Thoughts on Organization: Prioritize Prioritizing

A recent conversation with my friend Gabby got me thinking about the little things that I do to help keep myself organized. I should preface this post by saying that for being as entrenched as I feel like I am in the digital world, this part of my life is about as analog as it can be.

I start my work days pretty much the same–I wake up sometime around 6am and get myself ready enough to take our girls and drop them off at their respective locations for their respective days, and then commute back to my office to get into the swing of work things.

Before I do anything else, however, I grab my trusty pen(cil) and 8.5″ x 5.5″ notepad and plan out my day. I always start with the date, and then I write down all the meetings that are taking place, as well as the friendly reminder to fill out my time sheet, and then I write down all of the daily tasks that I’m working on. I’ll frequently check with the previous day(s) sheets to make sure that I’m not forgetting anything that may not have been completed or that may bleed into the day.

I’ll also quickly look around at the whiteboards around my office and look at the stack of various mail items, and then at the unread items in my Inbox to make sure that I include any personal items that also need some attention.

Throughout the day, I scratch these items all off when they’re completed.

That’s really it.

I’ve tried using tools like or Things or OmniFocus or countless others to help me manage tasks. The more I’ve experimented with various tools over the past decade or so, the more I’ve come to realize that starting in analog helps keep me on-track and on-task.

I can’t say when and where this behavior started for me, but maybe it’s worth attributing to my mother. She used to have a weekly calendar that would show Sunday through Saturday with just a handful of lines on it. For each day, she’d keep a brief, yet succinct diary of events that took place–from whether or not she got an oil change to what hours I worked at my job or anything else of note. The only real difference is that she used her pencil in paper to document the days, and I’m using mine to try and predict them.

For me, this is a good habit to be in. It allows me to focus and, well, get things done.

Coincidentally, as I was on a recent flight, I started reading David Rock’s “Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long“, which was recommended by Stephen Anderson. I learned that Rock calls this “Prioritize Prioritizing”. By making the act of prioritizing the very first thing I do (in my day or at any other time when my mind is at its freshest), I can free my mind’s energy to tackle the other items on my list.

I highly doubt that pen(cil) and paper are the magic artifacts to make this work–if you are able to find a digital tool that allows you to manage priorities, and you’re able to prioritize prioritizing, then the tool you use will most likely matter very little.

Interview with Whitney Hess [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

I met Whitney Hess at the 2008 IA Summit in Miami, Florida while sharing a table to discuss Kevin Cheng’s book on comics for Rosenfeld Media. Since then, she’s made a number of changes–from becoming a full time freelancer / owning her own business to writing a well-visited blog to her weekly “Whit Hour” to giving the closing plenary at the 2010 IA Summit in Phoenix. Whitney happily shared some of her own insights and lessons learned from presenting.

How do you create a new presentation, specifically in the conceptual phase?
Over the course of several weeks, I write one-liners as they pop into my head on post-it notes. Once I start thinking of the same one-liners again, I realize my brain is empty. I lay out all of the stickies on the floor and do a sort of affinity diagram, grouping the like items into categories. Then I label each category, and those become the sections of my talk (I try to create 3-5 sections). I put the sections in an order that I think will create the best flow, then type in each one-liner onto a slide and move the slides around within each section while talking out loud to myself to create the strongest story. Sometimes I rearrange the sections, or add transitional slides to ensure that everything flows well.

How do you prepare for the presentation once you have your content in place?
I don’t like to over-prepare, because when I do my talk ends up sounding forced and inauthentic. Instead I walk through each section, writing in any voice over that I want to be sure to hit into the Notes area for each slide. Then I walk through the whole thing once in real-time, speaking the voice over to my computer screen. I make any necessary tweaks to improve the flow, and then I put it to bed.

I might wake up the morning of the presentation with one new thought, which I’ll then add to the deck somewhere.

What are your “pre-presentation” rituals that help you get ready? Any rituals during the presentation that keep you in the flow?
Jared Spool taught me to always eat breakfast the day of a talk, so I do it even if I feel like throwing up. And I usually want to. I wake up with the shakes, they usually dissipate after breakfast, and then I’m fine until about 30 minutes before my presentation. I go into the bathroom, sometimes cry a little, and imagine ways to get out of having to give the talk — If I hide, will they find me? What will it do to my career if I just run away? — then I realize how ridiculous I’m being, splash some water on my face, and stride up to the stage. Once I’m up there looking out at the audience and I open my mouth, something else takes over and all the nerves go away.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you’re in the middle of a presentation?
Sometimes I just can’t find the word I’m looking for or I forget the point I was trying to make. So I immediately skip to the next slide.

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today? What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
See above. Also, once I’m up there, I’m no longer there in the present moment. I kind of black out, and only come to once the presentation is done and I’m off the stage. I rarely remember saying whatever I said up there — the entire hour is blank. Something else takes over and the fear just isn’t there.

About Whitney Hess
Whitney Hess is a user experience design consultant based in New York City. She helps make stuff easy and pleasurable to use.

As a strategic partner with Happy Cog, Whitney recently completed an extensive research initiative for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website redesign. She was also the user experience consultant on Boxee’s beta redesign, and has worked with many other startups, agencies and major corporations.

Prior to going independent, Whitney was on the design team at Liquidnet, an international financial software company that runs the leading electronic marketplace for wholesale stock-trading. Previously, she was an interaction designer at two marketing agencies, Digitas and Tribal DDB, where her clients included American Express, The New York Times, Allstate, Claritin, Tropicana, and EarthLink. Most notably, she helped to conceive, design, and test an innovative card search tool for American Express, and is named as a co-inventor on its U.S. patent.

Whitney received a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing and a Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. She writes about improving the human experience on her blog, Pleasure and Pain, and can always be reached via Twitter @whitneyhess.

