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The NO MORE BORING PRESENTATION HANDBOOK © Laura Camacho and Mixonian Institute 2016-217 2

WE LCOM E !

Do you dread having to sit through yet another boring presentation? They are so unnecessary and counter-productive. If you start giving presentations that are more compelling and engaging, you can start a positive ripple effect throughout your group.

In this electronic handbook you’ll find the best presentation tips in the most concise format.

It’s actually a chapter out of a book I’m about to finish. The book’s working title is The Critical Conversation Handbook. It’s not nighttime reading but rather it’s a handbook for you to use to communicate at work with care and clarity (and brevity!)

Most communication at any company is wordy, rambling and unclear. It doesn’t have to be that way.

I challenge you to be the change, the one who leads the way to better communication at your office.

To your conversation imagination,


CRITICAL CONVERSATION: PRESENT TO A GROUP (YIKES!)

“A successful talk is a little miracle - people see the world differently afterward.”

CHRIS ANDERSON

“Almost every PowerPoint presentation sucks rotten eggs.”

SETH GODIN

* * *

PART I: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF AN ENGAGING PRESENTATION

People fear public speaking more than anything else, including death.

It is largely an unjustified fear as your audience (normally) wants you to succeed. Speaking before any group is a brilliant opportunity to make a difference. People actually care more about getting your personal take on the subject than the subject itself. They want to know why you think it’s important.

What makes a presentation boring is not being perceived as relevant to the audience.

Giving a presentation is a specific type of critical conversation. It’s not a time to become another person and perform in some alien role. While in giving a presentation, you may amplify parts of yourself, you are still speaking as you!

Here’s the deal. Presenting well to a group is a high-impact and high-visibility business skill – one that can help you be more visible in the company and even nail that next promotion.


With all the digitalized communication channels available to us, speaking face to face before a group is still by far the most powerful way to communicate.

In this e-handbook you have everything you need to know to put together a compelling presentation on any topic. I’m also sharing how to present when you’re not prepared, how to persuade and some presentation shortcuts.

HERE’S YOUR FIRST QUICK WIN!

No matter what, as you develop your skill at mesmerizing audiences at work, one thing they all love is a presentation that ends a bit early. Unlike Beyoncé giving a concert, most people take more time than they’re allotted at any work occasion. While no one usually says anything, it’s annoying to have your day sucked away by bad presentations and pointless meetings. You, Smartie, take less time than what is expected and your fan club will expand exponentially.

You then market your gift of time to them (so they appreciate and enjoy it more) by saying something like, “I know you all are busy and out of respect for your time I’ll end early. If you want more information, please contact me and I’ll be happy to give you more details.”

Bam. Your stock just went up with everyone in the audience, regardless of what you said, because you’re acknowledging and respecting your audience.

Put yourself in the mind of your audience. Why should they trust you? What is in your message for them?

If you acknowledge your audience and their point of view(s), you’ll connect at a deeper level and the exact words you say may not be as important.


YOUR EASY PRESENTATION CHECKLIST

Here is an easy step-by-step checklist you can use to put together a compelling and engaging presentation on any topic.

Like with successful surgery, the pre-op part matters a lot. Answering these questions programs your brain to deliver a compelling message to your audience.

Every interaction is an opportunity and worthy of great communication. Stop winging it and get into the routine of good communication habits, including prep, for everything from off-site leadership retreats to impromptu conversations in the hallway.

BEN DECKER AND KELLY DECKER

1. Why are you presenting?

Really get to the core of your purpose for talking to these people. Why are you speaking to them?

Now if the reason is your boss or some other muckety muck asked you, be intelligent and approach your talk from what they want. If you’re not sure, ask, but if you think about it, you probably can figure out underlying motives.

• Is it to share new information?

• To build relationships with upper leadership?

• To get budget approval?

• To update others on your project?

• To quell the rumor mill?

• To change the way people think about some topic?

In any case, you’re making a point to make some sort of change. You are selling yourself (always,) your project or your request.

Otherwise, send your message in an email.


