Communicating Effectively - You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

You’ve been selected as a guest on the Donnie Deutsch show to pitch “The Big Idea”. You have thirty seconds to describe your business and how it can benefit others.

What will you say? What do you want people to walk away with? How many people are watching the show and can benefit from your “Big Idea” or even provide funding?

There was one particular episode of “The Big Idea” that stood out to me. There was a panel of expert entrepreneurs there to provide constructive feedback to the entrepreneur on their “Big Idea”. Donnie introduced the guest and asked them to describe their business in thirty seconds. The business owner started to describe their business and began to fumble while explaining their product. I started to become unclear on the purpose of the business and how it could benefit me. Were they nervous from all the lights and cameras in the studio? Was it the panel of experts?

Well, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. With more people out of work today, starting your own business is more of an appealing option to create income. In a survey conducted by a Fortune Small Business/Zogby International online survey of 755 small business owners, 40% of entrepreneurs said they feel more secure having their own business as they would if they worked for a large firm (27% just as secure, 22% less and 8% not sure). Entrepreneurs may have a great business, but when it comes to communicating the product and vision, the message sometimes seems to get lost in translation. Why is that? We are not all experts when it comes to presenting ideas, let alone speaking to a group of people. People fear public speaking, but let’s focus on an exercise that helps you confidently present your business to one or many future clients and investors.

Exercise 1. Keep these key questions in mind as they will come up during conversations about your business:

- Why was this business created?
- Who does it benefit and how?
- How can we purchase your products and services and what is the cost?

Exercise 2. To help you answer these questions, do a brain dump of everything you know about your business. If you have a business plan, pull some information from there as well. If you don’t have one, maybe it’s time to start creating one. I would even include the S.W.O.T. Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.) from the business plan.

Strengths: What does your business offer that your competitor’s may not offer?
- Better distribution channels
- Niche market

Weaknesses: What are some of the objections a customer may have to not select your business?
- New to the market place
- Limited product and service offering

Opportunities: What external factors will allow your business to prosper?
- Political
- Demographic
- Technology

Threats: What threats would impact your business?
- Pricing
- Substitutes in the market place

Exercise 3. Now that you have your thoughts on paper, start putting some structure around your responses to the questions above. You only have thirty seconds to make your pitch and you want it to count.

Write out your main points on what you want to say. Create variations, some may be short and some may be long. Have a business partner, mentor, family member or friend ask you questions about your business and practice giving responses to the questions so you feel comfortable when it’s time. Your network does not want to see you fail, so ask them for honest and constructive feedback. In fact, have several different people from your trusted network ask you different questions about your business, so you get used to the different styles. Have some in a formal and informal setting. If you have a camcorder, record yourself so you can see how you look when you’re giving your responses.

Some questions to ask yourself and the person working with you on your responses:

Do you seem confident and natural about what you’re discussing?
Does it look like you’re thinking about what you want to say?
Do you “um” and “uh” when responding?

Make sure your responses feel and sound natural like you are having a conversation with the other person. You want to look very knowledgeable when talking about your business. Repeat this exercise as much as possible until you become comfortable. It will be valuable for you as you begin to speak to more people about your business. Make it easy for people to understand what you do, so they can easily promote your business to their network.

You got the call from Donnie Deutsch to pitch your “Big Idea”. Who knows how many people may be watching the show that evening. With the exercise that you completed, you will now feel more comfortable and confident talking about your business, not just to Donnie, but future clients and investors as well.

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Reggie Waller is the president of RWJ Consulting Group a provider of business and personal coaching, consulting and training services to individuals and businesses. For additional information call 267-254-6800 or visit RWJ Consulting Group

Siemens Toastmasters is proud to acknowledge Reggie Waller

Toastmasters International first issued the Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) award in 1970. The DTM is the highest award for members displaying outstanding enthusiasm, participation, and leadership. Siemens Toastmasters is proud to acknowledge Reggie Waller, pictured at left, our first member to achieve the DTM in 2008. Congratulations, Reggie!

PowerPoint Presentations: Tips on making your business presentation a success!

Business professionals spend a reasonable amount of time giving presentations communicating new and existing ideas, proposals for investors, clients, etc. PowerPoint presentations has become a ubiquitous tool for these varying types of business presentations. At times though, I find that the technical aspect of the tool gets overused, misused, and the audience tends to walk away with an unclear message of the presentation. Here are some solutions to assist with getting your message to land with your audience when using PowerPoint:

Just like a speech, you must have an opening, body and conclusion. First, determine how much time you have for your presentation. Next, create the outline of your discussion. After you create your outline, you create the content within your presentation. This is a sample of how a 30-minute presentation would be structured:

Slide 1: Title (1 minute)
Slide 2: Agenda (2 minutes)
Slide 3 – 9: Body (Keep it focused on your audience) (14 minutes)
Slide 10: Summary (Recap Presentation) (3 minutes)
Q&A (black screen): 10 minutes

