Hello SCG,
I am happy to be back, after emotionally exhausting days. Thank you for great support Super Cool Gang-ers! Hugs.
Idea for today’s shipment was born after my talk about PPD* (*Professional Presentation Design) on Webpreneur Universtiy. During my 1st talk on international ground I have realized, that I don’t have my tool with me! Which tool did I miss?
This was my missing tool:
My dear wireless remote control for slides;-)
From now on, I will simply carry it with me wherever I will go, along with my laptop and external hard disk, where I have stored my art. (slide-decks, videos, blog posts, pictures etc.)
Being prepared means being ready to get lucky, as luck is when preparation meets opportunity! Guys, I want you to be prepared all the time. You never know, when break-through opportunity will be ready in front of you.
SCG,
what are your tools? Are you prepared to present and manifest your art, at any point of a time and at any place? Do you carry your tools with you?
See you in comments, my dear artists!
i.
Inspiring Shipments (#IS) by Ivana Sendecka 
My most frequent presentation is in meetings in the form of calculations on excel spreadsheets. It is done on a laptop. My most useful tool is a stack of index cards (made from cutting discarded printouts into quarters) and a pen. That is the best way of note taking and task list making.
I also carry my iPhone with simplenote to sync my plain text notes from work PC for the meetings. I use ResophNotes on my PC (Notational Velocity on my home Mac) to write notes.
Excellent, Abhishek!
It is great to be well 0rganized and prepared.
Thank you for your 1st comment here and welcome to our SCG!
😉
Notebook, pen, iPhone, attitude, brain, mind.
Notebook and pen. All that awesome comics I have created during meet-ups, brainwashing, thinking, observing. All my notes, thoughts, ideas, “art.”
iPhone, because I want to stay connected. Waiting somewhere, no problem to reply on emails, read Seth’s blog, read twitter feed, read some materials,….
Attitude, brain, mind. Sometimes, you are someplace thinking about another place. You can forget or lost almost everything. If you have right attitude, if you can still thing and you are not out of your mind, you are fine.
First I wrote also my MacBook, external hard drive, internet connection, presentation, spreadsheats. But than I think about it one more time. Do I realy need it? Does it helps my audience? Does it help my ideas to spread? I don’t think so. Words are the most powerful thing I know. So I need to spend way more time thinking about how to make my speeches more powerful, how to talk fluently, how to use right vocabulary, how to balance it. That’s my point.
Yay, thank you for your comment young man;-)
Certainly the most important is the idea/message/value you will send fwd using these tools, but the essence is you, indeed!
😉
P.S.: I will be back at home in PP on Saturday, let’s catch up then.
Hi Ivana,
I used to travel internationally to provide training on a proprietary system. The technical frustrations that I encountered on my first trip taught me to not take anything for granted despite being told, “Don’t worry, the conference room will have everything that you’ll need.” Of course, the set-up was lacking. For later trips, I paid no attention to similar assurances and toted all of the hardware that I would need.
Technical difficulties aside, I’ve found that, in business, my most important tools are my ears and my eyes: the first allows me to listen and really understand the needs of clients and with the second I can recognize the next opportunity when it presents itself. Ray
Hey Ray!
So great to read you again, over here!
😉
Yes, we are the most important element of making a difference. Other tools can just help us to have deeper and wider impact.
😉
For instance, this blog is my little stand and microphone with which I can speak my thoughts out to the world, it is a tool.
Hey,
funny things sometimes happen (even in Germany 😉 ): had to go to an event with my clients. Coporate policy – don´t leave laptop in your car. But, no chance my carrying around my laptop. So … took the hard disk out of the laptop … carried in my jacket. Had a perfect evening! Until … 4 in the morning. Cool. Even if one would have stolen the laptop out of the car: I saved my tool!
6am other morning, after 2 hrs sleep: quick coffee in the hotel before getting into car, driving to a very important internal meeting. I was just new in this section of the company and I had to give my first presentation!
Throwed the jacket over a chair … to get me a coffee. The hard disk fell out of the jacket! Damaged! Comepletely done! Laptop did not even start! … and I did not have a copy of my presentation…
So, while driving to the meeting … I had the laptop on the co-drivers seat … tried everything I could while driving fast on the german Autobahn … wanted to be in time at least, not good to be late and have NO TOOLS!
OK … how did the story end:
I went there just “naked” without anything but me, my brain, a charming smile, a pen and a flip chart.
That day … I will always remember it … I REALLY INSPIRED MY AUDIENCE. Best presentation ever …
So … best tools:
Be open to your audience, watch them and listen to their questions.
Be flexible to do the right pitch for your audience, not the one you prepared!
And, developing the presentation is the best way to prepare .. but once you did that, you´ve got it all in your head! 😉
Amazing story, Oliver! Yay and this is your 1st comment here as well!;-)
You are so, right about having the know how already in head.
Same applies to me, I can talk about my slides even without them and I know which slide goes after which, just when slide-deck is nicely designed it is impoverishing audience of mind-blowing experience;-)
😉
Once again, thank you for such generous comment and welcome to SCG!
Most welcome … that was just overdue. Funny enough, I am back in Dubai!
Best, Oliver