2. To whom are you speaking?

The more you know about your audience, the more you can customize your message. It’s likely that the different people in the audience have a variety of motives for being there (and perhaps some of them don’t even want to be there.)

Write down what you know about the demographics (age, education, occupation, interests) and other tidbits about what they’re into. Some people are more interested in minute details, others in the bottom line and still others just want to be friends with you. Be strategic and you can reach all types of people in your audience.

Consider questions like how much do they know about your topic? Do they care about your topic?

Remember this…


3. What’s your message in one sentence?

Look at your answer to #1 and get that core message down to a single sentence. Imagine that you were allowed to drill 1 sentence into their permanent memory, what would that sentence be?

Here’s an example from my 45-minute talk on decision making:

“While there is no single formula for successful decisions, all of your decisions can move you closer to what you want, if you’re clear on what that actually is.”

People will only remember 25 to 50% of what they hear so you’ll be more successful with a quality message that covers less ground. The most common novice error in public speaking is sharing too much information.

4. What’s a personal story that related you to your topic and to your audience?

In other words, why do you care?

This will become your introduction. If you don’t have a personal anecdote or motivation, you probably don’t need to be making that presentation.

In my above example, I tell how I used to think that success was making that one decision correctly and because of this pressure to get it right I avoided making any decision at all and thus was forced to live with the decisions other people made for me.

In this age of information overload, you add tremendous value by curating the most important aspects of your topic for the needs of your audience. One important filter is what is important to you.


5. Why should we believe you? Give 3 to 5 arguments (aka reasons or stories) that support your message.

People are hardwired to understand and respond to stories. Not facts. Not data. Stories. (Even with all the rah rah about “Big Data” it only works if someone makes sense out of it all with stories.)

The number of reasons, or stories, depends somewhat on the length of your presentation. Quality trumps quantity. It’s better to give fewer reasons that are better supported with evidence, testimonies, stories or studies.

If everyone already agreed with you, there would be no need for you to present, right?

Say less and say it better.

QUICK WIN!

Use your most powerful story/reason/evidence first. The Primacy Effect means what you remember better is what you hear first.

6. What kind of images (if any) make your presentation more powerful?

Hint: the answer to this question is not hundreds of bullet points. Use as few bullet points as possible. Use more photographs and illustrations. Or use a physical prop (like a prototype) or don’t use anything.

QUICK WIN!

Persuasion happens at the emotional level, even if you never show emotions. Logic is never sufficient. Use your visual support to reach those hidden emotions lurking beneath the calm exterior of audience members.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/serial_position_effect#Primary_effect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/serial_position_effect#Primary_effect


Slides are not there for you to read. Slides exist to tell your story visually, that is a different way from what you are saying.

PowerPoint presentations can be such a waste of time that they are not allowed at Amazon.

Find images that support your message at an emotional level because what you want really is to share your excitement (or concern) with your audience.

Seth Godin says, “no more than 6 words on a slide. Ever.”

Take it from the master.

Depending on how much quantitative or detailed information you want to share, consider putting together a hand out. They probably won’t read it but it’s there for back up. Having a handout makes you look like you’re prepared, because you are.

7. What’s the best outcome for your audience related to your message?

This is your conclusion. Too many times, presentations end with a whimper instead of a bang. Don’t let this happen to you. The easy way to conclude with the wow factor is to get back to your personal anecdote.

Somehow you want to paint a picture of the future for your audience, what the possibilities are if they accept your message.

It’s also good to end with a powerful quotation. Like this one.

“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.”

LEE IACOCCA

End early and tell them why you’re ending early.

That will impress them.


PRESENTATION PREP TEMPLATE (PDF FORM)

WHY ARE YOU PRESENTING?

Identify what you’re really

sel l ing

TO WHOM ARE YOU SPEAKING?Analyze your

audience

WHAT’S YOUR MESSAGE?

Condense it to a single sentence.

WHY DO YOU CARE?Share a personal story that relates you to your topic

and to your audience.

WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE YOU? Give 3 (up to 5) arguments (aka reasons

or stories) that support your

message.WHAT KIND OF IMAGES (IF ANY) MAKE YOUR PRESENTATION MORE POWERFUL?

