Size Does Matter

Watching a beautiful high definition NFL broadcast this weekend, a little contrast jumped out at me in one of the commercial breaks. A company that spent a LOT of money to advertise in a prime time Sunday afternoon pro football broadcast during the holiday shopping season, threw a big-time commercial on my picturesque widescreen in STANDARD DEFINITION in a 4:3 aspect ratio! I was surprised to see a cropped, low quality commercial during an HD football broadcast. It jumped out at me because it was SO different from everything else, and not in a good way.

Those of us enjoying HD broadcast television have come to be comfortable with commercials and programs recorded in HD, and in the proper 16:9 HD aspect ratio. It's just the way things are done now. When was the last time you saw a 4:3 TV at a retail store? Years ago. It's rare to see a commercial nowadays in old, low technology. Anything made in the last few years has no excuse to be in proper contemporary formats. Are they still answering their rotary phones, too?

For anyone who isn't familiar with aspect ratios or video formats, here's the simple Cliff Notes version. 4:3 aspect ratio, commonly called "four-by-three" derives from 35mm film used in silent era cinema, as well as 35mm still camera film. Simply put, it's the length and the width of the screen in a ratio. We know it more as the squareish shape of the old console CRT television tubes. When television was birthed, the format was adapted from the movies at the time—a simple transition so that movies potentially viewed on TVs would all look the same as the theater. Makes plenty of sense.

This is a standard 4:3 proportion screen:
High definition TVs and current day movies are produced in what is known as 16:9 (sixteen-by-nine) aspect ratio, sometimes known as widescreen to movie junkies.

This is a typical look of a 16:9 widescreen format:
This has been a transition for broadcast television as well as computers for years, and makes the old 4:3 format from the 40s a relic. If you continue to use this format for your presentations, it makes YOU look like a relic, too.

By default, unintelligent programs like Powerpoint and Keynote blindly default to a historically standard 4:3 aspect ratio, usually a 1024 pixels x 768 pixels framed canvas. These work great on your 10 year old CRT monitor but not so great on any new laptop or widescreen HD television, which are the norm now, and not the exception.

Building your new presentation into the default settings from the second you open a program already puts you into 1940s video technology. Is that where you want to be? Is that the first impression you want your audience to have of you?

So here's a tip. The first thing you should do when you are preparing your presentation slide deck is find out what the final technology will be. If it is an old school 4:3 projection screen or an iPad, keep the proportions set to the default 4:3, and let 'er rip. If you are showing on a laptop, HD TV or monitor or any contemporary projection hardware, make sure that you head into your page or canvas setup and select the 16:9 options. We prefer 1280 x 720 sizes when putting together 16:9 presentations as a good balance of file size and image quality.

If you are using 4:3 slide proportions and showing them on 16:9 screens, you are not only losing out on valuable slide space and real estate, but those black bars down the sides make you look like an amateur and unprepared. When you want to look polished and professional in every way, make sure the slides behind you are up to the task, as well.

Chicago Ideas Week 2011: onto 2012

Brad Keywell is the visionary leader behind some amazing things. The guy is one of the founding partners of Groupon, he owns and operates Lightbank, a VC organization, he co-founded TEDxMidwest and is driving force behind Chicago Ideas Week. Just to name a few.

What's Chicago Ideas Week? Well, it's a series of amazing session by amazing presenters across a wide spectrum topics. In 2011, the week long event was held in 40+ venues and included people like President Bill Clinton, Dean Kamen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Kevin Bacon, David Gregory, Ronnie Lott, and MANY more. Additionally, SquarePlanet was honored to partner with CIW as a Platinum Sponsor and presentation provider in 2011.

So, what do you care? Well, the lesson in today's blog comes directly from Brad Keywell.

Today we received a very complete and honest assessment of the week-long event. While likely written by a team of people, the 20+ page document goes into great detail about the good, the bad and the downright ugly...and it's signed by Brad himself. In essence, it's his report card on his event. This is powerful stuff!!

Nobody questions his success...it's quite obvious. Additionally, most people understand that you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette, meaning not everything he touches will turn to gold.

But think about his report card idea for just a second longer. The concept of candidly and accurately reporting on your own performance is something most us wouldn't be willing to do. Sure, all of us know in our heart of hearts how we perform in certain situations, but Keywell made his assessment of his performance public. By choice!

