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Caring too much about something can put you at a distinct disadvantage.

Car salespeople know this when they detect even the slightest interest or sense any desperation on your part. Savvy negotiators sniff out this weakness when working their magic at the final hour. Kids know this when they look up at you and ask for something you wouldn’t normally allow but hope that they can tug at your heart strings with that special look.

Caring too much about acceptance is what enables members of a wild-eyed group to talk each other into a plundering frenzy after an important sports event. Caring too much about avoiding embarrassment is what prompts middle-aged men to trade comfort for prostate cancer.

Caring is good–caring too much is dangerous. And this month, I can’t help but think about how this relates to your own handling of client relationships. So on that subject, what is it that you care about?

What Should You Care About

Let me suggest that client relationships should be profitable, impactful, and (maybe) fun, in that order. If a client relationship isn’t profitable, it really isn’t a “client” relationship at all but more like a friendship (albeit a fairly empty one because it’s built on false premises).

Profit, impact, and fun are the things you should care about in a client relationship. That leaves off things like an opportunity to build your portfolio, an opportunity to get your foot in the door somewhere and later start to make money, or an opportunity to do Y after we’ve done X. The problem is that these X opportunities seldom lead to anything beyond more X opportunities, and Y is pushed out ahead of you like a raft on the bow wave of a cruise ship–always just out of reach, but never out of sight.

This idea of opportunity is so alluring to us, probably because all of our business lives we are trained to snatch opportunities so that they are not wasted. The United States is the Land of Opportunity, in fact, and countries around the world marvel at the chances we have to follow our instincts and seize the opportunity (or diem, as the case may be).

Constrained Capacity Brings the Courage to Say “No”

So where does saying “no” enter this picture? In simple terms, I’m suggesting that you decline any business opportunity that does not allow you to make a profit. I’d go further and say that taking someone’s money and not having an impact on their situation is going to hollow out a big part of your creative soul. And if you have the option to turn down work that is profitable and impactful but not fun, you’re in an enviable position indeed.

So how do you get to the point where you can say no more often, if that’s what’ll lead to a better client base, or one that provides more profit, impact, and fun? There’s really only one answer, and that’s to ensure that your opportunities are greater than your capacity. The reason is because that gap–the difference between what your prospects/clients want you to do and what you are capable of doing while maintaining profit, impact, and fun–represents your ability to say no.

By saying “yes” all the time to clients, what you learn to do is work for longer hours (because you haven’t raised capacity to match opportunity), have less impact (because experts don’t say yes all the time), and less money (because the allure blinds you to the true cost).

Desperation (otherwise known as caring too much, which is how this all started) makes you too eager to say yes when it may very well be in your best interest–and even your client’s best interest–if you say no. Desperation is what tempts you to let a whopping opportunity lead you off mission, build capacity to grow so that others think you are successful, and then wind up one day discovering that you are a slave to your own business or job.

Dangers of Growing to Meet the “Need”

I think you’re starting to see, here, why it’s so important to craft a positioning for yourself that makes you a lot less replaceable in the prospect’s mind, and then to implement a marketing plan so that you always have more opportunities than you can handle, thereby preserving your ability to say no and fight back the client jungle.

That’s how you make money, impact your clients, and have fun in the process. You’ll more actively shape your business and career by saying no than by saying yes, all things considered. So start caring about the things that make sense for your business and career, okay? Competent people are seldom stymied from lack of opportunity–it’s more likely that they’ll get off-center by not making choices, which is just another way of stating that they say “yes” too often.

What motivates me in consulting is to help people make money, help them make a difference for their clients, and help them have fun in the process. If any of those things aren’t true for you, fix them by caring about the right things.

Today we’re talking to Bob Hower who was the past president of the DFW Interactive Marketing Association as well as Manager - Strategic Planning at JCPenney. Today he puts on workshops for people on doing presentation skills. Bob, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your workshops?

Bob Hower: I appreciate the interview. I put together a 10-hour workshop for small business owners that we do over 5 consecutive sessions. So it’s 2 hours a morning. We focus on the small business person, so specifically in this workshop, among other things, we work on 30-second commercial because that’s a presentation of small business owners at giving every place in networking meetings.

And then we’re also focusing on 5-minute spotlight presentation because 5-minute or 10-minutes gives small business owners a real chance to get up in front of people and tell them what the benefits are in the business and what types of clients they’re looking for.

