Twitter: 5 to Follow

Are you a Twitter user? If you aren’t using Twitter you should check it out. Take a look at Twitter: 5 to Follow over at Wired Presentations (my new blog). 

Be sure to check out Michael Hyatt’s getting started with Twitter guide: It is listed on the “5 to Follow” post.

Introducing Wired Presentations

Mosttoast is going to hang around and it will go back to its Toastmasters roots. In addition, I have started a new blog about presentations, webcasts, screencasts and other related topics. The URL is http://www.wiredpresentations.com. I think that you will like it.

Please join me over there. Don’t forget to subscribe;)

Changes are coming.

I am in the process of moving some accounts around. This blog has moved from mosttoast.typepad.com to jeffbailey.typepad.com/mosttoast. It will take a few hours for the domain name server (DNS) settings to catch up with the change. You may also notice some broken links. I believe this problem will go away once the DNS issues are resolved. In the meantime: The new RSS feeds are working properly.

I am planning other changes as well. Mosttoast is going to return to its original purpose and focus on Toastmasters. I will be launching a new blog that is dedicated to the general art of presentation. More news on that shortly.

Thanks for your patience.

Jeff

Public speaking makes you richer, thinner and better in bed – find out how!

A few days ago many of us presentation blogosphere folk were carrying on
a Twitter conversation. Somewhere during the discussion an idea was
born: Let's do a group writing project on "Public speaking makes you
richer, thinner and better in bed." Looking back on it I bet there was beer involved.

On Monday I was milling around a local Barnes and Nobles and wound up in the diet section. Man are there a lot of diet books out there. I just did a search on Amazon and the work "diet" returned 332,271 hits. And that was just for books. 179,000,000 hits for "diet" on Google. It appears that people are hungry to lose weight… I know, that wasn't funny.

Thinner
What if public speaking were proven to make you thinner? Just think about it. I envision something similar to Dante's 7th level of Hell. The problem is most people are terrible presenters and the question didn't ask "what if great public speaking were proven to make you thinner?"

Public speaking and weightloss have something in common. People are seldom honest with you. You can be fat and people will tell you how good you look. You can suck as a presenter and guess what: people will tell you how good your presentation was. Since becoming obsessed with public speaking I notice such things. This applies to the famous as well as the rest of us.

The next time you go to a conference walk to the front of the room after a bad presentation. You will hear nothing but awesome, great, etc. The more well known you are in your field the more difficult it is to get real feedback.

Here is another "truth" that I have learned: public speaking won't make you thinner but being thinner will make you a better public speaker. It is unfair but true. I am still overweight but I can tell you that losing 30 lbs did wonders for my speaking. I have more energy and am able to do a much more compelling job.

Richer
Sure, there are some people have gotten rich from public speaking — Tony Robbins, Barack Obama (he will cash in once his presidency concludes), and countless others. I think that it is true that developing your public speaking skills can help you in real life. On the other hand, being a crappy presenter doesn't appear to hurt much. If it did I wouldn't cringe in fear every time I am asked to attend a presentation.

I want to say the important part again: "being a crappy presenter doesn't appear to hurt much." I know one guy who kept his job because he gave a "great" presentation. I don't know anyone who has been fired because of a terrible presentation.

The problem is that there is no way to tell how being bad hurts you. I would love to see definitive statistics on how much bad presentation costs in a given year. I bet it is almost as much money as the bailout. Give a terrible sales presentation; Walk away talking about the potential customer who just isn't savvy enough to "get it." Denial … denial … DENIAL! Most people who present a lot think they are great at it. Unfortunately, they never hear otherwise.

Folks who write books may get a little richer on the speaking circuit — Malcolm Gladwell is doing well. His presentations are interesting but he obviously hasn't put the same effort into developing his speaking skills as he has his writing skills. And you know what? It doesn't matter. I would pay to hear him speak.

Better in Bed
I asked my wife about this one. She said that there was no way that this one is true… Sigh… always a comediene.

The Lesson
I think that the lesson here, if there is one, is that you strive for presentation excellence because you strive for excellence. Add to that a little compassion for your audience. Compassion is a wonderful thing. I wish more presenters had it.

Here are the other posts from this group writing project…

Laura Bergells, Lisa Braithwaite, Michael Cortes  and Olivia Mitchell.

Help me please! How can I improve the blog?

I have been working at this a while and would like to take it to the next level. If you have the time please
take a look at my blog and tell me what I can do to make it better.

What do I mean by "make it better?"

• How can I improve my writing?
• Is there any new topics that I should focus on?
• How can I increase my readership?
• etc…

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. If you don't want to say something in public you can email me at mosttoast <at> gmail <dot> com.

Watch a video; tweet your comments; learn how to present!

I am always looking for ways to improve my public speaking skills. Back during my Toastmasters days there was a core group of us — it was a really small group — who would get together at lunch to watch and discuss presentations. We found many videos on the Web so we never were lacking in fodder for our meetings.

