Teams calls – stop background noise (and “vulgar video”)

How often do your Teams calls get disrupted by background noise? You know, like when someone thinks they’re on mute, so talks to a person next to them.

And hands up if you’ve even watched swirling video of the ceiling – or worse! – from an attendee who didn’t realise their phone’s camera was on.

The latter’s what you might call “vulgar video” – and it’s so distracting!

Luckily though, you can use little-known features in Teams to take back tech control. (That way, you and your audience get a great experience – as you both deserve!)

What’s more, you can do so either during or before your event. (And without nagging everyone to put themselves on mute.)

 

Here’s how

How to avoid YouTube ads when you play videos during your talk

If you play a YouTube video in your talk, training, or Teams call, you can really engage people.

For example, a video lets you:

• Demo a technique
• Novelly share a quote
• Share an expert’s opinion

For all those reasons, I wanted to play some clips in a couple of talks I gave lately. But I was at first put off by all the ads that tend to show up on YouTube clips.

In this post, you’ll see a quick way around the ads, without violating the terms of service by downloading the video or using an ad-blocker.

To learn more, you can click any of these headings – or, just scroll down:

Banish bullets – prove you’re a pro! [@NolanHaims video]

You’ve probably heard that if you base most slides on bullet points, you’ll bore people. (Making you and your message less effective.)

But what can you do instead?

Well, below is a great 45-second clip of ideas for you:

That’s from design expert and Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Nolan Haims. I love how he uses Morph transitions to walk you through 3 options to improve your bullet points:

Tableau trouble? Recent resources to the rescue! [Videos by @sqlbelle and @TableauTim]

Here’s what you’ll find in this post:

• The case for Tableau

• “Author” and “viewer” explained

The trouble with Tableau

• Give me data – how big is Tableau?
• A newbie’s view

Help’s at hand!

• Tableau authors: 2 short videos for you
• Tableau viewers: A short video for you

Your turn

Also check out…

 

The case for TableauScroll to Contents ↑

If you don’t yet use Tableau (or a similar data visualisation tool, such as Power BI), chances are high that you may well in future. As businesses become more data-driven, I’d say presenters will use tools like Tableau more and more.

 

“Author” and “viewer” explainedScroll to Contents ↑

As a presenter, your role when you use Tableau is likely to be as either:

• an “author” – you build charts and other visualisations, then present them
• a “viewer” – you purely present visualisations built by an author

Either way, Tableau can become a core part of your toolkit:

• As an author, you can even use Tableau as your presentation software
• As a viewer, you can easily export visualisations from Tableau to PowerPoint

 

The trouble with TableauScroll to Contents ↑

But if you use Tableau, I’m betting you’ve had trouble understanding some parts of it. (I certainly have!)

After 10 years (and almost a million views), it’s time for a change

For the last 10 years, I’ve been posting once a month (or more) on this blog.

Now, with 150 posts and almost 1,000,000 views under my belt, it feels like time for a change. That’s why from now on, I’ll post less often than before.

I’m still fascinated by public speaking, data visualisation, and business communication in general. And I believe people’s need for help and inspiration in those fields is just as great as ever. So I’m sure you’ll find new tips and videos shared here from time to time.

You could say:

“It’s not goodbye, it’s just au revoir”

So until the next time, all the best with your presentations. And as this blog’s header-image says:

“Here’s to better presenting!”

 

Also check out

• Thanks a ½ million! (5th birthday news at Remote Possibilities)
• 200,000 views – and counting!
• Who uses this blog most? (1st birthday news at Remote Possibilities)

6 tips to curb your nerves in public speaking, from Alex Lyon [Video]

Because fear of public speaking’s such a huge issue, any useful advice on it’s a great help – to speakers everywhere.

So I was delighted to find a really helpful video on that topic from speaking coach Alex Lyon.

In fact, Alex posted a pair of related videos in recent weeks.

In this post, I’ll focus on the 1^st of those, which looks at ways your mindset can help to reduce your fear of public speaking. The 2^nd video (which you’ll find at the end of this post) looks at ways your behaviour can help to lessen your nerves, too.

In the 1^st video, I love how Alex starts:

“These tips will help you
cut your anxiety in half”
Alex Lyon, at 0:08

What a winning way to open! He doesn’t claim you can crush your nerves completely. And that distinction’s key to managing your fear – yet it’s all too easy to forget.

Here’s Alex’s 6-minute mindset video. (This clip skips his 40-second intro.)

For your easy reference, these are his 6 points:

DON’T tell this story, says @KindraMHall. I’m not so sure. YOU decide [Video]

If you’re like me (and most other people), you’re fascinated by stories.

As a speaker, stories also help you to connect with, to deeply engage, and even to transfix your audience.

But expert storyteller Kindra Hall has a stern warning for you:

“There is one story you should never tell
– the story that makes you cry”
Kindra Hall, at 0:05

She goes on to say:

“Crying in front of an audience
shows a lack of control and
is simply irresponsible
…You can tell I feel
strongly about that!”
Kindra Hall, at 1:35

Build your talk on messages, not topics – Secret #15 of star presenters [Video]

Have you heard of the “assertion-evidence approach” for making slides? It’s a simple, powerful, evidence-based approach to presenting your talk.

It was devised as a more effective way to share scientific findings. But you can also use its direct­ness and clarity in business – to great effect.

And that’s especially so when you present insights from analysing data. You know, like:

• customer touchpoints
• company financials
• employee survey results.

 

What’s in this post?

Speak online – 8½ terrific tips from Eric Winters [Video]

In a rush? Watch the video (30 mins) or read the tips.

When you present online, the tips below will help set you up for success. They come from my friend Eric Winters, who’s a coach, author, and international public speaker.

I love the metaphor Eric uses to explain why it’s hard work watching an online talk:

“There’s a good reason they call it paying attention,
because you have to give up a lot of energy…

So if we want to help our audiences…
we need to lower the price
of paying attention”
Eric Winters – at 1:42 in the video

In his video below, Eric presents what he calls “8½ tips” to elevate your online pres­entations. The clip’s about 30 minutes long, and he spends about 2-3 minutes dis­cussing each tip.

Below the video, you’ll also find:

• a list of the tips
• discussion of each one
• useful links to help you build your skills.

 

The video

As I think you’ll see – and as Eric’s live audience commented – this was a very engaging and helpful session:

 

The tips

Here are Eric’s 8½ tips – click any of them to jump to the relevant part of my post:

Want an awesome opening line? Look no more – I mean stop!

Of the 140+ posts on this blog, here’s by far the most popular…

Awesome opening lines: 20+ more examples for your speeches, from Patricia Fripp (Certified Speaking Professional)

At its peak, that post had more than 22,000 monthly views (in October 2016). That wasn’t just an outlier, either – for 3 months in 2016, the post had more than 20,000 monthly views. And for 11 months that year, it had over 10,000.