How To Find New Ideas

Here's some more tips on how to fill your mind with an almost endless supply of ideas for your presentations of all types – from the November 17, 2010 online edition of Early To Rise – a regular goldmine of ideas for business people and professionals in all fields.

This feature, "What Drives Creativity?" It is taken from a syndicated column by Harvey Mackay. In he outlines 10 ways to enhance your creativity such as:

• Keep a Journal.
  
• Search Your Environment for inspiration.
  
• Question Everything (remember the five w's?);.
  
• Turn Problems Around.
  
• Combine Random Elements.
  
• Recruit a Partner.
  
• Read Something totally Different Than Usual.
  
• Tolerate Failure.
  
• Listen To Your "Inner Child".
  
• Relax Your Mind ("Don't focus on work or solving problems constantly).
  

Additional ideas on this can be found by clicking on that November 17, 2010 edition of this internet e-zine which you'll find very inspirational.

Every Minute of Every Day

 

According to Nora Ephron, famous screenwriter and essayist, she uses every minute of every day as fodder for her work as she explained in an interview with Olivia Stren which appeared in the November 12, edition of The Globe and Mail in the Books section on page 20.

And that is a good habit for other writers, such as speech writers, as well. Things, such as statistics, features stories (such as this one) and other bits and bits that can make your work come to life are all around you just waiting to be used in your next speech or presentation.

Some of it you might be able to use right away while other things should be filed away on your computer or old fashioned notebook somewhere. A good example of this is a little sparrow I saw hopping up and down in front of a discarded mirror leaning against a wall alongside a half-burned out building.

I stood watching the little bird flapping its wings as it hopped up and down in front of its own image for two or three minutes at a time and then running around behind the mirror to try and see where the other bird was I guess.

Just how I am going to use this illustration I'm not quite sure yet, but in some presentation, sometime, somewhere I know this little bird will pop up to illustrate some point.

Things like this are literally all around you. I just learned for example while reading an alternative news magazine, Common Ground, published in Vancouver B.C., Canada that although relatively few people are aware of it there is not just one species of bee that pollinates flowers and other plants but actually there are some 20,000 different species worldwide – 800 of which live in Canada. That little bit of information, carefully filed away could prove very useful one day in some presentation or conversation.


Other examples of being surrounded by potentially useful ideas to use in writing and speaking are two towering climbing cranes used in the  construction of the new Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver. These two cranes soar hundreds of feet above the bridge neck over the Fraser River -- which is already 200 or so feet above the river -- and look somewhat like huge dandelions with their slender stalks and flowes ( in this case the operator's cabin) on the top.
Passing these day after day the thought one day popped into my mind that the trust put in these slender cranes by the operators is a good illustration of the definition of faith: "…the assured expectation of things hope for."

So Nora Ephron, and the many other writers who also do this are on to a really good idea.


 

 

 

 

Use Word Pictures

 

Use good word pictures or illustrations to make the main points in your presentation both easier to understand and more memorable. And the thing is that they are all around in your everyday life: in what you read; in what your hear other people talking about; on the Internet; in radio and television newscasts; and in what experiences and information that others share with you throughout the day.

Consider the one I read about in the Globe and Mail newspaper a few weeks back. It described how a university professor found himself stranded on the top of a New Zealand mountain wearing on a light sweater and shorts after his brother-in-law fell to his death.

It looked like curtains for him to as rescue by helicopter was some eight hours away if the weather held up and he had to first survive at least those 8 hours of freezing temperatures.

 

He did survive though by creating a vivid mental image of being alive to see the sun rising the next morning and breaking those eight hours down into 5 second intervals – which he actually counted out – between each icy breath. He broke the night down into these short intervals and did survive.

What you have here is not just a terrific example of courage and determination, and endurance, but also how to break what might seem like an insurmountable obstacle down in smaller pieces and succeed in overcoming the problem.

Needless to say this story went into my file of illustrations to use in future presentations – maybe a number of times as this type of story can be used to illustrate a number of points. I try to make a practice of continually adding to this file as I find interesting illustrations, examples, statistics, or other information that I might be able to use – even if I do not have an immediate use for it. You should too.

