In case you missed them, here are my top ten posts for April 2012:

1. How To Stop Working So Late – Part One. 789 views
2. The Ten Commandments Of Leadership. 549 views
3. Two Questions That Will Change Your Life In A Powerful Way. 478 views
4. How To Stop Working So Late – Part Two. 441 views
5. Three Secrets Presentation Pros Keep To Themselves. 428 views
6. 4 Tips To Say “NO” and Make It Stick. 330 views
7. 3 Simple Rules In Life. 243 views
8. Top Five Regrets of the Dying. 235 views
9. Two People To Keep Your Eye On At Work. 231 views
10. When Your Company Throws You A Left Hook To The Chin. 210 views

I want to thank all of my readers who made April the biggest (most visited) month ever for my site. I really appreciate all of the visits and most of all telling other people about my site. It means a lot to me.

If you get a chance, please forward your favorite to someone else you know. Thank you!

Which post really resonated with you?

Stay in touch — I love your feedback! Keep it coming. Regards – Rich

Most people don’t realize how bad meetings reflect on their leadership, management, and reputation. A bad meeting can hurt you for weeks, months, or even years (sometimes FOREVER). With a few simple steps, you can virtually ensure a meeting which will please all attendees.

Here are some tips:

1. Make it short.

I always try to halve my meeting. If I need an hour, can I do it in 30 minutes? Two hours . . . 60 minutes? The shorter the meeting, the faster it will go (duh!) which is a boon for all the attendees. Stick to the topic at hand, don’t try to do too much, keep the blabbers down to a minimum and you can get out of there in record time.

2. Start with the end in mind.

Have a goal. Most meetings stink because they slowly meander through issues, tasks, results, or presentations. Figure out EXACTLY what needs to happen, what are the deliverables, and ensure each attendee is prepared to make decisions quickly. Have an agenda and stick to it. Everyone will thank you profusely.

3. Prepare.

I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve attended where the organizer had absolutely no idea why we were there. Or they came late, had no agenda, let the meeting go WAY off-course, etc. Sit down and architect the meeting — it should take you no longer than five minutes. Layout how you will start, what you’re going to present, what might happen, and what you want to walk away with.

4. Be visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

People absorb information in different ways — if you are speaking another language, they won’t get it. So make sure you hit their visual (eyes), auditory (ears), and kinesthetic (touch – hug them!). My modus operandi: Use slides (visual), present by speaking (auditory), and have a backup sheet of paper (kinesthetic).

5. Arrive early.

I hate when the organizer is late to their own meeting. Be there ahead of time to ensure the room is organized, there are enough chairs, the LCD projector and your laptop are ready to roll, the temp is perfect, your agendas are in front of each chair, etc. If there is a problem or emergency, you have time to take care of it. I usually book important meeting rooms 15-30 minutes prior to the meeting to ensure no one is there and I have time to set up.

6. Greet attendees.

Welcome them and get them prepared for the meeting. Most organizers are rushing around doing everything in #5 — stand by the door and welcome people as they arrive — it adds a certain touch of professionalism. Trust me here.

7. Keep it flowing.

You are in the command chair. Stick to the agenda, keep your eye on the time and shut down anyone who tries to make it longer, take over the meeting, or goes way off topic. Ask to take their inquiries off-line and get back on-point.

8. Try to only attempt a few deliverables.

Too many organizers try to stick ten pounds of sugar in a five pound bag. Be realistic about what you can accomplish and focus only on the most important facts, information, and decisions. The more you try to add, you increase the chances of going off-course.

9. End early.

This is my gift to the attendees . . . TIME. Try to end 5-10 minutes early — don’t try to ‘fill-up’ the entire hour. If the meeting is winding down, close it quickly and get people on their way. You will get a favored reputation that you run efficient and on-point meetings. People will like to attend them.

10. Stay after the meeting.

Stick around to thank people for attending, answer any questions people might have, and follow up on any errant requests from the attendees. The more face time you give at the end, the faster the meeting will go.

