FORA TV.....Have you heard of it? Have you watched any of the videos? I hadn´t, until I came across a comparison chart between FORA and TED and I decided to take a look. Embedded in this post is an interview with Malcom Gladwell, where he discusses his book Outliers, Barack Obama and...<< MORE >>

I haven´t been on chatroulette, have you? I´ve heard plenty of the chat.....but so far, I haven´t at all been interested. Let´s blame in on the pervert factor. But after seeing the embedded video of improv piano man....I may just log on....after all, the power to next is in your control.<< MORE >>

There´s a lot of talk about engaging your audience through storytelling; getting them on your side by appealing to their emotional side, not just their rational side with the numbers. Made to Stick, anyone?  I get it, and so do a lot of you. So why is it that many of us still shy away from digging deep, and going the storytelling route?  We tell ourselves that it´s a serious business presentation, and therefore we must present...well, seriously. So we plow ahead in the direction of the tried and true .... which has probably never led to a standing ovation.  Well, read on, because I have a story for you!

This one is about a very busy executive who accepted the task of delivering the keynote address to the graduating class of a rural high school in Jamaica. This man was a busy man, he was an accomplished public speaker and like most Jamaicans, wasn´t known for his punctuality. On the appointed day, he was running just a little behind schedule.

He jumped into his large SUV, braved the torrential rains and terrible driving conditions and arrived after a few hours in the heart of the country. (See picture below for a visual cue)

Photo credit: Max Earle

He parked his car in a very muddy parking lot, and before leaving his vehicle he straightened his tie and grabbed hold of his notes for the speech. Through his rain-splattered windscreen, he could see a large crowd watching him under the eaves of the school house. They had been waiting for him. He felt an unfamiliar stirring in the pit of his stomach.

He quickly began to make his way across the ¨parking lot¨ , when suddenly he lost his footing. He tried his best to balance, arms flailing....but his fall was inevitable...and the mud was deep. Down he went, face first in the mud, right in front of his audience. There were gasps, then silence. This wasn´t what they had expected! This was their big day after all! This important man from the big city had fast become a big disappointment.

Covered in mud, yet somehow undeterred, the man rose from the mud and crossed the parking lot. He flashed them his trademark smile and reassured them with Jamaica´s most ubiquitous of phrases. ¨No problem, man. I only need a tissue to wipe my glasses.¨ Someone from the crowd obliged and then the skeptical mass moved slowly towards the auditorium with the man trailing muddily behind.

During his introduction, he scanned the crowd and saw skepticism written across many faces. In that moment, he changed his plan. He strode up to the podium, in his ruined suit, freed the microphone from its´ cradle, tore his prepared speech in half and tossed it to the floor in dramatic fashion.

He told them that his speech was suddenly irrelevant....and that he was glad that he had fallen down in the mud. Since it demonstrated better than any words could, what life was all about. He told them that sometimes, life would be messy, and knock them around. He told them that they needed to get up and fight back in order to thrive in our challenging and ever-changing world. The crowd cheered him on, showed their appreciation and when he finally concluded his speech, their standing ovation became something more. They went to the podium, hoisted him up in the air and carried him all the way triumphantly to his car. There were tears and smiles, and on that day, a story was created that unified every one of them in that rural school auditorium.

As the man drove off, he glanced in his rear view mirror and saw a throng of people dancing in their best shoes, in the mud, and he smiled.
That man is my father.

        

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, this time, the snow was seriously gaining momentum. I know many people were inconvenienced and stranded yesterday, as Barcelona simply isn´t the sort of city in possession of a fleet of snow removal vehicles. No need...when apparently the last time Barcelona saw snow was about ten years ago. But hey, aside from the chaos, wasn´t it simply breathtaking?

Here´s a shot from my window last night.


Schools were called off today....what a joy for the kids (and some of the parents too!)...because the snow is already almost all gone. I hope you enjoyed the unusual event and I bet you laughed at some point today while sharing a crazy story from yesterday.

 

        

Those of you who wanted to check whether you spotted all of Davin´s grammatical errors...this one´s for you!

I made ten changes to his status update; here´s my version.

Davin says to remember that when you´re good at something, there are probably 1,000 people better than you are, and if you become better than they are, there´ll probably be one left who is still better than you!

        

Yesterday was National Grammar Day in the US, and to celebrate, the Huffington Post posted photos of some remarkable examples of poor English grammar (by native speakers!). Here´s a shot of the worst example in my opinion. It´s a screen shot of a status update on Facebook. How many errors can you spot in this one?



Incredible, right? So yes, take heart, many native-speakers have problems with English grammar too.

A quick pointer....their, they´re and there are all pronounced exactly the same, but have very different meanings as you probably already know. See my short sentence below for a reminder.

They´re making their presentations over there.

Unfortunately for Davin, his grammatical problems didn´t stop there. Let me know how many mistakes you´ve found on this one and if you want a challenge, go to yesterday´s post to try spot the errors in the ten other examples. Good luck!

If you have problems spotting the errors, let me know, I´d be happy to go through them with you.

Look out for the corrected version in the next few days, to find out if you spotted them all!

        

If you´re involved in creating the marketing message for your brand or company, you already know the importance of appealing to your consumers´ emotions. You want your customers to feel something and then act on that feeling, right? Here are ten common emotional triggers used in crafting effective marketing messages. << MORE >>

Essentially the Bloom Box (or the Bloom Energy Server) is an electricity-generating device that takes fuel and air and turns it into power. The buzz is building around the device because it works. Companies like Google, Walmart and eBay are already using them, it is a green technology (low emissions), and it has the potential to power an entire home with a box that can fit in your hands.

If you want to learn exactly what this box is about and more about Bloom Energy, the company behind it, check out the 60 Minutes video embedded below:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

        

Like many people, I find LinkedIn to be an invaluable tool for my business, as it´s such a great way to connect with people in my market. But I knew that I was not using it as effectively as I could..... so I went looking for help, and found it at Hubspot.  I just downloaded Hubspot´s eBook How to Use Linkedin for Business  which is full of tips that I found helpful. Maybe you will too? For a sample of their advice, check out the embedded video of Mike Volpe from Hubspot explaining a few ways to SEO optimise your LinkedIn profile.



For many more useful tips and advice on how to leverage LinkedIn, download Hubspot´s free eBook How to Use LinkedIn for Business here. That´s all for now...I need to make some changes to my LinkedIn profile!

        

If you have been wondering about the possible future implications of Facebook surpassing Yahoo, to become the second most visited site in the US, Check out this post.<< MORE >>