If you Nickle and Dime, then don't Whine

Apologies for the lack of postings. We are staying at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida. Convenient building layout, spotlessly clean, heated pool and curteous staff. Our vacation is fantastic so far.

Also charging $6.99 per day for Internet Access. What? In this day and age, when wireless Broadband costs about $50 per month, Caribe Royale charges $6.99 for 24 hours. And it increases on 1/1/08 when the trend is for Internet costs to decrease. Even airports have free Internet access.

Their website says: "Finally, because we believe that broadband access is no longer a luxury, but a necessity, high-speed internet access* is available in all our suites". The * states "Daily fee required".

At the price we are paying for this suite I don't expect Nickle and Dime mentality. On principle, I have only purchased 24 hour access to create this blog posting. I will post the rest of my Disney Diary (with photos) when we get to a free access point, or home.

Don't whine when we stay at the Marriot next time, for free Internet access.

Leaving on a jet plane....

7 AM, 12/24/2007. Sitting at Bradley airport waiting to board.

Every ran silky smooth so far. We awoke on schedule, found parking easily and we were the only shuttle bus customers resulting in superb service. We walked straight up to security and dutifully removed our shoes, and "declared" our shampoos and toothpaste.

Isn't in interesting that you get up with a smile at 4:30 AM to go on vacation, but struggle to get out of bed for work each morning at 6 AM?

Although we allowed two hours to check in and clear security it took under 20 minutes. We are now waiting to be called, having consumed the overpriced McMuffin and black liquid that passes for coffee.

The Morning After

The house is quiet this morning. It feels so peaceful. The long nights from the Winter Solstice urged us to all sleep late.

The quiet cannot mask the emptiness in our lives. We awoke to silence. No more pitter-patter of little paws. No more unconditional love. This is our first morning without Freddy.

Yesterday we left Freddy at the boarding kennels because we leave for Disney World early tomorrow and the kennels are closed on Sunday. My son was in tears when the reality sunk in - a week without Freddy.

Our lives are missing more than 22 pounds of tail-wagging companionship. A disproportionate sadness has descended over our home as we think about how Freddy is doing. We become so attached to our pets that they feel part of the family.

Freddy is the easiest pet I have encountered. He has the patience of Job and the love of Mother Theresa. He even dressed up for Halloween in the photo above. Freddy gladly sits and puts up his paw for a doggy treat.

We are packing for the trip today and looking forward into a new adventure. This is a milestone as we create new lives in the USA - our first domestic plane trip as a family.

Mickey, Minnie and buddies

On Monday, 12/24, 2007 we are heading to Disney World. We will leave Hartford around 6 AM and travel nonstop to Orlando.

What is interesting about this trip is:
1. It is the first time that my wife and son are flying domestic. We have travelled to South Africa three times since 2001, but we are neophyte domestic travellers.
2. It is the first time we are visiting Disney World. We have heard so much about Mickey's town, and we are excited to see it.
3. The accommodations and the whole trip is already hurting my wallet. Wow!! This is one expensive trip, and we haven't even left home yet :)
4. This is the first Christmas that we are away from home, in the 13 years we have been married. We are always at home for Christmas as part of our family traditions. This year we don't want to be at home anymore and are tired of inviting people over who don't reciprocate our generosity. So, we are taking "Us" time.

This afternoon we took Freddie to the kennels. My son could not hold back the tears of being without his tail-wagging, toy chasing companion for the week. Oh well.

I hope to have many stories to tell after this trip. (And I will try to squeeze in a visit to a Toastmaster Club if I can slip away from the family)

What stories have you accumulated from vacation trips. Any stories directly from Walt Disney's playground?

Favorite books from 2007

As the door on 2007 creaks shut, I reflect on what I did this year, and what I plan for 2008.

Here are some of my favorite books I read this year. I suggest that you consider them for your bookshelf to increase your Presentation Skills. Remember that presentations need to be entertaining and you are better able to entertain if you study humor.

1. The Comedy Bible by Judy Carter.
2. Stand up Comedy - The Book by Judy Carter
3. Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson. Cliff explains his revolutionary approach to presenting with PowerPoint.
4. Comedy Writing Secrets by Male Helitzer.
5. The Edge of Their Seats Storytelling Home Study course from Craig Valentine. Craig is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking and THE master story teller.

