Mel Grubb read my post on Public Speaking and Movement onstage and inspired me to write this post with his comments.

"I think a good background in stagecraft could benefit a lot of public speakers. Simple things like basic blocking, "cheating" your face toward the audience, finding and eliminating your particular "tics" or problem words, etc. Speakers who say "basically" more than once every five minutes drive me up a wall.  'Essentially' is even worse." - Mel Grubb in comments and email.

He struck another of my nerves. I was on a conference call just yesterday with people that will go unnamed partly because I don't want to call out anyone (don't worry it's no one local) and partly because I can't remember who was talking or what they were talking about because I was so distracted. I IMed with Larry Clarkin about it and this is a snip of the conversation.

Josh Holmes‎‎:
I'm really hoping that he'll really use the word really to really make a really good point soon.

‎‎Larry Clarkin‎‎:
really?

‎‎Josh Holmes‎‎:
Really really...

My wife actually reminded me of a story from a class that she took where the professor used Um and Ah non-stop. There was at least one lecture where they focused on counting the number of Um and Ah's that he used rather than listening to the presentation.

The primary reason that speakers fall back on these type of words is that they are used to fill the air while the speaker is constructing the next sentence in their head. Even though most speakers are terrified of it, Silence is still ok. Some call it Golden. There's a huge difference between dead air and silence. Dead air is when nobody is saying or thinking anything. Silence is when it's quiet.

In addition to my background in theatre, I was a member of a ToastMasters International for 4 years. In fact, I was president of my chapter for a year. As an organization, they have a great curriculum for teaching people the basics of speaking. While we, including me, have been obsessed with the format of the slide deck, they have been continuing to educate great speakers by focusing on delivery and real speech writing. There's a series of talks that you have to give. Some of these are using props. Some are very serious and dramatic. Others are humorous speeches. Side note - I actually took second in a regional humorous speech competition with a speech about the plight of the thumbless in America.

One of the components of a Toastmaster meeting is an "Ah Counter". This is a person who sits in the back of the room and listens for filler or crutch words. When they hear these, they take a note and they ring a bell. It's the most aggravating thing in the world! The first talk that I did there, despite my background in theatre, sounded like a parade.

"Um, ah, so it's like, um, well, you know a thing that you, ah, might basically find in, um, your, ah, backyard" - Josh Holmes in one of his first public speeches.

You might think I'm joking but you've done it too! There were more filler words in my talk than content. When I realized that it was astounding. After a while, you start consciously weeding out those filler words. You will be at lunch somewhere and be ringing that bell yourself inside your head. At some point later, you have eliminated most of them from your vocabulary. Unfortunately, I've slipped in the 9 years that I've been away from ToastMasters International. I've started noticing that I'll start repeating words in my speech pattern. I've started answering questions with "Sooo, the answer to that question is...". I have got to stop! It's annoying me. I can't imagine what it's doing to you listening to me.

I hope that you'll take this to heart and start listening to yourself speak. First, look for a ToastMasters' club near you with their handy meeting locator. There are 10 clubs within 20 miles of my house and I live in the sticks. If you can't get to ToastMasters, or really even if you can, you should tape your sessions and review them. Watch for movement, speech and more. Make notes and practice with those notes in hand.

This will help you be a better speaker. Even if it's not obvious to you, two things will happen. First, you'll be able to say more in less time and second, people will focus on your message rather than your quirks.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 4:56:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [6] 

I have been at MIX and SxSW the last two weeks. Or rather, I used SxSW as an excuse to come down for Whurley and Giavonni's BarcampAustin. It was amazing - I've never seen a barcamp done that well. Austin, the city,  declared the day BarCamp day. It was cool.

I did have a near death experience though and the guys at Viewzi.tv caught it all on film...

From Whurley

All went well save one small incident involving a 340lbs BattleBot malfunctioning and then taking off as fast as it could for the closet Microsoft employees. Thankfully no one was hurt or injured and they were amazingly good sports afterwards:

Many thanks to the folks at Viewzi.tv for the amazing editing job. And, yes we still love Brady and TeamDX! Good luck in the new season on ESPN guys!

Modern day bullfighting???

340lbs Open Source BattleBot Malfunctions Nearly Maiming Microsoft... — TalkBMC

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 1:47:53 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [7] 

Guitar Hero for adults is coming!!! I really don't want to knock Guitar Hero and Rock Band but they are just not for me. Honestly, (and this is not bragging, it's just a fact) I've never played either one. If I'm going to spend the time to learn an instrument, it's not going to be a plastic one that is only useful in the context of my living room. I completely get the social aspect to it and think it's a great game in a party situation. I just don't have the patience to devote to it to get decent enough to enjoy it in that party scenario.

