“Networking” Presentations. Whatever your role, building and maintaining an effective network matters. You do this through lots of little routine, everyday “presentations” to the people you meet/know/knew/used to work with/etc. You do not do this by asking big favors or playing remora. You do this by focusing on (together now) your audience and your business objective. Then you see what (if any) messages serve both. When those messages arise, let ‘em rip. When you can prepare for a specific audience & objective (you are going to an event), develop some effective messages to have ready.

Elevator pitching. Is it just me or do you have a love-hate relationship with the concept of the elevator pitch? Yes, you need to develop and use a concise way to convey your value. But if you are trying to build relationships, and ergo, a network, you don’t need an elevator pitch, you need some effective “elevator questions.”(Communications = 3-way) Or, have some ready phrases that cut right to the impact of what you do (who you help, and how). But not a memorized spiel. Please?

Relevance. You’re busy, you have work to do. So is your network. Respect that. “Cold-contacting” someone? (i.e., LinkedIn “whisper down the lane” introductions, or blog comments?) keep the message useful (to them, not you). Keep it respectful and pertinent. If you’re using your feed reader well you’ll come across a couple of articles a day that could be useful to someone in your network. Send them along (and while you’re at it, check that they’re helpful and wanted).

NOT Spam. Not relevant, not wanted = SPAM. Do Not Want. Ever get “recruiter” calls throwing your resume on the pile for the most random positions ever? Useless for you, even worse for the hiring co. SPAM. Who hasn’t had a well-meaning “Aunt Rhoda” send them about something “about computers… because, you work with computers, right?” SPAM. Do not start sending every good marketing article you read to Seth Godin, he’s probably all set on that.

You could fill an entire blog on networking. Here are the 3 things burning a hole in my brain right now:

1. Best. Definition. Ever. Secret to Being a Connector: Help People. (That’s it.) (There’s nothing else.) From the RAPLEAF presento by Auren Hoffman (from Ben Casnocha’s blog)
2. Social Media. Yes, you need to understand it. With less time and money than it will take for you to travel to in-person “networking events” you can make substantial connections (and yes, conversations) with interesting people all over the world. To start expanding your mind about social media, check out this brilliant video (Was in BlogLinkBankruptcy post but merits another mention. Found at Penelope Trunk’s blog)
3. YouTube - Web 2.0 Connect to Enjoy, Benefit from Social Apps
   
   Three Conditions for Social Media

Instant classic. Garr distills out two essential questions every presenter must be able to answer.

He connects Marty Neumeir’s Brand Gap work to presentations through one of my pet concepts:

We can, more or less, read about what you do and who you are, but why it matters? Why we should care? That’s going to take persuasion, emotion, and empathy. Empathy in the sense that the presenter understands that not everyone will see what to him is obvious or that others may understand well but not see why it should matter to them.

The contribution bit calls on Benjamin Zander. Your business objective and your message together must equal your “contribution.” Nerves and “hard questions” won’t rattle you if you’re strong and clear about your contribution. Know it and you can be more profound, present and confident.

But look, you’re busy, just go read the post.

[ooops. ed. note: I wrote this while cleaning out my drafts folder. Only when I looked up the trackback URL did I notice I had already blogged about it. Pretty sad, huh? But what the hell, it's THAT good. "Read it, Sam."]

Starting a business? Go subscribe to Marc Andreessen’s feed. Now.

So, you’re an entrepreneur. And you think you want Venture Capital. Because, you’re a venture. And you need capital. Right?

Marc Andreessen, stepping profoundly onto the blogging stage just this past week, has written an eloquent pair of posts on the truth about venture capitalists. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. The posts are thorough, candid and really, in a way, quite lovely in their honesty. He presents some simple and important insights about VC that any entrepreneur should consider before deciding that VC is their best capital development strategy.

There are so many misconceptions among entrepreneurs. I’ve even seen ‘us’ & ‘they’ mentalities, and a skewed focus on “getting VC investment” as the win. Um, starting and running a profitable company? That is the actual “win”? There are things that Venture Capital is good for, and others that it is not. No harm, no foul.

If you’re pursuing Venture Capital to finance your startup, then reading these posts is mandatory “understand your audience” homework.

