Thanks to everyone who has taken my survey. If you haven’t had a chance yet, click on to my surveymonkey link and help me with my research. Just five quick questions about your social networking use, and no personal information is requested or collected.
Also, if you noticed that I didn’t have a post on Friday, that’s because I finished Friday’s post Thursday evening, and posted it then. No sorcery or anything, I just wanted to have the post out early because it included the link to my new survey.
I’m thinking about some format ideas for the blog, and one of them includes doing a weekly book review. Nothing fancy, just something to keep me on track with my own reading objectives, and give me some practice in a different format of writing. For the most part these would be business books, but every now and then there could be something else.
Short post tonight: Happy Holloween!
Some of the material I want to include in my book will require some serious research. I’ve already found some of the statistics and material I need, but I’d also like to get data from real users (i.e. you).
I have a few multiple choice questions on SurveyMonkey, so I invite you to answer them to help me establish some baseline information for my research. Also, please feel free to pass this along to any person you feel may have Internet access and the ability to click a mouse.
The questions include:
Which social networking site do you use most?
What is your favorite blog site/software?
What type of blog do you prefer reading?
How do you use YouTube?
How much time do you spend online each day?
The survey is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Uk_2fnStvzYlb3spV3YRhiCQ_3d_3d
The results from this (and future) surveys will be incorporated into the existing data I have from the Internet (which is clearly true). If you read my post from earlier this month with the chapters descriptions for my book, you may recognize that this data will mostly be used in the first three chapters, specifically in chapter 1.
Ed note: I received some nice feedback on yesterday’s post about providing too much information, so I’ll go ahead and strike again while the iron is hot.
Blunder #1: Assume your audience lives just to hear you speak.
That’s right, no need for Audience Analysis, or worrying about what message will make a difference to them! Remember, the goal is to feel good about your presentation, even if the audience doesn’t get it. Bonus tip! Leave your audience with as many unanswered questions as time will allow. And top it off with a sales table full of unrelated content at the front of the room.
Conversely, understanding how Knowing your Audience will give them the best experience will pay off for those of you looking to succeed. Important: don’t assume that because they came to hear you speak means they understand the why’s and what for’s of your topic. Whatever topic you have expertise in could seem like rocket-science to your audience. One option: draft up an opening that would work to explain your topic to 5th graders. Remember, your audience members are smarter than a 5th grader, but not necessarily in your topic of choice. Avoid being condescending, but don’t gloss over the facts that connect the dots for your audience.
Blunder #2: The slides speak for themselves.
This is my favorite tactic to watch, and you know why? Because even when the slides can speak for themselves, the presenter won’t let them! That’s right, I have a grown person reading to me from the front of the room. Talk about money well spent!
It’s tough to understand how this begins, except as a crutch for new speakers. Here’s an alternative. Make the “speaks-for-themselves” slides and print them out for yourself. Next trim out all of the words your going to actually say, and “save as” that file to be your actual presentation slide show. Limit this to important points that need to be seen to be understood (i.e. lists, graphs, or pictures). Only use the slides in the parts of your presentation that need them, and use the ‘B’ button (blank the screen) the rest of the time.
Blunder #3: Humor is for the other guy.
There’s a time and place for humor, and your presentation is not that time or place, right? You added jokes about the two bartenders walking into a church, and failed miserably. Humor requires raw, natural talent and you have none, and couldn’t possibly learn…right? hmm.
Humorless presentations sell…nothing. I’m not talking about product here, although that does apply. What I mean is, without humor you can’t expect to sell your ideas, vision, or calls to action. Humor needs to be a natural part of your presentation, not an added joke or two. The best source? Your life stories! That’s right, straight from your own experiences. Added bonus: your audience will not have heard them before.
Also, if you’re thinking that humor comes naturally…you’re wrong. The “naturally funny” people aren’t. Seriously. They simply learned the tips and techniques at an earlier age than you did (or will), that’s all. There are a plethora of resources out there to improve your humor quotient. In a later post, I’ll be sure to include some ideas about that.
