Give presentations in the truest sense of the word: Getting up in front of hundreds of people and talking on a subject of which you are an expert. But, in communications, we present at least once a week, if not daily. Rob will walk you through how to get the most out of your new business pitches, selling new programs to clients, and speaking at conferences. He’ll also help you motivate employees and rally a team. The 11 deadly presentation sins, according to Rob, are: Failure to understand your audience A flat opening Lack of focus Bad storytelling No emotion Dull visual Low energy No interaction Misunderstanding body language Inadequate rehearsal A weak finish But that’s not all! He talks you through how to use just three points in every presentation, how to reinforce those points, what picture superiority affect is, and how to provide a call-to-action that isn’t sales-y (in other words, how to have a strong finish). Webinar Details The webinar is this Thursday, January 23, at noon ETPT, for those of you who can’t do time zones). It is free and it’s a two-step process. First, go to Spin Sucks Pro and click the blue “purchase” button at the bottom of the page. Click “checkout.” Either create a new account or login to your account.
Click “download purchase” and click the link on the confirmation page (you’ll also receive an email with this information). Register for the webinar on that page and you’ll be good to go! Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Let Rob teach you the path to redemption. Think to yourself: What would an actor do…and let one teach you the way (no pressure, Rob). See you on Thursday!Welcome to the 64th edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss – from Howie Goldfarb (Blue Star Strategic Marketing), Joe Cardillo (Visual.ly), and Email Data yours truly. For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t subscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over. Today we explore talent and dumb luck, the art and science behind language usage, and The New Yorker, one magazine that never let’s you down. Imaginative Photographer Lands World-Tour Job at Coke Howie on It Takes More Than Dumb Luck. For every Hollywood Star who makes it after being ‘discovered’ there are 100 who have friends, family, etc., getting them in the business.
That said, they still have to be decent actors (ok Billy Baldwin doesn’t count, he only had to have a cute smile). So if you figure there are maybe 1000 working actors making it on TV and movies, maybe, maybe 10 of those were randomly discovered. Most who make it in any form have ivy league degrees, or major stints in theater. It takes more than just dumb luck. It takes talent (though luck helps!). What I love about this story is that luck was involved. BUT holy COW he is talented and Coke would of been dumb not to take this obvious Brand Advocate and hire him! Dream job landed. Was he ‘just lucky’? You decide. Words to Avoid (or Use with Care) Because They Are Loaded or Confusing Joe on The Art and Science of Precise Language. Do you know GNU? If you’re not familiar, they are responsible for some very well used free, open source software. I bookmarked this post from them a while back and keep coming back to it, not because it provides the definitive version of over-used words like ‘content,’ ‘monetize,’ and ‘digital rights,’ but more because it asks all the right questions. Unless you’re an intellectual property (IP) hawk or studying the law, you probably use many of these terms interchangeably (I know I do). For those of us in marketing, PR, and content it’s easy to forget that language matters and there is both an art and science to speaking and writing precisely.