Unlocking Powerful Communication in the Age of Virtual Presentations

Tim Newman [00:00:09]:
If your audience can read your slides without you talking, why are you even there? That's the problem with most virtual presentations. They replace connection with content. Welcome back to Speaking with Confidence, the podcast that helps you build the soft skills that lead to real results. Communication, storytelling, public speaking, and showing up with confidence in every conversation that counts. I'm Tim Newman, a recovering college professor turned communication coach, and I'm thrilled to guide you on a journey to becoming a powerful communicator. Today's guest is Rick Altman. Rick has been hired by hundreds of companies, listened to by tens of thousands of professionals, and read by millions of people, all of whom seek better results with their presentation content and delivery. He covers the whole of the industry, from message crafting through presentation design, slide creation, software technique, and delivery.

Tim Newman [00:01:06]:
He is the host of the Presentation Summit, now in its 24th season as the most prominent learning event in the world for the presentation community. And he is the author of the newly published Crush Your Next Virtual Presentation. Rick, welcome to Speaking with Confidence, bud.

Rick Altman [00:01:20]:
Thanks, Tim. Good to be here.

Tim Newman [00:01:23]:
Yeah, we've got a lot in common. You know, you worked in the sport industry. You were a tennis journalist.

Rick Altman [00:01:28]:
Right.

Tim Newman [00:01:30]:
And you went from that to PowerPoint conferences. What did you see early that others missed?

Rick Altman [00:01:37]:
It wasn't all in one step.

Tim Newman [00:01:40]:
Ready, go!

Rick Altman [00:01:41]:
Yeah. What did I see that people missed? I don't know that anybody misses it. I think everybody realizes that this stuff is hard, that speaking in public is not easy and it doesn't come naturally to people at all.

Tim Newman [00:02:01]:
Mm-hmm.

Rick Altman [00:02:02]:
I mean, those of us that maybe have been leading seminars, training events, whatever, you know, and we have been in front of audiences a lot, Maybe we see it more than others, but I don't know if there's anybody for whom this comes naturally, especially now with the move to virtual. So, you know, people don't take storytelling classes in school. Very few of us have backgrounds in graphic design. We all suck at PowerPoint. And we're scared to death to speak in public. In fact, if you look at the latest survey, we are scared beyond death. Public speaking ranks as the number one fear according to the Book of Lists. Death is number 5.

Tim Newman [00:02:55]:
It's crazy, isn't it? And it's funny that we even talk about this because I had a conversation with somebody the other day and I always tell a story. The first time that I spoke in front of a group of people was in college after I'd gotten out of the military. So I had some leadership experience. Didn't think I had any trouble talking in front of a group of people, but I threw up. But the point is, my visual was on overhead transparencies. I don't know if you remember those.

Rick Altman [00:03:27]:
Yeah, sure.

Tim Newman [00:03:28]:
So you had this old machine with clear plastic that you wrote on. If you were lucky, you had, you had somebody that could print on it. And once they were done, they were done. Um, and the person I spoke with yesterday or the day before, whenever it was, she talked about having, you know, the slide carousel where you had, you know, 35mm slides that you had to take to, uh, Photo Mart or whatever to put in, and it was in a carousel. And so once they were done, they were done. So if you misspelled something— That's right.

Rick Altman [00:03:58]:
Too bad.

Tim Newman [00:03:59]:
Too bad. And now we've come such a long way, and we're still— it's so— it went from too bad to it's so bad.

Rick Altman [00:04:10]:
I am old enough to remember all of those things, Tim. I am old enough to remember slide software that predated PowerPoint. My first few digital presentations, I used Harvard Graphics.

Tim Newman [00:04:25]:
Oh, yeah.

Rick Altman [00:04:26]:
Yeah. I mean, these are— These are the good old days or the bad old days, depending upon your point of view. Just about every industry has had revolutions like that. I mean, I came, as you noted, from sports journalism, where we watched, I mean, actually, we participated in the advent of desktop publishing.

Tim Newman [00:04:51]:
Yeah.

Rick Altman [00:04:52]:
And the miracle of not having to send a manuscript to the typesetter so they retype all of it, you know, and then to seeing software do all this. And what we've seen with each one of these revolutions is that when the tools become easy, it's easier to create really bad content.

Tim Newman [00:05:20]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:05:21]:
I remember the rounded rectangles and the bad shaded boxes that we all wanted to put copy into. to just because we could. We've seen the bad animations in PowerPoint used just because somebody could. We're gonna see it all over again with AI also.

Tim Newman [00:05:39]:
Yeah, we already are. You know, it's so— oh, God. You know, like you said, the better technology is— it's really the lazier we get, I think. You know, I, I don't want to let, you know, too much out of the bag on my, on my vices, right? But, um, the PGA Championship— so when this comes out, it's going to be dated— but the PGA Championship is being played this week.

Rick Altman [00:06:07]:
That's right.

Tim Newman [00:06:08]:
I, I went to ChatGPT and I said, pick the 6 best players instead of— that, that had the best chance of winning.

Rick Altman [00:06:16]:
Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau.

Tim Newman [00:06:21]:
Exactly. And that's— but that's what I did. And And I put that in as one of my entries just to kind of as a, just to see, right?

Rick Altman [00:06:29]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:06:30]:
And then go and pick some of the other things. But we become lazy. We become lazy. We will type a prompt in and we'll say, oh, that looks good. And then we'll copy that prompt and we'll open up PowerPoint and we'll paste it in PowerPoint and we show that to everybody.

Rick Altman [00:06:51]:
So I want to give the benefit of the doubt here. I'm not willing to chalk it up just to laziness. There certainly is that component. And, you know, when people phone in anything, you know, they're not long for that profession. I see people with really good intentions that are given this incredibly powerful tool. And intoxication is one of the inevitable results of that. Oh my goodness, I can do this now? And they may spend hours upon hours. It's not laziness.

Rick Altman [00:07:27]:
I mean, in many cases, it's the opposite of that. It's enthusiasm, it's zealousness, you know, but it's not tempered with any experience yet.

Tim Newman [00:07:37]:
Yeah.

Rick Altman [00:07:38]:
So, you know, they're just the kid in the toy store in many cases. And Clearly, AI's contribution to presentation is profound, and it will be profound in both directions. There will be people that will just misuse it terribly, and there will be people who will use it like an incredibly powerful tool.

Tim Newman [00:08:04]:
Well, I'm glad you brought that up because I never thought about it from that perspective about, you know, the excitement of it, you know, and I've got to use it and I've got to try it without necessarily knowing the the, the process or things that could and should be done to use it effectively.

Rick Altman [00:08:21]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:08:23]:
And so ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, I apologize. I know you're listening, but I apologize. So, you know, how did you— let's, let's, let's go back. How did you go from journalism, tennis journalism into the space? Because again, I kind of know your backstory, but going from that to where you are, how did that actually happen?

