Talk to the Human™

Carolyn. Kepcher. Delivered.

What an amazing evening. Toastmasters International 2010 Golden Gavel recipient, Carolyn Kepcher gave a keynote speech to be remembered at our dinner on Friday evening.

She started off with the story of how she began working for the Trump organization, and how she ended up on the TV Show The Apprentice. Her descriptions were quite interesting, including the references to running in heels (with visual). She gave an additional insight to those of us that saw the first season of that show.

It turns out that her fame on that TV show led to her receiving mail from women around the globe. That probably isn’t surprising, but Carolyn said this wasn’t fan mail she was receiving, but letters from working women everywhere looking for advice from her on how to handle difficult workplace situations.

This led her to the realization of how she could make a difference to those women, and others as well. She started http://www.workherway.com, to provide amswers for working women. By creating a strong network of experts, they are able to provide trusted advice to women to successfully navigate their career path.

She went on to redefine work-life balance as work-life integration. She told vivid stories of telling Donald Trump about her pregnancy 6-months in and how her daughter, at age four, told classmates that “Mommy goes to a board room and fires people.”

This was another case where the speaker was so good I had to go ahead and buy her book, Carolyn 101, Business Lessons from The Apprentice’s Straight Shooter. Although I had her sign it for my wife (who also respects her), I have to admit I will read it myself as well. Look for my review on the 22nd of August.

Toastmasters made another fine choice for the Golden Gavel recipient, and I know from the long line of folks picking up that book, seeking autographs and getting pictures that I’m not the only one who feels that way. 

Tomorrow…Business Meeting (Go Bash!) and that contest thingee, oh, the Toastmasters 2010 International Speech Contest. Stay tuned…

What happens when you make things too automatic for your customers, and an annoying error occurs? Answer: You could lose the sale.

In the last few months I’ve been reading some great blogs, and decided to try one of the products I saw. There was a product that was touted as something that would help me see success as a freelance writer. In what is an understandable sales technique, it was offered at a special rate until the end of 2009.

In mid-December, I decided to allocate the required investment (~$87) and clicked on the link to purchase.

The only option for purchasing this product was to use PayPal, a normally reliable service where I have had an active account for about eight years.

For some reason, PayPal decided to decline me this transaction. Per PayPal’s policy they “don’t care”. Actually, that’s a mis-quote. Their site says something to the effect that if they denied an individual transaction, it was in your best interest to insure people aren’t mis-using your account and they don’t have a method for overruling this on any specific transaction. It’s something they’re proud of. I sent a note anyway asking for assistance. No reply.

Okay. PayPal is PayPal. I’m stuck there, but I still wanted the product. I clicked on the “contact” button in the corner, and sent a note asking, essentially, “may I please buy your product?” I said something about requesting a different form of payment.

My logic was that PayPal might be willing to help eventually, but the seller would want to figure something out right now.

Of course, if that had happened, this would be a review of the product, not a review of not being able to buy the product, right?

I did receive a follow-up e-mail the next day, and was told “they would look into it”. That was, temporarily, comforting. However, the lack of follow through into mid-January is disheartening, to say the least. And of course, now a look on that site shows the product ”is temporarily off the market.” So if I wanted to go out of my way and create a new PayPal account with a different credit card, I’m still out of luck.

From the business point of view, what do you think goes through your customer’s mind when something like this happens? Here are some of the thoughts, temporary and permanent, that I have had in the last month:

Do I still want this product?(no one referred me, so in my mind I was taking a risk anyway)
Do they even care if I want this product?
Will they even miss the lost sale?
What if I had been successful and bought the product, would this be how they would support any future issues?
Are there comparable products out there? (and yes, I am now looking)
How do I handle my disappointment? (clearly I’m blogging it)
Is all of this even worth my time?(hmmm…only for the single blog value)

As I prepare to deploy my own products on-line, here are some lessons this experience has taught me (and yes, I’ve heard many of these before):

1. Decide on a response standard and stick with it. (i.e. one business day)
- No one wanting to send you money should be made to wait more than 72 hours to be allowed to do it.
- Same standard for any reasonable customer requests, even if it’s an “I’ll find out” answer to get time to research a better answer.
2. If you say “I’ll get back to you” to your customer, do it. Especially if you take time to post multiple blog entries in the same time period.
3. Plan for back-up payment options, in case your primary doesn’t work. If your audience is a blog/web audience, they’re probably used to on-line transactions. That doesn’t mean they should have accounts at every payment site out there. That said, PayPal is well known and (usually) reliable.
4. If you leave a product page up with a “temporarily off the market” note, maybe mention why or when it will be back.
5. If you decide to blow a customer off, you might want to make sure she/he doesn’t have a blog!!!

