You may love the wind in your hair and the sun on your face. You may have a thing for map reading and finding out-of-the-way treasures. You may have read Jack Kerouac’s On the Road when you were in college and never quite got over it. Whether you were born to be wild or acquired your wanderlust as a blessing or a curse, there is one challenge we all must face when we are out on that mad, mad road: finding a decent meal.

When you’ve been called upon to travel a presentation, you may be excited. Who doesn’t want a few days out of the office, and who doesn’t enjoy seeing new sights in a new scene? Heck, eating out for every meal sounds like a blast too, especially if you are a bit more than cooking-challenged at home. However, after a few days of eating on the road, you’ll realize just what kind of Devil’s bargain you’ve made.

Watch any episode of Behind the Music and you’ll find that the two biggest hurdles for a rock star aren’t drugs and fame, they’re clean socks and a descent meal. The fact is, most restaurants aren’t very healthy and gas station convenience stores are full of terrible temptations. However, healthy eating on the road is possible if you’re willing to apply some of the rules you – hopefully – already apply at home.

If you think about it, we usually eat badly when our planning breaks down. When there has been no time set aside for making a healthy dinner, we reach for the Hot Pockets. When we get up too late for oatmeal, we grab a candy bar and call it even, and when we don’t take the time to pack a lunch it’s easy to order a slice of pizza and a coke. It really isn’t impossible to eat healthy, but it does require forethought and planning. This same rule applies on the road.

Here are some tips for keeping your meals square while you are making your rounds.

Breakfast
As we all know – and tend to forget – this is the most important meal of the day, and breakfast is especially vital when you’re on the road. When you eat good breakfast, you’re taking care to make sure that you won’t get too hungry later in the day no matter what kind of curve balls traveling throws your way. Simply preparing a bagel and banana to take on the plane or getting up a little early to grab a bite at your hotel’s continental breakfast can go a long way to keep you eating well on the road. Also, if you’re traveling on a budget, breakfast always has the best calorie to dollar ratio. Don’t miss it!

Lunch
Lunch can be tough on the road as it is the meal that you are most likely to grab on the go. Hopefully, you had a good breakfast and can resist the temptation to make a hasty decision. A big factor in getting a healthy lunch is simply making a wholesome choice. This can be tough even when we’re at home, but the stress of travel compromises your immune system and picking something healthy to eat for lunch is particularly important when we’re on the road. Be sure to read the whole menu and don’t be afraid to ask for special options.

Dinner
Again, eating a healthy dinner is possible if you are able to resist all the bad choices you are presented. One problem with eating at restaurants is portion sizes and redundant servings like rolls and potatoes. Try to have one meat, one vegetable and one starch with your dinner. By not doubling up on food groups you can keep unnecessary calories at bay. If you have the option, consider staying at one of the new “suite” style hotels that feature small kitchens with your accommodations. Eating in on the road can be fun. It can also be affordable and healthy!

Remember, planning is the key to eating healthy on the go. Always bring plenty of nuts, fruit, granola bars, trail mix and bottled water to get you through the inevitable rough patches, and don’t skip breakfast!

However, even the most well-crafted presentation can’t knockout the room simply by relying on this fundamental organization. All too often a really well-crafted pitch suffers from a hum-drum, unimaginative delivery that simply shows-and-tells but never really connects with and moves the audience.

Welcome to your 3XPERIENCE… it’s a new style we are recommending just for you – the presenter.

The 3XPERIENCE experience is a new way of conceiving of presentations that allows for modular customization while making use of a proven structure that emphasizes a more inclusive, interactive experience for the audience and the speaker alike.

3 Points of 3XPERIENCE
When we approach this presentation style, we begin by breaking down a pitch into three points. What are the three crucial, hard-hitting details you have to get across to your audience? Take your time to brainstorm and edit. The choices you make here will be the foundation of your audience’s 3XPERIENCE so choose wisely.

The Perfect Pair
Once you’ve picked your points, address each one separately. What slides will pair with each point? What kind of story will you need to tell in each section? Most importantly, how will you pair each point with an experience? Surely not by just flipping slides and droning on! You have to get creative! Engage your audience in a game. Deliver a knockout hand-out that take your message to the next level. Get the whole room to sing together! Make it memorable. And make it an experience!

