Category: Blog

Coronavirus. That’s why we now want to work remotely and substitute the face-to-face meetings with online calls – the digital ordeal that so many have wanted to avoid before. Why are some of us so prejudiced towards online meetings? There are numerous reasons. Firstly, tech issues are a deterrent (what’s worse than to disconnect in medias res!). Secondly, we’re being crippled: whatever the platform, we can’t see other people fully, cannot rely on body language that well. And thirdly, online calls tend to be chaotic and inefficient. However, as technology has moved forward, shouldn’t we adapt a bit and develop adequate competences? That’s our mission at Language Extreme at all times: to help develop your communication skills. Today, we would like to help you prepare strategically to run effective, pleasant and satisfying online meetings that will be almost as good as the face-to-face chats you normally have. Check our tips in your call tomorrow, and let us know what you think of them.

General rules for online calls

Firstly, a key principle: don’t set too many meetings. A well-prepared email will always be more effective than a series of calls. This work-from-home time we are now having is a great way to boost work efficiency, but too many calls will hardly help you achieve that aim.

Secondly, before each meeting, everybody needs to know who the moderator (host) is. If that is established, participants will all know who they should expect to set up the meeting, sent invitations with agenda, start the call, make notes and moderate the proceedings in line with the agenda.

Bear in mind that sometimes doing all those things at the same time may be challenging for just one person. If you’re a host and want to avoid disorganization and trouble, choose a colleague who will be responsible for the technical side and will take minutes of the meeting (MoM), while you focus on the merits and smooth progress of the call.

Before you start an online call

1. Prepare an agenda and specify who is responsible for presenting each topic.
2. Write down a list of key questions that need to be answered.
3. List all deliverables of the call.
4. Set a time limit. Half an hour is usually the most optimal for online sessions but go for one hour if there are many participants and the topic is broad.

What’s the drill?

The better you know people you talk to, the easier it is going to be. However, when talking to strangers or partners whose communication habits you don’t know, make sure you keep the following routine:

1. Each speaker introduces him/herself with their names, organizations or/and positions. If you don’t know their voices, ask them to repeat names whenever they speak – e.g. “Hi! It’s Julia from Customer Care here”. Note: Video functionalities switching camera views when speakers change are a great help in this respect. Make sure they are switched on.
2. As a host, present your list of deliverables and key questions. Remember to do that in a concise and precise manner at the beginning of the call.
3. As everybody already knows who will introduce which topic, remind participants of the order and remember to let everybody know when it’s time you moved on to the next presenter.

Interruptions are interruptions

You will lose on efficiency if you let speakers interrupt one another in an uncontrolled manner. That’s why the role of the host/moderator is so important. Apart from opening the discussion, the moderator will control the agenda, run introductions at the beginning and keep the proceedings properly smooth. If somebody still goes on with cutting into the conversation, the role of a moderator is to stop it. However, a good ol’ “[Name], let me finish please” should do. Equally well, the moderator can strictly demand good order and warn everyone that proper conversations are part of company ethos and will be maintained in order at all times.

Let “mhm” die

Even in a video call, all messages should be as unambiguous as possible. That’s why you should not rely on intonation or short comments such as “mhm” anymore. Such short no-words will only confuse other speakers, if they are lucky enough to hear them.

Long-winded replies are never good. If you want to agree with other speakers, go for simple phrases:

• I agree.
• Positive.
• Certainly.
• (Absolutely) right.
• Sure.

And if you’re not so sure you should agree, go with:

• This may be/is incorrect.
• I’m afraid not.
• Impossible.
• I beg to differ.
• Not really.
• I believe this is not the case.

5 commandments of a moderator

As we have already mentioned, hosts and moderators have their hands quite busy. Here are additional tasks they should carry out systematically throughout the call:

1. Present partial summaries. After each point in the agenda, the moderator should make sure to conclude what the situation is at the moment and what further actions will need to be taken in a given area.
2. Ask for updates and questions. It may happen that not all participants will be 100% focused. That’s why, after the discussion, it will be great to ask participants for any further thoughts, questions or possible updates. The more often you check whether participants are on track, the surer you will be that they have understood.
3. Share the screen. Prepare a .docx or notepad list of discussed points, and write down how they will be executed. Share that list on the screen while creating it during the call so that everybody is on the same page (remember, some of us are visual learners). When the meeting is over, send it as minutes of the meeting.
4. Summarize the whole meeting. As you approach the end, make sure that you have used most of your time and there are no other issues to be discussed. If some appear, choose to write an email or set another meeting to follow up.

