Image source: Victorialabalme.com

I think the most persistent problem I see in presentations—from the boardroom to the convention center to my local chamber of commerce—is words. It’s not that presenters are choosing the wrong words. Often they are eloquent and organized, clever and interesting. Rather, they simply have too many of them. They talk and talk, fill their slides with text, and give the audience handouts full of more words. It’s as if they think, the more flotsam they can stuff into our heads, the more likely we are to retain something. Of course, that’s not how it works. People learn best when they are given a simple message, repeated frequently.

Repetition may feel wrong when you’re on stage. In real life, you wouldn’t be beating a single sentence into people’s heads, so when you’re presenting it feels like overkill. It isn’t. Sure, it’s always possible to repeat something too often—to become laughably redundant—but it’s harder than you might think. Presentations should have a single goal: communicating a message. This goal is best accomplished by focusing, with laser precision, on a clear, simple, distilled version of what you’ve worked for weeks, months, or years to articulate.

Image source: Ranker.com

Think of your message as a slogan. Companies spend millions of dollars on developing the perfect tagline, the few words that truly reflect their mission, goals, and foreseeable future. This can be surprisingly difficult. Just look at how both parties have struggled to sloganize their 2012 campaigns. The wrong slogan can pigeon-hole a company into an uncomfortable box. It can position them in the wrong niche or brand them in a way that doesn’t appeal to the right demographics. The right slogan can electrify a company’s image. It can catch the eye of prospective clients, helping them to choose between competing bidders. It can launch a company into the future. A perfect example: Apple’s “think different.” Write down your core message in as few words as possible. The idea is to create a thesis statement that reads like a slogan. Fifteen words is the absolute maximum length—longer than a corporate slogan but shorter than an abstract.

Image source: Facebook.com

Give yourself plenty of time to get the wording of your presentation’s slogan absolutely perfect. Try to imagine yourself as an audience member. What words would attract you to the idea? Imagine the connotations of the words you choose. Sometimes words that seem descriptive and useful at first glance end up getting scrapped because they evoke something negative, unpleasant, or irrelevant. Avoid buzzwords or corporate slang at all costs! This is your chance to craft something memorable, something that really embodies the heart of your work.

The post The 15-Word Summary: Make Your Message a Slogan appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.

Image source: Siprep.org

It doesn’t matter who you are or what line of work you’re in, to succeed you must develop a track record of success. But this track record doesn’t necessarily match up one-to-one with every piece of work you’ve ever done. Instead it’s a carefully curated collection of your accomplishments—the best of what you have to offer. Here are some tips for building your most powerful and persuasive resume.

Document Your Successes

Many people assume their good work will accumulate like so much flotsam on their permanent record. This is not so. Building a resume takes work and attention. You have to document your accomplishments carefully if they are going to help you in the future. Keep a copy of your best writing in a resume file. Collect contact information from co-workers who worked with you on particularly successful projects. Always keep a running list.

Image source: Toledoblade.com

Solicit Recommendations

If you do good work for someone important, ask her for a recommendation. This is standard practice in the business world and it often means the difference between getting hired and getting passed over for someone with more impressive credentials. Even if you don’t have a lofty degree or a multimillion dollar deal under your belt, the personal recommendation still carries a huge amount of weight.

Give Yourself a Platform

Organize all of that great experience into something digestible, like a website or LinkedIn profile. If nobody sees your great file of accomplishments, they’re not going to do you very much good. Don’t limit yourself to opportunities you apply for directly. If your information is available online, potential employers may find you.

Work with Google

The fanciest website in the world won’t do you much good if nobody can find it on Google. If you don’t have experience with search engine optimization (SEO) do some research. There are many great resources online that provide step-by-step instructions for setting up your website for search engine visibility. Often making even very small changes to the way you word your text or set up your pages can make a huge difference in traffic.

Image source: Brainerddispatch.com

Focus on Self-Promotion

You don’t have to be a crazy extrovert to promote yourself, just be smart about advertising your website or other online properties. Send links to potential business partners. Include your URL on your business card. Or, take it a step further and buy advertising space on a popular website related to your business.

The post Building a Reputation for Excellence: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.

