Archive for the 'Motivation' Category

I love to listen to Audio Books. Over the past year I have downloaded over 35 business titles, and have enjoyed then while driving, running and working out. The amount of shared knowledge on these volumes has been amazing. Yet there is something missing from the whole equation. Even though the titles contained information on changing my life in many ways… my life remains very much the same as it has always been.

There have been some standout books and probably a half dozen that I’ve taken action on. The majority of the information, while interesting, has been processed by my brain and mostly forgotten. This is a sobering fact with learning, that if we don’t do something (take action) with what we learned, the knowledge is slowly lost.

This is the premise of Ken Blanchard’s new audio book, Know Can Do. Mr. Blanchard teamed up with Paul J. Meyer and Dick Ruhe to answer the question “Why don’t I do what I know I should do?” The book is written in Blanchard’s famous “fable” format and gets quickly to the heart of the problem.

In our modern world with a myriad of communication sources we are over-saturated with information on a daily basis. The TV blares out the latest news, sports and weather information. We then pick up the remote and flip over to HGTV and find out the latest home decorating techniques. A few more clicks has us on the food network with someone creating a scrumptious gourmet meal. Yet the only action most of take while sitting on the same old couch watching these shows is to eat some junk food out of a bag.

Ken talks about information overload and the fact that most people that attend his seminars and read his books never do anything with what they have learned. He has come up with some simple techniques to overcome this learning-forgetting cycle that so many of us experience.

His number one technique is to focus on just a few things, instead of being a seminar junkie and attending seminar after seminar and reading book after book. He suggests reading a book at least four times through and practicing spaced repetition. His tip to avoid information overload is learning less more, not more less. This is a book that should be required reading for learners of all types.

On a personal level, I have found that audio books give me a great preview of information and fill a usual unproductive time like driving with learning. But if I really want to take action on a subject I need to listen more than once and many times it’s necessary to pick up the written volume for reference.

Three books quickly come to mind that I’ve listened through multiple times and have picked up the corresponding printed book for reference. Here are three that have caused me to take action in the last few months…

Made To Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. This is a communicators bible. There is so much good information in this book with a simple checklist to see if your material will “Stick” in your audience’s mind. A must read for speakers, presenters, and marketers from all subject areas.

The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. If you are looking for a quick way to simplify your life and have more time to do the things you want, look no further. Tim Ferriss is the master of efficiency. He will get to the bottom of a problem and offer the quickest and most efficient solution. I was amazed at his answers to seemingly overwhelming daily problems such as e-mail overload, phone interruptions, and the crush of junk mail. Don’t end up in the Red BMW… read this book!

How To Connect In Business In 90 Seconds Or Less by Nicholas Boothman. I listened through this book for the second time on a driving trip last month. I found myself replaying different sections and doing some of the simple exercises over and over. Nick is a great speaker and this book is chocked full of great tips for communicating with people. This is one of the most practical and useful books you can buy if you are in sales, marketing, or just want to network with people.

Why not take a deliberate action today… Know… Can… Do…

Technorati Tags: Learning, Ken Blanchard

I don’t like the phone. It is a technological beast that I’ve fought for years. While I see countless people on their cell phones day and night, I don’t like mine very much. I find it impersonal. I would much rather talk with someone face to face, where I can see their expressions and feelings.

Yet I find that I can’t live without a phone. In our modern society we get business done with a phone, computer, and e-mail. Personal face to face communication is a luxury that most businesses can’t afford on a regular basis. With web based software, I find myself in countless webinars, trainings, and online conversations. With the combination of a computer and phone many of the personal training sessions that used to include a live person are now replaced with a computer slide show and a voice on the phone.

When you add in the usual complexity of modern voice mail and automated call routing I fight the urge to pick up my phone and call most companies when I have a problem. The frustration of layers of voice prompts to just get to a place where I can actually talk to a human being is very great.

Yet as much as I hate the phone, it is nice to just have a conversation on the phone once in a while. I love it when my daughter calls, just to see how we are doing. I like to talk with other people in my industry and see how they are coping with the changes and state mandates of the education business. I like to talk with my wife at the end of a busy day and plan a quiet evening out.

