It will require a little work and some extra time, but the pay-off will be astounding.  Focus on your audience.  Prepare a clear message.  Then practice. Practice. Practice.  You’ll move from being a tentative presenter to a confident presenter who engages an audience, delivers a clear message, and gets rave reviews.  Invest the time, follow the guidelines, and you’ll be seen as a great presenter.  I promise.

For weekly tips on presentations skills, connect with Charles Greene III on LinkedIn or visit this page.


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Practice – Magic Key #3

February 27, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Practice – It’s still the way that you get to Carnegie Hall, and it’s the only way to improve your public speaking and presentation skills.  If you want to overcome your fear of speaking, practice. If you want to be a better presenter, practice. If you want to effortlessly deliver your message while you connect with your audience, practice.

Practice is the last of the “Three Magic Keys to Successful Presentations.”  For most, it’s the hardest element to fully implement.  Most people don’t practice enough.  Some people hate to practice.  It’s work, hard work.  However, it’s the only “work” that can raise your presentation skills to a higher plateau.  The bottom line is that if you want to be better, you must practice.  The good news is that if you practice, you will improve.

Presenting well is a skill that can be acquired by most.  Yes, some people are natural speakers.  But some of the most memorable speakers did not start out that way.  James Earl Jones, Jack Welch and Vice President Joseph Biden overcame the substantial hurdle of stuttering to become powerful speakers.  All the greats got great by learning the basics of their crafts and then applying massive hours of practice.

The list of greats who have used practice to “lift their game” high above their peers would be too long to print here but would contain an “A” list of familiar names such as David Beckham, Venus and Serena Williams, Michael Jordan and Steve Jobs.  Grammy-award winning musician Lauryn Hill states, “You don’t know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It’s all in the practice.”

Beckham has said that his “secret” is practice.  Both of the Williams sisters transcended their humble genesis thanks to immeasurable hours of dedicated practice.  Michael Jordon credits his immense success on the basketball court to the time that he spent compensating for his failures by practicing more.  According to Jordan, “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”  If you want to be a better presenter, make it happen – practice.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Tipping Point, in his book Outliers posits that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to attain a level of mastery in an endeavor.  That’s practicing your skill for 3 hours a day for a decade.  In case you’re in a hurry, you can attain mastery in a little over a year if you practice non-stop.

You might think, “All I’m doing is talking.  It’s just a short presentation.  I don’t need to practice that much.”  Think again.  The most recognized presenter of our times is the late Steve Jobs.  A BusinessWeek article from 2006 revealed that Jobs put in “grueling hours of practice” before his keynote presentations.  How many grueling hours have you put in lately?

Why practice?  Besides wanting to improve, it’s the best way to edit a spoken presentation.  By speaking aloud your chosen thoughts, you’ll discover the little things that can be removed, changed, or adjusted.  Your presentation will become “lighter and tighter” with practice.  Think of these adjustments as massaging your talk into proper alignment.  It only happens after verbally articulating your message aloud.

So, how much should you practice your presentation?  Until you know it like you breathe, without thought or hesitation.  When you reach that level you’ll be speaking from a base of practiced technique instead of a base of casual preparation.

Nancy Duarte, author of Resonate, recommends practicing 30 hours for an hour-long presentation.  I understand that most people don’t have that kind of time to dedicate to each presentation.  Most would consider it a luxury.  However, only you can set the value of practice for a presentation and determine if the time spent would be a luxury or an investment.  If your presentation is for your boss’ boss and might affect your professional life, you might just want to invest in more practice time.

Jesse Owens said, “Life doesn’t give you all the practice races you need.”  By always practicing and then practicing some more, you’ll be forming a base of practice and experience beneath you.  This will prepare you not only for planned presentations but also for spontaneous ones.  It will give you options for when things go horribly wrong, e.g., the projector bulb blows, the microphone cuts out, the wireless remote fails.

Practice and create your base.  Here are 10 tips for practicing and developing your base of presentational technique.

