Jan Cancila, Host 00:04
Welcome to the Sew Powerful podcast. This is your host, Jan Cancila. You know the sound of my sewing machine means it's time for another episode. So, let's get started.
Jan 00:21
Welcome to Session One of Speak Up for Sew Powerful. The instructor is Betty Johnson, with assistance by Jan Cancila. Participants are identified by first name, and they are Pat, Kathy, Laura and Chris. Betty opens the first session.
Betty Johnson 00:42
Okay, so this is a review of our, the main objective for Speak Up for Sew Powerful. And by the end of the program we'll have worked on developing, practicing and delivering talks for different audiences and for different purposes, learning these things here: 1) the importance of knowing who our audience is, and how to prepare different talks to fit different timelines and different audiences, 2) ways to personify our talks with our own Sew Powerful experiences, 3) tips: demonstrate a simple purse making or notecard making technique (and that will come later on, not in the first few talks that we work on), 4) ways to include the Sew Powerful mission and values appropriately for every group, and 5) how to end each of those with a call to action. Do we have any questions about any of those? Jan has a question.
Jan 01:38
Can you define a call to action? What do you mean by that?
Betty 01:42
A call to action is really, in the sales world, it's the pitch, what we're expecting the customer to do. In this case, we're hoping someone will want to learn more about sewing purses, someone who will want to look up on the website, someone who will call us to learn more about this, someone who might be interested in joining the Facebook group. So, it's an ask at the end of the speech. And when I get to my part I'll demonstrate for you, at the end of my 30-second talk, a call to action. And we can break that down when we get there. But it's the ask at the end of the reason why we're talking to someone or a group of people.
Betty 02:22
Any questions there? Jan? No, I'm teasing. Really. And I wanted to review information I’d provided the other time to the audience. I believe very strongly that thinking about who your audience is and what's important to them, will play a huge role in how you develop each of your talks. Are you having your 30-second talk with an individual? Or is it a group of people? Why are we talking to this individual? Is there a purpose? Do they- have you found out they have a stash of fabrics? Have they asked about a purse you might be wearing? I wear one every day when I go out, and I've had people ask me about that. And that's an opportunity for me to talk with an individual about Sew Powerful.
Betty 03:08
Or is the group you're talking to a small group, a small club, a cluster of friends that you might meet up with for coffee? What's in it for them? Why are they interested or warm? Why? I'm sorry. Why might they be interested in connecting with the mission and the goals? Or is it a civic and a social group? And our goal is to match their mission with Sew Powerful through education and awareness. And ideally, to find some others who might be interested in sewing.
Betty 03:36
And then there's the large group. And that's the more formal setting, at a convention, at a big meeting, where we're talking with slides, we're talking with the big display board about the Sew Powerful mission on a big, grander scale. What I'd like to do as we move through the meetings is develop one and then use that as we move on to, move into the next one. So, the information from the 30-second talk that we'll work on will then be able to be used in the 60-second talk, as we more fully round that out.
Betty 04:11
Any questions about this and the audiences? Okay. And I just wanted to remind everybody, our upcoming meetings: we have tonight's meeting, which is the February 4th, and we're doing the orientation and the anatomy of the 30-second talk. And then we have five more and hopefully you have these dates that were in the information packet that you received. Any questions about these at all?
Betty 04:44
Okay.
Betty 04:46
So just getting some basic things out of the way. So, let's talk about preparing our talks or our speeches. And here are a few tips that Jan and I came up with, but I'd like to open up the floor for discussion to allow everybody to participate.
Betty 05:06
First tip I always use is I write it out. I write out my talk, whether it's a two-minute talk, a 30-second talk or a 10-minute talk, because I like to practice it while reading it off the page, and then work my way off the page. And that's tip number two is to practice with others, with somebody in your household or in front of a mirror. And then I mentioned that each talk builds upon the one prior. I think it's ideal if we use a little bit of personal experiences as we go along and develop our speeches. We'll want to know the Sew Powerful mission, and all the related information very well. So, we'll be talking about locating all those resources. And to remember who our audience is and the setting.