The ugly truth is never easy. Kudos to the entire CIW team and Keywell for embracing the realities of a situation. The next time you present, try following his lead. Honestly critique your performance. Consider what you did well, what you did poorly and what you can do to improve before the next opportunity. Use a simple scoring system, pick a few essential categories to judge yourself and use the information to force improvement.

Thanks Brad, and by the way, we give you an A!

Video Tips & Tricks #2: Gestures

The second in our video series of Tips & Tricks... enjoy!

What I Learned From Steve Jobs

from Guy Kawasaki, cult of Apple evangelist and entrepreneur...

What I Learned From Steve Jobs

Many people have explained what one can learn from Steve Jobs. But few, if any, of these people have been inside the tent and experienced first hand what it was like to work with him. I don’t want any lessons to be lost or forgotten, so here is my list of the top twelve lessons that I learned from Steve Jobs.

Experts are clueless.
Experts—journalists, analysts, consultants, bankers, and gurus can’t “do” so they “advise.” They can tell you what is wrong with your product, but they cannot make a great one. They can tell you how to sell something, but they cannot sell it themselves. They can tell you how to create great teams, but they only manage a secretary. For example, the experts told us that the two biggest shortcomings of Macintosh in the mid 1980s was the lack of a daisy-wheel printer driver and Lotus 1-2-3; another advice gem from the experts was to buy Compaq. Hear what experts say, but don’t always listen to them.

Customers cannot tell you what they need.
“Apple market research” is an oxymoron. The Apple focus group was the right hemisphere of Steve’s brain talking to the left one. If you ask customers what they want, they will tell you, “Better, faster, and cheaper”—that is, better sameness, not revolutionary change. They can only describe their desires in terms of what they are already using—around the time of the introduction of Macintosh, all people said they wanted was better, faster, and cheaper MS-DOS machines. The richest vein for tech startups is creating the product that you want to use—that’s what Steve and Woz did.

Jump to the next curve.
Big wins happen when you go beyond better sameness. The best daisy-wheel printer companies were introducing new fonts in more sizes. Apple introduced the next curve: laser printing. Think of ice harvesters, ice factories, and refrigerator companies. Ice 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Are you still harvesting ice during the winter from a frozen pond?


The biggest challenges beget best work.
I lived in fear that Steve would tell me that I, or my work, was crap. In public. This fear was a big challenge. Competing with IBM and then Microsoft was a big challenge. Changing the world was a big challenge. I, and Apple employees before me and after me, did their best work because we had to do our best work to meet the big challenges.

Design counts.
Steve drove people nuts with his design demands—some shades of black weren’t black enough. Mere mortals think that black is black, and that a trash can is a trash can. Steve was such a perfectionist—a perfectionist Beyond: Thunderdome—and lo and behold he was right: some people care about design and many people at least sense it. Maybe not everyone, but the important ones.

You can’t go wrong with big graphics and big fonts.
Take a look at Steve’s slides. The font is sixty points. There’s usually one big screenshot or graphic. Look at other tech speaker’s slides—even the ones who have seen Steve in action. The font is eight points, and there are no graphics. So many people say that Steve was the world’s greatest product introduction guy—don’t you wonder why more people don’t copy his style?

Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.
When Apple first shipped the iPhone there was no such thing as apps. Apps, Steve decreed, were a bad thing because you never know what they could be doing to your phone. Safari web apps were the way to go until six months later when Steve decided, or someone convinced Steve, that apps were the way to go—but of course. Duh! Apple came a long way in a short time from Safari web apps to “there’s an app for that.”

“Value” is different from “price.”
Woe unto you if you decide everything based on price. Even more woe unto you if you compete solely on price. Price is not all that matters—what is important, at least to some people, is value. And value takes into account training, support, and the intrinsic joy of using the best tool that’s made. It’s pretty safe to say that no one buys Apple products because of their low price.

A players hire A+ players.
Actually, Steve believed that A players hire A players—that is people who are as good as they are. I refined this slightly—my theory is that A players hire people even better than themselves. It’s clear, though, that B players hire C players so they can feel superior to them, and C players hire D players. If you start hiring B players, expect what Steve called “the bozo explosion” to happen in your organization.