Bonus Blunder: Deciding there is no room for improvement.
Remember, if you like using these blunders (or techniques) in your daily presentations, keep it up! Less competition is a good thing for me. Right?
Looking for a way to ruin that perfect speech? How about a tried-and-true method to disengage with your audience? Tired of people asking you to speak again? What if I told you that following just one bad course of action could help you with all of these goals? How much would you pay for that advice? $12.00? $17.94? One Million Dollars?
Well here it is…free of charge (shh!): …wait for it… … …Give out too much information. <– That’s the ticket. Now you’re probably wondering, “Hey Rob, what are the 3 best ways to do that?” I’m glad you asked!
First…cram too much material into the time allotted. … Imagine the perfect mutual fund speech: First point, the entire history of mutual funds. Second point, what mutual funds are. Final point, how to invest in mutual funds for your future. Time? not just 5-7 minutes…no…no…you extend this gem out to 6-8 minutes. Sweet!
Serious, boring part: Don’t be afraid to just talk about one fraction of one topic in your presentation. i.e. Pick history, and just talk about how the mutual fund got its start in the ’70s (or whenever they came into being). Now, people will be able to absorb what you’re talking about and understand your points. Bonus! You can talk about the current state of mutual funds in a future speech, and your audience will remember that you were informative last time, so they’ll listen this time too.
Second…Keep talking until you’ve said everything you can think of, no matter how long it takes. This is the best idea, because your audience is trapped! They wouldn’t dare walk out while you are speaking about this topic! You are the King, or Queen, or Jack…whatever. The point is you own the stage Ace, so they need to pay that rent and listen until you’re done, right?
Serious, boring part: Your audience is probably expecting a set time presentation, and a reasonable amount of information to be provided in that time frame. Make your promise, i.e. “You’re going to learn the 2 steps to investing in mutual funds”. Then don’t blabber on about anything that doesn’t meet that promise. Even if it makes you cool. When in doubt…drop it out. No audience ever gets mad at a speaker who finishes early. Ever!
Finally…Look at your watch in the middle of the presentation, and just stop talking! No conclusion. Or better yet, just say “Thank you.” and step off the stage. Victory!
Serious, boring part: You should open your presentation with your second strongest material, and close with your best material. You can’t do that if you just stop before you get to your coclusion. Practice your conclusion, watch your time, and avoid extra content in the middle. Don’t drop it off of the end.
Now! You know my secrets to less communication! Talk more…say less! It’s a winning combination. Take the time to add useless drivel and pointless content to your next speech, and your audience will be sure to ask for me to speak in your place next time! Victory!
Some of you might have read some of my previous posts about writing, and think, “I don’t want to write every day, or even every week”. Until 70 or so days ago, I felt the same way. It took quite a while leading up to that decision point for me to change my mind. In short: I don’t blame you.
I’d like to give you some personal stats on how writing can make a positive difference, whether you write something daily, weekly, or just as you find time.
Through today, I’ve written 70 posts. A majority of them have been about Public Speaking Tips, some have been on Writing, and some on Leadership. A few have been specifically about Toastmasters and a few a bit random.
In just under 3 months, I’ve turned 5 of the ideas into speeches, and expanded on 4 previous speeches to include more content. I’ve also generated over 30,000 words, which I think is at least 8 pages for my book idea. Of course, some of those topics won’t make the book, but many will, or will fuel other ideas for the book.
One of the more interesting things to me is how I’ve managed to remember some stories that I hadn’t thought of in some time. This has allowed me to start building my story file, which any good speaker will tell you is an important key to developing better speeches.
If you’re like I was, you’ll probably think you don’t have much to write about. The funny thing is, once you start you’ll find that you had more inside you than you ever thought possible, and once it’s on paper you’ll see it and be able to reference it more easily in the future.
