What are words worth?

I love words. One of my earliest memories was learning the word ‘soporific’ from Beatrix Potter The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. “It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is `soporific’” I remember the furore caused when our then Prime Minister Paul Keating called the Malaysian Prime Minister a ‘recalcitrant’ and Dame Judi Dench as M calling Bond a “..sexist, misogynist dinosaur…”

Fabulous stuff!

So, should we be trawling the online thesaurus’ and dictionaries and cramming our speeches full of enthralling, captivating and illuminating words?

Not necessarily. According to advertising legend David Ogilvy author of “Confessions of An Advertising Man” the most persuasive words are simple, action oriented and memorable.

He list his favourites as:
suddenly, now, announcing, introducing, improvement, amazing, sensational, remarkable, revolutionary, startling, miracle, magic, offer, quick, easy, wanted’ challenge, compare, bargain and hurry.

So as yourself, what it is that you want people to remember? Your use of the word ‘recalcitrant’ or the emotional response generated by “I have a dream”?

Building a pitch

It is unrealistic to meet someone and in 30 seconds convince them to hand over the $200,000 you need for start up capital.

As Seth Godin says:
“No one ever bought anything in an elevator. The purpose of an elevator pitch isn’t to close the sale.

The goal isn’t even to give a short, accurate, Wikipedia-standard description of you or your project.

And the idea of using vacuous, vague words to craft a bland mission statement is dumb.

No, the purpose of an elevator pitch is to describe a situation or solution so compelling that the person you’re with wants to hear more even
after the elevator ride is over.”

Passionate people persuade – you first objective is to gain more time…

Teaching is like training, is like speaking, is like persuading.

I read an article the other day about a SA high school teacher who won the 2011 Australia’s best science teacher award. She doesn’t work at an exclusive private school, she doesn’t have the latest equipment and many would consider her students to be from an underprivileged background… and yet last year 4 of her year 12 students achieved perfect scores.

So what makes her unique and able to achieve these results?

I believe it is her attitude and her ability to capture her audience and make them care about her topic.
She is quoted as saying “The first section of any lesson id pivotal to engage, motivate and interest students. It is not the right time for taking the roll.” She starts her classes with a bang (quite literally in some cases) ensuring her students are always on time. Her classes are interactive, physical and confronting – attention is demanded and maintained.

So how does this apply to your next presentation?
• Get a grab. You have 10 seconds to capture your audience. Don’t waste that opportunity by stating the obvious or discussing housekeeping, start with a bang!
• Sell on all senses. Where ever possible include a physical activity to cement your message and increase retention
• Challenge your audience. The learning zone is situated outside of the comfort zone. Stretch your audience and challenge them with new ideas. Then step back and facilitate the discussion.

Lastly, remember: ‘Passionate people persuade’. Enthusiasm is infectious, show your passion, share your expertise and the audience will follow.

Don’t touch, tilt or tamper!

I was delivering my workshop Staple it to their heads – how to make your training stick in Canberra last month and we were discussing memorable messages. The guys from the police training department shared the ‘Don’t touch tilt or tamper’ motto from the bomb squad.

Later in the day we were discussing the challenge of increasing engagement with ‘boring’ topics. One participant was in the process of writing a workshop for harrassment in the workplace when it occurred to me that the ‘Don’t touch tilt or tamper’ slogan could be used. Touch could refer to inappropriate contact, Tilt to teasing and bullying and Tamper to people’s personal space and possessions.

A fabulous staple that is both expressive and memorable.

Staples are everywhere – you only have to look

Public Workshops – August 2011

Public workshops planned for August 2011 are:
Stand Up Speak up & Persuade
Escaping PowerPoint Purgatory

Please contact me on P:0438 831 877 for more information

So… you want to be articulate?

I was delivering a workshop last week and a participant said “Oh, but I’m not very articulate”

I responded with “Well, you sound pretty good to me… why do you think you’re not articulate?”

She replied that she could speak well but that she used simple words to get her message across and didn’t sound ‘as fancy’ as some of her older and more experienced colleagues.

This got me thinking about the definition of articulate. According to the Merrian-Webster dictionary articulate can be defined quite simply as: able to speak, and expressing oneself readily, clearly and effectively.

Hmmmm… interesting. I would say that this young woman is actually more articulate than her peers.

