Rants & Opinions Archives - Page 5 of 5

Word nerdery will change the world

February 19, 2013 by Erica Barnhart

I’m a “word nerd”, a term coined by Lindsay Bealko (a fellow word nerd).

Being a word nerd means you value and practice word nerdery (a term I totally just made up).

It’s true that word nerdery is part art, part science. Some will say it’s a talent and, therefore, can’t be learned. This chaps my hide. So not true. I absolutely take umbrage with this. It’s a cop out.

I believe–and this is based on observing a whole bunch of rabble rousing, do gooder types over the years tap into their inner word nerds right before my very eyes–it’s a skill that can be learned. Like knitting or parkours, you have to want to learn it.

This is good news for those us on a mission to change the world. Words can have a HUGE impact on the extent to which you are able to attract, engage, and retain support for your cause. Important, right?

For those of you interested in the world of word nerdery, here’s a tidbit to chew on from our friends at Georgetown University’s Brain and Language Lab:

“Our research focuses on two basic language capacities: the “mental lexicon” (mental dictionary) of memorized words, and “mental grammar” , which underlies the rule-governed sequential and hierarchical combination of lexicon forms into complex words (e.g. walk + ed), phrases and sentences (e.g. Clemential excoriated the pachyderm).”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what does that mean and what does it have to do with making the world a better place?

Translation: knowing a bunch of words (having a big mental dictionary) doesn’t a word nerd make. It’s our ability to take those words and package them up effectively (i.e. artfully apply mental grammar) that leads to world-changing word nerd awesomeness.

Don’t believe me? Watch this. Then try to tell me with a straight face (and not on April Fool’s Day ) that you don’t want to be able to have that effect with your words.

The Secret to Great Public Speaking

February 4, 2013 by Erica Barnhart

public speaking, fear of public speaking, public speaking tips I’ll skip the part where I ask if public speaking scares the bejeezus out of you. If you’re like most of the rest of the people on the planet, the answer is yes.

Let me save you a whole bunch of time and share with you the secret to great public speaking: Make it easy and fun for the audience to learn what they came to learn.

There. That’s it. The big secret’s out.

For all the hoopla around public speaking, it’s pretty straight-forward. We just tend to let our crazy brains make it scarier and more complicated than it needs to be. I mean, honestly, have you ever seen someone actually boo’d off the stage? Or pummeled by a tomato-throwing mob? Right. So take a deep breath and release all that worst case scenario business. Great public speaking is a must for anyone on a mission to make the world a better place.

These 3 Commandments summarize what countless articles, books, podcasts and webinars will tell you about great public speaking. #3 is particularly important for those on a mission, so pay special attention to it. #1 and #2 are universally true.

Know thy stuff: Speak about what you know about. If you don’t know about it, don’t speak about it. Think of the best talks you’ve ever heard. Why were they so good? Probably, at least in part, because that person knew every in and out of their subject matter. They knew it so well they could tailor to what you, as the listener, wanted to learn. (They probably also practiced. If Bill Gates does it, so must you.)
Know thy audience: If you’re following these commandments, you know your stuff. Now learn what your stuff has to do with the people to whom you will be speaking. What do they hope to learn from you? Do they want to be inspired or do they want to be able to go back to their office and immediately kick butt? These may sound like radically different talks, but usually it’s a matter of tweaking at the margins and staying focused on what your audience wants to learn…rather than being pulled off track by what you might want to say. (If this last sentence was confusing, read this.)
Let thy passion shine through: This is where so many speakers go astray–especially those who are motivated by mission! Your passion is a huge advantage. It gets people’s “mirror neurons” firing and that means people in the audience are feeling what you’re feeling. If you’re oozing passion, they’ll be cheering you on. If you’re oozing boredom and/or trepidation, they’ll feel, well, bummed out. You get so worried about people throwing tomatoes at you (not gonna happen, right?) that you read from a script. Word for word. If the only thing you make eye contact with during your talk is a piece of paper, you’ve missed the boat. Make eye contact with your audience. If you follow Commandments #1 and #2, you will know your stuff and know your audience. You can then give the gift of letting others see your passion for your topic at full force. (Hint: If it gives you confidence to have your entire script in front of you, go for it. But go through and make your key points in 36+ point font size and highlight them. If you get lost, you say, “I get so excited about this stuff that sometimes I get carried away. Let me see, where was I? Oh yes, here we are…” No one will fault you for getting carried away, so long as you bring it back to what they’re there to learn.)

Enough already. Go be awesome.

[Photo credit: http://ourspeeches.com]

Make good decisions, not more (picking a bone with Seth Godin)

January 8, 2013 by Erica Barnhart

Making too many decisions can turn you into a Bad Decision Dinosaur. Scary! (Photo credit: www.neurologicalcorrelates.com)

A few days ago, Seth Godin wrote a post in which he encouraged us to make more decisions. I beg to differ.

Seth’s point was that we are all fundamentally in the business of decision-making and that the only way to get better at what we do is by doing more of it.

Although this is true of many skills, I don’t agree it’s true of decision-making. In fact, making more decisions often leads to sloppy decision-making because you’re so busy rushing along to make the next decision that you don’t allow time to be thoughtful about the current one.

For anyone faced with making decisions about which marketing strategy to adopt in 2013 and which tools to use to support that strategy, what you need to get good at is making good decisions–not more. (Of note, sometimes making a good decision means deciding a decision isn’t necessary, i.e. not worth your time.)

Often it’s a better use of your time to be assessing whether the decisions you’ve already made were good ones. Are they working? Are they delivering the results you want and need to be successful?

If Seth was lumping revisiting decisions in with making more decisions, I can maybe get on board with his advice. My advice? Make decisions about the decisions that really matter and make those well.