Dahle Communication

Creating a Following -- Chris Isaak's New Album 'Mr. Lucky'

I am a big Chris Isaak fan.  I have loved his music since the early 90's.  One of my top 10 albums of all time would have to include his album 'Forever Blue.'  After a 7 year wait between studio albums (he released a greatest hits a couple of years ago with two new songs) he has finally released his new album 'Mr. Lucky.'  I am enjoying the album as I am typing this blog and it is quite good.  If you like Chris Isaak's music, you should check it out.

What does this have to do with communication you may ask?  Its all about creating a following.  We are all trying to do this.  Whatever business you are involved in, each one of us is trying to be a rock-star -- we want people to come back to our products or services whenever we have something new to offer.  This is what musicians do, what artists do and what successful businesses do.  So are you creating a following, or are you just making noise?  

Sometimes it takes some changes to get that following.  Most people know who Chris Isaak is from his video 'Wicked Game.'  In the video, he is on a island with Helena Christiansen, who is dressed rather suggestively, and they are kissing and running around on the island.  Needless to say, the video was successful.  What a lot of people don't know is that there was another video for Wicked Game before they produced the one everyone knows.  The video and song was not doing well and the CD was not selling.  They knew that the song was good and could be popular, they just needed an effective way to sell it.

Now, I am not saying that you need to add sex appeal to your products.  What I am saying is that if you are struggling with getting your name out there or getting a new product launched, take a step back and see if the problem is the message.  Are you conveying it in a way that is building a following?  Is there something different that you can do?  Just by changing something, you can create a long-term success instead of dragging your feet and constantley struggling.  This is what Chris Isaak was able to do.  He knew that he could be successful, and with a change in his advertising, he was able to develop a large following.

Travis

High School Debate -- Tomorrows Leaders

In a couple of hours, I am going to be judging a High School Debate Tournament.  However, this is not just any tournament, it is the tournament of the year for Northern South Dakota -- the National Qualifying Tournament (schools south of Interstate 90 have their tournament next week).  The top two to three students in each division will advance to the National Debate Tournament held in June of each year.  Needless to say, it is an intense tournament that will last well into the night on Saturday (South Dakota has a rule that says students can't compete on Sundays...we're old school).  There are 9 events at this tournament: Policy Debate, Public Forum Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Original Oratory, Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, International Extemporaneous Speaking, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation and Duo Interpretation.

If you don't know what high school debate is, I would recommend two movies for you to watch.  The Great Debaters and Resolved.  The Great Debaters shows debate how it used to be and Resolved shows what Policy Debate has become.  I will say this about Policy Debate, which is what is portrayed in Resolved: it does not help your speaking skills.  The other types of events that students participate in however are great ways for students to learn public speaking skills, much like the Great Debaters movie (which is a lot how Public Forum works).

The students that I will be judging this weekend are the leaders of tomorrow.  They have learned the skills necessary to be confident when they speak in front of an audience, the ability to research and prepare themselves as needed and the confidence to comprehend anything that is thrown at them in the workforce.

If you ever get a chance, I would recommend that you find a local tournament in your area and watch some rounds or even offer to judge a Public Forum round (we actually encourage people who do not have a background in debate to judge Public Forum).  You will be amazed at the level of intelligence and professionalism that high school teenagers can have.

Travis

The New York Post - Images gone awry

Using images in your speeches and presentations is an important feature that can help you deliver your message in an effective manner.  As the saying goes 'A picture is worth a thousand words.'  However, you want to make sure that your image portrays the CORRECT image.  As with most things, people can interpret the image or picture that you use in a different manner then you intended.  If you haven't heard, the New York Post is experiencing some negative feedback from a cartoon that has been interpreted a lot differently than the cartoonists intended.

Supposidly, the cartoonist and the paper are saying that the cartoon was an implication that the people running congress and our country are a bunch of chimps.  If you are thinking in these terms, it reminds me of the Career Builder commercials where the monkeys were running everything and the one human kept getting irritated by them.  In this sense, it is a pretty benign cartoon.  However, what most people are interpreting it as saying that the money is President Obama and it is a racist cartoon that should never have been run.  A Huffington Post column talked about the cartoon and at the time of this blog, there were already well over 5,000 comments.

Whether or not you think the image is benign or you think it is a racist cartoon, there is something very important that you can learn from it -- make sure you use an image or picture that is not going to be misinterpreted in a negative way.  While there is no way to ensure that 100% of the time 100% of the people are going to understand why you used a certain image, just being aware of the possibilities is a good thing.  Additionally, have a couple of other people look at it and get their reaction.  If anyone brings up a concern, take that into account.  

Are you going to be using something like the New York Post cartoon?  I doubt it.  However, being congnisent of the possibilities can never hurt and getting some feedback on the images that you use is always a good thing.

Travis

How To Get Ahead In Your Career -- Speak Well

According to a new survey, people who are speaking up in meetings are more likely to be viewed as better leaders and move up in their careers faster.  Speaking About Presenting, a great blog that I have mentioned before, has an excellent summary of what the research is saying and some tips on how to use the information to help you move up in the world.

What I found most interesting about the research is that people who spoke up were looked at as more knowledgeable -- regardless if they were or not!  Great, so people who are louder than the rest appear to be smarter than the quiet genius sitting in the corner.  Sad but true.  If you are quiet and feel like some of the best ideas are just not being addressed, you need to check out the survey and start practicing some of the tips that Olivia Mitchell points out in her blog.

Travis

Educational Inservice Presentations -- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

Being involved in education, I have had to sit through my share of in-services.  Ask any teacher out there about in-service, and you will probably get a moaning sound as they expound about how most of them are not very well done.

