Sign up for a class through SkillShare

Normally my teaching is for very specific clients: an individual diplomat or CEO, Harvard graduate students, the employees of a particular company, etc. Many colleagues and friends ask if they can join but most of the time it’s not appropriate to invite outsiders.

But this summer, I’ll be teaching two classes through SkillShare, a newcomer to Boston which brings together teachers and students in their own marketplace. For $10-$15, anyone can take a class and learn a new skill. It’s crowd-sourced continuing education.

You can sign up for one or both of these classes:

August 18, 6pm - How To Teach Yourself a Foreign Language - I’m particularly excited about this class because I’m a lifelong language learner and have spent a lot of time researching the best way a person can learn a language on their own.

September 7, 6pm - Public Speaking 101, an introduction to the skill of public speaking, its importance, and how to improve. This is a participatory class so everyone who joins will get experience speaking briefly in front of the group.

Quick update: I had to cancel the Sept.7 class but hope to find a date to reschedule. Thanks!

From Death to Life in Poland

In July 2011, I traveled to Poland with my husband’s grandfather to learn first-hand about his experiences as a child surviving the Holocaust.

I invite you to read my travel essay and view my pictures here:

http://allisonshapira.com/posts/from-death-to-life-in-poland/

What’s missing from your pitch?

I’ve been thinking lately about one particular type of public speaking: the pitch.

It’s what you do when you are starting a company or nonprofit and you need to invite others to join you – whether as employees, investors, or partners.

Working in Cambridge, I get to hear a lot of startup pitches. And in listening to those pitches, I’ve noticed one major thing that’s usually missing: the call to action at the end, the “ask”.  It tells your audience exactly where you need help and how they can help you.

Lots of people describe their idea and then end their pitch with, “Thank you, I’m happy to take your questions” or even “So, yeah.”

I think people should end with a specific statement that invites participation, something like: “Our current timeline is to have a working prototype within the month and be ready to ship by the end of the year. We have bootstrapped ourselves thus far and are ready for our first round of venture funding to cover the prototype and first round of production, which we anticipate will cost $100,000.  We invite you to take that step with us and become our first investors.”

Yes, it might seem obvious that you’re pitching to get funding.  But what might not be obvious is when you hope to launch and how much you will need.

Asking is scary because you risk rejection. But if you are clear and concise about what you need, you make it easier for people to say yes.

***

By the way, here is an interesting case where the “ask” would have been really useful. The subject of the article did all the hard work – all he had to do was follow through with it! I admit I too would have been nervous sitting next to Steve Jobs: So Steve Jobs walks into a sushi bar…

How to Teach Yourself Polish

I’ve started learning Polish in preparation for a family heritage trip to Poland this summer.  Few things in life give me more pleasure than learning a new language from scratch, even for just a week-long trip.  I feel like I add a new personality, a new culture, to my own life. As a communication professional, it’s really important to me to connect with people wherever I go, regardless of the language they speak. I’ve studied about 10 languages over the past 20 years (Modern Greek is my favorite), so I’ve developed a good sense of how I learn best.

I’m using Colloquial Polish this time. I’ve used this series before and it is both good and bad. True to my teaching style, let’s start with the good:

Advantages of Colloquial Polish:

• Accompanying CD – this is crucial for learning the sound of the language.
• Polish-English and English-Polish dictionary at the back, so I can look up unfamiliar words.
• Includes grammar, so I can form my own sentences later on (this is why I don’t like Rosetta Stone).
• Each chapter ends with exercises, with an answer key at the back of the book so I learn from my mistakes.

Disadvantages of Colloquial Polish:

• Too much info per chapter. For instance, Chapter 5 introduced adverbs, comparisons, 5 different verb types, and a bunch of expressions. This is way too much info to absorb in one chapter.
• Too few exercises per chapter. With all the info per chapter, there should be at least twice as many exercises to really cement my learning.
• Dialogues are way too fast. The speakers race through the dialogues, forcing me to pause between sentences to repeat what I’ve just heard. Dialogues should be spoken much more slowly.
• Not enough audio. As long as you have CDs available, I would record all new vocab and expressions, not just the dialogues. This would reassure me that I’m pronouncing all new words correctly.

In addition to reading (and re-reading) Colloquial Polish, I’ve also downloaded 2 songs from Polish pop singer Patrycja Markowska on my iPhone, with the lyrics. She has excellent pronunciation. So when I’m on the subway or bus, I can listen to her songs and read the accompanying lyrics. It’s doing wonders for my pronunciation and reading skills. And I’m more likely to remember new words if I can sing them in a song (or soon – play along on the guitar).

