October 2010 Archives

  

A great technique for effective communication & presentation skills is what I call the Future Commercial™ in which you tell the story and paint the picture of what it might look like if XYZ happened.  Fill in the blank for XYZ...the event you're trying to AVOID in your company or organization.

This is particularly effective when it comes to communicating dry data. What does 1% LOOK like? What does a quota (met or unmet) MEAN to peoples LIVES? No one really cares until the item is translated into human experience...into an image that connects with people visually, viscerally and emotionally. This is the foundation of all TV commercials and a key component you can tap into when it come to your own communication skills & presentation skills.

Here are some examples:

• "If we keep cutting our workforce by 1% a year, that means that by XXXX year, you will walk into your office and of the XX people who are normally there, it will be just you and 2 other guys."
• "If we don't make our target quota of XYZ, then it's gonna be the end of Q4 and on that rainy Friday afternoon when you get your bonus check, you're going to be standing in your foyer at your house reading the mail, and you're going open up that envelope and it's going say XYZ."  OR "You're going to go to the ZZZ store to buy your ___ the ___ and when it comes to deciding whether to buy the __ or the __, you're gonna have to get the less expensive one.  But right next to you is Dan Smith from CCC company, your biggest competitor, and he's gonna be piling up the counter with X thousand dollar of goods and he's gonna look over you and smirk.

Small caveat: Being one who is not a fan of our consumer culture, this is not a motivation tactic I would encourage or promote...however, you can translate the $ into education for your kids or writing a big check to a non profit organization you believe in - in other words, using the $ for something that is long lasting and meaningful. So start by asking your team to think of something pretty big that they would dream of doing or getting for their spouse as a gift...and then take it from there.

(c) Victoria Labalme Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

On a flight back from Tampa this week, the woman sitting next to me introduced herself as "a realtor disguised as a mother and a wife."  Then she added that she also played cello. And a few minutes later, it came up that she knows a lot about opera.

I'll bet a lot of her clients just see her as a realtor. But wouldn't it bond her a bit more to the client -- and more importantly, bond the client to her -- if it turned out the client was a huge fan of classical music or had a son playing bass or were themselves fascinated by opera?

We often hide those parts of ourselves that are unique, especially when they don't have an apparent, immediate connection to our outside role at work.

What are your unique "colors" -- your gifts, talents, passions and past -- that you keep hidden and how can you bring these out in subtle ways during a communications, consulting, or presentation skills experience to develop Velcro Communication(TM)?

Find a low risk way to reveal one unique color in your spectrum ...And on the flip side, find a way to learn about a unique color in one of your clients or customers...and then watch what happens.

 

The Prism Effect™

 

*** Watch V's videos with excerpts from Keynote Performances™

at scores of conferences such as

HR Southwest, MDRT's Annual International Meeting,

Business Women's Forum, HWW, Administaff, Trillium Health Center,

and many more dating back to 2005! ***

 

Imagine for a moment a gigantic triangular prism...

If you were to shine a light through this prism, what would come out the other side is the full spectrum of the rainbow. As light bends, it refracts and through that refraction our eyes see color.

From 1670-1672, Sir Isaac Newton conducted experiments with light, optics and prisms. And while he did what we all now know--splitting light to expose the colors--he also did the reverse: experimenting to see if he could generate a single beam of light by shining all the colors back through the prism. And indeed, it worked.

In each of us are extraordinary gifts, talents and opportunities. These exist in the world around us, too--in each other and in our businesses-- but too often they go unnoticed, lying hidden like the colors in white light.

• How can you uncover & access the power of the resources, gifts and talents that currently reside in your people, in yourself, and in your industry to unleash the full potential of The Prism Effect™?
• How can you create an environment where those colors emerge and shine?
• How can you take the full spectrum of talents in your organization--or in yourself--and focus them in such a way as to create one pure light?
• In considering your Presentation Skills, how can you harness your unique talents and bring them on stage? Or add "color" to your presentation through stories, images, analogies, metaphors, magic tricks, surprise, suspense, movement, acting, comedy, lighting changes and more?

Learn how Victoria has coached scores of executives, entrepreneurs and industry leaders at Fortune 100 & 500 companies using these techniques. To gather great ideas on how you can tap into The Prism Effect™, contact us at Studio@VictoriaLabalme.com