My Cup of Past Experience Runneth Over

The word redundant is the present participle of the Latin verb redundare, which means “to overflow”. There are times when overflow is good, like when your coffers overflow with money. Then there are times when an overflow is bad, like when red wine flows over your glass onto white shag carpeting.

This may come as a surprise to 99.2% of you based on my “extensive” research: the redundant phrase past experience is well entrenched within the English-speaking world.

I googled the phrase past experience, and retrieved 395 million results.

When I added the word “redundant” to my Boolean search, I turned up only 34,300 results.

That tells me that the majority of people using this phrase aren’t aware of that they are using an extra word (“past”) when the word “experience” would stand very well on its own. Only .000008% of English speakers recognize the redundancy.

Examples abound (at least 395 million, apparently), but the top result from the 395 million results came from Science Daily: Past Experience Is Invaluable For Complex Decision Making – and they’re scientists, which is a tribute to this redundancy’s insidious nature.

As I blogged in my Enough Said post, today’s reader tends to have a shorter attention span, so, as writers, we need to present ideas clearly and efficiently.

My advice is to make the phrase “past experience” a thing of the past. The only exception that springs to mind for me is if we were having a mind-altering (or simply convoluted) conversation about our future selves, and we needed to differentiate between experiences gained in the past versus those we have yet to experience.

I invite you to add your thoughts in the comments about any other exceptions that come to mind.

11 Q & A Tips to Keep You in Control

How you manage the question-and-answer period following your presentation can be as important as the presentation itself. How we handle questions win or loses sales, builds or destroys careers, and bolsters or undermines public confidence.

During your presentation, you maintained control over your voice, body, and visuals. How do you maintain control during the question period?

Here are eleven tips to help you keep control during Q&A from professional presentation coach and trainer, Mike Scott from Dale Carnegie Training.

1. Start Strong. So many presenters set up their Q & A period with “Are there any questions?” Often the response is silence, which frequently leads to the presenter wrapping up the presentation with a low-energy, unimpressive closing statement like, “thanks ”. Start strong! Let the audience know you are still “in charge” while transitioning into the question period by saying:
   
   “We have ten minutes for questions. Who has the first question?”
   
   In this case, the presenter starts with an assumptive, confident, “bring it on” mentality that positions them as a credible, confident presenter.
   
   
2. Keep Back-Up Questions at the Ready. A lack of questions from your audience can seem to slow the effectiveness of your presentation, but you are a confident presenter! If your audience doesn’t have any questions, have a few questions up your sleeve.
   
   “One question I’m frequently asked is…”
   
   “You might wonder about…”
   
   If the audience has no questions, it doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t interested. Sometimes people just need a few minutes to think. “Back-pocket questions” help presenters give listeners a minute to think of questions. In addition, it is a great way to emphasize an important point or to introduce overlooked content.
   
   
3. Reframe and Unload Questions. Reframe questions to demonstrate that you listen and understand AND to remove “loaded language” from questions. Summarize the question: do not parrot it word for word.
   
   “The question is…”
   
   If the question is hostile, this is a great first step in beginning to defuse the confrontation and demonstrate our control and poise to the audience.
   
   
4. Empathize. After reframing, transition with empathy language that demonstrates you are on the asker’s side, looking out for their interests, etc.
   
   EXAMPLE
   Question: How would you handle a project that requires a lot of public involvement?
   
   Answer: The question is about our approach to public involvement. [REFRAMED QUESTION] The City needs to make sure that its residents are informed every step of the way [EMPATHY] and our approach is to…
   
   Our rule of thumb is “less is best”. Remember to keep your answers simple and back up your answers with evidence.
   
   
5. Bite Your Tongue. If you are in a group presentation, fight the urge to “add-on” comments. Often we find the comments added by another presenter do not necessarily add value. In some cases, they actually take away our colleagues’ credibility and communicate a lack of teamwork. In the event a colleague said something glaringly wrong, then, yes, add a comment, but always ask yourself “Is what I’m about to say going to add valuable information?”
   