If you do these simple steps in each of your meetings, you will develop a solid reputation as an accomplished presenter. People will enjoy coming to your meetings and your reputation as a professional will soar.

Image provided by victoriapeckham at Flickr.

I had to deliver a keynote to a large group of business owners the other day.

I used iWork Keynote with an LCD projector (all set up well ahead of time) — I felt each slide would add impact (see presentation here). As you can see — no bullets, bold statements — get in and get out.

As the meeting wore on, I realized we were running out of time. To add insult to injury, the speaker before me used ALL of his allotted time (plus some) — so I received a subtle prod from the vice president to severely cut down my time. Accomplished presenters run into this all the time — if you’re last on the docket, you’re usually asked to shorten your talk a bit.

So I did. I talked for a total of 3-4 minutes (a 50% reduction) with the same presentation.

Guess what? Major accolades from the entire audience. What did I do?

1. I jumped up, grabbed my remote, dispersed with the bio about me, introduced myself, and started the talk.
2. I kicked up my energy another 50% (on top of my usual 150% enthusiasm level). This is important.
3. I moved around and used my hands to deliver each point.
4. I interacted with the audience — I asked questions like, “Who going to try this?” They immediately raised their hands.
5. I spoke a bit faster, but I added assertive emphasis to each of my points.
6. No questions. There was no time.
7. I closed within the 4 minute mark, thanked my audience, and sat down.

The room of 60+ people burst into applause. Longer is sometimes not better.

POST YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS BELOW

P.S. Has this ever happened to you? Let’s talk. I’ve coached thousands of executives step up their presentation game — call or email me to schedule a complimentary session.

[Photo: presentation skills by o5com, via Flickr's Creative Commons License]

To be honest, there are times when I’m scared. Not the ‘horror movie, the zombie is coming after me scared’ — more like the ‘I’ve been pushed WAY out of my comfort zone’ scared.

A few weeks ago, I was asked by The Hartford to speak to a group of their employees — a small group, say 50-100 people. No problem — I’ve done it before. As the date moved ever closer, the attendance figures rose to 200, 300 until I walked into the building and found out we were looking at 750-800 attendees (for the auditorium and streamed via webinar). Oh my.

The main reason why there was a dramatic attendance jump was directly attributable to the title and topic of my talk: “Bulletproof Your Career”. To say the least, I had to pull every bit of speaker experience out of my being and ensure my time on stage wow’ed the audience. During this entire process, I used three ‘secrets’ to allow me to knock it out of the park (afterward, I was told my evaluation score was 98% — one of the best The Hartford had ever seen).

So here they are:

1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

I couldn’t have walked on stage in front of all those people without being 100% sure of my presentation and the logistics behind the presentation. First off, I spend a lot of time constructing the presentation. I have a rare form of presentation ADD, so when I build every slide deck, I tend to instantly edit, modify, and move things around because I get bored easily. I then run through the slides standing up, looking at my screen with my remote — to see how each slide runs into the next and I instantly feel the flow. Honestly, I do it a number of times until I get it right.

I also show up to the venue at least two hours ahead of time. I ensure I’m at the location (so I’m not late), I meet with the AV crew and connect my presentation to their machinery and I get a feel for the stage — I walk around, test the mic, see if there are any obstacles that might trip me up. Everything has to be PERFECT — and we have more than enough time to make it all happen. These little things all build my confidence and banish all the worries we all have prior to a presentation.

I also ask many questions prior to the event to get a better feel for my audience. Who will be there? What information do they need? Where are their heads at right now? All of these activities ensure I will deliver my best for all of my clients.

2. Simple, Clear, Concise

This is the hardest secret for presenters to stick to — keeping their message simple, clear and concise. They tend to over-complexify their presentation with a million slides, too much info on each slide, too many bullets (I hate bullets), etc. It almost becomes a treasure hunt for the audience where the presenter has buried the treasure and the audience has to find (decipher) it.

Image slide example.

