The Value of Winging It vs How to PowerPoint - An Independent Consultant's View

Winging it is my preferred way of making a presentation which I believe offer significant value to both the audience and the presenter. Nevertheless as I recounted in a previous article, A PowerPoint Presentation or Winging It?, in that so many of my audiences have become accustomed to anticipating a PowerPoint presentation, I have decided to integrate it within my preferred style, Winging It. In this article, I will discuss the value of Winging It as well as How to PowerPoint effectively to keep the audience engaged.

The Value of Winging It
Winging it essentially mean to speak in public without notes. Taking notes on stage only telegraphs the idea that you had to make a big effort to bone up on your theme, then were so unsure of yourself that you had to sweat through a close read so as not to blow your lines. Appearing to improvise flashes you onto listeners' minds as an authority, an expert. Playing the puppet by reading a text, or clinging to notes takes you down, peg by peg, until you look even with, or even below, your audience.

Winging your talk enhances everything you say. It magnifies your magic, focuses your clarity, and buttresses your logic. Your stand-alone ability to think on your feet just makes everything you say sound more controlled and resourceful. This excitement you fire by risking your reputation keeps your listeners awake, thus more open-minded to your speech. It also builds into admiration which initiates and underpins any healthy respect. Moreover, when your words are written out and read, the joy and certainty of discovering the real you suffer.
Whatever you have got will look and sound better if you can train yourself to persuade without paper. It's what you do with what you have that matters. Once you are skilled at winging it, your audience will only cherish more whatever you have to say. This has been my experience and I'm sure it will be yours also.

How to PowerPoint Effectively
Although I have revealed my preference, if you insist on using PowerPoint, resist the temptation to read the slides to your audience. This disconnects you from them. However, when you move to a new slide, pause briefly to give the audience time to read the content. Then summarize or make the point in a different way. If the slide is easy to understand, you may proceed as though the words on the slide have already been said. You then can go on to explain and elaborate on what the slide is about.

Use the slides to complement and enhance your presentation. Do not allow them to be your presentation and do not use them as your script. Also, make certain your slide is not too dense. Apply the 50 percent rule twice: Remove half of the slide's content, then look at it again and remove another half. Better yet, plan for no more than three words or a single image per slide. With the exception of your three words, include your Web site address on each slide.

Make sure you have checked and double-checked the slides and the equipment. Misspellings and out-of-order or upside-down slides can quickly detract from your presentation and your credibility.

Forget about animation -- it detracts from the point you are making and, if the audience can't read every word on a slide, discontinue the PowerPoint presentation.

Finally, PowerPoint can be used to produce a professional-looking program that you can revise easily to fit each audience you present to. Unfortunately, presentations that rely on PowerPoint for their content are seldom as engaging as presentations that use PowerPoint to supplement what the speaker is saying. An effective PowerPoint presentation, especially the transitions, takes practice and rehearsal. Even though it worked like a charm the last time doesn't mean it will again. Before subjecting audiences to needless distractions, rehearse with your slides.

A Power Point Presentation or Winging It? An Independent Consultant's View

PowerPoint has always seemed to me to be a stiff and un-engaging way to make a presentation. I have never used a Power Point presentation over the decades of speaking engagements and workshop presentations I've done. I declined from using it primarily because it hindered me from connecting with my audience. When you are using Power Point, you tend not to be the focus of your audience, but rather what is on the screen is the audience's focus.

The Power Point Presenter

A Power Point presenter can often disguise his level of competence by having his audience's attention directed on the screen rather than on him. He can point to and read from the screen, rather than looking at and paying attention to the responses of the audience and appropriately adjusting to stay really engaged. In my work as an independent consultant, I present workshops as well as attend them. In one that I recently attended the presenter was so wedded to the Power Point presentation, that when the projector malfunctioned, he was totally flabbergasted and was unable to continue until he was able to get the projector working properly. The audience, including myself, was patient with him because everyone was used to going to a Power Point presentation. I'm speculating, but, his Power Point presentation could just have easily been written by an employee, a colleague, or anyone else.

The Winging It Presenter

When you winging it, you have a 100% engagement with your audience. Up to now, I have felt pride in not having to refer to notes or a screen in making a presentation. My audiences quickly recognize that I don't have any type of a crutch and show their appreciation in different ways. I even got an applause once after an hour and a half presentation without notes or a screen, but still giving them what they expected, challenging them, and answering all their questions. I can't disguise not knowing my material because I'm talking directly to them, answering their questions, asking them questions, and making sure that my summary leaves them with actionable information and the right impression of me.

Integrating Power Point and Winging It

In winging it, it's incumbent upon me to be organized, know the subject matter intimately, and be able to get back on track after answering what might often be a series of questions. While winging it has been looked down upon in some sectors, it still remains a very necessary presentation skill especially for making brief presentations. However, in that it has become so highly expected, I am now integrating Power Point in my presentations while still effectively engaging with my audience. In my free monthly Newsletter, I will be offering presentation tips on how I'm doing this.

