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DON’T PICTURE ME NAKED  is a business book for your boss, team members, school teachers or loved ones.  Because let’s face it – almost everyone needs better public speaking skills! DON’T PICTURE ME NAKED shows you once and for all that anyone – including you! – can be a highly influential presenter who speaks with confidence, clarity and influence. 

Sound hard to believe? It’s easy when you follow this proven system and have the right attitude.   So are you ready to take charge of your career and step up and finally be heard by your boss, your colleagues and your clients? 

In this book you’ll discover how to:

•  Stop stressing over ‘what to say’ and ‘how to say it’ and speak freely!
•  Ensure your communication is always highly effective
•  Manage your nerves and project confidence and calm whenever you speak
•  Master Persuasion – Influence people to change their thinking and behaviour
•  Showcase your professional expertise and accelerate your career
•  Command attention and get noticed via well developed presentation skills
•  Maximise your impact in meetings, conferences and general conversations.

Get in now and order your gifts before the books hit all good book stores on February 1^st 2010.  Special discounts apply for orders of 20 books or more.  To order your bulk copies at a discount email me at michelle@michellebowden.com.au or for individual purchases go to http://www.michellebowden.com.au/main/page_products_products_page.html

Did you know that I sponsor a not for profit CEO to attend each of my 2-day public programs?  We’ve worked with organisations such as HeartKids Australia, Kids Helpline, Camp Quality, COTA, Starlight Children’s Foundation, Peer Support Foundation, Royal Life Saving Society,       Vision Australia, RuOK, Home Hospice, Ma Afrika Tikkun, Cure our Kids and many others.

This month I supported Carol Langsford from the Trish MS Foundation – responsible for raising nearly 2 million dollars that they have channeled into research to find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.  Carol is a beautiful lady with a passion and conviction to be admired and what a massive contribution they have made.  Carol and her husband started out hoping to raise a few dollars.  Congratulations Carol – for more information contact www.trishmsresearch.org.au

Signing books on the night!

Everyone was very supportive and joyous and they gave me such a big applause – it was very moving – I am still smiling about it today!

In a moment of mothering clarity I decided to let my three little fairies  attend the event so they could see what mummy does at work.  And they were magnificently well behaved.   I did explain about 500 times that it was a work function for mummy and if they showed a single sign of being naughty their nanny would whisk them away!  Seemed to work on the night!!  It’s wonderful for them to learn that women can be successful and so I’m glad they were there.  My middle daughter Maddie said to me, as I was kissing her goodnight, that she was very proud of me.  And they all took a copy of the book and their book launch name tag for their class news on Friday!  As Holly is 10 years old and therefore too old for news – she asked for a special compensation from her teacher so she could update her class on her exciting evening!  Gorgeous!

Matt Church, Jennie Vickers and Vanessa Clarke

 There are lots of photos of the guests on the night looking as foxy as ever!

Michelle and Sara getting their make-up done at M.A.C Cosmetics - a great supporter of mine!

Avril Henry, Rowdy McLean, Creel Price, Michelle Bowden and Ollie Tams

A special mention to the MC of the year – Rowdy McLean from www.creatingsynergy.com.au who is always such a wonderful support to me in my life and did a great job of welcoming everyone. 

And also to Emma Bell who was instrumental in running a smooth event for me.  Thank you!   Thank you all again for being there with me and joy to you!

 Please don’t forget to tell everyone you know who presents in business to buy a copy: www.michellebowden.com.au

Michelle Bowden, Joe Basile & Graeme Cowan

Janelle Blatchford, Richard Stubbs and Joy Pitts

The occasion was a photo shoot for the cover of my book: DON’T PICTURE ME NAKED. I decided that with a title like that I should be on the front and back cover! I purchased some very expensive shoes from Robert Weitzman – check out the photo!

And then I engaged Franciska Rauwenhoff as the photographer. Franciska is an ex-model and boy is she beautiful! Nothing like being photographed by a top model for your self confidence – not!

Fran’s sister Jay Jay was the make up artist on the day – she’s a well known make up artist and participates in all sorts of top fashion shoots regularly – and boy did I look beautiful! My husband said he hadn’t seen me looking so lovely in the twelve years we have been married! I thought you’d like to see some of the photos – it was a hoot!

Stay tuned for more details on the launch and release of the book!

Warmest wishes to you…Mx

On Friday 15th May, I had the opportunity and privilege to sit in an audience (something I don’t get to do that much!) of just short of 1000 people. We were captivated, we were inspired and you could have heard a pin drop as we went on a deeply personal journey. Who was the speaker? It was Li Cunxin made all the more famous by the release of his wonderful autobiography called Mao’s Last Dancer. As we sat transfixed in his audience, Li told us his story. His life began in abject poverty (he was the sixth of 7 sons) in a remote village in China. He was ‘discovered’ by talent scouts working for Mao’s Cultural Revolution. To begin with he rejected ballet, crying himself to sleep at night. But one day all this changed and his love affair with the art of ballet began. Ballet led Li to the United States on a cultural exchange. After his dramatic defection to the US he married the ballerina Mary McKendry and has had two children. It’s a story of triumph over adversity. Li eventually became one of the top ten male dancers in the world. He’s right up there with the best motivators.

