Create Your Communications Experience

Embed Videos in your PowerPoints

At a conference in Dallas this weekend, I had some unique opportunities –

To be inspired by two of the best from my list of "The Top Ten Communicators of 2006" - and speaking from the same platform. Rick Warren and Israel Gaither were great, but more on them in another post after I get the videos to show.

Then there was the rare chance to experience several workshops from pretty good presenters (except for a couple who read their presentations – can you believe that in a workshop setting no less.)

Of the many workshops, there was only one that used black slides in their PowerPoints and had several videos embedded (mine) - and too few that used good PowerPoints or support materials at all. In the two I saw where video was used, there was the awkward and unfortunately common delay of going to the video player either on the same computer or with a separate DVD player.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

First of all, video is a great additive – an easy way to change the pace and get music, emotion, action and drama to enhance your message. And it is very simple to embed your video in your PowerPoints so that you just have to click the clicker for next slide and it plays automatically. I was surprised when one very good presenter who switched to his Windows Media Player to play his video did not know this basic process.

Embedding video in your PowerPoints (or PPs)

Briefly put (if you need more, email me):

• Be sure the video you want to use is on your hard drive (and ideally a compressed version in a .wma format for PCs)
• In PP make a black slide (no template, black background), and then from the menu click Insert, Movies and Sound, Movie from File and click on the desired video file.
• When the frame of the file shows up in PP click the “Automatically” when it asks how you want the movie to start.
• Resize the frame to fill 90% of your screen.

That’s all there is to it. Be sure you have a speaker for your laptop, or hook into the room sound system. I always put a black slide before and after my videos to give me talk time, but that’s not necessary for those that don’t use black slides. (Though if you don't, why not?)

With the video revolution going on, you can obtain good videos to support your messages from many different sources, including your own camera. On another post I’ll tell you how to easily download and edit videos from YouTube – one of the best sources. But no matter where you get videos, you will be a much better and more skillful communicator if you USE videos and embed them to play them seamlessly in your PPs.

Here's a couple of links with more detail than you maybe want or need, but could be useful: deskshare and indezine.

Media Training For All

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did a terrible job in his Senate testimony yesterday - he must have had training - but who could tell? He said "I don't recall..." over 70 times among other things. Total lack of credibility.

Most all of us are going to be in the spotlight sometime when it really counts, and the time for preparation is before the pressure.

Think of poor Mark McGwire - he thought all he had to do was hit home runs and not communicate. Then on the national stage in his steroid Senate testimony in 2005 he did so poorly - continuously saying "I'm not going to talk about the past..." - that he is best (or worst) remembered for that. His communication (about his behavior) will probably keep him from the Hall of Fame.

And it is sad that Admiral James Stockdale is most remembered for his poor showing in his national Vice Presidential debate against Al Gore and Dan Quayle. Admiral Stockdale was a war hero, a brilliant writer and a member of the Hoover Institute, yet when he died last year the second paragraph on his obit was all about his lack of confidence and speaking in that single debate.

Lessons for all of us in this. Get on videotape and see how you come across. With today's video revolution the "moments of fame" will become ubiquitous, and will be thrust on us in an instant. That's a good thing - you can multiply your influence through video and media enormously - but only if you are confident and effective. Gonzales, McGwire, Stockdale and thousands of others wish they had worked more on seeing how they came across and connected with people. Video cameras are small enough and plentiful enough for all of us to get media training in advance.

Observed behavior changes.

What You See Is What You Get

And that is precisely the problem - and the opportunity. In our communications, it’s often what people see – not just the words that they hear – which impacts whether or not they believe what we say.

 

 

   

Optical illusions prove this is true (as well as Albert Mehrabian's research on the mix of the Verbal, Vocal and Visual.) Take a look at the video here – a stationary three-dimensional figure appears to follow you wherever you go. We see something and our brain immediately makes assumptions about what we see - in this case, the structure of the dragon’s head. We believe it’s a dynamic, animated figure, when it’s really just a motionless piece of origami.

 

 

And with the classic illusion of the young/old woman, once we’ve made that initial assumption, it  becomes even more difficult to “see” the other version and believe that it’s true. That’s why it’s so critical to have a consistent message – both in the verbal (content), as well as the visual (behavior).

 

If seeing is believing, then it’s pretty darn important. If it’s important, then we should prepare. But do we?

 

 

Nope. We go straight to PowerPoint, spend hours creating complex slides with minutia, and spend very little (if any) time rehearsing the actual presentation. The result? We use PowerPoint as a crutch – focusing on the slides instead of the audience – compromising our confidence and credibility in the process. The audience sees and believes that we are uncertain, and become hesitant of our message. 