Look for emotional

connection to your message.

WHAT’S THE BEST OUTCOME FOR YOUR AUDIENCE RELATED TO YOUR MESSAGE?

Benefits for the audience


NOW YOU’VE DONE YOUR PRE-OP WORK, LET’S STRUCTURE YOUR MESSAGE.

This is actually when you decide what you’re going to say.

1. Introduce yourself and your message.

If you’re presenting to a group that knows you well, simply skip to why you’re sharing this message.

If you’re presenting to a group where some know you and some don’t, at least share your name, role, department and how long you’ve been there.

If you’re presenting to a group that doesn’t know you at all, or well, here’s my favorite introduction template:

Note: this works well for introducing yourself professionally in any context.

PDF FORM

Officially my job is ___________________________ (job title,) but what I really do

is ________________________________________ (this is where you explain what you

really do) for _____________________________________ (whom do you do that for?)

so that ____________________________________________ (what is the benefit?) Also

________________________________________________(you can add other details here.)

With that kind of personalized introduction, you’re already putting the audience in

your pocket.


2. Give the reasons they should “buy” what you’re “selling.”

This is where you tell your stories, share relevant research or other anecdotes. Remember a story does not have to be a Nobel Prize for Literature candidate. A story can be 90 seconds long.

A story needs a main character, a setting, a conflict and a resolution.

SAMPLE SHORT STORY:

Last year our engagement survey indicated employees were not as engaged as leadership thought they were. This led to a series of brown bag lunches, one-on-one meetings and the Chief Analytics Officer putting out a monthly newsletter. The reactions we’ve gotten to our initiatives lead us to expect much better scores on our annual engagement survey this year.From this story the main character is the person giving the presentation. The conflict is the survey results, the setting is the office and the resolution is the expectation for better survey results this year. This story is not thrilling or romantic, but is far more interesting than simply throwing up the survey data on a slide.

3. Recap your message.

Go over again your message in a nutshell and the benefit(s) for the audience. We all need help remembering things.

4. End with a call to action or quotation.

What do you want them to do or think or say differently? Remind them. If there is no call to action, end with a quotation or a personal, short anecdote.

5. Edit to make it shorter and put together visual support, if any.

Now you’re ready to bring the house down! (I can hear the applause already.)


PRESENTATION TEMPLATE (PDF FORM)

INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND YOUR MESSAGE

3 REASONS THEY SHOULD ACCEPT YOUR POINT OF VIEW

SUMMARIZE WHAT YOU JUST SAID

ASK THEM TO DO SOMETHING OR END WITH A QUOTATION

EDIT TO MAKE IT SHORTER AND PUT TOGETHER VISUAL SUPPORT, IF ANY


HERE’S ANOTHER WAY TO THINK ABOUT YOUR TALK

Love triangles happen to everyone at some point, in high school for sure. John longs for Madison who has a crush on Jared. Jean Paul Sartre brilliantly presented the love triangle as eternal damnation in his 1944 play, No Exit. (that is where the expression “hell is other people” derived.) In contrast, the triangle of audience love actually helps you connect to your audience and them to your topic; nobody goes to hell in this model ... probably.

The fact is, the more you relate yourself personally to your topic, the closer your audience will feel to you. That’s right. If you can connect yourself to your topic of the project debriefing or that sexy new org chart, your audience engages with both you and your message.

To do that, you want to nail two things by making them explicit from the beginning:

1. Why you care about the topic (Tell them this in the introduction)

2. Why your audience should care (Tell them this in the introduction)

Let’s pretend you’re teaching a cooking class. People who love to cook are in your audience, but within that “love to cook” category, there are more specific attractor factors to cooking. Some are more interested in nutrition, some in easy meal preparation, some in entertaining and some in showing off.

http://mixonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Presentation-Love-Triangle1.jpg


When you share with your audience what attracts you to your topic, you invisibly reach out to the people in your audience who share the same value for what you’re talking about. But the others still appreciate that you love cooking so much, even if they have a different reason to enjoy it.