Marc’s unblinking honesty is refreshing and educational, and is an absolute must read for anyone immersed in the capital development process. This entire passage on why a VC may turn you down, and what you can learn if many do, is just great (my emphasis added):

One, she can’t see the leverage — she can’t see you getting to a sale or IPO with a credible prospect of a 10x return within 4 to 6 years. If she can’t see this, and 10 of her peers at other firms can’t see it, then you may want to revisit your fundamental business model assumptions and try to understand what’s missing.

Remember, it’s in her best interest to see the full potential in your business — she is looking for high-potential startups in which to invest.

Two, she thinks that what you’re doing is too early or unproven.

This is the one that drives entrepreneurs nuts. Isn’t the whole point of venture capital to make risky investments in unproven technologies and markets?

Unfortunately, that’s life — sometimes things are simply too early for venture capital. In that case, develop your idea further with bootstrap or angel funding and then take it back to the VCs later with more proof points.

Three, she isn’t convinced that you’ve assembled the right team to go after the opportunity. This usually means she doesn’t think your technical founder(s) are strong enough, or she doesn’t think your founding CEO is strong enough. Again, it’s in her best interest to see the potential in the team if it’s there — so if she and 10 of her peers pass on your startup because of concerns about the team, then you may want to rethink your team.

Guys, when the fit is right, they can actually be on your side…

Finally, keep in mind:

A venture capitalist’s ideal investment is the one that would be a huge success without her.

Before you spend a lot of time and energy lining up meetings with prospective investors, be clear: Do you really need venture capital? Do Venture Capitalists need you? If both are truly a “yes” your job just got much easier. If you even think either might be a no, now would be a good time to rethink your strategy…

While you have their attention, get to the point. The “ah-ha” moment. Connect them with what you’re doing and why it matters, preferably on an emotional or visceral level.The winner of a May Entrepreneur Idol pitching contest at Stanford swats it out of the park:

Linus Liang, 25, a first-year graduate student in computer science, held up a diapered baby doll. “What if I could tell you how you can save 4 million babies a year?” he asked.

Liang’s idea is to create “a low-cost incubator that could help infants in developing countries.” But put that way, how much of your attention does it grab? How motivated are you to learn more? Is that easy to grasp and file away in your memory? Do you already have opinions and emotional buy-in around low-cost incubators in developing countries, or do they just sound like they would probably be a good thing?

What about saving babies? Better yet, millions of them.

That answers “what’s in it for me” and gets right to the benefits, it connects something we know nothing about (low cost incubators) to something we value highly (saving babies), it contains an easily understood problem statement (babies are dying), and it’s all supported by a clear visual aid, the baby doll.

I saw a startup pitch a technology to “fine tune” chemotherapy — and minimize its harmful side effects — a couple of years ago. Their grabber? A young mother who beat Breast Cancer only to die because chemo destroyed her heart. That entrepreneur didn’t have to waste pitching minutes convincing us that chemo needs to be fine-tuned.

The “Rule of Thumb” (ROT) goes: you get a 30 second “free ride” of audience attention. How are you using it?

UPDATE: You really can help save babies today, please support the March of Dimes be a hero for babies…

UPDATE 2: The Google Reader Oracle coughed up this gem on pitching, via Seth Levine’s VC Adventure blog.

Top meeting frustration? Keep motormouths idle (print subscription required). Boston Business Journal reports Opinion Research USA’s findings about what makes meetings suck:

1. disorganized, rambling meetings
2. interruptions
3. cell phones
   

BBJ readers express peeves from motormouths to disorganized meeting leaders, all amounting to “wasted time”.

Every word you speak in a meeting is a presentation. The art is to filter well. The long list called “what you know” must become the concise and effective short list called “what they need to know.” Be confident and organized.

Of course the meeting’s leader is most on the spot. As leader, get sharp about your objectives and your audience. Prepare thoroughly and steer the meeting according to well-defined objectives. I don’t mean be a control freak. Even a wide-open brainstorming session has objectives. If a meeting must occur, it has at least one objective to be satisfied. Get to it and move on. A BBJ reader points out:

“If the meeting was important enough for a bosses(sic) to schedule, then it should be important enough for them to take the time to be prepared.”