Good manners in an online call

Make sure that you KISS. That is, try to be this:

Kind — you show empathy towards your speaker. Remember that most probably they also work remotely, and might not be able to use ideal conditions for conversation at the moment (especially when they have kids at home during the plague). Remember: speaking a bit more clearly and a bit louder than usual is a gesture of kindness in online calls. Mumbling isn’t.

Informative – being concise and precise must be a top priority in online calls. Only then, the information you provide will be clear enough to act upon.

Structured – whether as a moderator or a participant, you should make sure that you don’t waste anybody’s time and follow the agenda accordingly.

Satisfying – setting the deliverables at the beginning is important not only for the host but also for the participants. Make sure their needs are also included.

Having all those tips in mind, you should run each online meeting effectively, sometimes even more than a face to face one! The more meetings you run, the easier it will be. Just make sure to check all the technical aspects before you start, and stick to everything you have sent out before. And remember – set meetings only for topics that cannot be discussed by email!

Would you like to revise and check if you remember all rules presented here? Check our Online Calls Guide available here: Your Online Call – LE Guide. Have a good read! And enjoy your calls!

Should you need consultation on how to develop communication skills in the digital world, drop us a line at contact@languageextreme.pl

COMMUNICATION TIPS… FOR PARENTS!

We help business professionals communicate better in their working environments. Presentation skills, negotiation, feedback, emailing, video-calls. All that. We work hard to improve the skills that are key to business success. But communication is so much larger. Today is about that. But it is also about you – and your communication skills.

Are you troubled at sending your message across your kids? Have you tried every single method and still nothing seems to work? Have a look at some tips that will definitely inspire you to revive the wonderful rapport you used to have when your children were little! And maybe, if you give it a thought, they will make you communicate better in general – at home and beyond.

Listen instead of speaking

Make an attempt of forgetting just how important what you have to say is (easier said than done!) and find a quiet spot and a little time when you can focus totally on your child. Try to clean your mind of the constant chatter which reminds you of a never-ending list of things to do… and just listen to what your child has to say to you. You might be surprised just how powerful empathy and true listening are!

Effects are not born at once. Careful listening will feed you information to be consumed at a later stage – when you realize that you know your conversation partner (child, adult, whoever that really is) much better than before. 

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

You show respect to others when you speak to them like you would speak to people you don’t know in a formal situation. That’s a rule. Interrupting? Out. Stone-walling? Out. Criticism? Out. Being defensive? Out.

It won’t help if you control WHAT you say but you don’t control HOW you say it. Children are perfect little detectors of non-verbal signs – and much more radical at that than your business colleagues. Kids will know instantly if you are showing them contempt or disagreeing with them. So pay attention to your tone of voice or body postures to create a welcoming environment.

Medice, cura te ipsum

Children learn by copying the people they spend most of their time with – their own parents. They DO NOT learn from HEARING the good, old naggin’ we are so full of. So if you want great communication with your kids – give them an example by being a great communicator with everyone around. Check if you can improve on the way, too, by following these three universal communication tips. Remember, though: perfection is a temporary illusion! So if you make a mistake, just try again tomorrow and don’t judge yourself too harshly. 

In almost all of our presentation trainings we hear a burning question: “How should I behave while presenting?”. The general answer is quite simple – behave like yourself. Of course, there is “room for improvement” when it comes to your presentation skills. However, changing a fact-oriented, a bit shy IT expert into Steve Ballmer won’t look natural. And if it doesn’t, the chances of audience liking your presentation (and believing you) will drop dramatically. On the other hand, you may often hear some stereotypical criticism: “She’s awfully professional and you can easily see that she’s overtrained it. It looks like another TED talk”. We don’t want that, do we?

For today, we have prepared an analysis of a presentation that is very, very different: Elon Musk’s launch of Tesla Cybertruck. Elon uses a totally different style than most of TED presenters do. He is not another Steve Jobs of presentations either. Quite the opposite, in fact: he’s delivery is imperfect, his voice unappealing, and his body language – unclear at times. Still, however, he manages to create a memorable presentation – not only because he’s announcing another extraordinary machine of his, but also because he uses hooks – a key element every presentation should rely on. Watch the recording available here, and read on for some practical advice on how to be yourself in a presentation and still make a lasting good impression.

I’ll believe it when I see it: Demonstration as Hook

One of the best elements to convince the audience to buy is… to show how the product works. When you demonstrate the capabilities of your product well, audience engagement rockets – specifically because everyone prefers to see how an unknown thing works rather than to hear about it. Tesla Cybertruck is not an easy object to present indoors. However, Elon managed to test some of its most exciting capabilities in a manner that focuses all the attention. Like here, for example:

A great hook, and a great example for those of you who can somehow show what you do. Not only will this bring a new element in your presentation, but it will also help you explain the purpose of it. So, if you’re about to conduct a product presentation – show the very thing. If it’s a webinar platform, try to connect with somebody live. If it’s a conference or an expo, take your product with you. If you are discussing an IT solution (say, Robotic Process Automation), record a video and give your audience a chance to see the novelty work. I hear you say “but what’s if that’s not going to work perfectly?” Read on. Elon has a great answer.

