During election season in the U.S., one of my clients, the CEO of a nonprofit organization, was invited to film an endorsement for a candidate’s television commercial. Her role was to introduce herself and her organization and explain why she supports the candidate. She was happy to participate because she is a big supporter. However, the challenge was that she only had 6 SECONDS to communicate her message!

I’ve written and spoken frequently about the importance of communicating your message within the time limit. And as means of practicing that skill, I’ve shared the improv game of Half-Life, where 2 people act out a scene in 64 seconds and then they repeat the scene in half the time – 32 seconds – and then again in 16 seconds and finally down to 8 seconds. The 8-second scene is usually hysterical and demonstrates that you can communicate a lot in a limited amount of time if you cut out the extra material and focus on the essentials.

On the other hand, communicating a complete message – especially a coherent and persuasive endorsement message – in 6 seconds is very difficult!

My client was able to do it (and in very few takes) because she prepared and practiced. Her endorsement was combined with other 6-second endorsements into a powerful short commercial.

While it’s unlikely that you’ll ever have only 6 seconds to give your entire presentation, taking the 6-Second Presentation Challenge can help you become a more effective presenter. The next time you have to give a presentation, challenge yourself to state your message in 6 seconds.

And “your message” is defined as the one sentence that summarizes the point of your presentation, the one thing that you want your audience to remember. Yes, all the supporting details and data help, but there should only be one core message. You can also think of it as a newspaper headline or a billboard.

Why is this helpful? Well, if you can say your message to yourself in 6 seconds, then you really understand it and will be able to organize your material around it. And that means that your audience will find it easier to understand your point because they won’t be distracted by unrelated information, extraneous material or confusing organization.

While you may take a little bit longer than 6 seconds when actually saying the message to the audience during your presentation, it shouldn’t take much longer.

The 6-Second Presentation Challenge can also be applied in a networking situation. For example, what do you say at a networking event when someone asks, “what do you do?” Rather than rambling on, can you prepare and practice a 6-second statement to introduce yourself clearly, concisely and confidently?

Take the 6-Second Presentation Challenge and let me know what you come up with and how it helps you become a more effective presenter.

(To read more about Half-Life, check out my blog post – http://gildabonanno.blogspot.com/2010/01/using-improv-comedys-half-life.html )

Recently, I came across this nifty business quote: “Every job involves negotiating.”

To a seminar provider and keynote speaker specializing in best practices in negotiation and innovations in negotiation, this isn’t a revelation, but it is a good reminder of the significant role negotiation plays in our careers.

We negotiate all the time, mostly unconsciously.

Just this morning, for example, I was doing some goal setting for the day, against the backdrop of an azure Pacific Ocean.

“How many cold calls should I make?” I prompted myself, being in the midst of a business-building program.

“How many follow-ups should I make?” I wondered next.

Then I thought about what my family will be doing at the same time I’m selling away.

School is out and my brood is likely to want papa for chauffeuring or bankrolling a day of diversions.

“No avoiding that,” I mused.

All the while these thoughts and plans were percolating I was negotiating-with myself.

Any kind of prioritizing, goal setting, and time management activity is a form of bargaining. We make deals with ourselves, and with our jobs, and we do it constantly, re-calibrating what matters, what we’ll put into a given commitment to get out of it a certain amount of value, utility and pleasure.

Indeed, the entire work/life balance equation that most of us try to nuance is an ongoing negotiation, giving up a certain amount of this to get more of that.

And as we can falter in an official negotiation, for a job, a car, a house, or an education, we can also stumble when bargaining with ourselves.

(1) We can err when setting our aspiration levels. Aiming too high or too low can spell disaster in a negotiation, as can aiming not high or low enough, depending on whether we are buying or selling. Selling yourself or your products and services too low, cutting too deeply into profits, or setting them too high, scaring away buyers, can put you into the poorhouse. When negotiating your personal aspiration level, deciding “I can never make that kind of money,” even though this is a major goal, is defeatist, and you’ll probably despise yourself for settling for less out of life.

