A Great Video Presentation

Video marketing is where it’s at. With its preferred search engine ranking and ability to share a message and hold a prospects attention in today’s world of click and send communication, video marketing has become very popular. To capture a viewer’s attention today your message must entice with Voice, Visual, and Audio. This is the way to grab and hold their attention long enough to share your message. Video presentation mlm is the answer.

Making a video is not that much different than a presentation you create in an email, article or even present in front of a group. So when you are drafting your video scripts remember to use the same tools that you would for any great presentation.

Structure your video script like any presentation you would make – but now add the power of sound, text and imagery.

I read an interesting piece in a book by John David Mann, The Zen of MLM. The piece, “Secrets of a Great Presentation“, originally appeared in June 2001 as an epilogue to The Master Presentation Guild, by Jan Ruhe. In it Jan explains that in order to make a great presentation, you need to make sure it will sing and dance, laugh and cry, and tell a truth in a powerful way. These are all key elements in video presentation mlm training.

MAKE IT SING

Avoid being dull by using variation in pitch and volume from high to low and loud to soft. The ebb and flow of your story and message needs to pattern itself after a good movie; where the music intensifies just before the scene climaxes. Remember, too, “white space” in an article is powerful – so is a magnificent pause just before a punch line. The greatest storytellers make more impressions with what they don’t say – by using silence in their speech.

MAKE IT DANCE

Here I’m referring to images the audience makes in their minds, not the rhythm of your words. Images are best created when the audience is given contrary examples: I was once lost, now I am found; I was blinded by fear, but now I can see. The classic salesman’s tool of feel-felt-found approach is another way of speaking with rhythm. (I know how you feel Carol, I used to feel the same way until I discovered different, and here is what I found…) That approach always makes your presentation dance.

MAKE IT LAUGH AND CRY

Most presentations I hear today include this part — a good before and after experience. The beginning is where you hear how they were broke or even homeless; and now they are financially abundant and secure. Before and after stories are great, but try to pull more details in so that the audience can imagine more vividly. This is the way to draw the pain and joy that are the two most distinct emotions you share with the audience. They too desire to enjoy pleasure and avoid pain.

Back to the before and after story; if the before includes an explanation of how you felt not being able to send your son on a weekend camping trip that was attended by all his school mates – to then, years later, your son wins a prestigious award as the top pupil in a private school you are now able to afford. That would make your presentation “laugh and cry.”

MAKE IT TRUTH “FULL”

Be in the present. Don’t repeat a “canned presentation” that you have done a hundred times. To be in the present is when you share a topic that can be something you know inside and out or something you are just learning, but what’s key is to share what it means to you TODAY. Your only goal here is to convey the most valuable single point that would benefit the audience now. By being current, you can draw on recent experiences as well as long acquired knowledge all with an open mind. This is being truth “full” and makes a good presentation — great!

Your Present Moment – Stillness, Choice and Transformation

Your present moment – this moment – the one you are in right now – is the intersection between your past and your future. If you let them, your time choices come alive in this moment.

At once profound and mysterious, your present moment is a place of stillness. As you allow yourself to settle in and fully experience the stillness, your moment reveals itself as both an opening and a turning point.

Always, your present moment offers you the potential for deep insight and transformation. But the paradox is that it doesn’t work to aggressively mine your moments for meaning.

No, it’s with openness and stillness that you need to start. I’m not talking about developing a time management skill or implementing a productivity tool but rather about letting yourself experience an encounter.

That is where you need to start, to truly live the power of your present moment. As Marianne Williamson has written:

The present moment, if you think about it, is the only time there is. No matter what time it is, it is always now.

The past is gone and the future has not yet arrived. You are alone with yourself and a wealth of powerful choices as you pause and let yourself just BE in the present moment.

Last week I wrote about living mindfully in your present moment, and one of the things I noted is that:

Living in your moments, breathing in what they have to offer, you get to know yourself. Your wants, needs, and interests are constantly evolving, and they emerge from your moments if you let them.