Perhaps what is going on in your mind now is that you wish the topics you have to present about were as interesting as a cooking class. Therein lies the reason so many managers and executives give such boring presentations: it’s challenging to connect personally to technical challenges/details, faithless new initiatives or new regulations.

That is the nature of modern work life. Even a dermatologist would be challenged to make her specialty presentation interesting to a cardiologist. But challenge is good: accept the difficulty as an opportunity for you to shine!

Consider these “why I care” possibilities:

· Keeps us out of jail (a favorite with compliance folks)

· Cash flow

· Environmental goodness

· Patient safety/care

· Protect data

· We’re a high-performance team

· You must do this to keep your job

· This could be an amazing opportunity for all of us

· Helps other people

· Investment potential

· Ignore this to your peril


Passion, or if you prefer, enthusiasm, is contagious. I challenge you to make your topic interesting, no matter how technical. Don’t fool yourself thinking the audience is “too uninformed” to understand your great technical truths. It’s YOUR JOB to connect the audience to your topic, regardless.

Passion makes anything interesting….even teaching communication skills.

Present this love triangle at the very beginning. That practice alone reduces the playing on your phone activity in the audience.

And even if the factor that motivates you to on your project fails to motivate everyone in the audience, your connection to the topic draws them in. People are constantly evaluating whether new information is pertinent to them, if you show connection to the topic, you’re got a great chance to bring in (engage) your audience.

It’s not about sharing information (which is important but not sufficient) but getting people to care. They will more likely care if you explicitly tell them a good reason for doing so. That’s what a good curator of information does: select or curate information to make a compelling presentation.

Start your presentation by telling your audience what you like about the topic or why you care. Your audience will go wild and some may actually faint in shock that you really give a damn and are not simply going through the motions. They will not even notice if you’re nervous. Bravo!

PREPARE YOURSELF MENTALLY BEFORE YOUR PRESENTATION

Those who perform at world-class levels understand the power of setting the stage. Before one of his live events, motivational speaker Tony Robbins jumps on a trampoline to get in the zone. Professional musicians have very specific warm up techniques to transport them into a focused mindset. Athletes prepare themselves before important games to perform at their best. So why don’t we do the same…?

JOSH LINKER


Your body is bursting with energy; that’s why you feel the jitters, adrenaline or butterflies. Your body is preparing to reach out to a group of people in the room. Don’t feel mad or disappointed about this pre-presentation anxiety – it’s energy there for you to use.

Light exercise before you speak is the best way to take the edge off. That can mean a walk around the block or jumping jacks in the conference room.

Stretching also works.

THE BODY COMMUNICATES BEFORE YOU SPEAK.

Researchers at MIT’s media lab found they could predict the outcome of negotiations, sales calls, and pitches with 87% accuracy without listening to a single word of content, just by analyzing people’s body language. Here’s an exercise developed by charisma and leadership expert Olivia Fox Cabane. Use this exercise to adjust your body language to greatly increase your chances of success in any interaction.

Body language exercise: prior to your next key meeting or presentation, close your eyes and remember, in as much detail as you can, a moment of great triumph. It can be something recent or from way back. Make the memory as vivid as possible: see, hear, feel the emotions from that past victory.

Now, visualize the meeting or encounter you’re about to have, and imagine it going as well as possible. Feel the satisfaction, the excitement, the triumph. When you do this, a remarkable change will sweep over your body language, and you’ll enter the meeting broadcasting positive signals from head to toe. Why? Because our brain can’t distinguish imagination from reality, it will accept as momentarily “real” anything you imagine: this is the power of visualization. Trick yourself!

Remember people are sizing you up before you open your mouth. Your feeling relaxed because you’re prepared gives them permission to also relax and enjoy the show.

Congratulations. You’re gotten through Part 1, The Fundamentals of an Engaging Presentation.

http://askolivia.com/


I’m so excited for you and the people you work with, who will all benefit from your even more interesting presentations.

The next part reveals ways to raise your game further. It covers creative comparisons, message structures for when you’re unprepared and a tip for executive leadership. Onward!