Oops!: Failure as Hook

One of the reasons for Musk’s presentation going viral was the huge fail during the show. The strategy was to test everything they could, right? So, they have tested a window, claiming the glass (or rather a transparent metal in this case) was extremely tough. Turned out it’s not.

On a scale like this, a failure of this sort may be called as a “disaster”. But what does Elon do? “Well, maybe that was a little bit too hard”, he says. “It didn’t go through, that’s a plus side”. “A room for improvement”, he concludes. The public is confused but finally laughs. Expectations are violated, a surprise rules in the kingdom of attention.

Mistakes are strong hooks. Are you familiar with a global movement that organizes “fuckup nights”? Presenters talk only about mistakes and failures there. It is so popular for two reasons – firstly, everybody loves listening to unconventional stories and secondly, it’s easier to learn on somebody else’s failures. The topic in itself is itself enough of a hook. So was the idea to try out Tesla’s armour glass.

Let’s talk business real life.  You probably wouldn’t like to sabotage your presentations and show something completely untested to your business partners. However, think about including a minor fail, a tiny defeat. Maybe a story how of you stumbled on a new idea when in trouble, and of what you thought was a failure but turned out to be a brilliant success. You can mention a mistake that you have learnt from. It is not risky if you turn it around as Elon does, and claim there is still “room for improvement”. An admission of failure – or a staging of it – is surely a great reason for the audience to focus and think.

Ha, Ha, Ha: Jokes as Hook

If you watch the whole presentation, you will see that almost in each bit there is a small joke. For Elon, passing information is a priority – he explains very clearly how the truck is build, what is so unusual about it, and… as a cherry on top, he adds a little joke.

Jokes in presentation have always served as a great hook; everybody likes to laugh and most of us adore stories. If a joke serves the purpose of highlighting or presenting the information that you convey, why not to use this technique?

Looking at Elon’s presentation, all his jokes stressed the superiority of Tesla over other cars. Each joke of course accentuated a different feature, but all had in common the goal of convincing the audience that Cybertruck is innovative, well-done and worth buying.

Even in the bit with the shattered window that we’ve discussed above, Elon did not hold back and tried to turn what seemed to be a tragic fail, into a joke – “it didn’t go through” – by stressing the positives.

Next time, in your presentation strategy, you might want to implement a structure where some information will end in a small joke, a meme if your business environment allows you to, and mocking competition in a small dose. This will always spice up your presentation and make the audience “hooked”.

Conclusion: Hook and Be Yourself

Elon Musk has his own way of presenting. It may strike you in the clip that his fluency isn’t that perfect. His voice is unappealing. Body language? Not that good, not at all TEDesque. He may even put hands into pockets (something our mums won’t like).

Does that mean his presentation is not a success? Can you call his performance insufficient? On the contrary, the talk is truly informative and entertaining! Hence, Elon’s performance teaches us that there are different styles of presenters, and we shouldn’t strive for becoming the type that is not natural for us. One would be perfect in entertaining the audience with jokes, one will be extremely professional and deliver lots of information, or the other would base his presentation mostly on stories. Whatever the style, however, every presenter should strive to organize content for the audience. One way to do so is to use hooks: strategic elements in the talk that the audience will focus on, and will continue to remember afterwards. Prepare that, and small imperfections will not matter.

This article is a part of a larger series in which we analyze interesting presentations and show how you can nicely improve your performance in your next public talk. See any material worthy analysis? Do you have any questions perhaps? Write at julia@languageextreme.pl

This opening slogan holds more value than you probably think. In business presentations, you should practise it by limiting your content to the essentials. But how to decide on what those are and how to achieve this challenging goal? Start with these four steps:

• State what you want to achieve with your presentation. Ask yourself this: what do I want the audience to do? Decide clearly here, because this decision will have impact.
• Choose content: select only those arguments or examples that will best support and show your objective. Go with one, two or maximum of three main points.
• Find out as much about the members of the audience as you can. Try to analyse audience by their:
• seniority
• experience
• possible attitude
• engagement and interest
• and the total number of people you are talking to.

Basing on these, choose what your content should be: detailed, general, basic, direct, official or playful.

• Paraphrase. Usually, our first attempts at putting thoughts into presentation result in longish sentences and mere waffle. To do better, go over your outline, and say it differently. And again, try once more. While paraphrasing, try to be as concise as possible to make the most out of your presentation time.
• Forget the templates. Sometimes you may want to go along with your comfortable, long business template and base on the convention your colleagues have been using for ages. Don’t do it if you know the audience won’t understand or like it. Plus, there’s some common slide mistakes:
• too much text on the slides,
• too little font (make it at least 30 points)
• way too many slides.

