By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

You know you’ve done it before: What you think will be the right portion size of dry spaghetti for two ends up filling three containers of leftovers. That weekend vacation to Montreal? You didn’t really need to pack five pairs of pants. And that presentation you gave to the team last week – that was a Baconator portion of data served up in what was only meant to be a 10 minute update.

Many people make the mistake of putting too much in their pasta pots, suitcases, and in their presentations: data, visuals, bullets, long-winded explanations. And usually it’s not until after the water has boiled, we are unpacking our luggage back at home, and the group we were talking to is glazed-over that we realize: that was just TOO MUCH.

So here’s a way to Simple-Size your presentation and make it fit the amount of time you have to talk.

Assume you have 20 min to speak.

Now assume that the meeting is running late and you only have 15 min.  This is the norm so better to plan for it.

Allocate 2 min at the beginning and 2 min at the end for your intro/agenda and closing statements.

You now have11 minutes. Divide 11 by the number of topic areas you want to discuss. For example, if you have 3 topic areas you can talk for just less than 4 min per topic. Or you can give one topic more time and expand another. But you only have 11 min to work with. Remember this.

Now you are ready to determine what you can realistically cover in the time allocated. What do you fundamentally want your audience to know/understand/believe or feel? Keep asking this question over and over as you pull you slides together. Ask yourself if you REALLY need to read all the safety steps on how to run the photocopier to your audience, or whether that could be relayed in a handout or email.

Finally, if this is an interactive presentation and you will be allowing questions, shrink down the amount of data you will present even more to allow for this. Surprising how little ground you can cover in a “20 min presentation” isn’t it?

You have now Simple-Sized your presentation. And let me know if you need some extra sun block…for some reason I have 6 bottles of it in my suitcase.

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

A senior executive was introducing me to a class I was about to teach recently. He got my name right (most hilarious version to-date: Liz Razdick) but then came my company name: Manfelt. Oops. While I don’t understand why my recent intro’s seem to be trending into x-rated name territory I do know how to ensure that you succeed when introducing someone from the front of the room.

Get the person’s name right. If it is difficult to say, make sure you hyphenate it so that it is easy to read on your script e.g. Liz Rad-zick

Edit the bio. Weed out the excessive acronyms and general blah blah that doesn’t mean much (“Harriet is accomplished at helping people to achieve their goals and dreams”). Pick the top 4 or 5 most impressive things in the bio (education, publications, designations, honours/awards, travel) and if there aren’t any, see if you can talk personally with the speaker or their assistant to find out more engaging details.

Type the bio in 18pt font. Left justify the margins only, and use 1.5 spaces between lines so that the script is easy to read and allows you to look up to connect with the audience.

Look at the person you are introducing. As you read, make eye contact with the person and smile. By doing this you create a rapport between you, them and the audience before they speak.

Create excitement. Your job is to create enthusiasm and credibility for the speaker so speak with energy – there is nothing more disheartening than having to present after a tired-sounding introduction. Practice aloud before the actual event at about an 8 energy level (on a scale of 1-10).

Begin the applause. As you transition to the speaker use a phrase like “Will you please help me welcome…” and then start the applause yourself so that the audience follows along.

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

It was a dark and rainy night when I was driving my friend along Queen St.  That’s when I heard this horrible grinding sound caused by my car scraping the side of a parked car on the street. A 6 month old parked car with (as it turned out) a female lawyer in it. Not good. I immediately pulled over, put on my hazards and walked towards her car. “You hit me with your car!” accused the woman as she got out of her car to inspect the damage.

Things could have been worse – no one was hurt – but the last thing you want to have is an emotional scene after an incident like this.  Here are some things you can do to navigate this kind of intense communication scenario.

Speak in short sentences with lots of pauses. “Are you all right? Let me get you my info. Would you like me to use my phone to take pictures of the car?” Prevent emotional babbling by keeping it short and simple.

Breathe. When your body starts going into shock like mine did and you get shaky, breathing will help you to think clearly and decide what to do next.

Sink your energy into your feet and into the ground to stay grounded. By staying physically calm and keeping movement to a minimum I was able to maintain my composure and communicate clearly.

Listen closely to anything that is said and even take notes so that you can remember what you committed to do.

The result of doing these things was that the lawyer calmed down quickly and we were able to focus on exchanging information in a quick and civil manner. Imagine my surprise when we shook hands after the event and she wished me a good evening!

