Gauging Engagement: The Key to Sustaining Your Audience's Attention

 By:Monica Guzman

The truth about great speakers is that they're not great speakers; they're great engagers. Even if what they're saying isn't particularly clear or original or correct, they will succeed if they make you feel that their message is important and that you, YOU, are the person made to hear their message. They do this by performing  and  - this is the key -  adjusting their performance to maximize their audience's engagement.

Let's review the components of a good performance: eye contact, movement and style.

1. Eye Contact: Eye contact can make or break interviews, pitches, dates, meetings, speeches, or any other miscellaneous, important encounters. For instance, it's not a good idea to look a pacing tiger or bonobo monkey in the eye unless you want to engage in a potentially lethal rumpus. Straight-up eye-to-eye contact can sometimes be intense and isn't necessarily required for connection - you don't need to scan every pupil in the audience in order to connect. Eye contact means looking at and being aware of your audience. You already know this from experience. It's hard to enjoy a speaker - a teacher, a preacher, a politician, ANYONE - who takes only occasional split second glances up from his or her notes.
2. Movement: A cat isn't interested in the red laser point on the wall unless it moves. Your audience will lose interest if you stand in one place or look stiff. Moving and gesturing purposefully can make a huge difference. That doesn't mean flail; utilize your space and appendages.
3. Style: Think of your audience members as your friends. You will communicate your message infinitely better if you allow yourself to relax and be yourself. That means practicing your presentation like a ballerina preparing for Swan Lake. If you want to be yourself, you're gonna have to feel comfortable, and if you want to feel comfortable, you're gonna have to log serious time to practice.

All right, you think you've got your performance down. You feel confident. You are making eye contact and moving around. Now is the time to gauge your engagement with your audience. This is your one shot and you want to make sure you're not missing any opportunities. So... how is it really going?

It takes less than 30 seconds for people to decide whether or not you are someone they want to listen to. How many cell phones do you see? If you see a lot of cell phones, you've already lost their attention and need to re-engage. Use proper techniques to get their attention focused back on you - walk in their direction, stand next to them, or ask them a question. Don't break your cool; just adjust by honing in on those holding a bright, beaming cellphone until they put it back in their pocket.

Notice your audience's posture. Are they sitting slouched backward or leaning forward? If you're not seeing engagement, either you're not putting on a 5-star performance or you've begun presenting to the wrong audience. If you didn't identify your audience correctly, adjust your message to increase its relevancy. If it's a matter of your performance, reanimate yourself and move.

Gauging your engagement with your audience maximizes your chances of making a solid connection and communicating successfully because it allows you to adjust and improve your performance, ensuring you're making the most of your presentation.

About SquarePlanet: We're a small team of creative individuals who help people communicate better. We develop content, design visuals, and coach you so that you can share your ideas / messages with your clients, employees, investors, society, etc. the best way possible. Check us out at sqplanet.com 

Email - Detox your Inbox

By : Jenny Dombroski

Becoming an email ninja is definitely a useful survival skill in business... OK in life. A hot mess of an inbox can make you feel overwhelmed and out of control. A well-kept inbox can mean great things for your business because it will increase your response time to current clients as well as prospective ones. This can be done without much hair-pulling and once you've got the system down you'll wonder why you waited so long to start.

Goal: Inbox (0).
Set the goal to empty your inbox every day. Yes I said empty it! The idea here is that you don't necessarily have to respond to every message, you just have to process it. I hear your gasp of horror, but rest assured I will explain how that's done in just a few simple steps:

1. Obliterate Spam. Check your spam filter settings and make sure you're actually using one. If you're an Outlook user you can also download a free, trainable spam filter called SpamBayes. It analyzes key words and patterns to train itself for future emails. 
2. Unsubscribe. Every company who sends broadcast email messages must provide an option for you to unsubscribe. Rather than deleting those pesky emails, spend an extra minute and open the message scroll to the bottom and click the unsubscribe button.
3. Take Action. If the email requires action and it will take 2 minutes or less to do it, then DO IT! If you need to defer it for later, then just drag and drop the email into your task bar or calendar (Outlook) and then delete the original email. All of the info is now saved in the task or calendar item itself. If the email does not require any action then quickly decide to delete the item or file in a reference folder. Just create one folder for this rather than trying to be specific or future emails will become increasingly cumbersome to process. Use your search feature if you need to find emails in the reference folder. 
4.  Set up email rules. I swear this is so underutilized and can be a great time saver all by itself. Set up rules (Outlook) or filters (Gmail) to funnel newsletters, bill payment receipts or any other regular mail into folders. These are not usually things that require your immediate attention so have them go somewhere other than your inbox for review during down-time. 