Interview with Karl Fast [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

Karl Fast is one of this guys you wish you knew better (unless you already know him really well, in which case you’re just really happy about it). I’ve had the chance over the course of the past year or so to have a couple of great, informative chats with Karl, and I’m certainly better off for it. In addition, he’s a professor, which means that he’s putting himself up in front of a group of people on an almost daily basis, which means that I’m pretty sure he’s got some great advice when it comes to presenting. Let’s learn from Karl, shall we?

How do you create a new presentation, specifically in the conceptual phase?
I walk because walking helps me think. It’s the best method I’ve found for thinking through the ways I might approach a presentation. It’s a trick I use to tackle conceptually thorny problems. Good presentations fall into that category. Actually, most of the creative challenges in my life fall into that category.

While walking I start a monologue in my head. As I get more engaged in the problem this monologue builds. Eventually it spills out and I begin talking out loud. The voice in my head always sounds brilliant and flawless. Talking out loud helps me recognize when I’m not expressing myself clearly. Our culture associates people who talk to themselves with a need to be medicated, so I prefer to walk in places where I’m unlikely to meet other people. Given the car-centric nature of the modern world this is easier than it might seem. 

After walking and talking I move to pen and paper. This is a process of jotting down short phrases, key concepts, and stray thoughts and then stringing them together into a narrative. Jotting is how I take the meandering ideas from my walk, identify the conceptual landmarks, and bash them into a coherent whole. My notebook usually looks quite messy at this stage with words and phrases stitched together to indicate flow and relationships. The result wouldn’t make sense to anyone else, but it makes sense to me.

This is when I finally open PowerPoint or Keynote and start working on the visual components for the presentation. My jottings are the source material. There is a lot of iteration, but the final slides mostly follow my jottings. The slides start as text. Then I minimize the text, or eliminate it altogether, and add the necessary visuals.

I strive for the minimum set of slides to convey my message. Once I have a complete deck, I reduce it by thirty to fifty percent. My presentations are mostly about next-generation interfaces so I can rarely get away no slides. But I can always cut out a vast swath of my slides.

As I become a better speaker, I have found that I am more likely to give a good talk when I focus on the words and the art of speaking, rather than the visuals. All great speakers can hold an audience rapt with words. The visuals can help, but I’ve never seen a great talk based on great visuals and weak words. I’ve seen plenty of great talks with great words and weak visuals, or no visuals at all.

This sounds like a fairly neat linear process. It’s not. It’s actually quite messy and highly iterative. Messiness is creativity.

How do you prepare for the presentation once you have your content in place?
I run it through in my head a few times. I don’t speak in front of a mirror. But I will talk out certain parts to myself. The introduction is one of those parts. I always want the first few minutes to be smooth. This allows me to quickly get into the flow, and it’s a critical part of the talk for connecting with the audience. 

Once I have worked out all the details I usually set the talk aside and don’t worry about it much. If the talk has a lot of pre-written material—more script than slides—then I will time it and make sure I’m within the time limit. However, in most cases, I just set it aside until the talk.

I wish I could say that I always finish my talks ahead of schedule. It doesn’t happen as often as I would like. But even when I’m putting something together at the last minute, I have still been working through the talk in my mind—walking to and from the office—for at least a week. I’ve been jotting as part of that process. So I always have something to work from.

What are your “pre-presentation” rituals that help you get ready?  Any rituals during the presentation that keep you in  the flow?
I go through the presentation sometime within the hour leading up the talk. This usually involves three things.

• First, I flip through the entire deck, if I have one, to refresh my memory about the overall structure of the talk.
• Second, I rehearse the opening part of my talk. I don’t rehearse it all. I simply start doing my talk and stop after a few minutes. This is my main trick getting into the flow. I want to engage the audience immediately, so I try to memorize at least the opening segment.
• Third, I go over parts of the talk that I want to emphasize, that have specific phrases I want to say, or function as conceptual landmarks around which I have mentally structured the talk. These are usually transition points where I am ending one section and starting another, or summing up a series of points and stepping back to emphasize the central idea. I want to be clear in my mind about what those parts are.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you’re in the middle of a presentation? 
I pause. I know I can say nothing for at least ten seconds before anyone will start to get nervous and wonder if something has gone wrong. That is usually plenty of time to gather my thoughts and move one.

I’ve never found flow to be much of a problem when giving a talk. Not if I have prepared well. My preparation is all about articulating the jumbled words in my head and corralling them into a meaningful sequence. By the time it comes to speak the whole speech is in my head and losing flow isn’t an issue. If it does happen, it’s minor, and a brief pause to collect my thoughts always puts me back on track.

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
The only time I remember having stage fright was in junior high, when I gave my first presentation to a group of peers. I was probably 12 years old. After my first few talks, my nervousness evaporated. I haven’t worried about stage fright since. I’m sure I have various physiological reactions—elevated heart rate or dilated pupils—but nothing that I would call stage fright.

Curiously, I used to get extremely nervous during Q&A sessions, not as the speaker, but as an audience member who wanted to ask the speaker a question. When I thought of a question, instead of listening to the talk, I would mull over how best to express it. I would obsess over possible phrasings and miss the rest of the talk. Eventually I learned to write down my question and redirect my attention to the talk. In most cases the speaker would answer the question later, someone else would ask a similar question, or I would decide the question wasn’t that important. My real insight was realizing that most Q&A sessions are boring. So now, if I still have a question, I approach the speaker after the talk and try to engage in a one-on-one discussion.

About Karl Fast
Karl Fast is a professor of User Experience Design at Kent State University. He is a founding member of the Information Architecture Institute. He researches the messy nature of complex information work and the epistemic benefits of interacting with visual abstractions. He’s also Canadian.