Each and every one of us commented that we got more out of these meetings than we did the "official" meetings. Over the course of time each of us made the decision to depart from the club and so ended our video review sessions. It always hit me as peculiar that we quit doing something that we found extremely valuable.

I think that the reason that we stopped having the meetings is convenience. It is difficult to physically show up for a meeting. It is a hassle. There has got to be a better way…

I think that Twitter is the better way. Twitter is a web service that allows anyone with an account (free) to post very brief statements to the site. These statements are called tweets by those in the know. Brief has a specific definition here: it means 140 characters. One of the nice things about Twitter is that you can group tweets using a hashtag.

A hashtag is a short text string that begins with the hash character '#.' Here is an example: Let's say we are going to discuss how bad this blog is. You could use the hashtag #Mosttoast to allow lots of people to see the conversation. Twitter has a search feature that makes finding hashtags easy.

Back to THE idea… It would be very easy to tweet and say "Let's view this video and discuss it #vidreview." You could even ask everyone to start watching the video at a specific time and send the tweets in realtime.

Here is what I want you to do: Check out Michael Hyatt's (@MichealHyatt) great beginners guide. Go to Twitter and signup for an account. Send a Tweet to me (@sasxjb) and I will follow you. Once we have a few folks ready to go we will try the video review.

Hidden, subliminal, idea: do you think that you can find honest feedback on your speaking using this idea and say… YouTube. Wink! Wink!

Kathy Sierra’s Guide to Presentation Design

I am a huge fan of Kathy Sierra and her blog: Creating Passionate Users. There is no bigger advocate for software or Web end users. Plus, she can write like no other and really knows how to create interesting images. She doesn't claim to be a "presentation guru" so don't look to her for delivery advice: go to Bert Decker for that. This is one of the things that I like about her; she doesn't claim to be something she's not.

Kathy hasn't actually written a guide to presentation design: I mined her blog and pieced it together for her. This is only the tip of the iceberg. It is worth your time to browse her blog postings; there is so much great stuff in there.

Better Beginnings: how to start a presentation, book, article… – Kathy discusses various techniques to grab an audience's attention from the start — techniques guaranteed to have them in the palm of your hand.

Stop your presentation before it kills again – Kathy rails against the bullet laden slides that we all love so dearly. Pay strict attention to the "Do My Slides Suck" test. I really like the part where she puts the slide on trial. Pay particular attention to this point: It is hard for many people to discard a slide once they have created it. Don't fall into that trap. Execute the useless buggers — they serve no purpose.

Add graphics to your blog, book, or presentation – Before Presentation Zen and Slide:ology there was Kathy Sierra. For technical presenters she is the master. In this post she discusses graphics.

"People pay attention to graphics. They respond to graphics. They learn from graphics."

You should pay attention to what she says. She knows what she is talking about. Her blog is overflowing with outstanding graphics. It is easy to look at an image and tell if it is a Kathy Sierra original. Yes, her graphics are identifiable just like Stevie Ray Vaughn's searing guitar riffs (that may be a stretch but bear with me).

Give users a Hollywood ending – Kathy applies learning theory and film making to designing presentations. We all know it is important to end strong but how do you do it. You will also learn why it is important to design many endings into your presentation.

Many, perhaps most, presenters focus all their attention on the middle (meat) of their presentations. Kathy points out that audiences are more apt to remember the details covered at the end. Read this post to learn some tricks for creating that compelling ending.

… but is it memorable? – You need to make sure you make your presentation memorable. Kathy shares some thoughts regarding how you can do that. More importantly, she gets you to think about it. Thinking is the unsung hero of great presentation – we should do it more often.

There is a ton of great content on Kathy's blog. She no longer adds to it but there is enough content on it to take hours of your time. You should jot that down on your Getting Things Done (GTD) lists — spend hours of time reading and studying Kathy Sierra's blog. You will be glad you did.

For more Kathy Sierra images by Stephanie Booth click here.

280Slides.com: Wow That’s Good…

I am speechless and that seldom happens to me. I was playing around with Twitter when I found @mike9r. I made the leap to Mike's Blog and saw a post about 280Slides.com. I made another leap. I was astounded by what I saw…

I can honestly say that I am blown away. If you are a Windows user who longs to use Keynote then you will want to check this site out. It is KeyNote and PowerPoint on the Web. Here is a screen shot:

Keep in mind, I haven't so much created a slide using the application but I will. Thanks to Mike for talking about it.

Presentation Design 2009: A Whole New You!

Stop what you’re doing, right now. Listen. Here is what I want you to do: Get your copy of Presentation Zen and Slide:ology and put them away. You won’t need them from now on. The anointed ruled and the fanboys drooled. 2008 was the year of the Prezo Celebrity (Presentation Celebrity).

But it is now 2009 … we want substance over style. We want — no we crave — interesting ideas and content delivered by people who know how to present. We want trainers who connect with us. We want to look into their eyes and know they care about what we get from from the discussion.

In short, we want CHANGE! We want our presenters to think more about us, the audience, than they do their freakin’ slides.