I’ve been reflecting on what it was that Li did or said that was so inspiring and here are my thoughts:

Simplicity. Be clear on your key message and make it simple. Li’s story is simply about love and persistence. No matter if you are an accountant, sales representative, senior manager or whatever, what is your key message?

Respect. Li’s respect for his audience was charming. His precision as a speaker matched his precision as a dancer. He embodied the concept, ‘respect your audience and master your craft’. His articulation was precise despite his accent and his movements were fluid and respectful. He was clearly rehearsed, but in an unassuming unrehearsed sort of way which is so important because exceptional presenters rehearse, but a technique exposed is a technique lost.

PowerPoint. Shock horror, Li only had two or three slides in a 45-minute presentation! He used slides to reinforce his key messages and his gestures and voice painted the picture for his audience. It’s all about the audience. Li used many statements known as truisms. Truisms reflect what the audience already knows to be true. For example, ‘as you would know…’, ‘many of you would have found…’. When you reflect what your audience already knows to be true using truisms, and get them nodding their heads, you are in a position to then lead them to wherever you want them to go.

Pause and breathe. Great motivational speakers like Obama and Martin Luther King all pause at least once in the middle of their sentences so the audience can hear the words, process the information, and come to a conclusion simultaneously. In addition, when you pause and breathe diaphragmatically you get three main benefits. Firstly you feel more relaxed. Secondly you will have a more powerful voice. And finally you will retain your clarity of thought.

Emotion. Li took his audience on an emotional journey. His use of humour was delightful and his stories within the overall story were cleverly crafted with an incident, a point and a benefit for the audience. Authenticity. It’s so important that you realise, whoever you are, you are gorgeous! What you need to do is just be as good at being that as you can be (even if you have a wonderful thick Chinese accent). Your audience will thank you for being real.

So there you have it! Simplicity, Respect, PowerPoint, Emotion, Pause and Breathe and Authenticity. Try one or all of these in your next presentation and you will be well on the way to commanding attention, showcasing your professional expertise and inspiring others. I wish you well!

The story of Li Cunxin’s life will be released as a movie in October 2009. I highly recommend you see it. And if you ever book motivational speakers for your company conferences you simply must have Li – he’s sure to impress.

Me and Li Cunxin

Are you setting yourself up to use PowerPoint as a lethal weapon?

Are you guilty of the ‘kid in a toyshop’ syndrome, where your enthusiasm for your newfound slide mastery is clouding your judgment as a presenter? Have you thought enough about the need to concentrate more on your verbal and non-verbal communication than your visual aids?

Try the, ‘Will my slides cause death?’ test:

1. Do you lack confidence as a presenter? Would you be horrified at the thought of presenting to an audience without the use of visual aids?
2. Are you guilty of using PowerPoint slides to take the focus off yourself?
3. Do you use PowerPoint slides as convenient palm-cards? Do you find yourself looking back at your slides to remember what to say?
4. Do you use PowerPoint to write your presentation?
5. Do you try to use the entire functionality of PowerPoint as a way of improving your presentation? (Have you even sent your Personal or Executive Assistant on a PowerPoint training program?)

If you find yourself answering ‘YES’ to these questions, then there is a good chance you have been relying on PowerPoint slides to carry you as a presenter, rather than simply as a visual aid to highlight the key messages for your audience.

You may have great technical skill in designing visual aids, but it may well be at the expense of developing your ability to communicate with your audience, and to properly connect with your audience.

What is the purpose of slides?  What should they look like?

The purpose of slides is to reinforce your 3 key messages, not to remind you, the presenter, what to say next. Slides have the potential to create a visual, kinesthetic and maybe even an auditory connection between your audience and your message. In other words, they help stimulate your audience in a variety of ways that will help them to remember your content. An ideal presentation with slides doesn’t cause ‘death by PowerPoint’. Delivering your message with confidence and charisma is simple, as long as you don’t use slides that disengage your audience. I believe the main reason many people don’t use PowerPoint to its advantage is they don’t know how to.

So, I have listed my 10 tips for designing slides to help you set yourself up to be a powerful presenter who uses your slides as an aid to influence your audience to your way of thinking.

Top 10 tips for designing beautiful slides

1. Dark text on a light background.
2. Minimum 30pt font.
3. Times New Roman or Verdana font style.
4. Reduce the number of slides to a minimum – aim for 3 slides per hour!
5. Replace words with pictures as often as possible.
6. Colour code graphs so people see the point of the graph easily from a distance.
7. Use beautiful clever graphics, not overused, tired ones.
8. Ensure your transitions from one slide to the next don’t distract.
9. Sound clips should add value not distract from the message.
10. Don’t use underline, italics, bold or shadow on your fonts. Only use key words on your slides and change the colour of the font if you must highlight a word.

Free e-program

For more information on PowerPoint design and delivery, please send me an email and I’ll send you a complimentary copy of my PowerPoint e-program called STOP! Your PowerPoint is killing me!

Happy presenting!