I’ve had my Apple iPod Touch for a few months now and I’ve been very happy with the device. With Apple’s $20 software update, I can now read my e-mail, get a weather report, check the stock market, and view the latest you-tube video quickly and easily almost any place that has a wireless internet connection.

The problem for me has been that it Did Not Work at Starbucks. Unless I paid an exorbitant amount for their T-mobile wireless access, I was out of luck. This all changed a month ago as most of our local Starbucks are now offering 2 free hours of Wi-Fi service daily if you register your Starbucks card.

This free service now means that I can stop by for a coffee and check my e-mail and get a weather report while waiting in line. If I am meeting a group, the wide screen web browser on the iTouch is available to browse the internet and have the ability to e-mail other members of the team.

The iTouch allows me to take meeting notes quickly and easily and then e-mail them to myself for later printing at the office. This feature easily pays for the iTouch in convenience alone. One of the other cool features is the map widget which pulls up Google maps for directions and traffic information. The expanding touch interface allows me to zoom into the map quickly and easily. (You can read my reviews of all the new productivity applications here)

Starbucks has taken this relationship with Apple a step further and is offering an interface with the built-in iTunes application and the songs being played in the Starbucks store. If you like the song being played just touch the iTunes button on your iTouch and you’ll see the currently playing song listed automatically. You can easily purchase the song from the iTunes store and be able to take the song with you… cool!

I think Starbucks has hit a home run by offering free internet access. There are over 10 Starbucks in the area that I live and I’ll be a much more frequent guest now. Not only will my iTouch find a lot of use, but my laptop as well.

Registering your Starbucks card online only takes a minute and you’ll be up and running. And registering the card brings other free benefits too. Check out their new customer focused web site where you can let them know what you want in your in-store experience.

Out of the box, most Powerpoint templates are pretty cookie-cutter and boring. Powerpoint 2007 raises the bar, but the basic page layout is still heavy on bullet points and weak on effectiveness.

If you want to completely reach your audience you need to create effective slides for the three main learning styles. They are…

1. Audio learners: Receive information audibly or by reading to themselves
2. Visual Learners: Receive information with their eyes
3. Kinesthetic learners: Receive information by touch or feel (hands-on)

Here are three common slide types and their overall effectiveness.

1. Basic Powerpoint Slide

Lets take a look at the common Powerpoint slide and see how we can improve it

You have probably seen this type of Powerpoint slide many times. It features the built-in Narrow Arial font in black with rounded bullets and a standard MS Office template background. If you’ve seen one, you have seen them all.

Unfortunately this slide will do nothing for your visual or kinesthetic learners in your audience. Very few visual people find a lot of text interesting. And it will only be helpful to your audio learners if you read it to them or they read it to themselves. This will take their focus off of you and have them reading the slide. The more information, the longer their attention will be focused on the slide.

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2. Enhanced Powerpoint Slide

Let’s modify our font, customize our bullets, and add a photo to spice things up.

Notice in this slide we have added a bold title font with shadow, we have limited our bullets to main points only, and used custom graphics for the bullets. We added a photo that is large enough to see easily and added a custom frame to have it dissolve into the background. The template background features a custom gradient for added visual interest.

This type of slide is certain to draw the attention of your visual learners. The photo adds visual interest along with a colorful background and graphical bullets. The strong title font gets your message across quickly, and limiting your bullet points to just main points get your message across much quicker for the audio learners (they will be able to read it much faster) and returns the focus to you.

The only group generally left out with a slide like this is your kinesthetic learners (hands-on). If you tie this in with a hands-on worksheet, you’ll have a slide that works well for all groups.

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3. Emotional Picture Slide

The final type of slide is one that can be effective for all learning styles. The power is in its simplicity. In just a matter of seconds you message is presented.

The text is generally one or two words in bold text. The emotional picture takes up the entire slide. The bold text is quickly read by your audio people, while the bold picture is a delight to your visual learners, and your kinesthetic people will feel the emotion of the photograph.

This type of slide tells a story without distracting from you, the presenter. Your audience can quickly figure out what is going on, and the slide reinforces what you are saying. You tell the story and the slide adds the emotion.