  • Just do it!
  • Do it more than you think you need to.
  • Let yourself evolve during practice.
  • Rehearse as you will present, standing or sitting.
  • Practice your talk in chunks and then as a whole presentation.
  • Rehearse your talk in full tech-rehearsal mode.
  • Review your facial expressions and physical movements.
  • Practice with your gear – projector, computer, remote, flip charts, etc.
  • Video your rehearsal and then watch it with the sound on and then off.
  • Use a timer – one that counts up and can count down.

Jacques Pépin in talking about his masterful cooking technique said that he had no choice, “You have to repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat until it becomes part of yourself. I certainly don’t cook the same way I did 40 years ago, but the technique remains. And that’s what the student needs to learn: the technique.”

Your base of presentation technique should include the following skills: audience engagement, message preparation/delivery, prop handling, and slideware design.  Hone these skills through practice and you’ll be ready for any speaking opportunity.  They’ll keep you calm, help you deal with technical malfunctions, and give you an edge as you face your audience.

Making the investment of time to build a base of presentation technique will pay off. Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Success comes when preparation meets opportunity.”  Your topic, audience, and venues may change, but your technique will remain to make you a successful presenter in front of any audience.

Charles Greene III
Presentation Magician
Washington, DC

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Public speaking lessons from the world of magic.

January 9, 2012 · Leave a Comment

It’s not an illusion.  Magicians are the best embodiment of the transformative public speaker. Magicians hold audiences spellbound, using little more than words and a few simple props. Magicians deliver memorable experiences that can’t be readily duplicated.  Magicians transform audiences, often leaving impressions that last a lifetime.  Who forgets their best experience with a magician — the coin that vanished in his hand or the playing card found in some extraordinary location?

A lithograph poster from 1910 features the magician Chung Ling Soo on stage in front of a wide-eyed audience.  The poster states “Spellbound they gathered, far and near to scan the weird powers of this wondrous man.”  It seems like Steve Jobs could have stood in Soo’s place on the poster.

The Economist (8 Oct 2011) chose “magician’ as their best metaphor for the greatest presenter of our day.  They described Jobs as the “master showman” who could “stand alone on a black stage and conjure up an ‘incredible’ new electronic gadget in front of an awed crowd.”  It sounds like magic to me.

Now it’s your turn to perform presentation magic with your message.  Levitate your presentation skills to new heights with these six trade secrets from the world of magic:

Focus on the audience.  Magicians connect with their audience early in order to establish rapport.  The magician will be better received during the after-dinner performance if he meets guests during the cocktail reception.  Likewise, a good presenter meets and mingles with guests before the formal presentation to establish a personal connection with the audience.

Perform clear and simple magic.  The rope is cut and then restored.  The lady levitates.  The elephant vanishes.  Effective presenters deliver clear messages.  The concept of clarity infuses their audible message as well as their visual aids.  Steve Jobs said “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”  Experienced presenters know that less is more.  They distill their presentations until only the best material remains.

Tell a great story.  Magic is greatly enhanced by story – the more personal and recognizable the story, the more impactful the magic.  Skilled presenters captivate an audience with messages that have story structure and a transformative end.  Strong presenters tell stories which are audience specific, thus increasing the relevance and power of their message.

Stay in the moment.  Like performers of improvisation, magicians seek out serendipitous events of a particular show.  However, these unique moments never derail the performance from its predetermined end.  Great presenters can “go with the flow” of the audience in order to enliven the presentation, yet they maintain the course of their core message as they achieve their final point.

Vary your elements.   Magicians captivate attention by using a variety of props and routines, using audience volunteers or not, and occasionally using music to create a mood.  Presenters maintain high levels of interest with vocal sleight of hand, pauses, changed tones of speaking, and rhetorical techniques such as the repetition of words and phrases.

Practice.  Practice.  And practice some more.  This is the magician’s mantra. It may take weeks or months before a sleight is perfected.  Only then can the magician try it out in front of a real audience. Malcolm Gladwell claims that it takes 10,000 hours of rigorous practice to attain a level of mastery in any discipline.  Nancy Duarte recommends that a presenter spend 30 hours rehearsing an hour-long presentation. For the illusionist and the public speaker, there is no presentation magic without lots of practice.

The best public speaking presentations are truly magical – transforming an audience with a clear message, delivered with verbal variety and strong visuals.  Today, audience members expect presenters to be both informative and entertaining; more than ever, any difference between a magician and transformative public speaker might simply be illusionary.

