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This article in The New York Times on “how JPMorgan Chase got into the mess of the London whale trades that dominated the financial news last year” illustrates the real costs of inexact communication.

A key figure in the controversy wrote at the time the following in a memo to “the International Senior Management Group of the Chief Investment Office:

...sell the forward spread and buy protection on the tightening move,... use indices and add to existing position,... go long risk on some belly tranches especially where defaults may realize,... buy protection on HY and Xover in rallies and turn the position over to monetize volatility.”

Gibberish. Yet it was approved, even though “relevant actors and regulators could not understand” it.

Read this in full.

This is a reminder to all of us in the publishing trade that good writing is rooted in clear writing! As Strunk and White said in The Elements of Style,

Since writing is communication, clarity can only be a virtue. When you become hopelessly mired in a sentence, it is best to start fresh; do not try to fight your way through against the terrible odds of syntax. Usually what is wrong is that the construction has become too involved at some point; the sentence needs to be broken apart and replaced by two or more shorter sentences.

Muddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyer of life, of hope: death on the highway caused by a misplaced phrase in a well-intentioned letter, anguish of a traveler expecting to be met at a railroad station and not being met because of a slipshod telegram. Think of the tragedies that are rooted in ambiguity, and be clear! When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically (and clearly) publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Howard Hendricks, who taught at Dallas Theological Seminary (@DallasSeminary) for more than 60 years, died today at age 88, leaving behind a legacy of Bible lessons and Christian leaders across generations.

Read the Christianity Today article in full.

Hendricks authored 18 books and preached around the world in more than 80 countries. Through his teaching he influenced many Christian leaders; several count him as their mentor, including Chuck Swindoll, Tony Evans, Joseph Stowell and David Jeremiah.

See the article, The Life of Howard G. “Prof” Hendricks, in Profiles.

See the tribute website by Dallas Theological Seminary.

See the news release from the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove.

See books by Howard Hendricks.

Last year this blog highlighted a roundup of the Super Bowl (#superbowl) television ads from a marketing perspective; discerning which hit the mark and which didn’t.

This year, we want to feature only one spot, and that from a speech-making point of view.

Dodge Ram’s 2-minute “So God Made a Farmer” commercial (#keepplowing), which aired in the fourth quarter, featured nothing more than a slideshow of stunning still images accompanied by a 1978 Future Farmers of America (@nationalffa) convention speech by the late newscaster and supreme rhetorician Paul Harvey, in which the radio personality paid tribute to America’s farmers.

Among Harvey’s considerable voice talents was his focused attention on the dramatic use of silence. He knew how to time and maximize pauses in his speaking to keep the audience on the edge of its seat and follow his every word. He also was an expert in pacing: knowing when to slow his delivery and when to speed it up. Even Harvey’s simple signature sign-on, “Good Morning, America,” was mesmerizing.

The above video draws its strength and effectiveness from Harvey’s striking delivery. Listen to it while paying attention to his cadence and rhythm, and the emphasis he gives words and phrases. That’s how to give a speech!

See the article “'So God made a farmer' Super Bowl ad inspires” by Erin Roach, assistant editor of Baptist Press (@baptistpress).

See Paul Harvey Archives.

See Paul Harvey Jr.’s website.

See Ram’s Year of the Farmer website.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

Zig Ziglar (website) (@TomZiglar), known worldwide for his folksy and often anecdotal motivational talks on success through serving others, died today at a Plano, Texas, hospital of complications from pneumonia. He was 86. Baptist Press (@baptistpress) reports:

Ziglar's deep, soothing Mississippi drawl, and speeches and books often sprinkled with mentions of his Christian faith, endeared him to millions. Ziglar was arguably the best-known motivational speaker of his day, having conducted hundreds of corporate seminars and given motivational speeches to hundreds of thousands of people over a 42-year speaking career.

Ziglar was the author of more than 30 books, including best-sellers See You at The Top! and Confessions of a Happy Christian. Another book, Confessions of a Grieving Christian, followed the death in 1995 of daughter Suzan Ziglar Witmeyer from pulmonary fibrosis.

Read this in full.

Also see coverage by USA TODAY and the Los Angeles Times.

ZondervanAcademic / Koinonia Blog (@ZonderAcademic), along with 49 other publishers/exhibitors, is at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society this week in Milwaukee, WI. While there, it’s live streaming all plenary speakers, including Calvin Beisner, Russell Moore, Richard Bauckham, and Douglas Moo, and a panel discussion on Friday at 11:10 am EST.

And beginning this weekend in Chicago, IL, the annual gatherings are taking place of the Institute for Biblical Research, the Society of Biblical Literature (@SBLsite), and the American Academy of Religion (@AARWeb) — Somersault will be there.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your print and digital resources to the academic market.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Harvard Business Review Management Tip of the Day (@ManagementTip) offers helpful insight into the best practices of giving presentations:

Skilled speakers monitor the room. Look for audience cues such as interest or boredom. Note the questions people ask as they may point to areas that need clarification.... When possible, have a random spectator take notes on audience reaction. Once it's over, do a thorough post-mortem. Was your objective achieved? Did the audience seem engaged? Note what went well and what didn't. Ask for feedback from credible participants. If you're making the presentation again, how will you improve it next time? (Source: Harvard ManageMentor Online Module: Presentation Skills)

Heidi Grant Halvorson (@hghalvorson) identifies the presentation mistake you don't know you're making: "Presenter's Paradox."