Listen to the interview

TDc: When you have your presentation seminar, what are some of the topics that you discuss? Just an overview of those topics beyond the 30-second and the 5-minute.

Bob Hower: Certainly. At the beginning, we let everybody introduce themselves and tell us what their specific objectives are because I always want to get an idea of what that specific person is looking for. We have everybody in that first week bring in an exhibit or an achievement because that’s where an easy presentation to start with will get a chance to hold up something that you feel pretty proud of and give us 90-second or 2-minute story about that.

Where you got it, how you achieved it, how hard you worked for that. And then, besides the 30-sec and the 5-minute, another major presentation which really helps people out, is we have a “talk to get action.”

Because all of us are constantly trying to get clients, associates, employees acting on one action. So we have a real formal structure on how to deliver the talk to get action and everybody comes in with a solid example on how they tried to get somebody at that meeting in particular to act on what we do. So those are really the major ones that we do spend time on within the 5-weeks class.

TDc: How would this benefit like a graphic designer? I know whenever I go in and pitch new business, showing my portfolio. And then you mentioned getting action. How would this tie into something like that?

Bob Hower: That’s a great question. Working on this for 5 weeks, we also have some little exercises that we do to build confidence of everybody in front of the room. And really when you’re dealing with clients or you’re dealing at a networking group, it’s really important that you have a message that is pretty focused and we’ll do that in both the 30-second commercial or elevator pitch. And even in a larger scale, the 5-minute presentation.

And then the second important thing is you have to deliver it with excitement and passion and enthusiasm because it’s your business. And really, people are obviously going to buy something from you if they believe that you can deliver that. So what we’re working on in this class is to really help you to organize that message.

But as importantly, to deliver it with conviction and enthusiasm and confidence throughout the 5 weeks. And that’s why we do it over a 5-week period so you get a chance to deliver your message in the workshop. And then go out there in the week and practice, practice it in your networking meetings and your client meetings. And as you’re learning it and doing it in the class, and then practicing it during the week, we really start changing your habits in building presentation skills. And that’s what this workshop is all about. It’s developing presentation skills so that you can deliver an effective message.

TDc: And then refining those skills..

Bob Hower: And then refining those skills by practicing it, coming in next week, changing of some of the ways that you do it. We’re constantly coaching you in the class.

You’re watching the other people strengthen their skills. So the whole thing works together as a real important mix to build your confidence and get you stronger in front of people.

TDc: When somebody’s thinking of doing a 30-second commercial which also could be like an elevator pitch. How is that different than a 5-minute? Do you have the same goals or do you take the same approach? Or is there two different approaches for two different timelines?

Bob Hower: There are two different approaches. Something I guess I knew intuitively. But really it’s strengthened in my mind as I’ve done this workshop. The hardest presentation to make is the 30-second commercial. People will sometimes come in and immediately they’re afraid of the 5-minute. And they think “Gee ’cause that only takes 5 minutes. I’m up there in front of the group for a long period of time.

That’s a lot more intimidating, a lot hard. So certainly, you’re up there longer for the 5 minutes. But what I’ve found is that the most important presentation that small business owners make is the 30-second commercial. ‘Cause that really makes you come to grips with couple of things. Number 1 is , “What differentiates you as a business?” And that really sets the foundation for your whole marketing strategy business strategy as a business is to differentiate it. By crystallizing down to 30 seconds, it really forces our members and focuses our members on thinking about what makes them different from other people and what benefits, what one real benefit can they bring to clients?

And we do give guidelines in the class. You put that into an outline and then get up in front of the group and deliver it with passion and clarity on what differentiates your business and what makes people want to buy you.

TDc: Do you find that sometimes that people put in too much on a 30-second commercial? Or should they focus just on one thing?

Bob Hower: I find 2 things. And then again, it’s an interesting question. I find it in a lot of meetings I go to. People can’t get it into 30 seconds. So they tend to either come up way short and then come up with a 15-second commercial that doesn’t make any sense at all. Or they’ll talk to 40 or 50 seconds because they really can’t crystallize the thoughts.

With this guideline and formula, we work out un-delimitation of thirty seconds. It really does focus and make people structure on what are the most important things they want to say to again promote their business, market their business differentiate them as a business.

TDc: And then moving to the 5-minute, when you’re doing a presentation like that. Is that a different format? You’re squeezing everything into 30 seconds instead of 5 minutes. How is it different to approach that type of presentation?

