My blog is 6 months old. As such, here's an update on it has gone so far.
$5.15 - earnings from Amazon and Google AdSense. $29.70 - paid to Typepad for hosting this blog. 2,452 - total visitors. #1 search ranking on Yahoo! - (Search Query - Craig Rentmeester) #4 search ranking on Yahoo! - (Search Query - Rentmeester) #1 search ranking on Google - (Search Query - Craig Rentmeester)
*These numbers were accurate as of October 30, 2007.
I'm also writing for Personal Branding Magazine, an opportunity I wouldn't have received without this blog.
All in all, this blog has been moderately successful.
If you want to make this blog profitable, please send me a check for $24.56.
However, according to this site, my blog is worth over $2,000. I beg to differ.
One of my beliefs is to be successful you need to make it easy for people to do business with you.
There are many ways to do this. I just had another first-hand (negative) experience this week.
The Situation A lady (salesperson), whom ever I've never met nor talked to, called me to introduce herself and wanted to give me a rundown of the services that her company provided. She had worked with our company in the past and basically wanted me to add her to my metaphorical rolodex.
So, rather than wasting my time on the phone with her, I told her to send me e-mail describing their services.
I gave her permission to send bacon. Not spam. Bacon. E-mail that I don't want right now, but may
have utility in the future.
She did.
Great. I have her contact info and 250+ words on what her company offers.
However, she didn't attach a Vcard to the e-mail.
(click on the small image on the right to view a sample Vcard.)
She took the experience from run of the mill -- what I wanted at the time -- to a pain the ass.
Lesson: Make it easy for people to rally behind you and get your contact info.
Below are my six guidelines for creating a PowerPoint to complement a speech.
1. If you're using a quote, do not write out the quote on the screen. Put it on a note card and read it. Put a picture of the person who said it on the screen.
2. Use mostly images that correspond with the point you're talking about, rather than text.
3. Read all statistics off of a note card. Cite statistics and provide the date the statistic was published. This reduces error and improves your credibility.
4. Don't show ordinary graphs created in PowerPoint or Excel. (i.e. If you're talking about Web site traffic, use a computer mouse instead of generic red lines to represent traffic on a bar graph. It will reinforce the point you're making.)
5. Use transition slides. (i.e. if you move from talking about what your company can do to how you will benefit a client, make a slide that simply says "the benefits of working with us" and make your transition while that slide is on the screen.)
Transition slides prepares people for what is to come.
6. Check your Work. If you can e-mail your presentation to someone else that has no prior knowledge on the topic and they understand the gist of your presentation, you've created a terrible PowerPoint presentation.
Rule #6 is critically important. If you've followed the first five rules, this should never happen.
After all, you're giving the presentation, and taking up your audiences time to do so.
If someone can read the slides and understand the point of the presentation, then e-mail the slides and let your audience read it at their leisure.
Other Great Posts about using PowerPoint effectively
When I think of White Castle I think of love and affection.
Click on the image for a larger version.
If you're in the market for a slider or an engagement ring, the White Castle/Castle Jeweler is on the Corner of 32nd and Lyndale in Uptown, Minneapolis.
If you like this picture, then you'll probably like this Web site.
The best public speakers know how to engage an audience. There are different ways to achieve this. I break them down into three categories.
People came to here you speak with expectations. They're expecting to hear your thoughts and ideas with the hopes that they'll uncover something useful to them, their job and their company.
Ideas - Bring something new to the table. Research information
that the audience may not already know. Draw unique conclusions that
are important to the audience (and tell them explicitly why they're important).
Why At the end of the day, the conclusions are what matter. They're the reason people came. Make sure the ideas you present are new, interesting and relevant to the audience.
Variety - Don't use the same method of communication (talking) throughout the entire presentation.
Incorporate - videos and images - different colors - audio clips - white boards
Why
- Not everyone learns the same way. - Outside sources can reinforce your points through added credibility. - People's eyes and minds have to refocus when the method of communication changes.
Interaction - Ask the audience to do, or say, something.
Examples - Ask for questions at the end of the presentation. - Have the audience do an activity (i.e. Personal introductions if it's a small group) - Ask for volunteers for a demonstration.
Why - The audience has ideas too. Let them contribute. - Also, if the audience doesn't know each other and it's a small group, (15 or less people) introductions can ease any unnecessary tension.
There are many different types of speeches. Some of the more popular types of speeches are listed below.
Informational Motivational Persuasive Descriptive Demonstration Narrative Special Occasion Introduction
For sake of brevity, I am going to focus on speeches that are used at all levels in a career: introductions, persuasive speeches and informational speeches.
Introduction Speeches
Introductions can be used to introduce both yourself to a crowd or to introduce a guest to an audience. They can be both informal (small gathering or interpersonally) and formal. (i.e. prior to a keynote speaker taking the stage).
Keep introduction speeches short. This isn't usually the time for jokes, especially if you're not a personal friend of the person you're introducing.
Professionally, informational speeches are usually given at conferences, by managers at meetings or at company-wide functions.
Another good opportunity for visual aids. However, beware of charts and graphs. They can sometime confuse an audience more than anything.