   
6. Good News Sandwich. If you encounter a hostile question, use the “Good News Sandwich” to respond. Just as the name implies, there are three layers: the two “slices of bread” are the good news, and the “filling” is a difficult or potentially contentious point.
   
   PART 1: The Good News is that…
   
   PART 2: While it is true that…
   
   PART 3: Let me just say….
   
   EXAMPLE
   Hostile Question: Your firm dropped the ball on the last project. How could you blow the budget so badly?
   
   Good News Sandwich Answer. The question is about staying on budget. [REFRAME QUESTION WITHOUT LOADED WORDS]. The good news is that of our last 10 projects, 9 of them actually came in under budget. While it is true that the last project experienced a series of change orders because of some very difficult environmental conditions, let me just say that as we moved into the latter stages of that project, we actually trimmed costs enough to come in at only 2% over budget, still well under the industry average and well below the contingency amount.
   
   Remember even if you have a the perfect answer using the good news sandwich but deliver the answer with a mean-spirited tone or body language our audience might not hear us. They may interpret the tone and body language as a negative, affecting our ability to communicate our overall message. In fact, since we can probably anticipate 75 – 80% of the hostile questions we’ll receive, we’d highly recommend practicing handling hostile Q & A with a colleague and ask for feedback on your body language and tone.
   
   
7. Finish and Move On. Maintain the control as you move between questions by asking:
   “Who has the next question?”
   
   This approach “closes” the previous response so that you can address new questions.
   
   
8. Maintain Momentum. While it might seem polite to conclude the previous response by asking the audience member if your response answered the question, this can lead to an open-ended (and sometimes hostile) forum. Since you are interested in maintaining control during Q&A, we recommend avoiding the “Did I answer your question?”
   
   
9. Address the Entire Audience. Respond to questions to the whole audience – not just the question asker. If you address the entire audience, you will be less likely to find yourself in a “running conversation” with particular individuals in the audience, which not only slows down the session, it can also make the rest of your audience feel excluded.
   
   
10. Wrap it Up. When time is running out, demonstrate that you are sensitive to time.
    “We have time for one more question. Who has the last question?”
    
    
11. End Strong! Close with a restatement of your presentation’s main point and call to action.
    In closing, selecting our company will give you the technical expertise and available team members to meet your schedule objectives while delivering an award-winning project.
    Most presenters simply wrap up Q & A with “Thanks for the questions.” Let’s remember, the Q & A might have gotten way off topic or could have ended with a hostile question. We need to bring the presentation in for a close with our final closing comment and ensure the audience leaves thinking about our message.
    

Thanks to Mike Scott. Mike is Executive Vice President & General Manager for Dale Carnegie Training Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Mike leads the client delivery and operational efforts of the third largest Dale Carnegie franchise in the world.

He is a certified Dale Carnegie Course, High Impact Presentations and Corporate Solutions trainer. Over the last year, Mike has led training projects with Lawson, Universal Hospital Services, Johnson & Condon, Prudential, Ryan Companies, Medtronic, Cargill, Thomson Reuters, Egan, Short Elliott Hendrickson, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Michael Foods, and Pentair Technical Products. Mike is currently ranked among the top 35 trainers in North America.

YES! We now have CROUTONS!

I make snap judgments, rash decisions, and impulsive purchases, even.

When I saw this sign in the window of the North End’s beloved Mama’s Pizza on Rice Street, my first reaction was to assess it as a marketing claim. I concluded that it is not a strong claim. “We now have croutons” isn’t as strong as “we use three pounds of mozzarella cheese on every dish” (which they pretty much do!).

I thought, “how quaint,” lamented the challenges small businesses face in marketing in a down economy, and passed by.

The next day, the sign was gone.

“A short-lived marketing campaign,” I concluded.

