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Category: training (page 2 of 9)

4 tips on how to make a good presentation – or at least make it suck less.

August 3, 2015 / Don Schindler / 0 Comments

Oratium’s Tamsen Webster presenting at Hubspot.

If you follow my blog or social media feeds, then you know I have a low tolerance for bad meetings and presentations.

But I think bad presentations are the worst. They are probably the most evil way to kill your co-workers and clients.

Why are they worse than bad meetings?

Because with a meeting, I can always chime in – try and move it the way I want it to go – or at least I can engage.

But with a presentation, I’m a hostage. Many times I’m staring down a 70-page fully loaded deck with bulleted 12-point fonts, unreadable charts, nasty clip-art and cartoon transitions.

I can’t do anything. I can’t go anywhere. I can try and sneak a peek at my phone or act like I’m taking notes on my laptop while I’m really checking Instagram, Facebook or email. But I can’t escape the stock photos of business hurdles and diversity handshakes. My eyes….my eyes!!!

So last week I traveled to Boston to check out the team from Oratium, Tamsen Webster and Jonathan Dietrich, Presentation Training.

They promised me that I would look at presentations differently. That I would have, as Tamsen so eloquently put it, “a framework to work within” for my future presentations.

Let me tell you. I was skeptical.

I’ve been presenting in front of crowds since 2006 – I’ve read a lot of books and have done my fair amount of research on how to give good presentations. I’ve gotten great reviews – in fact, I pride myself on the ratings and the comments. I even get laughs, which always surprises my wife. Guess I’m not too funny at home.

But then Tamsen and JD showed me a real presentation framework, broken down into easy steps that would help me make my presentations so much better.

Now I can’t give you all the details. Sorry.

Come on, it’s their intellectual property and they’ve made a good business of helping companies and their salespeople get much better at this.

What I can give you is some of the framework and a place to start along with Tamsen and JD’s contact info so you can get in touch if you want. I highly recommend it especially if you have salesforce that needs to be selling a whole lot more.

Their big idea was pretty simple.

Presentations should “powerfully land a small number of big ideas.”

Let me say that again because this is usually the opposite of many presentations I see (and have made).

POWERFULLY LAND A SMALL NUMBER OF BIG IDEAS.

Such a great way to think about your presentations.

Oratium handouts you get with the training.

So what tips can I pass along on how to do this with your presentations:

1. Stop being you-centric and be audience-centric.

Cut out the crappy, bulleted “my company” slides or the “who I am” slides (I’m guilty of this and it stops today) at the front of your deck. If you really want to get the audience’s attention – start with their problem as quickly as possible.

But, Don, they won’t know who we are and we need to be credible. We debated this, too.

First, you are in the room so you must be credible to someone to get there.

Second, they aren’t going to care about anything you say – they are focused on them and not you. You want them to pay attention to you then talk about them and their problems. You can work your who we are into the back of the deck when you are presenting the solution.

I know this sounds like commons sense but I’ve seriously used the same presentation in front of one audience and then turned around and used it on another without changing much but the opening slide.

Because my slides were about me – not them.

2. Have a clearly defined ACTION that you want the audience to take at the end of the presentation.

This is how you measure whether you are being effective or not.

This made me laugh.

I’ve defined my measurement in the comments I received after or the fact that audience members would come up and want me to speak at another event.

But did that solve the audience’s problem (which I don’t even know if I really defined well) and did it help my company’s goals (in a vague way – maybe).

Let me tell you that their pyramid system to help you define the action is worth the investment.

3. If you are going to get the audience to take an action, then they must “believe” something different than what they currently do.

Another tip that hit me like an ACME safe. JD repeated this statement a couple of times to get it to really sink in.

“The audience will think differently about you if they first think differently about themselves.”

I never thought that the only way I could get an audience to believe in me is to first get them to think differently about themselves.

Of course I thought that the audience trusted me – look how awesome, smart, interesting, passionate, prepared (sometimes) I am – BTW, those are the examples we came up in class of what we tell ourselves about how our audience feels about us.

What a crock. We have no empirical evidence that our audience thinks this but we do know with lots of evidence that they are thinking about themselves a lot. Just like you are doing right now.

Until I focus completely on them, their problems, and lead them to a solution that they can visualize and own – they aren’t going to think too highly of me.

Did I tell you that Tamsen and JD didn’t pull any punches on us? It was some serious tough love I needed to hear.