Customize
One of the best aspects of 3XPERIENCE is that it is not a strict style. 3XPERIENCE is an approach that can be transformed to fit a specific speaker or audience. For instance, 3XPERIENCE10 might pair 10 slides with each point for a total of 30 slides. One can imagine 3XPERIENCE15 or even 3XPERIENCE20. Experiment with the formula and see which one works best for you!

Do you like this presentation style?  Let us know your thoughts.

Huh?

Seriously?

Yes!

Of course, most of the time, reading one’s speech or presentation is clearly one of the worst ideas you can imagine. However, there are times when reading your presentation may be critical and – therefore – the only way to go.

Politics, Politics
Even though everyone agrees that Barack Obama is an amazing speaker, he was criticized after his inauguration for seeming to rely too much on his teleprompter. In fact, there is good reason for this. Most politicians use notes or cue cards of some kind to read their speeches. Not only do most politicians need to be able to deliver lots of addresses in a given time frame – with little preparation – but the content of their messages is usually a bit more crucial than the kind of work most of us are involved in. When you are making some kind of political speech – where information, statistics or names are crucial – it’s a great idea to read your speech.

Legally Speaking
Another situation that requires straight-up reading of a speech or presentation is one with binding, legal restrictions. It’s not unusual to see a particular exec reading a speech on television. Many times, this is not because they haven’t spent enough time on this website. They are reading because they’ve been handed a document by their legal team and they have to recite it word for word for fear of some kind of litigious action. This kind of thing happens all the time after an accident or a product recall. Nearly every “apology” you’re likely to hear from a corporation is going to be a carefully crafted statement read directly from a labored-over document.

At some point, you may be in the unfortunate position of having to read a prepared statement of some kind. Although this can be the dramatic equivalent of watching the grass grow, there are a few techniques you can use to bring in all the jazz you can.

Check these out:

• Try to take some time to familiarize yourself with using a teleprompter. Here is a fun site where you can brush up on your skills.
• One technique politicians use requires that you only speak once you can look up from your text. However, this requires at least some familiarity with one’s material. If you find yourself having to read something cold, make up for your lack of eye-contact with a lot of dynamic variety in your rate of speech, inflections, volume, etc.
• In addition, incorporate as much movement as you can. Purposeful gestures can help make up for not looking your audience in the eye.

Simply speaking, creative visualization is a sort of meditation technique that can help you achieve more from your next presentation by encouraging you to create better clarity, focus and sense of purpose when it comes to achieving excellence the next time you take the stage. Without getting too complicated, we all want to do well when it comes to presenting, but we simply cannot do well until we actually believe we can.

Presenting is not easy. It pushes all kinds of buttons that we aren’t used to having pushed and it challenges us in ways our day-to-day jobs and lives usually don’t. For most of us, presenting casts us in a situation where we are fish-out-of-water, and like these hapless creatures our first reaction to being hit with a spotlight is to hyperventilate and flop around for a bit. Why? Because we don’t understand where we are and we can’t for the life of us imagine how to deal with the task at hand.

Creative visualization allows you to clarify your goal, imagine your best possible performance, and essentially “walk through it” time and time again before you ever step into that boardroom or walk up on that stage. Most of us allow our lives to be controlled by our unconscious expectations. Why not take control of those expectations and create the outcomes we truly desire?

Here’s how it works:

Set Your Goal
Sure, you think you want the best possible outcome for your presentation, but do you really? Most of our best intentions are also shot through with strong doubts and even self-destructive beliefs. Do you really want to be have a great presentation or do you just want to survive the trauma you fear? Take some time to really work through your goal for your presentation. Acknowledge negative feelings and attitudes but don’t let them stand between you and your best.

Picture Your Best
This can be tough. Once you really know what you want out of your next presentation, you need to create that picture in your mind. See every detail. Hear every sound. What are you wearing? What does the room look like? See the faces in the audience as you deliver your best possible presentation.

Focus Often
Take your visualization practice seriously and make it a priority in your preparations. Take time to be alone, be still and be in the moment with your thoughts as you run through your visualization again and again. As you practice, the image will become clearer and your focus will be easier to achieve.

By using creative visualization you are actually training your subconscious mind for greatness. This is just a basic rundown on the practice. Take the time to investigate creative visualization. You’ll find that there are countless resources to assist you as well as many mainstream research studies that support the effectiveness of this knockout preparation technique.

Mythology can play a powerful role in a film or a play, but when it comes to presentations, myths can be a bad thing.

There are a lot of “experts” out there who are all too happy to tell you the secrets of successful presenting. Unfortunately, much of what passes for advice these days is simply mythology.

