What does it take for you to be inspired to create? How do you unleash your creative muse?

This is one of the most important things to know if you are a writer, presenter, or even an artist. 

For me, if I can find a humorous angle, an outlandish image, or a wacky quote that relates to my topic, the full presentation will unfold in a flash. It's really kind of a formula for me - I dig through the subject matter from sales tax to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) until I find something that makes me laugh. If I can laugh about the topic, I can always find a way to relate the subject to my audience. And I won't get bored doing the research.  

This doesn't mean my entire presentation is going to be a Monty Python spectacle , but rather, humor is the key that gets my creative juices flowing. It's that juice that I need in order to create. By knowing my secret, I am able to write articles, whitepapers, presentations, and blog posts. I can't always predict the moment that my funny bone will fire; sometimes it is caused by a totally random outside association. Other times it strikes when I am reading through pages of black and white text. Who knew for example, that the Health Care Reform bill would include a provision that imposed a new tax on indoor Tanning Salons. We're talking about 2,559 pages of boring stuff relating to health care reform, filing requirements, etc. But right there in the middle of all that was this tanning salon thing. Where did that come from? There was my angle. Picture hoards of angry tan people wearing those funny little glasses and smelling of coconut oil rising up from those lighted coffin thingies in protest of the tax hike.

If you look hard enough at any subject, you can usually find some element of the absurd. 

What is your key? Are there trigger words or phrases that work for you? Are you inspired by rebellion, by cute and cuddly, by the triumph of the human spirit? Do you loathe chaos, get mad at the rule breakers, love great design? Spend some time thinking about that before your next presentation. 

And watch out for angry tan people.
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You've been asked to make a presentation and you want it to go well.

You've heard about being authentic and maybe you've even read Lencioni's latest book Getting Naked.

So you go on stage and do one of the following:

1. Tell your audience you aren't good with presentation tools. (And do it right before you start showing your PowerPoint slides.)

Say things like "I'm not good with PowerPoint".
"I don't know how to advance these slides."
"I am not used to working with this computer."

This might feel authentic (especially if it's true) but you have just killed your credibility. If you don't know how to use the tool, then do something else - speak without slides or use a flip chart. If I am sittiing in the audience at this point I will assume that you didn't care enough about your presentation or me as a listener to get help with the tools. Use a tool that you know or do without.

2. Speak on something other than what is listed in the agenda.

This is a classic case of not delivering what is promised.

Sometimes the presenter has no control over a topic change. Maybe he is brought in as a substitute speaker and is given a new topic. I just attended a conference where this happened and all of the questions following the presentation were related to the original subject - can you answer questions on this topic? If you are the presenter, make sure that conference materials are updated to reflect your topic.

3. Go over your allotted time.

Or worse, start out your presentation by asking how long you have to talk.

Your audience will know how much time you have been allotted and will be annoyed that you haven't taken the time to be prepared up front. If you talk over your time and are sharing the agenda with others, you will appear inconsiderate and unprepared. And you run the risk of taking away from other sessions that follow you. Know how much time you have and stick to it. Assign a time keeper in the audience to give you a five minute warning.

4. Tell the audience they know more than you do on your chosen subject.

Again, kudos for trying to be humble, but  if I am in the audience, I will immediately begin to wonder why you are onstage if you don't know more than me. If I have paid to hear you speak I will be even more upset and will be unlikely to pay attention to anything that comes after this statement. Find other ways to show your humility - you might not be the expert on all aspects of this subject, but I bet there are areas where you have far deeper knowledge than anyone else in the room - work from that perspective.

5. Use a confusing theme that doesn't connect to your topic.

I love a good theme or analogy. Used properly, it can make complex information understandable. But done poorly, a theme can take away from your message. I have seen themes that are so obtuse they have no apparent connection to the topic at hand. That makes me want to solve the puzzle. I will obsess over the missing connection until I hear nothing the speaker has to say.  The same thing happens with overly detailed graphics. You flash a picture on the screen and I can't tell if it is a rabbit or a person's arm and I spend the rest of the time trying to figure it out. Rather than adding to your message, the image detracts from it. Your point never reaches my ears. Connect your theme to your point and use clear graphics.

