Public Speaking – Page 5 – The Brain Alchemist

7 ways speakers can use transmedia to grow and engage their audience

Technology offers speakers, authors and experts an opportunity to spread their messages across multiple media channels. A skillful pairing of content with a virtual platform can unfold your story further and create a unique experience for your audience. I described the concept of transmedia that uses technology and community engagement to create multi-dimensional stories in my previous blog post.

Speakers can leverage cross-media platforms to increase the impact of their narratives. Here are 7 ways you can use transmedia to grow and engage your audience:

1. Create a series of comics with the main characters of your story that expand on the material in your presentation. For example, if you chose to edit out certain parts of your presentation, you can bring them back in the comics format. Invite your audience to subscribe to your virtual comics series to call back to and further unfold your presentation ideas so that your audience could continue learning from you through the comics updates.

2. Develop an assessment based on your expert content that allows your audience to identify their avatar, or type, and guide them to the content that is custom-designed for their specific avatars. Your audience will be more likely to engage with the material that they find relevant to their needs. You can generate a QR code that will take your audience to the assessment and include it in your printed materials to distribute during live presentations.

3. Create an animation or a scenario-based video to illustrate one of the main points in your presentation. Check out this beautifully animated RSA Short, in which Dr. Brené Brown explains empathy. You can use such animations in workshops, webinars and your own marketing.

4. Use art, illustrations, and props to present your ideas. Here is how Brad Heckman used his own drawing during his TEDx Talk on Mindfulness in the Midst of Conflict at Columbia Teachers College, which is now available in the video format.

5. Develop a blog series based on your expert content. Such blog series can include the background information about your characters, visual representations of the scenes from your stories, audience surveys, puzzles and other game elements, quests and challenges that encourage your audience to participate and offer rewards to active community members. You can invite the audience to apply the strategies you share to various scenarios introduced through such blog series.

6. Design physical artifacts based on your presentation content, such as postcards, bookmarks, stickers, pins, and calendars with your quotes. You can distribute them at your live presentations or include them with your speaker package for event planners. You can invite your audience to recreate unique elements of your expert content as drawings, clay figures or origami during your workshops and use them as anchors to improve the recall of the material.

7. Collect brief opinions, testimonials or comments from your audience by using video-sharing applications, such as Instagram or Vine. Feature them with the participants’ permission on your blog as a way to promote your presentations and workshops or generate a discussion about a particular topic.

These are just some possibilities of how your story can be told in different formats across multiple platforms. We can help you bring your own transmedia project to reality through Bookphoria multimedia solutions. Apply for our free exploratory session to learn more at
http://bookphoria.com/register-for-your-complimentary-consultation/

By Anastasia Pryanikova| 2014-02-03T19:15:12+00:00 February 3rd, 2014|Learning, Public Speaking|1 Comment

How to create your multimedia author or speaker bio

Our goal at Bookphoria is to entice more authors, speakers and experts to explore the world of multimedia as a gateway to more dynamic and engaging presentations, growing readership and audience, greater impact and multiple income streams for your business. We want to give you practical tips and tools to start using multimedia in your book promotions and your business.

Bookphoria is all about learning and implementing your ideas. To infuse your multimedia journey with some extra motivation, we are introducing a game (and reward) element to our Bookphoria blog series. Watch the video and stay tuned to find out more.

First, let me ask you: “How do you buy books?” Chances are that you go online or to your local book store already with a book title in mind because somebody told you about the book or you read and enjoyed other books by the same author. Fewer people nowadays have the luxury of wondering into a bookstore, browsing the shelves and finding something new to read. Most people buy when they already have their next book in mind. What does it mean to you as an author? You want to be that author that other people heard about from their friends and colleagues, in radio and TV interviews, on social media. In other words, you want to stand out from the crowd of other authors in similar genres and industries. You want your future readers know who you are, what books you have written and why. Before they learn from you, they need to learn about you.

This brings me to the topic of today’s video: the author bio (and if you are a speaker, it also applies to your speaker bio or speaker reel.) Where do you usually find an author bio? On the book cover, that’s where! I am holding the book “Golden Climate in Distance Learning” co-authored by Dr. Marina Kostina and see her bio on the cover. But didn’t I just say a few seconds ago that your prospective readers should already know about you before they even see your book cover? If you are a speaker, you bio is typically read by event organizers, and as you probably agree, it rarely has en effect of a red carpet introduction. So, what do you do? I challenge you to think about creating your own unique, exciting, dynamic, multimedia author or speaker bio in the video format. Your multimedia bio can include:

Video and audio clips from your book signings and speaking engagements;
Video testimonials from your readers;
You own narration of your bio and your mission;
Photos from various events;
Slides with pertinent information about your business.