My slides always have one of two things: an image which dominates the slide or words which make up a simple phrase. That’s it. Too many times, I see presenters go WAY overboard by adding too much information to the slide. They’re not only hurting themselves (the audience checks out at a certain point) but their are obfuscating their message.

Simple phrase example.

LESS IS MORE. Use your slides as illustrations to your verbal speaking points. You want your audience to spend the majority of their time looking at you, glancing at the slide, and then back to you. You don’t want them READING each point — then they don’t need you AND you lose the power and presence of a presenter instantly.

3. Pick It Up, Power It Down

Modulate your presentation — most speakers don’t do this — they stay at the same volume, the same tonality, and the same rhythm during the entire presentation.

Mix it up! Jump on stage and greet your audience — unless you’re a star and your reputation precedes you, every speaker needs to transfer their excitement and energy to the audience. The easiest way to do that is to greet everyone with a huge “Good Morning”. First impressions impact your entire presentation.

Start out strong and let them know what they’re in for — give them a brief overview of what your’re going to cover. Tell them a story — get them excited about true instances which bring your points to life.

Power it down to make a point — get them to focus — but then bring it back up by asking a question or make a self-depreciating comment to make them laugh. Whatever you choose, keep the rhythm moving,  unexpected, go up and down in tonality. This is not a world affairs forum and you are not expounding on the economics of third-world countries — you are informing, entertaining and engaging your audience. Make it a celebration!

POST YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS BELOW

P.S. Are you a GREAT presenter? Do you get your audiences cheering after your talk? If not, Let’s talk. I’ve coached thousands of people (just like you) and have helped them improve their presentation skills — call or email me to schedule a complimentary session.

Some people love to give presentations. Some people hate it.

Most people fall somewhere in between these two points on the presentation spectrum.

What do want to most from your presentation? A decision? Enthusiasm for a idea? A sale? A way to present bad numbers so they look good?

It could be a myriad of things — but all great presentations have a few critical areas where they excel — Purpose, Resonance, Enthusiasm, Experience, Narrative. Let’s look at each one and how it impacts your presentation:

Purpose

I can’t tell you how many presentations I’ve been to where two minute into the presenter speaking, I’m already lost. They’ve given me no semblance of what they will be covering and some basic waypoints to gauge where we are in the presentation.

How to fix: One of your first slides should cover a brief summary of what you will be speaking about and what you expect from the presentation. Something as simple as: “Today, I will be covering why we should begin to move all of our executives onto iPads. I’m going to cover the current state, impact, and desired state of our mobile systems.” It’s that easy.

Resonance

You are not reading out test scores — you’re trying to sway your audience to feel for your position. So empathy and communication play large parts in how you give and relate your presentation to your audience. One definition of resonance is ‘a quality of evoking a response’. Your job is to feel for your audience — understand how they are absorbing the information you’re presenting.

How to fix: Keep scanning the audience — watch body language — see if they are engaged or distracted or puzzled. You’ll know. If they are checking out — get them involved — ask questions of the audience. Ask for their opinion and get them to raise their hands. Also, move around — engage all parts of your audience — get down to their level.

Enthusiasm

Here’s a little secret: All presentations are 90% Broadway. They’re performances. Why? The more your audience is emotionally engaged in your presentation, the more likely they are to like it, take away key information, and tell others about it. If you just stand there and recite slides, they’re going to check out, miss key information, and tell everyone you stunk.

How to fix: You are an evangelist of information. Live and breathe your info — get them excited about it too! Smile, raise and lower the tonality of your voice, and move your hands to make points. If you aren’t excited about what you’re speaking about, who will be?

Experience

You have to know your stuff. Many speakers get up and immediately venture down unchartered territory. When one errant question arises, they sudden fall silent or stumble with an answer. You have to know your topic cold.

How to fix: Keep your presentation on point — less is more. Stick to your topic and hammer all points of it — be prepared — anticipate most of the questions that will be asked. If you don’t know something — say it: “Wow, that’s a good question. I don’t know, but I can find out. Let’s talk after the presentation.” It’s that easy.

