Best Deliberate Posts of Winter 2024 (Q1)

In case you missed them, here are the best Deliberate posts from the first three months of 2024. Organized by topic. Click on a link to read the post in LinkedIn

Deliberate Messaging

Posts on persuasive message development & delivery:

• Don’t hide behind a podium

• Tips for giving someone else’s presentation

• What’s in it for me?

• Time per slide

• You’re selling yourself just as much as your idea or product

• Checking notes

• The power of gestures

• Authenticity matters

• WHY use a flipchart?

• WHEN to use a flipchart

• HOW to use a flipchart

High Stakes Pitches:

• The posts above apply to pitches

• What about your pitch MESSAGE?

• The posts below apply to pitches, too!

Symptoms of Common Presentation Problems:

• Message: Solution-focused instead of audience-focused

• Message: Low confidence delivery

• Message: No time for questions

• Media: Confusing Charts & Graphs

• Media: Fonts

• Media: Hard to consume slides

• Pitch: Undifferentiated

• Pitch: Poor team Q&A

• Pitch: Client can’t decide to move forward (with any vendor)

DELIBERATE INNOVATION

Most folks know me for my messaging work. But I have an innovation management background too. For me, the two are closely linked: Both should have a specific audience,  be centered on the value proposition, and offer proof.

• Elegant design in B2B

• Corporate antibodies to innovation

• Different types of innovation

Symptoms of common innovation problems:

• Not enough ideas

• Incremental ideas only

• No definition for ‘innovation’

TRAVEL TUESDAYS

Travel tips, observations, and opinions.

• Options to reduce the cost of business class seats

• Seat Guru to research plane seats

• Treat the aircrew well

• Eww. Gross stuff I’ve while travelling

• My preferences for personal travel

• Staying connected on international flights

• Picking a flight

• Navigating cultural differences

• Working out of a hotel

• Portable pharmacy

• Working on a plane

• My favorite airports

FAVORITE PEOPLE HIGHLIGHTS

I continue to highlight amazing people I know, sharing them with my broader network. If you see someone interesting, send them a connection request on LinkedIn. Or poke me for an introduction.

• Mary Ambion

• Michael Bloor

• Dan Brown

• Donna Collum

• Tighe Cottle

• Joe Damico

• Luke Hohmann

• Renee Huntman

• Don Kirk

• Christophe Layen

• Louis McKenna

• Terri Smith

PERSONAL

It's been one year since heart surgery

I was named a LinkedIn Top Voice on Presentation Skills. Okay, let’s break this one down a bit. Getting the badge simply comes down to adding a lot of responses to the LinkedIn collaborative articles on a specific topic. What is a collaborative article? An AI-driven topic that seeks “expert” feedback from the community. Why does LI do this? Probably to train their AI to build and monetize future products. I’m not impressed with the topics (some are ridiculous), the (current) AI recommendations, or much of the “expert” advice. It’s all pretty generic and conventional if not outright dumb. I participate for a few reasons: I can help people, it helps make new connections, and … a badge.

Holidays, special days, and what I take away from each:

• New Year

• Valentine’s Day

• Presidents’ Day

• Leap Day

• Daylight Savings

• Spring Equinox

• Start of the baseball season

NEED HELP WITH YOUR MESSAGING OR INNOVATION?

Let me know. It's what I do.

And take a look at the tip sheets you can buy & download:

• Managing Presentation Anxiety

• Optimize Your Remote Presentations