Before you start pulling all these pieces of information together, however, I want you to come up with the main theme of your bio.

How do you want your readers to remember you?
What are the main attributes of you brand that you want to convey to your readership and audience?
Why should people care to read your books or listen to your presentations?
What do you stand for as an author or speaker?

As you ponder these questions, distill your ideas into a crisp and catchy statement that is memorable and shareable. It can become a theme for your video bio that will help you create a compelling story in in a digital format.

For example, as The Brain Alchemist and a certified World Class Speaking coach, I show presenters how to “Link and sync brains through storytelling.” This is one of my themes. I also use the metaphor “Melt the ICE” to create Impact, Connection and Engagement (ICE is an acronym that is easy to remember).

It is now your turn to come up with your multimedia author bio theme. Share your ideas in the comments below. As promised, here is the game plan. Your catchy theme submissions will qualify you to receive our Bookphoria reward points, otherwise known as “bookmarks.” 1 theme submission = 1 bookmark. You have to email your submissions to info@bookphoria.com. As you accumulate your bookmarks for doing the fun work (more challenges to come in our future blog posts), you become eligible to get special discounts and gifts from Bookphoria, and most importantly, you start developing your own invaluable content for your bright multimedia future. Are you game?

By Anastasia Pryanikova| 2014-01-16T13:45:11+00:00 January 16th, 2014|Books, Learning, Public Speaking|0 Comments

Storytelling 2.0: a mystery singer, a shoe and a conflict.

Happy New Year!

What is your most daring business-related vision for 2014 and beyond? I will share one of mine with you. I just submitted a book chapter on transmedia storytelling for speakers. Transmedia storytelling is a novel concept for many. Here is a short video that explains it:

Having worked in the peacemaking and conflict management field, I would love to generate projects that can teach conflict management skills through transmedia. I plan to develop transmedia content myself as a speaker and trainer. Through Bookphoria, we work with authors to bring their expert content into multimedia.

What if we could create a transmedia narrative that is not about a mystery singer and a shoe, but rather about a conflict? Every good story has a conflict. We all have seen enough of venting about conflicts on social media. In contrast, our “caught-in-conflict” transmedia story can engage the audience members to solve a conflict by using their existing skills and extra help they may get along their journey from skillful professionals. The transmedia story may include videos and narratives of effecting peacemaking, as well as different scenarios to explore. The audience members become active participants and digital storytellers themselves. People can play and learn!

OK, this is an example of my vision of the future of conflict management training. How can digital storytelling become part of your vision?

Share your daring vision in the comments below!

P.S. Bookphoria offers a free PDF of my ebook “FANology Playbook: 27 Brain-Friendly Activities to Turn Virtual Friends and Foes into Fans.” Get it HERE.

By Anastasia Pryanikova| 2013-12-30T21:34:51+00:00 December 30th, 2013|Communication, Conflict Management, Learning, Public Speaking|2 Comments

Make them tweet as you speak: 5 tips to make your presentation more shareable

Whenever I attend a conference or other events with speakers, I always look for the nuggets of wisdom I can share with my social networks right then and there. I get original content and an opportunity to connect with other participants who may use the same hashtag for the event, as well as bring awareness to the event itself. It makes my job much easier when speakers have those catchy phrases, quotes, and headlines nicely peppered throughout their presentations.

If you are a presenter, you can benefit from having a range of shareable and tweetable phrases at your disposal. You get more exposure on social networks because others are more likely to share your words. You can use them in your marketing and promotional materials to stand out from the crowd. They can help people remember the gist of your message years after they heard you speak. Those expressions also build your brand if they speak to your values, core messages and perceptions. How do you develop such brain candy? Here are 5 tips to create shareable content:

1. Keep it concise and precise. Ambiguity tickles the mind, precision sharpens it. Aim to express the main ideas of your presentation in a memorable way in 140 characters or less.

2. Sample, but don’t steal. Be always on the lookout for headlines in newspapers and magazines that you like. Notice what catches your attention and stirs your emotions. Pay attention to the wording and structure of the headline. The more you notice, the better you become at writing your own headlines. The goal is not to copy them but learn from them. For example, I saw “Five things we can’t stop smiling about…” in The Oprah Magazine. That’s a construction that can be re-used in many contexts: “Ten things I can’t stop thinking about…” or “Three movies I can’t stop raving about…” You get the idea. Here is another example: “Good news for bad habits.” This headline plays with the contrast of “good” and “bad” in common expressions. You can create your own contrastive pairs: “light humor for dark days” or “a sweet treat for a sour disposition.”

3. Write to remember. Jot down your creative ideas whenever and wherever they pop up in your mind. It is difficult to come up with a catchy phrase on the spot. It usually takes time and several versions to perfect it. That’s why it is important to keep notes. Look for things that rhyme and word combinations that have a nice ring and flow to them. I have a Google document – Say Something – where I record my work in progress, and whenever I have a few spare minutes, I go there to tinker with words.