Charles Greene III Presentation Magician

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Preparation – Magic Key #2

December 5, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Preparation — A successful presentation involves preparation.  Even if you know a subject well, spending a little time and thoughtfully planning the structure and elements will ensure that your audience will hear and remember your message. Just as a jeweler polishes a stone to make it brilliant, preparation helps polish your presentation so that you shine.  In this posting, you’ll learn three elements of preparing your presentation:

  • Know your message – Be simple and clear
  • Frame your message – Provide a story structure
  • Refine your message – Edit and use only the essential elements

1) Know your message – Be simple and clear
Have you ever listened to speaker and, at the conclusion, realized you didn’t know the point of the presentation?  Maybe there wasn’t one.  Maybe there was one, but it wasn’t clearly stated.  Don’t let this happen to you.

Make sure that you clearly understand your message and can convey it in a simple and clear statement.  Sum up your presentation in one sentence.  This clear statement will guide you as you select an appropriate framework for your message.

Your conclusion is as essential as your entire message.   As you start to prepare your presentation, you should have a decisive conclusion in mind.  Know what you want your audience to do with the information they’ll hear.

Here are some examples of clear messages and desired outcomes…

  • Stocks are devalued and now is a great time to invest.  Buy stock.
  • An electric car will save you money and help the environment.  Buy an electric car. 
  • Paris has many wonderful things to experience.  Visit Paris. 
  • Montessori is a superior method of education.  Enroll your child in a Montessori school. 

Once you have established a clear message and a desired outcome you can move onto the next phase.

2) Frame your message – Provide a story structure
Presentations should contain the basic elements of story structure with a beginning, middle and a conclusive end.  This familiar three part format will ensure that your message stays on track.

One time tested structure that works is the “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve just told them” format.  Structure places certain limits on the speaker, but it is precisely those limits that help to create an efficient and focused presentation.  This format forces the presenter to know what message points to present.  Another reason why this structure works so well is that it relies heavily on repetition.  People generally give greater importance to something that is repeated.  This repetition aids in making the message points more memorable.

Although classic and familiar, the above framing structure is far from the only viable one.  Other story framing structures for presentations include: “What is” Vs. “What could be.”  (Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”); Love story (Corporate merger of former rival companies – ATT & T-Mobile); Journey/Odyssey (Facebook); Rags to riches – (Apple/Lady Gaga/Starbucks)

Regardless of what structure you chose, the audience should be transformed at the conclusion of your presentation.  They should be in a different mind set than they were at the beginning of the presentation.  At the end of your presentation, your audience should possess the vision and information to be in a different place.  They should know why taking action is important.  They should also understand the risk of not acting upon the information they heard.  Regardless of whether or not they act upon what they hear, they will have been given the option to enter into a new state of being – having a better retirement plan, a more fuel efficient car, or savoring the pleasures of April in Paris.

3) Refine your message – Edit and use only the essential elements
Remove the deadwood.  Take out the weakest links.  Your presentation will improve through review and rehearsal.   Items that appear perfect in the layout of the presentation don’t always work when spoken aloud or in relation to the other elements.  Take them out.

After setting your message and choosing an appropriate structure, you will add stories, quotes, data, charts, etc. to flesh out your message.  Before your presentation becomes a Frankenstein’s monster, your job, perhaps your toughest job, is to remove the deadwood – those items that don’t fully support your message.   You want to have the fewest and the strongest elements to support your main message.

Consider works of art made from marble.  They all start off as blocks of stone.  A sculptor has the talent to envision the artwork within stone and then remove all of the stone that is not art.,  As a presenter you must remove all superfluous words, numbers and images from your presentation to leave only the essential message.  Michelangelo said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

Very few artists create a masterpiece on their first attempt.  Every great writer gets edited.  All diamonds were once chunks of rock.  Like sculpture, novels, and diamonds, presentations are best after they’ve been honed, polished, and refined.

Conclusion
You’ve just learned the three elements needed to properly prepare your presentation:

  • Know your message – Be simple and clear
  • Frame your message – Provide a story structure
  • Refine your message – Edit and use only the essential elements

By the way, this posting was written in the structure of “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve just told them” format.

