No-No’s During a Webinar

When conducting webinars, keep in mind that you have to follow similar principles as when you are giving presentations or talks in person. Below are three things that you should avoid in order to consider your webinar a success.

1. Forget to have a structure – Make sure you grab your audience’s attention as you would when you’re doing this live in front of people. You can do this by sharing an outstanding fact, giving an unusual statistic, anything that can grab and hold their attention.

2. Do bad things with Powerpoint – Just because your audience can’t see you, you’d then resort to using a ton of PowerPoint slides. Remember, quality is better than quantity.

3. Forget to use your voice – This is the only thing left that you have control over when doing webinars. They can’t see you, they can’t touch you but they can hear your voice so use it well to pique their interest and hold their attention.

For more insights on the don’ts of doing a webinar, please head to this link: Don’t Screw Up Your Next Webinar: 3 Mistakes To Avoid

Flipping a Meeting

The idea of flipping a meeting came from Ellen Finkelstein when she mentioned it during the Presentation Summit after hearing the SVP of Strategic Services at Duarte, Patti Sanchez, talk about slidedocs, which are slides that are used as short documents which can be used for reading before an actual meeting takes place.

Having a flipped meeting is all about distributing materials before a meeting takes place. These materials could be slide documents, notes, results of a research, etc. that attendees of a meeting will have to read and go over, analyze and understand so that during the meeting itself, they will just have to discuss it more, answer questions that may arise and make decisions from there.

By doing this, meeting time is reduced, the attendees can focus on the more important stuff and more relevant decisions can be made.

To know more about this, please head to: The flipped meeting

Awesome Storytelling Tips from Kevin Spacey

Any form of content marketing like public speaking or presentations is all about making a good story you can sell to people. According to Kevin Spacey (yep, the famous Hollywood actor), there are 3 basic elements that can make your stories great. Here they are:

1. Conflict – The purpose of this is to create tension that will keep people engaged and wanting more.

2. Authenticity – There should be truth in your story. It should be authentic and resonates well with the brand you are selling. 

3. The audience –  Spacey believes that the audiences now are different from before. They want control. They want variety. And therefore, we should give them what they want but without sacrificing your authenticity.

As a final note, Spacey also said that when you know what story you want to tell, everything else will follow.

To know more insights about this, please head to: Kevin Spacey’s Top 3 Tips For Better Storytelling. Yes, That Kevin Spacey

8 Steps to Make Your Webinars Interactive

The following tips are from Brenda Bence, who is a corporate branding and personal branding expert.

1. Sign in – by letting your participants sign in, they will get a feel of the room just like how it happens in a real live seminar.

2. Ground rules – by asking your participants to set up the ground rules (like no cellphones, ask questions at the end of every session, listen, focus, etc.), you’ve already started making the webinar interactive.

3. Notification – letting them know that they will be called upon randomly to answer questions will keep them on their toes.

4. Executive presence – have a senior level executive there to answer questions and speak up every once in a  while  to make participants listen and participate more

5. Prizes – by offering prizes, participants will feel more lively and engaged in the discussion

6. Experience – there is so much we can do with technology now. People are no longer limited to listening only during webinars. You can do so much more like: writing on whiteboards, showing videos, conducting a survey or a poll, drawing arrows, etc.

7. Webcam – when telling a story, it’s best to turn the camera on you so they get to see your expression just like when they’re watching you in person.

8. Feedback – just like in a live seminar, it’s always best to ask for feedback at the end of the session.

To get more insights and ideas on how to particularly do these 8 steps, please head to: Make your webinars super interactive

How Not to Panic When Invited to Do a Presentation

Sometimes, we overthink stuff when it comes to presentations and speaking in front of people that we fail to recognize how easy all this really is. So even before you begin to panic when asked to do a presentation, answer these three things first:

1. What does my audience already know?

2. What do I need them to know?

3. What’s the best way to tell them the things between 1 and 2?

Sounds simple doesn’t it? Once you know the answers to those three questions, everything else will just fall into place and presenting in front of an audience won’t be as nerve-wracking anymore. It’s just actually about getting back to the basics of public speaking!

To find more insights about this, please head to: Presentations – back to basics! 🙂

Five Cool Tips for Impromptu Speaking

I’ve already talked about this before but perhaps it’s good to reiterate this. The trick to impromptu speaking or extemporaneous speech is to learn to trust your brain. Trust your own mind that whatever answer pops in your head at that moment is the right one and you just have to deliver it. Sounds simple? Below are five steps you do to really go through that process of answering off the cuff and make it seem so simple:

Tip one – become aware that you are blocking yourself 

Just accept the fact that you are blocking yourself. Your internal critic jumps in and shoots down. It’s a natural instinct. You’re only human. The moment you accept this mentally, then you’ve already won half the battle when it comes to impromptu speaking.

Tip  two – practice  “accepting” your own ideas

So you know your head comes up with ideas when asked on the spot. You now know that you are blocking yourself automatically after being asked. Now, instead of thinking “Yes, but”, you think “Yes, and”.  Choose to accept the ideas that pop in your head abd by doing so, your mind will then give you more good ideas to think. Don’t worry, it becomes easier as you practice this way of deliberate thinking more and more.

Tip three – learn about improvisation

There is probably a local improv group in your area. Find out about it and join them. This is a great way to practice extemporaneous speech delivery in a more academic setting.

Tip four – find a local Toastmasters club

Once you’ve joined a local improv group, it would then be more amazing if you can find a local toastmasters club where you can practice your skill some more. These toastmasters clubs have what they call “Table Topics” where you get to speak off the cuff.

Tip five – practice self compassion

Don’t be too hard on yourself. When you make mistakes, learn how to forgive, let go and move on.

To get a better understanding about the art of impromptu speaking, visit this post: Tips for impromptu speaking – learn to trust yourself

Three Tips to Master Public Speaking

As a presenter or public speaker, wouldn’t you want to conquer your fears and master the art of public speaking or presenting? Of course you would want this! There is no magic bullet to do the trick so please just bear with what I have to say.

Below are five tips on how you can master public speaking:

1. Embrace Nerves – You just have to accept the fact that nerves will always be there. We are humans after all. We feel all sorts of different emotions, one of which is nervousness when faced with a seemingly challenging task like talking in front of an audience. Having nerves is fine.  This means that your energy level is up and that your senses are heightened. It’s how you handle them that will count the most. So use that energy and turn it into something positive by being in the moment, doing your thing on stage and engaging the audience.

2. Spend some time in the space if you can – It helps if you can go to the venue in advance and start visualizing yourself doing your presentation or speech. Just like what the Law of Attraction says “you attract what you think”, so think about going up there in front of the audience with full confidence in yourself. By doing this, you’ve already won half the battle.

3. Know Your Audience – By spending some time with your audience before you even get on that stage to talk, you’ll have an idea of their background and you can then tailor-fit your stories and questions to make sure that it will resonate with them.

So there! I know these are just three things but they are very important. To know 15 more tips to master public speaking, please head to this link: Guest Posting: 18 Tips for Mastering Public Speaking, by Kyle Ingham