Remember – presentations are for presenting, whitepapers are for reading. If you need to send out the content to the attendees, convert it into a pdf file or duplicate your presentation, and add more info there. Just don’t go with this version when presenting.

That’s it. Less is more – waste no words.  

I guess it’s the most frequently asked question when it comes to languages and, unfortunately, it’s impossible to give one answer. The word fast is rather relative since the speed in making progress can enormously differ as it depends on the type of person that we are working with.

To generalize as much as possible, from my personal observations I think that watching films and short videos only with English subtitles is a great way to learn quickly and effectively. Let’s not get too excited, though… It is definitely not enough! Learning new vocabulary systematically, preferably via useful apps such as Quizlet, is also vital, especially when you get new words from those videos! Imagine watching a short programme or an episode of your favourite TV series where you are actually interested in the words that you hear. I can promise you that it will improve the speed of your learning process significantly (not to mention the sheer watching pleasure)!

In my opinion, the worst thing you can do is to excessively practise rules of grammar until you completely drown in handouts and copies. It’s an obsolete method taken from public schools where they need to comply with certain rules and time limits. Limits? Huh? For you, there are none. Remember that!

Ricky Gervais’ speech at Golden Globes went viral, mostly for the reason that his jokes absolutely slammed Hollywood. However, apart from the roasting content he produced, the speech was brilliant for the presentation skills he used. Ricky is a comedian that knows exactly how to grab the audience’s attention. We have analyzed which elements helped him succeed. Follow what Ricky does here, and improve your public speaking skills with us.

Roast Them. But Really?

“[…] Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, nearly three hours long. Leonardo DiCaprio attended the premiere, and by the end, his date was too old for him.”

This is just another joke/roast from the host. Who will be next? Who’s getting a hit now? That’s the question that everybody is asking themselves. Rick’s focus is on the people sitting there. His tongue is sharp. And so is his attention: not on the event in itself, not on himself, but on the audience. The people in the room are the protagonists. That’s lesson number one: if you want to get attention, offer it yourself, too. 

Lesson number two: bring your audience into an attentive mode. As Ricky’s main occupation is to mock people, he does that throughout his whole speech. No stops there. Even though the form of the performance doesn’t change (new topic, new joke), everybody listens carefully because they know that they or their friends may be next in the litany of jokes. How to learn from this? Structure your speech or presentation interactively so that the audience will impatiently wait for the next part. How? In business, you can dynamically ask questions directed to specific people. Distribute attention in a rapid mode, and keep the pace. Make sure the audience knows that they will be involved. 

Also, while talking about a particular task or projects, try to elaborate more on people who perform them, instead of focusing on the process. Let them feel appreciated and “called out”. That may be a less thrilling way than what Ricky does; however, if you know your environment is fine with that kind of jokes, go ahead! Roast! You will have a laugh, convey information and everybody will be focused and engaged.

Confidence and Body Language

Let’s face it, Ricky’s speech was truly controversial, and most probably you will not choose to do simulate it in a business environment. However, we can learn from the confidence he oozes. Even when the audience “boos” him, Ricky would never hesitate: he stands strong, gestures sharply, and never drops the character. His posture is in no way similar to the neat and kind figure below, even though the pressure on him must have been high.

He explains his point, although it’s hardly a popular one, and still carries on. What’s best, he doesn’t try to avoid the audience – he faces it, by saying for example: “I know he’s your friend but I don’t care”.

Surely, dismissing somebody’s emotions isn’t the best way to go around but you might want to use the confidence that goes along. The audience will know that it’s not fake and that’s exactly what you stand by.

How to show it? How to look more confident despite the negativity? Look at Ricky’s body language:

1. His open arms suggest that he doesn’t want to shield from anything. He’s not afraid and defensive; quite the opposite – with the open arms, he suggests “come at me, that’s just my true opinion that I’ve right to”.

2. Shrugging shoulders – is there any other more obvious way to announce that you don’t caret? That’s not the most friendly way to talk with your interlocutor, however in the times of audience’s attack it works perfectly. The integrity between what you say and what you show is the key, that’s why when he admits to not caring, he only strengthens the message with the shrug.

3. Talking about the “body-speech” integrity, shaking your head also serves as an element that highlights the message. See how clear that is in his talk? Non-verbal messages like that speak quickly, and are indisputably clear.