Summary: These three elements will help you deliver a clear and memorable presentation message.  Use these three elements and your next presentation will be a work of art.

______________________________________________________

Let me know your thoughts.  What methods have you used to prepare your presentations?

“Preparation” is the second part of Charles’ “Three Magic Keys to Successful Presentations.”  In an upcoming post, Charles will be discussing the last “magic key,” practice.

Charles Greene III Presentation Magician

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Audience – Magic Key #1

November 7, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Audience – Woody Allen said that 80% of success is showing up.  With presentations, I believe that 80% of success is meeting your audience’s expectations.  Address their concerns in your presentation and they’ll give you high marks.

Most presenters start off their presentations with an agenda, a list of their company’s accomplishments, or other items that are of little interest to the audience.  In other words, it’s all about the presenter.

Attention levels are highest at the beginning of a presentation.  Start your presentation with a focus on you and you’ve wasted your best chance to connect with your audience!  Here are four common errors that start most presentations — a joke, an agenda, an apology, and a list of the presenter’s accomplishments.

Audiences hope you will meet their expectations and respond to their needs.  Nancy Duarte exhorts, “Realize that you’re not the hero of your presentation. Your audience is the hero of your idea.”   An audience changes everything.  They define your words.  They frame your images.  They set your worth.  The audience is the final judge of your success.   Without an audience, your words become a mere recitation of information, facts and stories.  The audience IS the reason for your appearance.   Perhaps Stephen Soundheim most aptly put it when he said, “When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you’ve written.”

So, how do you attain that of “80% of success” plateau with your presentation?   Meet the expectations of your audience.  Follow the next three steps and you’ll be on your way to a presentation that is audience centered.

1) Know your audience
Find out who they are on as many levels as you possibly can.  Talk to the person who is bringing you in to speak and do the following:

  • Ask about the top concerns of the group.
  • Find out if the group is facing unique challenges.
  • See if anything has recently changed in the lives of your audience.
  • Consider if your audience is at the beginning, middle or end of their life experience, work, school, parenthood, etc.
  • Learn why they are coming to hear you speak.

The more information you have about them the more you can address their concerns.  Use the information to customize your presentation and make it more audience specific.

2) Meet your audience
Every presenter wants to address a friendly audience.  By meeting audience members before you present you’ll be creating a personal connection.  They’ll see you not as “the speaker” but as someone they hope will succeed.  Conversely, meeting people before you take the stage means that when you present you’ll see new friends in the audience.  This can go a long way to putting you at ease and making your presentation more conversational.

  • Meet your audience before taking the stage.  Show up early to meet and mingle with them before your formal presentation.
  • Connect with people on an individual basis.  Ask for their personal feelings about your topic.  Their responses might provide you with some last minute insight into that particular group.
  • Stay late.  Take questions from the audience.  Find out what part of your message meant the most to them.  Their insight is very valuable.

3) Engage your audience
Meeting your audience will go a long way to getting them interested in you as a person.  However, to maintain that interest you must have ways of engaging them throughout your presentation.

There are many effective ways to begin a presentation. “I want to thank the blah, blah, blah for having me here today.” is not one of them.

  • Try a strong statement such as, “You can change your world,” that centers on the audience and gets them thinking.
  • Try a shocking and relevant statistic –“3 out of 4 of you in this room will not have enough money to retire.”
  • Tell an insightful personal story that sets the framework of your presentation.

Not all openings need to be dramatic, but they should center on your message and the interests of your audience.

Another level of audience engagement concerns your body language – feet, eyes, hands and voice.

  • Feet: Engage your audience by having an open stance when presenting.  Be steady and stable.  Don’t pace, but use the space to walk to different points while holding the gaze of one person as you walk towards them.  This requires that you leave the podium.
  • Eyes: Look directly at people.  In a small room, attempt to look at everyone during your presentation.  In a large room, select a few people in different parts of the room and have conversations with them.
  • Hands: Use your hands in a natural way, but with slightly larger and broader movements.  When you move your hands, move them with intent and purpose.
  • Voice: Engage your audience with your voice by using vocal variety.  Pausing and lowering your tone will literally draw an audience closer to you.