A few other general email practice tips:

• Silence new email notifications. These are distractions that pull you away from important tasks at hand. 
• Set parameters for checking email. You should not be checking email the minute it arrives! For example, you could schedule email to be read in the morning, at lunch and at the end of your workday.
• Do NOT check email first thing in the morning. This can shift the productivity of your entire day. Do your most brain intensive tasks first. 

In no time, you will be looking forward to checking your email (at the designated times of course), comfortable in the knowledge that you have the systems in place to keep your email minimized, organized and optimized. 

Office Oxygen is not Jenny's first step into the world of business ownership. She also owns an online custom loungewear business called Evlove Intimates, that has been featured in Lucky Magazine, Daily Candy, Huffington Post and seen on NBC and WGN just to name a few. An entrepreneur herself, Jenny understands the tough issues, crazy demands and growing pains that business owners face. She knows firsthand that entrepreneurs are some of the most courageous and hardest working folks around who need supportive resources to help them stay at the top of their game.

The Path to a Paperless Office

By Jenny Dombroski

If you have stacks of paper in your office, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. Going paperless can help reduce your distractions and remove your paper backlog so you can regain your focus and boost your productivity. There are a lot of strategies for maintaining a paperless workplace, but I've narrowed it down to just a few steps:

Whittle it.

• Work on one drawer ( or even one part of a drawer) at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed.

• Keep a recycle bin and a bag or box for shredding handy, and go through each file, folder, binder, or document and keep only what you really need. 

Scan it.
Aside from official documents or documents that for compliance reasons require an original signature, keeping the paper that's left simply isn't necessary if you can find alternate ways of storing the information -- it's the information that's valuable, not the paper it's printed on.

• ScannersYou can get scanners for small office use for about $100 - $150 for a basic model. Basic models usually only allow you to scan one page at a time. If you invest in a high-speed scanner at around $400, they typically allow you to feed up to 50 sheets at a time.
• Scanning ServicesScanning a high volume of paper -- especially if it is an office's worth as you're just starting to go paperless -- can be an exceptionally time-consuming task. Scanning services might be the most efficient option. 
1. Shoeboxed works like this: You send off a stack of documents through the mail; they scan them for you; they store them online (typically as PDFs) on their server. You can then download and store them on your computer or on a cloud-based server.
   
   Cost - $9.95/mo (50 docs DIY using a scanner or Smartphone), $29.95/mo (150 docs mailed in pre-paid envelope).
   
2. Neatscanner works similarly to Shoeboxed but also offers the option to purchase their scanner and software to DIY (about $200).
   
3. CamScanner is a free app or $4.99 for the licensed version. You are able to digitize any paper documents using your Smartphone or IPad camera. CamScanner can auto-crop images, enhance image quality and create an industry standard PDF file. 

Store it.
Just like with our paper files, you want to be able to find, retrieve and put away electronic documents quickly and easily. Although most computers have pretty effective search functions, that still isn't as effective as simply knowing where your files are.

• Mirror your paper files with your digital files
• Create a file structure -- categories, folders, subfolders -- that is based on your paper filing system.

• Label your files carefully 
• You want to make sure that you name your documents effectively, so that as you open a file full of folders, you don't have to search through and try to determine which one is the actual document you're looking for. 

Back up.
If you are now using your computer to save your documents, it's imperative that you have a back-up system in place. Using a cloud based storage service like Dropbox, SugarSync or Egnyte not only protects your files but they also give you access to your most frequently used and important files no matter where you are. Whether on your smartphone or work computer, you can access, view and edit your stored dat.

Celebrate.
Less paper piling up is just the beginning of the payoffs. You'll find you have the ability to access all sorts of information from your computer -- in a matter of seconds without having to search your entire office. Plus with accessibility on the go, you're now more productive than before!


Jenny's Bio:

Having the mind of a consultant and the eye of an artist, Jenny has a love of the details most others wish would just go away: office organization, process flow, sales & operational procedures and time management strategies. With over 10 years of experience in sales, training, office management and finally entrepreneurial endeavors, Jenny has a unique cocktail of skills... but without the hangover.

Cool as a cucumber on the surface, inside Jenny is chomping at the bit to whip you and your business into its best shape ever. She has an endless supply of efficiency techniques and tricks of the trade up her sleeve and won't hesitate to jump in with both feet to help you fix a problem.

Office Oxygen is not Jenny's first step into the world of business ownership. She also owns an online custom loungewear business called Evlove Intimates, that has been featured in Lucky Magazine, Daily Candy, Huffington Post and seen on NBC and WGN just to name a few. An entrepreneur herself, Jenny understands the tough issues, crazy demands and growing pains that business owners face. She knows firsthand that entrepreneurs are some of the most courageous and hardest working folks around who need supportive resources to help them stay at the top of their game.