The rule for using charts and graphs in an informational speech is only to show relevant information on a chart or graph. Take "other" out of the pie chart. If it's unknown, no one will care. * unless other is greater than 30%, -- but, in that case,it shouldn't be unknown then.
Informational speeches are usually very straightforward (Intro, Body, Conclusion). Typically, they don't include personal stories, asides or anecdotes.
Everyone has had a speech that didn't go as planned -- whether the projector burnt out, a team member didn't show up or you nervously fumbled through thoughts.
I thought, there's no better way to start out "Speech Week" than with a highlight of my own and a lowlight that I witnessed.
Here are a few stories from my life that I stick out.
Highlight Scenario: Public speaking class at the University of Minnesota.
Assignment: Deliver a narrative speech about a personal triumph.
My Plan: My plan was to deliver a speech about hitting a game winning three pointer. However, a classmate went right two people before and she delivered almost the same speech with more emotion. It was a much better story, with more elements at work.
The Adjustment: After she finished her speech, I quickly asked the instructor if I could change my topic and story. He obliged. Thankfully.
The delivery: On a whim, I told a story about running a 10K marathon with a few friends after we'd drank too much the night before.
The climax came right at the of story with a photo finish, having a friend beat me by one second, only to have him vomit within feet of the finish line.
The audience loved it.
No visual aids. No note cards. No practice. No one in the audience knew. I wish I had that speech taped.
With every good speech, there are the not-so-good speeches.
Lowlight
Scenario: Best man's speech at a wedding.
Assignment: Send a brother off to marriage in front of 150-200 people.
The delivery: The best man was a little too intoxicated to know where the fine lines of humor and class intersect. While trying to be humorous, the best man brought out regrettable moments in his brother's life, including such fine points as pornography and make-up sex.
Needless to say, I, along with everyone else in the crowd, went silent.
Once he finished, the maid of honor stepped up and gave a (roughly) two minute speech with generic, kind words that garnered a big applause, because the bar was set so low prior to her speech.
If you want to see another lowlight in public speaking/broadcasting history, check out Brian Collins.
Almost everyone, at one time or another, has to speak in front of an audience.
And let's face it, public speaking skills can set someone apart.
As such, over the next week, I plan to do a series of posts about public speaking. Hopefully, everyone will find something of value and share links, tips, and stories of their own.
I'm going to cover:
- Different types of speeches - The different parts of a speech - How to use PowerPoint effectively - How to engage an audience
Along the way I'll spread about some links to great resources and information related to public speaking.
One of the big news items of today is that Microsoft's mashup utility, Popfly, is now open to the public. About two months back, I was able to get access to Popfly. There wasn't much capability at the time and the interface was quite confusing.
In case you haven't heard of it, Popfly allows people to create applications, mashups and webpages with having to know html.
Right now, Popfly serves as a third-party application and uses existing resources that users have on sites like Facebook and Flickr.
To create mashups on Popfly, and even view certain tutorials, you need to download Silverlight.
A former boss once told me, "You can't take percentages to the bank. You take dollars and cents to the bank."
This is a great saying.
Rather than having to rationalize each purchase as a percentage of the yearly budget, it allows for gray area, discussion and creativity.
With this statement in mind, I was able to think about relationships with customers rather than having to protect margins on individual sales. It also allowed me to take more risks, make more mistakes and learn more about our customers.
In business, many people measure things using percentages. It's done for many reasons -- simplicity, comparison, protection of profits, etc. However, percentages usually come with assumptions. I am not saying to avoid percentages at all costs, just realize any assumptions that are built into the percentages.
I remember this saying and think about it when someone mentions things like budgets, pricing, and promotions.
I understand that some people are intimidated by computers and the Internet. However, I don't understand why service providers (Electricians, Plumbers, Landscapers, Painters, etc.) do not have Web sites or at least blogs that functions as Web sites.
With easy-to-use, WYSIWYG editors that take care of coding and free blog-hosting services like Blogger or WordPress, it doesn't make sense to me.
On Typepad, it would be especially easy. A business could easily create categories that apply to their business and create posts or pages with images, service information, pricing and contact information.
He suggests thinking of journalists as a target market. In doing so, monitoring and observing their habits, likes and dislikes becomes as, if not more, important than just sending out pitch letters and press releases.
This is a great point that he makes. And, it's a new(er) way to approach media pitching.
Rather than broadcasting pitch letters and screaming at journalists to tell your story, it is telling your story to journalists over time and building a rapport with them as a result.
It's more along the lines of developing an ongoing conversation with the journalist prior to needing them for media coverage.
When I worked as a journalist, I would get mail from different people/organizations regarding different resources or events in the Twin Cities. Typically, the places and events weren't worth covering as a stand alone story.
However, if those people would have made a better effort at creating a conversation -- sent an e-mail about an article I'd written, placed a call to notify me why the event is worth covering, -- I would have at least been aware of their organization, excited that they had seen my articles and known what types of stories to consider using them for.
It would have helped build a relationship and trust that Jantsch is speaking about.
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