Rick Altman [00:08:46]:
Yeah. Well, I like to joke that it was because I wasn't good enough to play professional tennis. All of this is plan B.

Tim Newman [00:08:53]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:08:54]:
But yes, I was the editor of Inside Tennis magazine for 4 or 5 years in the early '80s, right when desktop publishing was getting invented. In fact, I joke that my typesetter and I, we invented desktop publishing in our own little vacuum with a a little 300 baud modem that we spent $800 on.

Tim Newman [00:09:16]:
Oh, God.

Rick Altman [00:09:16]:
And we figured out together that I could type everything into WordStar on this $5,000 computer that is 1/10 the power of our mobile phone today and transmit it to the typesetter. And they saw this as an existential threat. And they realized early on that they needed to really embrace whatever this new technology was, and it didn't have a name.

Tim Newman [00:09:47]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:09:48]:
I quit my job to, you know, become a consultant in this thing. It was impossible for me to get work because I didn't— I couldn't even describe it. And then John Warnock of Adobe said, let there be desktop publishing. He gave it a name, and suddenly we all thought, oh my goodness, okay, I get on the phone, I teach desktop publishing. Oh, well, let's have lunch. You know, it was just this revolutionary thing, and the software was really hard to use. And so, I began consulting and hosting learning events for PageMaker, Ventura Publisher, CorelDRAW, all these programs that predated Adobe.

Tim Newman [00:10:34]:
Wow.

Rick Altman [00:10:35]:
And hundreds of people would show up because there was just so little opportunity to to get community support. And that was back in 1989. That was the year that Becky and I got married. And I remember the first annual Ventura Publisher User Conference, 300 people showed up to the bloody thing. It was incredible. And that was the start. A buddy said, well, you know, you should be doing this for PowerPoint. I said, Who gives a you-know-what about PowerPoint? He just kept nudging me.

Rick Altman [00:11:13]:
And in 2003, with his help, we launched PowerPoint Live is what it was called at the time, the precursor to Presentation Summit.

Tim Newman [00:11:23]:
Oh, yeah.

Rick Altman [00:11:24]:
And that was 24 years ago. He was right. As I mentioned at the outset, people really struggle with this. It's, you know, it's not so much PowerPoint. PowerPoint is really very easy to use. It's really a mediocre commodity to have PowerPoint skills. Both my daughters created slides when they were 10 years old. Just about anybody can start using PowerPoint.

Rick Altman [00:11:47]:
That's the problem though, is that people declare themselves proficient long before they should. And unlike Word and Excel, this is a craft that you practice in public.

Tim Newman [00:11:59]:
Right, exactly.

Rick Altman [00:12:01]:
That's why death by PowerPoint is just in everybody's vocabulary today. And why even though the software is, is easy, people rarely go beyond the very basics.

Tim Newman [00:12:16]:
Basically.

Rick Altman [00:12:17]:
And when you do look past just the software, there's all the other challenges of how to engage an audience, both in person and virtual, how to be your most authentic self while you are hopefully sharing your expertise about a topic that matters to your audience. These are all difficult things to do.

Tim Newman [00:12:40]:
Yeah, it, it, it really is. And you brought up 2 things, um, PageMaker and CorelDRAW. I remember one of my first jobs was in, um, worked in a university's athletic marketing, um, office. And the— we had a designer and he would put the, the media guides on these zip, zip disks. And you could only fit—

Rick Altman [00:13:03]:
I remember zip disks, sure.

Tim Newman [00:13:05]:
There was only Only one media guide would fit on that entire zip disk. And so we had, we had, I think, 23 or 24 different sports. And, and, and so we had, we probably had 72 different zip, zip disks with all the different variations of, of, and changes and this, that, and the other thing. And I'd have to actually, I'd go into our sports information office, pick up the zip disk, get in my car, drive 3 miles to the other side of campus, go over to the PR division of the main university and drop it off. As opposed to what we do now, we zip it up, we put it in a Dropbox or OneDrive or whatever it is.

Rick Altman [00:13:50]:
Sure. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:13:51]:
And there it is. But it's just so funny about how far we've come.

Rick Altman [00:13:55]:
How far we've come.

Tim Newman [00:13:58]:
It's just like anything else. I remember when there wasn't a microwave. Remember when VCR had a a tethered remote.

Rick Altman [00:14:05]:
But anyway, we are old enough to be able to reminisce like that, Tim, aren't we?

Tim Newman [00:14:10]:
Exactly. But when did you realize this wasn't just about slides? It was really about communication.

Rick Altman [00:14:18]:
Yeah. Early on, you know, back in those days, holding learning events for Ventura Publisher users. I mean, this is software that very few members of your listening audience probably had ever heard of. But again, this was just downright abusive software, and people desperately needed help with this. And so, giving seminars back then, I was— I knew this software that they didn't.

Tim Newman [00:14:56]:
Mm-hmm.

Rick Altman [00:14:57]:
And it was almost like I had tremendous sympathy for these people, and I felt, you know, it's sort of an endearment with them. And that actually is an important quality to have as a public communicator, the sense that you can really relate with your audience, whether it's from a shared experience or whether it is in the form of sympathy and empathy because you know what they're going through. And These are some of the most important qualities of all of effective communication. So I kind of learned it by accident a long time ago.

Tim Newman [00:15:42]:
Yeah, it's kind of funny how that happens sometimes. And here we are. I talk a lot about— it's more about the connection that we have with the audience, whether that's a one-on-one like this, whether it's a one-to-small group or one-to-many, whether it's on a stage or virtual presentation. And if you don't ever have the connection, it doesn't really matter what the visual is. It doesn't matter what the message is. You've got to build that connection before you build anything else.

Rick Altman [00:16:20]:
Yeah, for sure. 100%. And You, today with virtual presenting now being a thing, now being a, you know, just part of a communicator's makeup, that suggests an entirely different level of challenge.

Tim Newman [00:16:46]:
Yes.

Rick Altman [00:16:46]:
'Cause it's not like any of the other stuff we talked about goes away. This just gets added on top of that, that in addition to all of that other stuff, You have to stare into a cold camera lens and somehow figure out how you're going to engage an audience.

Tim Newman [00:17:03]:
Yeah, but a lot of times the audience expectation is— it's incredibly low, but they still—

Rick Altman [00:17:10]:
Correct.

Tim Newman [00:17:11]:
Will tune in. You know, a lot of times, you know, I think you told me that the expectation is generally about a 3. Out of 10. But why is that bar still so low? I mean, we've been in this era of true virtual presentation for 7 years now with COVID We had it before, but when COVID hit, I mean, this is when it really grew. Why is the bar still so low?

Rick Altman [00:17:39]:
Yeah, you know, hopefully not for long. But, you know, I mean, none of us knew any of this before COVID Before COVID a virtual presentation didn't even necessarily have a camera. It was, you know, a webinar.