Interview with Jesse James Garret [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

You may have heard of Jesse James Garrett from the book “The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter)
“, or possibly even from the term “AJAX“, or perhaps even as one of the founders of Adaptive Path. Heck, you might have heard of him from his closing plenary at the 2009 IA Summit in Memphis, too. While I’ve got no new reason to have ever heard of Jesse, he was very obliging of his time and shared some of his own thoughts around creating and performing presentations. And that’s pretty cool of him. Read on…

How do you create a presentation, specifically at the concept phase? (ie for me, I write an outline while doing research, create note cards, move them all around, and then get inside of keynote when I have this all figured out)
My presentations are generally built around a handful of anchor points, strong, concise statements of my major ideas. Everything about the talk is oriented around these, and I’ll usually craft those first. I jump into Keynote pretty early. I need to start seeing the slides coming together to get a sense of how much depth to go into for each point.

Then it’s a process of bridging the gaps — figuring out what the audience needs to know heading into each of those anchor points and what makes for a logical progression from one to the next. I’m a big fan of presenter notes, especially for these transitions. I can remember my anchor points easily enough, but the transitions, where I’m drawing connections between ideas, are harder for me to keep in my head. So my presenter notes will always contain a couple of key phrases: the first thing I say when the slide comes up, and the last thing I say before I move to the next one.

How do you prepare once you’ve got your content in place? (Do you rehearse in front of a mirror, etc.?)
I used to do a lot of rehearsal early in my speaking career. (Not in front of a mirror, though, that would be way too distracting.) In part that was because I hadn’t learned how to use presenter notes effectively yet, and in part it was because I had no idea how to estimate the time it would take to deliver the material I had developed.

What are your “pre-presentation” rituals that help you get ready?  What about during the presentation that keep you in the flow? (I do workout routines, breakfast, walking the room, etc.)
Getting ready for a morning talk is really different from an afternoon talk. In the morning: Get there early enough that you can get comfortable with the room itself. Have coffee, but do it well before you have to be onstage. I will have something small to eat, not a full breakfast or anything heavy. Don’t forget to visit the restroom as close as you can to talk time.

In the afternoon, it’s a little different. It’s more a matter of watching the other speakers and looking for connections to what you’re going to talk about. I don’t ever change my presentation — that’s too much disruption too late in the game — but I will sometimes add a note referring back to a similar or related point made earlier in the day.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you fall out of character, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a presentation?
If it’s really obvious to everybody (usually because of some technical glitch) I’ll try to make a joke of it. Getting a laugh reminds you that the audience is on your side. Don’t force it, though: if you can’t think of a way to make light of the situation, you’ll just make things worse racking your brains for a joke.

If it’s a little thing that only I would know about, I fall back on my presenter notes to reorient myself and get some momentum going again.

About Jesse James Garrett
Jesse James Garrett, co-founder and president of Adaptive Path, is one of the world’s most widely recognized technology product designers. At Adaptive Path, Jesse supports the company’s designers and strategists with creative guidance and helps them advance the company’s thought leadership position.

Jesse blogs at http://jjg.net and has a much longer biography on the Adaptive Path website.

Interview with David Armano [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

David Armano, possibly best known for his talents in the social media space, is a pretty regular guy with lots of smarts, a decent sense of humor and an ability to grow facial hair at 10x the rate of the guy writing this copy. I first met David a few years back, thanks to the connection-making skills of Ms. Whitney Hess, and I count myself as pretty fortunate to call him not only a friend, but a co-conspirator at times, and even a co-presenter at SXSW in 2009. David is generous with his time and talents, and this easily makes him a standout in the very populated crowd of “internet celebrities”–but he’s also genuinely interested in all of those “greater good” things, and won’t hesitate to step up for a good cause, and has done so many times. In addition to that, he jumped at the chance to share his experiences and advice about presenting, when he easily could have been too busy busting his hump for clients. Anyone willing to trade-in some “plane nap-time” for well-thought responses is a pretty good egg in my book.

And with that, here’s some wisdom from Mr. Armano.

How do you create a new presentation, specifically in the conceptual phase?
Presentations are first created in my mind and they don’t start as presentations they start out as fragments, ideas and parts of a story. The pieces of the narrative then show up in a variety of forms. Sometimes in work deliverables, other times in articles and occasionally a blog post or tweet. The narrative begins to take root. Then, when the time is right and all the pieces are scattered in a variety of forms—I begin to pull the master narrative together in the forms of words, pictures and whatever else helps me tell the story.

What are your “pre-presentation” rituals that help you get ready?  Any rituals during the presentation that keep you in  the flow?
I never, ever do dry runs. What I do is put some notes to the slides or sometimes edit them. I never read the notes—it is the act of writing them that helps me to recall the story. I also flip through slides in presentation mode whether on laptop, iPad or whatever. I need to see the slides over and over again until they are burned into my mind.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you’re in the middle of a presentation?
Great question, this happens from time to time. Not everyone notices it—but I know when I’ve lost optimal flow. What I do is look to the audience and find someone who is highly engaged. I focus on that person even though they probably never know it. I take that energy and bring it back into the presentation. This usually works and I regain my footing. I often find that I’m only as good as my audience. But I’ve been pretty fortunate to have some good ones.

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
This is going to sound odd but I typically get very calm before an audience. The larger the audience—the calmer I get. This doesn’t mean I don’t get nervous. I do. But I’ve noticed something interesting that often happens after I speak. I feel the effects after, not before. Sometimes in my lower back! I often feel depleted. I like to joke that I’m a “closet introvert” and people never believe me because I’m very social and outgoing. But interactions in public such as presentations and the meet & greets after drain my batteries as opposed to charging them. I have no tricks to offer here, but would suggest that you try to focus your presentations on subjects you feel passionately about. I think that’s probably one of the reasons my stage fright is pretty minimal.  

