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Centre Stage with Melanie Little

centre stage coterie Oct 19, 2021

Melanie Little, Co-Founder of vLife - a social enterprise platform connecting support local customers with more small indie businesses - is a graduate of shiftED Academy and a member of shiftED’s Coterie, an exclusive membership group for alumni.

A home-educating, mompreneur of two from Halifax, Canada, Melanie is passionate about leveraging technology to connect people with solutions that help make the world a better place.

I had the pleasure of interviewing her recently and we talked about her work and her presentations.

 

Tisha: Melanie, lovely for you to make the time in your schedule to chat with me. Tell me about vLife. 

Melanie: That's my favourite question! vLife is our baby. As the CEO, I’m often explaining what we do. Over the years I’ve refined it to, quite simply, “We help people find more small local businesses online.” However, if I’m speaking with a small business owner, I will shift the focus, “As a small...

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The WOSLIE Way for Audience Engagement

 

All too often, online presenters are in a one-way conversation during which they push out a bunch of information to a group of silent audience members.  This can happen when presenters experience internal and external barriers, such as self-confidence and familiarity with the technology.

The good news is, there are a host of practical strategies that are quick and easy to incorporate in your next presentation.

When I teach my Online Presentation Secrets workshops, I share the WOSLIE Way, shiftED’s methodology for activating audience engagement. When I coach individual clients, we peel back the layers to get to the root of their barriers and then we work together to determine specific WOSLIE tactics to incorporate in their presentations, based on their audience and their objectives...and their comfort level. 

WOSLIE is uncomplicated, but it can be as nuanced as your experience warrants with literally...

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Centre Stage with Martha Myers

centre stage coterie Sep 13, 2021

Martha Myers, Founder and Owner of the cleverly named MaRTHA Myers Consulting Services, is a graduate of shiftED Academy and a member of shiftED’s Coterie, an exclusive membership group for alumni.

Martha is not only her name but an acronym for Maintenance and Reliability Technical Health Assessor. Spearheading the NS Chapter of the PEMAC - Asset Management Association of Canada, where she currently serves as President, Martha is also an Instructor for PEMAC’s Maintenance Management Professional (MMP) Certificate Program.

I had the great pleasure of interviewing her recently and we talked about her work and her presentations.

 

Tisha: Martha, thanks for taking the time to speak with me. Tell me about the work you do.

Martha: My primary focus is asset management in a municipal environment. I work with municipalities to create processes that will help them make long-term spending decisions on their infrastructure, including water, wastewater, stormwater...

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How to Build Credibility and Trust as a Virtual Speaker

Building credibility and trust as a speaker is a lot more involved than simply including your credentials on your opening slide.

There is a science to earning respect with an audience and a few key steps to get you there:

  1. Arrive early - Greet your audience as openly as you would in person. Hiding behind slides and not being visible is ill-advised. Instead, turn on your webcam and be ready to present before your audience joins the virtual meeting room. 

  2. Lead with something relatable - a story or scenario that you have experienced that lets your audience know you have been where they are. This lets them know that you are a trusted advisor that can get them where they want to go.

  3. Give them something first - Before you ask them to trust you, give them something of value, determine what is keeping them up at night and let them know how you can solve that problem.

  4. Provide solutions - It’s one thing to identify the problem, but unless you’re giving proven solutions, it...
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A Reflection on Inclusive Presentations: 4 Practical Strategies for Being an Active Ally

Something’s been bothering me, weighing heavy on my heart and mind. If you know me well, you likely already know that I cry at commercials and feel intense empathy when in conversation with another human. I’m instantly joyous with you, yet easily moved to tears…even during a presentation, which happened recently.

During my workshops, we often discuss presenters and their ability to connect with their audience. We talk about strategies for building relationships with our audience.

As presenters, some are quite naturally able to connect with audiences. They bring passion, they seek to understand, they aim to help. I’ve seen shiftED alum and some of you present to audiences, and I’ve witnessed time and again how you connect with your audiences of one or many, in person or online.

I observe and I learn. Always. Wanting to do better.

A perpetual student.