Make your message memorable

I was watching the fabulous Aussie film Kenny the other night and because I had seen it before I was waiting for the memorable line “There is a smell in here that will outlast religion”.
Movies often become memorable and develop into cult status because of these fabulous one-liners.

Consider the ones below and see if you can pick the movie:
• That’s not a knife… this is a knife!
• That’s going straight to the pool room
• Just what this world needs, another cock in a frock on a rock
• You can’t handle the truth!
• I’ll be back
• Use The Force, Luke

See what I mean?
So…. How memorable is your message?

Last month I presented a workshop at the Australian Institute of Training and Development called Staple it to their heads – How to make you training stick and I talked about the need for all of us to include ‘staples’ in out presentations. Staples are little gems that help make our message stick – they may be stories or analogies, or memorable lines that summarize our message and, well, end up being stapled to the forehead.

Some of the staples I repeated often in my workshop include:
Simplicity sells
Clarity is king
Cement it till it sticks

So have a think, and look at your presentation with fresh eyes and uncover your own staples to help make your message memorable.

Public speaking lessons from the Queensland Premier

Deborah May from Advancing Women has this to say about Anna Bligh:

“Anna is extremely bright, always prepared and conveys the empathy, authenticity and humanity that come from who she is, not just from her position as Queensland’s Premier.
1. Anna is grounded.
She is grounded in the task at hand, the facts, her role and her responsibility as a leader.
She:

* Answers questions clearly and explicitly and avoids rhetoric and generalisations.
* Communicates and shares information and decisions openly.
* Delivers bad news in a matter of fact, calm and even voice.
* She reminds us of what’s most important.

2. Anna is connected to herself, the issues and to others.
We know this because she:

* Articulates facts, her opinions and ideas explicitly, clearly and without apology.
* Demonstrates empathy and acknowledges other perspectives.
* Uses the word ‘I’, ‘we’ ‘us’ interchangeably (rather than the generic and somewhat detached ‘you’’).
* Reinforces her messages using consistent and aligned body language and facial expression.

3. She is positive and optimistic.
She:
* Frames her messages within the context of a bigger picture and keeps bad news in perspective
*Keeps people focused on what we share and have in common rather than our differences.
* She responds to criticism without defensiveness and
* Reframes potentially divisive issues in a way that normalizes them and reminds us that we’re all human.”
Clarity, authenticity and credibility… isn’t this what we all aspire to as speakers?

WORKSHOP ‘Stand up, Speak up and Persuade’ May 12 2011

Public speaking is more than just being able to speak in front of a group – you need to be able to influence the audience to take on your ideas, motivate them to take action and most importantly you need to make your message stick.

The ‘Stand up, Speak up and Persuade’ workshop will provide you with the confidence and tools to be an influential speaker.

You will learn how to:

Manage your nerves
Define your presentation objectives
Tailor your message to suit your audience
Structure your presentation for maximum impact
Apply the 5 steps in delivering a persuasive speech
Answer questions and think on your feet
The workshop will benefit anyone who needs to present persuasively: Managers, Financial advisors, Real-estate agents, Sales executives, Trainers and Business Developers.

DETAILS
Tuesday the 12th May 2011
9am – 5pm
Education Development Centre, Milner Street, Hindmarsh.
$595.00 (inc. GST) Morning and afternoon tea and lunch provided.
NEW: A one hour individual follow up coaching is included in the price

WORKSHOP – ‘Escaping PowerPoint Purgatory’ April 6th

Who’s killing your audience?

Think how many times you’ve been bored by a PowerPoint presentation… killed slowly, bullet point by bullet point. Are you or your colleagues guilty of the same crime? And what can you do to make sure it doesn’t happen?

This workshop will help you to confidently unlock the power of PowerPoint as a presentation aid – and make your presentations more compelling and engaging.

As well as discovering the 5 keys to creating a persuasive presentation, you’ll also learn:

The 10 Deadly PowerPoint Sins and how to overcome them
How to increase your personal impact with PowerPoint
Slide design for effective communication
Tips and tricks for PowerPoint use
New research that will change the way you think about PowerPoint.
Please note – this presentation focuses on presentation skills with PowerPoint – an understanding of the software is assumed.

DETAILS
Wednesday, April 6th
9am – 12.30pm
Education Development Centre, Milner Street, Hindmarsh.
$295.00 (inc. GST)
For maximum participant interaction, this workshop is limited to 10.

Contact Persuasive Presentations at info@persuasivepresetnations.com.au for more information