Say It Clearly

If you are a fan of American Idol, America's Got Talent or one of the other talent shows on television you don't have to be told that there is a tremendous resource of undiscovered vocal talent out there but did you also notice a common problem that many of the singers have that could interfered with their goal to become superstars?


That is poor enunciation. How many times have you heard a young woman or man go through their performance with a lovely, powerful voice, but you ended up asking yourself, " What did she say,?" What did he say?" Doesn't this bother you?

Often you can let it slip because of the performer's charismatic performance or rhythm of the song or beat of the music. And to be honest my favourite singers are people like Anne Murray, Kenny Rodgers, and other w hose words are crisp and clear even many veteran, and extremely popular singers are guilty of slurring their words.

They get away with this too because listeners are carried away by their personalities and the power of the song it self, but this type of thing will not work when you are trying to make powerful presentations in front of an audience of business people or other audiences.

You have to have good enunciation and finish up your words clearly or your audience will stop listening to you very quickly and you might as well just send everybody an e-mail and hope you can motivate them that way somehow.

It is essential that you become familiar with the words you plan to use in speech or presentation and then practice them so that they roll off your tongue crisp and clear.




 

Protect Your Communication Equipment

How well do you protect your communication equipment?

Silly question you might say. "Of course I take care of communication equipment. I make sure my cell phone is kept in a proper case to protect it against falls or dampness. The same thing with my tape recorder and cameras. They're all kept in proper cases and in secure places at home – and especially when I have to leave them alone when I travel or have to take them with me in my vehicle."

And I'm sure you do, but how well do you protect the communication system you were born with – without which most of this stuff would be useless? Your brain. Your lungs, your throat (along with its larynx and voice box), your tongue, your teeth, your lips – and your ears and eyes. all make one of the most awesome communications systems in the world – without which we would be unable to gather information or share it effectively with others.

Everything you want to say starts off as a puff of air in your lungs which forces the air up your throat past your larynx and voice bocks which turns it into sounds, on past you tongue, teeth and lips which all do their part to transform this initial sound into meaningful words.

And with our ears and eyes we can quickly appreciate not only how our voice sounds and ideas are going over from the response from our audience but we can also continually increase our repertoire of ideas and information by listening to others or researching new ideas.

Ironically, while nobody would deliberately drop a cell phone on the floor all too often we don't think about how we are destroying our brains and other components of our vocal system through smoking, excesses with drugs and alcohol or other detrimental lifestyles.

Yet if we want to have long careers as successful presenters whether we are singers, actors or speakers we must give as much care to our "natural equipment" as we do our electronic aids.

 

 

 

 

Use A Book As A Bee Does Flowers

 

That is a very valuable point: " Do a book as a bee does flowers" as one person said in his comment about my blog on the need to practice, practice, practice your presentation.

I an not exactly sure just what my reader meant but it could be a relatively easy way to build any presentation – if that idea was combined with another one: Use Mind Mapping to explore and record ideas for future use. For those of you not yet familiar with this researching, writing, editing, and presenting technique just get on the Internet and type in "Mind Mapping" or "Tony Buzan" This will bring up quite a wide variety of possible sites to learn about this presentation technique that can do much to simplify and improve your presentations.

Basically what you will see is that easiest way to build a colourful and effective presentations – especially if you can only devote a few minutes to it at a time is to write the main point of your proposed presentation in the centre of a large sheet of paper.

Then as you discover supporting argument record these on arms branching off this central point – which ideally should be written down with some type of illustration or picture of this main point.

Then from these main supporting points you would write supporting facts, statistics, anecdotes, and illustrations, just like the smaller branches of a tree, that clarify or strengthen these arguments.

To really understand this concept get on that Mind Mapping Web site and try using this when you are building your next presentation.

This will enable you use books to gather ideas and synthesize them into a powerful presentation – just like bees gather nectar from a wide variety of plants and synthesize all if this into nutritious honey for themselves and other creatures.

The wonderful thing about this technique is that it enables you to stop at any point and come back to the research, writing, or editing process when you are able and see almost instantly how your presentation is shaping up and where you can add additional information that you have just come across. It provides a vivid presentation of your entire presentation.