Image source: Robertvanarlen.com

For the self-employed crowd, self-promotion is one of those things we all know we should be doing. In this Internet-crazed world it’s so easy to fall through the proverbial cracks. There are basic musts like setting up a professional LinkedIn profile, but that’s not enough. If you’re currently working in an office but are interested in making a career out of speaking and presenting, there are a few very important things you need to know.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job

Once I decided I was going to leave my corporate job to go solo as a freelancer, I wanted to quit yesterday. I’d been unhappy there for so long and was incredibly excited about taking my talents directly to the clients. So I quit. I went home, booted up the computer, and started looking for work. Of course, as you might expect, it was harder to find clients than I’d imagined. If I’d been smart, I would have lined a few up before I left my job. That way, I would have had a bridge from my old career to my new one. As it happened, I did find clients but it was a harrowing few weeks of living on savings before I started seeing any new income, and it was a few months of living on peanuts before my new income grew enough to support my lifestyle.

Image source: Insaonline.org

Build Your Online Presence

If you’re going to have any hope of succeeding as a freelance professional, you need a website. On that website you need well-written content explaining who you are, what you do, and why you are the woman for the job. If you’re trying to make it as a speaker, you absolutely must provide video samples of your work. If you don’t have any video, get some made as soon as possible. Edit it down to the most compelling few minutes (about five minutes is perfect.) Think of it as a commercial for your product. Your video should demonstrate everything good about your presentation style: your poise, confidence, connection with the audience, humor, and inspirational message.

Collect References

If you have references from past jobs, organize those for prospective clients. But online, formal references aren’t enough. You need testimonials. Satisfied clients will often be happy to write up a few sentences about their experience with you and your work. Publish these prominently on your website.

Image source: Crystalwashington.com

Be a Copy Cat

There is no shame in emulating what works. Look at the websites of other professionals in your niche. How do they organize their content? What features do they have on their sites that you’d like to have on yours? Look for things like contact links, newsletter sign-ups, and “about me” pages.

The post Self Promotion: Becoming a Self-Employed Speaker appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.

Image source: Flickr.com

Every good presenter knows the presentation doesn’t stop when the lights come up. The question and answer period at the end of a presentation can be even more challenging than the presentation itself. You don’t know what the audience is going to ask and unpredictability is frightening when you’re on stage in front of a bunch of people. Worse, if you have an audience member who strongly disagrees with your thesis, you may find yourself backpedaling and stammering to defend yourself—never a good position to be in, especially after you’ve worked so hard to get your point across. But you can protect yourself from most major Q & A pitfalls by setting the stage beforehand. Remember: you’re the master of ceremonies! You don’t have to give floor time to hecklers if you don’t want to. But you have to be bold, confident, and in control if you hope to steer the crowd towards your agenda and away from a heckler’s bag of tricks.

Lay Out the Ground Rules

Before the Q & A session starts, in fact, before the entire presentation starts, explain how you are planning on handling the Q & A. Tell your audience you will leave plenty of time at the end of the session to address their questions. Encourage them to take notes during the presentation and let them know that you will be taking a single question at a time in an orderly fashion. It may seem slightly heavy-handed but it’s all in the interest of getting as many questions answered as possible. Once the Q & A starts, refuse to suffer fools. If you have people shouting out questions simply wait until they’ve stopped talking and remind them of the rules.

Image source: Flickr.com

Prepare for the Worst

Preparation is the most important single thing you can do to ensure your presentation and your Q & A go smoothly. Try to imagine the toughest most difficult questions you can and prepare answers for those questions. Since it can be difficult to get distance on your own work, you can ask friends or colleagues to help you come up with questions that really challenge your thesis. By the end of your preparations there shouldn’t be any questions that you fear.

Image source: Flickr.com

Plant the Question You Most Want to Hear

If there is a question you’re secretly hoping someone will ask, get someone to ask it. There is no rule that says you can’t plant an audience member. Have a friend sit in the crowd and be sure to call on him when he raises his hand.

The post Become a Q & A Prodigy in Three Easy Steps appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.

Image source: Facebook.com

The best presenters are also the best strategists. Of course, they’ve mastered the basics—confidence, eye contact, light humor, excellent and instructional images (that they thoroughly explain), and a focus on a simple and clear message. These basics make a presenter competent. They don’t make her brilliant. Brilliance is a quality reserved for the presenter who really gets inside the heads of her audience members. She anticipates their needs and their questions. She knows how to play their attention like a delicate instrument. While it takes many years to achieve this type of proficiency, there are some relatively simple techniques for bringing your competent presentations to the next level.

