1 00:00:00,060 --> 00:00:03,480 Now you might be asked by your boss, your 2 00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:07,330 manager, or your team to deliver a talk about something. 3 00:00:07,330 --> 00:00:10,890 It all happens to, to us every once in a while. 4 00:00:10,890 --> 00:00:15,040 Now maybe it's a progress report of some kind, or you're outlining a 5 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:19,730 project that you are working on or maybe you want to work on. 6 00:00:19,730 --> 00:00:22,230 Now, regardless of how you decide to 7 00:00:22,230 --> 00:00:25,750 deliver this information, you generally know three things. 8 00:00:25,750 --> 00:00:29,500 You know how much time you have to prepare your talk, 9 00:00:29,500 --> 00:00:32,930 whether it's tomorrow or next week, or a few months from now. 10 00:00:34,100 --> 00:00:36,850 You know how long your presentation should be, whether 11 00:00:36,850 --> 00:00:39,909 you've got five minutes to give this talk, 20. 12 00:00:39,909 --> 00:00:42,830 You know, you're gonna be key noting or an hour. 13 00:00:44,250 --> 00:00:46,770 And the third thing is you should have a pretty good 14 00:00:46,770 --> 00:00:51,510 idea of who your audience will be, and its this third 15 00:00:51,510 --> 00:00:53,990 point that is key. 16 00:00:53,990 --> 00:00:58,860 Understanding who your audience is needs to be a huge part of your preparation. 17 00:00:58,860 --> 00:01:04,000 If you can tailor your presentation to fit the experience level and 18 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,542 the interest of your audience, they're going to retain so much more. 19 00:01:08,542 --> 00:01:10,560 They're gonna get so much value out of it. 20 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:12,970 And in the end, they'll be more apt 21 00:01:12,970 --> 00:01:17,030 to take action, whatever action you present there. 22 00:01:17,030 --> 00:01:19,770 Now as I was preparing this presentation, I wanted to reach out to 23 00:01:19,770 --> 00:01:25,060 some people that have given lots of talks on their on their own. 24 00:01:25,060 --> 00:01:29,640 Whether it's you know, with their different teams or on stage. 25 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:33,700 So I reached out to some friend of mine on Twitter to get their advice. 26 00:01:33,700 --> 00:01:37,540 One of the first people I heard back from is Aleyda Solis. 27 00:01:37,540 --> 00:01:42,090 Aleyda is Head of Digital Strategy at WooRank, and the one tip that 28 00:01:42,090 --> 00:01:48,200 she wanted to share with people giving presentations is to know your audience, 29 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:54,090 and shape your presentation accordingly to make it useful and actionable to them. 30 00:01:54,090 --> 00:01:56,550 Also, leverage storytelling. 31 00:01:56,550 --> 00:01:59,380 Now basically, this echoes that first point that I made. 32 00:01:59,380 --> 00:02:04,350 If your presentation isn't relevant to the audience, it's not going to be effective. 33 00:02:05,630 --> 00:02:07,150 Now, let's take a, a real 34 00:02:07,150 --> 00:02:11,690 business scenario where preparation like this becomes a real factor. 35 00:02:11,690 --> 00:02:14,470 So, say you're a freelancer and a friend of yours 36 00:02:14,470 --> 00:02:17,430 tells you about a local business that needs a new site. 37 00:02:17,430 --> 00:02:21,510 I mean their, you, you look at their site and it's woefully out of date. 38 00:02:21,510 --> 00:02:23,970 And you know that you can do so much better, and I think this 39 00:02:23,970 --> 00:02:27,550 is kind of a classic example for a lot of devs and developers out there. 40 00:02:27,550 --> 00:02:30,502 All right, so you decide to approach them. Right. 41 00:02:30,502 --> 00:02:32,180 So I'm gonna pick on 42 00:02:32,180 --> 00:02:36,670 a local business here which I actually love, no disrespect to the 43 00:02:36,670 --> 00:02:41,680 Beefy King, but here in Orlando the Beefy King website is not responsive. 44 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:46,190 The images and the usability could be improved, maybe. 45 00:02:46,190 --> 00:02:50,860 You know, they can add some nice features like an online ordering app. 46 00:02:50,860 --> 00:02:53,150 That might be something that they could use 47 00:02:53,150 --> 00:02:56,050 that I know maybe some other restaurants have. 48 00:02:56,050 --> 00:02:57,700 Now, the mistake that some freelancers 49 00:02:57,700 --> 00:03:00,250 make, if they wanna approach a business like 50 00:03:00,250 --> 00:03:04,390 this, is to fire off a general boiler plate. 51 00:03:04,390 --> 00:03:05,310 Sort of pitch. 52 00:03:05,310 --> 00:03:09,250 Where they talk about who they are, maybe a couple of the skills they have. 53 00:03:09,250 --> 00:03:11,110 And then they, you know, they leave it with, 54 00:03:11,110 --> 00:03:13,790 you know, contact for, contact us for a quote. 55 00:03:15,070 --> 00:03:16,820 This isn't all that compelling. 56 00:03:16,820 --> 00:03:20,580 Alright, you're, what you're really doing is taking this 57 00:03:20,580 --> 00:03:23,780 sort of lean back approach and you're relying on 58 00:03:23,780 --> 00:03:27,820 the potential client to put all the pieces together. 59 00:03:27,820 --> 00:03:30,790 To come to the same conclusion that you did. 60 00:03:30,790 --> 00:03:31,020 Right? 61 00:03:31,020 --> 00:03:34,230 That they need a new site, and that you're well suited to it. 62 00:03:35,700 --> 00:03:40,150 You know, don't make them do all the work here, all right. 