Tim Newman [00:17:55]:
No, right.

Rick Altman [00:17:56]:
It was just your voice and a shared screen so you could show, you know, your mouse moving over some software or something. So, um, when all of us were thrust— when all of us had this thrust upon us, there was a tremendous amount of, uh, forgiveness. and acceptance. You know, we hate this, it sucks, this is our new reality, how long is this gonna last? Thank goodness for Zoom. Okay, let's make the best of it. You're on mute, huh? What does that mean? Oh, sorry. Can you hear me now? Oh wait, my dog's barking. Can you hear me now? Just a minute, the doorbell's ringing.

Rick Altman [00:18:41]:
You know, we all completely forgave all of that.

Tim Newman [00:18:47]:
Yeah.

Rick Altman [00:18:48]:
And I'm glad that to a certain degree we still do, you know, because working from home is now, you know, that's just standard operating procedure. And so, yeah, if a cat, you know, hops up onto someone's desktop, oh, you know, that's cute, put it away, you know, what's your dog's name? You know, I like that that's sort of part of the fabric now. Because in fact, that is an endearing quality. You know, people relate to that. Relate to that. But when it comes to the actual mechanics of delivering a presentation, these are sets of skills that professional broadcasters have had decades to hone. And as you say, it's been 6 years. Well, you know, you could say, well, come on, it's been 6 years already.

Rick Altman [00:19:37]:
But actually, no, what I say is we've all been doing this for only 6 years.

Tim Newman [00:19:42]:
6 years.

Rick Altman [00:19:42]:
And, uh, and, and none of us had the benefit of a studio. We— most of us, you know, most people, they're on their laptop computer with bad audio and a little teeny dot that you have to look into, which is a camera. Um, those of us that, that do this for a living, we, we've created a studio. I kicked my daughter out of this, out of her bedroom. Um, she's, she's grown, she left the house already. But, um, but yeah, I mean, I have the, the luxury of being able to actually do more than just have a laptop on my knees. But one way or the other, we all have to figure this out, how we can engage an audience when we're thousands of miles away.

Tim Newman [00:20:29]:
Yeah. And again, you've got— there's a whole industry about building studios now, building home studios, building building office studios and, and the amount of money that is invested in doing that, you know. So, so I'm a, I'm a full-time RVer and there's no way I can do this inside the rig. So I have a— I rent an office space and—

Rick Altman [00:20:54]:
And I don't know, you really think so? You can't do it inside an RV?

Tim Newman [00:20:58]:
No. Well, you know, I tried. So I've got 2 podcasts. I don't know if you know this. I got 2 podcasts. One's a golf podcast and then there's this one. So the golf one started first, and that's where I did it out of. And it was just, it was, it was a, it was something fun to do with me and a buddy who lives in El Paso.

Tim Newman [00:21:18]:
And we, we talked about our, our golf tour.

Rick Altman [00:21:20]:
Hmm.

Tim Newman [00:21:21]:
And so it, it wasn't professional, right? It was just guys getting together to talk. And then it exploded. And I said, okay, if this is really going to be something, We have to make it more professional. And then this one came along. And so, so now, and now I've got a studio. Now I've got, you know, monitors and obviously a broadcast quality microphone and a mixing board and lighting and all those other things. And, you know, when, when I travel, you know, we've got a production schedule. We have— I've got a production schedule, right? And so the whole language changes too.

Tim Newman [00:21:59]:
But, you know, I say, if I'm traveling, we've got to do the recordings either before I leave or when I get back. I don't do it when I'm on the road because it's not good quality. And, and so that's, that's kind of, kind of the thing. And it becomes what your listeners or audience expects.

Rick Altman [00:22:18]:
Mm-hmm.

Tim Newman [00:22:18]:
Right. Once you, and once you hit that level of expectation, you can't slide backwards at all.

Rick Altman [00:22:26]:
That's right.

Tim Newman [00:22:27]:
They expect this.

Rick Altman [00:22:29]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:22:30]:
And then you still have to give them that. And each time that expectation rises. And if you go back and you look at my early— and I'm not saying I'm really good now, but if you go back and look at my first episodes of the first podcast and this one, I'm night and day better with still a lot of room to grow. But what can people do in the first 60 seconds that can beat that low expectation?

Rick Altman [00:22:57]:
In the first 60 seconds.

Tim Newman [00:22:59]:
First 60 seconds. Because we generally have like 7, you know, if we're in person, people are making judgments in 3 to 7 seconds.

Rick Altman [00:23:06]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:23:07]:
We do give a little bit of break.

Rick Altman [00:23:10]:
ADD is rampant on virtual.

Tim Newman [00:23:12]:
It is.

Rick Altman [00:23:14]:
So I would say that the most important thing is to be heard I'd say good audio is more important than good video. And it's kind of ironic because as I look around, I have 5 cameras here. I have 2 of them that are operational at the moment. I got 3 others around me. But my microphone is more important.

Tim Newman [00:23:39]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:23:40]:
Audiences will forgive a multitude of visual sins if they can hear you, but the vice versa is not the case. That's been my experience.

Tim Newman [00:23:48]:
Yes.

Rick Altman [00:23:48]:
So, so that's the first thing is to be heard. And you're right, nobody's going to walk out of the room in the first 45 seconds, but they might very well decide to ditch you in the first 30 seconds of a virtual presentation.

Tim Newman [00:24:07]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:24:08]:
First impressions are formed very early on, or it's sometimes the absence of that. It's, well, I don't know, this guy might be good. I can't really tell. I'm leaving. That happens. So, you know, can you connect with your audience's pain points early enough that they say, all right, well, I'll give this guy another sentence or 2? And that's— in many cases, that's considered a success. Okay, I've got another sentence or 2. What can I say now?

Tim Newman [00:24:44]:
Right. But, you know, we laugh and we joke about it and it's because it's— I was a former college professor and nobody's getting up out of class and leaving either. They may not come to class after the first time or second time or third time, what have you, but they're not getting up and leaving.

Rick Altman [00:25:07]:
You know, it's funny. Sorry, go ahead, go ahead.

Tim Newman [00:25:11]:
No, go ahead.

Rick Altman [00:25:14]:
Related to that, One of the standard bits that I do when I'm hired by a corporation to come in and spend a day, so I'm being paid good money, these people have to sit there. And so, I know I've got a good audience, I've got a captive audience.

Tim Newman [00:25:36]:
Captive audience.

Rick Altman [00:25:36]:
I will intentionally commit death by PowerPoint. I will show them some awful slide, I'll stand up there and like be looking at my feet and speaking like this. Thank you for coming. Here are the topics. And I put up some awful screen, awful slide. And we'll take questions at the end if there's time. First, let me take 10 minutes to tell you a little bit about myself and my business. And you just know these people are saying, oh, shit, what have I gotten into?

Tim Newman [00:26:11]:
Exactly.

