/Tom Nixon

About Tom Nixon

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So far Tom Nixon has created 302 blog entries.

Want better slides for your online presentations?

There’s a bad thing going ’round.

It’s been with us for a long time. In plain sight, but mostly ignored. Or actually it has been excused with a phrase something like this:

“Everybody’s PowerPoint sucks. Mine is probably as good as everyone else’s.”

This downplays the immense value of having good-looking and effective visuals for your online pitch or presentation.

There are four main points I want to make here:

  1. Visuals have to carry a greater load in most online presentations. They have to move faster and deliver more information. They also have to build that elusive audience engagement.
  2. Excellent visuals immediately set you apart as top-notch. Your audience will know you are different, you care about details and your professionalism. You are someone they want to listen to, work with and give oodles of money to.
  3. Effective PowerPoint will deliver your message powerfully. They will “get it.” If you do this right, your viewers will quickly buy into your message and ideas. They will follow the logical path that leads them to your call to action.
  4. You will shine. You will have the confidence that comes from having superior tools to work with. You will stay on message. You and your team will be the rock stars of your pitch or presentation.

In my new live MasterClass, there is an entire module about building and delivering your very best visuals in our new online world.

My 4-Day Live MasterClass: Secrets to Delivering Brilliant Online Pitches and Presentations starts Monday, July 13th, 2020 and extends to the 16th (1 hour per day, 4 consecutive days at 1 pm ET) . Everything will be recorded if you can’t make it or want to be review later.

Registration (and a sizable discount) ends Saturday at midnight, July 11th, 2020 Eastern Time.

This MasterClass will be the proverbial dive deep into crafting, practicing and delivering presentations to your audience, clients or industry that set you way ahead of anyone else.

We will also cover:

  • Learning how to build your confidence while you build and rehearse your presentation so that you will appear the ultimate professional
  • How to practice the right way – I call it “Smart Practice”. This module alone, if followed even a little, will be worth 10 times the course fee.
  • What the major differences between in-person and online offerings are and how to adjust every part of your presentation to fit your medium.
  • How to craft a simple 1 or 2 sentences that will avoid the biggest problem almost all people face when constructing their presentation.
  • How to use the not-so-secret trick used by MLK Jr., Steve Jobs and some of the world’s most influential pros to burn your message into your audience’s brains.
  • How to begin your presentation – the most critical 60-120 seconds of your comments. I will offer you at least 25 options and show you my five go-to openings. (By the way: the requirements to begin effectively online are substantially different from in-person.)
  • How to structure of your presentation to address the new world of online. You must grab their eyeballs and make them not want to leave.
  • How to handle all the dozens of details that make up a successful online event.
  • What are the requirements for an inexpensive but professional studio in your office or home.
  • What are the on-camera skills you must develop to appear both professional but approachable for your best delivery. And how do you develop them most effectively.
  • What do you need to do to modify and update your PowerPoint presentation for maximum online engagement and retention.
  • Understanding your audience on a deep, emotional level so that you can develop your comments specifically to address their needs.
  • Plus, a whole bunch more.

I invite you to learn about all this for the brave new world of online.

It’s all in my upcoming 4-Day Live MasterClass: Secrets to Delivering Brilliant Online Pitches and Presentations.

FIRST A WARNING: This course is very inexpensive, but if you want to actually get great value from it, be prepared to put in some work. Becoming better at anything requires work and focus. That’s why this will be so rewarding for you: your wimpy competition will be either to lazy or too scared to do it.

Go here to find out more and register: https://ready2speak.com

  • 4 live, 1-hour presentations delivered over 4 consecutive days with live Q&A
  • Begins Monday, July 13, 2020 — 1 hour, 1 pm ET.
  • If you can’t make it, everything is recorded for later viewing
  • Sign up closes Saturday, Midnight ET July 11, 2020
  • There is a sizable discount coupon and a no risk guarantee.
  • Plus instant access to 3 valuable bonuses to help you get started
  • Register. Become an online presentation superhero.