63 00:03:40,150 --> 00:03:45,270 If you know your audience and of course you know, here they are on their website. 64 00:03:45,270 --> 00:03:49,450 Why settle for a generic pitch when you can tailor something specifically 65 00:03:49,450 --> 00:03:51,310 for them. Okay. 66 00:03:51,310 --> 00:03:54,510 Research your audience and identify their needs. 67 00:03:54,510 --> 00:03:56,700 These are two key points that I wanna 68 00:03:56,700 --> 00:04:01,280 make about preparation of any presentation or pitch. 69 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:04,020 Research the potential client. 70 00:04:04,020 --> 00:04:05,860 Check out their website. 71 00:04:05,860 --> 00:04:08,470 You know, take a look at everything on there. 72 00:04:08,470 --> 00:04:10,050 And then take a look at their industry. 73 00:04:10,050 --> 00:04:11,530 Look at their competitors. 74 00:04:11,530 --> 00:04:15,180 See what their competitors have on their websites. 75 00:04:15,180 --> 00:04:18,200 What features they have, what content. Stuff like that, right? 76 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:21,210 And then speak to some of the needs that 77 00:04:21,210 --> 00:04:24,520 you identify within the pitch that you send them. 78 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:30,990 So, You know, you may do your research and you may discover that 79 00:04:30,990 --> 00:04:33,160 the customer at the Beefy King don't 80 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:36,270 necessarily care about an online ordering app. 81 00:04:36,270 --> 00:04:37,370 You know, it's an idea you had. 82 00:04:37,370 --> 00:04:40,220 It was worth pursuing, but you know, unless it's 83 00:04:40,220 --> 00:04:42,050 safe for catering and large parties or 84 00:04:42,050 --> 00:04:44,420 events, these guy don't specifically need it. 85 00:04:45,620 --> 00:04:48,050 But what they really want when they hit the 86 00:04:48,050 --> 00:04:52,320 site, I'm talking about potential customers here for them, is 87 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:53,960 you know, if they are on a mobile device 88 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:57,520 say, is they want quick access to location information, right? 89 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:01,170 So, maybe putting the map in the location on the 90 00:05:01,170 --> 00:05:05,400 home page is better than burying it within the site. 91 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:06,640 This could be a conclusion that you 92 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:11,820 come to because you understand the potential client. 93 00:05:11,820 --> 00:05:14,720 And by understanding the audience, you know, and 94 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:18,990 the, their needs, you can better plan your approach. 95 00:05:18,990 --> 00:05:22,470 The same type of approach could be used during a job search. 96 00:05:22,470 --> 00:05:25,120 You know, you don't wanna send a generic cover letter 97 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:29,660 to everyone, to every company, about every opening that's out there. 98 00:05:29,660 --> 00:05:30,700 You should be customizing 99 00:05:30,700 --> 00:05:35,490 it based on the job description. Their company, website, and so on. 100 00:05:35,490 --> 00:05:37,830 You know, another example, here on Authentic Jobs. 101 00:05:39,110 --> 00:05:42,160 They have a job opening from Charity Water. 102 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:43,540 And there's a lot of detail in 103 00:05:43,540 --> 00:05:47,050 it, especially this section here, the must-haves. 104 00:05:47,050 --> 00:05:49,370 Right, you can see point by point what 105 00:05:49,370 --> 00:05:53,050 kind of skills they're looking for in an applicant. 106 00:05:53,050 --> 00:05:55,480 They, they just, they're spelled out for you right here. 107 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:58,620 These are their needs. And this is fantastic. 108 00:05:58,620 --> 00:05:59,890 If only you knew. 109 00:05:59,890 --> 00:06:03,035 If only all potential clients put out their, what their 110 00:06:03,035 --> 00:06:06,920 must-haves are, what their needs were, this would be amazing, right? 111 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:10,270 So when you pitch them you know, if you're going for this job, for 112 00:06:10,270 --> 00:06:13,000 example, on your qualifications, you don't ignore 113 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,966 this stuff, especially when it's labeled must-haves, right? 114 00:06:16,966 --> 00:06:20,550 So refer to this or address it in some way so 115 00:06:20,550 --> 00:06:23,780 that they realize that you understand their needs. 116 00:06:24,780 --> 00:06:29,370 So, are client pitches and job applications 117 00:06:29,370 --> 00:06:33,370 over email necessarily presentations in the classic sense? 118 00:06:33,370 --> 00:06:37,050 Not really, but the principles are very much the same. 119 00:06:37,050 --> 00:06:40,590 Knowing you audience, who they are, what they're interested 120 00:06:40,590 --> 00:06:46,180 in, is extremely important in this process of preparing something. 121 00:06:46,180 --> 00:06:49,430 Otherwise the presentation is not going to resonate. 122 00:06:49,430 --> 00:06:50,740 It won't be as effective. 123 00:06:50,740 --> 00:06:54,650 And you won't get as many people to do what you want them to do.