Don't crash and burn

Another Tour de France analogy (sorry, folks -- if athlete analogies bug you, come back in a couple of weeks when the Tour is over!):

Some teams and riders have been caught off guard by tight curves and hairpin turns, causing crashes or loss of time taking unexpected turns too cautiously. The reason? Not all teams ride or drive the course in advance.

Here are two tweets by George Hincapie about preparing for race days:

"Rode the course two times this morning, then will another time this afternoon before race time. Course is very hard..."

"Heading to check ttt course again. Had a great night sleep..."

Here are two tweets from Levi Leipheimer:

"Rode the course this morning, had lunch, now I'm in my room getting ready 2 go 2 the bus/start & ride the course again, I start at 4:37 CET"

"Rode 4 laps of the TT today, getting to know it is important, deciding on gears to use isn't so easy"

Not only are George, Levi and their teams checking the course once, but they're reviewing it multiple times.

Riders will note how tight the turns are, how bumpy or gravelly the road is, where there might be slippery painted lines on a rainy day. They will note when and where to brake and shift, how steep the ascents and descents are, and where there are flat areas and shade to recover. And they'll look for spots on the course where there are headwinds, tailwinds, or crosswinds. These notes allow them to plan their team and individual tactics and timing, and to be as fully prepared as possible.

Why should you check your venue in advance? To find out:

• Where the audience will sit and where you will stand

• What equipment is available and where it is, if permanently placed

• If the room can be heated or cooled appropriately

• If there are street noises, sounds from other rooms, echoes from lack of floor and wall coverings, or noise from air conditioning or fans?

• Whether the room is the right size for the number of people attending?

• Whether your equipment works with the equipment being provided (computers, projectors, sound systems, etc.)?

• Where tables can be placed to put your notes, props, water, products for sale, etc.?

• What the lighting is like and where it's focused

• If the doors slam or close quietly in case people come in late (you might need to tape the door latches flat)

And more!

Don't crash and burn because you didn't bother to check a new venue thoroughly.

A lesson from George Hincapie

Professional cyclist George Hincapie writes on Twitter (@ghincapie) today:

"Flatted with 25k to go, came back to group moved to front then crashed with 20k to go. Never been so scared on the bike as I was today."

At 36, Hincapie is a veteran rider of five Olympic Games, 13 Tours de France, dozens of international races, and has several national and world championships to his name.

Yet he still gets scared on the bike.

Sure, today's stage in the Tour de France was rainy and dangerous. Hincapie's injuries in past races include a separated shoulder, fractured wrist and broken ribs. He has good reason to be apprehensive.

But George keeps riding. He keeps getting on the bike and giving it all he's got. He hasn't risen to the position of team captain, won stages and races, and received awards like "Most Aggressive Rider" by letting his fears inhibit him and hold him back.

George faces disappointment regularly as a competitor; two days ago he wrote about being disappointed with his ride -- for about a minute.

No matter how hard, how frightening, how challenging the course, George keeps getting back on the bike.

So you're afraid of getting up in front of an audience. You're afraid of criticism and failure. You're afraid you won't do your best or meet your goals. And sometimes you won't. So what do you do?

How do you face your challenges and disappointments?

The rewards of ending on time

Something I noticed at PresentationCampLA was that most of the speakers didn't have a system in place to keep track of their time. We regularly had to interrupt sessions and ask them to wrap up so we could move on with our schedule (which started out late as it was!).

I had my trusty timer with me and still managed to go over time by a minute, so imagine how much harder it is to stay on track with no clock or timer!

As a reminder about why it's important to keep to your time, I wanted to share this brief story with you from Rita Risser, The Court Jester.

"I was scheduled to speak last on a main stage panel where we were each supposed to talk for 10 minutes and then take Q&A for 30 minutes. The first two speakers spoke 10 minutes. The third speaker took 50 minutes, despite the fact that the meeting planner came in and told her to wrap it up. The meeting planner left and the speaker finally wrapped up at noon.

She turned it over to me, telling me to go ahead and speak, going over lunch. I smiled, said I knew better than to compete with lunch and that I would be available to anyone who wanted to talk that afternoon, or by phone or email. Results:

Audience laughed and clapped and ran out of the room.
Meeting planner couldn’t thank me enough for not talking.
Meeting planner changed the afternoon schedule and gave me 20 minutes to speak.
Several good contacts called and emailed afterwards.
Meeting planner asked me back the next year — and not the other speaker!"