What’s the lesson then? Words will never last if the muscle doesn’t follow suit. The whole body needs to be involved if you want the audience to feel the authenticity (or persuasion) of what you are saying. Think about the integrity of what you preach and what you show. When you tell people that they should speed up with the project because it’s very needed, will you shake or nod your head? Will you open your arms and use dynamic gestures, or will you keep your arms crossed? Pay attention to this area: it may be a small element that will convince others to your point of view.

Manage Emotions!

Some say that “professional” means “unemotional”, “dispassionate” or even “reserved”. Maybe, maybe. We love to go different way – and that’s because we know that emotions are exactly what grabs attention. So, would you rather go with monotonous speech or add a bit of emotional intonation? If you choose the latter, the chances of remembering your speech are much higher.

In this bit, Ricky highlights an important fact: most audience members watch Netflix instead of the network TV or movies in cinema. He does that in a weary-like, almost impatient manner. As a result, he grabs the audience’s attention and shares a bit of his attitude towards this trend:

Add a Twist, Please!

What else raises engagement? A surprise. An unfamiliar, unexpected element. A twist. What’s true for books, films, plays, games and football games is also true for public speaking. If everything is predictable and stable, our brains switch to stand-by mode; they can predict what is going to happen. If you avoid conventional structures and add a twist instead, you will surprise the brains of your audience (as weird and creepy as that sounds)!  So, not only controversies can be effective; twists will do as well. Let’s see how a pro did that:

Witty, right? Start with a compliment regarding the TV show and then highlighting its hypocrisy. However, the speech you want to present doesn’t always have to go from good to bad. It’s all about a surprise in it. Let’s see an examples:

Dear all, it’s been a harsh time, number of clients reduced their orders in our company due to economic crisis, 5 of our employees left the job. So, what’s the result? We have still doubled our income comparing to the last year’s outcomes! And it was all thanks to your engagement, motivation and hard work!

What’s the drill?

1. Start safe. Present a goal you want to convey – thanking employees, stating the importance of your job, passing results from the quarter.
2. Find counter-elements; obstacles, stats from the industry, other people’s opinion, your own predictions to the contrary.
3. Develop the thought about the opposites and end it with a two-sentence twist presenting your point. The outcome will be spectacular! However, remember that the point you make should not be too long. Firstly, you raise engagement steadily as the brains of your audience are just about to predict what you want to say, and then – surprise! Keep your twist segment about 1/3 of the length of the preceding segment.

Juggle, Change, Juggle, Change…

Let’s be clear – structure is extremely important for presentations. Without it, both you and your audience would be lost. But! What would happen if you decided to use a juggling-type of presentation that balances between chaos and order? I’ll tell you what would happen! You would win your audience’s engagement!

Let me ask you: does this Golden Globe speech have a structure, and the bits Ricky says are somehow connected? Well, after the speech, all agreed that his performance’s point was to slam and mock Hollywood, so most definitely his jokes create a bigger picture.

Now, there is more than one way of structuring a story, presentation or speech. You don’t have to start with:

1. Introduction
2. Body (arguments/opinions)
3. Summary.

Although you can. But check this: Ricky presents an idea that can be brilliant in any kind of presentation. Chop your talk into paragraphs and reshuffle them so that one doesn’t result from the other. There can be confusion on your audience’s faces at the beginning. However, when you get to the end, to the “bigger picture” and your punchline, you will see that the audience listens to you extremely attentively to find out what the purpose was.

CONTROL, CONTROL, CONTROL

That’s about it. Some say that Ricky is not kidding at all in the talk – he lays out plain facts, and everybody thinks it’s a joke. Whether that’s indeed the case or not, one truth is to be universally acknowledged: the better you manage your audience’s engagement, the more spectacular effects you can expect.

To conclude. Talk to your audience about them. Avoid theoretical generalizations, point (with words) at the exact people watching you. Ask them questions, laugh at them or with them and continue with the next person. While presenting, don’t forget about your body posture. Let their minds focus and observe your body language. What’s next? Think about your voice, and about what emotions it conveys. Don’t avoid the emotional tone – it can help if you know where your going. But avoid letting emotions go off the orbit. Last, but not least – a twist. It’s almost an instant engagement boost so think about stating two pieces of information that are not linked in any obvious way. Try to surprise and entertain your audience a bit. Juggle the content. Micro bits of information or stories that you present, make sense when you make sure the audience sees the whole picture in the very end. 

Oh, yes, end. Time for it now. 

This article is a part of larger series where we find the best presentation examples and show how you can nicely improve your performance. See any material worth to cover or have any questions? Write at julia@languageextreme.pl

Presenting at an exhibition or conference abroad is an exciting – but daunting – task. Apart from complex logistics, there are communication matters that need to be addressed. If you handle these well, the trip to a distant land will not be a mere exotic journey, but a chance to establish yourself in new relations. We have prepared dozens of customers to effectively speak, talk, and exhibit in an international environment – and would now like to explain what you should focus on.