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

Last week my friend Lisa was feeling anxious. She was procrastinating about making a phone call to contact an agent about a resumé and headshot she had sent in to be considered for the agency’s roster. “If I get the receptionist what do I say?” she asked dejectedly. “ I never know how to get past them.”

Here are some tips to handle receptionists/assistants to increase your chances of getting a call back.

Sound professional: Don’t sound too chirpy or cheerful or accommodating or nervous or domineering. Sound like you have a clear goal to connect with the person and rehearse what you want to say (Lisa and I rehearsed her script 20 times!)

 e.g. Hi this is Liz Radzick. I’m following up on an email/package/text/voicemail that I sent to Dalia yesterday – is she available to talk at the moment?

Drill for Data: If the person is not available and the receptionist asks if you want to leave a message with her say yes…but there’s a hook!  Get more information about when and how you can best contact the person you want to reach.

e.g. My name is Liz and my phone number is (etc)…I was just wondering, is Dalia tied-up for the rest of the afternoon? Would I have a better chance of reaching her first thing in the morning before the phones start ringing say around 8:15?

If you do this in a friendly and confidential sounding way you can often find out that in fact Dalia is leaving for Calgary tomorrow…or that she will be in an offsite until after 1pm.

State Your Plan: If you discover that tomorrow morning would be a better time to try calling you can say something like:

“Great! I will call back at 8:15 then and if for some reason I don’t reach her I’ll check in with you later in the morning to see when a better time to reach her would be.”

Form an Alliance: Finally, get the receptionist’s/assistant’s name. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name…” is one way to ask this. You can then thank them for their help and end the call on a positive note. You have now had more than just a dry exchange of data and demonstrated that you are going to be persistent in trying to reach your contact.

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

You’ve heard the saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?” This is most certainly true when trying to prevent interruptions by both people and those little vibrating/beeping/Violent Femmes-ringtone-blaring technological wonders we know as smartphones during meetings and presentations.

My suggested strategy?  Stop Interruptions Before They Happen.

A  few ideas on how to do this:

a)  Print an agenda with timing suggestions and circulate it before or at the beginning of the meeting.

Example:

Social Committee Update            10min

Financial Report                              15 min

At the top of the meeting review the agenda and emphasize where you want to spend the most time and focus so that people will be more likely to police themselves. As well, it’s easier for the chair to bring people back to the point if they know that there is limited time to spend on each item. You can even appoint the most dominant Alpha in the group to be timekeeper – if they love to interrupt, they’ll relish the chance to be the sanctioned Official Interrupter/Timekeeper.

 b)  If you want to get through the whole presentation first and take questions afterwards, state this at the beginning. E.g. “I know that there will be a number of questions about the relocation of the photocopy room and I want to answer them all.  I would like to suggest, however,  that I go through all of the information first and then once we are all on the same page we can have a more robust discussion and answer questions  then.”

 c) “Take Their Questions Away Before They Can Ask Them” is a favorite strategy of mine. You do this by anticipating the questions people may have and build them right into your talk in the order that you think people will ask them. E.g. “Now many of your will be asking yourself: Why did we need to relocate the photocopy room in the first place?” Then you answer the question and pre-empt the interruption.

d) Finally, ask people to put their smartphones away or on silent. The challenge is that people don’t always comply; plus, if you are a junior member of the team the SVP’s may not appreciate being told what to do. In this case, asking a more senior member of the meeting to ask for  compliance might be more strategic.

By the way, is that your phone playing Blister in the Sun?

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

One of my favorite movies is Kindergarten Cop with Arnold Schwartzenegger as the hapless undercover cop in charge of a class of kindergarteners. Even with his rippling physique and imposing stature he initially struggles to maintain control of the room. In this age of smartphones and sleep-deprived workers sometimes it can feel like you are dealing with a roomful of distracted kids instead of a focused team of colleagues.

One of the ways that you can make meetings run more smoothly is to physically adapt the space to give you the advantage if you need to exert authority over an inattentive crew.

Here are the actions I used recently in client meeting of executives:

Always make sure you can see who is entering and exiting by not sitting with your back to the door. This ensures you aren’t caught off guard by the assistant bringing in papers that need to be signed or the refreshment cart.

Clarify how much time you actually have. Having this information spoken aloud will reinforce the agenda timings you have already set out and signals to the group that timing is important.