Final note:  This post is based on what is probably a blip in their process. With this site’s reputation, I doubt this happens to many people. My idea here was not to rip them, but to show what can happen when the blips go uncorrected. Maybe their $87 loss will be my gain down the road…

What do you do when PowerPoint fails?

Here’s the good news: PowerPoint never fails. The bad news, only you (the presenter) can fail. That is, of course, from the audience’s point of view.

That may sound a bit unfair (especially if you read it aloud), but it’s really not. Any aspect of your presentation can cause problems (i.e. lost notes, lack of practice, or bad slides), but you control how you handle those problems. In the case of a busted PowerPoint presentation, you have two choices that are totally dependent on you:

1. Be prepared so you can recover:
- Have other visual aides (i.e. handouts, flip chart, etc) ready if they are critical to your presentation
- Have the slides printed in case you were planning to use them as notes
- Practice your presentation with and without the slides, so you can work it either way
or

2. Fail because you weren’t ready

Your call.

Is it appropriate to use colorful (i.e. foul) language in your communications, i.e. when quoting someone else?

This question came to me recently from a friend who is probably a better speaker than I, but read my post on language use and decided to ask for a more specific opinion.

First and foremost, a quote is a quote. If you decide to change the quote (i.e. remove a word you don’t like and replace it with one you do) without changing the meaning, that is called paraphrasing…not quoting.

If you want to quote someone, you need to say what they said.

Second, do you need that part of the quote to make it effective, or to make your point? Would a similar (i.e. clean) quote from another source work? Will paraphrasing best help you with your point? If you’ve answered those questions and decided you need the quote, then use it.

Oh wait…did you consider your audience? For instance, a pastor can easily say “Hell” in a sermon where he is describing the place in the biblibal sense. But his audience might not appreciate an alternate usage, such as “Should you go out and sin? Hell no!”

Your audience may not be a church group. However, a professional setting such as a presentation at work or in front of a local professional group (i.e. Rotary, Chamber, or Project Management Institute chapter) may have similar sensibilities.

Even those in your audience who occationally curse in thier own conversations may be put off but an unnecessary four-letter word. That may not seem fair, or even be fair, but that doesn’t matter. If the language isn’t appropriate for your audience, change the language. It’s no different than if you used a series of accounting acronyms on an audience of lawyers. If the laungage doesn’t fit…it doesn’t fit.

Can you find an occation where it is appropriate to violate that rule? I’m sure you can. I tried it out just a couple of paragraphs ago. And I wasn’t even quoting a real person, just providing a fictitious example.

In the end, it’s your credibility on the line. You make the call.  You can’t (and shouldn’t) expect to please everyone, so decide which niche is paying the bills and find your fit with them. When in doubt, you’ll never be blamed when you err on the side of professionalism.

Are you tired of “free content” that leaves you needing to buy something to really get the value?

There seems to be a number of different marketing ideas out there, and there are two that I notice in effect that include free content.

First, there is free content that is designed to just whet your appetite for the premium content that is, of course, not so free. This model seems to be built on the premise that if you get too much good stuff for free, you won’t buy the premium content, products or services. 

I’m learning that this is quickly becoming a failed business model. Why?  Simple: Humans like you don’t have time for free crap. You want value for you time…not just for your money!

Duh? Yes, I know. But so many providers out there are thinking that their stuff is the best stuff that you can find. They think once you find it, you’ll stop looking. After all, their crap is as good as the rest. But no, you’re gong back to Google to look again and find something better. Then, once you find the really good content (and you are finding it), you’re doing three things:

1. You are sticking with it.
2. You are telling your friends in real life.
3. You are posting about it on FaceBook, Digg and Squidoo.