For the Savvy Independent Consultant - 10 Steps to the Top of Google

Assuming that you are a savvy independent consultant and already have a web site, then you want to drive more traffic to our web site and convert that traffic to paying customers. While these steps will certainly drive more traffic to your web site, it will be the relevancy of what you have to offer on your site that will convert your visitors. I will address that in a future article. For now, here are the 10 steps that I have found to be particularly useful. These steps are in no order of importance. However, if you use some or all of them, you will experience remarkable results.

1. Review your keywords and keyword phrases. Make sure you have a favorable and unique Title tag on each page of your site. If you choose to have your business consultancy name in it, put it at the end.

2. In my opinion, content will always be king, so be sure to have good quality and unique content that focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase. Remember to be text heavy and place useful content in your pages on a regular basis.

3. Be sure links to your site and within your site have your chosen keyword phrases. Also, when link building, quality is more important than quantity. A single good authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links.

4. Emphasize search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text to help you get found in local searches.

5. If necessary, redesign your website with a new understanding of organic search engine optimization.

6. Keep in mind that submitting a new web site to Google for regular submission can take several weeks before it is spidered. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.

7. If your site content doesn't change often, your site need a blog because spiders like fresh text. Update your blog at least three times a week with fresh content.

8. Do not try to stuff your text with keywords. Search engines want natural language content and will look at how many times a term is in your content. If it is abnormally high, they will count this against you rather than for you.

9. Your link should not only use keyword anchor text, but the text around the link should also be related to your keywords. That is, surround your link with descriptive text.

10. Get your own domain. Move away from having a sub-domain as soon as possible. And, go for.com,.net, or.org. with the.com as your first preference.

While this is not an exhaustive list, it is a complete one that a savvy independent consultant can use as a foundation.

The Technological Edge for the Savvy Independent Consultant

As an independent consultant working in any field it which you have competition, you need to get and maintain an edge over them. To continue to learn about your best friend, your personal computer would help you keep that edge.

To this end, always look to pick up a few new computer skills instead of just knowing how to use your computer.

To begin with, learn the meaning of some technical acronyms. There are at least eight essential acronyms that are important to know. Here I will describe just four: central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), universal serial bus (USB), and hypertext markup language (HTML).

CPU refers to the most important component of a computer. It is responsible for executing programs, performing calculations, and moving data between memory and long-term storage media. The significance of the CPU is two-fold: it determines which software product can be run on your computer and also how fast the software will run. Each motherboard will support only a specific type or range of CPU.

GPU refers to processes necessary for graphics rendering. The GPU translates the data from the CPU into images--a picture you can see. Unless a computer has a graphics capability built into the motherboard, that translation takes place on the graphic card. The CPU working in conjunction with software applications, sends information about the image to the graphic card, the graphic card then processes that information and sends it through a cable to the monitor.

The graphic card and the GPU is really one in the same. The graphic card houses the GPU. They control all the visuals that you see on your computer screen which includes everything from your desktop background to chatting with your friends.

USB referred to relatively fast serial communication architecture for attaching peripheral devices to avoid the configuration that used to plague personal computers in the past. Until recently, USB operated at 12 Mbps, but still supports up to 127 devices including keyboards, monitors, mice, and printers using a USB hub. High speed USB now operates at 480 Mbps. For faster devices such as cameras or camcorders, fire wire is more suitable. The speed of the fire wire interface is also good for devices such as portable hard drives.

And, finally, hypertext markup language (HTML) is a language used to describe documents that are to be published over the World Wide Web (www). HTML description of the document defines the placement of text and images on the page, and also the hypertext links that lead visitors from this page to other pages on the web. The term "markup" refers to the special instructions called tags which are distinguished in the document using the keyboard symbols which are called "angle brackets."

Even More Things the Computer Savvy Independent Consultant Must Know

As an independent consultant, the personal computer should be your friend or perhaps even one of your best friends. If it helps you to become more productive, make more money, and make your life easier, it can certainly merit the description.

However, to keep it friendly, you have to be a friend to it. You have to consistently take the steps to keep it running fast and efficiently, keep it free for us from viruses and spyware, and then use shortcuts in your frequently used programs to enhance your personal productivity and efficiency.

Here are some more steps to keeping your computer running fast and efficiently.

a. If you are using Windows Vista, disable the Welcome Center that always pops up when Windows opens

b. At least once a month, run the built-in Windows disk cleanup utility.

c. Upgrade your drivers. Check the web site of your PC, motherboard, or graphic card manufacturer to see if a newer driver exists.

To keep your computer free from viruses and spyware make sure you do the following:

a. Perform a virus scan on your computer regularly. Use one of the free online virus scanners if you don't want to install virus protection on your computer.

b. Spyware must be removed from your computer before it causes damage to your operating system and applications, and as a result brings your system to a complete halt. Use one of the spyware/adware removal tools that are freely available.

e. Turn off Windows Defender, if you have anti-spyware installed.