**20 minutes for you presentation which gives you on average 2-minutes per slide and 10 minutes for Q&A.

Here are some key takeaways when using PowerPoint for your business presentation:

Do:

- Rehearse your content
- Use it to support your topic/ discussion
- Summarize the slide or the main point
- Take time to introduce the material
- Keep your bullet points to 5 per slide
- Keep eye contact with your audience
- Use graphics and illustrations that support your topic
- Avoid jargon
- Allow enough time to set up and check your equipment. (make handouts as a back-up if equipment does not work)

Don’t:

- Use animation (it takes away from your talk and tends to distract your audience)
- Read from the slides
- Forget what’s in it for the audience (WIIFM)
- Place your back to the audience.
- Cruise through slides. If information is not relevant, then don’t display it. (unless giving handouts)
- Panic if the equipment fails

Black or White

Another way to add value to your presentation is the “B” or “W” key. When you need to elaborate on a point during your presentation and would like to take the focus off of the screen and back to you, the “B” key makes your screen black and the “W” that’s right it makes the screen white. Not shift or control key needs to be used in combination with the “B” or “W” key.

After the summary slide, this is great time for Q&A. Use the “B” or “W” key to make your screen blank, so that people know you have completed your presentation and to focus their attention on you.

Speaker Notes

There are a few ways to make notes on what you would like to say on each of your slides. The easy way is to print your entire presentation and write notes on each page. You can also click the View menu, click Notes Page. The notes section will appear under your slide. You can type notes in this section. To view your printed notes, click on the File menu, click Print. Under Print what, select notes pages and click okay. You now have a clean presentation with notes to do your practice run.

Note: When you display your presentation, the audience will not see you notes section.

Keep It Simple

While all the bells and whistles may look nice, keep in mind the message you’re looking to convey to your audience. Outline the message you want the audience to walk away with at the end of your presentation. The bells and whistles will not sell an idea that has not been thoroughly researched and thought out. Keep the presentation simple and focused directly to your topic.

xxx

RWJ Consulting Group, LLC, provides consulting, coaching and training services to individuals, entrepreneurs, not-for-profits and corporations.

For additional information call 267-254-6800 or visit www.rwjconsultinggroup.com.

Tips in Becoming a More Confident Speaker

Most people fear speaking in front of a large group of people thinking they look foolish. Public speaking is not an easy task! It takes time and practice to get comfortable in front of an audience.

When you are speaking before an audience, you should be talking with your audience (having a conversation), not talking at them. The structure of your talk is like the research papers you did in school. You have your thesis statement followed by the introduction, body and conclusion. The only difference is you are delivering the information verbally.

Let’s focus on some tips to help you become comfortable in front of your audience.

Know Your Audience: WIIFM: What’s in it for me! Who is your audience? Why should they listen to you? What tips can you provide them to help them get the results they seek?

Your Material: 1. Tell them what you are going to tell them. 2. Tell them. 3. Tell them what you told them. There is no “best” way to organize your speech. There are several different ways to organize, and the method you choose often depends on the topic you select and the objective. Have an outline with a few main points.

Tell them what you’re going to tell them. (Introduction) This is the time where you get to make a “connection” with your audience. WIIFM: What’s in it for me! Research your audience. Where are they now? Where should they be after your presentation?

Tell them. (Body) Develop strong supporting stories. The middle of your talk is where you expand on your key points and develop personal stories that support where you were and where you are now. The amount of information you include in the body will be limited by the amount of time available to you and how much the audience can remember. Give them enough information but don’t bore them with too much detail. Avoid complicated jargon.

Tell them what you told them. (Conclusion) To end your presentation, tell them what you told them. Close on a high note. Summarize your main points in the same way you normally do in the CONCLUSION of a written paper. Leave your audience with a positive impression, a call to action and a sense of completion.

Overcoming Anxiety: Practice! Practice! Practice! Recognize that nervousness can be a positive motivator. Don’t point out that you are nervous. Use notes to help. Have an outline just incase you loose your place. If you stumble, move ahead.

Logistics: Arrive at your destination 30-minutes prior (or earlier) to survey the set-up, so that you can get comfortable. An athlete always arrives at the game early for a warm-up. With speaking, the same concept applies. Go through your warm-up. Make sure your equipment works, do your sound check and work out all the bugs before your presentation and not during.

Visual Aids: These add value to your presentation such as handouts, articles, pictures, diagrams, etc. Make sure you have enough, so that your audience can follow along with you. If you plan to use a hand-out as a take away, hand it out after the presentation so that the focus is on you and not the handout.

Record Yourself: See how you sound prior to delivering your speech. This is the time you can make any necessary adjustments to your speech and help build your confidence.

The best way to get over the fear of speaking is to face your fear head on. Through practice and preparation with the tips above, you will gain greater confidence in public speaking. If you are looking to get ongoing practice, join a local club through Toastmasters International or volunteer to speak at various community groups. You can conquer the fear of speaking in public through patience, practice, and preparation.