Myth 1 – You Need a Magic Number of Visual Aids
How many times have you seen a presentation where the nicely designed slides confuse or completely overwhelm the overall message? We live in a visual culture and it’s easy to include more visual aids than a presentation actually requires. Remember, the aids are supposed to serve the presentation, not the other way around. Let your message determine the number of visual aids you need for a given presentation.

Myth 2 – The Audience is Illiterate
All too often, a great presentation degenerates into a reading lesson as the presenter simply recites the information that’s being projected. There can be a feeling of security in focusing the audience’s attention on your captivating slides, but it doesn’t make for a knockout presentation. Don’t spell out your presentation for your audience. Captivate them by speaking to them in a dynamic manner and keep the focus on you.

Myth 3 – Your Graphs are Obvious
Sure you understand what your graph means at a glance, but will your audience? Graphs need to be big, bold, clear and – most importantly – simple. The graph is there to make what you are saying clearer, not more confusing.

Myth 4 – The Audience is Interested
Or they’re not. Don’t overestimate the perceived importance of your presentation. Take a moment to explain the relevance of your subject with pride in all the hard work you’ve done. Save the humility for the discussion afterwards.

Myth 5 – No One Will Cut Me Off
Never make this mistake. Even if you could squeeze an extra five minutes into your presentation, it’s unfair and rude to your peers. Streamline your presentation and make it fit the allotted time slot. Chances are, it could use the editing.

Myth 6 – People Enjoy Shaky Presentations
Don’t ruin a five-star presentation with a red laser dot, dancing nervously through all of your hard work as you attempt to point out specifics in your projection. Highlight them ahead of time in PowerPoint.

Myth 7 – I’ve Got My Presentation Down
No you don’t. The truth is, you can’t be too prepared for your presentation. Being ready to do the presentation you want to give is half the job. Being ready to do the presentation you’ll have to give when Murphy’s Law takes over is the other half. You’re not ready until you are ready for anything.

Although people sometimes use these words interchangeably, they are actually two different things. In fact, one is the foundation of the other, though having the first doesn’t necessarily guarantee the second. For our purposes, confidence is an internal state, while charisma is a learned, practiced, and mastered skill-set.

Confidence

When we’re feeling insecure, a confident person seems almost superhuman in their ability to be calm, collected and, well, you know, cool. However, the fact is confident people have the same shortcomings and worries as anyone else. In fact, they don’t know how to rise above them anymore than you do. What confident people have mastered isn’t perfection, it’s the ability to be comfortable in their own skin despite their imperfections.

Developing confidence is largely a matter of being willing to take a long, hard, realistic look at yourself, and learning to like what you see. At that point you’ve begun to acquire the personal power and self esteem you’ll need to eliminate your negatives, accentuate your positives, and learn to love yourself more every day. Before you know it, everyone will be asking you “what’s your secret?”

School’s in:

• Identify your insecurities. Be realistic and honest, and write them down.
• Don’t ever allow yourself to believe you are inferior to anyone. That stops today! That stops right now!
• Be open with your friends and family. Let them know that you’re struggling with your confidence. By doing this, you will find courage with – and gather support from – the closest people in your life. Can you feel your power growing just thinking about it?
• Laugh in the face of perfection. Nobody is perfect.
• Be grateful and count your blessings. Fill yourself with wonder at all the great things, people, and opportunities you have in your life and there will be no room for insecurities.
• When you don’t feel confident – fake it! You’ll be surprised how pretending to be confident can quickly become the real thing.
• Help others! They say there’s no teacher like teaching. Help that shy guy at the office or that quiet lady at the conference to open up and discover their confidence. You’ll be doing a good deed, and you’ll be reinforcing all of these lessons for yourself!

Charisma

Once you’ve established a base of confidence, you can move on to your advanced studies in charisma. If confidence is a lightsaber, then charisma is the Jedi Fighting System. Charisma is what you do with it once you’ve got it. Charisma without real confidence is just cocky. It might get you a number at a bar, but it won’t get you to second base. Step up to the plate with charisma and real confidence, and you’ll be swinging for the bleachers every time.