Real CEOs demo.
Steve Jobs could demo a pod, pad, phone, and Mac two to three times a year with millions of people watching, why is it that many CEOs call upon their vice-president of engineering to do a product demo? Maybe it’s to show that there’s a team effort in play. Maybe. It’s more likely that the CEO doesn’t understand what his/her company is making well enough to explain it. How pathetic is that?

Real CEOs ship.
For all his perfectionism, Steve could ship. Maybe the product wasn’t perfect every time, but it was almost always great enough to go. The lesson is that Steve wasn’t tinkering for the sake of tinkering—he had a goal: shipping and achieving worldwide domination of existing markets or creation of new markets. Apple is an engineering-centric company, not a research-centric one. Which would you rather be: Apple or Xerox PARC?

Marketing boils down to providing unique value.
Think of a 2 x 2 matrix. The vertical axis measures how your product differs from the competition. The horizontal axis measures the value of your product. Bottom right: valuable but not unique—you’ll have to compete on price. Top left: unique but not valuable—you’ll own a market that doesn’t exist. Bottom left: not unique and not value—you’re a bozo. Top right: unique and valuable—this is where you make margin, money, and history. For example, the iPod was unique and valuable because it was the only way to legally, inexpensively, and easily download music from the six biggest record labels.

Bonus: Some things need to be believed to be seen. When you are jumping curves, defying/ignoring the experts, facing off against big challenges, obsessing about design, and focusing on unique value, you will need to convince people to believe in what you are doing in order to see your efforts come to fruition. People needed to believe in Macintosh to see it become real. Ditto for iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Not everyone will believe—that’s okay. But the starting point of changing the world is changing a few minds. This is the greatest lesson of all that I learned from Steve.

Fundamentally Flawed

On November 7th, 1940, the Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge (or "Galloping Gertie" to it's own construction workers) in Puget Sound, Washington, whipped about violently just prior to its collapse due to heavy winds. The condition known as aeroelastic flutter caused the bridge to snap apart like a Lego model. Falling into the Puget Sound only 4 months after it was opened, it is now studied widely by engineering and architecture students as a fundamentally flawed design.

It was destined to fall apart before it was ever completed.

We have a strong belief that the typical business and educational presentation is also fundamentally flawed, right from the opening default page of your favorite presentation program.

The problem with 99% of presentations is that the basic blueprint is completely wrong. In fact, in most cases, the blueprint doesn't even exist. Therein lies the beginning of the presentation aeroelastic flutter. Your presentation is destined to collapse—not because of a bad design or blueprint, but because of NO plans at all.

We have grown accustomed to following blindly a default of Arial typefaces, white backgrounds, bullet points, cheesy pre-built templates and pie charts and graphs that cannot be easily disseminated. Why? Because there has never been a good formula on how to build these structures, and we have all historically been left to our own devices to figure it out on the fly—usually under duress.

The fact is, most of us have never been trained as a speech writer or developer, nor have we probably been formally taught how to give a business speech, and very few people are skilled and experienced graphic designers. In all honesty, there are even fewer resources that you can find that are capable of helping you accomplish your goals of being at the top of your game. And here's the rub... to do a fantastic piece of communication, you need to be acutely aware of ALL of these facets of presentation development.

We call them the "presentation BLT," or the THREE Ds:

• Development
• Design
• Delivery

It's absolutely imperative that you focus on all three aspects of your presentation to hit the proverbial home run. Drop the ball in any one of those three sectors of the job, and you'll lose the game. Ok, enough with the sports metaphors and cliches...

Here's the great thing, though. When you start with the development of your presentation, you construct the blueprints of a really solid, memorable and effective communication tool. It's not a complicated process when you do it in the right order, and make sure you cover all the bases (sorry).

So how do you develop a complete and impactful presentation before you sit down in front of PowerPoint and start dumping in content? Well, we have a proven formula for building a fail-proof structure. Before you even touch a computer, you MUST ask yourself THREE simple—but not easy—questions.




But I'll save that for a future blog.

How to be Miserable as a Designer

Or, what not to do, underline all that currently apply.