4. Sort and recycle. As you accumulate more catchy sayings, you can organize them according to their topics and combine them into an article or a blog post. My blog post “Six Tips for Peaceful Holidays” began with a series of tweets with the hashtag #peacefulholidays. Later, I expanded on each tweet to write the blog post. Craig Valentine, World Champion of Public Speaking for Toastmasters International, who trained me to become a certified World Class Speaking Coach, compiled his “27 Phrases To Master the Stage” to inspire other speakers. I remember much of his speaking advice through these phrases. There are WordPress Twitter plugins, such as Click To Tweet, that will allow your readers to share your phrases on Twitter with one click. If you find compelling photos or images to accompany your phrases, you can turn them into slides or inspirational content to post on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.

5. Make them laugh, make them cry. Appeal to emotions. Emotional content grabs attention and is more likely to be shared and better remembered. As one study revealed, “videos eliciting positive emotion, including joy and humour, are most likely to be forwarded; videos eliciting feelings of alertness and attentiveness are the next most likely to be forwarded. Videos that evoke negative emotions, such as anger or disgust, are still more likely to be forwarded than dull, non-emotional videos. Another study, done by the Journal of Marketing Research and the American Marketing Association, identified the top 9 emotional triggers that drive social sharing: emotionality, positivity, awe, anger, anxiety, sadness, practical utility, interest and surprise.

By Anastasia Pryanikova| 2013-10-18T20:14:36+00:00 October 18th, 2013|Communication, Public Speaking|0 Comments

Look it up: the value of unsearchable questions

Whenever my 7-year-old daughter has a question that I cannot answer immediately, her typical response is “Look it up.” Even with her purposefully limited exposure to the Internet, she knows that there is an answer somewhere there hiding behind the keyboards and screens. What she does not realize is that I cannot easily look up the meaning of made-up words, the habitat of imaginary animals or what the weather is going to be on her birthday, which is in December and still months away.

In the world where many answers are available at our fingertips, there is wisdom and learning for all of us in pondering things that are not easy to look up. As speakers, teachers, trainers, and facilitators, it is perhaps our mission to challenge the audience with inquiries that cannot be solved by a piece of technology. As neuroscientist Stuart Firestein suggests in his TED talk “The Pursuit of Ignorance,” “high-quality ignorance” – the appreciation of what we don’t know – is a fuel of discovery. While we can and should incorporate searchable facts, statistics, theories, and conclusions into our presentations, the growth potential often lies in unique, emerging connections initiated by the leaps into the unknown that the audience is willing to take. Here are three strategies to help your audience “to make better ignorance” – to tinker with ideas for deeper insights.

Offer questions for reflection. A question is a mirror for the mind. A search for an answer can reveal new associations and pathways that may not surface otherwise. Questions help to make your message relevant to your audience. They challenge the audience to think about how your main points relate to their lives and personal experiences. As Immanuel Kant observed, “Every answer given on principle of experience begets a fresh question.” What can you ask your audience to highlight the relevance of your message? In which contexts are they most likely to apply your ideas? Make your questions open-ended to invite a broader inquiry: who, what, where, how, when, why. Give enough space and silence for the insights to percolate to the surface. Invite your audience members to share their responses and listen actively for new connections to explore. Make reflection an essential part of the learning experience you create for your audience.

Explore life’s what ifs through scenarios. Scenarios are mini-stories co-created with your audience. They provide hooks for your audience members to hang their own assumptions, beliefs, fears, and hopes. Scenarios offer a unique way to determine how a set of factors or a specific context can influence outcomes. You can change things up, explore alternatives, brainstorm solutions without being threatened by negative consequences. Scenarios help to overcome the “groupthink” and invite contrarian opinions. In real life, we don’t always have the luxury of testing things out. Scenarios offer an opportunity to take risks while still playing it safe.

Gamify your message. Our brains like playfulness. The desire to play may be wired in our mammalian brain as many animals exhibit playful behavior and learn the intricacies of social interactions through play. Play can relax the brain and make us more open to experiment, prepare for the unexpected and produce a more diverse repertory of behavior. In a role-play, we can assume various roles, put ourselves through different kinds of experiences, learn to better understand other perspectives and explore our own identities. Invite your audience to play, be silly, poke fun at themselves and laugh. Reward your audience members for their contributions. Random rewards boost motivation and learning as they trigger the release of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine. Playfulness is a way to create the state of “flow” and full engagement with people and ideas. As Plato once said, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

By Anastasia Pryanikova| 2013-10-01T14:31:32+00:00 October 1st, 2013|Communication, Creativity, Public Speaking|0 Comments