You may also find value in rereading some classics from my bookshelf, and which should probably be on your bookshelf.
1. Success through a Positive Mental Attitude by W. Clement Stone.
2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. (When we left South Africa in 2001, this was the only book I brought with me. We could only bring six suitcases with us to the USA, and I dumped my library in South Africa, save for this one book).

For the writer in you, I recommend:
1. Writing Non Fiction - Dan Poynter.
2. The Self - Publishing Manual - Dan Poynter.
3. Damn! - Why didn't I write that? By Marc McCutcheon.

What I do not recommend are books of quotes and jokes. I studied a few this year and I have found no value in these books. The reason is that the jokes are often filthy (which I won't retell on stage or off stage) and the quotes are not relevant to my message. Perhaps you are luckier than I have been. I find more value in studying how to create and convey humor than using someone else's humor.

Of course, you would be extremely wise to order a copy of my book - "Dodging the Bullet Points" as well :)

And for off topic, thought provoking reading, get a copy of Money Talks or Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss.

I hope you enjoy reading some of these books and get great value from them in 2008.

How to accelerate your speaking growth

Do you want to grow exponentially as a speaker? Would you like to get a year's worth of growth in one evening?

Suppose that you are a Toastmaster. You speak once a month and receive an evaluation from your fellow club members. After 12 months, you have received 12 evaluations.

Now, if you are impatient like me would you like to receive this feedback in one night? Do you see the benefit of growing at this pace instead of one evaluation per month? If you do, then you need to find, join, or start an Advanced Toastmasters Club.

I attended ProSpeakers club last night. We are an Advanced Toastmasters club meeting in Springfield, Western Massachusetts on the third Thursday of every month. Last night, each of our four speakers got in depth feedback from 13 evaluators. WOW!!

My advice for speakers who want a safe place to test material and grow exponentially, get to your nearest Advanced Toastmasters club.

Craig Valentine, The Mindset of PowerPoint Champions

Readers this is so exciting. Today we have a special blog entry from Craig Valentine.

Craig Valentine is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking and is one of my mentors. Craig is THE master storyteller and is sharing his years of study and practise with students through his Story Telling bootcamps. I attended this bootcamp with Craig, Patricia Fripp and Darren LaCroix. It was the best investment I have made.

Here is Craig's entry. (Craig, thank you for giving us insight to mindset of Champions)

***

"Hi Craig. This is Brent Joyner and I run a small business that is seeking funds from venture capitalists. We need help with our presentations to potential investors. Craig, we already have the presentation, we just need to know what we are going to say. Can you help?"

Now you might think this question is confusing because Brent stated that "he already has the presentation" but he does not know what they are going to say. However, I knew exactly what he was saying because I have heard if far too often. Basically what he meant was that they already have the slides laid out and now they need something to say in between them.

This is a classic mistake that ruins most business presentations. Brent started developing his presentation by creating slides. You should NEVER do this.Instead, start by creating your message and then determine whether or not you even need slides to say it! This is so important that it needs to be repeated.

Do NOT start by creating slides and then figuring out what to say DO start by creating your message and then figuring out if slides will help you say it.

Craig Valentine, MBA

1999 World Champion of Public Speaking

Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach

Do you need more customers and profits?

Click http://www.gmarketingcoach.com/scripts/cmd.cgi?cmd=aftrack&afid=554497

Do you want to be a speaker in-demand?

Visit the Edge http://www.worldchampionsedge.com/craig

High Quality Photos - GRIN, Wink Wink :)

Do you want a treasure trove of photos for your PowerPoint slides? Check these out.

GRIN = Great Images in NASA.

Visible earth - NASA images of mother earth from space.

Public Domain Photos

I did not see the disclaimers or conditions of use for these photos. (It may just mean that I did not look hard enough). Please follow any terms and conditions that you find.

Snowbal warming???

12 inches of snow fell in Connecticut on Thursday 12/13/2007. 2 inches overnight on 12/15/2007.

This morning (12/16/2007) I was shoveling snow again, in the eerie silence after a snow storm, digging my minivan out from the white mess when I heard a voice. The voice sounded just like Al Gore.