PART II: ADVANCED PRESENTATION SAVVY

A. Take it to the next level with creative comparisons…

Like gifs and new emoticons, if done properly creative comparisons help people to tune in, understand and remember what you said.

To have impact and influence, your message has to stick even though most memories are Teflon coated. Creative comparisons cut through the clutter. Let’s see some examples.

Chip Gaines has a knack for clever wordings, which no doubt has contributed to the HGTV show, Fixer Upper’s massive success. In season 2, episode 2, he says of a room clad in burgundy velvet curtains complete with pom poms, “if a movie theatre and a funeral home had a child, this room would be it.”

Great analogies are particularly good for complex concepts, includes technology. MUSC’s Senior Network Analyst, Jonathan Yantis starts his explanation like this: “The best way to think about networks is in layers.”

For someone who prefers not to think about networks ever but imagines them as a giant jumble of cable, this is helpful and memorable enough that I wrote it down.

At a Charleston Digital Corridor meetup one Friday morning, Thingworx Technical Marketing Director Jeff Beck shared his expert point of view on the Internet of Things (IOT, duh!). When asked about data ownership, by responding “Who owns the data? That’s the elephant in the room” Jeff let us know that no one has a clue and it’s going to be messy.

http://www.hgtv.com/shows/fixer-upper

http://musc.edu/

https://www.thingworx.com/


But what if he had said, “It’s the hippopotamus in the room”?

Or “The elephant in the doll house?”

Or less creatively, “It’s the issue we’re all avoiding”?

At the 2016 Women in Film Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Cate Blanchett shared credit with talent agent Hylda Queally for her success with this fabulous metaphor, “I would be an unformed piece of amoebic Jell-O without you.”

Unformed amoebic Jell-O. Seriously? But the image sticks.

WHY CREATIVE COMPARISONS WORK.

Analogies, metaphors and similes are all forms of comparisons. In sharing a new concept, it helps to compare the known to the unknown. An unexpected comparison or twist of words catches the attention of our distracted brains, who are busy wondering what’s for lunch and whether the package from Amazon will arrive today.

However, just because a comparison is creative does not mean it is effective.

Comparisons that work are credible and creative (unexpected).

The prevailing empire of open work spaces lacks credibility. It’s built on the superficial analogy between intellectual and physical barriers, assuming that the only thing we need to develop innovation is to mash up people all day in an office. That completely ignores the reality that the noise from conversations and interruptions make it harder to concentrate and dive deeply into any material.

Real innovation usually results from deep thinking about an issue over time. Or taking lots of showers.

The image of an analogy has to fit the truth it’s meant to explain, or at least shed light upon it.

COME UP WITH YOUR OWN CREATIVE COMPARISONS

Upgrade your communication tool box with some clever analogies of your own. Write down the thing you want to explain, the specific quality of the thing. This quality could be a feature or a benefit. If you want to emphasize how white the room was, make a list of things that are white.

https://womeninfilm.org/the-crystal-lucy-awards/


Play with this list until you have something you want to try.

Another approach is to list the usual comparison, such as “the elephant in the room.” You have 2 nouns here, you can change “elephant” (which is large) or “room” (a familiar space). Elephants are not normally found in rooms so you can’t use the example of your large dog; he belongs in the room.

The idea to express is something that people are ignoring that they should be noticing.

You might develop a list like this one:

• The elephant in the library

• The camel in the room

• The rhinoceros in the room

Or choose another route of saying “we should be paying attention to this”:

“Like your blood pressure and cholesterol levels: decidedly not sexy but ignore them at your peril”

Or

“We can ignore X like some young foolish drivers prefer not to notice their change-oil light”

Or consider referring to things easy to ignore including the color beige, background music and the growth of your toe nails.

The best writers of books and television shows are often best because they have strong analogy muscles. With a bit of practice, it’s a tool available to make you look amazing, and make your message stick like a mobile phone to a teenager.

