How to Pitch Anything in 15 Seconds [video]

Manifesto – The Case for an American Diaspora. Welcome to Career Hack. Our mission is much deeper than simply providing creative international recruitment strategies. We strongly believe that an entire generation of Americans needs to go and explore opportunities abroad, for both themselves and their nation. This is our manifesto. The Case for an American Diaspora America is an idea. The idea of America is a frontier. What we now know as America was built upon this principle: “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” At some point, your ancestors immigrated to America. It may have been religious persecution. They looked across an ocean and saw a frontier. “It’s increasingly clear that I am not entitled to anything in my home country. You were bred and born of this stock. In a frontier, everything is being built from scratch. It’s because of this that America is the home of Silicon Valley, the indisputable center of technological innovation in the world. “We’ll try and we will probably fail. We are the ultimate startup success story.

Propaganda Techniques Propaganda designers have been putting messages into television commercials, news programs, magazine ads, and other things we read and see for years. These messages have been carefully designed to influence our opinions, emotions, attitudes and behavior. Their purpose is to persuade us to believe in something or to do something that we would not normally believe or do. These messages have been designed to benefit someone, and that someone may not be you! It's not as easy as you might think to spot hidden messages. Propaganda designers know you are on your guard. Nothing says that you can't appreciate a good piece of propaganda, and still agree with the messages hidden within it. Is everything we see and hear propaganda? To protect yourself against the techniques of propaganda, three good questions to ask yourself are: Who does this benefit?

Are You Creating Disgruntled Employees? - Joseph Folkman by Joseph Folkman | 6:00 AM July 23, 2012 You can’t make every worker happy, surely, and should a business even try? Evidence from our recent research suggests, actually, that the answer is yes. Or rather, our evidence shows that managers are giving up far too soon on their disgruntled employees, making them less productive than they could be, exposing their companies to unnecessary risks from thefts and leaks in the process, and inflating turnover costs. What causes employees to become disgruntled and what can be done to prevent it? The results of the data were clear: There is most definitely such a thing as “the boss’s favorites.” Our results suggest a clear path forward for bringing disgruntled employees back into the fold. Encourage me more. As leaders, our knee-jerk reaction to unfavored (and disgruntled) employees is often — “It’s their own fault!” If not for their sake, then for everyone else’s sake. A third of a person’s life is spent in the workplace, sometimes more.

Authentic Presentations Take Practice - Nancy Duarte by Nancy Duarte | 12:00 PM November 28, 2012 Lots of us fall into the “smart” trap when presenting: we work so hard to be polished and articulate that we overcompensate and come across as flat, boring, and egg-headed. We’ve all certainly heard (and suffered through) talks like this. So how is it that great communicators manage to engage and entertain their audiences while sounding smart? We all have different personalities, of course. And then, at the other end of the spectrum, there’s Susan Cain, whose style was very subdued when she gave one of the most buzzed-about talks at TED 2012, “The Power of Introverts.” She spoke quietly and convincingly. The funny thing is, it takes practice to be as natural as Steve Ballmer and Susan Cain in front of a group. Use your physical expression to its fullest by: Peeling yourself away from your slides. Opening up your posture. Using gestures to amplify what you’re saying. It’s easy to get caught up in what the audience thinks about you.

5 Simple Steps To Make A Great Video Pitch Lately one of my client,s wanting to contact new clients, asked me how to make a great video pitch. So I started my quest for making a great video pitch. Not just a great video pitch but a friggin’ awesome video pitch! Even though standing in front of the camera is something I’m starting to get used to, it’s still very scary. I still find pitching one of the most frightening things, especially because I’m not quite used to it and in some ways it feels like you’re completely exposed to people’s judgment. Perhaps you entered a contest, are trying to sell something as an online entrepreneur, or you are looking to start a crowd funding campaign. A good video pitch is a beautiful thing to behold, and I found out that it takes a good deal of preparation to really nail it! You will need to create the video itself and during the video, you’ll need to quickly and concisely address several facts that you want anyone viewing the video to know. But Hey, How Do I Create That Awesome Video Pitch? Aha!

What’s your purpose? (No. Really. Think about it.) There is no escaping reason; no denying purpose. Because as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist.- Agent Smith, The Matrix I haven’t been writing much lately. That’s because I’ve been writing. See, I feel a little guilty about not posting often enough on my blog. But the truth is that while it may look like I’ve been ignoring my blogging responsibilities (whatever that means), the truth is that I haven’t been writing here because I’ve been writing — writing more than ever — elsewhere. And soon, I’m going to deliver said Big Kahuna, here, for free. I’ve been told that my posts awaken people’s desires to “do epic shit,” and if that’s true, then tighten your seat belt, because it’s about to get epicer. But before we talk about that, let’s talk about you. Let’s talk about why you’re here at all. You must have a purpose I swear that all of life’s answers are in the film The Matrix. So stop right now and ask yourself why you do what you do each day. Now, step back. Hmm. I’m serious.