Bob Hower: Yes. I think the hardest one is the 30-seconds. I think once we give developing thing, that really is the one that is most thought-provoking to the small business people.

I think once you get your 30-second commercial down, then a 5-minute, a 10-minute, a 30-minute. And we do give you a formal outline for the 5-minute. You tell a little bit about yourself and your business and how you get into this. But the real thing that a 5-minute does is to give you a chance to give some specific examples. And even testimonials of success stories that you’ve had with your business.

And really that bridges back to this “Talk to get action”. Because what we learned in the “talk to get action” is that the example that you use is the most important things. People are sold through examples, examples of testimony, So really, once we get 30-second down, we think of we differentiated that we have.

What are the one most important product that we sell?

The 5-minute gives you a chance to spend a little bit more time on describing products that you do sell, which you can’t do with a 30-second. You have to be crystal clear on that. But then more importantly, it gives you sometime to give one or two clear examples of where you helped the clients, do whatever it is that you’re doing in your business supply them with products or the service.

And really the example, if you can bring in somebody, and we ask people in the workshop to do this. If you can bring a testimonial in and then you hold that up as an exhibit, that really is the best-selling of all.

Because you’re really describing them. People being successful with your products and willing to write something down and tell all the people that you served them. And then, we don’t do it in the workshop. But once you have 10 minutes, you have the chance two or three examples in.

That pretty much follows the same outline.

TDc: So you just extrapolate that?

Bob Hower: We really do. The 30-second is completely different. But then, once you get to 2 minutes, 5 mins. And that’s why I say , People think that those are the harder ones, more in front of the group. But once you’ve developed the confidence to speak in front of people, a 5-minute, 10-minute and 30-minute pleasures.

Because they really do give you the time to drive the point home and use the examples which really sells. Where as the 30-second, you really don’t have the luxury of putting wrong words in it. Because you don’t have the time for that.

TDc: Right, Cause you’re crystallizing everything.

Bob Hower: Exactly.

TDc: On a 5-minute, is there a pattern like you build up to a point? And then we talked about taking action. Is there a way that you build up to that and then take action or present that?

Bob Hower: In the class, we really don’t do that. We concentrate most of the presentations, I think, 3 of the weeks, we’re really up there giving 90-second or 2-minute presentations. And then in the 4th week, we do the 30-second commercial. So that obviously only gives you 30 seconds to do it. But we do, give people a chance to do that a couple of times. So you’re up there but you only have a 30-second time frame.

Then we get to the 5 minute. And that’s really the first time you’re doing that. But once you have the outline of the 30-second commercial, and you learn the format of the example of the “talk to get action”, then really a 5-minute talk is a just putting 2 or 3, 90-second talks together.

So although we haven’t given you a chance to do 4-minutes before you do 5-minutes, just by doing the 90 second and 2-minute when you get to the 5th week with the outline, you’re ready to do that. And as I said, we don’t do it, but we could do it. We could get to that, f5th week and give you a 30 minute assignment you’re ready to do that with the right outline because it is just a series of examples and flow. And once you get the confidence, you can be up there 10- 30 minutes without a problem.

TDc: Typically what is the size of your seminars?

Bob Hower: We really do like to keep the number between 10 and 15. 15 because if I go bigger than that, it’s really going to be difficult to do it in the 2 hours. And they are 2 hours.

We know small business owners target will target busy people, so we do this first thing in the morning at 7:45-9:45. And we do it in 5-7 at night. So we do want to keep it to 2 hours so 15 is really what I like to think is my max. And then I do like to have 10 in a class. Because 10 gets you to be a large group. And once you’re doing something in front of 10 people, it gets you doing it to a larger group. It helps you start to build your confidence. It gives you chance to start reading different people in the audience. So it really is a good minimum number. So again, we try to keep it between 10 and 15.

TDc: You mentioned presenting something you’re doing eye contact and you’re getting feedback and you’re feeling the emotion of the room. That’s something else that you practice on too.

Bob Hower: Yes. We certainly make comments to that. But I did mention this at the beginning, probably a little bit. We also have some formal warm up exercises where we get everybody to get up and play through this warmup exercises with gestures and different speech patterns so you get a chance to use higher modulation and low modulation. You’re really in these exercises and get them a chance to do that.

And then of course we ask you in the assignment that we give you, to try to figure out ways to not only prepare the words for the presentation but to try to build in different ways that you can use some of the things that we use in the warmup exercises to make the presentation come alive, to make it more interesting, to make you more confident.