Take a Page from the Con Man Playbook

I’m not suggesting you lie to your audience but a little bit of clever slight of hand can help you pique their interest from the very beginning. For example, I once heard a story about a high school math teacher giving a presentation to a room full of esteemed professors. In order to get their attention, he purposely included an incorrect calculation in his first slide. Of course, the entire room jumped to point out his mistake and for the rest of the presentation they were on the edge of their seats looking for additional missteps. This is a slightly risky tack since a second false step can really hurt your credibility. Only employ this technique if you really know your stuff!

Image source: Sangrestargazers.skymtn.com

Never Apologize

Apologizing is great under normal circumstances but when you’re on stage it just makes you seem like you’re on your heals. If you’re apologizing for something that’s your fault (a broken slide, a flubbed delivery) you only amplify the mistake with your apology. If you’re apologizing for something that’s out of your control (a room conflict, a malfunctioning computer) you make it seem like your fault by taking responsibility. In either case, it’s a bad idea.

Image source: Jacksonngtraining.com

Innovate

Nothing impresses an audience more than something totally unexpected. Wear a costume, do a magic trick, use live music… whatever it takes to make your presentation stand out. Think about the presentations you’ve seen in your life. Chances are, the ones you remember were the most creative or unexpected you’ve seen.

Finish Early

Challenge yourself to be so succinct that you finish ten minutes before the scheduled time. No audience will complain that a presentation was too short and you’ll leave room for interacting with people one-on-one. If you’re hoping to get consulting work out of your presentation, this networking time is invaluable.

The post Presentation Tips for Audience Mastery appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.

Image source: Victorialabalme.com

Most of the time I write to the business professional—the person who is interested in learning how to present herself well, on stage and off. But there’s another side to this equation: the business professional who is looking for an excellent speaker for his event. Business events are happening all over the world every day. They may be technology conferences or corporate retreats, inspirational seminars or chamber meetings. Surely, there is a wide world of professional speakers out there vying for a spot no matter what type of event you’re hosting. But how do you find someone good, someone who will inspire your audience and who will teach you something valuable?

Do Your Research

It’s easier to spot a good speaker than you might think. Quality speakers will have quality websites and they won’t shy away from sharing videos of their performances. Watch these videos. Does the performer do a good job of connecting with the audience? Is his message clear and compelling? Do you feel like you learned something from watching him speak? Word of mouth is another great way to find a good presenter especially if you can talk to people who have held similar events to the one you’re planning. What did they get out of their experience? Did they enjoy the presentation and did they feel like they took something valuable away from it?

Image source: Shelf3d.com

Use Google

Many corporate presenters will make bold claims about their accomplishments. Some of them are true, some of them aren’t. The grifters among them will count on your laziness since a simple Google search can usually uncover outright lies. I highly recommend you take the time to do this. Otherwise you’ll be paying good money for a con man.

Image source: Ericgarland.co

Remember What You’ve Learned

If you’re reading this blog, you have probably given your fair share of presentations. You know what it takes: practice, research, moxie, and more practice. You know how difficult it can be to connect with an audience, to maintain a high level of energy, and to come up with compelling talking points that really inspire people and move them to take action. Hold the person you hire to your own standards. I think, when we see someone on stage (especially if we are often on stage ourselves), we give them the benefit of the doubt. We want them to do well and we look past their inadequacies. We try to be supportive. Try to fight that tendency. The more critical you can be of potential presenters, the more likely you will be to find one who is truly exceptional.

The post Finding a Great Speaker for Your Event appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.

Image source: Brandengineers.com

I think a man with such an illustrious business and speaking career deserves more than a single post. In truth, we can learn thousands of lessons from Steve Jobs—lessons about hard work, perseverance, cleverness, negotiation, and persistence. Apple faced many challenges over Jobs’ tenure. IBM was hot on their tail in the early years, poised to usurp Apple’s main demographic. But Jobs was up to the challenge. In one of the most famous Commercials ever made (directed by Ridley Scott) Jobs likened an IBM monopoly to the totalitarian government in George Orwell’s 1984, and to great effect. Apple emerged as the underdog (despite its position as a billion-dollar company) and gained a multitude of fans that have followed the company doggedly through think and thin. I believe this is due, in no small part, to the charisma and visionary talent of its founder and C.E.O., Mr. Steve Jobs. Jobs created a cult of personality and he did it through great products coupled with great style and likeability. He was accessible to his customers—the presenter who just seemed like one of the guys. In fact, he worked very hard to cultivate that personality.