When I was talking to Jason Follas and Dustin Campbell over beers just after Guitar Hero was coming out and all the hype had started up I had the idea that I'd really rather have a way to hook up a real guitar to the XBox and/or computer and "Play" to learn. We had talked through some of the hookup options, like pro audio cards that can take a real 1/4 in jack and all the sound you can pump at it or the 1/4 jack to USB options that are out there. Dustin is actually a good enough musician (Plays in a pro-band and the like) and programmer (tech lead on CodeRush) that I was hoping that I could talk him into doing it because he's got the chops to do so. Didn't work. He didn't bite.

The fantastic news is that he doesn't have to. Today, Jason pointed out that there's a startup called Guitar Rising that is creating that "game" for us! They are planning to release sometime in 2008 - and I'll be among the first to buy one. I'm really stoked! I've been wanting to learn guitar but with my fairly severe ADD I haven't had the patience to do so. I really hope that they pick songs from all over the spectrum from rock to blues. Besides just being able to play, I'd really like to get to a point where I can play camp side and at sing-alongs. Obviously, that's not all hair bands, there's a lot of Jimmy Buffet and the like that's needed. There's already been twitter conversations about how the hookups are going to work, what type of guitars we're going to hook up and more. According to the article, you can hook up via a USB hookup or even just a Mic. I'm assuming that they are looking for pitch and notes and that's all they care about. That's pretty slick.

Looking forward to playing Guitar Rising at the next CodeMash!

Rocking: Guitar Rising for Real Guitar Heroes

Thursday, February 07, 2008 8:35:00 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [1] 

I am currently in Crested Butte, CO and I had a heck of an adventure getting here. I have been a long time MapPoint user with a GPS and it's never failed me. In fact, it did get me here this time, just in a slightly more hair raising manor than I had anticipated. To fly into Gunnison, which is 45 minutes or so away from Crested Butte would have cost me $1,200 or so when I could fly into Denver for $500 and rent a car for roughly $200 and have a scenic drive. I chose Denver. When I get to the rental car lot, they tried to give me a Taurus. :( I asked them for something else... They gave me a Dodge Nitro with 4x4. I'm really pleased with this choice and get started on the trip. As is my habit, I pull out my bluetooth Holux GPS device and fire up Mappoint 2006 for driving directions. I really like the 2006 edition because it talks to me. I don't even have to look at the screen - in fact I usually just put the laptop on the floorboard and listen for directions. And I start driving.

The route has me traveling through Vail and up to Glenwood Springs and then over to Crested Butte. This is a gorgeous trip. It truly is some of the most beautiful country side that I've ever had the pleasure to travel through. I once, when I was a teen, came up with the family and camped for several weeks just outside Eagle, CO. That was amazing and is still one of my fondest memories growing up. We have friends in Eagle that own land that they let us camp on right on a small creek - oh yeah, this creek grows and widens over 1,469 miles as it's the Arkansas River.

Back to my current trip... I turn off of i70 at Glenwood Springs and start heading into the mountains. I'm awestruck by the scenery. It was a little disconcerting when the road turned to gravel as I passed Beaver Lake. However, I know that Crested Butte is a little ways off the beaten path so I'm not concerned too much. And, how could I pass up this scenery. I keep going, still following the GPS, and come to a little town called Marble. Marble is a quaint little down that borders the national forest. It's name such because there are huge chunks of Marble in the town. There are some people that have done some more elaborate work with some of the loose pieces but it was kinda cool to see raw marble in Marble.

Shortly past Marble though, I passed a sign that made me stop and recheck the map. It said 4 Wheel Drive Only Past This Point. Whoa! What does that mean? Well, the map still said that I was on course. I thought - well, I am in a 4x4 and this is Colorado and I don't get the chance to do this very often anymore - so what the heck. I kept going. The road gets a little rutty but nothing bad. I've done worse in my old VW Jetta that I had when living in Arkansas so I wasn't all that worried about it. Somewhere in here I did realize that this can't be the only way to Crested Butte, but I'm having fun.

Then I see a sign that says "Detour Ahead is Open Only to High-Clearance 4WD Vehicles". Ok - this is getting more interesting and what's the definition of "high-clearance"? However, at this point, I'm behind a Range Rover and I've definitely got more clearance that it does. The trail was narrow, rocky, a little rutty but it wasn't too bad at all. The most interesting part was at the bottom of a tight little hill where there was a creek that we had to cross. It was somewhere between 12-18 inches deep but it had a rock bed so it was no issue. I'm having ton of fun at this point just taking my time and moving through slowly. I was going 3-5 miles an hour most of the way.

The drive was beautiful. I saw flowers, trees, deer, odd buildings and more. There was one in particular that I stopped at and took some pictures at. It had been around since 1892 and it was a "two story out-house". Just pas this I drove through a little town called Crystal. I thought this was a wild idea - this town that could only be accessed by 4x4, helicopter, foot or horse back. I did see a lot of horses there.