 

Practice-Practice-Practice

There is no way around it. Whatever your trade, craft, or profession if you want to become one of the best you need to practice. The artist practices mixing and blending colours until he is able to capture a realistic scene on the canvas. The sculptor does the same learning how to a block of stone into a life-like replica of a person or other subject. The writer works at honing the skill to create or re-create emotion stirring word pictures of events and characters. And a speaker or presenter must practice turning what is written on paper into an educational, entertaining and stirring performance.

 

There is no other way around it. The only way to develop the mechanical skills of making an effective presentation : proper breath control,; articulation; enunciation; a variety in pace, pitch, and power; as well as the skill to use pausing effectively takes endless practice.

Of course the time it takes to gain the mastery of all of these parts of effective presentation will vary from person to person but even a person who might have a natural ability as a speaker should not neglect voice practice in order to keep his or her voice fine-tuned, just as a professional figure skater continues to practice even after they have gained recognition as the best or one of the best performers.

In the case of a public speaker or presenter one of the easiest ways to do this is make time to practice reading daily. One teacher I know makes a habit of practising at least five to fifteen minutes a day either at home in the early morning or evening going to bed – or even sometimes while sitting in his vehicle in a traffic jam – holding his cell phone up to his mouth to make it looks like he is recording something and doesn't look like an idiot. (He says that most other drivers don't even give him a second glance.)

Just Like Learning to Ride a Bike

 

There are many skills an effective communicator has to learn –whether your audience is only one in a quiet setting or hundreds in a large auditorium and with many business and government leaders failing so badly it is clear that it is not easy.

There are many things you have to master involving the wide variety of skills needed to research topics, write the material and then present this in an, entertaining, informative, and motivating manner.

From personal experience with battles to overcome such flaws, as stuttering, proper breathing, and articulation when you first start out and then fight to prevent yourself from falling back into bad habits or speech disabilities I can tell you it can become a little disheartening when you often can't seem to overcome these obstacles to clear and effective presentations for what seems like ages, but it can be done.

It is just like learning to ride that bicycle. When you first learn to ride you usually fall off – many times, but through consistent practice you become better and better and are soon able to succeed as an outstanding cyclist in all types of terrain. Perhaps one that is sought after to participate in local, national, and international cycling events.

When learning to become and outstanding public speaker you frequently follow a similar course. The key in both activities is determination and consistency in working towards your goal and visualizing yourself succeeding.

 

 

 

Keep The Possible Double Meaning of Words In Mind

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney recently found out how dangerous it can be to change your wording when revising your presentation. Word should be chosen with a great deal of care.

According to reporter Kevin Carmichael, in the March 25, 2010 issue of The Globe and Mail the change of one word in Carney's latest report on inflation and interest rates has caused business leaders to panic.

Apparently in an earlier promise on interest rates Carney said that any change in the rate would be conditional on the outlook for prices. Then in an apparent effort to freshen up his copy he modified his copy by adding one word in front of conditional: "expressly" So now he said: that his pledge not to change the rate was, "expressly conditional on the outlook for inflation."

Alarmed business leaders took this as a subtle warning that they should expect an increase in the interest rate on business loans before the end of June 2010 – despite the fact that Carney insists he did not mean that.

He apparently didn't stop to think how his choice of words could suggest the likelihood of an imminent change in loan interest rates. Carney insists that was not his intention, that he was only trying to freshen up his wording but that is how the addition of that one word to his copy was interpreted.

The lesson here is that this type of thing could happen to you if not are not careful. You have to keep in mind what effect your wording could have on your audience.

Jeff Mock in his book You Can Write Poetry makes this point clear. Mock warns poets that they have to keep in mind that words have both a literal meaning and often a suggested meaning (known as detonation and connotation) and that it is the connotation that can cause problems if you are not careful

Examples of this he gives include the difference in the suggested meaning in the words "satisfied" and "pleased" when used to describe how you have enjoyed a meal.

As Mock says both words have the same general meaning of contentment, but that the word "satisfied" is a more neutral word. The connotation creates the impression that the speaker feels that meal was just satisfactory -- nothing more.