A week later, the sign was back up.

I finally walked into Mama’s and asked about the crouton sign.

It turns out, the sign is to alert regular customers when the restaurant has made a “fresh” batch of croutons, because they are not always available.

I had a nice chuckle at myself.

Enough Said: How Twenty-Five-Cent Words and Two-Bit Word Choice Don’t Add Up

Can you guess which popular ad campaign of the twentieth century I have destroyed with unneeded elaboration and fancy, “twenty-five-cent” words?

Think moustaches on super models – milk moustaches.

Yes, it was the stunningly popular and often parodied “got milk?” campaign.

Can you imagine driving by this billboard, trying to read (and understand) all of the words? Plus, where would we fit the supermodel and her milk moustache?

Clearly, the “got milk?” phrase was effective because of its colloquial brevity.

When you need to grab a reader who may have either limited time or attention, you need to use as few words as possible and make your point clear.

Good web writing, for example, is brief, because a web audience is on the hunt for something specific. The best web pages know this and make it easy for web users to find the information they need quickly – helped in large part by the page descriptions that come up on search engines.

Web writing technique is easily applied to good ol‘ fashion print. If you’re writing a sales proposal or a marketing brochure, don’t waste your reader’s time by using all the words you know. In your effort to over-inform, you risk losing the reader’s attention, resulting in the reader retaining none of the information you were trying to share.

And the reader might think you (and your brand) are boring.

One caveat, I love descriptive narrative, the kind that you find in rich novels, with evocative language, sonorous rhythm. All that. In this post, I’m focusing on writing for the ADHD or customer crowd. You don’t have as much time to get your message to these audiences.

Think caffeinated monkeys.

When I edit sales proposals, I notice a tendency for my coworkers to try to “fancify” their language. They probably think it will lend them more credibility with potential customers, because (they think) they’ll sound smart.

“Smart” to me is being efficient with language and with your audience’s time.

One of the most common twenty-five-cent words those smart coworkers use is “utilize”.

Utilize is a fancy way to say use. “Use”, itself, seems bland, although efficient. Also, “use” may have a tarnished reputation thanks to drug “users” or other selfish people who “use” other people. We’re taking it back.

For one thing, “utilize” is a seven-letter word. "Use" is three. By more than doubling the letters, do we gain any more information by reading “utilize” versus “use”?

Consider the following three examples, including one efficient sentence that “nails it”:

Twenty-five cent: The carpenter utilized a hammer to pound the nails that connected the two-by-fours to the beams.

Better: The carpenter used a hammer to pound the nails that connected the two-by-fours to the beams.

Efficient: The carpenter nailed the two-by-fours to the beams.

Trying to find ways to reduce words and to emphasize key ideas is not just surgery (simply lopping off words). It’s more about “puzzling”, assembling the pieces so that your “picture” is clear.

I am hopeful that you are capable of utilizing the conceptions that I have posted within this blog post to your advantage.

Or, in the smart version:

Hope this helps.

BILLBOARD FAIL: I tawt I saw a fatty cat

This billboard bothers me.

I need to pick this apart. Call it therapy.



I drove by this monstrosity three times before I figured out what it was for.

I thought, at various turns, that it was an ad for an online video gaming service, a bowling alley, or, more interestingly, an online bi-dimensional dating service.



First of all, the composition is horrible. An oversized Tweetie Bird (in disturbing diapers or short-shorts) is apparently levitating on the left-hand side with no connection with the human on the right. She doesn't seem to notice the floating cartoon character at all. She is distracted by the messages she is receiving from the "other side" via her glowing crystal ball.


Secondly, I hate Tweetie Bird. I always have. I always rooted for Sylvester.

Thirdly, the campaign is put out by letsmove.gov, one of the vehicles for the First Lady's message to get kids more active, but that message is lost in this jumble-tron.