About David Armano
David Armano is currently a senior vice president at Edelman Digital, the interactive arm of global communications firm Edelman. He has 14 years experience in the industry with the majority of his time spent in digital marketing and user experience design. An active participant in the industry, he writes Logic + Emotion which is ranked in the top media + marketing blogs according to Advertising Age. His writing and visual thinking has been cited by Forrester, The Boston Globe and has landed him in BusinessWeek on several occasions including their “Best of 2006”. He also writes at the Harvard Business Review.

Prior to Edelman, David spent time as a creative & strategic lead at notable firms such as Critical Mass, Digitas and Agency.com—putting in a combined tenure of 8 years in the large digital agency environment. He has led multiple initiatives for clients such as HP, Allstate, Fifth Third Bank, Miller Brewing, Grainger, and Bally Total Fitness. Previously, he earned his interactive stripes working with The Chicago Tribune on their site initiatives balancing content with functionality.



Today, David blends strategy with design and looks for new business opportunities around the social Web to enhance the customer experience, connect individuals and innovate.  He currently lives in a near-northern suburb of Chicago, not far from Lake Michigan. When he’s not working, surfing the net, or riding his motorbike—he can be found spending quality time with his family.



Oh, and he doesn’t have a middle name, considers himself a connoisseur of beef jerky and has been occasionally known to wear cowboy hats, but only if the mood strikes him. He also loves the karaoke, and is known by his first name at The Blue Frog in downtown Chicago.

Interview with C.E. Lane (Christian Lane) [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

Christian Lane and I went to different high schools together and I had the rare fortune of being able to hang out with him a few times. Not like “I’m in the same room with Slash” type of thing–sheesh. I do recall we attended that same “Enuff Z’nuff” show at the Thirsty Whale, however… Oh, the 80s.

As long as I’ve known him, Christian has been a purveyor of the finer things in music, and he somehow always seemed to just know what the Next Big Thing™ was, and listened to it first, perhaps subconsciously forcing the rest of us to get turned on to bands like The Cult, The Clash and The Sex Pistols in between hits of The Beatles, but before we knew we should be listening in that general direction. His father, Terry, was and is a pretty big fan of his work, and seemed to know the best ways to support him. Somewhere out there (perhaps in my cassette tape collection that’s been relocated to a top shelf in the shed) is a copy of “Temptation” by New Order that Christian’s dad paid for him to record as a birthday present. It was a wild eye-opener of things to come for him, in hindsight. It’s never been a surprise that he went on make a professional career in music, with many of his songs landing in some of your favorite TV shows. He generously offered his time to help me gain some insight into how he handles live performances, and the full interview text follows.

As corny as it sounds, I still remember the coach’s axiom, “the more you practice, the luckier you are”. Obviously that’s a better analogy for free throws, but I find great comfort in that.

Just remember, there’s a reason why you’re up there on stage. You have to believe that reason yourself. Know your material, be able to answer anything.

Have you ever been at a podium–done a presentation, a reading, played music, where you had to prepare in advance for it? If so, how do you create that presentation (song list, etc.), specifically in the conceptual phase? Maybe a better question is “how do you structure a new song when you’re starting from scratch?”
Yes.

As a musician, about 70% of my work is live performances. Very rarely do I not prepare. the exception would be the occasional impromptu “jam”. For live performance I prepare the physical aspects, such as warming up my voice and my fingers (on guitar). The set list i create is usually firm on the opening 3 songs, and the last couple. I still write-out the names of the rest and put them in there in a loose “order”, but i allow for the mood of the crowd to dictate the direction. Also, I jot down a handful of cover songs I can play just in case I need to pull out something familiar. (Honestly, i think this is a better direction than me trying to explain song process. If someone could explain it to ME, perhaps!)

As musician, how do you get into the mindset of “playing live”? That is, as a presenter, I more or less “turn it on” when I’m presenting and know how I do it, but how do you get on stage?
Nerves mostly.

As corny as it sounds, I still remember the coach’s axiom, “the more you practice, the luckier you are”. Obviously that’s a better analogy for free throws, but I find great comfort in that. Then I like to be alone, or with my band, or maybe my wife, for about a half hour before performance, and just pace and air guitar–and really just let the nerves wash over me.

I learned, about myself anyway, that nerves have a way of focusing you and they serve a real purpose. As far as turning it on, when I walk on stage (in the bigger venues “when the lights go down”), everything disappears and I just feel like it’s my house, and I own it.

What are your “pre-playing” rituals that help you get ready? What about during the performance that keep you in the flow?
I’m sort of smooshing these questions together a bit I guess–I already touched on pre-show, but I think it’s good to reiterate that I like to have a little “alone time” if possible.

It seems like there’s some sort of inverse formula stating the harder you are about to rock, the more silent you will be before hand. I get almost comatose, and I yawn (though I hear yawning is a manifestation of nerves for lots of folks). Before the biggest solo show I ever played in Canada, in front of 9,000 people, I fell asleep under a card table.

I wish I could tell you that I was cognizant of what takes place when I step on stage, but I’m really not. I’m told I’m completely different on-stage than I am off, but I have little-to-no knowledge of how that switch is flipped.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you maybe choke in the middle of a song, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a gig?
I don’t know that I have any set ways to recover from a flub, etc. I’m not sure exactly what happens, but when you’re in the moment it goes by all too fast.

I don’t think I’ve ever had time to realize a dinger even happened, so I wouldn’t be able to “recover” as it were. The closest thing I can think of that I would relate to this would be breaking a string. You just sort power through–there’s not much you can do about it  until the end of the song.

I think if you make too big a deal about mistakes it highlights them to the audience.

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
I don’t have any real tricks to combat stage fright. I’m not sure if I have/get “stage fright”. Nerves are sort of part of anything you do in life where you might be under review, or engaging with other people or unfamiliar situations. “Stage fright”, I’m guessing, is a very specific fear, and maybe public speaking isn’t the best way to get your ideas out there!!