Choose Your Team Wisely

That’s one of the most crucial things; carefully select those who will go to the expo. Firstly, focus on the number. Depending on your position and the fairs type, you may want to let 2–4 people go and represent you nicely. Too many is a crowd, and one person’s always in need of a companion. A practical rule of thumb: make sure there is enough of you to take care of your booth, and to check what competitors do at the same time.

Secondly, think of experience. You don’t want to choose only noobs or top professionals. Pick one person that will be great with technicalities in case your interlocutor asks “hard” questions. Depending on the number, choose those that come from different areas (like sales or customer support), and can come in handy at the expo. Think of the audience who will come – will they be engineers that search for partners or rather managers a more general picture? Make sure your team is adequate to the audience and diverse enough so that you can address most of the possible questions on the spot.

Another thing to think about is what roles the team members will have. Who will be responsible for small talk and gathering people near the stand? Who will initiate the talks at the stand? Will there be a person responsible for the logistics and technicalities of the stand in case something happens? Of course, the situation changes, so don’t try to give your team members one and only role but rather make sure they know which role is their main responsibility.

What Does Your Stand Communicate?

Learn on the mistake of one of our clients. Before their first big expo, we were preparing them for the communication challenges they might have encountered. All went smooth and after a while, they felt truly confident; they created their sales pitch, learnt how to approach people without much struggle, understood how to say a lot in a short time, not so waste the attention of the visitors. Splendid!

So, when they got back, we wanted to know how it went. One of them answered: “Well, it was all great, I mean we didn’t have any problem with communication and initiating the talks, we fulfilled most of our goals but… nobody knew what our company does!”

It turned out that the name of the company and the banner they had, didn’t say anything about the sector they were in and the services they offered. Pure enigma. So, when people were approaching them, they were guessing what they company does.”

On one hand, that’s a good hook: a lack of information raises curiosity; on the other, if there are visitors that don’t care enough to approach and ask, they will probably miss an opportunity to learn about their prospect partner. Lesson learnt: make sure the stand (the main message on the banner or any other stand you take) clearly states what your expertise area is and whom you can help. See the example:

      Language Extreme

Waste no words

      Language Extreme

Communication Trainings. Language Courses. Translation.

We waste no words.

Clarity. Legibility. Key message. These three.

What’s Your Key Message?

The more you analyze and prepare your message, the more people you will talk to and get interested in your business. This was the main problem of some of our clients: many of them thought a generic pitch will do.

“Hi, my name is Mike. We do stuff. We take care of [list of about 10 services]. Would you be interested in any of those?”

That’s not how you establish relation at all! Here are a couple of things you can do instead:

1. Select key words.

Nobody wants to know the history of your business until they ask about it. At some point in your conversation, the visitors would want to know more, and they wouldn’t like to be disappointed. Use this moment well. Choose the information that argues for what you want to convey the most: the attractive essentials.

 

For instance, do you want to appear as reliable or quick?

If you go for “reliable”, say how long you have been on the market, with whom you have been working (if those are big players), highlight the facts which show that your customers can trust you – like sticking to the deadlines, advising them in case of any problems etc.

If you want to present your company as “quick”, mention the stats that show your solution can be implemented really fast. Give average costs or any other data that can matter to this person. Don’t overflood the interlocutor with information, choose the relevant bits only.

See the example:

      We do a lot of work in trainings: you know, some crazy stuff, some serious stuff. We started in 1910 and then grew slowly, and then grew quickly, and then were bought by the Americans, and then started work abroad with competences in various areas related more or less directly to communication and so on. And now we struggle to grow again.

      We teach efficient communication and show how good presentation, negotiation, emailing and conversation skills can help companies save money. Why? Because we believe communication competence is the new technology.

See? This makes perfect sense: if you don’t know how to speak about your job properly, are you sure you know what you do? Words make worlds, don’t they?

 

2. Don’t murder with slogans. Prove that what you have just verbalized so nicely is part of your ethos. Example: if you claim effective business relations are your key ambition, try to highlight it in an authentic manner. How about bringing a coffee machine to your stand so that you can sit down and casually discuss the business pain of your interlocutor? The atmosphere and individual approach is the most important thing. Check how our friends at Nava Ship Design did this last year with their Smart Engineering Alliance at Rotterdam’s Europort fairs: httpss://bit.ly/2NNOcRd Craft beer at an engineering expo? Splendid choice!

 

3. Ask questions. Yes, that’s part of your message, too. Your attentionyou’re your readiness to serve. Focus on the interlocutor to match his interests and needs with what you offer. Learn as much as possible about what brings them to the fairs, and what they would like to take home. A simple “Hi! What are you looking for?” can move mountains in this case.