4. To get people to believe something different, then you need to give them the knowledge to back it up.

This is your data and illustrations. But you can’t beat them over the head with facts and figures. You must deliver the knowledge in a way to have emotional pull – you need to appeal to both sides of the brain because people make decisions irrationally (right side of the brain) then justify the decision rationally (left side of the brain).

If you’ve never read “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely, I totally recommend it. Great book and backs up this line of thinking on why people do what they do.

Now these are just four tips from an all-day workshop – I wish I could give you more but I promised I wouldn’t in a public way.

The framework they gave us, the online tools I can start using, the insights into how the audience’s mind works are invaluable and I recommend that you reach out directly to Tamsen and JD to schedule some time to chat with them about helping out your team.

I was blown away by how polished and thorough their presentation program was and will be recommending them in the future.

Good luck in your future presentations but if you really want to take your talks to the next level then get in touch with them.

How to handle tough questions on farming through social media with my secret weapon

July 16, 2015 / Don Schindler / 0 Comments

Evernote is my digital brain

We all get tough questions about agriculture. It’s not that people are attacking what we do (though some might), it’s just that they may not understand what we are doing and they only want to know more about it or learn our point of view on it.

So whether you are talking to a crowd or one-on-one or, even online, you want to be able to answer an inquiry.

Now I’ve gone through how to handle tough questions before – this isn’t about how to handle them. This is more about prepping ahead of time and using a great tool that can help you handle questions.

And my favorite tool is also something I refer to as my digital brain. It’s the note taking application called Evernote.

I love Evernote. It’s definitely one of my favorite apps and I use it on a daily basis.

It’s available on my phone (iPhone / Android) and it also has a web-based browser and app if you are on a Mac.

Let’s set Evernote up so it can be a go-to place to help you answer questions you might get about farming. So first let’s prepare for tough questions by actually gathering them up and answering them as best you can.

1. Write down the tough questions you’ve received and answer them.

You might not be able to recall any right away and that’s ok. I’ll give you a sample one.

I hear that dairy farmers abuse their animals. Is that true? Why do they do this? Isn’t there laws against that?

As a dairy farmer, I can tell you that I do everything I can not to hurt my animals in any way. And most dairy farmers I know take excellent care of their animals.

Besides being the ethical thing to do, dairy cows must be healthy and well cared-for in order to produce wholesome milk.

We farmers depend on healthy cows for our family’s livelihood. We provide cows with a nutritious diet, good medical care and healthy living conditions.

Our dairy cows receive periodic check-ups, vaccinations, and prompt treatment of illness.

The dairy industry has worked with veterinarians and other animal care and industry experts to establish guidelines for the proper care of dairy cows.

When I hear about abuse, I get so angry. I know that dairy farmers across the country are outraged by these rare instances of abuse on dairy farms.

These actions do not reflect the animal care practices of the thousands of hard working dairy farm families across the U.S. who care for their animals every day.

I know that dairy farms and companies are committed to animal well-being, and have put in place some important initiatives reinforcing this.

National Milk Producers Federation, with support from a coalition of dairy organizations, farmers and dairy food companies, launched the National Dairy FARM Program in 2000.

FARM is a verifiable national animal well-being program that offers U.S. dairy farmers tools for practicing excellent management of their herds. You can visit nationaldairyfarm.com for more information.

Now this is a very long answer and you definitely would want to put it in your own words. These are just talking points to help you out when you want to form your own answers.

Some other questions and answers you might want to have handy are your personal experiences on

Animal Care
Food Safety
Nutrition
Sustainability
Antibiotics
Hormones
Emissions and Methane
Myths about milk/dairy

If you are looking for more answers to tough questions, feel free to reach out to me at don.schindler (at) dairy.org and I’m happy to get you more answers.

Now one thing that I will point out is that when talking in person or online, you need to be careful of the words you use in your answers.

Using terms that help people to understand without taking offense to your answers is the best way to handle tough situations. The truth about what you do doesn’t have to come across in a harsh matter – in fact, it will cause more issues not less.

You should always take the high road and try your best to listen and respond in a polite manner. You can check out my blog post on “winning an argument online” for some more tips.

If you want to open people up to your point of view or position on a topic, never say “no” but use “yes and”. People love hearing “yes” and the “and” allows you to deliver your point without causing them to get defensive and unwilling to hear anything.