You might even be buying from those better sites. And here is the why (and the second kind of free content marketing):

Some providers are making content available for free that stands all by itself. It’s good enough that you don’t have to buy from the provider. This may seem like a risky business model, but it’s not. Let’s look at some examples:

LinkedIn -Yes, LinkedIn has premium features available for a cost. Many users don’t even realize it. How cool is that? Here’s how it works – the basic features are plenty for a large percentage of users, and cost almost nothing to maintain. In fact, it’s the free users that help sell the premium features to the small percentage of users that need (or just want) them. After all, who would pay for those if there were only 500 users on the whole system? No one. But with nearly everybody there (or so it seems), there’s a market for those wanting to use those features professionally. And because the main site is free and worth the time, more people sign up each day. Imagine if it required you to pay $10 a month once you had 10 or more contacts? Guess what? 50,000 abandoned accounts and no one wanting premium access.

WordPress - All hail WordPress! That’s right, it’s free and the more people that use it, the more that want it. But if you need more (space, users, hosting ad free, etc.) there is a premium service. Again, the free version stands on it’s own and you could go years using that every day and not miss a thing. Making that available makes the premium version more valuable, and therefore attracts some paying customers. Sweet!

Copyblogger - and other content-driven blog sites (like…ahem, mine). Some of these may (most do) have premium content that you can buy. The fact, though, is that you could spend days going through the free stuff and learn a ton of useful things. The extra content is totally optional.

What makes this work? The fact is that humans (like you) value useful stuff. Period. People that provide useful stuff (could also be you) will find that they are in demand.

Here’s the real catch. If you don’t have enough content that you can give useful information away for free, then you probably don’t have enough useful content to make a living anyway. Read more…learn more…experience more…write about THAT and see where it takes you.

If you’re looking for the free content, look no further. Not only do I buy into the goal of providing it, but I also like to point out where else I’m finding it. So what do you think? Which marketing model is for you?

Did you wake up at 4am on Black Friday to get a jump on the holiday shopping? You may thing that only a crazy few of us were out there driving in the dark, but you’d be wrong. One CNN report estimates 134 million shoppers were out yesterday, although better stats are expected in the coming days.

For me, standing in line at Target awaiting the 5:00am opening gave me some free time to reflect (since there wasn’t any light to read by) and think about the power of preparation, and how preparing for your next speech could be much like preparing for the onslaught of customers looking for a deal.

First- Make a promise

At Target, they had to decide what to put on sale. This included:
Determining inventory
Anticipating demand (not everyone was waiting in line for a $3.99 copy of Elf)
Chosing their time frames (opening time, length of certain sales, etc.)
Getting the word out – those pervasive sales circulars

For you it’s about determining what your topic will be:
What’s in your inventory?
What does your audience need to hear?
How long do you have to say it?
How will you get an audience to show up?

Second-  Preparation

At Target:
Building set-up – prepositioning expected hot sellers (like the Westinghouse TV that I missed by about 10 spaces in line)
Provided externals – map of the store and some free eco-shopping bags (I was too far back in line, but it was a looong line)
Staff clearly prepared to answer about any sales item…I bet they had to take a quiz or something

You:
Room set-up
Visuals and hand-outs ready to go
Rehearse and internalize your topic – don’t memorize it…know it

Third- Execution

Target:
Open the doors on time (5:00am)
Every checkout stand open (I was out with my purchase by 5:20am)
People pre-positioned throughout the store to answer questions

You:
Stay within your allotted time
Use the stage, not just one sopt
Be able to handle the odd question/unexpected remark with professionalism

Of course, there were some other great examples I saw, such as JC Penny’s (Snow Globe!), Best Buy (love my new netbook) and Wal-Mart. There were also some less-prepared stores, but I won’t mention them by name (one was the place I expected to by my netbook…a whole nother post).

For the speakers out there, these tips aren’t the only things you need to make a great presentation, but they are some things you can think about when getting that next speech off of the ground. After all, Target wasn’t built in a day…right?

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!

I read a post by Seth Godin today that caught my attention. It wasn’t on WordPress (shame!), but since the blogger is also a rather famous author, I figure he’s entitled to pick a service different from mine.

What caught my eye was a blog entry titled Creating sustainable competitive advantage, which discusses why companies like Nike or Starbucks continue to succeed even when others are offering copycat products and services for less cost.  This is of interest to me because I know so many people say they are looking for low prices, but many don’t purchase the least expensive version of what they are buying. To help explain this success, he includes a quick list of success factors, my favorite of which is “You can build a brand (shorthand for relationships, beliefs, trust, permission and word of mouth)”. (For the whole list, check the link to his blog post…later)

I hear the term “brand” a lot. I put a lot in bold only because I couldn’t find the read-this-word-now-super-duper-bold feature. Everyone seems to use the term brand. Before I digress further on its overuse, my point is that I like his use of it, because he provides a brief and usable definition that tells me “oh, that is brand“.