Your success is waiting…

Tom

 

By |2020-07-30T19:39:20+00:00July 9th, 2020|Daily emails|Comments Off on Want better slides for your online presentations?

How to make sure they get it

This is going to seem like the most obvious piece of advice ever offered – and in a way it is. But it is so often overlooked or flat out ignored that it should be repeated every time before you sit down to create your next webcast, pitch, presentation webinar or whatever.

Make sure it’s all about them. In their minds they are always asking “What’s in it for me?”

If you are telling your audience about you and your services, your products or your ideas they are not listening.

If you tell them about how your stuff will address their world, their needs, then they will “get it”.

Learn as much as you can about who your speaking to and then make it about them.

What problem of theirs are you solving? How are you helping to improve their business, their relationships, their lives?

I will spend a bunch of time talking about this critical topic with the registrants of my upcoming 4-Day Live MasterClass: How to Deliver Brilliant Online Pitches and Presentations.

We will discuss how to know your audience way beyond simple demographics. How to understand what makes them tick and what keeps them up at night.

This MasterClass will be the proverbial dive deep into crafting, practicing and delivering presentations to your audience, clients or industry that set you way ahead of anyone else.

We will cover:

  • Learning how to build your confidence while you build and rehearse your presentation so that you will appear the ultimate professional
  • How to practice the right way – I call it “Smart Practice”. This module alone, if followed even a little, will be worth 10 times the course fee.
  • What the major differences between in-person and online offerings are and how to adjust every part of your presentation to fit your medium.
  • How to craft a simple 1 or 2 sentences that will avoid the biggest problem almost all people face when constructing their presentation.
  • How to use the not-so-secret trick used by MLK Jr., Steve Jobs and some of the world’s most influential pros to burn your message into your audience’s brains.
  • How to begin your presentation – the most critical 60-120 seconds of your comments. I will offer you at least 25 options and show you my five go-to openings. (By the way: the requirements to begin effectively online are substantially different from in-person.)
  • How to structure of your presentation to address the new world of online. You must grab their eyeballs and make them not want to leave.
  • How to handle all the dozens of details that make up a successful online event.
  • What are the requirements for an inexpensive but professional studio in your office or home.
  • What are the on-camera skills you must develop to appear both professional but approachable for your best delivery. And how do you develop them most effectively.
  • What do you need to do to modify and update your PowerPoint presentation for maximum online engagement and retention.
  • And, of course, understanding your audience on a deep, emotional level so that you can develop your comments specifically to address their needs.
  • Plus, a whole bunch more.

I invite you to learn about all this for the brave new world of online.

It’s all in my upcoming 4-Day Live MasterClass: How to Deliver Brilliant Online Pitches and Presentations.

FIRST A WARNING: This course is very inexpensive, but if you want to actually get great value from it, be prepared to put in some work. Becoming better at anything requires work and focus. That’s why this will be so rewarding for you: your wimpy competition will be either to lazy or too scared to do it.

Go here to find out more and register: https://ready2speak.com

  • 4 live, 1-hour presentations delivered over 4 consecutive days with live Q&A
  • Begins Monday, July 13, 2020
  • If you can’t make it, everything is recorded for later viewing
  • Sign up closes Saturday, Midnight ET July 11, 2020
  • There is a sizable discount coupon and a no risk guarantee.

Go. Register. Become an online presentation superhero.

 

Your success is waiting…

Tom

By |2020-07-30T19:37:24+00:00July 8th, 2020|Daily emails|Comments Off on How to make sure they get it

What piece of studio equipment to buy first?

It is a little counter intuitive, but in the YouTube world we live in (which by the way, extends into the Zoom, GoToWebinar and the deliver anything online world) people will excuse a bad video image. But…

They won’t put up with bad sound.