As an independent consultant, you're probably using Microsoft Word 10 as your workhorse for your writing and related tasks. Since you are now keeping your computer working fast, efficiently and free from viruses and spyware, apply this mindset to your most frequently used application.

The menus in Microsoft Word 10 can be wonderful, but all that clicking might not be the best way of getting something done. Here are some useful shortcuts for Microsoft Word 10:

CTRL + C Copy

CTRL + X Cut

CTRL + V Paste

CTRL + Z Undo

CTRL + Home To top of document

CTRL + End To bottom of document

CTRL + B Bold

CTRL + I Italic, and

CTRL + S Save

CTRL + U Underline

These are just a few of the shortcuts Microsoft Word 10 has to help you get things done faster and more efficiently.

All independent consultants depend on personal productivity and efficiency to get more income-producing work done. I am certain that you will find each one of these strategies to be helpful.

Three Things Every Computer Savvy Independent Consultant Must Know

I write from the perspective of an independent consultant. However, what I say here is applicable to any one who actively uses his or her computer in making a living. As an independent consultant, I have to be constantly concerned about personal development and continuous growth. If I'm not, then I can't expect any one to hire me. 

In this mission, the personal computer remains an essential tool in my tool box. If you were actively working in this occupation as I was during the 70's and 80's, you realize how arduous it was in maintaining contacts with your clients, preparing individual proposals, letters, and articles as well carrying out other related activities. The effective use of technology has made my work a lot easier and allowed me to become more productive. However, if you are new to this occupation, be thankful that you didn't have to experience that state of affairs.

In becoming more productive, three things are essential in using your personal computer: 

1. learn to use the keyboard effectively and cease being a slave to the mouse; 
2. learn to keep your computer fast and clean, and therefore minimize the possibility of instability and crashes; 
3. and, learn shortcuts for your commonly used programs and operating system.

For your operating system, here are three keyboard shortcuts for the Windows key:

Winkey + F - To search for a file            

Winkey + R - To open the Run window

Winkey + E - To open the computer

Keeping your computer fast and clean is also a necessity. Here are five strategies for doing so:

Uninstall Unneeded Software. RevoUninstall is one of the best programs for doing so. I highly recommend it.

Declutter and organize your desktop. Set up an Icon labeled "Extra Icons" on your Desktop and sweep all your little used icons into it.

Reduce the number of Auto Starting Programs. Go to "Run" type in msconfig, go to Startup and uncheck all the program you don't want to be loaded during Startup.

Update your Programs regularly. Go to Control Panel. Look for Update and click to see what programs need to be updated.

Clean up your Registry. CCleaner is one of the best programs for cleaning up your registry and is another one I highly recommend.

Both RevoUninstall and CCleaner are free programs.

Buying a New Computer ? Keep These Tips in Mind

The decision to buy a computer for the first time or to replace an aging or obsolete one can be a significant decision for anyone.

When considering the purchase of a computer, here are some basics you need to know:

Computers come in all sizes. Here we will only consider a desktop, not a laptop and the hardware that's inside your computer including your hard drive, random access memory (RAM), central processing unit (CPU), graphic card, and the optical media drive must be essential in your consideration.

Let's start with the hard drive. The hard drive is the central storage device in your computer. It will be used to store your digital music, photos, and video collection. Go for a hard drive with a minimum of 750GB (gigabytes). Think of this as the equivalent of about 160 DVDs. However, 1 TB (terabyte) of drive space would be even better. By doing so, you will have adequate space to store your personal media.

Second, consider your RAM which is your Random Access Memory. This is where your computer stores programs and data while it is on. Consequently, you need to buy a computer with 4GB or more of RAM. Keep in mind that if you want more than 4GB of RAM, you will need a 64-bit operating system (OS), because the 32-bit OS can only use up to 4GB of RAM.

Third, consider the CPU or central processing unit referred to here as the processor. This is the device that actually performed the computing tasks. In considering the processor, go for a quad core processor instead of the dual core which describes the number of processor cores found on a single processor die. Multiple processors have the ability to separate the handling of tasks to share the load so that the job can get done more quickly. Most current programs are designed to support quad core processing and even the older programs will work better with the quad core or multiple core processor.

Fourth, consider the graphic card. This is the component that plugs right into your motherboard and without it your PC could not display images. If you plan to play video games or movies, then you need to have a dedicated video card. Buy a computer with the video card that offers the largest amount of memory. The computer would then be able to play your games faster and offer greater support for high definition video, such as 1,920 x 1,080 or larger. 

And finally, the optical media drive enables your computer to read CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. Nowadays, most computers come with a DVD burner that can both play and record media on DVD. If you will be only watching DVD movies, then you will be in good shape.