Practice Like Steve Jobs

We all know the importance of practicing before a big presentation. There is no substitute for endlessly drilling those talking points into your head. If you know them well enough, you can carry your presentation without your props—index cards, PowerPoint, magic wand, etc. But practice is about more than learning lines, it’s about learning what your audience wants and learning how to give it to them. Jobs practiced endlessly before his presentations. His goal: to seem like the cool, informed buddy at a party showing everyone some crazy new gadget. He wasn’t an expert on the stage. He was a pal, a friend, someone we trusted to show us the next best thing. And we trusted him because he delivered, time and time again.

Image source: Time.com

Make Your Presentation An Event

Jobs thought of every presentation as an event, like a concert or theatrical performance. He planned his talks to excite and entertain, to inspire and to carry emotional weight. Today’s Apple visionaries are working hard to emulate this unique speaking style.

Image source: Technology.ezinemark.com

And One More Thing

At the end of every presentation, Steve Jobs would give his audience a final tidbit—something to wow them on their way out the door. Often this would be a preview of a new product, even if the product was a year or more away. This was a brilliant strategy, not only for the company but for his career as a speaker. Once an audience gets to be the first to see a new product, long before it launches, they’ll be first in line for the next presentation. There wasn’t any exclusivity—Jobs’ presentations were often posted on the Internet minutes after they were over—but seeing that sneak preview in person was something special, akin to seeing a rock band. Because of Apple’s influence, it was like seeing the future. Jobs was a master at teasing his audience so they would come back for more. This is a great strategy for any public speaker. Your audience should walk out the door wondering when they’ll get to see you again.

The post More Keynote Lessons from Steve Jobs appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.

Image source: Obamapacman.com

Steve Jobs was so many things: a visionary, a leader, an entrepreneur, a scholar, and an incredible public speaker. He was a diamond in the rough—a one-in-a-million thinker and doer. Jobs offered us a model of what a businessman (and a business) should aspire to be: innovative, ahead of its time, bold, risky, exciting, and for the people. Mac products hit that perfect balance between form and function—the balance artists and manufacturers are always striving to achieve. And Jobs was a genius at selling his products. His keynote speeches were always vibrant, compelling, exciting, and new. His style was comfortable and confident but he never talked down to his audience. Every word mattered and yet, it felt as though so much of what he said was off the cuff and spontaneous. Here are some important lessons I learned from Steve Jobs’ keynotes over the years.

Embrace Your Passion

Sometimes speakers hesitate to unleash their raw enthusiasm. I think it frightens them a little to admit how completely obsessed they are with their product, service, or topic. It’s true, you don’t want to gush unless you have substance, but if you’ve got the substance, gush away! Jobs always started his talks with excitement. He used words like “awesome,” “amazing,” and “revolutionary.” In the context of his presentations, filled as they all were with truly amazing revelations, these words were both apt and accessible. It felt like Jobs was talking directly to me. I expect everyone in the audience felt that way.

Image source: Zimbio.com

Explain Your Numbers

It’s very tempting to fill a presentation with numbers because numbers carry weight. When we see them, we immediately assume a presentation has a certain amount of credibility, but that’s as far as we get if the numbers aren’t explained. Most people aren’t math geniuses. We need to understand what we’re looking at. So by all means use numbers. But make sure you work really hard to make your audience understand what they mean.

Image source: Presentationzen.com

Stick to Mind-Blowing Visuals, Omit the Rest

Presenters often stuff their PowerPoints so full of images, their audience might as well be watching a movie. Jobs was great at using images to blow people’s minds. He only used them when they really illustrated a point, when they added something to the presentation that words couldn’t accomplish alone. For example, the image above is an illustration of the MacBook Air (in green). Jobs was illustrating that the MacBook Air’s thickest part was still thinner than the competitors thinnest part. This is a strong and effective comparison.

The post Presentation Lessons from Steve Jobs appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.