The tagline on the billboard is "Play One Hour A Day", but it took me several reads before I realized that the "play" to which it refers is used in the sense of "go outside and play", and not "stay inside and play World of Warcraft while eating frozen pizza bites".


But that brings me back to Tweetie Bird, a cartoon character.

From television.



Which generally is inside the house and invitingly close to both couch and refrigerator.



Beyond that, are the kids of today deep into Warner Brothers characters that inspired America's Greatest Generation to win the big war against fascism 70 years ago?


Maybe Tweetie's contract has gone public domain.

(I at least would have picked Yosemite Sam. Then the tagline would have been "Git runnin' outside or I'll plug ya full of lead, ya fat, lazy varmits!")

Is there congruency between the pairing of Tweetie Bird and the she-who-cannot-be-named athlete and the message of "get active"?



I think you can answer that for yourself by imagining some alternate headlines for this billboard. That exercise reveals how un-dynamic this duo is. Feel free to post your alternate headlines in the comment box.



Here's how I imagine the genesis of Billboard Fail...

THE PITCH AT THE CREATIVE AGENCY
"Okay," says the campaign manager, "Let's balance our cut-rate cartoon character with a famous professional athlete, like Shaq or Michael Jordan."



"Good idea," the financial guy says, checking some numbers. "Would you settle for a female professional athlete?"



"Well, certainly," the campaign manager says. "We are trying to appeal to girls, and they need positive role models."



"Great," the financial guy says. "How's about if we pick someone who nobody knows, and we make it look like she's holding a glowing crystal ball."



"Perfect!" the campaign manager says. "It'll have that psychic hotline feel we were looking for!"



Then the art direct jumps in, saying he can really mangle it by the composition and then choosing Coca Cola red for the background so kids get hungry AND bored when they see the billboard.



"Trifecta!" the campaign manager yelps. "Let's put it in low-income neighborhoods with a high porportion of households where English is spoken only as a second language."



"Bees knees!" agrees the art director.



LET'S GET REAL
What is odd is that the letsmove.gov site is actually very clean and cohesive with lots of interesting content. The image shown on this screenshot would have been more effective on the billboard than the one they chose. That photo has energy, positive role models, and no obnoxious cartoon birds.



My hunch is that the "print" campaign was led by a different firm than the web campaign, which in today's age of web supremacy is a mistake.



In fact - and this is only slightly tangential - the web versus print discussion mirrors American partisan politics. On the one hand the traditional print adherents (Republicans, in this analogy) cling to the ideas and formats of the past (heck, the Bible was printed, after all).



On the other hand, webmeisters sail in a glowing sea of imperfection, knowing that content will change and mistakes can be corrected on the fly.



But a frickin' billboard is forever, at least in the emotionally scarring sense.

Plastic Bags and Other Missed Opportunities

California’s proposed statewide ban on plastic bags did not pass, and this post isn’t meant to be a commentary on the value of such a ban. This is a post about missed opportunities.

Like everything else in the public realm now-a-days, the plastic bag issue became another forum for polarization: tree-hugging pro-choice lefties on one side and gun-toting environment-hating righties on the other.

Missed Opportunity #1: Find the Right Mascot
The Morning Edition (NPR) story reported:

“…At a recent rally outside the (California) state capitol, environmentalists
brought a 25-foot blow-up turtle to make a final push for the bill. The giant
plastic sea creature represented the wildlife (that) activists say is most hurt
by a sea full of discarded bags.”

An inflatable plastic sea turtle? Really? At a rally about reducing plastic usage?

Here was the first missed opportunity: Why not a turtle made from plastic bags? Or if the turtle was in deed made from recycled plastic, why not tout that information?

The sea turtle idea may be a moving symbol to marine environmentalists, but that symbol doesn’t resonate with the “swayable” – those folks who are not entrenched in either political polarity. Their collective fondness for a sea turtle is probably on par with their interest in space debris – that is to say, lukewarm.

How about a hemp Lindsay Lohan doll?