Here are the basics:

• Learn to relax. Maintaining a loose body and a clear mind will help you stay settled in your hard-earned confidence.
• Get in touch with your emotions. Artists are always trying to convey their emotional states in a way that will recreate those same feelings in their audiences. You have the opportunity to speak to your audience directly! Speak from your heart!
• Speak with conviction and match your body language and expressions to what you are saying. This tends to be a natural side effect of staying in touch with your emotions, however, honing this skill can be time well-spent.
• Think before you speak. Taking time to gather your thoughts can actually draw your audience in. Don’t be afraid of a little silence. Use it!
• Treat your audience as equals – don’t pander or patronize. Listen attentively to their questions and compliment their contributions.  Respect them and they’ll love you.

Here is the video of the introduction:

Here are the corresponding slides:

Here are the header slides:

Sexy

Fiery

Savage

Also, if you want more information on Bruce Lee or presentations, here is an article I put together on the topic:

PRESENTATION KUNG FU
Even if you’re not a martial artist or a fan of Hong Kong films, everyone knows Bruce Lee. Far more than just another film star, Bruce Lee wrote books of philosophy, formulated his own style of martial art, taught several famous students, wrote and directed his own films, and was a loving husband and father. Along the way, Lee created an indelible image in popular culture. Sexy and savage, funny and fiery, Lee’s on-screen persona spoke to men and women alike, and his undeniable charisma made him China’s first international superstar.

Simply put, Bruce Lee was a revolutionary. He completely changed the way films were made in Hong Kong. He made radical choices as a teacher that upset thousands of years of respected Kung Fu traditions. He married a Caucasian girl despite the protests of both of their families, and – most importantly – he relentlessly remade himself, constantly pushing his personality and practice beyond their comfort zones in favor of relentless, non-stop growth.

Lee’s life and teachings can yield a lot of great guidance for our own presentation philosophies, and you could do worse than spending time brushing up on The Way of The Dragon.

Here are a few pointers to get us started:

Be Practical
Not everyone knows that Lee created a brand new martial art called Jeet Kune Do – The Way of the Intercepting Fist. This new “style” was really more of an “approach” to fighting that stated that the most practical tactics and techniques were the best – regardless of traditions or fads. Let practicality be your guide when you are creating your presentations. In the words of the master, “Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.”

Be A Magpie
In developing his fighting philosophy, Lee borrowed from every source imaginable. He devoured hundreds of hours of Muhammad Ali fight footage and was known to be a huge fan of professional wrestling! Keep your eyes open and always be willing to be surprised. You never know where your next great idea is going to come from!

Be An Innovator
In everything he did, Bruce Lee made his own way. In fact, this is the key to innovation: Do it your way and your next presentation will be as unique as you are!

Respect Your Audience
Regardless of which medium he expressed himself in, Bruce Lee always respected his audience. As a director, Lee’s films broke new ground artistically, but they never ceased to be entertaining. As a teacher, Lee opened his classes to non-Chinese students – a practice that was unheard of in Kung Fu at that time. And as an actor Lee was known as a supportive, hard worker – not a stuck-up star. Take a tip from The Dragon and always treat your audience with respect.

Of course, we all tend to accumulate more things than we’d care to have cluttering up our lives, but some of that stuff is crucial. Your husband may not agree, but where would you be without all every single one of those shoes that avalanche out of the closet every time you open the door?

When it comes to presentations, it’s easy to get a bit over-burdened with gear, but if you want to do a great job some of that “stuff” is crucial.

What do you really need the next time you present? Here is a punch list of critical must-haves.

Laptop and Projector
Clearly, you will be nowhere if you forget your your laptop on the day of your presentation, so don’t. Although you aren’t likely to head out without your computer, you wouldn’t be the first presenter to realize they had grabbed a colleague’s gear on the way out the door. Make sure you have the right one! Make sure you also have your projector. Even if you’ve been told that one will be provided, it’s a good idea to take an extra along. Don’t forget an extra bulb and all of your remotes!

Power Up
Your projector, your laptop, your remote and any number of other components you might use during your presentation all require power. I recommend bringing all of your chargers, extension cords, batteries and adapters. You never know what you’ll encounter when you arrive.

Remember Your Memory
Having your presentation backed up on a flash drive, a CD, a cloud, an external hard drive or a second computer is crucial. If you have some kind of disaster, redundancy will be your best friend. Also, have your presentation broken down on note cards or something else as well – just in case you have to wing it!

Drinks and Drugs
No, I don’t recommend hard partying before a presentation, but I do recommend bringing a couple bottles of water and any medications you might require. A bad case of hay fever or heartburn can kill your presentation, so pack your Zyrtec, headache meds, a light snack or anything else you might need to feel good for your moment in the spotlight.