Shortly after Crystal - I was about 3 hours in when I saw a sign that made me stop and really think about this proposition. It said "Attention Drivers Extremely Rough Road Ahead. Vehicle Traffic Discouraged. 4x4 with Experienced Drivers and Narrow Wheel Base Only". Wow - that's quite a statement. I stopped the truck and looked at the GPS - positive that I was way off course at this point. Nope - I was still right on track. Ok - now what? I started thinking about the past couple of signs and thinking about the fact that they had been a little overblown. And then I looked on the map and thought about my options. I could either push on (I only had 3.5 miles left according to the map) or I could go back and around. Then I started looking at the map solutions and it was going to be 3 hours back to pavement and then 3 hours around the mountains to get to Crested Butte by a different route. Wow - that's a tough choice. I'm still not positive that I made the right choice - but I decided to push forward. I really didn't know what I was getting into... It started out fine until I got to a point where I had to get out of the truck and take a look down the slope to see what was coming. This was a touch nerve-racking but it looked fine once I got onto the hill. Then the real fun start up. I now know that I was at the "Devil's Punchbowl". There's a tight little valley that's probably 75 yards across with a beautiful waterfall and pool at the bottom that I didn't get pictures of because the camera was the last thing on my mind at that exact moment. I stopped at the bottom and watched a modified Jeep go up the hill in front of me. There were a few tight places but it made it. I sat there for about 10 minutes watching that Jeep and rethinking my decision to go forward or not. This was the scariest moment in the adventure. I stared at that hill and finally decided to push forward. There was one moment where I was positive that I was done. I was pushing up the hill and there was a LARGE rock in the middle of the road, the road was slanting away from the hill and towards the drop off, I couldn't see the road out of the drivers side window because the edge was too close and my oil light came on all at the same exact moment. I can't repeat the words that went through my head at that moment - not because they were dirty but because it was unintelligible goo sliding out of my ear as my brain melted in fear. After a few seconds that took years to complete - I pulled it together and made it past the rock. Eventually I got to the top of the hill and it evened and widened out. Now I'm trying to figure out what happened with the oil light. I'm positive that one of the times that I bottomed out I must have punched a hole in the oil pan and I've just killed the rental car. How am I going to explain to them where to pick up their car? I'll never be able to rent from this rental agency again... Just then, the oil light went off. WHEW! It was just that the hill was steep enough that all of the oil had slide to one side of the pan and away from the sensors... Wow - that was a steep hill.  

I had just pushed through what's known as Schofield Pass. This is the "Deadliest Pass in Colorado". Once I got to safety, I looked it all up online and the first hit that came back was Code 4x4 - Schofield Pass Pucker. It talked about how tough and scary this pass is. Different sites had different death tolls but they ranged from 14-19 over the past 20 years. Did I say that I'm really impressed with the Dodge Nitro? All of the locals in Crested Butte have been very impressed that I came through the pass and that I made it. Bruce Eckel said - "I'm not sure what to think of that, I'm not sure if that makes you crazy or not. But everyone here (in Crested Butte) is a little crazy so maybe it means that you fit right in." I'm the first person that he's known that's actually followed the map all the way here - a lot of other people are a little smarter or saner than I am I guess.

Now - how did Mappoint get it so wrong and send me over this death trap? I'm not sure but I verified that Google Maps point you over the exact same passage if you are traveling from Vail to Crested Butte.

So, I got back to civilization and Dianne Marsh twittered to me - "Did you go the way that I told you not to go?". Oh crap - that's right. She and I were on IM and she told me that the map programs were wrong and told me to make sure that I came in through Gunnison instead of Marble.

The moral of the story here is to verify directions with locals when dealing with the map programs.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 8:32:14 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [13] 

I found this via UXMag.

It's advice to freelance designers but it works in so many different arenas. Consulting is the obvious play, but think about this in terms of your politics at your corporation and even in your personal life. If you've coached soccer or anything, you'll have at least 6 of the 12 types below as parents.

The twelve that he talks about with my own little summaries are:

1. The Low-Tech Client - This client is disoriented by tech and wants everything no the phone or fax.

2. The Uninterested Client - This client just wants you to handle everything.

3. The Hands-On Client - This client is disillusioned that they could do your job and will tell you so.

4. The Paranoid Client - This is the legal nighmare with NDAs and you fearing that you'll be sued.

5. The Appreciative Client - This client is sugary coated suger with sugar filling. It's not a bad life to be honest but don't get used to it.

   <update>A comment was made offline that one should watch the Appreciative client to make sure that they are not a "Stab you in the back with their management" client...</update>

6. The Get-a-Good-Deal Client - This client never saw a price or deadline they couldn't negotiate in their favor.

7. The I’ll-Know-It -When-I-See-It Client - This client will cause revision after revision after revision.

8. The Always-Urgent Client - This client thrives on drama and adrenalyn and everything is a fire.

9. The Decision-By- Committee Client - This client never saw a decision they could make.

10. The Doormat Client - This client lets you walk all over them.

11. The Budget Client - This client wants the same service for half the price. Similar to the Get-a-Good-Deal, but with less money.