Of course, the best way to learn a foreign language is to live in that country for at least a year. But I haven’t yet found a way to do that and make a living (although I’m open to ideas).

How do you learn foreign languages? Each person learns differently – I’d love to hear what works for others.

Don’t network, make friends

I’ve blogged on the topic of networking before, but I recently came across a great post that I wanted to highlight from my friend Carrie Stalder from The Venture Café, a weekly gathering at the Cambridge Innovation Center which brings together entrepreneurs, VCs, students, and others in the Boston innovation community.

I’m quoting from Carrie’s post and you can read the full version here. It really gets to the heart of effective networking:

• Make every effort to remember names, but don’t be afraid to say you forgot.
• Smile.
• Everyone has something interesting to say, you just don’t know what yet, so engage, really engage, and care about what they are saying.
• Be helpful, just because.
• Enthusiasm is contagious. Share your passion and you just might inspire someone.
• Don’t network, make friends. (Thanks, Chris!)

The main qualities I take away from this are: friendliness, curiosity, and authenticity. If you are open enough to embrace them, people will respond. They are as relevant to public speaking as they are to networking.

(I don’t know who Chris is, but I’d like to thank him for the comment.)

Public Speaking is not Opera

Studying and singing opera has been a tremendous help for me as I teach public speaking. In a lot of ways, giving a speech is very much like giving a performance:

• You exist for the benefit of your audience
• You connect emotionally with that audience
• Body language, eye contact, and other nonverbal communication skills are crucial
• Advanced preparation is key to in-the-moment success

However, there are some key differences between opera and public speaking (besides the obvious!) which are important to point out:

• You don’t have to be perfect. While opera singers are praised for giving flawless performances, public speakers don’t have to be perfect. In fact, if you’re too polished the audience won’t be able to relate to you. They might think of you as false, too rehearsed, or too slick. The best public speakers are authentic, human, and passionate. Audiences will remember that passion, even if you had a few um’s and ah’s.
• You create the material. Opera singers don’t write their own material; they interpret what others have written (Mozart, Puccini, etc). Public speakers, on the other hand, have to both create and perform their own material. This makes it more challenging than opera but ultimately more fulfilling, because speakers are tapping into their own interests and passions.
• You are always on stage. Opera singers don’t walk around randomly performing for others (well, some of us do). However, as professionals we always need to be ready to network with people, whether we are in an elevator or on an airplane. And good public speaking skills are good communication skills – no matter the size of your audience. We can always have our personal introduction (or “pitch”) ready to go that says who we are and what we are about. Again – authenticity is key here. It can be rehearsed but it shouldn’t sound rehearsed.

Can FarmVille Change the World?

Today, I happened across a video by Asi Burak, an Israeli entrepreneur who leads Games for Change, a nonprofit that advocates using video games to propel civic engagement.

Asi’s presentation struck me for 3 reasons:

1. Delivery - Asi is an excellent speaker. He is funny, uses excellent pausing, and sounds like he’s having a conversation with the audience. He’s very comfortable speaking to the audience, so the audience in turn feels comfortable listening to him.

Note to foreigners: this video shows how you can give an outstanding presentation in a language that is not your native tongue. You don’t need perfect English to give a great presentation in English.

2. Message - video games are a $60 billion industry. Tapping into this industry with a social mission is an incredible idea.  Asi said that in the US, people spend 407 million hours/month on online games – that’s more than time spent on email! How can you harness that attention for social change? Instead of telling people where they should spend their time, you meet them where they are spending their time and give them a fun, viable alternative. You create games that inspire people to make the world a better place.

3. PowerPoint – Asi uses PowerPoint beautifully. He uses roughly 10 slides for 7 minutes. Each slide has only one image or sentence that reinforces his idea or highlights a number, and he moves through them slowly. That’s how I remembered that video games are a $60 billion industry. And Asi doesn’t look at his slides – he keeps his attention focused on his audience, which means that his audience keeps their attention focused on him, not his slides.

Lots of take-aways for public speakers, marketers, and people who want to change the world.

Watch Asi Burak talk about Games for Change

If you’re an HKS student, come hear Asi Burak in person on Tuesday, March 29, at 6pm at the Kennedy School, room 275, Taubman building.

If you were planning on attending my public speaking clinic on March 29 from 4:10-6pm, room 382, Littauer building, it’s been cancelled for the day but will take place the following Tuesday, same time, same place.

Congratulations Shaun!