Image source: Ibnlive.in.com

My younger sister has so much talent and promise but she lacks something every successful person must have: perseverance. She often calls me wondering why she hasn’t accomplished more. She bemoans her lot—all of the books she wants to read, places she wants to go, people she wants to meet, etc. She feels beaten down by the world, like progress is impossible. I think this is a very common condition for young people today. There is so much happening. We move so quickly. The world is so much smaller than it once was but somehow that makes it so much more overwhelming. For someone with vision, with an eye on the big picture, every day seems so strangely difficult. What do I do first? Where do I start? Unfortunately, these feelings often lead to paralysis. The overwhelmed person ends up doing nothing.

Stop Procrastinating

My sister seems so in awe of my accomplishments but there really isn’t anything magical or mystical about them. I don’t have more intelligence or skill than she does. The only difference between us is that I am organized. I get things done. My mantra: Every day matters. It’s so easy to wake up, go about your business, whittle away the hours, and go to bed. But if you do that every day, when you look back you’ll feel like you’ve stagnated, like you haven’t accomplished a single thing. Every day you should be doing something, however small, to reach your ultimate goal. Progress is the most important single thing.

A man who never procrastinated:

Image source: Crushable.com

Make a List and Stick to It

My holy grail is the list. I have lists for everything. But keeping lists isn’t enough, you have to honor them. Sometimes I hate writing things on my list because I know I’ll have to do them. My lists have power. I’m not allowed to start a new list until I’ve finished the old one. I can’t add a new item until I’ve completed at least five of the previous items. I’m smart about what I put on my lists though. I don’t include things like, “be happy” because that’s nebulous and difficult to quantify. I stick to small, achievable steps. In this way, slowly but surely, I accomplish my goals.

Making lists starts early:

Image source: Flickr.com

Make Every Project Count

Put your all into every single thing that you do. That way you can be proud of your projects, even if you’re not really invested in their ultimate purpose. Your work defines you. Make that work excellent and you will feel excellent about yourself.

The post Make the Most of Your Time: Tips for Seizing the Day appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.

Image source: Commissionbased.wordpress.com

Yesterday I wrote about the challenges of sharing a cubicle with a stranger. Indeed, co-workers occupy a strange and ill-defined space in our lives. We see them every single day and yet, they’re not really social peers. We don’t necessarily even like them very much. When we do like them, we are faced with a very difficult question: do we treat co-workers as friends and disclose our personal information or do we maintain a professional veneer despite our genuine feelings of friendship? Building barriers can feel wrong—cold, calculating, and manipulative—but without them we risk disclosing too much. Your professional persona probably isn’t in a 1:1 relationship with who you are. You put on professional airs of all sorts. When you talk with clients you filter your thoughts to project complete professionalism, politeness, and appropriateness. You don’t tell your boss about your weekend benders. You control your emotions in the office, even if you’ve had a really bad day. So, it should follow that you maintain a certain professionalism with your co-workers as well.

For a few weeks a few years ago, I shared a cubicle with a very kind, very gentle woman named Helen. We got along spectacularly well immediately in that way that best friends do—like we’d known each other forever. Talking to her was so easy and it felt so right. We shared the same hobbies and interests. She was compassionate without being overbearing. I immediately felt like I wanted to tell her everything about myself. Despite my best intentions, I did start to reveal personal details I would never dream of telling a typical co-worker. She and I hung out at lunch, chatting about our lives. Then one morning, sitting at my desk, I found out my mom was in the hospital. She had a life threatening internal infection and was in emergency surgery. I immediately told Helen.

Image source: Eurweb.com

Helen was wonderful about it, as I expected she would be, and I left work for a week’s leave to go be with my mom. But when I came back, Helen was different somehow. She started telling me more and more about her life. It was like I’d had opened a floodgate when I confided in her about my mom and she’d lost all sense of decorum or propriety. She told me she was bipolar and that she’d tried to kill herself. She told me about her crazy ex-husband and her money problems. It started to become difficult to do work and I started dreading Helen’s long confessionals.

Image source: Examiner.com

Helen was let go a few weeks later and I never knew why but I did wonder if it had something to do with her over sharing. I don’t know if she was doing it with other colleagues too and maybe the boss thought she was being inappropriate (that was my theory) but it taught me a valuable lesson.  Professionalism must extend to every relationship in the workplace. As hard as it may be, protecting your job and your reputation are your responsibility.

The post Sharing a Cubicle Doesn’t Make You Life Partners: Building Boundaries for Professional Success appeared first on Keynote speaker Victoria Labalme.