thatblog

i just shot this in my yard (garden) - with a camera!!

I have a new obsession...

I so want one of these PLEN robots... anyone need a tester, a salesperson.. anyone? 

The future president .. ? who knows (but he didn't have notes)

Last night I heard Bobby Jindal (Governor, LA) speak...  I try not to be political, and am just interested (on here) in HOW politicians speak, not what they say. I judge their communication not their content. 

He was eloquent, engaging, and personable. Although he speaks fast, his pace is easy to keep up with. Above all (in my book) he sounded genuine and honest, he left a good impression.

What surprised me though, were the twitters in the room (yes, i guess it wasn't captivating enough that I didn't look at my phone during the speech).. a number of people in the room were making comments (via technology) during the keynote, and the overwhelming consensus was that it was 'remarkable' that he wasn't using notes! NO NOTES.. LOL. As a speaker I would never dream of using notes, and as a Governor, I wouldn't expect him to either - if he doesn't know his stuff by now there is no hope. 

I think what happens when you don't use notes is that you come across as more genuine, more direct and have more connection with the audience. I noticed all those things. The people's comment though was 'no notes' - they noticed what he didn't have, rather than all the things he did. 

This reminded me, that none of us can assume what our audiences are taking away from our speeches. We highlight facts, we use magic sentences like "if you only remember ONE thing from today, it should be... " but at the end of the speech they can be impressed by our shirt, our smile as they walked in, or by something we didn't even do. 

Live today with NO NOTES.

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Interesting ...

A FACE YOU CAN TRUST

Princeton psychologists recently showed that certain faces, even when expressionless, strike people as trustworthy or untrustworthy. Features like the shape of the eyebrow are part of an unconscious language of trust that powerfully affects human interaction.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/graphics/080817_face/

from www.boston.com

Twitter, twitter, twitter

As I'm sitting here I'm watching my twitter feed, and absorbing comments from people all over the world.. One guy is at an Event Exhibition in London, and is telling us what is happening, a woman is discussing organic coffee, another is putting up motivational quotes. It reminds me of a chat room from the early 90's - only without all the idiots. Ok, so a chat room would have been empty without the idiots, but you know what i mean. 

I'm watching social media in action. The 80/20 rule applies here, like it seems to apply in every aspect of business. Except maybe not how you'd expect at first glance. 80% social, 20% business - it's all about people and making connections. 

Twitter allows you 140 characters to make an impression, it's great practice for keeping things concise, and still making an impression, you follow people, they follow you - sometimes you get a whole conversation, but many times you get just a snippet or two.. just like real life. This is the new face of business, people connecting, sharing their lives before they share their business. 

Of course, there are people that get it wrong.. "hello my name is.. please click here and buy this" - I'm guessing they don't get much of a response. I know they don't get a response from me. I'm watching and learning at the moment - and doing business the way I like it. I'm trying to get over my natural dislike of the terminology "twittering, tweets, tweeple, tweetups... arghhhh, you get the idea"

I just keep in mind these are real people, and many of the people that are driving social media. I'm learning from them, and so I will continue to twitter on.

and yesterday i got a message from Fern Britton (ok, you have to be British to know who she is, but it made me laugh) I don't know if she's the real Fern Britton but I have twitter spies on the case (I have no idea what the twitter code for spies is, but I'm sure there is one). There are lots of famous people on twitter.. some real, others obviously not, if that is your thing.. but more than that, there are lots of people creating a world in a new media, a social world where the rules are still being written. 

Read here for an update on the Fern Britton story LOL

Follow me at http://twitter.com/thatspeaker and lets connect, it's not just for the birds. 

This makes it official

TODAY

TODAY

Article 2 (for BHO) from Andrew Sloat on Vimeo.

"I TALK TO STRANGERS - IT'S CALLED NETWORKING" FREE POSTER

click to download .pdf