Move the furniture around if necessary so that you can see everyone easily. I sat in the center of long side of the table and pulled away the extra chairs on either side of me so that it was easy to make eye contact with all the participants.

 Choose to stand rather than sit. This gives you higher status and makes it easier for you to refocus attention if people get off-track.

(S)he who holds the marker has power. I asked if I could stand and use the flip chart. By doing this I now had 4 colours and a big visual focus to keep people’s attention where I wanted it.

Move around the room. Sometimes I would stand directly across from the person who was speaking. Other times, it can be more effective to sit and be on the same physical level as the other participants to show solidarity. At other times I would step back completely from the table and stand against the wall to allow the group to have a lengthy, internal discussion.

It is possible to stay in charge with a few simple actions. You can then declare in the words of Detective Kimble “You are mine now. You belong to me.”

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

Psst! Yes I’m talking to you. Yes you…the one with the guilty look on your face. Do your slides have more bullets in them than an old Clint Eastwood movie?

If you *are* guilty of bullet abuse it might be because you :

a)     Don’t like to rehearse and have to use your bullets as a script

b)     Are giving someone else’s presentation and haven’t had the time to make it your own (“Maria was going to present today but got food poisoning last night.”)

c)     You have a lot of dry data that you need to present and there’s just no avoiding it

d)     Your presentation is also doubling as a handout for the audience or for people not able to attend

You know the solution to a) and I will sympathize with you if you identify with b). But here are a few pointers to help you with c) & d).

Dry as Data

If this is the situation here are some tips:

Cluster the points if you can into categories of 3-4 (this is called “chunking” and it makes it easier for the brain to remember)

Evaluate the best order of the points and rearrange if necessary (chronological/alphabetical/macro to micro etc.)

Put the data in a multi-column chart if you can – charts are easier to read quickly and prevent you from reading the text

Reveal one point at a time using the custom animation function

 Use no more than 5 bullet points no smaller than a 14pt font

Presentation To Go

If the presentation is going to be used as a handout, one solution is to have two slide decks: one to present, and one to hand out at the end of the presentation. More work? Yes, but the payoff is big. People will actually be listening to you instead of reading your slides.

To do this, create a PowerPoint deck using minimal text and big pictures (Gary Reynolds has some examples  here http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/sample1.html)  and put all of your text into the notes section of the slide (Under the View menu, select “Notes page” to do this). Then present the slides, but distribute the Notes format as a handout.

You have to know your audience to make sure this approach isn’t too radical, but I dare you to see if you can reduce the number of bullets in your next presentation. Go ahead – Make My Day.

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

In a recent article in the Vancouver Sun a director at Home at Debenhams reflected on the kinds of words that are influencing male kitchen gadget shoppers.  “These men feel more comfortable buying equipment which is described using words denoting power and strength rather than style, colour or even value.”   Phrases like “Planetary mixing action” and “horizontal motor” are edging-out “stylish” or “well-co-ordinated” in advertising copy geared to this specific audience. So what does anodized steel have to do with your presentation to the executive directors?

The oracle at Delphi urges us to “Know Thyself” but when it comes to presenting the oracle should urge us to “Know Thy Audience.”  Just like a savvy kitchen appliance marketer you can get better results influencing and persuading your audience by using language that resonates with them. Typically audiences are a mix of different “chefs” and so here are a few language suggestions to help you flavour your slide titles, text, or your spoken delivery.

4 Types of Chefs in Your Audience

Controllers (Gordon Ramsey, Cat Cora): Often in management, care about time and money, results-oriented focus, accept sports/military metaphors, low tolerance for technical jargon, more formal in style

Words That Impress:

Win beat target maximize end-game  ROI  execute  impact  fight burn grip  succeed threat advantage drop-kick challenge build effort tackle solution competitive

Analyzers (Alton Brown): Techies /finance people, great problem solvers, love detail, care about accuracy and specific numbers, embrace acronyms and technical jargon

Words That Impress:

Synthesize track platform granular efficient prototype logistics avoid prevent deploy consistent  launch touchpoints B2B first-generation Web 2.0

Promoters (Rachel Ray, Jamie Oliver): Sales/Marketing people, big-picture thinkers, great initiators, hi energy, dislike detail, love people, enjoy expressive language and metaphors, informal style

Words That Impress:

Fun exciting new friends love amaze  interactive playful Mondaze (or anything with a majority thumbs-up next to it at http://www.urbandictionary.com/) great fabulous wow BAM! incredible

Supporters (Paula Deen, Michael Smith): Admin/Customer Support, care about relationship, helping & serving, prefer informal speech

Words That Impress:

Community share values team acknowledge appreciate invite safety-conscious welcoming family-centric homey social encourage enable environment inclusive caring

So what to do if you have a mix of chefs in your audience? I advise appealing to the Controllers first and using their language and their preference for more cut-to-the-chase formality. Because if you can’t take their heat, they’ll kick you out of the kitchen. 