Narrative

Just spilling out facts will not help you with the other four areas. You have to relate stories – people LOVE stories.

How to fix: Tell stories. I usually incorporate at least 1-2 stories during a presentation. Make sure they stay on topic, are interesting or funny, and can be told in less than two minutes. Pick a situation in your career, someone who made a positive impact on you, or an item you found in your research.

POST YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS BELOW

P.S. If you’d like more information about how I deliver powerful presentations - Let’s talk. I’ve worked with thousands of executives and find this is a perfect way to start a coaching relationship — call or email me to schedule a complimentary session.

I’ve sat through them all. The status report – the droning – the hot meeting room – the dark, comfy chair presentations. Slide after slide after slide. 

Shoot me now.

I’ve given thousands of keynotes, workshops, seminars and sales presentations. I know what works and what doesn’t. I know what keeps my audience lively and what puts them to sleep.

In the end, there’s ONE clearcut rule almost every presenter forgets when they deliver their presentation.

The shorter the better.

That’s it. But it’s a lot harder to do in real life. So here’s how I do it:

Step 1. Map out your presentation.
What do you want to talk about, what do you want to convey, what decisions/next steps do you want to leave with?

Step 2. Kill as many bullets as you can. Kill them all if you have to.
Bullets communicate to your audience you’re lazy. You end up giving them lists, not convey a cogent message. Stick to one thought or piece of information per slide.

Step 3. When you finish the initial run through of slides, try to edit them by 50%.
I know it’s hard. But if you attack your slides with the vigor of an attendee to your presentation, you’ll appreciate brevity.

Let me give you an example — I just presented a 7-minute sales presentation to my 45-member sales team the other day. Not one hour, 30 minutes, or 15 minutes . . . 7 minutes. And they gave me 10 minutes to present! I encapsulated EXACTLY what I wanted to say, what areas I wanted to focus on in 2012, and what I wanted them to do for me.

And it worked perfectly. So next time you have to give a presentation — The shorter the better.

POST YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS BELOW

P.S. Big presentation coming up? You and I can work on it together so you instantly get what I’m talking about - Let’s talk. I’ve worked with thousands of people who wanted to take assertive steps in this area — call or email me to schedule a complimentary session.

Okay, ‘Complexify’ is not a real word. 

But it should be. Because we all complexify our lives, our careers, and our relationships with excess baggage.

Most of my time in corporate and coaching is spent wading through this morass of baggage to get to that shiny nugget of an idea.

For years, I was the one in the meeting trying to understand a needlessly complex presentation or product. All because the presenter was trying to impress their audience by making the communication more complex. They used lots of big words. Volumes of charts. Slide upon slide of bullets.

So here are my commandments:

1. Complex communication is lazy. Usually, if people complexify their presentation, it’s because they haven’t thought the entire presentation through. They haven’t put themselves in the audience’s seat to view the presentation. In fact they add slides, graphs, bullets, and garbage to their communication because they are afraid of missing anything — so they just add everything. It’s like going on a trip — you’re afraid of not having the right clothes — so you bring them all.

Easy Fix: Edit, edit, edit. You need to revise constantly with an eye to shortening your communication – make it more concise – keep it clean and simple.

2. Complex communication doesn’t make you look smarter. So many executives and business owners try to be clever with their communication. They feel their college and grad school education is best portrayed with a complex and mellifluous vocabulary. The more the better. They will happily drop a report or presentation with 75 slides to give the effect they are a hard worker — just like in school when they dropped a 20 page paper on the teacher’s desk. I’m not advocating ‘dumbing it down’ — just simplifying it a bit. By the way, the teacher hated you for it.

Easy Fix: Keep your self esteem in check — people will appreciate direct, simple language and direction over complex and fuzzy information. Today, most people recognize and admire people who keep things simple and straightforward. Remember, the Gettysburg Address (263 words in length) was delivered in two minutes. That’s your goal.