12. The You-Should- Be-So-Lucky Client - This client will make sure that you know how lucky you are to be working for them and in the industry that they are in...

For each of these, he talks about How to Spot One, the Highs, Lows and How to Work With One.

For example, with the "Get a Good Deal Client", the How to Spot One talks about always haggling over procing and promising more lwork later. The Highs talk about repeat and referral business but the Lows are that you are constantly having to negotiate and might get taken advantage of. In the How to Work With One section he talks about coming in high and being very assertive on points of payment and workload.

All of this is absolutely priceless advice. The reality is that in a corporation or contract of any size, you're going to have a mix of some or all of the types above and you have to be ready to deal with that. You need to know who it is that actually writes the checks and who they have to report to. If your contact is an Appriciative, but their boss is an Always-Urgent, you need to know that and act appropritely. There's no point in satisfying your contact if the checks are signed and decisions are made higher up.

The question is, can you name your boss's type? What about your current contract?

Link to » 12 Breeds of Client and How to Work with Them

Friday, June 01, 2007 12:27:02 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [2] 

I can't believe that they actually put the word doodad in the instuctions! That's fun...

* Sent from a Windows Mobile 5 Device

Friday, March 09, 2007 2:04:40 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Darrell Hawley said something very intrusting in a conference call one day that sparked a lot of thought on my end. We were trying to hash out a decision on a conference call and as a lot of group decisions go it was taking time. Darrell said, "Well let's pick the default answer and then if we have time to come back to the decision, we can maybe move off that default." I started thinking about "default answers" and it came to me how brilliant this is. Almost every question in life has a default answer. We just have to identify the default answer and see if it's palatable. If it is, then we can leave that question alone and focus on those where the default answer is not palatable. Once we answer those questions in a satisfactory way, then we can circle back to the default answers that were just palatable and improve the decisions there. That part alone is worth buying into because it does two things. 1) It frees us up to focus on the questions that we need to focus on rather than spending a ton of time fighting with decisions that we don't have to make anyway. 2) Just as importantly, it accelerates the decision making process.

You probably already employ this method to a degree. Think about your favorite restaurant. You probably have a favorite meal. Well - that's your default answer. When I'm in a hurry, I will just go with the default answer whenever I'm ordering food. When I've got lots of time, I'll read the menu and think through the possible answers and possibly choose something else.

Something that's very important to understand - the default doesn't have to be very good. You can review it and improve it. Continuing the dinner theme - the default answer for me at most restaurants is a burger with fries. Often, there are much better choices on the menu. However, I default to the burger a lot of times because of time or lack of focus on the menu or something.

Then I started thinking about those repeatable decisions and how we have to make them over and over and over and it burns a lot of cycles. The easy example is paying the mortgage. Is that a question - yes. Every month you have the decision to pay the mortgage and the default answer, if you don't decide one way or the other, is that the mortgage goes unpaid. Is that default answer acceptable? No but we are forced to make that decision over and over again. Among all of the other questions in our lives, it's another thing that we have keep on our mind and struggle with. The result of all of this thought is that I'm starting to look for ways that I can apply technology or process to start changing the default answers. This is different from the first part because moving off of the default takes action every time we answer the question whereas changing the default answer to something at least palatable means that you don't have to take action after that. Applied to the mortgage example changing the default involves setting up online bill pay or something in that vein. Once that's in place the default answer is that the mortgage gets paid and you have to take action to stop it. At that point it's a decision that make itself and you don't have to do anything which frees you up to focus on other things.

After I shared my thought process with Darrell, he posted the "Philosophy of If". He wants to break it down to code and write things in If statements. I don't think that it's that simple.

However, since Darrell is insisting on me codifying the solution - it would be in the form of database lookups. There's a table of questions and a table of possible answers with a link table between to put them together. Each question has a link to its default answer. Replacing the default requires identifying better answers, injecting them into the database and replacing the link. Writing the code in Ifs assumes that you have a set number of possible answers and that you have identified all of them.

The question table has the following fields:
ID
Question
AnswerNeedsReview

The link table has the following fields:
QuestionID
PossibleAnswerID
IsDefault
SortOrder

The PossibleAnswer table has the following fields:
ID
Answer
FirstAction -> nod to David Allen and "Getting Things Done" (Great book and process that everyone should read)

Any time that you find a new answer, you insert the answer and alter the AnswerNeedsReview to false. Once you have reviewed, sorted and set the default again, the decisions is just made until the next time that the AnswerNeedsReview somewhere.

Monday, January 15, 2007 4:39:33 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [1]