Rick Altman [00:26:14]:
I say something like, but right now, you have my permission to vomit. And I change the slide and I said, we're not gonna do any of that nonsense. Are you kidding me? The feeling of relief in the room mixed with laughter is so palpable. I love this. Tim, I wouldn't dare do that on virtual.

Tim Newman [00:26:38]:
No.

Rick Altman [00:26:38]:
There's no way.

Tim Newman [00:26:39]:
No way.

Rick Altman [00:26:40]:
Half the audience would leave in the first 20 seconds. I couldn't possibly get away with that.

Tim Newman [00:26:48]:
Yeah. And it's— and that's why, you know, you look at things like TikTok and Instagram, those videos are 45 seconds to 60 seconds. And if you don't hook them, if you don't get them— so even I'm probably killing us here, but we're going to take this podcast and eventually when it comes out, I'm going to cut it up into Yeah. Good segments, right? Yeah. Yeah. And that's hopefully going to drive people to either watch or listen. And if the good segments aren't 30 to 45 seconds, 45 seconds to a minute, then— Then we're hosed. Right.

Tim Newman [00:27:27]:
But that's the whole point, right? I mean, that's where we're at from a virtual perspective. And if Once you lose a listener from a podcast perspective, it's very, very rare that they're ever going to come back.

Rick Altman [00:27:47]:
Yeah. What a shame. Our attention spans are so short today.

Tim Newman [00:27:55]:
Yeah. So one of the things that I hate is when you go to a presentation And again, whether it's virtual or whether it's in person, and the presenter has a QR code up and says, here, you can have my slides. Can you tell why that is not a good idea or why slides fail as handouts?

Rick Altman [00:28:20]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:28:21]:
I mean, that's something for me, it's just kind of a pet peeve. Again, if I have your slides, why do I need you?

Rick Altman [00:28:29]:
Yeah, right. And when people ask their slides to perform double duty, that is just a guaranteed fail. That is, in many cases, the epitome of death by PowerPoint. It comes from good intentions that people think, you know, that sharing their slides means that people can refer to them later and look them over and get something out of this. And then people think, okay, well, let's see, if they're gonna be looking at my slides later, I better make sure that there's stuff on here that makes sense to them.

Tim Newman [00:29:04]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:29:04]:
Because, you know, the one word, why, you know, might have had a tremendous context in the moment, in the room, but wouldn't mean anything afterwards. So, I better say why I'm saying why. And suddenly, they're writing full sentences on their slides, and there you go, death by PowerPoint. The twain shall never meet here. I tell this to my clients all the time that if they're creating properly crafted slides for the visual component of the presentation, those slides should necessarily fail as a handout.

Tim Newman [00:29:44]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:29:44]:
They will be deficient as a handout, as well they should. And the flip side, as we've seen countless times, when you write a book and you put it up on screen because you are thinking about the handout, that's just instant fail. So, sharing slides with an audience after the fact, I believe, is never a good idea. And I've lost count how many times I'm asked to deliver my slides before some sort of a seminar, and I say, no, but I will have a fully formatted PDF file for you, because the handout needs to be thought of Separately. You need to separate these 2 things, the slides that you're showing and the handout that you're giving. And once you do that, then you are going to— yes, I'm asking you to do 2 things instead of one, and I understand the specter of that for people, you know, for whom there's never enough hours in the day. But once you get over on that notion, you are going to become so much better at both of them, and your work is gonna be more rewarding because you're just not gonna be fighting the software so much. You know, you can say, all right, what are the 2 or 3 key points that I wanna make on this slide? Okay?

Tim Newman [00:31:08]:
Mm-hmm.

Rick Altman [00:31:09]:
Good, done. Now, where's all the data? I'll put all the data on the handout. And this, by the way, is a phenomenal use of AI. In my opinion, if you give a slide content to ChatGPT and say, flesh this out for me, gimme 5 paragraphs on this, oh my goodness, that is just a phenomenal time saver.

Tim Newman [00:31:36]:
Yeah.

Rick Altman [00:31:36]:
And my conscience is clear on that because these are my ideas that I am simply feeding to this very powerful tool and asking for some meat on the bones. So I think this is not only a perfectly appropriate use for AI, But a wonderful use of it.

Tim Newman [00:31:55]:
Yeah, it really is. And it doesn't take that much more time, effort, or energy to create that and then produce it. When I do a presentation and I do my slides, and we'll get into this in a second, I have very little, very few things on there. You know, 2, 3, maybe up to 8. 8 would be a lot. And I give it to my wife or my editor to look at and clean up and make sure that it's right. I have all my notes with that slide so that they—

Rick Altman [00:32:36]:
Okay.

Tim Newman [00:32:36]:
So that as they're going through it and editing it or making sure that it's lined up and looks good and this, that, and the other thing, They have everything that I'm either thinking or may say. I may not say it all. I may not bring up half of it, but they have all the context of that, right, to create it.

Rick Altman [00:32:56]:
Right.

Tim Newman [00:32:58]:
And when I'm presenting, those notes may be over on the lectern, but I know what's up on— I already know what's up on the slide. I know I'm on slide 6. And I know what I should be talking about. So I'm not turning around and looking or running over and referring to line 3 of notes on page 7 to talk about. So there's also that piece of knowing your content and practicing it and being ready to go so that it's seamless, right? So that there's no— I guess every once in a while it's okay to double-check and make sure you didn't hit that clicker. one too many times or one less time than you actually thought that you did. But you should have a really good idea of where you are visually behind you and what you're actually saying in front of you.

Rick Altman [00:33:49]:
What a concept to practice one's craft. Practice. Come on now. To actually rehearse a little bit before going on stage.

Tim Newman [00:33:58]:
Exactly. Exactly. But it's, that's something that A lot of people don't realize that, you know, when you tell people, especially when I was teaching students, okay, you're going to give a presentation, the first thing they do is they go and they open up PowerPoint. And that to me is probably the last step, right?

Rick Altman [00:34:22]:
Right. Yeah. Starting in PowerPoint is— the temptation to make it perfect is just too strong. I mean, I really think that's the case with computers in general. I mean, even if you start, you know, if you open up Word to create a letter or a document or something, and there's backspace and autocorrect and all these wizards and templates, and it's like, okay, are you ready to make something perfect? And your market said, go. And that's just not how humans behave typically. So, I mean, starting with the cocktail napkin is usually better.

Tim Newman [00:34:55]:
Yeah. I don't want to get into that, but I actually use a cocktail napkin, you know, for one of the presentations I do. That's the last piece is, okay, and I actually give them a napkin and ask them to, you know, to do like a— introduce themselves on the cocktail napkin and relate it to like Southwest or Virgin Airlines or— Any other stories that are well known out there about how great things come from something small and basic.

Rick Altman [00:35:32]:
That's right.

Tim Newman [00:35:34]:
And grow it from there. But the whole idea that I just brought up about simplifying the slides, what's your thought on that? About having less is actually more when it comes to slides and connection?