Finally, engage your audience with passion.  Be “on” when you present.  An audience will forgive many things if you give them your story, straight from the heart, with passion.  Passion is not the icing on the cake.  It is the cake. This passion does not need to be shown a la Tony Robbins style, but there should be some spark, some magic, to your presence. Passion makes your message come alive and connects you directly with the audience.

Summary:  When presenting, your goal is to reach a point of connection with your audience, instead of remaining on the base plateau of communication.

Recommended reading:  John C. Maxwell’s “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect”

Let me know your thoughts.  What methods have you used to connect with your audiences?

Audience is the first part of Charles’ “Three magic keys to successful presentations.”  In upcoming posts, Charles will be discussing the other two “magic keys,’ preparation & practice.

Charles Greene III Presentation Magician

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Cain – A man with a memorable plan, 9-9-9

October 17, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Herman Cain has an economic plan.  A lot of Americans have heard of his 9-9-9 plan.  Cain’s 9-9-9 plan is the most memorable, and probably the only,  economic plan that Americans could name.  Everyone seems to be talking about it.  Can you name another economic plan of any other candidate?

Yesterday, in Washington, DC, I was fortunate enough to have an interview with the candidate of the Republican party.  In the brief amount of time that I was granted with Mr. Cain I wanted to know why his economic message is so memorable. Candidate Cain told me that people remember his plan because it is “specific and simple.”

This posting is not an endorsement of the man, the plan or the party.  It’s a look at why this one economic proposal is so well known and how you can apply to the lessons learned to your presentations.  Would your presentation message be more memorable if it were–in Cain’s words–“specific and simple?”

It’s common for most presenters to cram too much information into too little space.  This includes the spaces of time and spaces on slides.  All of us have suffered from presenters who went over their allotted time because they had vital information to give us, yet we still didn’t know their main point.  Many have seen slide decks burdened with dozens of bullet points.  Did the volume of points yield more clarity or did they dull our ability to focus on the message?

If you want your presentations remembered, be “specific and simple.” It’s all about the details of focus and editing.

  • Discover and address your audience’s top concerns.
  • Provide clear solutions in plain language.
  • Reinforce your message with strong visual images.
  • Eliminate points (sound, transitions, background) that distract from your message.

Leonardo da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.  “It may seem difficult to remove items from your slide deck, but from your work of simplification, your audience will gain a sophisticated and more memorable presentation.

Share your “specific and simple” solutions.  How have you made your presentations more memorable?

Next time I’ll talk about “Audience,” the first of the “3 magic keys to successful presentations.”

Charles Greene III Presentation Magician

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Presentation magician at the summit

October 3, 2011 · 1 Comment

Most of my professional life has been spent at conferences that dealt with a wide variety of subjects — neo-natal urology to snack vending machines to vintage magic posters.  As a presenter or participant I’ve spent an unimaginable amount of time involved with presentations during 25 years of global convention hopping.  However, nothing prepared for the lessons that I learned and the people that I met at Rick Altman’s Presentation Summit 2011 in Austin, TX.  I was blown away.

The Presentation Summit is the leading users conference for presentation specialists and PowerPoint experts.  Each year the conference draws an international following to a different US city where they share their passion for corporate story telling.

This year’s conference was in my favorite Texas city of Austin.  From Rick’s pre-conference letters to the final educational session, the conference met my expectations and delivered more.  In the first session of the first day I learned things that made the whole trip worth it.  And there was still three more days to go.

To the conference I brought my new program, “Three Magic Keys of Successful Presentations.”  Thanks to sessions and conversations with Dave Paradi, Lisa B. Marshall, Connie Malamed, Lisa B. Marshall, Olivia Mitchell, Nick Morgan, Garr Reynolds and Julie Terberg, the program went to a new level of refinement.

So what items can I pass onto you from my time is Austin?  Here are five.

1 – When presenting, focus on your audience.  It’s always about them.

2 – Frame your presentation with a story.  Pick one of several, “The Journey”, “Love”, “Revenge” or “Stranger in a New Land.”

3 – Have fun while teaching and learning (Thanks, Nigel).

4 – PowerPoint animation can be used for good, but clip art is always evil.

