But it's not good enough

Harry's gone now to that great Toastmasters meeting in the sky.  He honored me once by asking me to advise him on one of his speeches.  "It sounds unrehearsed," I said.  "How many days did you practice it?"  He told me that he'd only practiced it for a couple of days.  "Why didn't you give it more time?"

He didn't rehearse it more because he was still writing it, he said, right up till the end.  He could always make it better.

I sympathized.  You can always improve and tweak.

I feel now about the fundraising cookbook the way Harry felt about his speeches.  I felt the same way about the low-budget mailers I sent out as a realtor.  I wrote them.  I laid them out and printed them.  I prepared the address lists and printed the labels.  I folded and stamped them.  By the time I did all this, they irritated me.  Who'd want to look at junk mail like this?

Nonetheless, imperfect marketing is better than none at all. 

The same is true of imperfect fundraising.  Now I'm up to my elbows in the cookbook.  Without the cookbook committee I'd have given up long ago.  Still, it doesn't look good enough.  It looks as if a volunteer laid it out in Word.  I want it to look better!

At some point you have to say, "This is as good as it's going to get."  Boy, it's hard.

What if the media call and you’re not ready?

High-profile employees at large firms receive training in public speaking, including speaking on camera.  If they suddenly have to speak up on behalf of the company, they and their bosses are confident that they’ll come across well.  In the best cases they’ll express exactly what they’re supposed to.  They’ll be articulate and poised.

The rest of us may want to be that suave, but it’s not really that important, is it?

It is if you have a dream.  If you have a product or service you want to persuade others about, you need to speak compellingly.  And if you suddenly have a big breakthrough and the media want to talk to you, would you want to say, “No…thanks, really.  I’m just not a good public speaker.”?

They have other stories to cover.  While you’re gathering your wits, they’re turning to their next assignment.  Too bad, so sad.

That’s why, if you want to promote something, you need to be ready to speak.  That’s why I joined Toastmasters eight years ago. 

At Toastmasters you practice giving speeches in a friendly environment.  Fellow club members give you feedback about your speeches.  If you like speaking, you can also participate in contests.

Toastmasters needs you to fill in other roles, such as leading the meeting, being the “humorist” (telling one joke), and counting the number of times speakers say “ah” and “um.”

Toastmasters membership costs under $100 per year.  If you put in the time, you get something invaluable back—the ability to say the right thing at the right time.

Here’s the link to my club, the Murray Hill Speakers Club.

Here’s the link to Toastmasters International, where you can find a club near you.

If you’re serious about marketing, drop by a meeting for free and learn more about the program.

Webinars: You get what you pay for

Too bad loading my dishwasher was more interesting than this webinar:

Stories, Comics, and Manga - Oh My! Making Learning Stick For Your Audience!
Have you ever wanted to turn basic information into a more effective communication? Join a discussion with Dan Bliton to discover how storytelling strategies can channel and drive your communications and learning activities to increase audience retention and make your message stick. This event explores visual storytelling (comic books, graphic novels, and Manga) and why you should care what stories your new employees are reading (hint ? changing workforce demographics). Perspectives drawn from lessons learned in several markets and Booz Allen Hamilton?s award-winning learning organization. A take-away job aid and web site references summarize the approaches discussed and list additional resources.

A prominent software company presented this program for "free" (it wasn't exactly free since they took all my contact information and will probably be in touch with me for the rest of my life). It doesn't matter who presents the webinar, in my limited experience; they are uniformly bad. Some are worse than others.

Presenters, the webinar you broadcast today will linger for many years. Please, for the sake of attendees investing their time in your message, do at least the following:

• know your medium inside and out. This particular presentation dramatically lowered the standards for all PowerPoint users when the slides spun out of control. Several times.
• if you can't join Toastmasters, do as the Toastmasters do. Have an ah-counter listen to your speech (beforehand) and count the number of "ums," "ahs," and "you knows." Then, stop using them.

I would have counted the filler noises myself, but at 53 minutes and 51 seconds, there was no way I was listening to this presentation again.

I wish I could have my hour back so I could spend it working on HTML and CSS instead so I can communicate my own stories more effectively. For the time being, I forswear all webinars.