Rick Altman [00:35:47]:
Oh, for sure. It's also the case with notes. The less you have, the better, because fully formed thoughts are almost impossible to not just read word for word. And that's the other problem with putting too much stuff on your slides is because we humans find it virtually, if not literally, impossible. to just read. And no audience member wants that.

Tim Newman [00:36:21]:
No.

Rick Altman [00:36:23]:
So, simpler notes, simpler slides, that requires the presenter to get into his or her own thoughts and share what's in their heart and in their mind. And that's what audiences want. When audiences see— feel you just reading word for word, they wonder what the hell they're doing there, and they wonder where this came from. And even if you assure them that, yeah, I wrote all of this, well, okay, fine, why didn't you just email it to me? So, um, uh, so simpler, uh, is always better when it comes to visuals and when it comes to your own notes.

Tim Newman [00:37:04]:
Yeah. Yeah, it— and I laugh because if it's written up there word for word, well, we're not reading it there. And if you emailed it to me, guess what? I'm probably not going to read there either. So, you know, it's— we want to have that human interaction. We want to have that human exchange, the true person, the thought, the idea.

Rick Altman [00:37:31]:
At a minimum, you want your slides to be neutral.

Tim Newman [00:37:34]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:37:34]:
Ideally, you would want them to complement your spoken message. All too often, though, slides just get in the way. And usually, it's because somebody spent too much time on them, put too much effort into them. How ironic. I want people to try softer, not harder, when it comes to slide-making.

Tim Newman [00:37:58]:
Yeah, I did a a Pecha Kucha, I think that's how you say it, presentation. And that really kind of—

Rick Altman [00:38:05]:
Those are challenging.

Tim Newman [00:38:07]:
They are very, very difficult. Very difficult.

Rick Altman [00:38:10]:
Yeah. Let's catch your audience up. You have 6 minutes and 40 seconds. You have 20 slides. They will all advance automatically after 20 seconds. And that is your presentation.

Tim Newman [00:38:23]:
And so, finding what's going to be on that individual slide for 20 seconds and timing it up. If you just put it this way, it doesn't work if you don't practice. First off, it doesn't work if you don't really truly think about what you're going to say.

Rick Altman [00:38:39]:
Right.

Tim Newman [00:38:40]:
If you don't truly think about practicing it and then truly think about what that visual is going to be. And when I did that presentation, And obviously I'm not looking. I have no idea what's going on behind me. None whatsoever. And once I got the video of it, they— the people that was doing the audiovisual stuff had the technology all messed up and didn't even have all my stuff on there. So some— half of my presentation was mine, half the presentation was the next person. So I had no idea. And so, you know, you also have to understand that there's going to be technological issues that you have to deal with.

Tim Newman [00:39:27]:
And so the focus should be on you and what you're saying and not necessarily on what's going on behind you.

Rick Altman [00:39:33]:
That's right.

Tim Newman [00:39:36]:
So, and in that, in that type of situation, that, that just kind of really kind of kills the mood. It kind of kills the, um, the whole purpose and reason for that type of presentation, because that's really a visual presentation as opposed to— and I mean, it could be informational, but it's more visual. It's more— yeah, I looked at it as more of a personal reflection type of presentation.

Rick Altman [00:40:06]:
The Pecha Kucha discipline would would eliminate death by PowerPoint overnight.

Tim Newman [00:40:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. And so, everybody should actually do it because it's not as easy as people think it is. And when I told somebody, oh, you'd be really good at that. I said, no, I'm not going to be really good at that.

Rick Altman [00:40:27]:
I don't know anyone who thinks it's easy either.

Tim Newman [00:40:29]:
It is not easy. No, no, it was very challenging.

Rick Altman [00:40:33]:
It reminds me of the famous Mark Twain quote that I think really did come from Mark Twain. If you want me to speak for an hour, I'm ready now. If you want me to speak for 10 minutes, I will need 2 weeks in order to prepare.

Tim Newman [00:40:46]:
See, there you go. That's true though. And that's what, you know, go back to my example with my slides and my notes, right? Because I mean, depending on what I'm talking about, I could, and how the flow and the audience and whatever pops into my head at that time on that topic, could very well determine what I say. And so to boil something down to a small amount of time, it's not as easy as people think it is. Let's put it that way. But I think we're naturally better in person than on camera.

Rick Altman [00:41:31]:
I agree.

Tim Newman [00:41:32]:
What has to change mentally for someone to show up well on camera?

Rick Altman [00:41:38]:
Got an hour? Got a day? Got a year? Got a lifetime? Because these are skills that people hone for their entire career, those, you know, professional broadcasters. I think it starts with warming to the camera, which is what professional broadcast journalists call it.

Tim Newman [00:42:00]:
Yeah.

Rick Altman [00:42:00]:
To get used to the idea of just staring into a camera lens, knowing that that's how— the only way you're going to make eye contact with audience members. And that takes a lot of practice.

Tim Newman [00:42:15]:
Yes.

Rick Altman [00:42:15]:
'Cause what happens early on is that people, their eyes start to dart all over the place. If you're watching this visually, you'll see that right now I'm actually looking a little bit off camera. Now I'm looking camera, now I'm darting my eyes. This happens all the time to people that just haven't really learned how to to control their gaze. And then what happens is you get people who just stare at the camera like this the whole time, and that doesn't work either. I sort of— I liken it to having lunch with a friend where you're speaking, I'm going to be looking at you, and I'm speaking, I'm going to look at you. But, you know, I'm going to be looking down at times. I'm going to be thinking about something.

Rick Altman [00:42:54]:
You know, when I'm presenting, I have my notes right here. I'm going to look down at my notes. That's a perfect perfectly natural thing to do.

Tim Newman [00:43:00]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:43:00]:
But then when I'm looking at you, I have to really own it. And if, you know, well-intentioned people who like tape their— tape a script, you know, right next to the camera and they're spending their whole time, you know, speaking off camera, that's just— that's a disconnect that any audience member feels. So you don't have to rivet your eyes to the cameras. Perfectly fine to look down, to look away, to thinking, but it's that or it's this. And there really can't be any in-between or else you just look shifty.

Tim Newman [00:43:36]:
Yeah. And again, this is not easy.

Rick Altman [00:43:39]:
No.

Tim Newman [00:43:40]:
I've spoken before about, you know, let's just say a year and a half ago, 2 years ago, I couldn't take a selfie because I didn't know where to look. Right.

Rick Altman [00:43:54]:
I mean, today I remind my wife, okay, you got to look over on the edge of the camera. She says, people just want to look at themselves. They want to see their— they look at the image and then you can just tell that they have—

Tim Newman [00:44:10]:
It just doesn't work, right? And it also took me a while for my setup here in my studio to get the camera at the right height along with whatever notes I've got.

Rick Altman [00:44:24]:
Right.