Should I stay or should I go?

Should you hang onto your stand or go further to interest those passers-by in your business? Remember about the roles in your chosen team? That’s the answer. In general, there needs to be somebody near the stand, at all times. However, you need to have a person who will seek the visitors out.

Choose the roles, depending on their personalities. So, what should “the seeker” do? Well, definitely not this:

It’s not information you want to pass. That’s not why you’re at the trades. It’s the relationship you want to establish. It may be harder than just distributing leaflets or trying to talk to random guys, but hey! – quality over quantity! So, here are some tips for the “seeker”:

1. Research the visitors that you want to talk to. You can set up meetings at the expo even before the event starts. If you don’t know whom to target, go to LinkedIn, search the valid hashtag and research who you should meet and talk to.
2. Publish a post in LinkedIn that you will be visiting the expo with proper tags and hashtags. Thanks to this, others can find you and plan to visit your stand as well.
3. When you arrive, search for the areas that your prospects can visit. Go there and try to small talk to other people to see whether they would be interested in your business.
4. Use the LinkedIn feature that searches people in the same location. This may help you search for prospects.
5. Bring some business cards or any other thing that you have instead. Make sure they remember you and have instant contact number to follow-up. You can try the Linkedin scan code to exchange contacts, too.
6. Last but not least, you have to be proactive! Doesn’t matter if you’re the one that seeks the visitors or you remain at your stand; you have to be open to talk to prospects. Without it, there’s no way you can reach your business goals. Just don’t act in a pushy way. Focus on how you can help your interlocutor instead. Those visitors are there for a reason – they want to research some new trends or solutions, so your job is not that hard as it seems. Approach them as a partner, not a salesperson.

Velvet Your Voice

The tone of your voice is more important than you think. Before going to an expo, record how you would approach prospects. Listen to your greetings, to your farewells, and think how you can improve it. Maybe you speak too quietly? Is your voice to high? Are you loud enough? Remember that those places are extremely noisy. Maybe you can work on your intonation? If you have limited time as a prospect, you rather wouldn’t waste your time on a monotonous-sounding guy, right? Why? You know why.

Maybe you can introduce some new emotions to what you’re saying like excitement and feeling of passion and authenticity? That always brings attention. If your intonation isn’t flat and you show with you voice that you’re happy to talk to each person, that’s a win. It’s probably easier said than done as you will be talking to loads of people; however, try to remember that a first impression is truly important.

Have You Trained?

Strategic thinking is one thing, and muscle memory is another. If your performance is uncertain, make sure you have trained your communication before and developed a degree of confidence about what to say and how to say it. The bottom line is: you want your confidence to make the visitors feel more at ease – to make them feel they are in competent hands.

During our communication workshops, we train exactly that: self-presentation skills that build relations. We focus on content (words, images and messages), voice (intonation, tone, and pitch), and body language (yeah, the magic of handshakes, smiles, and eye-contact) to make sure our customers perform better than ever before. In an expo abroad, in an international conference, and in daily work, too. If you need assistance before a foreign business trip, reach us at contact@languageextreme.pl or call +48665257446.

A serious topic to analyze, isn’t it? Why on earth would we like to cover this? Miłosz’s not that old yet. Well, wonder no more! By watching Pash Pashkow’s performance, you can observe how to create an engaging presentation and convey complex and abstracts points that will get across to everybody. Read on to see what we can learn from this TEDx talk. Firstly, we recommend you to watch the presentation and then read the analysis below.

Hooks

Everyone says we measure the success of a presentation by how the audience liked it. How to build this liking, though? Simplest way to achieve this is to boost engagement by using hooks – key components like a joke, a provocative statement, a bit of surprising data etc. These are well known to grab the audience’s attention in an instant.

Pash seems to be a master of well-thought hooks that also happen to be part of a larger story. If the elements were not there, it would harm or alter the storyline. Hence, using hooks is not just a presentation trick – it’s a very natural component of a well-developed thought.

This hook here (which appears in the middle of the presentation) consists in listing numerous examples that support and develop the thesis that even though misnomers are common, they can have a negative effect. See this:

Point made, right? Well explained and very entertaining – sticking well in the memory of the audience, too.

Coming back to the hook used just at the beginning – stating that the presenter’s first midlife crisis was just at the age of 13. Funny as it is, Pash makes a point that at that time, with the announcement of Jim Morrison’s death, he figured out that me might have just lived half of his life already. Hence the idea of a first midlife crisis.

Bear in mind that the hook is intentionally built this way to strike as a surprise. What if the emphasis had been put differently like: “Jim’s death made me realize that I may not live till my 80s but die at 27. This would have meant that I was already halfway through with my life. And that’s when I got my first midlife crisis.”