Take Nike for instance. You may not completely agree with my assessment, but here how I think they fit his description:

Relationships – think pro sports and athletes
Belief – quality products, widely available
Trust – their product perform and last
Permission – many people are familiar with their products and look forward to learning about new ones
Word of Mouth – just do it…does anyone not know this phrase?

Think about any product you depend on or support; how does their company fit into those categories? How does yours?

For a later post, I plan to examine how I (the Talk to the Human™ guy)will fit into those categories.

More on Seth Godin:

I’ve read his work in magazine articles (Fast Company) and I’ve read his book Free Prize Inside which affirms that innovation is actually cheaper than advertising. Maybe in a future post I’ll do a book review, but for now I’ll just say I loved reading his work, and Permission Marketing is high on my to-be-read list.

His bio from Amazon.com is posted here:

Seth Godin is the author of ten international bestsellers that have been translated into over 30 languages, and have changed the way people think about marketing and work. His Unleashing the Ideavirus is the most popular ebook ever published, and Purple Cow is the bestselling marketing book of the decade.

His latest book, Tribes, is a nationwide bestseller, appearing on the Amazon, New York Times, BusinessWeek and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. It’s about the most powerful form of marketing–leadership–and how anyone can now become a leader, creating movements that matter.

In addition to his writing and speaking, Seth is founder and CEO of Squidoo.com, a fast growing recommendation website. His blog (find it by typing “seth” into Google) is the most popular marketing blog in the world. Before his work as a writer and blogger, Godin was Vice President of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!, a job he got after selling them his pioneering 1990s online startup, Yoyodyne.

You can find every single possible detail that anyone could ever want to know at squidoo.com/seth.

Front Page stuff…to be sure

Raise your hand if you think that there has to be an instructor, a classroom, and a fee for lifelong learning to happen for you. Have you fallen into the trap of thinking that real learning (other than on-the-job training) can only occur in an academic environment? Or worse yet, that valuable and credible learning can only happen for those with or pursuing a college degree?

Like anything else, I need to know my audience. So imagine what your goal is, with regard to lifelong learning. I’ve heard a couple over the years, so I refer to them here. If you have one I’ve missed, feel free to let me know and I’ll be sure to provide an update.

I just want the piece of paper
This one is my personal favorite. I actually had a grad student tell me this when I was an Instructor for the University of Maryland. I’ll tell you what I told her. “I can’t help you with that.” Of course, I gave her the same tests as everyone else and she received her grade like everyone else. What I meant was, nothing I can do as the teacher will help improve her condition. What’s worse, that piece of paper will just get her into jobs that she’s really not qualified for. Even worse still? She’ll be over-qualified (with the degree) for jobs that she is better suited for. How is she doing now? I hadn’t even thought about it until I wrote this.

I want to improve my (current or future) job skills
Here’s a goal I can get behind. There are (at least) three good answers here:
1. Go to school for a related degree. Just because everyone thinks of this one doesn’t mean it’s not worth mentioning. Note: with a recession still happening, you can find some good deals out there on tuition.
2. Take specific skill-related courses. These can be from a college, or an organization that provides training and perhaps even certifications. Some companies will even pay for this.
3. Read books written by experts in your industry. This option has a couple of great selling point. Low cost, and it can help you be better prepared for options 1 or 2. If you haven’t been to school in a while (more than 5 years), consider reading a book every month, and within 6 months cut that time down to 2-3 weeks per book. Don’t count the total, just pick up and start the next one. Shave off an hour and a half of TV per week to make your goal a reality.
4. Bonus idea – join Toastmasters. Not only will you improve your communication and leadership skills, you’ll be better prepared for interviews and short-notice meetings. Not to mention that in addition to the certificates you earn for your progress, the Toastmasters organization will happily send your boss a letter highlighting your achievement for every award earned. I personally attribute my success in my last two job interviews to what I learned as a Toastmaster.