Wikipedia: Critical Thinking Critical thinking is a type of clear, reasoned thinking. According to Beyer (1995) Critical thinking means making clear, reasoned judgements. While in the process of critical thinking, ideas should be reasoned and well thought out/judged.[1] The National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking defines critical thinking as the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.'[2] Etymology[edit] In the term critical thinking, the word critical, (Grk. κριτικός = kritikos = "critic") derives from the word critic, and identifies the intellectual capacity and the means "of judging", "of judgement", "for judging", and of being "able to discern".[3] Definitions[edit] According to the field of inquiry [weasel words], critical thinking is defined as: Skills[edit] In sum:

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently - Heidi Grant Halvorson Learn more about the science of success with Heidi Grant Halvorson’s HBR Single, based on this blog post. Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren’t sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do. 1. To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. 3. Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. 7. 8. 9.

5 Creative Presentation Ideas Home > Presentation Concepts > Presentation Ideas > Creative Presentation Ideas Here are 5 creative presentation ideas that will make your audience sit up and listen to your presentation with attention. Let’s jump right in. Presentation idea 1: Use a Metaphor A good metaphor not only simplifies a concept, but leaves a lasting impression in your audience’s mind. In one of the recent investor presentations, a budding internet entrepreneur used a memorable metaphor to start his presentation. He started his talk by slowly pulling out a pair of scissors, knife, bottle opener, nail filer etc. from his trouser pockets. He then pulled out a neat little Swiss knife from his shirt pocket and said, “This is what we propose to do with our site. This powerful metaphor helped the audience to get his idea instantly. What metaphor can you use? Read Related: Making Visual Presentations Using Analogy Presentation idea 2: Use a memory hook Learn 29 more creative ideas for every aspect of your presentation.

Take this simple marketing quiz Not so simple, actually, and about more than just classical marketing: There are a hundred people in a room, perhaps a trade show or a small theatre. What's your choice: Sit in the back, watch, listen and learn.Cajole your way onstage so you can make a slick presentation that gets everyone on their feet, buzzing and excited, eager to do business with you or hire you.Set up a booth in the lobby that energizes and engages 12 of the people enough that they tell their friends, while it disturbs or mystifies two of the others and is ignored by the rest.Provide a service (like cookies and juice in a box at the exit) that many of the people there are appreciative of but few remember or talk about. Most people say they choose #2. Apple and Nike and Starbucks are trotted out again and again as marketing gold standards, because they are beloved by many and ignored or distrusted by few. The mass market is no longer.

Leadership vs. Management Disciplines > Leadership > Leadership vs. Management Managers have subordinates | Leaders have followers | See also What is the difference between management and leadership? Many people, by the way, are both. Managers have subordinates By definition, managers have subordinates - unless their title is honorary and given as a mark of seniority, in which case the title is a misnomer and their power over others is other than formal authority. Authoritarian, transactional style Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Work focus Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often within tight constraints of time and money. Seek comfort An interesting research finding about managers is that they tend to come from stable home backgrounds and led relatively normal and comfortable lives. Leaders have followers Leaders do not have subordinates - at least not when they are leading.

Top ten employability skills Based on a number of surveys on the skills required by graduates undertaken by Microsoft, Target Jobs, the BBC, Prospects, NACE and AGR and other organisations, here is our summary of the skills which were most often deemed important. The most important skills to develop in employees to drive company growth over the next five years were (according to the Flux Report by Right Management): Leadership skills 62% Management skills 62% Interpersonal skills 53% Innovation and creativity 45% Resilience 43% Technical/specialist skills 40% IT skills 40% Sales/marketing skills 32% Client management skills 24% Other/none of the above 4% Now continue to our other skills pages 15 Quick Pitch Tips for Kick Ass Presentations The pitch isn’t the only thing that will make your business successful; far from it. But it sure does matter when you have an opportunity to get on stage and present. Those opportunities may be few and far between, but you don’t want to blow them. And opportunities to pitch your business should happen all the time – because ultimately we’re always pitching, whether it’s investors, customers, business partners, candidates, spouses, or random people we catch on the street. Pitching and presenting are critical skills for startup owners. After attending the YES Entrepreneurship Conference and watching a handful of young startups do their 5-minute pitches, and jotting down some notes, here are 15 quick pitch tips. Pitch Solo. Pitching is hard, whether it’s on stage, in a boardroom, on a conference call or anywhere else for that matter.