The example above would no longer be witty information that serves as a hook. That’s what Pash teaches us – that the hook can be made from pretty much any information. It just depends on its formation and putting the emphasis in a right way.

 

King of examples and structure-forming

What Pash tries to convey is a bit abstract, hence complicated to explain. If you struggle with a similar obstacle, one of the most common methods to make your talk seamless is structuring your content with the following order:

1. Explanation of background story.
2. Aim that you want(ed) to achieve.
3. Actions taken to fulfill your goal.
4. Results or aftermath of those actions and a summary.

For instance:

1. Our recruitment process lasts about 3 months.
2. It’s because we aim for hiring best people to our team.
3. So, we have come up with 10 diverse recruitment steps that verify whether a person has all the competences, fits the team, is capable of handling the given responsibilities and if they plan to stay in the company for longer.
4. With such an uncommon attitude towards the recruitment process, instead of losing time and workforce, hence money – we earn more as more clients trust us, and the rate of work satisfaction soars. Having this experience with our recruitment strategy, we won’t change it, at any rate.

Clear, precise, easy to form, right? However, Pash goes further – he starts with an example, and adds more of them whenever his message may not get across.

The whole speech begins with a hook that was mentioned above, which also happens to be his personal experience – an example of a midlife crisis. Through that, he states his thesis. The whole performance revolves around examples. I let myself write down a plan of his presentation. Take a look:

Thesis: Midlife crisis needs a rebrand.

1. Examples from his life to make a point that age does not define when a midlife crisis will strike.
2. Forms a thesis and adds a yoga instructor example.
3. Defining a midlife crisis from a branding perspective.
4. Showing a solution to the branding problem which was compared to the identity crisis. Example of Target.
5. Shows that because of branding disconnect, it’s harder to solve identity crisis.
6. Shows disparity of the original statement and contemporary definition of midlife crisis. Gives numerous examples of similar cases and possible stigma examples that have also a wrong influence on people’s reaction.
7. Giving the example of the apes study that shows that dips are natural not only to us – human beings.
8. Explaining the importance of dips (crises).
9. Highlighting the branding solution that can be implemented to a midlife crisis.
10. Summary with killer whale and funny bone examples.

To each step in developing his thought, he adds examples that show what he means. He either starts with them to generalize the thesis after, or uses it as a reinforcer of what he said. This way of organizing the presentation can be only a benefit, as audience loves examples, especially the ones that are hooks at the same time. It brings not only more engagement into the performance but also more understanding of a complex issue.

So, the next time, try to operate on examples, mostly to make sure your audience gets the idea. Definitions and abstract explanations surely make it easier for us to generalize and categorize an idea, but examples are those which make us understand the interlocutor.

Intonation

Would any of those above mentioned areas matter if Pash intonation was flat and dull? Content and the structure is extremely important, hooks can bring great engagement, too. However, one of the reasons we want to listen to somebody for longer is intonation.

It needs to show emotions and suggest to the audience what the real intention of the speaker is. What if a presenter at your business meeting said “We have finished all the work before the deadline!” with a flat, unconfident, silent manner? Would this message be trustworthy? Would it be even noticed in all the dull-sounding content? Would the team of this guy feel proud of their work or would they think that it’s being ignored by their boss?

When Pash makes a point, he takes great care of the pitches and emotions that create the intonation. With his voice, he lures you into the story and examples. And you exactly know when he makes a joke and when he’s troubled or saddened by a situation. Like when he talked about his father’s death:

See how powerful this one is?

What about using intonation to summarize and to make the very last point? When you watch the video below, you will see that Pash highlights the importance of his thought by slowing down a bit, and accentuating each syllable. When he makes a joke, he adds a bit of a higher pitch. Listen to the ending, which illustrates how he employs his voice to make his point:

Want to improve your intonation? Try to record yourself and analyze what you say, not minding the content and the words. Speak gibberish, but try to convey the thought through the intonation and emotions only. That’s a great exercise to realize the unfulfilled potential of your voice.

Conclusion

Pash Pashkow’s presentation is much more entertaining than most of the TED talks that flood the internet. He’s natural, entertaining and creative when merging the branding and identity problems. The mentioned areas that we can learn from this presentation is just the tip of the iceberg. However, the hooks, the content developed through examples and the intonation that grabs attention are the ones which will help you boost your performance in no time. So, remember – appreciate the value of examples, create your content so that the hooks seem natural and highlight your point with appropriate intonation.

This article is a part of larger series where we find the best presentation examples and show how you can nicely improve your performance. See any material worth to cover or have any questions?

Write here

Rate this article:
 5/5

Facebook


Linkedin


Youtube