I’d like to continue and build on that idea today by picking up on an article from zenhabits titled Savor Discipline: Merge the Interests of Your Future & Present Selves. Here Leo Babauta explores the challenge that being disciplined presents us with in our moments. What do we do – how do we choose – when, essentially, our present and future interests aren’t in sync?

The first thing that he does – and I love this – is to frame this as a relational issue. We have our present and our future self in dialogue about whatever choice we’re wrestling with.

Next, he removes the self-critical component that so often trips us up and keeps us stuck by suggesting that we treat this conversation as an exchange between two friends.

Imagine you were going to lunch with your friend, and you had to decide where to eat. You each have different preferences. Choosing one over the other – going to Japanese food (your friend’s preference) instead vegan Mexican (yours) – isn’t fair. So maybe you pick a third choice that you both like (a place that serves sushi burritos, perhaps). Or maybe you choose this time, and your friend chooses the next time. Either way, both are happy.

You pause, in your present moment, and your present and future self work out a compromise. As soon as you pause, you are introducing an element of mindfulness. This, in and of itself is transformative, no matter what you decide.

And of the options available, Savor Discipline is a path that opens new doors that your present and future self hadn’t even known existed. I’ll explore this exciting option further in my next post, so stay tuned.

And in the meantime, here’s to your time success!

How to Give Great Presentations at Work

What is a great presentation? As you might have already seen on the Internet, or read in books, there are many definitions of great presentations. Nevertheless, they all emphasize one point – a great presentation is one which, ideally speaking, completely holds an audience enthralled. It is not entirely true that only great personalities can give great presentations. To develop great presentation skills, which you will need, especially if you are a Six Sigma professional, you need to understand the anatomy of a great presentation.

Anatomy Of A Great Presentation

Unlike written reports where you have a chance to correct mistakes, presentations are a sort of ‘get it right the first time’ business activity. So, a considerable amount of preparation is necessary to make a presentation great.

1. All Great Presentations Are Well Researched and rehearsed in advance. You must determine how much information or statistics needs to be given in proportion to a plain lecture. Too much statistics defeats the purpose of your presentation and makes it boring.

2. Encourage The Audience To Have Confidence in you at the beginning by greeting them and briefly explaining the points you are going to cover during the course of your speech.

3. Presentations Are All About Scoring Points and winning over others to your opinions. Delivery skill is a vehicle of driving a point home. Statistical information should be presented in logical sequences and in the right doses.

4. Make The Presentation A Light-Hearted One wherever possible but without compromising on the seriousness of the matter. All great presentations are made in simple language using industry specific jargon, but not words that are too hard to understand.

5. Great Presentations Use Audio-Visual Aids for greater impact. This is based on the principle that a picture speaks a thousand words. Even a budgetary speech or an accountant’s presentation can use slide pictures.

How To Give Great Presentations

Begin with greeting the audience; end with asking their feedback and then thanking them. Announce that you will answer their questions later at the end of your speech. Apart from the apparent benefit this provides you, you get their undivided attention to your speech which is vital to your success.

Proven Steps To Give Great Presentations

Whether it is a formal speech to a large audience or an informal briefing, knowing your audience is vital to your speech preparation and helps you to relate it to them. Here are a few steps to making the actual presentation.

1. Judiciously Use Examples from everyday life or from past events to make your point quickly understandable. But don’t let examples occupy center stage.

2. Don’t Forget, Your Audience may have come from different departments within your organization. Each of them has different interests and different levels of understanding on your topic. Strive to address the needs of the entire audience, not just a select few.

3. Grasp Audience Responses that show whether and how much they like your speech. Make midcourse corrections to the tone of your speech if necessary. At this point you can engage them to lift their moods.

4. Extemporaneous Presentation goes a long way to make it interesting as this obviously eliminates the ‘report reading style’ and gives your speech a natural touch. You can use notecards if necessary, so that you don’t forget them.

5. Using Body Language Effectively. Make eye contact with members of the audience. Make gestures like hand waving, nodding and voice. Using body language in this way helps to break the monotony of a possibly long speech.

Giving a great presentations at work is not limited to just benefiting your organization. Use this vehicle to travel that extra mile to reach your career goals.