There is a fine line between being authentic and losing credibility as a speaker. If you don't know the difference,  get someone to help you before your next presentation.
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I was just thinking about this time change thing. It cracks me up that we can arbitrarily decide to mess with time. Who do we humans think we are? Isn't time a fundamental principle over which we have no control?

And yet, on the agreed upon day, we basically pretend it's an hour later by changing all of our counting mechanisms (clocks) and pretty soon it becomes real. 

If this works for time, I think there are a lot of other things we should mess with. I hereby declare the following days:

1. Ego savings day. March 25.  On this day, let's all agree to hand the boss's daily paycheck to the most underappreciated person in the company, and vice-versa. 

2. Youth savings time. October 17. On this day, everyone who is over 50 will be entitled free access to a carnival, amusement park, or water attraction (without the scary killer whales) for a full day of play. They will be allowed to bare their midriffs at any time during that day, as long as they agree to cover them up the rest of the year. 

3. Smart savings day. June 4. We all agree not to laugh at any dumb statement made by non-locals of Napa during any wine tasting, restaurant experience, or spa treatment. 

4. Fat savings hour. January 16. At the appointed hour, the person who can consume the most calories will be crowned the king of the universe entitled to all of the rights and priviledges of the position. 

5. Gravity free day. August 14. On this day, we will all pretend that the laws of gravity no longer apply. We will spend the day standing on our heads for as long as is humanly possible (or we can fly on one of those special planes if we can afford it.) 

Add your own list of laws that need to be messed with
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Idol thoughts 03/07/2010
 
I know, there are a million lessons that can be drawn from watching American Idol. And everyone and their brother has probably already written a million posts after watching the show. 

But at the risk of "being indulgent" which is one of Simon's trademark negative comments about a singer, I just have to join the fray.

One of the main lessons I get from watching the parade of singers each week is this. They have to be memorable. Even the people who did those embarassingly terrible auditions in the first week of the show had that right. They were memorable. (They got on TV, didn't they?) My gosh, the Pants on the Ground guy became an Internet star. At the final show, one of my favorite parts is getting to see those people for another 5 minutes.  

I'm certainly not advocating that you strive to be a terrible presenter. Clearly that is no way to get invited back or to build credibility.  

BWe're talking about entertainment. 

Delivering a good presentation, just like singing a good song is not enough. You have to provide something that gives you an edge, add some color, add some flavor, mix in spice, emotion, and energy. The leading singers in both the men's and the women's competitions had something about them that went beyond their singing voice.

We all remember the big guy who's wife had a baby during auditions. We noticed the woman with the dreadlocks and the great voice.

Simon talked about singers who were forgetable over and over. Randy said things like it just wasn't there for me, dog. Ellen tried to be funny when she said essentially the same thing, there's nothing unique about what you did. And Kara talked about the need for singers to find and convey their own unique style.

Presentations are just songs without the music and the band. But there are plenty of judges - every single member of your audience. So make your next presentation memorable and authentic and you'll be invited back.
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Being "salesy." 02/11/2010
 
As a presenter at accounting events all over the country, one of the things I have learned not to do is to "be too salesy."  In fact, I didn't really have to learn that, I have a natural aversion to the "S" word because I am an accountant.

But when you are presenting to a room full of accountants who are there to earn their requisite hours of Continuing Professional Education there are only two mortal sins you can commit :
1. Finish before your 50 minute scheduled time
2. Be seen as selling something.

And of the two, the "S" one is the more likely to get you uninvited from future events.

But if you think about it, aren't we all selling something? How can you give a successful presentation without selling? You might be selling an idea, or a concept, a technique, or a piece of software but what you are really up there selling is YOU. You are selling your expertise. You are sharing your passion on some subject and you are trying to communicate.

Now you might not be earning a commission for your "sales pitch" but you are selling just the same.

So the next time I get invited to speak (at a free event) and receive this warning :

" ... but any kind of "pitching" for individual clients and/or workshops may only occur during individual post-meeting networking."