I kid.

I would say, use the nerves. I think nervousness can also be “preparedness”. Nerves tend to focus me on things I need to remember (ie., do i have my good cable, is my water bottle already open, etc…

Sorry, no real tricks. Just remember, there’s a reason why you’re up there on stage. You have to believe that reason yourself. Know your material, be able to answer anything.

About C.E. Lane
With the release of his debut solo album on Bad Religion guitarist Greg Hetson’s Porterhouse 101 Records, songwriter c e lane opens a new chapter in a vibrant rock and roll story.

From the age of three, c e lane has been playing guitar and writing songs. Fueled by classic artists like the Beatles and Dylan, as well as the punk rock of The Clash and Sex Pistols, lane began performing in clubs and roadhouses at the tender age of 14. At 18 he made the journey from small town Illinois to the city of Chicago to pursue his dreams. Coinciding with the Chicago alt-rock music explosion of the mid-90′s, lane’s band Loud Lucy quickly developed a strong regional following, selling out the famed Metro Theater and being featured
prominently in both local and national press. The band’s fusion of grunge-thrust and pop sensibility brought them to the attention of Geffen Records. Within a year, Loud Lucy went from local roadhouses and clubs to to playing shows around the globe.

With a voice reminiscent of American classics Tom Petty and Alex Chilton and with a stylistic nod to British icons John Lennon and Marc Bolan, c e lane sings of love, loss, and home. At first listen, these simple themes immediately become imbued with powerful undercurrent of longing and searching.

Find C.E. Lane online at: http://porterhouse101.com/artists/ceLane/ceLane.html

Buy C.E. Lane’s new album, “Meet Me At The Corner” on iTunes.

Interview with Erik Soens [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

We’re not taming lions here. Were talking to people just like you and me. People hopefully there to listen and experience something new. Or view the same in a new perspective.

Ric (Erik) Soens seems to have always been around, at least to me–from the local Illinois Valley band “The Craigs” (was it really 20+ years ago?) to the behind-the-counter guy at “Hear’n Their Records” to many different solo and group efforts, he’s just been there. Always good for some quirky humor or a lesson in music that you should be listening to but didn’t quite know about it yet, Ric’s been an amazing student of music, musicianship and of life. Ric is also one of those rare breeds who figured out how to turn his passion into his profession–something everyone dreams of–and he’s managed to do it quite well.

Have you ever been at a podium–done a presentation, a reading, played music, where you had to prepare in advance for it? If so, how do you create that presentation (song list, etc.), specifically in the conceptual phase? Maybe a better question is “how do you structure a new song when you’re starting from scratch?”
Starting a song from scratch is different than getting ready for a presentation. It’s method than craft. Songwriting, after the initial burst of creativity is craft and editing. Doing a presentation would be more on the lines of rehearsing ‘said song’ for public performance.

So, a presentation on songwriting (which I’ve done behind a podium in various high schools) consists of a set of notes that are numbered in order of appearance in the presentation. Most of this should be memorized, tho save some space for a little improvisation. For the complete beginner, they should stick to the notes they’ve memorized.

Then after the notes have been written and edited to a conversational tone, I rehearse my presentation, in silence at first, then in front of a mirror, then with the television blaringly loud so I can rehearse talking “through” a noise. Then I reflect on all of my physical actions…am I using my hands too much, am I boring? more body language, no body language, so this is a craft as well…

The basic rule of thumb is to be prepared. Know the conversation and if someone asks a question, KNOW where you left off in you presentation, notes are handy for that.

As musician, how do you get into the mindset of “playing live”? That is, as a presenter, I more or less “turn it on” when I’m presenting and know how I do it, but how do you get on stage?
Turning it on. Turn it on and never turn it off. The world IS  stage and you never know when or where someone is watching you. Watch your Ps and Qs…anyone could be filming it. Stay on.

What are your “pre-playing” rituals that help you get ready? What about during the performance that keep you in the flow?
I play guitar or piano or bass or banjo every day…I mean a lot! About 2 hours before gig time I give my fingers a rest. I take it easy and laugh with friends. I make sure all my gear is ready, (new strings, stretched well and tuned, I make sure all of my cables are good, very mundane things) if there are new songs in the set I rehearse the lyrics and changes in my head, then for the gig itself.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you maybe choke in the middle of a song, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a gig?
When regaining ones ground, humility is a far more powerful tool than most folks want to practice. The blatant stopping of a song is alright if you can make the next song so good no one remembers you stopped the last one. So in that regard, if presenting, and one loses their flow, a simple retort such as “Whew…that got away from me, let me reiterate” would work just fine, then a quick look at your notes should place back in the flow.

Regaining confidence isn’t hard to do if you’re already a confident person. The people without confidence don’t stand a chance doing this and may be better suited to the mail room.

Other things I’ve learned are to always have fun. If your listeners are not having fun they will leave. Be careful not to come off as cocky or arrogant; make eye contact with the ones you want to disarm, 5 seconds of it, no more than that though, and that should be enough.
  
The one thing that the others don’t have to do that I still have to do is my equipment setup. I have to set up my gear. My podium. My PA–all in public view. It’s not glorious. And people want to talk with you and drink with you and smoke with you and do every thing but help you set up. I don’t have quiet time right before a show usually; it’s very rush-rush these days, so I try to use that energy to propel me into the first song…then through the night. I don’t get dressing rooms or roadies or security guards or my Dad to watch my back or anything like that…I HAVE to stay on my toes, and be aware and present always. It’s not that I don’t trust people–I just don’t trust people who have been drinking.

I’m not bitching, either. I’m just saying there are not a lot of performers who wouldn’t or couldn’t do it like this–122 presentations a year. Introduce me to one and I’ll take back this whole paragraph.