Tim Newman [00:44:24]:
And, and again, more technology, more, more gear and this, that and the other thing. And, you know, they've got, you know, those cameras that drop halfway down your screen. Yeah, that didn't work for me.

Rick Altman [00:44:36]:
Yeah. The little suction cups, you can put them right next to your, your script as if that's going to help. Yeah. I mean, and there's, there's— you can buy teleprompters now. Yeah. And people think of that as a panacea. It's not.

Tim Newman [00:44:50]:
It's not either. It's not either.

Rick Altman [00:44:51]:
Speaking to a teleprompter is a skill you have to acquire. And I would much rather that people develop the skill of being able to speak without scripts.

Tim Newman [00:45:04]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:45:04]:
Because that's where you're really going to connect with your audience.

Tim Newman [00:45:07]:
Right. Yeah. And again, I'm so glad that you said that because I actually have a teleprompter and I use it. And so like my camera is the teleprompter.

Rick Altman [00:45:16]:
Mm-hmm.

Tim Newman [00:45:17]:
And so like when I'm, when I'm doing virtual presentations, I have my, my— either I put my Zoom screen there so I can see the people, or I put my, my presentation there so that I can actually see that as I'm, as I'm, as I'm going through and— or I'll put the chat up or something that I can actually see happening. if I've got to, um, engage with it, right? So it's—

Rick Altman [00:45:47]:
That's right. Yeah, there are very sophisticated products. It sounds like you're using Elgato's prompter.

Tim Newman [00:45:53]:
I am.

Rick Altman [00:45:53]:
Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:45:54]:
So I—

Rick Altman [00:45:54]:
yeah, that's a— that's a very powerful, uh, piece of equipment. I, I had it for about a month and I decided that it was just a little too much technology at the one place where I want as little as possible, and that's the camera. So it didn't work for me. It was incredibly impressive though.

Tim Newman [00:46:15]:
Yeah. So like when I do, you know, I mentioned I don't like doing— I don't do any recording when I'm not here in my office. But when I'm traveling, I've got another one that is— that I can set up at my daughter's house when I go up and visit if I have to do a video call where I've got to do a quick presentation or or something that doesn't necessarily require the professional backdrop.

Rick Altman [00:46:41]:
Mm-hmm.

Tim Newman [00:46:42]:
And there, it's so much more helpful for me to have that one there because I can set it up on a tripod. I can use my phone. So I'm not— I don't have my nice Canon camera. I've got to— I just hook my phone into it and it actually does a really good job of making it look good without without too much trouble. So again, you've got to find what works for you, but ultimately you've got to have that connection with the camera and not the screen.

Rick Altman [00:47:14]:
That's right. That's right.

Tim Newman [00:47:15]:
The camera and not the screen. Because as soon as you— and I'm glad that you said that with your eyes darting— as soon as whoever's presenting and they're talking takes their eye off that camera and looks at the screen, there's the audience automatically feels that disconnect.

Rick Altman [00:47:35]:
Yeah, I think a little bit of grace is needed here though. You know, with Zoom's gallery view, if you're taking questions or if you're involved in a conversation, in a group discussion or something, I think it's okay to leave the camera lens. My rule of thumb on this is that if someone is speaking, I want to see them 'cause I'm gonna lose so much nuance just here in the virtual environment. So when I'm listening to somebody, like when you're speaking, so here's my camera and here's you, Tim, right there. So if you're speaking, I'm gonna watch you. I wanna see your lips move. I wanna see your gestures, your intonations. So I think, and I've decided that this is okay, that when you're speaking and I'm listening, it's okay for me to have my eyes off camera.

Tim Newman [00:48:28]:
Yes.

Rick Altman [00:48:28]:
But now I'm answering you. Now, I have to leave you to answer you to the camera. That rule of thumb has worked well for me because otherwise, I just lose too much in the conversation if I spend the entire time looking at the camera. So, that's the grace that I think we all deserve in being virtual communicators.

Tim Newman [00:48:50]:
And again, I'm so glad you brought up the whole idea of the Zoom gallery because if you've got If you got 2 or 3 people in the Zoom gallery, it's really no big deal. But if you've got 10 people, if you've got 20 people, if you've got 100 people, that thing can get so overwhelming.

Rick Altman [00:49:06]:
That's right.

Tim Newman [00:49:06]:
And so you have, if people don't realize this, you have settings within Zoom that you can put it on whoever's speaking. That's who you're actually looking at. And I would encourage you all to look at some of those Zoom settings and play with them. And figure out what kind of works for you, whether it's 3, whether it's 2, whether it's 1. And you're going to be able to develop so much better, a so much better connection, as opposed to looking at a screen of 30 small frames of people and trying to find who is it that's speaking. Even though it's highlighted, it still could be difficult to find.

Rick Altman [00:49:48]:
That's right. Yeah, it's And this all argues for not trying to stage a Zoom webinar all by yourself.

Tim Newman [00:50:01]:
Yes.

Rick Altman [00:50:02]:
There's nothing like having an engineer or a moderator, a host, even if it's just a friend that you're asking to monitor the chat for you. You teach them how to use spotlight view and then being Offloading all of that to somebody else is huge.

Tim Newman [00:50:22]:
Yeah, it, it, it really is. And for me, I can't do it because my ADHD is so bad. I mean, it's so bad. Even when I'm on my medication, I can't do it. And it's, it's awful. And so I do have, I get 1 or 2 people to help me. Even if it's my daughter, who's, you know, in Pennsylvania, I'm in South Carolina. I need you to monitor chat for me tonight for an hour.

Rick Altman [00:50:46]:
Right.

Tim Newman [00:50:48]:
You know, there's, there's the technology allows you to do that. So you don't even have to be in the same room to be able to do that, especially if you know each other and trust you. It's a working relationship, right?

Rick Altman [00:51:00]:
That's right.

Tim Newman [00:51:00]:
You know, you know what they're gonna say, how they're gonna react, what they're doing. But yeah, you can't do it, you can't do it yourself. You know, if you get more than 4 people in a Zoom room and you're giving a presentation, you just can't do it. You're much better off in the long run having that help so that things run smoothly. And you take that, go back to that level 3, and you get that up to a 6 or a 7 or an 8. Well, it moved really smoothly.

Rick Altman [00:51:26]:
That's right. That's right. People say, wow, this didn't feel like a Zoom call at all.

Tim Newman [00:51:30]:
This felt totally different.

Rick Altman [00:51:32]:
Yeah, that's tremendously satisfying.

Tim Newman [00:51:34]:
So let's talk just a little bit about AI and how you're using it and how some of the other people in the space are using it. So what would you say would be the smartest way that you're using AI right now that most presenters are not?