In figure 3 above, the gentleman in the front is frustrated that his football team just lost. His co-workers who were for the other team, hoot and holler in the background. We’ve all been there, but the picture quickly brings back the emotion! They say a picture is worth a thousand words. For a slide like this pick one that tells a story!

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In conclusion, you can create a much more effective presentation by using the enhanced slides to cover your facts and figures and the emotional slides to tell your story. Use both to create your next masterpiece!

Additional References:

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) by Garr Reynolds Read more about this book…

Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire by Cliff Atkinson Read more about this book…

This has been an exciting week for me. I had the privilege of attending a very engaging seminar by professional speaker, Sheryl Roush. She took many different subjects and wove them together into a wonderful 90 minute presentation. Her secret was her energy. I have never seen anyone muster up so much energy on stage and be able to transfer that energy to her audience.

I am still energized days after seeing the presentation and some of my co-workers who were there are still talking about it. This energy is contagious. This type of energy is what creates customer evangelists and product loyalists.

When I took a minute to analyze what made her presentation so engaging, I realized it was focused energy. Her entire focus was on her audiences’ needs. She had really done her homework before hand. She had people wear nametags and called everyone by name. She had included some pictures of people she knew would be in the audience in her slide show. Her entire focus was WIIFT (What’s in It For Them).

Tenet 1. Engage your audience by focusing on THEM.

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I have always been a big fan of Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba and their popular Church of the Customer blog. Their 6 Tenets of Customer Evangelism from their popular book, Creating Customer Evangelists, have been a driving force in many of my speeches and presentations. Their forth tenet, “Create community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.” to me is what blogging is all about.

And creating a community is what they have done. Their popular blog has over 175,000 subscribers and their Society For Word Of Mouth is now a thriving online community. The forums on the site offer book reviews, personal experiences, and offer a great way to get the word out about your product or service.

Tenet 2. Engage your audience by creating COMMUNITY

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Yaro Starak is the master of online marketing and entrepreneurship. His popular blog, Entrepreneurs Journey has helped literally thousands of people from around the world to create their own online presence. What sets Yaro apart from many other web marketers is that he offers many significant tools and tips for free.

By just logging into his web site you can spend hours with some of the best web optimization tips online. He’ll help you get a successful domain name, set up a blog, and give you the know how to write compelling content.

On of his popular articles is about The Magic of Engagement, which gives you the secrets of engaging an online audience. As I read through this article I was amazed at how in-depth it went. He offered testimonials from students of his Blog Mastermind program as well as some advanced tips to engage your readers and keep them coming back. His secret…

Tenet 3. Engage people by offering SOMETHING of SIGNIFICANT VALUE

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In conclusion, engaging an audience is about changing your focus and putting yourself in your audiences’ seat. Sitting in their seat, ask yourself what you want to get out of the presentation, book, or web site. Write down what you see, hear and feel. This will be the basis of your presentation. Go from there and create a masterpiece!

Additional Resources:

Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message by Ben McConnell, Jackie Huba Read more about this book…

Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force by Ben McConnell, Jackie Huba Read more about this book…

Heart of a Mother by Sheryl L. Roush Read more about this book…

As a speaker or presenter, how do you really reach an audience? I’ve seen many different approaches in my years as a Toastmaster, but I had the chance last night to sit in on an amazing presentation. One that reached almost everyone in the audience in an informed and engaged manner for over 90 minutes.

The presenter was Sheryl Roush, one of only four women in the world that has reached the coveted Accredited Speaker designation by Toastmasters International. Sheryl was speaking to a diverse audience of educators, toastmasters, and professional business people at the school district where I work.

Sheryl’s presentation was entitled “Sparkling Secrets Of Speaking Success,” and was directed to those who want to connect better with their audience. Her  approach was centered around the theory of Multiple Intelligences put forth by Howard Gardner. This theory includes 7 different personal styles that include…

1. Linguistic: People that like to work with words and stories
2. Mathematical-Logical: People that like numbers, systems and statistics
3. Visual-Spatial: Visual people that like pictures, charts, graphs and video
4. Musical: People that enjoy music and can remember tunes and lyrics
5. Kinesthetic-Physical: People that learn by doing, a hands-on approach
6. Inter-personal: Interaction with other people, team activities.
7. Intra-personal: The need for quiet working atmosphere and introspection

Right from the start, Sheryl’s presentation was focused on individual members of the audience. When you walked into the room before the presentation you noticed upbeat music playing in the background. If you were a musical person you instantly had focus. And if you were a linguistic person, her “sparkling” title on the screen was sure to engage you.