When I take a step back and look at the concept of Deliberate Actions, I realize that there are some people that I need to call that I haven’t talked to in a while… or maybe ever. This morning, I printed out a set of ten blank deliberate action cards and put them in a stack in front of me. I grabbed a sharpie and started writing names down.

Here are some of the names I came up with.

Old Friends: I put down the names of three of my good friends from High School. Tim, David, and Matt are all guys that I haven’t seen in years. I will have to do some searching to get the phone numbers, but I think it will be worth it. When we used to get together in High School we would brainstorm and write for our own humorous newspaper called the Burnt Bean Burrito. We would laugh for hours as we put together stories, pictures, and funny sayings. This will be fun.

Previous Co-Workers: I started reminiscing about places that I used to work and the friends that were there. It was very interesting just thinking of the places and faces from the past. I wondered if some of the people are still working there and how old their kids must be by now. I wondered if those oft dreamed about promotions ever came through. These are calls that may be a little tough to make since so much time has passed, but interesting just the same.

Relatives: I put down the names of some relatives that my wife and I haven’t seen in years. From family in Ohio to cousins in Alabama and Tennessee. Time is the great enemy here. What seems like just a few years has turned to decades. When my parents passed away some of the ties to our relatives passed with them. The letters didn’t come anymore and the names have faded into memories. These will be tough calls to make as those “best intentions” over the years never came to pass.

As I filled out card number 10, I realized that there are so many more calls to make. Friends from college, old customers, people from Toastmasters and other organizations. I started another sheet, and the tears came to my eyes as I realized all the people I have lost touch with.

Days become weeks, weeks become months, and suddenly we find the years rushing by. These simple little cards have really helped me see what is really important in life. Conversations that need to be made…

Think about meals that you really enjoy. They have some common characteristics. A meal that satisfies will have wonderful aromas, colorful ingredients, and taste really good. A full meal will include a variety of tastes and have enough volume to satisfy and make you pleasantly full.

The problem we have in our modern society is a meal like this will likely have a huge amount of processed content. Content that tends to have a lot of fat, sugar, and highly refined carbohydrates. The average fast food combo is a calorie nightmare with many popular meals coming in over 1000 calories.

This is slightly better than the average restaurant meal, that is super sized with huge portions, and contains huge amounts of fat and sugar. It’s not uncommon to have meals top 1500 to 2000 calories in one sitting. Add in that huge chocolate dessert and you may tip the scales at 3000 calories. Multiply this by three meals a day and you really have a problem… (not to mention those Grandé Starbuck’s lattés at 500-600 calories apiece)

The average sized person should have 2000-2500 calories a day to be healthy and maintain weight. Men tend to carry more muscle so they will usually burn more calories than women. With this in mind, you can see how easy it is to overeat, with one meal possibly containing all the calories you need for a whole day. It takes just 3500 excess calories to gain a pound of weight.

So what can we do to have satisfying meals and not feel deprived and be hungry all the time?

Enter Volumetrics, a fantastic eating plan based around the principle of energy density in food. Energy density is simply the amount of calories per gram of food. For the same calories, you can eat a larger portion of lower-energy density food. By adding low density vegetables, high fiber and water-packed ingredients, as well as lowering the fat content of a favorite dish, you can create low calorie meals and keep the basic taste you enjoy.

As an example, Raisins are dried grapes. 100 calories worth of raisins fill only one-quarter cup, while 100 calories of fresh, whole grapes fill one and two-thirds cups. You’ll feel satisfied after one and two-thirds cups of grapes, but if you’re eating raisins, you’re likely to keep filling your mouth.

Barbara Rolls Phd, is the creator of this program and has written two popular books on the subject that can help you create tasty and fully satisfying low calorie meals with just minor changes. Her latest book, The Volumetrics Eating Plan, gives you the complete science behind the program. She takes you inside her food lab and shows you the results of her extensive experiments.