Here’s some language that can help you when answering questions:

In my opinion…
I believe…
It is my belief…
I don’t doubt that and….
From my point of view or POV…
It seems to me that…
I agree with that and I also…

If you are trying to support what you say, use phrases like:

For example…
In fact…
For instance…
To support this…

If you believe you can use Cause and Effect, use terms like:

Because…
Since…
Due to…
For this reason…
Therefore
If…then…
Leads to…
In effect…
Brought about…
Made possible…
As might be expected…

If you have to counter, be gentle and really listen to what you are saying (in other words, say it out loud to yourself before hitting send):

I realize you…
I understand you…
Even though you…
Although you…
Some people…
It may be that you…
Your idea to or on XXXXXX deserves merit and…

But understand that if you add a “but”, this term means “no” to most people when you are countering a claim.

Sometimes it’s difficult to use these terms when things get heated. I understand that. If you need to step away from the other person, then do so. But if you keep the high road, I believe you’ll find these terms work great.

2. Go get the app for your phone or sign up through the website.

It’s pretty easy to do and you don’t need to buy anything here. We’ll be using the free service.

3. Open up the Evernote app.

Once the app is up and running, you’ll need to create an account. Just use your favorite email address and a password you can remember.

4. Set up Tough Questions Notebook.

Now if this is your first time, Evernote is going to want to walk you through the tour of the application capabilities. I suggest that you take the time to go through it because this little app can do a whole lot for you – save recipes, save links, take photos, you can handwrite into it and it can read it, add tags, etc…

It’s all great stuff.

But for this workshop, we want to get to the main menu so we can start adding content. So skip the tour if you want.

Once you pass the tour, you’ll be on the main homepage. You’ll see your settings, sync button, search (probably the best search I’ve seen) on the top row.

The next row of buttons are create buttons.

You can create a text note, photo note, set a reminder, make a list or chat with other people in Evernote.

What we are focused on is creating a Text Note in a Tough Questions Notebook so let’s set that up.

Click on Notebooks.

Then click on + New Notebook.

Then add the name – Tough Questions.

5. Add a Note to the Tough Questions Notebook.

Click on the Tough Questions Notebook.

Click on the + (plus sign) on the top right to add a note to the notebook.

You’ll then add the Title of the Note and the text of the note just by touching the areas where the text is.

And it should start to look like this.

If you want to change text fonts and sizes, there’s a menu when you are typing that pops up from the bottom of the screen (right above the keyboard). You’ll be able to adjust a lot of things on the text.

When you have all the text in, you’ll want to finish up by tagging the text. This will make it easier to search but isn’t necessary. The search is pretty amazing in Evernote.

Touch the “i” circle to bring up the tags.

Then add the words you think you’ll want to search this information by.

That’s basically it. Now if you have your phone with you, you’ll always have answers to those tough questions (in your own words).

One thing that I love to add is “third party” news sources for tough questions on nutrition and antibiotics. I add URLs to these notes by just copying the URL and pasting it at the bottom of the question.

I would also recommend that you don’t just copy and paste the answers to people. Use your judgment on where the conversation is going and then use the information out of Evernote to help craft your response. Remember people do fact check and double check the information you give them so always make sure it is accurate and kind.

If you have any questions, you can always reach out to me.

How do you create animated gif from your videos

June 23, 2015 / Don Schindler / 0 Comments

Jersey cows flirting

Have you ever wondered how they create all those animated movie clips? Maybe you’d like to do one from a video you’ve taken – and maybe add some text to the image.

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to use a free app called Gif Forge to create an animated gif using a video that my dairy farmer friend, Ray Prock, sent me. (BTW, the reason I asked to use his video is I’m mesmerized by Jersey Cow Tongues. Check out Ray’s Facebook page of his farm to watch more). I could watch their snake-like flicking and twisting for hours.)

1. Go get the Gif Forge app. It’s FREE.

Sorry there’s no Android app for Gif Forge yet but there are many good Android animated gif programs like GifBoom or Gif Camera. I just don’t know how to use them.

Now you’ll need a video or a set of images or you can get a GIF from the internet to create your animated GIF.

2. Open the Gif Forge app.

Click the logo at the top of the screen to get to the Start Screen below. I’m going to convert a video I have into an animated GIF so I selected the middle icon (video) in the red circle. If you want to convert photos (camera) or a GIF from a web address (world) you would select the other icons.

Click on the Gif Forge logo at the top of the screen to get to the Start Screen then click the Video icon to add video.

3. Select Video to add your video to Gif Forge.

You can also add GIFs you’ve previously made or select a Meme.