As you walked in you were handed a multi-page handout with an interesting cover font and graphics. The kinesthetic’s had something in their hands to work on, while the visual people had an interesting font and graphics. The Math-logicals were sure to notice the numbered test on page two.

As Sheryl was introduced, her Mac based Keynote presentation started slide by slide in the background, reinforcing what the person introducing her was saying. The music faded out and all eyes were on her.

Sheryl engaged the audience and let everyone know that we would be working individually on projects included in the handout and then we would share our results as a group. This let the intra-personal people know that they would have a quiet work space for a few minutes and also engaged the inter-personal folks with a group activity.

The first activity was a Multiple intelligence test. We all turned to page two on the handout and she led us question by question through a numbered list of 28 items segregated into 7 columns. As we finished up she had us add up the columns and find out what our highest scores were. I scored highest in the linguistic, kinesthetic, and visual categories.

This was a lot of fun and as we finished up the test she went around the room and had different people share their different styles. Everyone was engaged at this point. Over the course of the next hour she led us through a mind-map activity and a very engaging keynote (Powerpoint style) presentation.

Her keynote slides all had an engaging title for the linguistics, pictures for the visuals and had numbered points for the math people. She also included very animated transitions between slides which added additional visual interest.

As she went along she used amazing vocal variety and even sang a few bars of a song to bring in the musical types. This was a hands-on, visual and audio masterpiece.

When she finished up after 90 minutes, I felt like it had only been a half hour or so. The crowd reaction was amazing and she took questions and answers to finish up the night.

Overall I was struck by how effective her presentation was. She engaged everyone in the room and definitely reached out to all of the intelligences. I learned SO much by just watching the interaction of the event that this list of 7 styles will definitely become a CHECKLIST for my next presentation.

Sheryl is also a published author of numerous books that inspire and motivate. One of her newest is entitled Heart of a Mother, a heart warming and engaging book that is the perfect gift for mothers day.

Heart of a Mother by Sheryl L. Roush Read more about this book…

As a speaker I’ve always had a fascination with Powerpoint, flipcharts, overheads and other visual media. As a kinesthetic-visual learner I always do better with a subject if I can SEE what is going on. Show me a picture, and I will learn better and remember more of what you said.

While I like visual media, I have struggled with it greatly. As a speaker, using any one of the mediums tends to distract me and draw my attention away from the audience and focus it instead on the visual media source. I have found that it takes a lot of practice to present well and communicate with the media smoothly.

I have had some blundering failures with visual media and also some amazing successes. Here are five things I’ve learned by trial and ERROR that have helped me move further into the success column and stay out of Powerpoint Hell!.

1. Be Prepared: If it can go wrong… it will… when presenting. I have made a new rule for myself and that is to arrive an hour early for any visual presentation in unfamiliar surroundings. Having an hour will give you the time needed to overcome the worst technical problems. Here are some of the common things I’ve run into…

• The projector doesn’t work
• My laptop won’t sync with the projector
• A cable is not available to connect the laptop to the projector
• The overhead projector’s bulb is burned out
• There is no electricity to hook up the projector or overhead
• A flipchart is NOT available
• There is no adapter available to hook up my Mac laptop

These are just a few of the things I’ve run into that can be show stoppers. The audience does not want to see you fiddling with a projector or cables. Giving yourself an hour of prep time will help immensely in overcoming them. The other thing that will help is to …

2. Develop A Presenters Toolbox: This is a collection of gadgets, wires and other items that will save the day. Mine has morphed over the years as technology has changed but here are a few of the common items that are now priceless.

• Memory Stick to carry a copy of your presentation on
• Presenters handheld slide changer/laser pointer for Powerpoint
• A long and short extension cord and duct tape to secure it to the floor
• A VGA cable to connect a laptop to a projector
• Batteries of all types: AAA, AA, and 9 volt are a must
• A burned CD of your presentation in case the computer doesn’t have a USB port available (this one has saved me multiple times)
• A copy of the free Powerpoint 2007 viewer program (saved on CD)
• If you use a Mac laptop, there are two common VGA adapters that are priceless. Make sure you have both types. (Apple doesn’t ship them with the laptop)
• A portable flip chart easel that you can store in your trunk

3. Keep It Simple: While many things can be visually presented, your overwhelming amount of data should be put in a handout… not on your slides. If possible, limit your slides to one point and one graphic per slide.

