the tale of 2 robots
I was recently at the WPP Stream digital event in Asia (hence the serious lack of blogging). One of the sessions that we have at Stream are Ignite presentations. The idea for an Ignite talks is this:
- Tell us, but tell us quickly.
So the format is for 15 slides, where the slides change automatically after 15 seconds regardless of where you are up to.
It makes for entertaining viewing and rapid transfer of ideas. Here’s one that I particularly liked from Stream by Jason Oke which has some really great lessons for entrepreneurs, startups and anyone working in an innovation field for that matter. Enjoy.
The truth about confidence
Some one said these words to me the other day:
“It’s easy for you. You are confident being in front of people and speaking in public…”
I thought for a second and then told him the truth about confidence. Which isn’t verbatim, but it went something like this.
Confidence isn’t something people are born with. In fact, it doesn’t really exist. Confident people are those who are prepared to make themselves ‘uncomfortable’. People who are prepared to risk pain and or embarrassment to get something done. They embrace the risk of failure and get so used to failure, that people believe it comes easily for them. They assume it is ‘confidence’. But it’s just that these people accept the tension of being uncomfortable, as well as the potential for failure. And this is the truth about being confident.
Worldometers are great
I’m really loving the worldometers website. It’s a list of global statistics which are updated in real time
Not only is it a very interesting, but it is a terrific resource for entrepreneurs and marketers alike. No matter what your business you could grab some statistics from it to open the mind of your audience in a presentation. For example:
If in the distribution, health, food business we could present this statistic:
Undernourished people in the world = 1,026,904,563
Overweight people in the world = 1,153,103,026
Which shows that there ‘is’ enough food int he world, it’s just in the wrong places. It’s a distribution issue.
If in the eco energy, or environment industry we could share the following:
Energy used worldwide today = 422,173,999 (MWh)
Solor energy striking the earth today = 39,886,999,999 (MWh)
Showing that we have the 40x the natural resources needed, we just need to harness it.
In fact, the way we could use these statistics is limited only to our imagination. And when we are presenting to audiences, it’s their imagination that we should really be trying to inspire.
TED talks – What the world needs
This talk by Hans Rosling on population growth in the world is incredibly insightful. It goes for about 10 minutes and is worth the investment. His contention is that raising living standards in the poorest countries is the only way to reduce population growth.
Another thing I love is his presentation method and props. Very engaging and a method all entrepreneurs and marketers should consider. Enjoy!
How to get investors interested
While watching the BBC television show the Dragons Den, quite often the ‘Dragons’ laugh at a business concept they are presented with and think it is ridiculous.
Here’s the one thing that makes them eat their words every time:
Sales figures. Revenue, Customers, Repeat orders.
It’s only then they change their view from ‘not interested‘, to ‘I’m listening‘.
If you ever want to get investors interested, go see them once you’ve got sales. When you have revenue coming in it puts the kibosh on negative opinions. In addition, it increases value of your business and reduces the percentage you’d have to give away for a cash investment.
The Sandwich Man
Maybe you’re a great web designer
Maybe you’re a great coder
Maybe you’re a financial wizard
Maybe you’ve got a flair for industrial design
Maybe you’re a craftsman with unique skills
Maybe you’re great at managing and building a supply chain.
Maybe selling isn’t something you enjoy, like or even care about. Maybe making presentations is the part of business that really isn’t your thing.
Problem is this: There’s plenty of great ideas, businesses and people who never reached their full potential because the selling bit was missing.
Step forward the ‘Sandwich man’
Startup blog definition: Sandwich Man – a gun presenter and public communicator who presents the ideas and sells the dream on behalf of the business.
A sandwich man is called such, because he holds together all the good things like the bread does on a yummy sandwich. Without him all the ingredients, nutrition, ‘reason for being’ could all fall away.
A good sandwich man would start and close any business presentation to people like venture capitalists, suppliers, key accounts, customers and the media.
Quite often successful businesses are run by a team where one of the members is the tech genius and the other is the Sandwich Man. Who then communicates the ideas and vision to get people on board. Rarely people are lucky enough to have both skill sets. Regardless of which skill set we have, we always need a sandwich man. We can even bring one into the team on a needs basis.
But without one, we may end up with a great product or business which never gets the traction it deserves.
Creative Inspiration – visuals
Google images is a “good” place to find a photo or image – if we have it in mind.
Flickr is an “awesome” place for ‘creative inspiration’. When ever I’m struggling to find an image for something, and just can’t think of the best visual to do it…. I let the Flickr community do the thinking for me.
It’s a very cool way to leverage ‘semantic web’ for a visual solution. We can find visual interpretations our life experience would just never think of. Just click on the examples below and quickly scroll to see the great images we find for these words:
Sure, visuals aren’t game winning. But if we’re going to use them, they may as well be poignant and memorable. Oh yeh, be sure to use creative commons before you rip ‘em.
(Irony – no visual in this post!)
Steve – founder rentoid.com
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