Rick Altman [00:51:51]:
Well, it would be arrogant of me to suggest that I use it in some phenomenal way that others don't. I've already mentioned that it is a fantastic tool to create handouts. You can also go in the other direction. If your preference is to first write out all of your thoughts, flesh them all out, essentially create the handout first, you can send all that to your AI agent and ask it to distill it down to bullet points. So you can really go in either direction. And again, I'll say that that my conscience is clear on this as long as these are my ideas.

Tim Newman [00:52:38]:
Right.

Rick Altman [00:52:38]:
And that I am satisfied that what comes out of the AI agent sounds like me. So I will never just take it and drop it onto a page or drop it into PowerPoint, but it creates terrific potential content that then has to be filtered through my own voice. It's a terrific research tool. Anybody who uses AI has already concluded that, that it's just a wonderful time saver for research. When I was working on my book, Perhaps the bane of any author's existence is preparing for a chapter. You know, how do you gather all these ideas? How do you collect them? How do you organize them?

Tim Newman [00:53:38]:
Mm-hmm.

Rick Altman [00:53:39]:
Sometimes this will take days, even the better part of a week. With AI, it was about a 15-minute operation, and it was so much more satisfying to, you know, not have to dredge down and pull up all this stuff and then have all these loosely collected facts and how do you put them together. And AI is just terrific for that. I probably said 100 times to it, Okay, let me see those ideas again. Okay, let's change the order of this. Okay, let me see that again. I just kept asking over and over again. And that's really groundbreaking.

Rick Altman [00:54:32]:
That's game-changing to be able to have a tool that's that powerful.

Tim Newman [00:54:37]:
Yeah, but to your point, you have to double-check things, right? I mean, because when I did my book, one of the things I did is with quotes. I said, please double-check these quotes and give me the proper citation for them.

Rick Altman [00:54:50]:
Right.

Tim Newman [00:54:51]:
And then what I did is I would go and I would physically check, and there were some that were just, number one, not, not even close to what was, what was there. And, uh, now the quote may have been close, but obviously, um, I, I would fix the actual quote and fix the actual citation because, you know, you can't just be throwing stuff out there like that and, and not checking it because somebody is going to check it and you're going to end up looking really, really bad.

Rick Altman [00:55:20]:
That's right. And you can't blame your AI agent for that.

Tim Newman [00:55:22]:
Right, right. It's your responsibility.

Rick Altman [00:55:25]:
You would never blame the hammer because it couldn't, it couldn't put the nail in straight.

Tim Newman [00:55:32]:
Exactly.

Rick Altman [00:55:34]:
I find that the agents are getting better. But yes, you must you must insist that it double and triple-check. As great as AI was for assisting me with this book, I can also share with you all the fails that I have with it.

Tim Newman [00:56:04]:
I mean, you're right. The other piece of that too, because it doesn't always It doesn't always work out.

Rick Altman [00:56:10]:
That's right.

Tim Newman [00:56:12]:
How long did it take you to write it?

Rick Altman [00:56:16]:
I started in May, went to middle of September.

Tim Newman [00:56:24]:
Okay.

Rick Altman [00:56:27]:
Then I was finishing up the editing process when my daughter, a journalist herself, said, hey, Dad, I'll read the manuscript for you. She works full-time, and so I had to do this on her time. But after the first couple chapters, when she found errors or corrections or improvements that both I and my wife missed— when you can get over on both of your parents, she took delight in that.

Tim Newman [00:57:05]:
I'm sure.

Rick Altman [00:57:05]:
And at that At that point, I had to actually hold up the production of the book to let her read the other 23 chapters. Wow.

Tim Newman [00:57:17]:
But again, to your point, you came out with a much better product, right?

Rick Altman [00:57:21]:
Much better product.

Tim Newman [00:57:25]:
And as I think about it, when we go through and coach people and people try and edit their own things, they miss so much because it's theirs and they overlook it. They don't actually read it. for the content. They don't read it for the grammar. They're talking it through in their head. And it really does need to go to somebody who really has kind of a blank slate with it to be able to go through and give you the best article. That's right.

Rick Altman [00:57:52]:
You've got to step away. The more eyes you have on it, the better. And the fresher your own eyes are, the better. So, stepping away from a large project like this is an essential part of the creative process.

Tim Newman [00:58:08]:
Yeah. And I don't know about you, but I got antsy. My most— the book that I published in November, I went to my editor and I said, just hurry up and get through it. Just why does it take— why is it taking you so long? Hurry up.

Rick Altman [00:58:22]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:58:23]:
That didn't go over too well.

Rick Altman [00:58:26]:
It is a marathon, not a sprint.

Tim Newman [00:58:28]:
Exactly.

Rick Altman [00:58:29]:
Here's another AI story for you. So, when you're done, when you have finished writing, when you've written that last sentence and suddenly, ah, you have this tremendous release, and then the next thought is, all right, well, now I've got to create the index. Now, after this wonderfully creative process, I have to embark upon this soul-sucking, mind-emptying process where I go through the entire book, pull out all the words that I think need to go into the index, find the page numbers for them, which ones should be references, which ones should be see and see also. It is just the most mind-numbing work after you have done— after you've performed this wonderfully creative process.

Tim Newman [00:59:26]:
Yeah.

Rick Altman [00:59:27]:
process. It's the worst. And I found an AI indexing service for $99. It went through all of my PDFs and pulled out all of the references.

Tim Newman [00:59:45]:
Wow.

Rick Altman [00:59:45]:
It asked me how much thoroughness I wanted. There was actually a scale. I told it 6.5 out of 10. And It was phenomenal.

Tim Newman [00:59:56]:
Wow. That's $99 well spent too.

Rick Altman [00:59:58]:
Oh my goodness.

Tim Newman [01:00:01]:
Yes. And how long did that take for it to do that?

Rick Altman [01:00:09]:
A minute?

Tim Newman [01:00:10]:
Half a day. Half a day?

Rick Altman [01:00:11]:
And then I took maybe a day. Oh yeah. No, it was amazing. Took about half a day and then I took another 24 24 hours to put it in place, to format it, and get it down.

Tim Newman [01:00:26]:
Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. But let's talk about your conference that's been going for 20— is it 24 or 25 years now?

Rick Altman [01:00:37]:
Yeah, 24 years, the Presentation Summit. Yeah, I can't decide if that's wonderful or pathetic.

Tim Newman [01:00:46]:
It's yes. So talk about a little bit and what you cover. And obviously, over the— you know, we've talked a little bit about the change in desktop publishing and presenting over the years and how the seminar has changed as well.

Rick Altman [01:01:08]:
Yeah. So we are now a an all-virtual conference. We went through COVID and then did hybrid for a couple of years. I was very proud of our hybrid product, but I concluded that the compromises on both ends were too much to justify for a conference that is all about authenticity, all about high touch and finding your most authentic self. There were too many parts of hybrid that I thought got in the way. So, I concluded it was actually easier to hold 2 separate events. And so, for a couple of years, that's what we did. We held an in-person event and 2 weeks later, all the presenters came back in the virtual space And redid the whole thing.