 

 

Treat your audience as a bunch of Doubting Thomases - make sure they see what you want them to believe. Here’s how:

 

• Crystallize your point of view, and the key action steps and benefits for the listener
• Build SIMPLE visuals (slides, props, film clips, etc.) that support your message
• Practice, practice, practice! Rehearse your presentation three to six times – both to nail down the content, and insure that your behavior is consistent (think: posture, movement, energy)!

 

 

Remember…You’ve Got To Be Believed To Be Heard!

Robert Kennedy's Greatest Speech

On April 4, 1968, on the way to a campaign stop in Indianapolis, Robert Kennedy heard the news that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. The police advised Kennedy to cancel the appearance, as the stop was in what was considered to be a dangerous African American ghetto. Kennedy instead went on and broke the news to the crowd.

The YouTube clip contains about 3 1/2 minutes of the six-minute speech. It's a remarkable example of statesmanship, in which Kennedy, without notes, speaks from the heart with compassion and clarity. He has the wisdom of past suffering and the empathy that comes with it, two things that can't be faked. "For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people," he says, "I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man." He becomes great before our eyes. The YouTube clip comes with Italian subtitles, which only serve to emphasize the international significance of the moment.

I read this in an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle about many of their favorite YouTube videos, and originally this was going to be a post about how the video revolution continues, and how print can't compete with the internet since you can't immediately link but have to type in oh-so-many urls if you want to get to what they spell out in print. And all that is true, so go to the article here and link in - there are many other clips. But that no longer is the purpose of this post, since I didn't get much past the first video.

Because the first was the favorite of Mick Lasalle's - Robert Kennedy's classic speech. I hadn't forgotten about it because I was involved in the Kennedy campaign - but it had dimmed in memory until I just relived it again. At the time I was a filmmaker producing the commercials on Kennedy's Presidential campaign, and we filmed that speech - later using clips of that speech in the Academy Award winning documentary "Robert Kennedy Remembered."

He was an amazing man, and you can see, hear and feel it in this clip. He had the guts and confidence to speak without a script, and with eloquence and memorablity in a sensitive and painful situation. What leadership, authenticity and heart is shown in this short clip. It is an example to all - and a model that I wish some of our leaders of today would emulate.

What is a brand?

When you communicate, what’s your brand?

Many people into blogging are by definition into branding too, so you may have your own perspective. I believe that we always should project our own personal brand whenever we communicate with others. (That’s what “creating your communications experience” is all about.) But here's a new slant - refreshing without reinventing.

I’m on the Advisory Board of The Salvation Army of San Francisco, and for more than a year there has been a NEW branding campaign enhancing an OLD logo. It has been very successful, and we might apply this concept to our own brands as we revitalize.

It was created by a group hadn't known before but you might have heard of, The Richards Group in Texas.

Here’s their food for thought, along with a great communication addition to The Salvation Army :

What is a brand?

It is NOT a logo:    

It is NOT a tagline: “Need Knows no Season”

It is NOT a slogan” “Heart to God, Hand to Man”

A brand is a promise. It should bring to mind certain attributes. We should be able to visualize a brand; it should suggest values. Think: Starbucks, Godiva, Southwest Airlines.

                     The Salvation Army’s new brand promise is:   

Here's the animated execution:

Positive Thinking and Speaking

Norman Vincent Peale had it right in his Power of Positive Thinking classic. Here is one way to create your own positive communications experience:

A soldier serving at the end of a chow line decided to test the power of positive thinking. He was serving, and asked the first 100 fellow soldiers: “You don’t want a bowl of apricots do you?”

90% said NO.

The next 100 he changed his tactic, same question, different phrasing:
“Would you like a bowl of apricots?”

50% said NO.

Then, the clincher:“Would you like one or two bowls of apricots?”

40% said 2, 50% said 1, and ONLY 10% SAID NO.

How positive do you want to be? Depends on how much you want.

Ask questions in a positive way. It’s not old fashioned – it works.

Controversial New PowerPoint Research

"Australian researchers may have pronounced the death of the PowerPoint presentation."

I don't think so, but there is a very interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald today that would help about 90% of the in person PowerPoint presentations that are given in business.

Researchers at the University of NSW found that the brain cannot process written and spoken information well at the same time. (Thank you for the tip from Michael Huxley via Guy Kawasaki.) The principle finding among some of the other controversial conclusions is "It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the written and spoken form at the same time."

They very aptly add that they are talking about the same written text accompanied by the reading of that text. Which is a great point to examine, and I think rings true.

So stop with using PowerPoints with so much text! Use graphics, charts, pictures, symbols and the like - because they also found in their research that "It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form."

Although a Professor Sweller states that "The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster and should be ditched," I would vehemently disagree. It just has to be used effectively. PowerPoint (or Keynote) is a great tool to AMPLIFY what we are saying, but not serve as our scripts, or substitute for our own communication experience when we are speaking.

All the more reason to use Black Slides.