5 – Speak from your heart.  Although nothing substitutes for solid preparation and practice, telling your own story with passion will enliven any presentation.

I learned many things in Austin.  However, the one thing that I appreciated most was Rick Altman’s permission given to all of us that it was okay to fail – as long as we failed forward.  Rick, thank you.  I can’t wait to fail forward at next year’s Presentation Summit in Scottsdale, AZ.

Charles Greene III Presentation Magician

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The power of 3 – Your public speaking APP for better presentations

September 18, 2011 · 1 Comment

I’m home.  I’ve just returned from a two week, three-city work tour in Europe, London, Amsterdam (actually, Geleen), and Paris.  In London and Paris I did presentations for two different clients.  In the Netherlands I lead a presentation skills workshop.  I love my job, but it’s always good to be home.

On the flight back I was struck by the many times and various ways that the number 3 came up during the trip.  From using PowerPoint in a large lecture hall to presenting at a trade show to teaching corporate managers how to be better presenters, the number 3 and the concept of thirds was always reappearing.

Over the next few months, probably 3, I’m going share my observations on the power of 3 and how you can to use it to make your presentations more focused and effective.  You’ll see how the power of 3 can be applied to improve your message delivery, your slide deck, your images, your use of technology, and much more.

To get things started here’s a quick one – I call it my presentation APP.  It’s an acronym for Audience, Preparation & Practice.  These are the “3 magic keys to successful presentations.”  Focus on these 3 areas and your next presentation will be better than your last one.  I promise.

Audience:  Focus on your audience’s top 3 concerns.  Learn them and provide answers to those concerns within your presentation, and you’ll be well on your way to meeting your audience’s expectations of a successful presentation.  According to Woody Allen, 80% of success is showing up.  In presenting, I believe that 80% of success is answering your audience’s top 3 questions.

Preparation:  Gather, refine and align.  Gather all of your facts, photos, and stories before you create your slide deck.  Refine your materials to have the fewest words, the strongest points, and the most human stories possible.  After creating your slide deck, make sure that your slides align visually by looking at them in the slide sorter view.  This should leave you with a slide deck that has a clear message with good visual flow.

 Practice:  How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  It’s still true.  Practice.  Practice.  Practice.  Every uber-person in sports(Michael Jordan), performing(Lady Gaga) or presenting(Steve Jobs) knows that practice is an essential key that keeps them at the top of their field.  According to Malcolm Gladwell, it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to reach the level of mastery in most areas.  That breaks down to 3 hours of practice every day for a decade.  Yes, that’s a lot of time, but the pay-off is great.

Learning to use the power of 3 can advance your presentation skills in many ways.  And, as learning should never stop, my next stop is Austin, Texas for the Presentation Summit.  I’ll be on the learning side of things, meeting with presentation trainers from all over the world.  How long will I be gone?  That’s right, 3 days.

Charles Greene III Presentation Magician

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4 easy back up options – Preparing for the Fall

August 30, 2011 · Leave a Comment

This week in Washington, DC we’ve experienced two events that will make the end of this summer quite memorable–a 5.9 earthquake and hurricane Irene.  Those events and an imminent two week trip to Europe (It’s all for work.  Really.) made me think of data loss and recovery.

When the earthquake hit DC, I was on the third floor of my house.  It felt like I was riding the Cyclone at Coney Island.  I went downstairs and told my wife to stand in the doorway and ran into the kitchen to grab my daughter.  Then we headed out of the house.  On the way out I did manage to grab my wallet.  My IPhone was in my pocket, but in the rush I left my MacBook Air on the table.  Okay, I had my precious family with me.  However, if the house had actually caved in, where would I have been from a business standpoint?

Four days later hurricane Irene now knocks at DC’s doorstep as I prepare for the European trip and I ask myself the same general question.  What would happen if my computer gets lost, stolen, or damaged on the trip?  Could I still complete all, most or any of my presentation workshop tasks?  How would I function?

Before the earthquake I was in an okay situation.  Most of my important files were on IDisk, the Apple cloud storage area.  Using Mac address book, Google Mail, and DropBox, I could access to my contacts, e-mail, and other key files via the internet from anywhere.