If they have to strain or put up with bad echoes, static, humming or any of the other dozens of audio gremlins that plague amateur video production, they will bail out.

So, when I am asked about studio equipment for online presentations, I suggest upgrading to a good USB microphone first.

The difference between that quality of microphone and the lousy mic built into your laptop will be very noticeable and will help you look and sound more top-notch.

This is just the kind of practical, ready-to-use information I will offer my registrants in my upcoming 4-Day Live MasterClass: How to Deliver Brilliant Online Pitches and Presentations.

It will be the proverbial dive deep into crafting, practicing and delivering presentations to your audience, clients or industry that set you way ahead of anyone else.

We will cover:

  • Understanding your audience on a deep, emotional level so that you can develop your comments specifically to address their needs.
  • Learning how to build your confidence while you build and rehearse your presentation so that you will appear the ultimate professional
  • How to practice the right way – I call it “Smart Practice”. This module alone, if followed even a little, will be worth 10 times the course fee.
  • What the major differences between in-person and online offerings are and how to adjust every part of your presentation to fit your medium.
  • How to craft a simple 1 or 2 sentences that will avoid the biggest problem almost all people face when constructing their presentation.
  • How to use the not-so-secret trick used by MLK Jr., Steve Jobs and some of the world’s most influential pros to burn your message into your audience’s brains.
  • How to begin your presentation – the most critical 60-120 seconds of your comments. I will offer you at least 25 options and show you my five go-to openings. (By the way: the requirements to begin effectively online are substantially different from in-person.)
  • How to structure of your presentation to address the new world of online. You must grab their eyeballs and make them not want to leave.
  • How to handle all the dozens of details that make up a successful online event.
  • What are the requirements for an inexpensive but professional studio in your office or home.
  • What are the on-camera skills you must develop to appear both professional but approachable for your best delivery. And how do you develop them most effectively.
  • What do you need to do to modify and update your PowerPoint presentation for maximum online engagement and retention.
  • Plus, a whole bunch more.

I invite you to learn about all this for the brave new world of online.

It’s all in my upcoming 4-Day Live MasterClass: How to Deliver Brilliant Online Pitches and Presentations.

FIRST A WARNING: This course is very inexpensive, but if you want to actually get great value from it be prepared to put in some work. Becoming better at anything requires work and focus. That’s why this will be so rewarding for you: your wimpy competition will be either to lazy or too scared to do it.

Go here to find out more and register: https://ready2speak.com

  • 4 live, 1-hour presentations delivered over 4 consecutive days with live Q&A
  • Begins Monday, July 13, 2020
  • If you can’t make it, everything is recorded for later viewing
  • Sign up closes Saturday, Midnight ET July 11, 2020
  • There is a sizable discount coupon and a no risk guarantee.

Go. Register. Become an online presentation superhero.

Your success is waiting…

Tom

By |2020-07-30T19:35:57+00:00July 7th, 2020|Daily emails|Comments Off on What piece of studio equipment to buy first?

Some things don’t translate well…

In the pre-virus, semi-sane world from a few months ago the galaxy’s best speakers ruled the stage at all the premiere meetings.

Their weapon of choice? Signature stories.

Professional speakers spend years building, crafting and fine-tuning their signature stories. They are often detailed and lengthy with a huge moral lesson at the end that cements the presenter’s message. They are wonderful. Inspiring. Life-changing.

But those fancy-pants stories don’t work that well online.

Online people are busy, distracted and want instant content. So, the signature story has to be reworked, re-tweaked and polished for the new medium.

This is exactly the type of content I will dive deep into in my upcoming 4-Day Live MasterClass: How to Deliver Brilliant Online Pitches and Presentations.

Stories are a presenter’s most powerful tool, but if none of the goldfish minded attendees on your webinar are paying attention, what good do they do?

So, I invite you to learn about stories, audiences, confidence, structure, openings, closings, on-camera presence, studio equipment, PowerPoint and a gazillion other techniques and strategies for the brave new world of online.