I do have a modified recommendation, though. I think it is better to create the posts in another word processing program to save on your hard drive (and back-up), and then copy the content into your WordPress site. Of course, I run an “export” on the WordPress site once a week into an XML file, but having a normal wordprocessing file backup would be good too.
If you’re not convinced yet, don’t worry. It took me a while to find the writing bug. How long will it last? Who knows. But as long as I have ideas, I’ll write them down and keep moving forward…
In a few recent Toastmaster speeches, I’ve been told that I need to work on my vocal variety. I’ve never been a monotone speaker, either in my own mind nor from the perspective of any audience. However, being a monotone speaker isn’t the only vocal variety concern for anyone giving presentations. The four areas that the Toastmasters Competent Communicator manual list as characteristics of a good voice include:
1. Volume
2. Pitch
3. Rate
4. Quality
As a separate item, the manual addresses pausing, which I’ve talked about in other posts. I don’t think pausing is my issue (at this time), so I’ll leave it to those other entries.
All of the following tips assume that, like me, you don’t “naturally” do everything perfectly. Also, making these ideas work in your speeches means you’ll need to run through (i.e. practice) the techniques before you speak.
Volume – Looking at the speech for opportunities to try different volume levels. Something that is attention getting or a surprise could be accompanied by a sharp increase in volume, where a topic that is controversial, or an example of telling a secret might be better served in a whisper-like voice. For me, I don’t need to build in these volume changing opportunities (and I’m guessing you probably don’t need to either), but I do need to identify them in practice and plan when I’ll make those changes.
Pitch – A couple of examples to look for in pitch is raising your pitch for excitement, and changing to a monotone pitch to make a pint about serious, boring people. Also, subtle changes to your pitch can be used to mimic other voices. I’m not of the opinion you should totally change your voice when representing conversations with others in your speech. Just a slight change will signal to the audience that you’re speaking for someone else without being distracting.
Rate – Almost every speaker speaks too fast when they start out, and it’s one thing that you almost have to manually control, at least initially, to get more comfortable. You do want to avoid being too slow, since the brain listens faster than the mouth speaks. Look at points you can make a change, such as humorous items (i.e. quick lists), or complex subjects that may benefit from a reduced pace (for emphasis).
Quality – I think this is an aspect that can only improve with overall practice. Relaxing, avoiding cold or hot drinks, and warming up your voice before a presentation can help.
For all of these, taping your speeches and watching/listening to them will help you identify when you did well and when you could have changed something in your voice to be more effective and better connect with your audience. Don’t feel that you have to make all of these changes at once to be a good speaker. Unless you’re strictly monotone, in which you should start working on that this afternoon.
For me, my first effort will be to tackle volume. What are you working on?
This week, I’ll be trying out some new software to see if I can improve my speaking web site, www.robchristeson.com. I’m going to try Microsoft’s Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition to see if it’s something I can use more efficiently than the other software I have been using. Beyond that, I plan to integrate my WordPress site with my professional speaking site to make the whole process easier to use for everyone, including me.
On a “reading while driving” note, I’ve made it through the first (of 10) CDs in Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, What the Dog Saw. Malcolm is one of the best-selling authors of this decade, and deservedly so. I’ll post a review on my LinkedIn account and maybe even here one I’ve finished the CD set.
Tomorrow morning’s blog entry will be about working on improving vocal variety. Since this is a topic I need to improve on myself, I’ll outline a plan to improve my delivery through greater variety in my volume, pitch, and rate. Exciting stuff!
This morning (at 6:30 am), I’m driving up to Topeka to watch the Division T Humorous Speech and Evaluation contests. Division T consists of 4 Areas in northern Kansas, which encompasses the cities of Hays, Salina, Manhattan, Lawrence, Leavenworth, and Topeka (and probably another town or two that I’ll think of on my drive up).
Each area is eligible to send two contestants to the contest in each category, which means there will be as many as 8 humorous speakers and 8 evaluators competing to represent that division in the coming Fall Conference, Nov 20-21 (see www.toastmasters22.org for details and registration).