It’s important to remember during the rehearsal stages one should speak aloud and from the belly. Practice phonics and syllabance. Over pronounce words so the when the presentation day comes your vocal confidence is up. One should start prepping the moment they find out about the mission!

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
I’ve never really experience stage fright. I get a little tired about a 1/2 hour before shows but try to occupy myself constructively.

We’re not taming lions here. Were talking to people just like you and me. People hopefully there to listen and experience something new. Or view the same in a new perspective. If I may repeat the importance of preparation and rehearsing your presentation, and you have it mostly memorized then stage fright shouldn’t even happen. Once again, they’re just people. Sometimes a lot of them, sometimes a few, but they’re still just people. That thought levels the playing field for me.

About Ric Soens
Ric Soens has played guitar professionally for 22 years. As a veteran performer he has fronted rock and country bands and also keeps up a strict schedule of solo performances. He has toured the country several times previous to settling down and raising a family.

He currently co-owns Valley Music in LaSalle, IL. and teaches guitar, bass, banjo, vocals and songwriting to 35 students a week. He has participated in poetry readings, eulogys at funerals, readings in church as well as given presentations on creative writing to high school students.

Ric plays bass and sings for the rock band The Craigs, a popular Illinois Valley band that has released two albums. In addition, Ric has released several collections of music and is currently performing with The Ric Soens Band who will be releasing a collection this year titled Hard Truths In Soft Denim.

Ric Soens is available for solo acoustic performance, electric rock-n-roll with a band or even to talk to groups of students about creative writing.

Ric can be found online at:
www.myspace.com/ricsoensband
www.myspace.com/ricsoens

Live shows can be found at:
http://www.archive.org/details/RicSoensBandLiveInConcertWaterStreetPub07.03.2005
http://www.archive.org/details/RicSoensBandLive08.14.2009

Interview with Eytan Mirsky [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

I “met” Eytan Mirsky more than a handful of years ago after discovering his music and tracking down just about everything I could find by him–I’m a sucker for really strong pop music, and Eytan’s all about that, in a great way. Some of my favorite songs from Eytan are in the “Tao of Steve” soundtrack, but there’s little he’s done that I’ve not been a fan of. He’s also made a few acting appearances (if you saw “American Splendor” he wrote the title track and played it in the movie), and was a perfect candidate to get some information on handling public performances. In unrelated news: one of these days I’ll make the trip to one of Eytan’s live shows and/or I’m going to hold him to letting me sing backing vocals on a track in the future. He clearly doesn’t know of my love for Hootie and the Blowfish or he’d have already been all over this.

Surprisingly — or maybe not surprisingly — most times people are not as aware of any mistakes as you might think. They are not focusing on things the way you (as the performer) are.

Have you ever been at a podium–done a presentation, a reading, played music, where you had to prepare in advance for it? If so, how do you create that presentation (song list, etc.), specifically in the conceptual phase? Maybe a better question is “how do you structure a new song when you’re starting from scratch?”
Yes, I have had to do live shows and present set lists for the shows. First I will pick the songs I want to do at the show. Then I will determine how the show will start and finish then I will try to fill in the material in between. Clearly you don’t want songs that are too similar right next to each other, so I try to mix it up as much as I can. I also try to come up with some clever between-song patter, but I like to keep that somewhat extemporaneous. I really don’t agonize too much about the song order though, to tell you the truth.
 
How do I structure a new song? In my case, I usually have the overall concept and try to develop that into a chorus that I like. That will basically include both the words and music. (Sometimes the initial concept can be a phrase, so I develop that into a larger idea of what I am trying to say.) At that time usually the overall structure of the song will come to mind in an abstract sense. When the chorus is done I try to come up with verses that will work with the chorus. That is probably the trickiest part. You want the verses to be sufficiently different from the chorus and yet still sound like they were meant for each other. Once the verses and chorus forms are determined I will write the bridge or middle eight, assuming I feel the song needs one. This is another part that gives you a break from the verse-chorus routine and introduces more variety. I often use this to comment in a different way about the topic at hand.
 
As musician, how do you get into the mindset of “playing live”? That is, as a presenter, I more or less “turn it on” when I’m presenting and know how I do it, but how do you get on stage?
In my own case I try to be as natural as possible. That is kind of my schtick: I am very deadpan. I can’t say whether or not that is satisfying for the audience!  Obviously my persona onstage is somewhat of an exaggeration of my own personality, but it’s not radically different.

What are your “pre-playing” rituals that help you get ready? What about during the performance that keep you in the flow?
My main concern with playing live is that I will forget the songs! I am not that concerned about the lyrics, but I do worry a lot about forgetting the chords of the songs. Obviously, you just need to rehearse so it becomes second nature.  Something about the actual performance seems to focus my mind though, so that I end up not making the mistakes I am worried about making.

I try to do some songs I am most comfortable with in the beginning because I know that if/when those go well I will become more relaxed about things and things will continue to flow more easily.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you maybe choke in the middle of a song, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a gig?
Surprisingly — or maybe not surprisingly — most times people are not as aware of any mistakes as you might think. They are not focusing on things the way you (as the performer) are. And even if they do notice some little mistake they most likely not going to focus too much on it, especially if they are enjoying the overall performance. Of course if the whole thing becomes a train wreck then that’s a problem. You just have to keep pushing on. You can also make a joke out of the mistake if that suits your performance style. 

How have you combatted stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
I seriously do not have stage fright. The audience doesn’t bother me at all. Between the songs I just do patter and sometimes talk directly to people in the audience. As I said, the only thing that worries me is that I will forget the words or chords. So I need to focus. But it doesn’t really end up being a problem 99 percent of the time.