(2) I love that disclaimer to be found in most prospectuses from Wall Street. “Past performance is not a promise of future performance.” Things change, and so do we. Zen practitioners might say, “You never step into the same negotiation, twice.” Military strategists warn against “Planning for yesterday’s wars.” This means you have to press the reset button with each new day and negotiation partner. Speaking of the work/life balance, you may have decided long ago, before you entered a serious personal relationship, to put in 14-hour days or to travel 75% of the time. Will that work into the indefinite future? Something has to give.

(3) One of my elementary school teachers had a sign made to fit around the class clock: TIME PASSES: WILL YOU? I’m reminded of this by those that decide that they’re “Only going to give so much” to their employers while at work. These are the folks that avoid taking on more responsibilities while quipping, “That’s above my pay grade,” or “They don’t pay me for that.” Strictly speaking, this is correct, yet by cutting such restricted deals with their jobs some people are limiting their experiences as well as opportunities for training and promotions. They’re also diminishing their odds of being able to jump ship for a better deal. Lest you think this kind of “slow-walking” is relegated to the lowest paid ranks, study the behavior of certain multi-million dollar athletes during or after their negotiations. If they think their employers are stingy, many can’t resist seeking revenge, which typically ruins their careers. It’s almost impossible to play 20% under your potential. It’s a lot easier to give 100% all the time. By the way, if we withhold our efforts, we’ll get into the nasty habit of doing so, and then, when we want to excel, we will probably sputter because we’re out of practice.

(4) We negotiate on the job when we need to get cooperation from other people and departments. When we seek raises, recognition, and promotions, we’re obviously doing the same. Getting and keeping customers involves nonstop negotiations.

In fact, it is hard to find a time when we’re NOT negotiating, before, during, and even after work.

It might help to heighten awareness of and respect for this activity if we simply say a negotiator’s work is never done!

Not too long ago, I was creating a webinar when I ran into a minor problem. I had to choose a new background because the one I had been using had a number of issues. It made me think about the problems involved when choosing your slide backgrounds.

In this article, I’m going to share five rules to help you select a background for your presentation slides when you deliver a webinar.

1. Keep it simple. I’m not referring to visually simple (at least not here) but rather physically simple. One of the most powerful techniques for creating backgrounds consists of layering flat colors, photographs and effects. This can create very flexible and visually stunning backgrounds. Unfortunately, some of the webinar hosting companies are unable to properly process these backgrounds. Remember that none of the hosting companies have access to the actual software used to create presentation slides. They are attempting to emulate it. That means that some effects at the edge of capability may not reproduce properly.

2. When creating your background go for high contrast colors without being garish about it. Colors which are opposite each other on the color wheel are considered high contrast. Black on white, white on black, red on green, orange on blue are all high contrast. As a result words are easy to read because lines stand out on them. Effectively, your audience won’t have to expend as much energy to read your slide. However, watch the colors and the intensity as some combinations may be too vibrant. The result will be just as exhausting.

3. Don’t let the writing overlay any pictures you use. To a certain extent you can overcome this by tinting the picture. This hints at a picture by using different shades of the main color as shadows or highlights. Unfortunately, this means that lettering may become lost in the shadow or highlight. Very few colors for the lettering will display clearly over multiple shades of a base color. If you are going to use a picture — and there are many reasons to do so — keep the picture to the corners where they will not have to have lettering placed on them. This applies equally to logos as well!

4. Don’t be too strong with your background color. Light shades and low intensity colors are more forgiving than high intensity or dark colors. Use the dark, high intensity colors for the lettering. That way your words will be much easier to read.

5. Remember that you don’t control the actual colors seen. The actual color seen will be interpreted by the hardware on the viewer’s desk. There is a great deal of variation in the colors displayed by different makes and models of terminal. Even one make and model may vary from unit to unit. So be careful when picking colors where precision is required. It won’t happen and your slide may be unviewable.