Updates and Upgrades
Make sure PowerPoint or any other programs you may be using – are the latest and greatest versions available. If you find yourself in an equipment snafu you don’t want to fall right into compatibility issues when you need to open your presentation on a borrowed computer, etc.

Fresh and Clean
Bring gum, mints and hand sanitizer to your presentation. Once you complete your amazing performance your audience is going to demand lots of face time. You don’t want bad breath to put a damper on a great performance. Sanitizer is always a good idea after lots of hand-shaking with a big group. If you are on the road, your immune system is probably already stressed. Kill those bugs before they get you!

The difference between being a great, calm, confident public speaker and a shambling wreck is largely a matter of self-control. You have choices to make everyday. What’s for breakfast? Should I ask her out? Can I spend this money? Should I take the long way home? As a public speaker you also have choices to make. The biggest decision facing you isn’t the number of slides you’ll use or your font size. The real decision you need to make is whether or not you are going to totally freak out when you find yourself at the front of the room.

Your hardest challenge when it comes to your PowerPoint presentation is managing your anxiety. That is the difference between coming off as a joker or a Jedi when you are speaking in public. If you really want to feel the Force, you have to dedicate yourself to developing your own comfort-level in your own skin. This will take discipline and dedication, and with these five tips, you’ll be a master in no time.

Keep Cool
Remember, you’re not going to freak out! You’re going to take a deep breath and you are going to own the room. Just like Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction, you are going to be like Fonzie. You’re going to be cool.

Mirror Mirror
One of the best ways to discover your assets – and liabilities – when it comes to delivery, is to watch yourself in a mirror, you can even tape your pitch and play it back. This kind of self-criticism will reveal that you do weird things with your hands when you start your speech. You also just said “ummm” 430 times in 15 minutes. Be willing to take a long hard look at yourself and you’ll soon find that you are the smoothest presenter of them all.

Round Up your Posse
Of course, there is a limit to the good you can do yourself as your own critic. Run through your PowerPoint presentation with your friends, your colleagues, your husband, your dog. Anyone willing to sit still and listen can provide you with invaluable insights.

Practice Your Stance Grasshopper
The very first moment that your presentation begins can make or break everything that follows. Stand straight, but comfortably. Don’t start speaking right away. Take that deep breath and engage your audience with a smile.

Questions are the Answer
Sometimes a question is the best way to begin a presentation. A pointed question will immediately engage your audience even as it creates a communicative rapport that can carry you all the way through to the Q&A!

Wrong!

Why go to all the trouble of putting together such an amazing PowerPoint presentation if you’re not going to get everything you can out of it? Every time you do a presentation, the final step should be an effective, educational evaluation. After all, if you don’t take the time to consider what you’re doing right – and what you’re totally screwing up – how will you ever become the PowerPoint Power Ranger you know you can be?

Here are a few tips on evaluating your presentations and incorporating your findings into your ongoing projects.

EVALUATE, AND MAKE IT GREAT

Ask and Receive
Of course, the first sources you should tap for feedback are your co-workers and friends. Take the time to ask your closest colleagues to critique your presentation. Listen to what they have to say, paying special attention to points that repeat. It’s a great idea to email everyone who leaves you a card after attending your presentation. A simple follow up can serve as a thank you and an informal request for any feedback they may have to offer. Remember, these folks are networking themselves, and they want to be in touch with you. Many of them will be happy to offer their reactions.

Body Talk
Body language literally says more than words – if you know how to read it. Study up on body language and you’ll be able to tell how your presentation is going over moment to moment.

Talking to Yourself
Your own evaluation of your presentation can yield surprising insights. Did you get your point across? Was your intro catchy? Was your conclusion strong? As quickly as you can after a presentation, evaluate your own experience. Write down everything – good and bad – you can think of, and add your input to the rest of the info you’ve gathered

RUMINATE AND INCORPORATE

Think it Over
Take some time to sort through all of the feedback you’ve been able to gather on your last presentation. This may seem boring or tiresome, but even 15 minutes of really focusing on what you’ve pulled together will reveal patterns – good and bad – that you can make use of in – or eliminate from – your next presentation.

One More Time
Don’t be shy about following up on feedback. Do you need more clarity? Has an observation raised more questions? People love to be asked their opinions! Good, clear feedback is the only kind that will help, so get what you need.

Incorporate
Take what you’ve learned and apply it to your next endeavor. Follow this plan every time and you’ll see vast improvements in your confidence and in the presentations themselves.