3. Complex communication works against you. You might not know it, but many people probably walk out of your presentations with more questions they came in with. Are many of your email directions followed up with multiple questions? Do people on your team go in the wrong direction frequently with their duties? It might be time for you to review HOW you speak to them — they might not totally understand your intentions.

Easy Fix: At the end of a presentation or meeting with staff, ask: “Any questions? Is there anything you want me to go over again? Is everyone clear?” Be earnest and push them for questions — and don’t give them a mental demerit if they do ask a question. That’s your job — to clearly inform, direct and motivate your troops.

P.S. I attended a great presentation years ago from a real professional who is one of the leaders in online design and communication – Larry Constantine. Check out many of his books at Amazon or his site.

POST YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS BELOW

P.S. Do you need to de-complexify your career? Let’s talk. I’ve worked with people from all over the world who wanted to take aggressive steps in their career — call me to schedule a complimentary session.

There are so many bad ways to use PowerPoint (or Keynote if you own a Mac) when you deliver a presentation. Again, let’s cut to the chase — here are my 5 Must Do’s when it comes to delivering a presentation:

1. Know Your Material
   Feel free to glance up and see what slide you are on, but don’t read the slide verbatim (the only caveat to this rule are quotations). The act of glancing at the slide allows your audience to follow your gaze to the slide, get the gist of the image/message, and then re-focus on you. These actions develop a great synergy between the presenter and the audience.
2. No Lecterns or Pedestals
   You need to reach out and touch your audience. Placing lecterns, tables, and stages between you and the audience separates you from them. You need to step out into the audience, get to their level, and move around. That will make your presentation much more powerful.
3. Act Naturally
   Animate yourself. Too many presenters try to act too cool. Move your hands, smile, raise your voice – presenting is ACTING. And the audience wants a performance. Make a powerful point.
4. Greet Attendees Prior To The Presentation
   Arrive really early – 1-2 hours and setup your entire presentation, LCD projector, laptop and make sure they work flawlessly. Then when the attendees arrive, mingle with them. Introduce yourself, learn their name, and learn a little about them. This is a trick I use to then incorporate their experiences into my presentation: “Take Tom from Tacoma, he’s a used car salesman with a speech impediment . . .”
5. Pay Attention To Your Audience
   Regularly temperature check for attentiveness. If you begin seeing yawns, pick it up a bit – start calling names for examples. Get the room moving – constantly ask for questions – I ask “How am I doing so far? Have I lost anyone yet?” Your delivery should moderate to the audience – pick it up or slow it down.

As I said in my last post, my comments might sound harsh – but I am a highly discriminating audience. There are too many bad presenters (90% awful to 10% great) – so take these tips to heart and you will be one of the 10%. Good luck!

P.S. Again, feel free to agree or disagree with me (that’s what the comments section is for) – I look forward to the discussion!

1. Solid, Plain Background
   Keep it simple and open (I like plain white). Also, everyone loves to have their logo on every page – I don’t ascribe to this tenet. If you are afraid of someone absconding with critical information, have copyright info at the beginning and end. If you’re worried, add it to the printed form. But for screen projection – Less is More.
2. No Bullets
   If you are using bullets on a slide, you are saying TOO much. Your slide is a thought, an impact, or an idea that people will remember. What you add verbally is the filler, the bullets, the knowledge. The minute I see bullets I want to walk out – because I know that the presenter has no idea what they’re doing.
3. 15 Words or Less
   I prefer 10 or less, but 15 is fine. Again, less is more. People don’t want War & Peace, they want ideas, they want knowledge, they want to be entertained. If you fill the page with words, they are reading and not listening to you.
4. Images
   Use images to add flourish and vibrancy to what you are saying. If they are boring business photos or bad art (which comes with PowerPoint – and they’re awful) – stop before you kill again. Don’t put an image on every slide – let the typography of the information reinforce your verbal statement.
5. Colors & Fonts
   Keep it to 2-3 consistent colors. Since my branding has green, I use it with a graphite gray and a subdued autumn orange. That’s it. Keep to 1 font only – if you begin to mix, I will walk out.