1. Constantly compare yourself to other designers/artists.
2. Talk to your family about what you do and expect them to support you.
3. Base the success of your entire career on one project/client.
4. Stick to what you know.
5. Undervalue your expertise/experience/talent/abilities.
6. Let money dictate what you do.
7. Bow to societal pressures.
8. Only do work that your peers/family/friends would love.
9. Do whatever the client/customer/investor asks.
10. Set unachievable/overwhelming goals to be accomplished by unrealistic dates.

Charts, Graphs, Nuts & Bolts

Every piece of data tells a story. You just have to figure out how to tell that story.

We are constantly pushing simplicity, brevity, restraint and using slides as supporting imagery, not as the main focus of your topic. One of the most often asked questions from clients and SquarePlanet Workshop participants is, "I have a lot of data, charts and graphs--what am I supposed to do with this?"

I love fielding this question, because it shows how embedded we are with Microsoft defaults, and how burdened business and education culture has become with the "Insert Text Here" doctrine. Just because PowerPoint can, doesn't mean you should. Remember that.

We are huge proponents of not using a slide presentation as a vessel for data, details and information that needs to be consumed and digested. Nancy Duarte cheekily calls these data-riddled visual boat anchors, "Slideuments." We call them distracting and ugly. Whatever you call them, they aren't necessary.

The fact is, if your audience is looking at your data on a slide, they are not listening to you. Did you catch that the first time? They are NOT LISTENING TO YOU if they are trying to understand and disseminate information on a slide. So how should you show a chart or graph of important information?

Don't.

Seriously, don't use charts or graphs if you don't absolutely have to.

Every pie chart, bar graph or hunk of data tells a story--you just need to tell it in a way that an audience can grasp in a few short moments, like a highway billboard. Yes, think of slides as billboards you motor past at 65mph, and only get a few seconds to read. If the type is too small, there are too many words on a slide, or a chart or graph needs to be analyzed to be understood, you lost a reader. 6 seconds at the most is all you need to tell that story, like those billboards.

Here's a simple example. The original chart is not even all that complex, but graphs by nature are not simple to digest in the first place. This one tells a simple story, but you need to dig into it to find the meat of it.

The story this graph is telling the reader is that every year, the amount of data stored on the internet roughly doubles--that's really it. So why burden the viewer with unnecessary information, work and effort, and more importantly, why would you want the audience focused on a slide and NOT YOU?

The simple graphic solution is to just visually show that data storage has doubled every year since 2006...


Same information, same story, same message in a completely easy to understand visual that supports what you say. It isn't complicated, and it shouldn't be. Remember, your slides are there to support your spoken word, not to stand alone as a document. If your whole presentation is data, then send out an e-mail with a spreadsheet or text file attached, and don't waste anyone else's time.

If you truly have information that needs to be in the hands of your audience, then literally put it in their hands. By that I mean, put it on paper in a nicely formatted (and on brand--corporate letterhead works nicely) printed piece and hand it to your audience AFTER your presentation is over. Let the audience know that you have this for them, and you that you won't shower them in details and data right now, but if they want to, they can look through the nuts & bolt facts and figures on their own time. They will appreciate this gesture and they will keep their focus on you, instead of reading some document that isn't as important as your message.

Remember, presentations are about your audience, not about YOU. Make their lives easier and they will reward you with their attention. Once you have their minds, their hearts will follow.



dc

Spinning Plates Takes Focus

The most popular tourist attraction in Chicago, in the entire Midwest for that matter, is Navy Pier. Sure, it’s mostly a painful experience for us local types, but when you drive east from Iowa, what’s more fun than Ferris Wheels, cinnamon roasted almonds, fake pirate fights and IMAX movies? And can someone tell me WHY Navy Pier has fake pirate fights? This makes no sense whatsoever.

Anyway, seems like every summer Navy Pier plays host to Cirque Shanghai, a family friendly show that is half circus, half “I didn’t make the Chinese Olympic Gymnastics Team.” Well, for the first time, my wife and I took in this tourist-trap of a show, and damn if we didn’t enjoy it.

Flashy costumes, glittery sets, loud music, guys driving motorcycles inside a ball of death, impressive acrobatics and balance tricks. I mean, whats not to like, right?

Seriously, we really enjoyed the show.