We assume when we present someone with a list of our accomplishments (or with a bundle of services or products), that they will see what we're offering additively. If going to Harvard, a prestigious internship, and mad statistical skills are all a "10" on the scale of impressiveness, and two semesters of Spanish is a "2," then we reason that added together, this is a 10 + 10 + 10 + 2, or a "32" in impressiveness.... [But] people don't add up the impressiveness, they average it.

More is actually not better, if what you are adding is of lesser quality than the rest of your offerings. Highly favorable or positive things are diminished or diluted in the eye of the beholder when they are presented in the company of only moderately favorable or positive things.

Read this in full.

Lecturer Nilofer Merchant (@nilofer) writes about the lessons she learned when she gave her TED Talk and it didn’t go as well she expected:

·         The first step is to admit something is wrong.

·         The second step is to ask what specifically went wrong — and get help if you need it.

·         Then, listen.

·         Begin the process of undoing.

Read this in full.

HBR’s How to Practice for Your Presentation says, practicing your presentation is essential.

Make sure you build in extra time for it. Go through all your material each time you rehearse, including how you are going to stand and move, and how you will incorporate any visuals. To prevent technical gaffes, use the equipment you will have during the real presentation. Speak your lines out loud until they no longer sound memorized. While rehearsing, concentrate on your message and your desire to communicate it well, rather than on your notes. If you’re speaking to a large group or it’s a high-profile event, consider videotaping your practice session so you can evaluate and tweak it more closely.

Presentation expert Nancy Duarte (@nancyduarte & @Duarte) asks, “Presentation coming? Know these things about your audience”:

·         What are they like? Think through a day in the lives of your audience. Reference something that they face every day so they’ll know you “get” them.

·         Why are they here? What do they think they’re going to get out of your presentation? Are they willing participants or mandatory attendees? Highlight what’s in it for them.

·         What keeps them up at night? Everyone has fears or pain points. Let your audience know that you empathize—and that you’re here to help.

·         How can you solve their problems? How are you going to make their lives better? Point to benefits you know your audience cares about.

Read this in full.

Duarte also says, “To persuade a listener, establish common ground.”

It's one thing to give a smooth presentation. It's another to move the people in your audience to do something. To accomplish the latter, figure out what you have in common with the people in the room, and speak to the audience at that level. Think about the values, interests, shared experiences, or challenges that you share so you can reference them in your dialogue.

Read this in full.

And she asks, “Do your slides pass the glance test?”

People should be able to comprehend each slide in about 3 seconds.

Think of your slides as billboards. When people drive, they only briefly take their eyes off their main focus — the road — to process billboard information. Similarly, your audience should focus intently on what you're saying, looking only briefly at your slides when you display them.

She says slides should reflect attention to eye flow, contrast, white space, hierarchy, and unity.

Read this in full.

See our previous blogposts on the topic of presentations.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you effectively communicate your brand message.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

In this Fast Company (@FastCompany) article, Ryan Holiday (@RyanHoliday) says authors are increasingly writing non-fiction books, not as a means unto themselves, but as a means to the end of being a professional introduction of themselves for speaking, consulting, and deal-making.

Faced with declining sales and the disappearance of book retailers like Borders, authors have diversified their income streams, and many make substantially more money through new business generated by a book, rather than from it.

Today, authors are in the idea-making business, not the book business. In short, this means that publishing a book is less about sales and much more about creating a brand. The real customers of books are no longer just readers but now include speaking agents, CEOs, investors, and startups....

Call it a business card, a resume, a billboard, or whatever you choose, but the short of it is that books are no longer just books. They are branding devices and credibility signals.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you communicate your brand message.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Whenever you communicate, start by keeping your audience in focus. Your main message will only be well received when you position it in such a way as to clearly answer your audience’s ever-present question, “What’s in it for me?”

In this Forbes (@Forbes) article and video, communications coach Carmine Gallo (@carminegallo) emphasizes the importance of message-mapping to ensure that you strategically and effectively communicate the essence of your brand or book.

Step 1: Create a Twitter-friendly headline.

Step 2: Support the headline with three key benefits.

Step 3: Reinforce the three benefits with stories, statistics, and examples.

Read this in full.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) coach you in media & presentation skills and help you craft your core message so that it stands out in today’s media-saturated environment.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

In the normal course of promoting their books, authors are interviewed by the media. Sometimes questions are asked that a well media-trained author feels is off-topic, so she deftly bridges from the question to the answer that will bring the conversation back on-topic.

NPR’s program Science Friday (@scifri) featured this tactic in a discussion with social psychologist Todd Rogers, spotlighted in the Harvard Magazine (@HarvardMagazine) article, The Art of the Dodge. While the show focuses on politicians, the principles and conversation are of interest to anyone who wants to properly and strategically communicate a message through the media.

Hear this interview in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you or your authors become better speakers through media training.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.