How to maximize the impact of your speaking turn…

This article is designed to help you to maximize the impact of your speaking turn. Because of our new, online format we’ve been forced into a lot of change. Much of it has been for the better as we all learn about online tools that allow us to remotely meet as a group and as individuals with our customers.

In our new online meeting format our meetings are shorter and faster moving. We start later, and end earlier, than we did in our usual in person meetings. As our group grows the duration between our speaking turns will increase. The obvious answer there is to shorten our presentations. Think of a haiku or a sonnet: their limitations can be their strengths. The author is forced to remove everything needless, excessive, anything not crucial to their message and meaning.

This is what we propose going forward:

  1. Presentations will be 5 minutes long with 2 minutes for questions and, especially, testimonials.
  2. Every speech should start with a statement of your name, your company and what you do. If you have a tagline or a “unique value proposition, by all means, include it.
  3. Ideally your speech would contain a slideshow of 3 – 5 slides that include an introduction, present the problem, your solution to the problem and a summation. This would/should be geared to a complete stranger so that there is NO assumption that you’re presenting to a group of folks that know you already.
  4. We can help you with your slideshow either showing you how to use Google Slides or working with you in Microsoft Powerpoint to get your presentation together and teaching you how to present it online. No one will be left behind if they are willing to put in the time/work.
  5. The goal is to have footage of your presentation that can then be cut down into the “meat” of your story or offer and that will allow us to put together a 30 second “commercial” for your business. Longer and more involved commercials or videos would be available if that was do desired from Open Interactive, cost TBD.

The goal here NOT to enrich Open Interactive, the goal is to increase the value of your membership by giving you something to market your business OUTSIDE of the group. It’s an effort to 10X the value of the time you spend in the group by giving you a modern, clear and valuable tool to promote yourself on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or via email as the web becomes increasing mobile and video-centric.

As with everything in this group it will change, grow and get more defined as time goes on. Just like we have managed to move our meetings online and continue to grow, thrive and exchange large amounts of legitimate business so to will we learn to make professional presentations that we are proud to share with the world.