Last September, the malevolent toadstool you see in the picture on the left thrust its slimy head out of the familiar soil of my front yard.\u00a0 It got my attention.<\/p>\n

I have rarely had mushrooms in my garden, and never a toadstool with an orange stem and a phallic tip topped by a red pimple on its nosecone.<\/p>\n

I remain horrified by the sight of it, and worried about the malicious conspiracy transpiring under ground.\u00a0 What other alien life form is going to come out of the earth under the hydrangeas?<\/p>\n

Sharon and I washed our hands after we touched it, but half an hour later, we still had to scratch an alarming epidemic of itches that popped up in unmentionable anatomical places.<\/p>\n

An otherwise routine Saturday morning was made famous by this unexpected visitor.\u00a0 We will talk about it for years…but for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

Some people bring toadstools into their presentations<\/a> and get attention for all the wrong reasons.\u00a0 They tell jokes that fall flat.\u00a0 They wear clothes that make them look cheesy.\u00a0 They talk about themselves too much.\u00a0 They show off, pontificate, grandstand, ham it up.\u00a0 They go over the time limit.\u00a0 They scratch in the wrong places.\u00a0 They mispronounce key technical or industry terms that they should know.\u00a0 Or they use their own technical language<\/a> despite the fact that the audience doesn’t know it.<\/p>\n

It’s good to be memorable, but only for the right reasons.\u00a0 Not for being outrageous, or shocking, or sensational.\u00a0 Rather, be memorable for your expertise, warmth, and relevance.<\/p>\n

Don’t bring toadstools into your talk to get attention<\/a>.\u00a0 You will quickly wear out your welcome.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last September, the malevolent toadstool you see in the picture on the left thrust its slimy head out of the familiar soil of my front yard.\u00a0 It got my attention. I have rarely had mushrooms in my garden, and never a toadstool with an orange stem and a phallic tip topped by a red pimple… Read More »Presentation skill #65: Getting attention for the right reasons<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[619,603,297,291,906],"yoast_head":"\n