Lots of bullet points will distract your viewer and have them reading the screen. Remember… you are the focus of your presentation… not your slides. The slides should reinforce and enhance what you are saying. They should not be a reading script.

Using the notes feature of Powerpoint will help you keep your slides simple but quickly be able to see your notes by printing them out or using the presenter’s view in Powerpoint.

4. Practice, Practice, Practice: Get familiar with the media source (laptop, overhead etc) before you give your presentation. Go through the entire presentation at least once to make sure there are no glitches or technology problems and that the presentation flows properly.

Arriving early will give you a chance to use the equipment provided and make sure that everything works together. It will also give you a chance to visually check the room for blind spots and distractions.

One of the big things is to test any wireless devices (microphones-pointers etc) and make sure they work consistently at the distance you will be presenting. If your audience can’t hear you, they will let you know!

Use the slide sorter in Powerpoint to re-order and fine tune your presentation for maximum impact. Make sure you have enough handouts for your expected audience and that you have printed your slides in handout view (6 or 9 per page) so you can refer to them throughout the presentation without looking at the screen.

5. Set Up The Room: If you have a meeting room that is configurable, you can enhance your presentation by following a few simple steps. For Powerpoint, set the projector and screen to your right (as you face the audience) and put the laptop or other computer source on a table facing you.

This will allow you to use Presenter’s mode in Powerpoint where you can preview your slides and see any notes as you face the audience. This will prompt your memory slide by slide and help keep your attention on your viewers. It will also keep you from turning your back to the audience and reading the screen.

Putting the screen to your right (audiences left) will help place your slides in your viewer’s Visual Remembered Mode. Researchers have found that people tend to look up and to their left when recalling things from memory. If you place your screen or flipchart in this position (upper left as the audience sees it), they will remember more of your presentation. It also puts you center stage where you are the primary focus of attention.

It’s also a good idea to have someone sit in the back row and listen to you. Can they hear you without a microphone? Try raising your voice slightly a few times until you reach a comfortable range for your listener. As you are presenting, focus from time to on time someone sitting in the back row and direct your voice to them. This will help you remember to keep you voice at a proper level for everyone to hear you.

Wrap Up: These are just a few of the things I’ve encountered when using Visual Media. A great place to practice in front of a live audience is Toastmasters. Many Toastmaster clubs have visual media tools available, where you can practice your Powerpoint or Flipchart presentations in front of a supportive audience.

Further Reading: There are some great books that will help you create and fine tune an amazing Powerpoint presentation… here are three of the best…enjoy!

Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire by Cliff Atkinson Read more about this book…

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) by Garr Reynolds Read more about this book…

Presenting Magically: Transforming Your Stage Presence with NLP by Tad James, David Shephard Read more about this book…

When you first get started with Powerpoint, you’ll learn a lot of new commands and keystrokes. As you work through the interface you’ll find buttons that you constantly use to make things happen.

One of the first little toolbars that you’ll discover is down in the status bar area in most versions of Powerpoint and contains three buttons.

The first button is called the normal view button. This will quickly bring you back to the normal or default view. The second button will lay out a photo album style view of all your slides. This makes it quick and easy to move slides around and sort them the way you want. The third button starts your slide show (the F5 key is the shortcut). You’ll use this button all the time to test and present your shows.

Once you are in your show you may find that the N key or Right Arrow key becomes your best friend. This key will advance your show one slide at a time. If you find that you need to go back a slide, The P key or Left Arrow key will be useful

As important as all of these are for a great presentation, they don’t compare to the most important button. in fact they don’t even come close.

You see, the most important button is the B key. When you press this during a slide-show the screen turns black. If you press it again your screen returns.

The reason this is the most important is it returns the focus to you, the presenter! You are the most important part of the show.

You are the center of attention.

Your slides should enhance your presentation, but not be the center focus.

Press this button and all eyes return to you!

Are you ready?