The voice said "The climate has changed due to pollutants starting with the Industrial Revolution. We are facing the inconvenient truth of Global Warming".

Yeah, right. Tell that to the guy spreading sand or my aching back. The only inconvenient truth is the messy deposit lingering between snow storms.

How do you feel about the snow? Postcard perfect images or 14 inches of inconvenient mess?

Toastmasters - A journey of self-discovery

Mark Brown interviewed Morgan McArthur in a recent audio postcard from the EDGE Program. Morgan is the 1994 World Champion of Public Speaking.

This was an "Aha" moment for me. Morgan says that if Toastmasters leave the program after 10 speeches they are missing one of the most important benefits of the Toastmasters Program. After 20 years in Toastmasters, Morgan has found that Toastmaster is a journey in Self-Discovery.

I have heard that Toastmasters helps people to learn who they are and to become comfortable with being yourself. Morgan articulates this thought clearly.

So, if you are in Toastmasters, continue to speak and follow your journey in self-discovery. This is a hidden benefit of the Toastmasters program, that you will gain in addition to specific public speaking skills.
Also, I urge you to join the EDGE program. This is the best investment you can make as a presenter.

Great deal on images

The book "Presentation Zen", includes a fantastic deal on credits for images from iStockphoto. Click here to read the details, and Purchase the book.

Photo Headings

When should you not use photos? When the same photo is on the heading for all of your slides. The purpose of photos on your slides is to create distinct and memorable presentations. When all of your slides have the same photos in the heading and only text on the slides, you are no longer meeting the objective.

How can you get around this? Treat the heading as part of the real estate available to you to create a unique presentation. Don't let a standard heading used across your presentation stifle your creativity and detract from your unique presentation.

On a different topic, I have added new Podcasts to my site. Check them out.

Predisposition of the eye is to move from left to right

Our eyes have a predisposition to move from left to right, according to Jerry Weissman in "Presenting to Win - The Art of Telling Your Story". This is from the field of Perception Psychology.

Jerry writes on page 118 and 119 "Next time you watch a well-directed movie or television drama, notice how the characters move across the screen. Most often, the sympathetic characters, the heroes and heroine’s with whom the audience identifies, move from the left side of the screen to the right, flowing with the natural movement of the eye. By contrast, the unsympathetic characters, the villains whom the audience dislikes, move from right to left, fighting against the eye’s natural flow."

''In the theatre, directors incorporate the same approach with actors on the stage; protagonists to move toward the right and antagonists to move toward the left.''

This means if you want to be liked by your audience, move from their left to their right should the opportunity arise during your presentation. Do not move from the right to the left, unless you want to go against the grain.

He provides insightful recommendations to position bar charts in PowerPoint Presentations. Always stack the highest bar on the right, if you want to show how your company has higher revenues/ratings than your competition. Our eye goes up and to the right, showing your company at the peak of the chart.

Do yourself a favor and get a copy of Jerry's book for your library.

Honestly, Honesty is the best policy

Honesty.

I believe our audiences sense honesty. When you present your material and you are openly and honestly presenting what you believe in then your audience senses that you are relaxed and not covering up or acting.

Today I watched a presenter shared his plan for his department and the goals for 2008. We sensed he was being completely honest from his body gestures and when he occasionally answered a question with "I don't know".

Wow. Instead of trying to know all the answers, in the audience we felt his sincerity and honesty. Everyone in the room was relaxed.

How can you present honestly? Do you perhaps need to change the topics that you present on, so that you can present with honesty? Do you feel that you need to be someone else on stage and your are not the same person onstage and off stage?

What's in your wallet?

A popular TV Commercial in the USA advertising a credit card has the tag line "What's in your wallet".

As we think about goals for 2008, and review the goals we achieved, (or not) in 2007, what is on your list? What is on your list to achieve in 2008? Are you going to try again to:
1. Lose weight
2. Exercise more
3. Save more money
4. Reduce your credit card debt
5. Spend more time with my family.
and so on?

I want to try something new to me this year. Instead of yet another "To Do" list, with too many tasks that never get "To Done", I have started a "Not TO DO" list. My theory is that if I can identify habits that consume time out of proportion with the value of the benefit I get, I will stop doing them. (Hey don't laugh, it is worth a shot. Not trying something new will provide the same old result)

What are your plans for 2008? What will you do differently in 2008 that you did not do in 2007?