My comments might sound harsh – but I am a highly discriminating audience. My time is money (and yours should be too). I encounter too many morons (and I use the term lightly) who abuse our senses with bad presentations and awful delivery (I will cover How To Deliver in my next post). I hope they find illumination from this post and change their treasonous ways.

Feel free to agree or disagree with me (that’s what the comments section is for) – I look forward to the discussion!

1. Use A Solid, Plain Background

Keep it simple and open (I like plain white). Also, everyone loves to have their logo on every page – I don’t ascribe to this tenet. If you are afraid of someone absconding with critical information, have copyright info at the beginning and end. If you’re worried, add it to the printed form. But for screen projection – Less is More.

2. No Bullets

If you are using bullets on a slide, you are saying TOO much. Your slide is a thought, an impact, or an idea that people will remember. What you add verbally is the filler, the bullets, the knowledge. The minute I see bullets I want to walk out – because I know that the presenter has no idea what they’re doing.

3. Ten Words or Less

I prefer 10 or less, but 15 is fine. Again, less is more. People don’t want ‘War & Peace’, they want ideas, they want knowledge, they want to be entertained. If you fill the page with words, they are reading and not listening to you.

4. Use Images

Use images to add flourish and vibrancy to what you are saying. If they are boring business photos or bad art (which comes with PowerPoint – and they’re awful) — stop before you kill again. Don’t put an image on every slide – let the typography of the information reinforce your verbal statement.

5. Colors & Fonts

Keep it to 2-3 consistent colors. Since my branding has green, I use it with a graphite gray and a subdued autumn orange. That’s it. Keep to 1 font only – if you begin to mix, I will walk out. Mixing of fonts communicates to the audience that you don’t know what you’re doing.

6. Know Your Material

Feel free to glance up and see what slide you are on, but don’t read the slide verbatim (the only caveat to this rule are quotations). The act of glancing at the slide allows your audience to follow your gaze to the slide, get the gist of the image/message, and then re-focus on you. These actions develop a great synergy between the presenter and the audience.

7. No Lecterns or Pedestals

You need to reach out and touch your audience. Placing lecterns, tables, and stages between you and the audience separates you from them. Step out into the audience, get to their level, and move around. That will make your presentation much more powerful.

8. Act Naturally

Animate yourself. Too many presenters try to act too cool. Move your hands, smile, raise your voice – presenting is ACTING. And the audience wants a performance. Make a powerful point. They want BROADWAY!

9. Greet Attendees Prior To The Presentation

Arrive really early – 1-2 hours and setup your entire presentation, LCD projector, laptop and make sure they work flawlessly. Then when the attendees arrive, mingle with them. Introduce yourself, learn their name, and learn a little about them. This is a trick I use to then incorporate their experiences into my presentation: “Take Tom from Tacoma, he’s a used car salesman with a speech impediment . . .”

10. Pay Attention To Your Audience

Regularly temperature check for attentiveness. If you begin seeing yawns, pick it up a bit – start calling names for examples. Get the room moving – constantly ask for questions – use ‘WHO’ questions to raise the audience excitement: “Everyone’s been fired at one time or another. I need a good story from the audience — WHO would like to go first?”  Your delivery should moderate to the audience – pick it up or slow it down.

Watch the master (Steve Jobs) at work:

What other tips make you a Presentation GOD?

I present to audiences all over the world. In college, I took a communications course which made me stand up and give presentations each week to the class.

Most people developed very serious talks. One topic the instructor assigned was to pick a person in our life who helped us cope with the craziness of childhood, most of my peers chose their grandfather/grandmother, mother, father, etc.

I chose Batman. I kept it light, funny, and focused. I spoke about how he helped me learn to read (comics) and gave me a basic ethical structure in relation to crime. He also taught me about how to correctly throw a Bat-a-rang. I got an ‘A’ from the professor.

Rule #1
If you have to speak, be comfortable with your topic and materials.