The word "pleased" on the other hand creates an impression of being delighted with the meal. Naturally which word you used could evoke quite different responses from your audience – especially, as Mock says, if the cook you were speaking to happened to be your spouse.

Mock is writing about composing poems but the same principle holds true for any type of presentations whether it is a poem, feature story, speech, or any type of oral presentation. The thing to remember  is that when choosing words you need to keep both the detonation or literal meaning of words as well as their connotation or suggested meanings in mind. And stay aware of how these meanings can affect your audience – whether it is one person or a hundred. 

 

Develop A Genuine Interest In People

One of the critical things you have to do to succeed as a public speaker, trainer, or presenters is to have a genuine interest in the people you are writing and speaking to – or you'll find it impossible to deliver a truly lively and sincere presentation.

You have to have a genuine interest in the individuals in your audience. " and the issues that affect their businesses, careers. and lives." Steve Slaunwhite was writing to copy writers when he wrote those words in The Golden Thread, an on-line newsletter for copy writers but that advice that applies equally well to speech writers and the speakers themselves.


You have to be a people person.



Extroverts are naturally that way. Others, more introverted or shy might have more trouble in getting their minds off themselves – but anybody can develop that interest if you really want to.

One of the tricks that that can help you to do this is to copy a tactic used by novelists and short story writers to help them create characters that come to life on their pages.

Using real characters they have met (or created in their minds) they ask themselves a wide variety of questions about that person such as:

• What is the person's marital status?
  
• What is their family like?
  
• What is their ethnicity?
  
• What are their fears or obsessions?
  
• What are their ambitions?
  
• What are their superstitions?
  
• What attitudes do they have?
  
• What characters flaws or strengths do they have?
  
• What food preferences do they have?
  

These examples taken from the book What If? By Anne Bernays and Pamela Painters are just examples you will think of many more yourself as you get into the habit of doing this when you meet people. It works and is another tool you can use in your public speaking career.

The trick is to get in the habit of doing this with people you meet. It can help you to develop a genuine interest in others. It is all a bit mechanical at first but the more you practice the more natural – and rewarding it will become as you seek answers to questions to such questions by focussing not on yourself but on them and what you see them do, hear them say, and express silently through their body language when interacting with others.

It is just like riding a bicycle. When you first try you likely fall down many times, but eventually you get better and better and before long found yourself racing down some mountain trail or along the road with not trouble at all.

From personal experience I can tell you that learning to defeat shyness or tendency to be introverted by building an interest in others can be very similar to learning to ride that bicycle. . It is very mechanical at first but it gradually becomes more and more natural and rewarding – in your everyday as well as your public speaking activities.








 

Imitate Direct Mail Copy Writers Before Making Your Presentation

Instructors at American Writers and Artists stress two things: the need to learn as much as you can about both products and prospects your are writing to – learning not only about their general background such as age, education, income level and buying habits but also the core emotions or issues that keep them up at night. The goal is to actually be able to visualize your audience and how they would respond to problems – actually visualizing the nervous twitch on their face and other stress mannerisms. Then you will know how to write to them with words and ideas that will not only interest them but also motivate them to action.

 

As a writer and speaker you might not want to go that farther or even have the opportunity to learn that much about your audience. You should, however, learn as much as you can before writing and making your presentation.

If you are giving your speech, presentation, or seminar to a specific group of business people or professionals take the time to learn as much about their concerns and interests and interests as possible.

Then you will be able to focus your research and writing and come up with information and ideas that really help them. What direct mail writers call "golden nuggets" of information that will be loaded with beneficial ideas that your audience can really use to solve problems or accomplish goals.

 

All of this is where Mind Mapping techniques developed by Tony Buzan can be very useful – to analyze your audience, research information good make and outline your presentation.

 

What Do You Do With Your Hands?