Not surprisingly, I found myself looking at the performance on a multitude of levels, and I soon realized a lesson could be derived from the the girls spinning plates.

Undoubtedly spinning plates on long sticks while doing gymnastics is difficult. At my age, I actually have trouble bending over to put socks on in the morning, so I can promise you my knowledge of such things is purely anecdotal. Anyway, these performers made an extremely difficult task look easy.

In fact, they made it look really easy. Like it was a normal, natural thing that anybody could do. Malcolm Gladwell in his best-selling book “Outliers” describes expertise coming after 10,000 hours of practice. Well, as the girls were all of 13 years old, I’m gonna say it’s more than just sheer practice hours at work here.

Studying their faces during the performance, what I saw was focus. Laser-like focus on the task at hand.

Before you ever get up to present, you’re probably knee-deep in all sorts of other tasks, commitments, responsibilities and diversions. Whether it’s little Johnny’s tee-ball game, a series of emails from the accounting department or hurricanes scheduled to wipe out most of the eastern seaboard, stuff happens!

To ensure success, you better do a whole lot of the right things and eliminate a whole lot of the wrong things. One thing is for sure--when the times comes and your name is called to present your ideas and knowledge, you better have FOCUS.

• Focus on being a likeable human, not a robotic, lifeless machine.
• Focus on restraint--you can’t say it all.
• Focus on telling appropriate stories that prove your point, not piles of redundant data.

And above all, focus on the audience first, not yourself. Remember, it’s not what you say that matters--it’s what they hear.

Keep it Simple!

It's widely accepted that Chicago has craptastic weather nine months out of the year. Fortunately for those of us who live here, right now we're enjoying the other three! Last night, as the weather was simply delightful, my wife and I embarked upon a classic summer outing.

We took a simple and fast Metra ride to Ravinia Festival to enjoy an outdoor concert under the stars. First, a quick trip to Whole Foods to buy some food, nice bottle of vino, pack a blanket and bug spray, all is good.

As the concert begins, which was actually a piano performance of Barto's "Liszt", a man with a simple sign walked through the crowd with a message intended for the entire audience.

His message was; SHHHHHHHHH. Below is a video clip I grabbed of the guy with my iPhone, you'll see what I mean, not a ton of complexity on display here.

What was really impressive was the power of this simple act. Children and adults alike got quiet in his presence. Everyone followed the suggested action and gave the performer the deserved attention.

We've all seen seen complex charts, wordy slides or printed materials, sales people that ramble and never actually answer questions or product demonstrations that leave us scratching our heads.

All of these things are too complex. Too hard to pay attention to. Sometimes, just too hard to follow. At SquarePlanet we believe strongly in removing complexity and distilling things down to the most essential.

Follow the lead of the man carrying a simple sign with a simple message.

No, not SHHHHHH. Well, maybe for some of you.

Instead, just remember to keep it simple!

Vary Your Pace

About two miles east of the SquarePlanet worldwide megaplex is a stunning national home improvement store called Menards. I'm guessing it's about 50,000 sq feet of pristine merchandise that's well stocked and well priced.

In the middle of the store, occupying a rather large footprint, you'll encounter two mechanical people-mover ramps. You know the people movers at airports right? The bouncy, rubberized, moving walkways that have the same handrails as escalators? EXACTLY! Okay, just like that, but these are ramps that go up to and down from the second level.

So, last week I'm at Menards, and as I watch people standing perfectly stationary on moving ramps, I'm struck by how consistent their speed is. You see, those who chose to simply stand on the ramp were moving at the exact same speed throughout the duration of their journey to the second level. Yet those who chose to walk, even just a step or two, seemed vibrant, youthful--dare I say, alive!

The contrast between the pace of the ramp travelers reminded me of the musings you'll hear at one of our monthly Presentation Workshops. Contrast is the key to great communication. The idea is that contrast breaks up the norm, alerts the audience that something big is going on and everyone should pay attention.

Contrast in communications comes out in all kinds of forms, everything from word choice to the substance in the stories being told to the physical space of a presenter to the PACE with which a person speaks.

If you talk in a monotone, never-changing, no up, no down, flat as a pancake style voice, you have no variance in your pace. However, if you talk in bursts, use staccato, vary your intensity, speed and volume, you now have contrast in your pace. And people will notice. More importantly, they will listen.