Most people stand up and keep their topic and presentation style very formal and impersonal. That’s probably why they feel uncomfortable and usually, their presentations suck. Your presentation has to be YOU. They need to see you built it, crafted it, and are delivering it from your personality, your experiences, and your knowledge. Anything less . . . it probably won’t work.

I also took the Dale Carnegie Class (12 weeks/3 hour meetings) and had to stand up each meeting and give an impassioned speech with no notes, no Powerpoint, for a specific amount of time. It was difficult and fraught-ridden with failure.

Rule #2
Speak from your heart to capture their hearts and minds.

Emotions are tricky things to manipulate and master. Candidly, all presentations are ‘Broadway‘ — it’s partially the content, but the real discriminator is the delivery. If you REALLY believe in your topic and transfer all emotions in your talk, you’ll have your audience in the palm of your hand.

When I was a young executive, my boss and I worked weeks to develop a speech he was going to give at a major tech expo (1000+ attendees). The morning of the speech, he and I were going over it, and he said, “Rich, I think YOU should do it. It would be a good opportunity for you to really broaden your experience in front of a large crowd,” I was nervous, but I did it, and I hit it out of the park.

Rule #3
Forget about screwing up, the crowd, the pressures — just do it.

This might sound flippant, but everyone I’ve coached and trained in public speaking all agree once you are up there speaking, most (if not all) your ambivalence disappears.

It’s the build-up to the event that terrifies you. You tell yourself stories, develop worst-case scenarios, and mentally watch yourself fail in front of thousands of people.

You also have to practice, practice, practice. Know your material cold. Check your timing, transitions, and ability to handle a basic set of questions.

Once you get up there, a large percentage of your jitters and shakiness evaporate and any lingering insecurity is managed by your focus on the topic and delivery.

How do you shake off your speaking insecurities?

Once a month, I go to an incredible meeting of 100+ successful executives who get together to talk business.

The person who runs the show is an incredible personality — full of vigor, experience, and knowledge. His ability to speak in front of the group each month is a pleasure to watch. Unfortunately, his ability to put together a professional looking presentation is clearly missing and he also doesn’t know how to work his own laptop for the presentation (he consistently runs into mishaps and problems).

This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. There’s a lot of competent professionals and executives out there with ugly, cheesy, and just plain awful logos, images, and presentations. And to top it off, they have no technical experience to operate their own machines.

Their excuse is they’re not competent with the tools at their disposal, they ‘just don’t have the eye’ for design, or they don’t have the money to hire someone who has the ability to make their stuff great.

Guess what? You’re in business. Everything about your business needs to not only be great, but look great too. It also needs the ability to communicate effectively to your audience. Stop hiding behind the old and antiquated belief ‘you’re above all that mundane stuff’ — you’re too important/elevated to have to know/understand your own technology.

Here are some excuses I run into:

“I don’t need to know how to run my laptop.” — Yes you do. It’s your business. If you look like an idiot in front of an audience because you don’t pre-plan and ensure everything is working fine, it’s YOUR fault. Grow up and learn your tools inside out. It’s not an overhead projector, it’s a laptop.

“I know we need to make our website look better.” — Yes you do. You should have done it YEARS ago. It’s almost 2011, not 1998. Your site is the first location most people encounter your image and information. Screw this up and you cut your sales dramatically.

“I have to have my logo/business cards redone.” — Yes, they suck. You look like a hobbyist, unprofessional, and you are wandering through business with an unprofessional image for all of us to endure. Hire a competent creative to redo your entire look. Today. See this post.

“It’s the best I can do or I was too busy to get it done right.” — Are you an idiot? Would you say that to a client? I’m giving my time and energy to meet, greet or go to your presentation — hire someone who can do it for you or take the time to do it. Stop acting like a child.

I know I’ve been a little harsh about this topic, but I meet/greet many people in my day-to-day business. Many have their act together. But there is a wide swath of professionals and executives who are damaging their image and business (and hurting my eyes) when they don’t fix what is clearly and apparently wrong with their image and business. And their attitude is they are ‘too above’ this issue to worry about it — bottom line, YOU’RE NOT.