In short, we have a lot of choice in how we invested our limited time on this earth. Life is too short to zealously create and adhere to To Do lists.

I will leverage my accountability partnership with Liz Trendowski more in 2008 to stay focused on the few tasks that make a difference each week, so that I can free up time to exercise more, be with my family more.

What are your thoughts on reaching your new year resolutions and goals for 2008?

Making someone else's slides

How do you create a slide show from someone else's report?

I was in the situation where a manager gave me a monthly report and asked that I present it to his managers in the form of a slide show. To make things worse, his managers insist on a standard PowerPoint template for all of these presentations. Any wonder why their monthly meetings want to make you poke out both you eyes?

Well, now, this is 180 degrees against the Pow'Rful Philosophy. I advocate that presentations be planned and then prepared. Creating slide shows to convey a monthly report are exactly why slide shows look like monthly reports. This is called "Presentation as documentation" syndrome. It is contagious, I believe based on the number of presentations we see like this.

What would you do in this situation? How do you convert a monthly report to a slide show in 2 hours, so that it does not look like a report?

This situation is like an architect designing a low-income housing scheme where all the houses look similar. Then asking the painters to fill in the blanks. Is it a surprise when the result is that all the houses look similar with a small variety in the paint colors?

All that I could with these constraints was to reduce the amount of text on the slides. The Pow'Rful Process supports good communication with PowerPoint, but with a standard template, prescribed number of slides, and a few hours to prepare, the cause is already lost.

I am reminded of The Dam Busters movie. Outside a science Lab in the UK during the war the sign at the gate said "The impossible we do immediately. Miracles take a little longer" I can only do so much with a PowerPoint Presentation under these circumstances...

Obsessed with weakness, Dr. Curie

We move ourselves and society forward by perfecting, refining and building our areas of expertise. We don't help anyone by constantly trying to identify perceived "Weaknesses" and trying to perfect them.

Contrary to popular belief that we should constantly improve our areas of weaknesses, you can never be "the" leader in your field if you are trying to become mediocre in someone else's field.

Who agrees with me?
1. Joel Osteen - In a sermon on TV last week he explained how we should stay in the gifts that God has given us. (By the way he is a great speaker for Toastmasters to study)
2. Alan Weiss - He says that society is moved forward by the best and the brightest.
3. Jack Welch - He said "Be number one or number two in the field, or get out of that field".

However, I recently saw an article offering this erroneous advice to speakers "Don't perfect what you're good at; improve your weak points". What? I

f you are a world champion speaker who possesses exemplary "Delivery" and "Humor" skills why would you abandon these skills and begin to investigate perceived "weaknesses"? What will you gain by studying negotiation, etiquette and research.

This advice is wrong for a number of reasons:
1. Who decides what constitutes a weakness? Is the ability repair a roof a strength? Do you have a weakness if you prefer to perform on a stage rather than meditate for a day at a time? If you cannot type at 50 words per minute is this a weakness? What if you are a carpenter and never need to type? What if an author cannot bench press 300 pounds? Is this a weakness? Is there a "Big Book of Weaknesses?"

2. If you have weaknesses, which one is more weak than others? Should a carpenter learn to type 50 words a minute in his spare time rather than take a course in fly fishing? Should an author work out so that he can bench press 300 pounds or learn to shoot a rifle accurately first? Or should he learn how to negotiate in a hostage situation first (then he won't need to shoot the rifle)? The possible permutations of weaknesses are endless.

3. This advice assumes that you have a weakness. It is a negative attitude. Why must we all have "Weaknesses"? Why can't we have strengths in the areas that we choose to be strong?

I prefer t0 take a positive attitude and build on our strengths. We should build strengths that eclipse our "weaknesses".

People who focus on trying to identify weaknesses are generally not very productive. My experience is that productive people build on their strengths and keep getting better. If you want to disagree with me, then please go ahead and invest your valuable time in trying to identify and prioritize your "weaknesses". Keep track of the productive time you waste during this endeavor.

After you have invested part of your life in this futile exercise, read this posting again and dispute my approach. Ask yourself "Now that I have invested productive time identifying my weaknesses, what could I have produced in this time? What skill could I have improved in this time I focused on looking for perceived weaknesses that may not exist?"