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

So you’ve been invited to be interviewed on TV or on a webcast for the first time. You’re excited and nervous! What can you do to prepare for this kind of situation so that you look and sound your best?

1. Prepare answers for the questions. Call the producer or the interviewer in advance to ask if you can get the questions that will be asked. Think in sound bites – I usually suggest that people speak an answer aloud and then rewrite it afterwards. Then you don’t have to worry about memorizing the exact wording from the start, but simply tweak the answer you would more naturally generate. Remember, you don’t want to talk for too long – 30-45 seconds is a fairly long answer.
2. Make up the questions. If you can’t get the questions in advance, compose a list of 10-15 questions and prepare answers for them. Doing this will mean that you are better able to improvise on camera because you will have thought through your content in advance.
3. Rehearse and tape yourself in advance. Try to re-create the set you will be on (sit or stand based on the show) and get a friend to role play with you. You can record yourself using a webcam. Nervous gestures like lip biting or fidgeting will show up immediately and you can practice focusing on eliminating them. Don’t forget to breathe before you speak!
4. Choose your wardrobe carefully. Wearing white close to your face washes you out on camera, fabrics with tight patterns like checks, stripes, herring bone and hounds tooth have a vibrating jumpy effect on the TV screen, and shiny or noisy bracelets/dangling earrings create audio and visual distraction. Go easy on the lip gloss or you’ll look like an 80’s throwback.
5. Dial-Up your energy. Although the camera visually expands us by 10 pounds, it also tends to compress our energy. In order to look engaging and interesting you need to be aiming for a delivery energy of an 8 on a scale of 1-10. You may feel like you are acting like Grover on Sesame St. but if you tape yourself then review it with the volume off, you will discover that you actually don’t look as crazy as you feel. (Makes you wonder what being around Ty Pennington must be like in real life!)

Hope to see you on YouTube!

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

Superbowl Sunday was over two weeks ago and although I’m not a sports fan, I know for certain what happened before the kick-off took place: Both teams warmed-up in order to play their best game.

I believe that giving a presentation is no different from a sporting event because it’s a physical event. You don’t just communicate with your mouth – you use your whole body and presence. So what can you do to warm-up before a presentation?

Stretch and Bend. To avoid muscle stiffness and locked knees it’s a good idea to do some side bends, calf stretches…anything that you might do before other sports to get the blood flowing. I often start at the top of the body with neck rolls and shoulder circles and arm stretches. Your gestures will be much more relaxed and you will feel more comfortable gesturing with your arms away from your body than if you are tight in the pecs and upper body.

Face Off.  Nothing like a blank, expressionless face at the front of the room delivering good news on the 4^th quarter sales results to inspire the troops. Facial relaxation exercises are important because sitting in front of a computer all day doesn’t encourage eyebrow, mouth and cheek movement. Say “Bee-Boh” slowly over and over while exaggerating your facial movements –make a wide smile on “Bee” and a long fish face on “Boh.” Do not do this in front of your audience.

Untie Your Tongue. My favorite tongue exercises are as follows: Count from 1-10, recite the days of the week and the months of the year while holding the following positions: biting the tip of your tongue so that only the back of your tongue can move, placing your tongue over your lower teeth and behind your lower lip as if you had a poppyseed stuck in your teeth, and hanging your tongue out of your mouth like Gene Simmons from KISS. (Have I just dated myself?) Doing these exercises will help relax and limber up your tongue so that if you have an early morning conference call you won’t sound slushy.

Just Breathe. Take in 3 or 4 slow breaths while sitting in crash position in a chair. You’ll feel your belt dig into your stomach. You’ll feel your ribs expand. Now sit up slowly and take 3 breaths while sitting up. This should calm you down.

Now get out there and win!