About Eytan Mirsky
Eytan Mirsky is a singer-songwriter best known for his original contributions to film soundtracks, including the title songs for the critically acclaimed films Happiness (sung by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe) and American Splendor (in which he himself appeared singing the theme). He also contributed three songs to the film The Tao of Steve, including the title song and “(I Just Wanna Be) Your Steve McQueen”. Other films to which Mirsky has contributed music are Palindromes, The Company and Desert Blue.  He has put out four CDs: Songs About Girls (& Other Painful Subjects), Get Ready for Eytan!, Was it Something I Said? and Everyone’s Having Fun Tonight!

See also: Eytan Mirsky’s Music at AmazonMP3

Interview with Alex Dittmer [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

My first interview is with actor and musician Alex Dittmer, of New York City. Alex and I happen to know each other from some community college days and have shared a stage for the musical “Godspell”. Many years have since passed, and Alex is a full time professional actor. I hope you learn from his insights.

I don’t really have stage fright anymore. The only time I get nervous or rattled is when I am unprepared. I subscribe to two mantras when performing. The first is, “Repetition is the key to mastery” and the second is “Nervousness (fear) is caused by lack of preparing”.

Have you ever been at a podium–done a presentation, a reading, played music, where you had to prepare in advance for it? If so, how do you create that presentation (song list, etc.), specifically in the conceptual phase?
All of my work comes from being prepared, even if it’s during an improv show.  You prepare the basic tenants of improv, the guidelines if you will and the structure builds itself. If it’s an acting gig, my job is to bring as much to the character as possible.  In my business we call that “homework”.  An actor has to do his homework and delve into his character and bring that to rehearsals so the group can share that and grow.
 
To prepare for the role conceptually can be as simple as reading the script several times. I tend to go over board.  I read the script and any history on the author or productions.  i also do a name search to see if there is significance to the name.  Also location history is important as is time the play is set in and the date the play was written in.  All of these factors offer a broad range of colors that the actor can use to paint the canvas of the character.
 
As an actor, how do you get into the mindset of “acting”? That is, as a presenter, I more or less “turn it on” when I’m presenting and know how I do it, but how do you become the character?
My answer may sound kinda silly or untrue, but it’s honestly how I feel.  I love acting.  There is nothing on earth that I have found anywhere that I feel more comfortable and confident doing. There is such a wonderful symbiotic relationship with the audience- a shared energy- that even if I were down, I couldn’t be once I crossed into the lighted stage.  So to give anything less than 100% would be like cheating on a spouse or loved one.  
 
I grew up in a blue collar home with blue collar parents and the work ethic they instilled in me still continues.  I realize that while my job is different from the 9-5 grind or factory work, I still have a job to do and I try to approach it that way.  Someone is paying me decent money to do something I would probably do for free because of my love and passion for it. So if I cash that check, I better deliver on what they are paying me to do.  So, in a long round about way, I guess I am always “on” once I walk into the theatre.  It is a kin to the reverence some people feel when they walk into Cathedral.
 
What are your “pre-acting” rituals that help you get ready? What about during the acting performance that keep you in character / the flow?
I have some pre-show things that I always do.  First I always stretch and get physically warmed up.  I do no less than 25 push-up prior to getting into costume and then the same amount when fully in the opening costume. I also vocalize.  My favorite thing in working the vocals is working on diction.  There is this consonant exercise that I learned in grad school that incorporates all the vowel sounds and the majority of consonants. It takes a little concentration and was something that I struggled with early on in Grad school.  So to do it in warm up reminds me that I always have room to improve.  I also re-read all of my lines in all of my scenes before the stage manager calls “places”. I do this in costume and sit in front of the make-up mirror.  I also always go pee when they call “five minutes to paces”. I’m not sure how I started that habit, but it seems to relax me.
 
The part about keeping in character / flow is a great question.  I think you may have meant about keeping in character in a two hour show.  That’s easy, the thing that I found difficult is doing the same show, twice a day for 6 – 8 months.  There was a time around the 2 -3 month period where I was saying the same dialogue, the same way and I felt I wasn’t being as fresh to the audience as I would have liked.  So I told the other actor (it was a two person show) that I am going to change the intention of some of my lines and let’s see where it goes. While the lines were exactly the same, the intent changed the dynamic of the scene which in turn changed the dynamic of the show. We would do this, from time to time, without telling each other.  That way we were forced to listen and it made the show fresh and alive for us and for each audience….even after 8 months.
 
How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you fall out of character, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a presentation or character or gig?
In acting we call it “going up”.  Everyone has a horror story on this.  Everyone has done it and everyone has been in a show that someone else has gone up and t affected the show.  My favorite on I’ve ever heard involves an older gentleman, but a community legend  who was playing the Friar in Romeo & Juliet for a summer stock professional show.  It was the scene where he was supposed to tell Juliet about the poison and the antidote.  He completely forgot his lines.  He looked at the actress playing Juliet.  Looked out at the crowd.  Looked back at the actress, and with abject fear on his face he yelled to her, “I’m going up!”.  The trained actress, fed him his lines by asking him questions and the scene was soon put back on track.
 
This is what should happen if there is an interruption in “the flow”.  If you know where the scene is supposed to go, even if you start going up you can usually find your way back.  It’s when you start to panic as an actor and not trust the work that you’ve done, that problems come along.  Mistakes happen, but problems are there when we focus on mistakes. Mistakes can be overcome in a second, problems can require a whole new set of tools. If I make mistakes I tend to push right on through and, if time permits, run back to my dressing room and write down the line or scene or moment that I F***ed up on.  This way I can go back and figure out what happened and reduce it for the next time.  I try my best to make any brief mistake appear smooth to the audience by not drawing attention to it. However, there are times that the audience wants in and it makes the moment more communal and the audience goes crazy.
 