Missed Opportunity #2: It’s the Economy, Stupid
The opposition to the bill weren’t saying things like, “We love plastic bags.”
They’re saying things like what they heard in the commercial funded by the American Chemistry Council.

“California’s in trouble: 2.3 million unemployed, a $19 billion deficit. And
what are some California politicians focused on? Grocery bags.”

In fact, Keith Christman of the American Chemistry Council said he was worried about “losing 1,000 manufacturing jobs in California if plastic bags are outlawed and the cost to taxpayers who will have to buy canvas or paper bags”.

Okay, so it’s not an environmental issue: it’s an economic issue. If it’s true that state like Oregon and Washington would be next in line to ban plastic bags, wouldn’t there be an expanding market for other types of bags? Could those 1,000 workers be re-trained to operate slightly different machinery? Is there a market across the world for “eco-friendly” grocery totes that might be the catalyst to hire more employees beyond those 1,000 workers?

Missed Opportunity #3: Why is it Always “Paper OR Plastic”?
At the heart of today’s polarized politics is the idea of personal choice versus government control. From abortion to gun control; from immunizations to Obama Care. There doesn’t seem to be enough third options for us.

When the check-out clerk asks me if I want paper or plastic (and assuming I have left my eco-friendly hemp grocery tote in the Prius) do I have no other options for removing my purchases from the store? How do shoplifters do it?

Ingenuity, that’s how. (And stealth.)

Sometimes we just have to create our own third options in order to avoid the “either-or” game that is shredding the fabric of intelligent debate that the U.S. (and hey, why not the world?) needs to tackle some pretty big problems.

My advice: buy baggy pants with really big pockets.

Three Quick Tips to Get Your Content Liked, Retweeted, and Ripped Off

Tweets are racing by us. New web pages are filling the web like space debris. Even your grandmother has a blog.

How do we get our content noticed?

Here are 3 quick steps to help you reach (and increase) your audience.

1. Start with a list of SEO words
Remember those grammar exercises in school where you needed to use key words in a sentence? Having a list of SEO (search engine optimization) words is like a vocabulary list with power to pull more readers.


Consider your list of SEO words as one metric to defining success for the content. If you don’t see those key words in your content, your content is guaranteed to reach fewer new readers – an especially important consideration when you’re trying to build a regular audience.


Check out this great post from the #1 position search result for "SEO blog" on Yahoo! and the #2 result on Google. Rand Fishkin explains how SEO is like baking chocolate chip cookies.


2. Twitter Size Your Content
You can convey a lot of information in 20-30 words, which is about the equivalent of Twitter’s 140-character limit. Remember, Twitter is content, (consider VeryShortStory’s entries on Twitter). Accordingly "Twitter-size" your content.

• Paragraphs: no more than 3 sentences per paragraph.


• Sentences: Less than 10 words per sentence.


• Words: Use shorter words where possible. (Notice I didn’t say “utilize” instead of “use”?)

Sounds tough, doesn’t it? Consider some of the following examples of Twitter-friendly sentiments that express strong, clear ideas in less than 140 characters:

• I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. #nathanhale 62 characters
• You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs. #winstonchurchill 87 characters
• Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. #chiefjoseph 117 characters
• Nuts! #generaltonymcauliffe 5 characters

Can you think of other good examples of Twitter-friendly but powerful quotes? Add them in the comments!

3. Include a reader benefit statement
What’s in it for the reader? Why should they keep reading or click through – let alone make a purchasing decision? The title of your blog, your web page, and your entire Twitter entry needs to give your audience a reason to break a sweat by clicking through.


Why did you click through to this article? Let me know in the comments.

Check out this advice from pro copywriter Joe Robson about the importance of AIDA – no, not the opera.


By making sure you’re incorporating these 3 simple steps into your content development process, you’re going to see increased site traffic and overall audience satisfaction.

Thanks to sixcray6ns.com for the retweet symbol.