I want to start my own business
This is one of the tougher ones, and I want to be clear that you should definitely seek professional assistance (especially tax and legal advice) early in the process.
1. Know your Audience
- Decide how you’re going to succeed and in what area of expertise 
2. Read…alot!
- Specifics about your area of expertise (for professional speaking, I’ve read Money Talks by Alan Weiss, World Class Speaking by Craig Valentine and Mitch Meyerson and many other books)
- Guerrilla Marketing, Guerrilla Marketing on the Front Lines, and Guerrilla Publicity – great tactics for low/no cost marketing for the small business
- Nolo series of books – great info on business plans, trademarks, and a slew of other useful info. I’ve read and recommend Working for Yourself and The Small Business Start-Up Kit
- Million Dollar Consulting – Alan Weiss
- Trade or specific genre magazines – this is another long topic, so I may make it a separate post in the near future
3. Create a business plan
- www.score.org – Score is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. They provide a variety of free and low cost support to entrepreneurs.
4. Network
- Where do I begin? Professional organizations, public service organizations, local Chamber of Commerce, … this list may not have an ending. If you read 10% of what I recommended, you should have at least a dozen good options for networking opportunities.
5. Start with step 1 again every few months.
- If it was easy, everyone would do it

As you may have guessed, I consider reading one of the most valuable skills my parents ever taught me. We don’t live in a world where having read tons of books will replace a college degree on a resume, but the knowledge you gain from the time spent will enhance your credibility, and make whatever skills and credentials you have stand out in the interview or on the day-to-day job.

Lifelong learning doesn’t mean perpetual servitude. What it can mean is simply changing priorities just a little to see things change for the better in your life. But don’t take my word for it, pick up a book and see what happens…

Imagine yourself standing in front of a room full of people, all waiting for you to begin your presentation. Now imagine that you begin with the words “Did you hear the one about…”. Believe it or not, you just started digging a very deep hole for yourself. You’re probably thinking, “but Rob, how do I avoid that!”

You are in luck, because I’m working out my 3-minute audio lesson called “Ace your Opening”.  You’ve probably heard the old adage, tell them what your going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them. The thing that’s missing there is the essential need for you to develop a connection with your audience. You don’t want to jump into that first main point until you’ve established that connection. Editorial note: In my speech, there will be a short story here about failing to connect with the audience.

Here are the three ways you can establish a connection right from the start. Each of these techniques is designed to be the very first thing you say when you address the audience. Let me repeat that, the very first thing you say. Why do I repeat that? Because someone will think I meant for you to use these techniques after “thank you Mr Toastmaster”, or “Ladies and Gentlemen”, or “I’m really glad to be here”, or … you get the idea.

What I’m suggesting is to use one of the options below starting with your very first word.

The first method you can use is to open with a story or a quote. This is a 1-dimensional approach, since it only includes you speaking. If you use a story, remember to keep it “you focused” as much as possible. For example, “do you remember what it was like at your high school prom? You should have been there at mine when… …you would have seen me…”. Use this method to include your audience in the story. Of course, the story should meet a few criteria:
- it should relate to your presentation
- it can include humor, but probably not include jokes
- you should be able to call back to it throughout the presentation. i.e. “Just like my high school prom date told me, ‘ It’s just the way it is’”.

If you choose a quote, make sure you do a couple of things:
- again, it should relate to your presentation
- you should quote a source most (if not all) of the audience would be familiar with
- both the subject and the source should relate to your presentation. i.e. quote Gen Patton or Stephen Covey on leadership, Jay Leno or Dave Berry on humor, etc.

The next method you can use is to open with a question. This is a 2-dimensional approach, and had two really good purposes. The first is to get them thinking right off the bat. Once they’re thinking, they’re involved…and you’re getting connected. Second, you can gauge their overall energy level by their response, and work your next segments accordingly.

The final method for today’s post is opening with an activity. This is a 3-dimensional approach, since it involves true audience interaction. BEWARE- this is not for the novice or the unprepared crowd. It can be tough enough to make activities work in the middle of a presentation, but to open with one, you’ll need to be on your game. If you pull this one off, you’ll have a high energy room with an audience that is glued to your entire program. If you bomb it, well…ouch. I recommend feeling comfortable with leading activities in other parts of the speech before trying this.

A successful connection with your audience doesn’t have to be a difficult pursuit. By using one of the techniques I’ve discussed, you can make that connection, fell comfortable and confident, and with practice, Ace your Opening.

FAQ:  If it took you longer than three minutes to read this. Fear not, the audio version will be just fine…