4. Video will be added.

You’ll probably need to trim your video to make the animated GIF. If you notice the red circles, you can drag either side to trim the video down. Normally an animated GIF is very short – just a few seconds or more. To keep the file size down for uploading and downloading to the web, I would recommend less than 5 seconds.

You can use one finger to trim the video down to what you want the GIF to be.

I pulled the video to the end and trimmed the first part of the video.

5. Editing your animated GIF.

Now you are in the main editor where you can add text, slow down or speed up the GIF, go back to the video to trim it more, or save the GIF to your phone. You can also duplicate the GIF with the Loop icon. The GIF will automatically be running.

You can edit the GIF in many ways and save it here.

6. Add text to your animated GIF.

Adding text is pretty easy. Just select the handwriting tool icon and it will bring up two different ways to add text. The traditional movie clip GIF of adding “closed captioning” text (animated GIFs have no sound) or you can do Meme text with top and bottom text. I chose Meme style.

You then click on the text area provided and change out the words.

Adding text to an animated GIF in Gif Forge.

You can change the size and the fonts (limited fonts) and then you’ll hit Done.

When you are finished with the text, click the Check icon at the top.

7. On this screen, you’ll see the text for the GIF but this is not saved. Click Done.

Click Done.

8. Back on the Edit screen, click the large Circle button to Save.

Click Save.

9. Select how to save or share your animated GIF.

You can download the animated GIF to your phone (which I recommend) or you can upload to Imgur or Tumblr or convert to video (cost).

Imgur is an image hosting and sharing community. It will allow another audience to see your animated GIFs and comment on them like YouTube.

Tumblr is a blogging community much like WordPress.com, but animated GIFs are very prominent.

You can also save your animated GIF to your own website if you want.

Click the Check icon to save.

Upload options for your GIF.

That’s it. You’ve got your first animated GIF. Now you can share with your friends on your favorite social networks.

Remember if you have any questions, feel free to reach out via my social networks or you can email me at don (dot) schindler at gmail.

7 Videography Tips for Farmers

June 3, 2015 / Don Schindler / 3 Comments

I recently taught a couple of workshops on photography and videography for beginners to some of our communicators. It’s amazing how advanced technology allows us to produce good videography by just knowing some of the basics.

Now does this mean that you will never need a professional videographer – absolutely not! Professional videographers have thousands of hours of training and can see things that you and I would never catch.

And I don’t claim to be an expert at this at all. I’m just passing along the basics that I’ve learned and that I believe will help you capture better video while you are on the farm or at the restaurant/market.

Here are seven tips that I’ve picked up on videography – I hope they help you out.

STOP – IF YOU ARE USING YOUR PHONE TO RECORD VIDEO, HOLD IT HORIZONTALLY. ALSO YOU NEED TO SHOOT ALL B-ROLL AND PHOTOS (for the video) THIS WAY!!!!

1. Lighting is everything.

You need good lighting. What makes good lighting? Indirect natural sunlight is awesome. Then after that sunlight. Gray days can be really good as well because they will make the shadows less harsh.

The problem with this video is that the sun is making her squint, but if the sun were behind her we wouldn’t see her face. So, I guess it’s not all bad. (And depending on what she’s talking about – like if she’s experiencing tough times or a rough situation, squinting is a good thing.)

2. Frame your subject to the left or right (try not to center).

There’s a Rule of Thirds in photography that basically wants you to put your subjects on the intersecting lines of the nine boxes created by a grid.

With videography, you definitely don’t want to center so you have the opportunity to put more information on the screen if necessary and it also makes the composition more interesting to the eye.

3. Mic them up because you need great sound.

While cameras and phones have come a long way in the past few years with video, they still have issues with picking up sound. You are better off to getting a good microphone (wired or directional) to get some good quality sound from your subjects. Without it your video will suck.

4. Look at the background first and add depth if you can.

This video has some great depth and strong diagonals to help the eye. You want to make the background as interesting as possible without being too busy (background movement will distract the viewer from the subject) so scouting your location for lighting, sound and background is all very important. Be intentional about your environment unless you can’t be.

5. B-Roll is awesome. Get some and then get some more.

B-Roll keeps the viewer from getting bored and helps explains your subject’s words. While you can talk about kids dumping milk into a metal canister, the ability for them to see tells them a whole lot more about the entire process.

I usually try and add b-roll around every 4-6 seconds. When you capture b-roll, get at least 5-10 seconds worth a shot. You can always trim it down.