TDc: Okay. You’ve mentioned confidence several times. How would you rank that in the presentation skill hierarchy?

Bob Hower: I think confidence, we didn’t mention this but I also have the privilege and it was a privilege to teach in the Dale Carnegie School for 20 years as a certified instructor. And we learned pretty strictly in that class. I certainly believe that confidence is one of the most important things to deliver an effective presentation.

No matter where you go to listen to people speak, whether it be in your church or at a formal presentation or at a workshop that you’re paying money for, you know that there’s just some speakers that get up in front of the room and you look at them and say “That person has it. They are good! ” We give them an A+ right away because they just come across.

And really when you take a step back and take a look at it, it really is the passion and enthusiasm they have their topic, it’s the topic itself. But really, the foundation of all that is the confidence that they exude as they’re talking. Because that really is to me, probably the most important of all in delivering an effective presentation is looking like you believe in what you’re talking about.

TDc: And when you’re doing portfolio presentation, if you don’t believe in the work that you’ve created, you’re not going to win over anybody.

Bob Hower: Absolutely not. That’s really why I’m delighted about this workshop. Because I really did develop this myself for the small business person because I’d go to so many meetings at the Chamber or networking meeting the way the other person speaking about them that you know they feel very strongly about would look like they don’t want to be up the room because of whatever it is, fear or lack of skill in public speaking.

And yet, here they’re talking about something that obviously is critically important which is their business. I said “Let me see if I can develop a class that really is focused to them. ” And that is what this presentation skills workshop is all about.

TDc: Well Bob I really appreciate you talking with us today. Thank you very much.

Bob Hower: Dan it’s a pleasure, and I appreciate the offer.

Contributed by David C Baker, ReCourses (see information about upcoming speaking engagements at the end of this article).

Whether or not you have articulated it, your firm is mission driven. (Furthermore, what looks “balanced” to you because it aligns with your own interests might appear imbalanced to someone else with different priorities.) In the absence of a clear statement surfacing this focus, how would I discover the unique nature of your firm or the firm where you work?

Until you look for the right clues, answering that question is like scanning a crowd for the tall person when everyone is sitting down. But just like extraordinary height is apparent once you ask everyone to stand up, so too the subtle “drives” at any firm are apparent if you look in the right places. The intent of this is first to help you see where the imbalances are at your firm, and then suggest a few means of bringing your firm back into balance. All this comes from the belief that intentional imbalance is a lot healthier than unintentional imbalance. Read more

Contributed by David C Baker, ReCourses (see information about upcoming speaking engagements at the end of this article).

The creative services field is probably less process-oriented than any other among the professional services. Why do you think that is? Working in the field for many years and advising the same field for many more, I’ve come to that realization after noting several reasons why.

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BoDo is a new site recently luanched by Catherine (cat) Morley, Neil (nt) Tortorella and Jeanette (jay) Wickham. You nay recognize these folks from the No!Spec Inititaive and Creative Latitude. BoDo is a website for practical business advice. Here is what they say about themselves:

“BoDo is grass-roots-get-down-and-dirty-love-yo-mamma. We’ll talk about serious subjects such as “When to bring in a PITA clause,” “How to keep your clients” and “How to fire a client.” As well as lighter fare like “Working in your undies” and “How to tell when your down time is up.”

While BoDo isn’t filled with deep theoretical conversations on the whys and wherefores of design there is a lot to read and think about. Additionally this is not the place for tutorials on software techniques (although they have a collection in BoDo’s resources).

Take a look at: Bodo- Business of Design Online

Contributed by David C Baker, ReCourses (see information about upcoming speaking engagements at the end of this article).

Pro bono publico is a latin phrase that refers to the application of your professional expertise to some “public good” as a service rendered, without pay. It’s long been a part of the creative services industry, but it’s not typically managed well in three particular aspects.

First, it’s often reactive rather than emerging from a considered approach that would bring greater benefit to everyone involved. Second, the recipients are sometimes chosen for the wrong reasons: they asked first; they were the most persuasive; they offered the most interesting opportunity; there was some personal connection; or they didn’t object to enduring the work of less experienced employees cutting their teeth on hapless victims. In other words, the work is not taken as seriously since these deserving entities must be content with the scraps. Third, pro bono work is often viewed as a diversion instead of a strong contribution that aligns with your mission, culture, and expertise.

Read more