I will reply as I did this time to the event for jobseekers : 'The only thing I am selling is my passion for improved communication, which means more now that it has ever meant to the success of individuals." 

Here's to more not less selling in your next presentation.
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This might come as a shock to most presenters. And it's even a bit scary because it sounds like it's something you can't control. But the single most important contributor to a successful, knock-it-out -of-the-park, killer presentation is your audience.

Think about it. The right audience can provide the energy that makes a good presenter great. A bad audience can suck the life out of even the best presenter.

So what I am saying, really? (I get that alot.) Am I advising you to go hire a team of expert audience members? Do I suggest a canned laugh track for your next presentation? Should you pay your family (assuming they are fans) to sit in on your next session?

Not exactly. What I suggest is that you invest as much if not more time figuring out who you are speaking to, what they care about, and how to promote your session or talk than you do creating those lovely PowerPoint slides.

By gathering as much detail as you can about the people who will be listening to your presentation, you can insure that your message resonates with them. When a message connects, or even inspires them to disagree, your audience will come to life in a way that brings fire to your subject matter. 

And how you promote your talk is critical to ensuring that the people who end up in your presentation are the people who really want to hear what you have to say.

Sometimes you get lucky with a topic that is spot on or the timing is just right and other times you can guide or direct your topic so that your angle is exactly right for your audience.

Last week, I had the good fortune of presenting to 60 of the most engaged, entertaining, and fun Estate and Gift Tax folks you ever want to meet. I wish I could claim some responsibility for the energy that sizzled in the room - but it was more like a happy accident for me. The audience rocked! Of course, the excellent wine they were drinking may have had something to do with it. (See next week's tip #2 about serving alcohol to your audience.)
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There was an outcast. He didn't fit in. Someone took an interest in him and gave him a chance. He became a hero. Celebrations followed.

                          The End

That's how the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer would have sounded if we just focused on the "What" part of that story. Sure, we covered all of the details, but no one cares. There is no emotion, no imagery, no hope, yearning, struggles or victory for us to celebrate in that version of the story.

Compare your yawn from the first version with the success of the longest running holiday special in television history . Now think about HOW that story was told. Picture Rudolph as the poor outcast. He made us all root for the under-reindeer. He found an island of shared outcasts and he saved the day. It became a television special.

Now think about your website.

Does the copy on your homepage sound more like the list of facts at the top of this post or does it evoke emotion, make your clients yearn for your services, evoke a smell of cookies fresh from the oven (well we can dream, can't we??). Your story and HOW you tell it can build a connection with your audience in ways that no list of facts ever will.  But you have to tell your story, not recite a list of bullet points.

No go watch that Rudolph rerun. And light the way for your clients who are searching for your unique services.
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I have built my professional reputation (and my personal brand) around one simple statement. “I make boring subjects interesting.” You give me a boring topic of your choosing and I will find a way to make it interesting, understandable, and hopefully entertaining. Whether it’s an article, a whitepaper, or a presentation, what I offer is a transformation.  

Which brings me to last week or actually a few months before that, when I agreed to present a topic at Sage Summit in Atlanta. The topic they wanted me to give was “Stimulating Compliance”. It would be delivered to customers who used one of Sage’s products (Peachtree, MAS90,Accpac, MIP, or ACT! to name just  a few). The moment I sent off my e-mail agreeing to the topic, I began to sweat. It wasn’t a hot flash. This was pure fear. 

This session was to cover all of the regulatory compliance issues that are faced by businesses today plus a few tidbits from the Stimulus Package.  I was going to be talking about tax law and government regulation for a solid hour. How exciting. 
 
I spent days researching the laws that would impact a business owner, and let me tell you there a ton of them, but I had one heck of a time finding anything that had a speck of fun, interest, or excitement in it. And what’s more, people really needed to hear about some of this stuff as it could have serious implications for their business. I was absolutely stumped. I needed to provide some useful information but how could I make it interesting for them? 