Meetings are truly little clusters of presentations. The most presentations you will ever make are most likely the ones you make in everyday meetings. Organize your thoughts before you speak, and listen carefully. Like most presentations, the part most often missed is the “return path” of listening well. Use your next meeting to practice better listening, and as you do, think about how to apply better listening to better presenting in many realms.

Read this blog and you’ll see a lot about audience + objective = message, what that means, and why it’s important for ALL presentations (from an outgoing voice message to a giant keynote).

This post is about what that focus on the audience doesn’t mean.

Putting the audience “first” is not pandering. You’re not up there to please, make them like you, or even, necessarily, make them want the kool-aid you’re selling. It’s not a popularity contest. You don’t even need their approval. You need their response.

When you factor the audience into your planning, you do it strategically and you factor it together with your objective. The two play off each other and that’s what determines your message (and your approach). Yes, you look at who the audience is, what their needs and wants are, etc., but then you apply that knowledge to your goal.

Sometimes you want the audience to agree with you and repeat your ideas to others. Sometimes you want the audience to disagree with you and churn up a good debate about it. Sometimes you want them to be convinced by what you say, and others you need them to play off you and take it in a new direction.

Presenting with the audience always in mind is not about giving them “what they want,” it’s about reaching them where they are in order to bring them towards your objective. You’re showing character, not compliance.

How’s it work in practice?

Professional speakers are notorious for pride in their “audience feedback ratings”. Hint: they don’t matter. When I’m paid to speak, my job is NOT to get high feedback ratings. My job is to help whomever hired me accomplish what they hired me for, because the person who hired me is the real audience and my business objective is happy clients and referrals.

When I teach a seminar, I love building a close relationship with the participants, and hold my “audience” in high regard. But I’m not playing to the audience hoping they will end the day “really loving” the seminar they took, (or even agreeing with everything I said). My objective is for them to end up better at their jobs because they’ve become more effective presenters.

Incorporate the audience into planning your message, but remember you’re trying to give a presentation that kicks ___, not merely trying to kiss the audience’s ___.

Check out Ben Casnocha’s new book, My Startup Life.

The more I read Ben’s ideas and see what he puts into things, the more I believe Chris Sacca’s (Google) blurb for the book — that sooner or later we’re all going to work for Ben.

This book will be big. Be the first in your office to read it and be part of its success by buying it on day one (Monday, May 21).

I’m looking forward to reading the book, and personally recommend it to anyone who wants to become an entrepreneur or just be CEO of their own life. If you’re on the fence read these. You can also read an excerpt here or listen to interview podcasts here. And if you don’t want to take my word for it, read Auren Hoffman’s.

UPDATE: …or Jeff Nolan’s …or Kavit Haria’s …or his guest column at Brazen Careerist. Even Valleywag bothered to snit about it, and since they’re always nasty, their wag is its own endorsement. And if you’re still on the fence, go do some competitive haikuing for a signed copy from Ben via Brad & Amy Feld.

I just bought my copy.

Ben Casnocha book excerpt on your personal brand:

I once spent two hours strategizing with my friend Tim over my one-minute introduction at a big meeting. We analyzed what I wanted to communicate, the dynamics of the room, the needs of the other people, and so forth. Tim and I knew this one minute would be the first time many of the people

How many meetings consist mostly of lengthy (or if you’re really unlucky, multiple lengthy) presentations that end with mere summary points and the great relief of the audience, who then dashes for the door?

For gods’ sakes, why? Your presentation is a LEAD-IN to an effective meeting. End by jump-starting one.

The more important the meeting, the shorter your presentation should probably be. Tell them what they want and need to know up front, and then stimulate the discussion (and steer its trajectory) that needs to follow it in order to accomplish your business objectives.

When the presenter asks “how much time do I have?” and proceeds to construct a PowerPoint to fill every last minute allotted, (and probably a few more) everyone’s time is wasted. It is pretty thoroughly proven that people do not absorb new ideas just by listening or watching. To internalize ideas, they must get involved, ask questions, articulate them to others, debate them.

Remember:

• Define what you need the audience to DO, and then get them started doing it.
• Figure out what you need the audience to understand, retain and repeat from your presentation.