I am so proud to announce that my brother Shaun Greenspan has written, directed, and produced a short film that was just accepted into the Sarasota Film Festival. Shaun has been living and breathing the film industry in Los Angeles for over 10 years and it has been inspirational to see his passion and drive (not to mention his talent!). This film festival is especially meaningful because we grew up in Sarasota, so it’s like a homecoming for Shaun.

And he has certainly paid his dues. He worked on “The West Wing” (one of my favorite shows!), “E.R.,” “Six Feet Under,” “Nip-Tuck,” “Mad Men,” “True Blood,” and “Big Love,” and films “Little Miss Sunshine,” and “Where the Wild Things Are.” He studied film at Columbia College in Hollywood.

Shaun’s short film, “The Break Up,” is the story of a nine-year-old boy who breaks up with his girlfriend while on a pizza date. The dialogue is funny, the acting is fantastic, and it’s inspired by real life (!!)

If you’re in central Florida, come check it out. The film premieres at the 2011 Sarasota Film Festival on Friday, April 15, at noon, and Sunday, April 17, at 7 p.m., at Regal Cinemas Hollywood 20 in downtown Sarasota, 1993 Main Street. Members of the press can contact Su Byron at subyron@verizon.net

Watch the trailer here

My allowance isn't what it used to be.

What do kiteboarding and economic growth have in common?

My husband Yoav and I just returned from a recent kiteboarding trip to the Dominican Republic. It was a wonderful vacation (view our pictures) that was also physically intense. After 9 hours of instruction, I still wasn’t able to stand up on the board while flying the kite.  It got me thinking about how much effort it takes to learn a new sport (or anything new, for that matter).

So on a windy, cold winter day back in Boston, walking to work at the Harvard Kennedy School, I was struck by a random thought connecting kiteboarding and economic growth.

Just hear me out…

Wind is kind of like economic growth, always blowing – some days more, some days less. It’s invisible to the eye unless you know where to look, although everyone feels its effects.

The ones who can harness and ride this wind (kiteboarders) are those people who have the training (education), money (kite and equipment), and drive (willingness to persevere) to do so – while those who don’t are left behind on the beach, watching everyone else, feeling envious, and getting sunburned.

The wind isn’t zero-sum – your harnessing it does not preclude someone else from harnessing it, although you can saturate your small section of beach (the local market). But there’s enough ocean for everyone.

How can we give more people the training and equipment to harness the wind? Or can we at least provide better access to suntan lotion?

Hello, my name is…

A friend of mine recently observed that I’m a “good networker” – namely, that I seem to easily meet new people.  How do I do it, he asked?

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we build communities, relationships, and networks. I’ve observed people at 3-day conferences, year-long graduate programs, and in my neighborhood in Boston.

I plan to write a few posts on this topic, but in the meantime, let me say a few words about networking. Say you arrive at some event where you don’t know anyone, and you’d like to meet new people. How do you build up the courage to speak to them?

I think networking ability comes from a few important assumptions:

1. You are worth talking to. If you believe that you are an inherently interesting person, you won’t feel like you’re “burdening” someone by walking up to them. And we are ALL inherently interesting.
2. Everyone else is worth talking to. The best networkers are authentically curious about just about everyone they meet, and are patient enough to ask others questions in order to discover those interesting points. *Note – the best networkers, in my opinion, listen more than they talk.
3. You have something in common with almost everyone.  These days, our own networks are do diverse that, chances are, you have at least one thing in common with every single person you meet, whether it’s where you’re from, your hobbies, your career, or your circle of friends. Search for that connection and build on it – even a general interest in that person’s industry can be a point of connection.
4. You want to help people even if they can’t help you. The best networkers I know are always willing and eager to help new people they’ve just met, even if it’s just making a quick introduction to someone else they know, simply for the joy of bringing people together.  When you meet someone new, think about how you can help them.

Emboldened by these assumptions, I normally look for people standing on their own, walk up with a smile, and say “Hi, my name is Allison Shapira.” Something about me taking that first step to be vulnerable by introducing myself, gives others permission to respond in kind.

I always end a conversation by asking someone for their business card, saying “I’d love to keep in touch.” I use Business Card Reader to scan the business card into my Gmail Contacts and add some notes on the person. Later, I follow up by sending them an invitation to connect on LinkedIn with the words “Great meeting you at X conference, let’s stay in touch on LinkedIn.” No risk, no big ask – just a willingness to stay in touch.

You never know how someone will respond to you when you walk up to them – usually it leads to a good conversation, sometimes it leads nowhere. But it’s up to you to take that first step.