B. When you’re asked to speak and you’re not prepared…

Despite my reputation for on-demand sentence savvy, the unfortunate truth is I am not naturally adept at thinking (or speaking) when caught by surprise. That does not stop people from asking my opinion as the “communication expert.” (And lack of feeling competent never stops me from answering.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_in_the_room

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_in_the_room


I have learned to sound intelligent, even when feeling incoherent. This my perception/their perception disconnect is common as I hear from other people who insist they came across as blathering idiots when in fact I heard them reply with something sensible. It’s the opposite of the Dunning Kruger Effect at play as it’s the case of skilled people speaking of their area of expertise.

What a pity no one ever hears the exceptionally brilliant answers I always conjure after the opportunity is long gone. No one, except my family, who of course delight in hearing all the witticisms I should have shared. In case you too have the problem of brain shut down when asked to speak up, I’m sharing an easy template for brain freeze moments and other occasions when you’re not prepared to speak.

This structure makes you sound intelligent no matter what and lessens your cognitive load as you only have to fill in the blanks. (Unless you tell them, people will never guess you’ve got this Mad Libs structure for responding.)

Stress is the reason your brain shuts down.

Acknowledge the anxiety as temporary and a natural next step and it begins to dissipate.

Instead of thinking, “Oh no, that dreaded anxiety is here” tell yourself “OK, anxiety is here let’s up pull out that communication template.”

The template is known as “structure.”

Allow me to introduce you to my helpful friend, Structure!

When you speak or write in an organized fashion, it helps people to a) understand your message and b) remember that you have one.

That’s why your English teacher taught you the introduction, development and summary structure for your essays.

The secret success tip here is that a similar structure can make you sound really quite bright, even if you’re feeling dimwitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect


MESSAGE STRUCTURE THAT MAKES YOU SOUND BRILLIANT: PROBLEM, SOLUTION, BENEFITS

You can actually use this in almost any scenario, including a presentation. Here are some examples:

Example 1: Mom says: [problem] Son, the problem with not making your bed every day, even though you’re going to sleep in it at night is that it irritates your mother and it messes up your mind.

[solution] What you need to do is to simply pull the comforter across the bed and this takes approximately 18 seconds.

[benefits] That way, your mother is easier to deal with and believe or not, research shows that people who make their beds every day are more successful overall.

Example 2: Fred is asked to give a solution to a new technical issue. Caught off guard, at first he has no idea what to say.

[problem] This is where you paraphrase the problem. This step both buys you time and allows you to reframe the problem to something you might know an answer to. And you verify that you are accurately understanding the problem at hand.

Your paraphrase starts, “If I understand correctly, what you want to know is x.”

QUICK WIN! PARAPHRASING IS THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE OF COMMUNICATION.

[solution] By now you have a potential solution, spit it out. And by now you’re have time to make one up and it might be amazing. “What we can do with x is y.”

[benefits] Now tell everyone why your solution will help the team, the department, your customers, or somebody. “Y not only solves x, but it’s cheaper/faster/easier than those other lame solutions and will make our team look better than ever.

Your proposed solution does not actually have to be revolutionary and news worthy. You may think it’s obvious, but it may seem brilliant to others.


Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

C.S. LEWIS

But you are contributing to the solution by offering a concept or framework that will eventually lead to a good solution.

Other benefits to the problem/solution/benefit (PSB) structure:

It works everywhere.

No one realizes you’ve got this secret formula going on.

You can teach your team members to use it when bringing problems to the table. It especially helps people for whom English is a second language.

This structure is organization and everything works better with some organization.

It gives you something to focus on so that you’re not building up that natural anxiety.

The next time you feel that “deer-in-the-headlights” moment, pull out that problem/solution/benefit structure and start paraphrasing. Don’t be surprised if people start asking your opinion more often.

C. Add value as information passes through you

You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people to get what they want.

ZIG ZIGLAR

Zig Ziglar’s quote has inspired millions of professional sales reps and entrepreneurs. It’s equally applicable to the overworked and overwhelmed citizens of the corporate/cubicle world. The thing is, you gotta help your boss get what she wants. The boss is the uber client.


To leverage this secret to getting ahead, you start by paying attention to your part in the complex flow of information throughout your organization. That means notice what information flows through you up or down. Look for ways you can add more value to that information....as the superstar that you are.