It is 2009 and slides are out. They’re gone. They never were the most important part of the presentation. Worrying so much about something that matters so little is just wrong. Think of slides as you would a clown who crashes a funeral. Sure, it is something to look at but it really don’t help much.

Here is what we are going to do in 2009:

We are going to take an honest look at our presentation delivery skills. At a minimum we are going to videotape ourselves and analyze what we see. We are going to find and fix problems. Ideally we are going to find a qualified coach and we are going to take their advice.

We are going to learn how to craft a speech. This really means that we are going to learn how to analyze an audience and write. It also means that we are going to learn the black art of mercilessly editing our content. We aren’t going to read books about this, we are going to spend time actually doing it. No, it’s not as much fun as opening PowerPoint and playing with the graphics. Finding quotes and searching for pictures on iStockPhoto.com is more fun.  But this isn’t about fun. It’s about connecting and spreading the word.

We are going to develop solid delivery skills. This means work. It means practicing. It means rehearsing. It means getting off our high horse and admitting there is room for improvement. In short, it means doing things that we know we should do — but don't. We have been skipping this part because it is hard or we are arrogant and don't believe that it applies to us. This is doubly important for the “Prezinati” (persons claiming to possess superior presentation enlightenment). Celebrities — the fanboys will never tell you the truth about your delivery skills.

That’s a pretty short list. On the other hand, it represents a lot of work.

Back to PowerPoint. After you have completed the items on the list feel free to find your copies of Presentation Zen and Slide:ology. Hold them. Hug them. You missed them. You know you did. It’s now 2010 — time to worry about slide design again.

Slide Design 2009: Let the Bullets Fly!

Here in presentation land we have a monumental battle raging. The war: bullet pointers vs the Zen designers. We all know how this war is going to end: bullets always win.

The lovely and talented Olivia Mitchell has asked presentation experts
(and me) to participate in a group writing project. The challenge:
respond to Laura Bergells’ call for a new PowerPoint slide direction in
2009.

Personally, I think that the majority of presenters should fully embrace the bullet point style. It is so popular that there is no need to fight it. Having more bullet-laden slides is just what the doctor ordered. Right now I want to be very specific regarding what I want to see presenters do in 2009.

Here is what I want to see in slide design for 2009:

1. Put EVERYTHING you know on your slides. You are smart or your wouldn’t have been asked to present. You owe it to us to prove how smart you are. We, the audience, wants to worship you. How are you going to do it? Are you are going to put everything you plan to say on your slides? No, stupid people do that. You are going to put everything you know on your slides. The more information, the better. Seeing your vast knowledge will certainly make us fall in line.
2. Don’t use many slides. There is a rule — you have heard it many times — you should have one slide for every two minutes of presentation time. Stick too that rule. Treat it like the Eleventh Commandment. When you combine #1 and #2 don’t worry. #3 will solve the problem.
3. Let the amount of information on your slide determine your font size. You can never have too much information on a slide but you can have too many slides (#2). Your solution is the creative use of font sizing. You have a ton of information that we can’t live without, you most display it at all costs. By all means use a 4 pt font. Oh, don’t think that you have to be consistent in font size — you don’t.
4. Only use Serif fonts. They make you look very intelligent. Some of the greatest writing in the world is printed using these fonts. You are as good as the writers of that other stuff.
5. Make sure that you use bullet points. We are humans and we demand that our information is served with bullets. Bullets are used in outlines and outlines are used to organize valuable information. Your information is valuable. Therefore: you must use bullets. Don’t worry about filling up the screen, the previous items will help you get around that issue.
6. Always, ALWAYS, put your branding on each and every slide. The people in the audience must know your organization’s name. You may want to put your name on all the slides too. Never assume that the audience can remember who you are or where you work. They are stupid; that’s why they are the audience. It is your job to make them remember these things.
7. Use all available space on a slide. There will be rare times that everything you know will fit on a slide and still leave some space unused. When that happens put some clipart there. Or, better yet, put your company logo in there. It is good design to size it so it fills up all the unused space.
8. Use a title slide. Don’t forget to put your company logo and your name on there. Make sure your name is displayed in a huge font. That is why they include huge fonts on the computer.
9. Tell us about YOUR company. If the reason that you are there has to do with your company then tell us all about it. This is especially important during sales presentations. We need to know what an honor it is to buy from you. It is your job to explain that right off the bat. Devote a lot of slide space to this.
10. Use objective slides. Man, everybody loves those things. The audience is not as bright as you are and probably won’t get the subtlety of what you are trying to do. Help them out by including an objective slide. Don’t be afraid to use more than one slide for this. You have a lot offer. Don’t hold back. Objective slides sometime have unused space: don’t forget #7.
11. Have a slide that has “Questions” written on it. They need to know when they are allowed to interrupt the show. You can’t have them interrupting you during the important portion of the presentation. Allowing this can get in the way of you telling them everything that you know.

That should be enough to get you started with slide design. Next we will discuss why only losers practice and rehearse.