P.S. A pro once told me that he used extensive b-roll to keep people engaged especially when filming a boring or stutter-filled speaker. You can only edit a rough subject so much.

6. A cheap tripod is worth its weight in gold.

Some cheap tripods aren’t, but almost all tripods will help keep a stable, steady shot when you need it. Take the time to get one and it will save you a lot of hassle especially when you are shooting multiple subjects in the same place – a place with good lighting and excellent sound quality.

7. Zoom, zoom, zoom is for Miatas – not your audience.

I know it’s fun to play with auto zooms (bringing things in and out of the frame), but I would forgo it unless you have a serious need to act like a filmmaker. If you want to zoom in and out, try lining up a different shot, zoom in or out to how you want the shot, and have them say the same thing. Or get another phone/camera and shoot at the same time. Then you’ll have more angles to chose from.

When it comes to good videography, being intentional is very important with your shots but don’t kill yourself over one video interview. Take lots and lots of them and sort through the ones you don’t like. That’s what is so awesome about today’s technology. Get lots of practices, definitely take a few classes if you have time and keep producing those amazing videos.

Also, if you need help with video editing, I have a quick tutorial on editing with iMovie on an iPhone 6.

If you have a tip you want to share feel free to leave a comment or email me at don.schindler (at) gmail.com.

If you want to use my deck, you can download it from Slideshare.

Videography Tips for Beginners 2015 from Don Schindler

Don Schindler

Executive Reputation Coach & Digital Marketer

Category: training (page 2 of 9)

4 tips on how to make a good presentation – or at least make it suck less.

1. Stop being you-centric and be audience-centric.

2. Have a clearly defined ACTION that you want the audience to take at the end of the presentation.

3. If you are going to get the audience to take an action, then they must “believe” something different than what they currently do.

4. To get people to believe something different, then you need to give them the knowledge to back it up.

How do you create animated gif from your videos

1. Go get the Gif Forge app. It’s FREE.

2. Open the Gif Forge app.

3. Select Video to add your video to Gif Forge.

4. Video will be added.

5. Editing your animated GIF.

6. Add text to your animated GIF.

7. On this screen, you’ll see the text for the GIF but this is not saved. Click Done.

8. Back on the Edit screen, click the large Circle button to Save.

9. Select how to save or share your animated GIF.

7 Videography Tips for Farmers

1. Lighting is everything.

2. Frame your subject to the left or right (try not to center).

3. Mic them up because you need great sound.

4. Look at the background first and add depth if you can.

5. B-Roll is awesome. Get some and then get some more.

6. A cheap tripod is worth its weight in gold.

7. Zoom, zoom, zoom is for Miatas – not your audience.

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Don Schindler

Executive Reputation Coach & Digital Marketer

Category: training (page 2 of 9)

How to put words on a picture using your iPhone – use Word Swag

1. Get the Word Swag app.

2. Find the photo in your Photo app.

3. When you select the photo, you’ll in photo-editing mode.

4 tips on how to make a good presentation – or at least make it suck less.

1. Stop being you-centric and be audience-centric.

2. Have a clearly defined ACTION that you want the audience to take at the end of the presentation.

3. If you are going to get the audience to take an action, then they must “believe” something different than what they currently do.

4. To get people to believe something different, then you need to give them the knowledge to back it up.

How to handle tough questions on farming through social media with my secret weapon

1. Write down the tough questions you’ve received and answer them.

2. Go get the app for your phone or sign up through the website.

3. Open up the Evernote app.

4. Set up Tough Questions Notebook.

5. Add a Note to the Tough Questions Notebook.

How do you create animated gif from your videos

1. Go get the Gif Forge app. It’s FREE.

2. Open the Gif Forge app.

3. Select Video to add your video to Gif Forge.

4. Video will be added.

5. Editing your animated GIF.

6. Add text to your animated GIF.

7. On this screen, you’ll see the text for the GIF but this is not saved. Click Done.

8. Back on the Edit screen, click the large Circle button to Save.

9. Select how to save or share your animated GIF.

7 Videography Tips for Farmers

1. Lighting is everything.

2. Frame your subject to the left or right (try not to center).

3. Mic them up because you need great sound.

4. Look at the background first and add depth if you can.

5. B-Roll is awesome. Get some and then get some more.

6. A cheap tripod is worth its weight in gold.

7. Zoom, zoom, zoom is for Miatas – not your audience.

Sign up and you’ll receive an email every time I post!

Please connect with me

Most Popular Posts

Most Recent Posts

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