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An Interview with Carmine Gallo
Interviewed by Geetesh Bajaj, June 5th 2007
Carmine Gallo (pictured to the left) is
a communications coach for the world’s most admired brands.
His client list includes Intel, Chase, Barclays, IBM, Nokia, and
many others. He is an Emmy award-winning journalist and former
anchor, host, and business correspondent for CNN, Fox, CNET, and
CBS. Gallo writes a bi-weekly column on the subject of business
communications for Businessweek.com and he is the author of two
books aimed at business professionals who want to become better
speakers and presenters. His new book, Fire Them Up!, will be available
on September 28, 2007.
Visit him online here...
Geetesh: |
Tell us more about yourself and what you do.
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Carmine: |
I am a communications coach for some of the world's top brands
in a wide range of industries: technology, banking, medical
devices, health care, agriculture, retail, etc. For more
than fifteen years, I worked as a broadcast journalist
for Fox, CNN, CBS, TechTV and CNET.
Growing tired of "reporting" the
news, I began to leverage my skills as a storyteller to
help company executives tell their stories in clear, concise,
and engaging presentations. Conducting customized workshops
takes most of my time, but I also give speeches and write
columns and books on the subject of business communications.
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Geetesh: |
Tell us more about your book -- and also about the next book. |
Carmine: |
My first book is titled 10 Simple Secrets
of the World's Greatest Business Communicators. I
spent the better part of two years working on it. Unlike
most public speaking books, this one is full of first-person
interviews with contemporary business leaders who do a masterful
job of communicating the story, or message, behind their
service, product, company or cause. In the book, readers
meet people like Starbucks founder Howard Schultz; Cisco
CEO, John Chambers; Monster.com founder, Jeff Taylor;
personal finance guru Suze Orman, and many others. The
first three simple secrets (passion, inspiration and
preparation) help establish a rapport with your audience;
the next three secrets (start strong, clarity, and brevity)
focus on the content of your story; and the last four
secrets involve the "packaging" of the spokespeople
-- how great communicators walk, talk and look.
While I'm proud of this book, I can't wait for your fans
to read my next book. This fall (September), John Wiley & Sons
will publish my second book: Fire Them Up! The book reveals
the 7 simple secrets to inspire your customers, colleagues
and clients. The book will help people sell themselves,
their vision and their values and to speak with confidence
and charisma. More than two dozen top business leaders,
entrepreneurs and educators shared their insights and
techniques. The book looks at the power of presentations
to inspire and motivate audiences. Cliff Atkinson, who
your readers might know for his book, Beyond Bullet Points,
also participated in Fire Them Up! Readers
will learn that everyday offers opportunities to inspire through communications.
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Geetesh: |
What can PowerPoint presenters do to improve their communication skills? |
Carmine: |
In my experience as a communications and speaking coach, the presenters who stand out do the following:
- Do not read your slides. Watch the great presenters
like John Chambers at Cisco. He glances down briefly at
his next slide but delivers the information to the audience.
Not once will you catch him taking his eyes off the audience
while reading a sentence from a slide.
- Prepare and rehearse. Chambers is extraordinary because he prepares unlike anyone
I have ever met. He memorizes the flow of his talk, the
information on each slide, etc. He knows when he is going
to walk into the audience. Get this -- he even knows where
the lights are in the room so he's never in shadow. It's
preparation to the extreme but he comes across as competent,
confidence and yes, effortless.
- Keep in visual. We live in a visual society and many people in your audience retain
information through visual means. Why then do most presenters
continue to drag down their listeners with tons of convoluted
data and text? Don't start a presentation by opening the
software. Begin by storyboarding the content; physically
drawing images on paper. Think visually from the beginning.
I know the Al Gore movie, An Inconvenient Truth, was not
created on PowerPoint, but the same concept applies --
not one slide had bullet points. Not one. Bullet points
are not inherently bad and they do make lists easy to follow,
but try to break free of the pattern of creating slide
after slide of nothing but headlines and bullet points.
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Geetesh:
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How important is the non-verbal communication designed within a PowerPoint slide -- and what are your thoughts on this subject.
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Carmine: |
Non verbal communication is hugely important but it's often
the last thing presenters think about, if at all. All great
presenters have extraordinary body language. Here are three
things you can do at your very next presentation to stand
apart:
- Maintain eye contact with the audience. Remember
that I spoke of the need to prepare your material? Preparation
is important for one main reason -- you can deliver the
presentation without reading from prepared notes or the
slides themselves. Break the room into thirds and address
different points to each section of the room.
- Maintain
an "open posture." A closed posture simply means
the speaker places a physical barrier between himself and
his listeners. For example, closed posture would include
crossed arms, hands in pockets, standing behind a lecturn.
Everything should be "open -- your hands, arms, and
body.
- Use hand gestures. I once interviewed a professor
who studied hand gestures. He said complex gestures (two
hands above the waist) reflect compex thinking. Gestures
give the listeners confidence in the speaker. Watch bright
people like Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Rudy Giuliani, Colin
Powell, John Edwards -- they all use hand gestures to emphasize
virtually every sentence.
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Geetesh:
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Would you like to share some trivia about anything
-- a funny incident, an unconventional approach to communication,
something presentation related, or anything you like.
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Carmine:
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One of the most gratifying moments of my career occured about
a year ago. I was asked to work with the Vice President
of a computer company who had to give a presentation to
Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison. Ellison was an investor in this
man's company but the firm's product had missed some key
milestones. Ellison was pissed and my client was in the
hot seat. He was understandably nervous. Everything about
his body language said, "We blew it. We don't know
what happened, and we have no idea how to fix it." This
was not the case, however. My client is one of the brightest
guys in the business but his body language and confusing
presentation failed to instill confidence. In two sessions,
we completely improved his body language as well as the
way he presented the story behind the problem. Once he
gave the presentation, Ellison was satisfied with the explanation
and said the product was "in good hands." Fast
foward to a few days later. I returned to the company for
a follow-up visit and this executive's receptionist greeted
me. She said, "I don't know what you did to 'Bill',
but he looks and sounds like a leader now. We were losing
confidence in his ability to lead the company before you
worked with him." Amazing, isn't it? Becoming a better
speaker and presenter can leave your customers, employees
and investors with confidence in your ability.
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