I found this book fascinating and also very enlightening. Her research shows that the average person will tend to eat the same volume of food whether it is high or low density. Create low density meals and you’ll feel satisfied without gaining weight.

Her research is very complete and she backs it up with practical and easy to make recipes. She also offers strategies for eating out at restaurants and also acceptable fast food choices. While much of her content is common sense, some of her findings really explain why we have an epidemic of obesity in the United States.

Her original paperback focused directly on weight loss. Called The Volumetrics Weight Control Program, this book is a diet focused version of her program and offers straight forward recipes and strategies to help you lose weight and keep it off… effortlessly.

Her books have received rave reviews and will make a great addition to your diet and fitness library. I have taken many of her low density meals and added them to my weight loss strategy. It is really easy to “tune” your daily calorie intake with her plan. Her meal plan choices are arranged in 400 and 500 calorie segments which make them easy to calculate and follow.

Her audio book is available on CD and is a great way to learn about her plan while driving or commuting. Her accompanying diet PDF has her meal plans that you can view on your computer and then print out. I was pleasantly surprised how interesting the audio was. I would highly recommend the audio book version if you are pressed for time or have a long commute.

This plan has helped me take my Nutritional Tuning idea to a new level. Either of these books with their extensive recipe lists will make a great addition to a complete fitness plan such as 5 Factor Fitness or Body for Life. All of her recipes have a food density listing which makes it extremely easy to get filled up without the calories.

Her soup recipe modifications make the point. She has pictures of a standard soup and one that has been modified with lower density ingredients. It’s easy to see that you’ll have a much better bowl of soup for the same calories with just some simple modifications.

I think I’m going to make some soup….
Technorati Tags: diet, fitness, nutrition

I just got back from lunch and the thought of sitting through a Powerpoint presentation was not high on my list. As I sat down I noticed the speaker adjusting his laptop and making final preparations. The screen was black and I settled in for what I perceived to be an hour of torture. The combination of a large lunch and a boring presentation usually equated to one thing… a nap.

The torture part came in by trying to stay awake and not nod off in front of the group of administrators. I had been here before and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. As the clock rolled around to 1 pm the speaker got up and introduced himself and started with slide one.

The five bullet points almost guaranteed that I would be nodding quickly. As he moved through the slides, the stock Powerpoint background droned on and the bullet points became a blur. I nodded once… but caught myself in time.

Right then something totally unexpected happened. As he clicked to slide number 6, a slide with a picture and amazing numbers came up. I sat up in my chair and I found myself actually paying attention. I hadn’t expected the numbers to be so high.

The following slides built his case and soon he had my undivided attention. Even though the speaker had made many of the common Powerpoint mistakes, his one unforeseen slide had redeemed him.

It was the power of the unexpected that drew me in.

It was the questions that suddenly popped in my head… How could this be? How could the numbers be so high?

It was like a sudden plot twist in a movie… I needed to know what was going to happen.

This is the power of unexpectedness. As Chip & Dan Heath describe in their new book, Made to Stick, the need to find out What will happen next? and How will it turn out? are powerful motivators.

They cite a study by behavioral scientist, George Loewenstein, of Carnegie Mellon University on situational interest. The study found that curiosity happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge.

These gaps cause pain.

When we want to know something but don’t, it’s like having an itch we need to scratch. To take away the pain we need to fill in the knowledge gap.

This simple reality can cause your audience to sit on the edge of their seats.

This can be a simple fact, an inflated number, or possibly an unexpected picture.

Find something unexpected and include it in your presentation.

Remember this simple fact…

Expected = Sleep

Unexpected = Attention

Technorati Tags: Powerpoint, Presentations

The slide was simple but compelling. The story was clear and I was amazed that the simple contrast worked so well. Leave it to Seth Godin to come up with another brilliant business concept. In his visual yet simple  Powerpoint presentation given in July of 2000, Seth used the idea of emotion to sell his ideas.

Many of the slides used in the presentation had a black background with a contrasting white font. This standout contrast was used along with compelling pictures to convey his topics. Each slide presented a different idea.