So remember, to really be heard, vary your pace. To really be hurt, walk the wrong way on a people mover.

Free Stock Photos

There are a lot of places that we use and suggest acquiring stock photographs and imagery for presentations. One of them is your own digital camera or scanner. You are your own greatest source for images that YOU want to use, that YOU own. Don't be afraid to take your own photos and use them in your presentation. It adds a lot of authenticity to the production, and really brings a lot of connection to your audience.

Another great source for free stock photos is StockArch. There is a good selection of really nice photography to use as you please. We also use iStock for low-cost photo and video clip options, and a few others found on the web, too. Don't be fooled into thinking that you need to use high-cost stock photos from Getty or other stock photo houses (are there any left that Getty didn't buy up?). There are plenty of other options that won't cost you much at all.



dc

Always Prepare

Though many on our coasts don't believe it, Chicago is booming with start-up technology companies, venture capital and a strong pioneering spirit. For the next seven days, you can see all of these things first hand at TechWeek, a conference that brings it all together.

At the invitation of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, SquarePlanet was asked to moderate a panel discussion on the idea that regardless of the underlying technology, relationships are really the key to success. We jumped at the chance and were very excited as the panelists themselves couldn't have been better.

The panel included Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media Studios, Ted Novak from Clique Studios, Chris Mickens from Educo Web Design and finally Jon Schickendanz from Imaginary Landscape. Together, we were to tackle the product vs. people debate.

At SqP, we actually practice what we preach, so about a week before the event we all got on a conference call, and even the day of, for well over an hour, we sat together and discussed the topic. Additionally, I spent at least 3 more hours preparing opening and closing remarks, developing individual bio's on each person and a multitude of questions with potential follow-up questions.

You see, we had ONE shot to get this right. All of our chips were on the table, this was an "all in" bet, whether we liked it or not. That's simply the nature of presenting, no second chances. No do-overs.

All of that preparation paid off, as the audience thoroughly enjoyed the 60 minutes we spent together. Further, the CEO and founder of midVentures Geoff Domoracki wrote "I overheard, when your panel ended- from the leaving attendees- that that was the best session they had been to. Your session received a lot of positive feedback and we thank you for helping put it together!"

This is high praise...midVentures started TechWeek, and they are the single biggest contributor of time, talent and money to the whole event! When Geoff speaks, people listen.

So, this is NOT a blog entry to boast. It's a blog entry to remind you to ALWAYS prepare. Our ratio of preparation time to actual on-stage time was about 5-1. Five hours to effectively communicate for one hour. That's not a hard and fast rule, that's just specific to this event. But, the takeaway is clear, to ensure your "all in" bet comes up a winner; prepare, prepare, prepare.

Thanks to Linda Dao at the Chamber, the awesome panelists and all those who came out to see us. CHEERS!

Follow the Frog

Summer in Chicago is truly magnificent. Maybe it's because our weather is so often miserable, maybe it's because I'm getting old and sentimental, regardless, a gorgeous day is a welcome gift. Yesterday we took advantage of a perfect day and for those unfamiliar with Chicago, our beaches and lakefront parks are truly world-class.

A hidden gem along the lakefront is the Caldwell Lily Pool. This exceptional respite, smack dab in the middle of everything moving and grooving, is simply delightful.

Check it out:

http://explorechicago.org/city/en/things_see_do/attractions/park_district/alfred_caldwell_lily.html

As one might expect in a lily pool, take a look into the water and you're likely to see a frog or two. For any botanists out there, don't crucify for getting this wrong—sure, it might be a toad, but to a city boy like me, they're all frogs. I continue...

Let me set the scene: dragonflies are buzzing just over the water, lotus flowers are blooming on the lily pads, birds sing and frogs are bobbing motionless in the water, mouths just creeping into the daytime air. Then, without warning, and with incredible speed and ferocity, the frog leaps into the sky, body fully exposed—above the water, snagging an unsuspecting dragonfly out of thin air, flopping into then under the water to enjoy it's lunch. Amazing.

This is exactly what I witnessed yesterday at the Lilly Pool. Beyond being totally cool, unless of course you're the dragonfly, it served a great lesson. You see, the frog took a risk, leaped from the safety and comfort of it's spot under the water and snagged a prize from thin air.