Is your audience focussed on what you are saying or distracted by what you are doing with your hands? If you have a problem with this you are aren't alone; speakers run into a variety of problems such as some of these:

• Playing with their mustache
  
• Clasping their hands in front of their waist
  
• Hands stuffed into their pocket
  
• Playing with their fingers or electric cords on microphones
  
• Playing with pieces of chalk they are holding like dice
  
• Playing with change in their pockets
  

But remember that all of this is very distracting to your audience and should be eliminated by practicing your presentation in front of a mirror or a video camera so you can detect and consciously work at banishing such nervous mannerisms

Some very good speakers getting away with resting them – gently – on the sides of the stand holding their notes if there is one. It all depends on the speaker. Just make sure that you don't clutch it or give the impression that you are clutching it for support.

The best place for our hands when you are not using them to give some emphatic or descriptive gesture according to speech professionals like Peter Urs Bender and Ron Hoff is by your sides with your fingers slightly curled and index fingers lightly touching.

This might seem unnatural and awkward at first but it will become more natural the more you practice this.

And from this position it is easier to use your hands to create meaningful emphatic and descriptive gestures that will help to drive home the main points in your presentation and make it more interesting.


Watch professional speakers and presenters and you'll see that the best and most relaxed eliminate the problem of what to do with their hands by using them  -- when appropriate to give these effective emphatic or descriptive gestures.

Illustrate Your Presentation

Inject new life into your presentation or speech with a growing variety of tools or aids.
There are of course a wide variety of mediums you can use depending on the setting of your presentation and the size of your audience ranging from the old fashioned slip charts that either stand on a table or the larger floor models. You can use these for material that is already prepared or made up as you go through your presentation either alone or in combination white a whiteboard.
Another medium which can be very effective, especially for larger audiences as the image can be adjusted is the slide projector. Although many speakers and presenters are now using Power Point presentations the older slide projector can still be very effective especially now that you can easily make up a set of colour slides relatively inexpensively on your computer and then print them out in colour.
You can of course skip this step altogether by buying either a stand alone Power Point projector ( although these can be fairly expensive) or a projector that connects to your laptop computer.
Yet another useful aids to help you illustrate your material is the electronic whiteboard that enables you to outline your points as you speak or make your presentation. There is now quite a wide variety of these on the market now and many of these also allow you to scan or print out your notes that you can use as handouts. You can get more information about these at: www.whiteboardsandmore.com

This whiteboard method of illustrating your presentation can be made even more effective if you use the Mind Mapping or Graphic Recording method of illustrating your material. Christina at www.makemark.com can provide you with much more information about this technique. Contact Tony Buzan, the originator or Mind Mapping itself at: www.thinkbuzan.com

Just make sure that whatever technique and equipment you use it is appropriate for your setting and audience and that it helps you to illustrate what you are saying  effectively .











 

Use Comedy Carefully

I was just browsing through  Ron Hoff;s book  I Can See You Naked  and came across a few very valuable points on the value and use of comedy in a speech.

Flipping through to page 115   I came across the point: "Just think about all the good stuff  from smiling.


Almost all audiences like to smile, to laugh. They're just sitting there waiting for an excuse to laugh out loud...with a burst of laughter...everybody will feel better. Including you."

And that is true. The only problem is that you must be careful in the use of comedy in a presentation.

In his book he reminds  speakers  of a few of the things to keep in mind when trying to use comedy in presentations such as:

• Don't try to write jokes.  Tell your audience about yourself, about some ridiculous mistake you made.
• Don/t build your presentations around jokes. Fit jokes into your message to illustrate a point
• Don't wait for laughs. If the audience does not laugh out loud move on. (They might be smiling  to themselves while getting the point of the joke and your message -- you do not know).
• Don't laugh at your own jokes.

These are all good points to keep in mind for as he says on page 115: "Almost all audiences like to smile, to laugh. They're just sitting there waiting for an excuse to laugh out loud. And up you come."

 In such a relaxed frame of mind so long as the rest of your information is entertaining, informative and  or persuasive your selective use of comedy will make your entire presentation successful.

I once emphasized the point of not giving in to high pressure reactions and acting without thinking about the 

consequences by relating how another driver was looking for me for three months because I yelled at him to get off the cell phone.

What happened was this:  I was driving behind another man who sat in the middle of an intersection for two lights without moving. Finally I pulled up beside him when the light turned green for the third time and yelled: " Get off the phone and drive. Jerk!."