The whole presentation was revolutionary for its time.

Many wondered…

• How could slides without bullet points work?
• Why only put one idea on a slide at a time when you could list 4 or 5?
• Why use black and white when we have all these colors available?

What has become known as the Godin method is based on this Powerpoint and the concept of using emotion to appeal to the right side of the brain.

What I like about these slides is the simple effect of contrast. White text on black is powerful and adding an appropriate picture creates a compelling slide that tells a story. I have used this technique in many of my Powerpoint presentations and they work very well.

I put together some simple slide backgrounds that you can download and test out this concept for yourself. The set consists of 6 Black & White Powerpoint backgrounds in 1024×768 format. They are setup in 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 styles with both right and left formats for each.

Here are the instructions for use.

• Download the Contrast Backgrounds zip file and save it on your computer.
• Unzip the files and save them in a folder.
• Open up PowerPoint and choose blank presentation.
• Right click on the slide and choose Background
• The background dialog box will open.
• Click on the down arrow and choose Fill Effects.
• Click on the Picture tab.
• Click on select picture and find the background file you want to use.
• Click on OK.
• Click on Apply to apply to the current slide you are on or Apply to All to apply to all of your slides in your show.
• Your new contrast background will be added.

Now you can add contrasting text by opening a text box and adding the appropriate words or sentences. Use a good sized non-serif font such as Ariel or Gill Sans and choose a contrasting color.

You can also easily add graphics/stock photos to the white side of the slide and format them to fit using the crop tool in the picture format toolbar.

Try some contrasting slides in your next presentation. I think you will be surprised how effective they can be.

Be sure to check out our other Powerpoint posts

Powerpoint Made Simple

Powerpoint that Sticks

Five Must Have Tools For Powerpoint

Do You Make These Mistakes With Powerpoint?

5 Quick Tips To a Better Powerpoint Presentation

Technorati Tags: Powerpoint, Presentations,

Slide after slide of bullet points went flying by. I sat with my co-workers in the audience trying to keep from falling asleep. The text on the screen became a blur after a while and I just prayed that the torture would soon end. Unfortunately the Vendor’s data dump continued for another hour. When it was finally over I came away with one thought… I never want to sit through that again.

With over 60 slides of data you would think I would walk away with some key concept or at least an idea of what was presented. Unfortunately Powerpoint slides with lots of text are not memorable. In their landmark book, Made To Stick, Chip and Dan Heath offer a simple exercise to illustrate this point.

Look at the text in the box below for 10-15 seconds.

Now look away, grab a sheet of paper and write down what you just saw.

If you are like most respondents you probably remembered seven to ten letters. That is not much information and it resembles what you might take away from the average text filled Powerpoint slide.

Now scroll down the page and repeat the exercise with the second text box below. Take the same 10-15 seconds and then write down what you remember on the same sheet of paper.

It is the same 20 letters from the first box but they are grouped differently this time. You were probably able to write down all 20 pretty easily since their grouping meant something to you. Each grouping of letters was instantly recognizable.

This is the power of simplicity. If you take your core message and break it down into small verbal ideas and segment these ideas on one powerpoint slide at a time, your viewers will be able to internalize the message much better than a screen full of text.

If you add the power of pictures along with your core text, you’ll have a message that will be memorable and that your audience will take away with them.

Consider the following two Powerpoint slides…

This first slide has the usual bullet points with lots of text. It will be hard to read from a distance and the concepts are difficult to grasp from just a quick reading. The average viewer will not remember much of this slide.

This second slide doesn’t mean much by itself, but when it is presented with a powerful message it will be very memorable to the viewer. The concept of speed and efficiency are instantly recognizable and the bold one word mantra will make this stick.

As you can see from this simple exercise when it comes to Powerpoint, Less is More. When you design your next presentation, find your core concepts and present them in a simple and clear manner. Remember… You are the presentation, not your slides. They should be there to reinforce your presentation, not take center stage.

Keep it simple… keep it memorable.

Technorati Tags: Powerpoint, Presentations