Go here to find out more and register: https://ready2speak.com

  • 4 live, 1-hour presentations delivered over 4 consecutive days with live Q&A
  • Begins Monday, July 13, 2020
  • If you can’t make it, everything is recorded for later viewing
  • Sign up closes Saturday, Midnight ET July 11, 2020
  • There is a sizable discount coupon and a no risk guarantee.

Go. Register. Become an online presentation superhero.

 

Your success is waiting patiently.

Tom

By |2020-07-03T17:14:41+00:00July 3rd, 2020|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Some things don’t translate well…

The real reason you shouldn’t buy lottery tickets

I imagine I will get a lot of push back for the first part of this. Bring it. There’s a point to be made later on about presenting, if you will indulge me.

You shouldn’t buy lottery tickets.

This isn’t about spending your hard-earned money on a losing proposition. This isn’t even about whether or not the government should be taking money from the people who can least afford it.

This is about a much more insidious evil that buying a lottery ticket inflicts on our minds.

It gives us a Plan B.

If you believe, like I do, that to be anything or accomplish anything worthwhile in this world you have to be “all in”, then you will realize that buying a lottery ticket gives you an out. It steals just a tiny bit of your psychic energy. Your power of focus.

You are the commander of your life, your success and your future. In spite of all the bad that could happen (and as we have recently seen, there is lots), you are still in control if you want it.

Buying a lottery ticket sets up a little loop in your mind that says if this real-world thing doesn’t work out, maybe, just maybe, I can win the big one. The gods may pity me and send me a million bucks.

Here’s what this has to do with presenting – especially now that we are confronted with this tipped upside-down world.

I love speaking — in-person, standing before and speaking to a bunch of live, breathing people is the best high there is. When you can offer something of value that changes lives you are snorting some serious mojo.

That’s gone right now. For a while.

I, we need to get over it. It ain’t coming back for a while. And the longer we pine away, we are sucking our focus from using this amazing new tool we have – online.

I know there are a lot of negatives to a Zoom meeting. A lot. But it is the new tool. Online presentation is the hammer we have right now and if we embrace it’s abilities and functions, get really, really good at it and forget about “when things open up” we will be way ahead in the race to live again.

Do ya think just one Powerball ticket would hurt?

To your success,
Tom

++++++++++++++++++++++++

New Course Sessions will be all live streamed…

First off, a big thank you to everyone who participated in my latest course about presenting well online. THANK YOU ALL!

Due to multiple requests the next session of my 4-Day course – “Secrets to Delivering Brilliant Online Pitches and Presentations” will be all LIVE STREAMED. Each day’s lessons will be in a live webinar format – approximately 1-hour long. Attendees will be encouraged to ask questions for immediate feedback or to email questions for an email response.

If you can’t make it — it will all be recorded and online for you to review at any time.

Much will stay the same:

  • Extensive MasterClass content delivered on 4 consecutive days (each webinar will be approximately an hour)
  • Pretty much anything you need or want to know so that you can become a top-notch online presenter
  • Live Q&A will be included
  • If you can’t make it…Everything will be recorded and available for 1 year.
  • Webinars begin Monday, July 13, 2020 for 4 consecutive days
  • Registration closes Midnight ET, Saturday, July 11
  • Extra Low fee (plus a $50 discount)

More info later but if you can’t wait, go to https://Ready2Speak.com to get full information and to register.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Are you a Non-Profit Organization? Want to attend my course at no fee? There are limited slots in my upcoming course for those on my list who are part of nonprofit organizations who could benefit from enhancing their online presentation skills.

Please contact me at Tom@Ready2Speak.com to make arrangements.

 

 

 

 

By |2020-06-30T17:11:44+00:00June 30th, 2020|Uncategorized|Comments Off on The real reason you shouldn’t buy lottery tickets