This secret can elevate your professional status fast...if that’s what you want.

It’s a guaranteed way to grow yourself professionally: add more value to the organization that employs/contracts you. While you could invent the next i-product for your company, it’s faster and cheaper to simply start adding value through all your messages.

You can add tremendous value is through your communication:

1. Reduce the word count.

2. Relate it to the specific audience.

3. Re-arrange the data.

4. Rank your recommendations.

Here’s the secret formula: Add Value using 4 Rs: Reduce, Relate, Rearrange and Rank. You don’t have to look like Brad Pitt or be connected to anyone to use this amazing tool.

Are you getting the idea? It’s not just reporting everything you’re supposed to, it’s inserting your analytical skill, communication savvy and unique personality into each presentation.

Each presentation is an opportunity to change things for the good.

There has never been a better time for people in business to reconnect through meaningful communication to what matters most to them and to each other for the greater good.

MITI AMPOMA


D. If you’re top leadership….

No one wants to or even dares to give top executives honest feedback. If they’re not careful, it’s easy for top executives to over-estimate the quality of their communication skills and No One dares to point out, “Boss, you really stink at this!” Instead, people sugarcoat it: “Great job—that was awesome!” Or, mostly, they say nothing at all.

You can’t create a communication experience for your audience until you become self-aware. The folks below you usually get feedback from their bosses, but not you.

Get communication coaching and feedback—especially video feedback. Seek feedback from your peers or an outsider on a regular basis and create a culture of sharing objective and compassionate feedback across your team.

THE END


Did you enjoy?

Here’s what Mixonian institute is all about.

Laura Camacho opened the digital doors to Mixonian Institute in 2009 to serve fast-growing knowledge-based companies with multicultural or international workforces.

Our best clients are companies employing physicians, scientists, chemists, analysts, programmers, biologists, and other technically-trained professionals.

Mixonian teaches advanced communication skills that raise performance, productivity and engagement.

Top performers know that the company’s growth is not just about technical know-how; good communication (and other soft skills) allows the company to leverage and monetize technical wisdom.

In teaching growth mindset, emotional intelligence and communication principles, your whole company benefits from the ripple effect. They, in turn, teach their team to be more emotionally mature, to be more proactive and focused.

This change results in lower levels of discontent, resentment and frustration.

This isn’t your dad’s leadership model and it’s not even a homogenous U.S. workforce. Immigrants make up 16.4% of the workforce and that percentage is growing.

It takes a commitment to excellence to be world class in your market. Mixonian develops your talent to take your company to the championship level. Develop your talent and your company culture transforms.

And when you get down to it, it’s the culture that makes a global brand.


Mixonian training is not for all companies.

Mixonian works with companies who have a strong international component, which can be a foreign owner, an international sales market and/or a global workforce. It’s for companies where managers are expected to innovate, not to follow cookie-cutter instructions.

If you’d like to know more and see if your company is a good fit for our programs, please email [email protected].

And about Laura, by the way….

Laura Mixon Camacho, PhD, is the CEO and Founder of Mixonian Institute (est. 2009), a communication skills training and coaching firm based in Mount Pleasant. one fan calls her “The Communication Whisperer.”

Through her quiet charisma and persuasion expertise, creative research and sense of humor, she’s here to shake up your approach to communicating at work — while making it all feel like a great day at kindergarten.

And when she’s not training at corporate locales, you can find her indulging in decadent dinner parties, dancing Zumba, or reading in the hammock.

Her career highlights include living and teaching in 4 countries, facilitating The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People for the Stephen Covey Group in Caracas (in Spanish,) being editor of the bilingual management newsletter, Management Perspective and a writer for Business Venezuela, the publication of the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce. She has a PhD in Communication Studies, specializing in Latin American political rhetoric (hooray!)

And an MBA.

For 10 years she taught various interpersonal communication and public speaking classes at East Carolina University and College of Charleston. She is an active board member of Charleston International Music School.

mailto:[email protected]

CALL: (843) 882-5135WEB: MIXONIAN.COM

EMAIL: [email protected]: PO BOX 1209, MT PLEASANT, SC 29465

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