Speaking of District Conferences, I saw a video on Facebook (link is to YouTube source) last night that was created by District 30 in Chicago to publicize their upcoming conference in November (the week before ours). Good stuff. I think I’m going to try to do that in time for our Spring conference.
Short post…gotta run!
A few nights ago, I posted some thoughts on how to read while driving. At our Semi-Pro Toastmaster’s club meeting last night, I gave a 7 minute speech about the topic and posted it on YouTube.
If you decide to watch it, you’ll probably notice a few things specifically:
1. I had 2 main points
- You have to read to keep up
- Books on CD are the way to fit that into your schedule
2. I did manage to get a few laughs
- I started by asking to raise your hand if you have too much free time
- Somehow my reference to an on-the-cheap car stereo (boombox in the passenger seat) was amusing “Who has $40?”
- Call back to another speech about a person finding new work
- Evelyn-Wood-read-at-the-stop-sign joke from the post
3. I had some mistakes
- “I’m going to tell you the secret to reading while driving” instead of “You’re going to learn…”
- Stood in one area (this was partly intentional to stay centered on the video)
- Not very solid vocal variety – this is a recurring theme
- A few obvious reference to my notes
- 58% sounded like 15%
4. Nobody collapsed from stage fright
I had a good time turning that post into a speech and watching it on YouTube gave me an opportunity to see things I can use again and things I need to improve on.
Like I said in the conclusion…pick up a book and turn the key!
Do I have your attention? In this post, you’re going to learn some strategies for handling the one dreaded question: “What is your biggest weakness?” You may have heard this question worded differently, but if you’ve EVER been interviewed, you know which question I’m talking about.
There are some classic responses to this type of question, ranging from practically sucking up, “Sometimes I just push myself to work too hard”, to the classic Homer Simpson response, “I’m pretty lazy and stuff starts disappearing around the office”.
As you may know by now, my first question for your preparation is “Do you know your audience?”
Remember, they’re rarely interested in your actual weakness, unless you choose to blurt out something about criminal activity. The point here, generally, is to see how you answer the question. Tying your answer to what they are looking for (i.e. an IT guy with business skills or a Marketing person who can speak to engineers) will show that you’re willing to grow and be the person they need to hire.
Here are some basic tips:
1. Stay away from core job requirements. If you are looking to go into PR or Marketing, don’t highlight a weakness in writing. If sales, don’t talk about poor people skills. IT helpdesk? You shouldn’t mention a lack of customer service skills. I’m not suggesting that you lie or attempt to go after jobs you are unqualified for. I mention this because if they want someone with college-level writing skills, and you have those skills but sometimes feel you are not perfect, your answer could be interpreted as not meeting the requirement, all based on what they think you say.
2. Use a weakness that has become less of a weakness lately. I think this is a well-documented tip. The point here is to say something like, “I was having some trepidation about speaking in front of an audience, but since I’ve joined Toastmasters, I’m improving and I’ve even given 6 speeches in front of an audience this year.” or “As a computer programmer, I want to better understand the business side of my job, so I’ve taken a couple of classes from the local community college on Organizational Behavior and Intro to Marketing. Now, I feel I’m gaining a better understanding of business acumen.”
3. Avoid the urge to ask the interviewer to share theirs.
4. Stay positive. Remember, it’s not really a weakness, it’s a future strength.
5. Stay brief. No matter how clever you or your weakness may be, there is never a need to spend real time talking about it. Make your comments succinctly and move on.
This is one of my least favorite interview questions I’ve ever had to deal with. But with a little practice and preparation, you can use this hated question to your advantage. Remember to know your audience, and of course work on improving those weaknesses. Take the time to be ready, and you’ll impress that hiring manager and ace that interview!
Future posts will cover some other questions, including the following:
“What is your leadership style?”
“How do you handle adverse situations?”