This advice damages all who hear it. Speakers and all non-speakers have the responsibility to develop our talents to the fullest so that our expertise can benefit mankind. Where would we be if Dr. Marie Curie said "I am a great doctor, but need to improve as a musician, artist, negotiator and marathon runner. No one cares for X-Rays anyway. Let me focus on improving my weaknesses"

No. We need to build on our strengths. In the highly unlikely event that you have developed all of your talents to the maximum possible ability, then contact me. You will be the first person in history to get my approval and work on identifying a "weakness" that you can improve.

Focus on a few strengths to get better in them. In Feet to the Fire and in our Accountability Partnership, Liz Trendowski and I focus on each other's strengths so that we can both improve faster and benefit our audiences more.

I am logical and organized, but was blessed with limited (to put it politely) creativity. Liz is very creative but less organized. At my age, I don't have the time time learn to be creative. I will continue to contribute to society by constantly focusing on improving my public speaking skills (through Toastmasters International) and my Project Management talents. If you want an organized project, then call on me. If you want a creative title for your book, CD, or seminar, call Liz. Neither of us obsess over the fact that we are not clones.

In summary - focus on your strengths. Build on them. Become an expert. Become a better expert. Be glamorously unique. Then you can save other people time by sharing your expertise. You have strengths. Use them to help yourself and society. Rejoice in your strengths, Dr. Curie.

Interview with De Boone on WDJZ

Today, I had a fantastic interview with De Boone on The Voice of Abundance Radio Show on WDJZ in Bridgeport, CT. Thank you De, I love your show and this interview was a total blast.

We discussed the benefits of "Dodging the Bullet Points".

You can hear the podcast on http://www.waynebotha.com/Podcasts.htm.

Memorable Matrices and Gripping Graphs

I reviewed a presentation last week where the presenter did many things right. Graphs were clear and understandable. The matrices were relatively simple. He explained to us the concepts and used a Case Study.

One area for improvement I noticed was that the graphs and matrices were all very similar. By the time we saw the fourth graph, we could not remember what the previous three indicated because there was no distinguishing characteristics on each graph. There are a few ways to overcome this:

1. Limit the number of graphs. If you only have one or two graphs, you can distinguish them with color or using a pie chart on one and a bar chart on the other.
2. Space the graphs out during your presentation. Don't display one after the other, after the other.
3. Use a different background for each graph. For example, if discussing the sales figures for the last year, put an photo of your top salesperson at the top of the chart. This instantly communicates most of your message.

Do you have any other suggestions for making Gripping Graphs and Memorable Matrices?

Radio Interview on 12/6/2007 at 3 PM

I am being interviewed on "Abundance with De Boone" this Thursday (12/6/07) at 3pm. Listen in on WDJZ 1530 AM in the Bridgeport area of Connecticut or online at http://www.WDJZradio.com as we discuss “Dodging the Bullet Points”.

We will give away two free books to lucky listeners.

Feet to the Fire is now available

Yahoo!! "Feet to the Fire: The secret to completing every project" is now available for purchase from my website. Click here to get your copy.

What is Feet to the Fire? Feet to the Fire is the 2 CD set that guides you through the first six month of your accountability partnership. Feet to the Fire will lead you through the steps to find a partner, pick a location, setting up meetings, following the agenda and your six-month milestone.

Ed Tate, the 2000 World Champion of Public Speaking used an Accountability Partnership to become world champion and to build an exemplary professional speaking business.

I teamed up with Award winning speaker Liz Trendowski to form our accountability Partnership. We have had such great success with our partnership that we feel obliged to share the benefits of Accountability Partnerships with everyone. We each wrote a book because of our Accountability Partnership, and this may be just the thing you need to write your book.

Enough said. Get a copy for yourself or your loved one who wants to reach goals in 2008.

What is wrong with most Presentations?

Here is a short clip from a recent presentation at a Toastmasters conference. Listen to what the audience endures in most PowerPoint Presentations.

You can avoid these problems by planning your presentation, reducing the amount of text on the slides and limiting or eliminating transitions. In short, follow the Pow'Rful Process laid out in "Dodging the Bullet Points" and your audience will herald you as a hero.