Three months later while I was stalled at another traffic jam at the same intersection a man suddenly appeared at my  car window shouting: " Remember me?  I have been looking for you for three months!  He went away in disgust because I looked at him and started laughing so loud. But he could  have had a gun!

My audience, after they stopped, laughing, appreciated the point I was trying to make about giving in to  high pressure--mindless reactions to what other people do.

Such is the power of comedy  if it is properly used.  Use it but be careful.

Make Effective Use of Presentation Aids

More and more speakers and presenters are using  aids like slides and Power Point Point Presentations and even large graphic recordings of their presentations drawn on electronic whiteboards or other media as they speak by themselves or somebody who specializes in this to enrich their presentations.  Just remember that while they can enrich yours presentation there are things to need to keep in mind such as the following points:

• Make these large enough to be seen clearly by all members of your audience.
• Make sure the slides are clean and professionally organized and written.
• Remember that less is often more. Elaborate  slides or  Power Points presentations can detract from our message rather then make it more memorable or interesting..
• Remember these aids should support your oral presentation -- not the other way around.
• Leave plenty of time to discuss the different points in your presentations in your own words.

Just like photographs in a newspaper or magazine article they should be used like salt and pepper in a meal to season it an make it more interesting.  They should not be the whole show -- unless your goal is to tell the entire story in pictures or graphic illustrations like a photojournalist.

Use These Powerful Tools to Help You Put Together and Deliver Your Presentation

In all stages of your preparation for actual presentation of  your information  use  two very powerful tools if you want to succeed.


These are:   Clustering, developed by Gabriele Lusser Rico Ph.D author of the bestselling book   Writing The Natural Way  and Mind  Mapping created by  Tony Buzan and developed himself and other like Vanda North and Jamie Nast.


Tony Buzan has a number of excellent books, such as The Mind Map Book published  that can help you develop skills in  this technique, while Jamie Nast  has published  her book, Idea Mapping  and  Professor Rico  has a series of books titled, Writing the Natural Way focussing on clustering and other writing techniques.


With clustering  you  write the central idea of your topic in the centre of a piece of paper in a circle (ideally as large as possible and laid out landscape style) and then as quickly as possible  write related ideas  in balloons  around the  the central idea -- attached to it with lines like the strings on a balloon.


With Mind Mapping or Idea Mapping as Jamie Nast describes it in her book  the central idea is also written in the centre of a large piece of paper. Ideally, both Buzan and Nast say,  this idea should be as visual as possible  using an illustration rather than words.


The main points of the topic are written in arms or branches radiating out from this central idea like the branches of a tree.


Both of these techniques can help you to create and organize ideas as well as to analyze, write, and edit them and then you can use them, particularly Mind Mapping  in the actual oral delivery of your ideas and information.

Proper Use of A Microphone

Before the advent of sound systems speakers addressing large audiences, sometimes outside, depended  on lung  power and finding theaters  and auditoriums with good acoustics.


Thousands of years ago speakers used  at least two different techniques to address large audiences. 
Moses, addressing the nation of  Israel in the open air, probably used  assistants  with a keen sense of hearing stationed  at strategic intervals around the crowd to repeat what he said or sought out  valleys or other areas with good acoustics.
 Jesus too used such techniques.  On one occasion at least he addressed a large crowd from a small boat anchored just offshore in the Seat of Galilee because the smooth waters helped to amplify his voice making it easier for everyone on shore to hear him.


Now with modern sound systems speakers  can be hard clearly in locations of all sizes very easily  --providing the speakers use the microphone properly -- which is not the way you see many rock and roll singers doing it -- almost swallowing the microphone.


While the audiences of such stars accept much of what they say being lost or garbled. public speakers or presenters have to be clearly understood. Ensure this with the proper use of a microphone (unless you are wearing once of those wireless clip on models):  (1)  Keep the  microphone about five to six inches away from your mouth. (2) When you are speaking make sure it is directly in front of you. (3) Don't shout into it. In most cases speak no louder than if you were speaking to somebody standing right next to you. (4) Remember to turn your head to one side if you are going to cough or have to clear your voice.