This is not rocket science folks. Hire a competent creative or designer (I know many great ones) who can help you look INCREDIBLE. Don’t hinder or hurt your message with bad design, tools or planning.

Brought to you by Edward Tufte, my hero. If you don’t know who he is, check out his site, his books, and his workshops. And it you don’t have the time, either hire someone who knows of him or get off your butt and make time.

What are your design pet peeves?

I’ve been busy the last few weeks.

In addition to coaching a full practice of clients, my action team meetings started this week (say goodbye to Monday nights). So the production end of my business is ‘full-steam ahead’.

But I also got up early every morning over the past two weeks (4:30 AM) to attend various networking/sales meetings to spread the word of the Rich Gee Group.

And I gave a major presentation Thursday to a business group (50+ executives) about how to market themselves. It was a big hit for me – most attendees gave me a 4 to 5 rating (on a scale of 1-5).

So the ‘development’ end of my business was in full gear too. What did it deliver? I received an avalanche of interest in my coaching and my phone has been off the hook. In addition, my site numbers are through the roof and I have a pack of new business cards that can choke a horse (all to enter today into my contact list for eBlasts).

Why am I telling you all this? Not to brag (even though it is bragging . . . ). But to illustrate HOW TO GET CLIENTS.

Get out there and SHAKE HANDS. Get out there and be visible. Get out there and BE A BILLBOARD.

You are the product – get others to meet you, talk with you, experience you. “Take you out for a test drive” as I call it.

Don’t hover over your laptop all day. Get OUT and MEET people. It’s that easy.

If you show a client a highly polished computer layout, they will probably reject it.

By Paul Arden in It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be (an incredible book!)

There is either too much to worry about or not enough to worry about. They are equally bad. It is a fait accompli.

There is nothing the them to do. It’s not their work, it’s your work. They don’t feel involved.

If they don’t like the face of the girl in your rendering, or the style of the trousers worn by the man on the right., or your choice of the car he’s driving, they will reject it.

They won’t see the big idea. They will look at the girl’s face and think, ‘I don’t like her, this doesn’t feel right.’ It is very difficult for them to imagine anything else if what you show them has such detail.

Show the client a scribble.

Explain it to them, talk them through it, let them use their imagination. Get them involved.

Because you haven shown the exact way it’s going to be, there’s scope to interpret it and develop and change it as you progress.

Work with them rather than confronting them with your idea.

Advertising guru Paul Arden is a creative genius whose extraordinary drive and energy is allied to a kind of common sense that just isn’t, well, common. In 1993 he set up the London-based production company Arden Sutherland-Dodd where he is now a commercials director for clients such as BT, BMW, Ford, Nestle and Levis.

I suffer from something called Ménière’s disease-don’t worry, you cannot get it from reading my blog. The symptoms of Ménière’s include hearing loss, tinnitus (a constant ringing sound), and vertigo. There are many medical theories about its cause: too much salt, caffeine, or alcohol in one’s diet, too much stress, and allergies. Thus, I’ve worked to limit control all these factors.

However, I have another theory. As a venture capitalist, I have to listen to hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their companies. Most of these pitches are crap: sixty slides about a “patent pending,” “first mover advantage,” “all we have to do is get 1% of the people in China to buy our product” startup. These pitches are so lousy that I’m losing my hearing, there’s a constant ringing in my ear, and every once in while the world starts spinning.

Before there is an epidemic of Ménière’s in the venture capital community, I am trying to evangelize the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.

Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting-and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

• Problem
• Your solution
• Business model
• Underlying magic/technology
• Marketing and sales
• Competition
• Team
• Projections and milestones
• Status and timeline
• Summary and call to action

You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.

The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.

The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, that they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. Total bozosity. Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well. If “thirty points,” is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.

So please observe the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. If nothing else, the next time someone in your audience complains of hearing loss, ringing, or vertigo, you’ll know what caused the problem. One last thing: to learn more about the zen of great presentations, check out a site called Presentation Zen by my buddy Garr Reynolds.