This morning I had an opportunity to sit in on two different sessions as part of an in-service and saw two distinctly different presentations -- one done with the typical flaws that go with using PowerPoint and one that was the best presentation that I have seen at any in-service that I have been to.

The first speaker did an okay job: he was informative and is generally a good speaker.  Unfortunately, he made a lot of key mistakes that a lot of people make with their presentations.  First off, his slides had far too many words and bullet points in them and his handout, which he had given to everyone to read while they were suppose to be listening to his speech, was just a printout of the slides with the lines opposite them to write some notes.  He also focused on the slides almost the entire time while speaking.  Again, the speech was very informative and I got a lot out of it.  Unfortunately, this was despite the poor use of PowerPoint.

The second speaker did a fantastic job with his presentation.  His slides had a consistent theme when it came to his images.  He was using a bridge to represent what he was talking about and it was the perfect metaphor for his speech.  He didn't have handouts that people were reading while he was talking and he generally did not look at the screen and have his back to the audience during his speech.  It was by far the best presentation given at an in-service that I have been to.  Unfortunately, he did not have any handouts after the speech, which I would have really liked to have.

The lesson here is simple: you can give a great presentation regardless of your profession.  You only have to take a few tips that a lot of us have been preaching and put them into practice: don't put too much info on your slides; don't talk to the screen; don't print off the outlines of your presentation to hand out because people will read ahead of your speech.  Just doing those three things alone will improve your presentations.  Hopefully, school districts will realize that their in-services can be a much bigger success if the presenters are given some tips on how to present their ideas and can make the in-services much more agreeable to their teachers.

Travis

How Communication can solve problems - Iran looks to talks with America

In my post titled "Solving Problems With Communication" I discussed how President Obama's  interview with Al-Arabiya and his overtures to countries like Iran was a great move in regards to communication.  Too many times we let our problems grow bigger and bigger because we just don't communicate with each other: in our personal lives and/or our professional lives.  It now looks like Obama's communication is starting to pay off.  Over the past few years, we have listened to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran call America "the great devil" among other names and watch as their nuclear capabilities have grown and grown and our influence in the middle-east drop and drop.  According to an article from the International Herald Tribune, Ahmadinejad has stated that Iran is open to having some dialog with the United States now, mostly because of the way that President Obama has approached the situation.  

Regardless of your political affiliation, I think this shows how opening up and being willing to put aside your differences can lead to good things.  Will this lead to better relations with Iran?  Who knows, but if you are able to open up your communication with your boss, your colleagues or anyone you are around, at least you will know where you stand.  From there you can figure out if you need to do something else, but at least you will know...and that alone is worth it.

Travis

Allison Krauss and Robert Plant -- an odd couple

In all types of presentations, there are set standards to which people follow.  Once in a while though, there are those who will break the mold and try something different and that person will have great success.  Music is the same way.  There is usually a formula that people follow (especially pop music) and no one strays too far from that process.  However, you do occasionally get those artists who push the envelope and do some experimenting and it just works.  Robert Plant and Allison Krauss did the latter with their Album 'Raising Sand' and last night at the Grammy's they won five awards including album of the year.

If you haven't listened to the album, go to iTunes right now and pick it up.  I have had the CD for almost a year and love it.  It is an interesting combination to be sure: the voice of one of the greatest rock bands ever and the biggest name in bluegrass team up to make an album.  I wasn't sure what to think of the combination when I first heard they were putting an album together, but the results were amazing.

So when you are planning on a project, don't always rely on the same things that everyone else is doing.  Step out sometimes and add something new and exciting.  Do something different -- but be careful!  Doing something different can be good, but you have to know when to use it.  So while I am suggesting that you try something new, be confident enough that you are not going to be burned in the process.

Travis

Best of FlowingData - How to use charts

One of the biggest problems with presentations is how people use charts and graphs.  People have a tendency to put too much information on a screen or the information is so incomprehensible that no one knows what the presenter is trying to get across.  Unfortunately what is lost is the fact that graphs and data can be an extremely powerful tool in your presentations -- if done correctly!

FlowingData, a blog that "explores how designers, statisticians, and computer scientists are using data to understand ourselves better - mainly through data visualization" is a site that you should check out if you want to see how effective data and graphs can be.  The recently put together a Best of Flowing Data for January that you can check out as a starting point.  It is a great blog and one that I check regularly because of the quirkiness of it, the effectiveness of the data and the great designs that go into the presentations.

Travis

Pay Attention To Detail

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Elephant in the Room

Daily Show Full Episodes
Funny Political Videos

Important Things With Demetri Martin
More Funny Videos

Being a fan of The Daily Show and have met former Sen. Tom Daschle on several occasions, I had to include this video.  If you haven't heard, Sen. Daschle had to pay well over $100,000 dollars in back taxes when the Obama team was vetting him for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services.  I think Jon Stewart sums it up perfectly when he says "Pay you **** taxes!"  

So I ask this of you in regards to presentations, your business and your brand: Are you paying attention to the details?  Sometimes small things that you don't think are that big of an issue can become a big issue in a hurry.  This can create serious issues for you in a variety of ways.  If you are not paying attention to the details in your presentations, you can make some critical mistakes that might cost you some business.  Also, make sure you are paying attention to details in other aspects of your business...it might be a simple mistake that you had no intention of creating...but it is still a mistake that you will be held accountable for.  I don't think Tom Daschle was trying to avoid paying his taxes and create a problem for the Obama administration...but he did.

Travis