Presentations are exactly the same. If you're not willing to take a few chances, leap into the unknown, you're never going to make a splash. Don't you want your presentation to be memorable? Don't you want people to notice you and what you did? Don't you want to enjoy the prize for your efforts?

The next time you're preparing a presentation, remember the lily pool and the frog. You can choose to remain hidden, silent and forgettable. On the other hand, you can leap and make a splash everyone remembers. At SquarePlanet, we say "Follow the Frog".

Cliff Clavin Sidebar Moment: Did you know Dragonflies EAT bees and mosquitoes? I love these things! Find more fun facts at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly

Prepare by working BACKWARD.

SquarePlanet is just a few months old, but in a very short time we've done a pretty decent job in getting our name, services and philosophy out into the marketplace. One of the "partnerships" we've established is with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

You can check them out here: http://www.chicagolandchamber.org/wdk_cc/

Anyway, one of the great many things the Chamber does is a 60-minute intro meeting of their internal staff with new member organizations. As one would guess, it's a great way to quickly meet new members, see if any synergies exist and begin to help all parties find value in the relationship. Yesterday was our big shot, our chance to wow the Chamber of how awesome we really are and gain tons of new, important work.

As we did out customary prep work, both Doug and I realized we needed to add just a little something extra. See, we actually do what we say! We prepared, well in advance of the presentation. We truly thought through what message do we want to communicate and what do we need to do to fulfill that. We worked BACKWARD. Identify the intention, then do what you need to do to ensure it actually happens.

One of our core strengths is re-freakin-diciulous design. Oh yeah, that's clearly ALL me...that Doug guy has NOTHIN on me. (Right now the lie detector machine is going into overdrive and the dude running it is telling the cop, "yeah, he's tooootally full of crap").

Well, we wanted to really show off this core competence in a memorable, but simple way. So, using some high-definition footage, embedded in Keynote, we made our visuals leap off the screen and dazzle the audience. We'd like to throw a shout-out to the Scott Roberts, aka "Fish" at Edit Creations (http://edit-creations.com/) for his mad-skillz and lighting fast help.

Again, we worked BACKWARD. Identify your intention first, then fill in the necessary detail to make it happen.

Now, I can't speak for the Chamber people, but let's just say the meeting went very well and our relationship is off to a great start. Amazing things can happen when you think it through, and then take the time to execute your desires the right way.

Finally, you can wave back at Fish in the picture above OR come visit us and the Edit Creations Team anytime. THANKS!!!!

Picture Superiority? Well....

The internet is full of all kinds of delicious gems. Everything from your etsy.com's of the world all the way to jetsetter.com...lots of truly impressive, useful stuff that makes life easier and better.

Here at SquarePlanet we extol the virtues of words over pictures. We believe that not only is a picture worth a thousand words, it's actually easier for the audience to remember. We love pictures, we love them, collect them and honor them.

Well, combining our love of the internet and the desire of all clients to use more pictures, you can just about imagine some of the search results we get!!! Legal side bar here, not only do we NOT, we also do not condone the inappropriate use of copyright-protected material...don't steal someones intellectual property, got it buddy? Ok, good. Let's continue.

ANYWAY, back to search results. So, for an upcoming presentation we're giving, I type in the term "ugly". After a series of fruitless clicks I end up at http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

If you've ever been to this site you....know. You 'get it'. You 'feel it'. For those of you who haven't been there, RUN, don't walk, CLICK OVER NOW!!!

Seriously...RIGHT NOW!

This site gets my vote for best useless site of all time. I'm still trying to breathe, my drink of water really did come out my nose, my side hurts from laughing so hard and YES, they are actual, real, user-submitted photos.

Why do I post this here? Because if you, like us at SquarePlanet, believe in the Picture Superiority Effect, be sure to pick photos that should never ever, no matter what, ever be on www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com. Pick appropriate images that help communicate your message. Don't choose photos just for the sake of a cool shot or funny picture. Be sure that what you're trying to say is truly represented in the image you display.

Make sense? Good. If not, email Doug, he'll gladly fill you in on all the details.

Now, I'm off to my parents basement to burn all the old picture boxes ensuring I never magically appear on that site. CHEERS!