I decided  to explain the rules and regulations and then identify ways that technology would help a business owner comply. I would attend the trade show at the conference ( the day before my session) and interview solution providers to find a compliance-related angle for their product. Needless to say, the vendors were just thrilled to talk about their product in a boring regulatory compliance light. But I trudged on with my mission and after a couple of hours of going booth by booth, I had enough technology to cut through almost all of the red-tape on my list. 

I structured my presentation this way : area, problem, automated solution; area, problem, automated solution; repeat until I had worked through every area from Income tax to CANSPAM rules. But hey, you’re thinking. Where’s the interesting part? 

I knew all of this automation could free up a lot of time for a business owner. So I made it my mission in the presentation to offer alternative uses for their newfound time. 

All I can say is thank goodness for the Internet.  I searched on “weird sports” – and found “Extreme Ironing.”  Who doesn’t want to earn a gold medal in that? So I changed my structure to include area, problem, automated solution, thing to do in your spare time. The weirder the diversion, the funnier it was when I flashed a picture of the activity on my screen. I suggested activities ranging from “take up a new sport”, to “learn a new skill (fork bending)” to “start a collection”.

You can see a PDF of the presentation here if you want to see for yourself if I delivered on my promise.  

This is a trick you can apply in almost every presentation. Use a diversionary tactic to add some sizzle/fun to your presentation. 

For now, I’m just happy that I don’t need to change my tagline to : “I make almost any boring subject interesting.“
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Picture
I was fascinated by this work of outdoor art in National Harbor, Maryland. I clearly wasn't the only one who was fascinated - I saw many people climbing on the giant hand or standing by a giant foot.And while I was enjoying the sculpture, it also occurred to me how much of the art was created in our own minds. When you looked at this, you immediately filled in the missing pieces. You didn't see a head and a hand, instead you saw a complete person, with the missing parts buried in the sand.

I have to admit, this was a bit problematic when I tried to take the photo from the opposite end of the giant figure, with my camera pointing from his feet up to his head. I suddenly realized exactly what portion of the body lay in the "space between." That's when I decided to relocate to the upper portion of the body. 

I wonder how we could apply this principle (the space between one, not the one about the missing body part) to presentations. What could we omit to give our audience a chance to fill in the missing pieces?  I use questions in my presentations but maybe there are some answers that should be left unresolved in order to make a point. Maybe I can craft slides that take advantage of more white space and leave more to the imagination. 

On my way to this conference in National Harbor, I was reading "Leaders Make the Future" by Bob Johansen and he made reference to the idea of the "space between" several times. My favorite quote is this one "The space between judging too soon (the classic mistake of problem solvers) and deciding too late (the classic mistake of academics) is a space leaders of the future must love -- without staying there too long."

Just imagine what we can do if we make the most of "the space between."
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Here's my take on how to bring about a change in climate


More: Flowers and Trees
Fewer: Litterers

More: Fresh Air
Less: Hot Air

More: Boy in balloon news stories (happy endings - minus the weird parts and possible criminal charges for the parents part*)
Fewer: War Stories (that never seem to end.)

More: Hot Tea
Less: Diet Soda

More: People being fed, clothed, sheltered and loved
Fewer: People being sent to prison

More: Smiles
Fewer: Frowns

More: Children Laughing
Fewer: Politicians Arguing

More: Refills
Fewer: Landfills

More:Time to float down a lazy river
Less: Time to watch television

More: Hikes
Fewer: Drive-ins

More: Appreciation
Less: Degredation

More: Diversity
Less: Animosity

More: Listening
Less: Talking

More: Teachers
Fewer: Administrators

More: Music
Less: Noise

More: Celebrations
Less: Cellophane

More: Walking Outside
Less: Driving to the Gym

More: Bloggers
Fewer: Protest Marchers

More: Optimists
Fewer: Pessimists

More: People who lead by example
Fewer: People who lead by bumper sticker


* At the time of my original post,  the boy in balloon thing was a wonderfully happy story about a boy being found alive after everyone thought he had fallen to his death.  Now the story appears to be taking a very different turn and is getting kind of weird and freaky.
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