It doesn't matter if you're the last speaker before lunch or the first speaker before coffee; going over time sets back the schedule, keeps the audience from making other sessions or getting to their next appointment on time, and makes you look inconsiderate at best and completely out of touch at worst.

First of all, practice your presentation so you know how long it takes. If it's long, cut, cull and edit your content so it fits. Keep in mind that audience interaction will take up some time, so make sure you have a cushion built in; practice finishing a little early to be safe.

Then, get yourself a timer, put your watch in front of you where you can see it, do whatever you have to do to end on time.

Audiences appreciate it, meeting planners love it, and you look like a hero!

70 years of history in three minutes

I watched the movie "The Kingdom" the other day, and while the movie was average, the opening sequence was one of the most captivating I've ever seen.

As a vehicle for information and setting up the backstory of the movie, the sequence, just over three minutes long, was stellar. The compelling and educational montage combined text, music, still photos, and film and audio clips to tell the story of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia since 1932.

If you think a story can only be told through words, and images are superfluous or "fluff," check this out. And even if you don't think that, check it out! There doesn't seem to be a way to embed this, so please click one of the links below.

Brightcove player

Yahoo player

Let the fireworks begin!

For those of you celebrating Independence Day this weekend, I hope you have an opportunity to relax, have fun and celebrate the freedoms we sometimes take for granted.

And speaking of freedom, I wish you freedom from self-doubt, freedom from fear, freedom from rigid rules, freedom from self-consciousness and freedom to be yourself.

Yes, I'm talking about those things holding you back from enjoying success and confidence as a speaker! Let the fireworks begin!

You're not done yet

In a previous post, I wrote about resting on your laurels, that thing people do when they feel they've reached the pinnacle of success and decide they no longer have to make an effort.

That post was about Michael Phelps, a phenomenal swimmer who, after breaking several US and world records and winning seven medals at the 2004 Olympics, went on to win all of his events in the Olympic trials and break additional world records. Of course, you all know what happened next.

Here's another Michael who was never content to rest on his laurels. From an interview with Geraldo Rivera in 2005:

Geraldo Rivera: Do you ever look back and contemplate, oh my goodness, Thriller is the biggest selling musical performance ever? Do you ever get your arms around that?

Michael Jackson: I think about it, sometimes. But I try not to think about it too hard. Because I don’t want my subconscious mind to think I’ve done it all. "You’re done now." There's so much. That’s why I don’t put awards or trophies in my house. You won’t find a gold record anywhere in my house. Because it makes you feel accomplished. "Look what I’ve done." But I always want to feel, no I haven’t done it yet.

Keep working, keep striving, keep stretching! Why quit while you're ahead? You can always do more and do it better.

Image: Agence France-Presse/Newseum

Budget cuts kill public speaking classes

There are certain classes we all took in high school and college that we never would have taken if it were up to us. Many of us struggled through math or science or history or English, but in the long run we've understood why those classes were important, and we've integrated the knowledge and skills into our daily lives and work.

I was reading about a school board budget debate recently and the chairperson of the school board said this:

"I'm not sure we need drama, debate and public speaking."

These were all courses with low enrollment, so the school board was recommending cutting them.

First of all, I'm impressed that this school even offers public speaking. Most students don't get this opportunity until college, if at all.

However, I can understand why the public speaking classes have low enrollment. People are scared of public speaking! Teens are especially insecure in front of their peers and the thought of standing in front of the room and giving a speech is not at all appealing.

And most young people are not looking ahead to how their classes will help them in the future. They're just trying to do whatever they have to do to graduate. If public speaking isn't mandatory, most kids are not going to seek out this class.

If I had my way, public speaking would be mandatory in schools. Because just about every single thing we have to do in our lives involves public speaking. Most people will participate in a job interview (or 50). Most of us will have to speak up in a meeting at some point (or hundreds). Most of us will have to convince, persuade or influence another person one day.

Public speaking is as universally necessary a skill as knowing how to read or multiply. Yet in many cases, public speaking training is seen as a luxury, a frivolous extra.

I suppose most teachers could find a way to include public speaking instruction as part of their classes. And that would be ideal, incorporating it into many different aspects of education in the same way we face public speaking in many aspects of our lives.

Then again, those teachers would all have to know how to teach public speaking, wouldn't they? And from personal experience and long-term memory of monotonous, droning teachers, that's quite a stretch.

If schools started teaching public speaking in the elementary years, we might actually catch kids before they develop self-consciousness and fear of speaking in front of a group.

What do you think about including public speaking in schools? What would be the best way to incorporate it so every student has a chance to learn?