The participant who welled up my eyes this past week pointed to the one-on-one conversation we...

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Minimum Requirements for Online Live Presentations

techniques tips webinars Mar 29, 2020

I am often asked about the technology that I use for my online courses and, as happened during last week's webinar on this topic, am sometimes met with surprised reactions for the simplicity of my setup. 

I’ve been presenting webinars and online live training sessions for more than 17 years and I’ve used many platforms and applications, and a variety of equipment, in that time. While some online content lends itself to more complex setups, such as virtual computer labs for enterprise-wide hands-on technology training, fancier and more expensive is not always better (or necessary).

My aim with my clients who are delving into the online learning space is to start with simple.

Are you exploring online live sessions?

Are you rapidly adapting your classroom learning events into the online space?

Are you wondering what minimum requirements will allow you to quickly launch, without breaking the bank?

Let me offer insight into what I use for...

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Optimizing Online Learning - After the Event

In two previous blog posts, I shared tips for optimizing the online learning experience before the learning event takes place as well as during the actual learning event. If you present online to groups of participants within your organization, there are strategies within this series of three blog posts for increasing adoption rates during firm-wide policy rollouts or technology implementations or other internal training initiatives. If you are a business owner or consultant and you present online to your clients, you might find a nugget or three for maximizing audience engagement and ensuring your objectives are met.

Whether you present online within your organization or beyond, seek to understand your specific audience's preferences then apply best practices and only the very latest research on teaching and learning.  

In this post, as with the others, you'll find a few ideas for optimizing the online learning experience for your...

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Hosting a Holiday Party? Here are 7 Practical Tips for Speaking at Your Event

It’s that time of year during which we experience an increase in social gatherings for comrades, colleagues, and clients. For those organizing or hosting holiday parties, there is an added responsibility of speaking at these events to, for example, welcome partygoers or introduce the entertainment.

Whether you are speaking at a formal event or a casual get-together, here are a few practical tips for rockin’ the mic:

  1. Embrace the spotlight early. There is no need to wait for every single person who confirmed attendance to arrive. People may arrive late, leave early, or, for various reasons, not show up at all. No matter the duration of your event, it may be helpful to consider it in segments. If the last part is a wind-down and when fatigue (or alcohol) could alter the dialogue or concentration, the middle is the peak where most conversations and socializing happens - neither of these slots will garner the attentiveness of your audience. The first segment, then,...
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3 Considerations for Being a Confident Presenter (Even When You Don't Feel Like One!)

Sometimes I have the pleasure of coaching a client who is absolutely paralyzed at the thought of public speaking. Don’t get me wrong, I do not get pleasure from their paralysis; rather, I enjoy helping them work through their roadblocks and witnessing their transformations into more confident speakers. 

It is excruciatingly difficult for some to consider stepping into the spotlight. The sweaty palms, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, dry mouth, and sheer terror can be debilitating.

What advice do I give them?

First, I don’t give any. I listen.

I ask questions. I enquire about their potential audience, their content, their expertise. I try to understand their concerns, their fears, their past experiences. I ask for clarity on their goals, their aspirations.

I ask them to explain what success looks like. I want to know what being a confident speaker means to them.

Before I can help someone prepare for an upcoming presentation, whether they have a date and...

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Embedding YouTube Videos in PowerPoint? Nope!

Perhaps you are preparing to present to your board of directors and found a compelling video to illustrate your point. Or maybe you are readying for a job interview and want to impress your interviewers with a catchy clip that would leave them smiling. Or, you're ramping up an opening keynote for a conference with an anticipated audience of a thousand people and found the sounds of a groovy avant-garde ensemble for energizing the crowd.

Plan A.

You know your stuff. You create a slick slide deck, add the video, and then test it in presenter mode. Bingo. The video plays at the exact moment you expect. You then practice the slide show dozens of times in advance of the big day, nailing the timing and your content precisely during your final runthroughs.

Now, it's game day. You're in the spotlight. You're rockin' the podium. You have your audience fully engaged, nodding heads, leaning forward, inquisitive brows - energized participants anticipating your next move and hanging on to your...

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