Rick Altman [01:02:06]:
Everything was live in both cases. And that was actually easier, less stressful, and less expensive. Hybrid does not scale down well at all. You know, you're looking at $20,000 for each ballroom for all the gear you need. And it doesn't matter how many people are in there attending. And we're a small conference. We cap attendance at 200. So yeah, hybrid was a wonderful experience until it wasn't.

Rick Altman [01:02:41]:
And now, you know, sort of on the back end of my career, I'm just not sure that I want to take on a quarter of a million dollar commitment to a hotel any longer.

Tim Newman [01:02:53]:
Right.

Rick Altman [01:02:54]:
You know, hotels didn't do well during COVID and And contracts with them now feel almost like straitjackets. I'm kind of digressing here. I promise I will get to the conference content itself.

Tim Newman [01:03:08]:
Yeah.

Rick Altman [01:03:09]:
But that's been sort of the journey of this. And really, virtual has become sort of a second career for me. I might have retired if it weren't for it. COVID was sort of the silver lining to all of this. And we talked earlier about that expectation gap. You know, people, when they attend our in-person conference, they expect a 7. And I think we give them an 8.

Tim Newman [01:03:35]:
Right.

Rick Altman [01:03:37]:
Over Zoom, a virtual conference, people expect it to suck. They expect a 3. We give them a 7. We don't quite get to 8. We give them a 7. And that gap, you know, between 3 and 7 is enormously satisfying.

Tim Newman [01:03:54]:
fine too. Yeah.

Rick Altman [01:03:56]:
So, come September 13th this year, we will do 3.5 days of virtual. We will pretty much put a blanket over the entire presentation experience, message crafting, storytelling, presentation design, PowerPoint technique, and others. Canva and Google Slides are becoming very popular and very strong, all the way through to delivery in all its myriad forms and shapes today. We have 2 tracks of seminars, one we call the studio, which is for, you know, the more aesthetic things, and then the other one is the lab, where we'll get geeky. We will have keynote addresses. We will come together often across the day where we're all together in one in one virtual place, and then people will head back out to choose either one of the tracks that they want, the studio or the lab. And again, I would like to think that we create levels of engagement at this conference that are unmatched by typical virtual conferences. That's arrogant for me to say.

Rick Altman [01:05:13]:
I have an excellent executive producer. He and I have become good friends John Chen is his name. Many people might recognize him. And we are a very, very good team. He throws just a ton of energy out there, and he knows Zoom like the back of his hand. And I bring a human touch that together we create a nice jam.

Tim Newman [01:05:43]:
So, when can people register for it? Registration open now.

Rick Altman [01:05:46]:
Now, this very moment, presentationsummit.com is all they need to, uh, uh, to, to get all the information about it. And I will say, going virtual has allowed us to bring in guests that we would never have gotten otherwise. Um, uh, this year we're going to be joined by, um, several guests, um, including an Olympic gold medalist, Josie Baff, who, uh, Won women's snowboard cross, it's called, from— she's from Australia where you don't get much opportunity to train there. And she went and won a gold. And yeah, she's in Australia. Would she fly over here on her own dime to meet with us in person?

Tim Newman [01:06:36]:
No. Right.

Rick Altman [01:06:37]:
But she will spend an hour with us online. Same thing with Chief White House Correspondent and CNN primetime anchor Kaitlan Collins. We would not have gotten her in person, but she's gonna sit down and have a conversation with me for 45 minutes, and anybody can ask her any question that they want. So we're punching above our weight thanks to virtual.

Tim Newman [01:07:05]:
That's pretty cool. That's a pretty good lineup that, that she got there, right there, just on that. And like you said, you, you wouldn't get them if, if that's right, if in person. Number one, it—

Rick Altman [01:07:14]:
Well, we couldn't afford it.

Tim Newman [01:07:15]:
Couldn't afford them. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's the, that's the big piece, you know, right, right there. I mean, it's just, you know, what it costs to go to a, to a good high-quality conference right now. Like you said, you know, to your point with, with what hotels are doing, it's, it's really becoming cost prohibitive even for Even for large conferences, because I was looking at something the other day, over $2,000. I'm like, you got to be kidding me for that. And it's, I don't know, you better be giving me a ton of value for that $2,000.

Rick Altman [01:07:51]:
That's right. That's right. But without any travel, without any lodging, and a $450 registration price through this month. June 1st, we go up to $525, but $450, that's, yeah, that's pretty darn good value.

Tim Newman [01:08:07]:
It really is. So what's the website on that? And I'll make sure it goes in the show notes.

Rick Altman [01:08:11]:
presentationsummit.com. All right.

Tim Newman [01:08:14]:
I'll make sure that's there. And where else can people get in touch with you to work with you and find out what you're doing?

Rick Altman [01:08:20]:
My front door is better presenting. And once you're there, you will see a link to the annual conference. You'll see a link to the book. So, yeah. And there's a contact button on every single page. It goes straight into my inbox. I'm pretty easy to reach.

Tim Newman [01:08:42]:
Well, like I said, I'll put that in the show notes too. And it's funny. when I was a professor, students had all my contact information. I mean, they had my cell number, they had my email address. The classroom was literally right around the corner from where my office was. And they'd always say, I couldn't get in touch with you. What are you talking about? No, you didn't try. You didn't try anything.

Rick Altman [01:09:08]:
Well, and the thing is that it is often really hard to get in touch with people. Sometimes their only presence is on social media and, you know, you just direct message them. Will they get it? Who knows? Reaching people is hard these days, I find. And, and the last thing I ever want is for anybody to say that about me.

Tim Newman [01:09:32]:
Right.

Rick Altman [01:09:33]:
I would like to think that I am very easy to reach. And so now I have to, of course, practice what I preach. If anyone sends me an email, Like I said, it comes directly into my inbox. I do not allow emails to go unread more than 24 hours.

Tim Newman [01:09:53]:
Yeah, that's good practice to have. And I'm the same way from that perspective. And if someone's going to take time to reach out, you owe it to them to reach back out, even if it's something that's not going to be a good fit.

Rick Altman [01:10:08]:
Yeah, exactly. I mean, my whole gestalt here is is communication, right? So if I can't communicate effectively in the most important relationship of all, one-on-one, then what the hell am I even doing?

Tim Newman [01:10:25]:
Exactly. Well, Rick, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. I really do appreciate it. And take care, and we'll talk to you soon.

Rick Altman [01:10:33]:
Excellent. Thank you very much. Have a good day, and thanks to everybody.

Tim Newman [01:10:38]:
Be sure to visit speakingwithconfidencepodcast.com to get your free ebook, The Top 21 Challenges for Public Speakers and How to Overcome Them. You can also register for the Formula for Public Speaking course. Always remember, your voice has the power to change the world. We'll talk to you next time.

Rick Altman [01:10:52]:
Take care.