As for the European trip, the work files will be on the computer as well as on an 8GB thumb drive.  To the cloud storage of ICloud, Dropbox, and Evernote I’ll upload my needed docs, travel plans, slide decks, photos, and PDFs.

On a bigger scale, I need off-site back-up of all of my files, including 160GBs of photos.  Having all of my back-up drives in the same location is not really a credible back-up plan against fire or earthquake damage.  Thus, back to the clouds.

I’m signing up for Carbonite Online storage.  For only $59 a year, they offer unlimited on-line storage that can be accessed from any computer, IPhone, Android or Smart phone.  All new files created or modified are automatically synched, backed-up, and available through any web browser or smart phone as you go.  With ICloud, DropBox, Evernote, and now Carbonite, all of which have mobile apps, I should be covered.  What a deal!

The bottom line is that you have to be prepared for the unexpected. Who knew DC could be rocked by an earthquake?  Fortunately, there are many free and low cost options that make back-up easy.  Here are the sites for the above mentioned services.

  • ICloud (5GBs of free space plus more for photos.)
  • Dropbox (2 GBs of free space.)
  • Carbonite (Unlimited back-up for $59/year.)
  • Evernote (Unlimited, upload 60MB/mo of free space. )

Hey, is that Hurricane Irene at the door?  Gotta go.

Charles Greene III Presentation Magician

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4 insights on successful presentations – Angklung anyone?

July 24, 2011 · 2 Comments

Guinness World Record angklung eventAt the invitation of the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, DC, on July 9, 2011, I was one among 5,182 who set a Guinness World Record for the largest angklung ensemble. Never heard of the angklung?  Neither had I until two weeks before the event.

The angklung is a one-note musical instrument that comes from Indonesia.  It consists of two or more movable bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame.  You play the angklung by holding it with one hand at the top and shaking it with the other hand at the bottom. It takes eight differently noted angklungs to play a scale.

To help set the Guinness World Record, the Indonesian Embassy had flown in angklung maestro Daeng Udjo from Jakarta, Indonesia.  He directed the novice, but enthusiastic group by using hand signals.  He demonstrated the hand signals as he taught us how to play a scale.  The final test for us was following his hand signals to play the official song, “We are the World,” to set the world record.

Yes, we did!  An official adjudicator from the Guinness Book of Records watched the performance and then announced that a new World Record for an angklung ensemble had been set*.  She said, “You’re unbelievable.  And to think that you have never played the instrument before.”

Being part of setting a Guinness World Record was an amazing event, but it also provided me with four insights that directly relate to successful presentations.

1) Team effort – You’ll never see a one-man Angklung band.  Playing a song with the Angklung always takes teamwork and cooperation. Our group used a series of 10 differently noted/tuned angklungs.  And, as our Guinness World Record was about number, having a cooperative team of 5,182 was critical.  The best presentation is a team effort between the speaker and the audience.

2) Visuals speed learning – Our angklungs had labels at the base with images of the hand signal assigned to each instrument’s note.  When the director gave the corresponding hand signal, you shook your angklung.  These labels also helped to orient the instrument.  When the sticker was facing you, the Angklung was held correctly.  Visual learning made for faster comprehension of the task.

3) Practice increases confidence - Angklung maestro Daeng Udjo made us rehearse by leading us through playing scales several times.  Then we played a full song several times.  That really gave us a sense of how this was going to work.  Finally, we were introduced to the song we’d play to attain the record, “We are the World.”  We rehearsed the complete song several times before performing it for the record.  With each practice, our confidence improved.

4) Being fully present counts – Because of the nature of the event, most of the participants possessed cameras or video recorders.  All of us were admonished that for the world record attempt to count, no one could be caught videoing and not playing their instrument.  For the five minutes of the attempt, all of us would need to be fully present and engaged in the task at hand, establishing a Guinness World Record.  Being fully present and focused on the task at hand was the only way we could achieve our goal.

* My World Record holder status, like any good presentation, is highly ephemeral.  If 5,182 people can gather to set a world record in Washington, DC, I’d imagine that this record would be topped when/if they attempt this in Jakarta.  Until then, I’ll enjoy my status as a Guinness World Record participant and thrill in the memory of an amazing event.

Charles Greene III Presentation Magician

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