I did a show where, in the final few minutes of the end of the play, one of the actors was to burst on and  improvise a line and then correct himself and say the real line.  This actor was pure genius and the improved lines were always hysterical. On the final night he ran in and blurted out his improved line which was, “Improv line!” the majority of the actors onstage just started cracking up, as we were waiting for some real line. The audience saw we were laughing and started laughing with us.  It was like a Carol Burnett moment. I honestly don’t remember how we ended that show, but I remember the audience waiting for us at the stage door and thanking us for such a fun time.
 
So if you go up, see how the audience reacts and don’t EVER fear. Just go with it, where ever the moment takes you and know where the story ends.  In the meantime, enjoy the new route that you took getting there.
 
How have you combatted stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
When I was younger I used to run around and try to get all the energy running through my body, out of my system.  I thought that this way, I would be able to perform better…to have more focus.  I used to get a case of the nerves when friends or family were coming to the show I was certifiable if I knew there was a reviewer in the house. Theatre folk tend to enjoy the histrionics. They thrive on the buzz of nerves and anxiety.  Nowadays, I can’t stand to be around those kind of people.  It’s wasted and unfocused energy.

I don’t really have stage fright anymore.  The only time I get nervous or rattled is when I am unprepared.  I subscribe to two mantras when performing.  The first is, “Repetition is the key to mastery” and the second is “Nervousness (fear) is caused by lack of preparing”.  They both pretty much mean the same thing. I only get nervous or concerned if I know I didn’t prepare properly.  As an actor, the majority of the time we are auditioning for a job. Sometimes we are told what to prepare and those are the gret auditions .  you can bring whatever you like from your prepared arsenal and blow them away.  Other times they send you (via your agent) parts of the script to memorize and want to see you do it in two days. You may have plans during those days, or a day job to pay the bills, but time will be working against you and you’ll want to act those scenes fully and only have a few hours to really focus on it.  It those auditions that make me nervous.

The key to getting through them is to make a mental deal with yourself that you will do the absolute best you can for that day and that moment. One of the things I’ve found most helpful was some advice one of my instructors gave me during grad school.  She told me to learn something from every audition and to make sure you take something positive away from it.  All too often actors, most people it seems, beat themselves up over moments like these when they are not at their best. They relive it in their minds a hundred time playing out the most damaging moments.  The perspective is where the difference is.  It the difference of saying, “Shit, I totally blew that line!” or “They never laughed when they were supposed to!” instead of, “Well that monologue doesn’t work well, I can dump it and learn something that works”. 

I realize this isn’t about nerves so much as perspective, but to me they go hand in hand.  If you prepare and approach it from a “win” standpoint, then nerves really don’t play into the scene.

About Alex Dittmer

Alex Dittmer is a native of rural Illinois but a recent transplant to New York. He received his BA in Theatre from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL and received his MFA in Acting from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He has been seen onstage at the Tony Award winning CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK and has worked at the OBIE award winning PEARL THEATRE COMPANY and has had the honor and pleasure of sharing the stage with Tony and Emmy Award winning actress Julie Harris. He has been seen onstage throughout the midwest and parts of the East coast. Visit Alex’s website at www.alexdittmer.com.

Interaction10 – Paola Antonelli – Talk to Me

Paola Antonelli’s keynote was probably my most favorite of the keynotes at Interaction10. She was a bit livelier than most, a bit more animated and had a great sense of humor about about her. She also had some great sensibilities about how design and technology should work.

Oh, and she hates that damn tamagotchi.

Paola Antonelli’s Bio:

Paola Antonelli is senior curator of architecture and design at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, where she has worked since 1994. Before MoMA, she curated design and architecture exhibitions in many countries and worked as contributing editor for Domus magazine and design editor of Abitare. She has lectured on design and architecture worldwide and has published numerous articles in publications ranging from Seed and Nest to The Harvard Design Review. Antonelli is author of a number of books, including Workspheres (2001), Objects of Design from the Modern Museum of Art (2003), Humble Masterpieces (2005), and Design and the Elastic Mind (2008).

Talk To Me Keynote Description:

Whether openly and actively, or in subtle, subliminal ways, things talk to us, and designers write the initial script that will let us develop and improvise the dialogue.

My Notes on the Session:

• We are now at the point with technology that we’re no longer drunk with it and we can finally do something really humane, has humane interfaces and make it elegant.
• She is more comfortable with objects than she is with people–objects talk to her about their properties.
• Technologists make revolutions, but designers bring it to life
• Computers evolved from being tools to being pets in your home–they started to have personalities.
• Post-it note was a mistake in the 60s that became a success in the 80s
• Real-world interfaces in the real world have become friendlier and friendlier–beginning to be pithy, have a degree of humanization to them.
• Throwie: an LED light with a battery and a magnet that you can throw up high and stick to metal. People make graffiti and give boring objects personalities with them.
• Laser Tagging by the Graffiti Research Lab – Used lasers to write on the sides of buildings.
• Seeing is Understanding
• Ref: Tufte (ick)
• Eames – Brought about multimedia before it really existed – Mathematica
• Access to Networks & Systems
• Access to networks & systems allow us to collect very disparate and complex sets of data and turn it into something visual that we can understand better/easier.
• Networks and systems can make devices somewhat irrelevant–as long as you have the data <somewhere> the device can easily be replaced.
• Making & Mixing the Worlds
• AR, Simulations, alternate ways to live & build
• Designers are now aware of resources, sustainability, etc.
• Grand Theft Auto is a wonderful simulation of a world that already exists.
• Portable systems may go away; it’s not augmented, but a blurring of the reality
• The connection between the real world and digital world will become seamless and this will make your experience “bigger”
• The symbol of this all is: @
• It’s not about possessing things now, it’s about tagging them. Where’s Gene Smith?
• Paola_Antonelli@moma.org if there’s anything about this you want to talk to her about
• Designers not only need to learn Anthropology, but need to take some screenwriting, drama, acting classes!