Betty 05:52
And then I wanted to open the floor up to Zoom tips. And I am not the Zoom expert. Jan, I know is an expert in Zoom, and we may have a few others here. But if we could take a moment and I'd like to-- is everybody off mute? They are-- take a few moments. And everybody shares something that makes Zoom different than having a meeting in person. So, is there anybody who'd like to volunteer to come up with an idea how Zoom is different? Laura?
Laura 06:20
It's sometimes difficult to to know who's got the the right to speak; people will talk over each other.
Betty 06:30
Any other tips that you can think of? Pat, what what makes Zoom different for you?
Pat 06:36
I don't know I want to say different. But one of the, my Sunday School class does Zoom. And it's very annoying when there is background noises, telephones ringing, TV on, dogs barking, or that type of thing. So, I think we need to be able to learn how to navigate around distractions.
Betty 07:11
Kathy, anything you can think of that makes Zoom different from an in-person discussion with someone?
Kathy 07:16
The interaction amongst people, you have kind of that delayed. It's hard to see people's body language is different in person than it is online.
Betty 07:29
It is. So, the, whoever the speaker is, especially in a group setting, it's hard to have that reaction that you like to know if you're going down the right path with the folks or if you need to redirect what you're talking about. You don't get the feedback that you would, that you would in person.
Kathy 07:46
Right, I guess I guess the good thing is Zoom makes information available to lots more people than just those within the room.
Betty 07:57
So that's one of the pluses on Zoom is that you can reach more folks and include more folks, I mean, geographically, for sure. And I think we're saving time; we're not having to drive somewhere to have this meeting to learn how to give a speech. It saves a whole lot of time and cost. So that's the plus side.
Kathy 08:15
It's a different kind of a fear factor, online versus in person, if you're the presenter, I mean, I guess it depends how comfortable you are with it.
Betty 08:27
And then to amp up, we're being recorded for posterity. That adds a whole another layer on top of that. Yeah, you're right with that.
Chris 08:35
Well, I have, this is the first time I've used Zoom, so...
Betty 08:40
This is one of the challenges with Zoom is that you may not have a laptop, or a desktop device. You may be using a tablet or a phone. And therefore understanding for those that you're talking with.
Betty 08:51
Let's say we've been asked to talk to a group at the church. But we're meeting virtually. And you know there are going to be folks in that group who don't have the same access to Zoom, because they're using a different device. And I think that's good to know up front, so as you're preparing to give your speech or to be part of the group presentation, you can work through some of those things. Much like Jan did early on with renaming each of us on there so that we have our first name showing. And we can go back after the fact and fix our name through the participant button. There's a lot to learn here on Zoom. I don't think we're going to learn it all with this class. But if we can learn a few things together, I think we'll all be better off as we do these speaking presentations in the future with groups.
Pat 09:38
You can also go up to the upper right-hand corner of your picture. And you can mute there and...
Jan 09:50
Right.
Pat 09:52
I don't know if you can see it.
Jan 09:54
But you can only see your own, I believe.
Pat 09:57
Okay, yeah, okay. Yeah. One other thing with Zoom that I find is when you have somebody who doesn't stop talking. How do you control it? You're in the presentation and they start, you know, talking or asking questions. How do you limit their time, so everybody has a chance?
Jan 10:29
Well, I guess my opinion on that is that it would be very much the same as it, just if you were in a meeting. I mean, you've been in meetings where somebody hogs the floor, basically. So, it's really sort of up to the the host, and the host can, unfortunately, they would have to talk over the person to say, Let's open the floor to other questions, or something like that. So yeah, that's, I think that may just happen.
Pat 10:58
Yeah.
Betty 10:58
What would the host ever want to mute that person? Or would that be disrespectful?
Jan 11:03
Well, I think it depends on how disrespectful the person is being. But probably in a Sew Powerful setting, I can't imagine any of us being more than just too chatty. I can't imagine us just saying anything awful. So.
Betty 11:18
In this setting, I agree with you. My other question is, and I don't have the answer so that's why I'm asking the questions, is if I'm asked to make a presentation with a group, but I'm not the host, I would think that the host and the presenter or presenters would want to talk a little ahead of time about how to handle some of these situations. And of course, of the sharing the screen or those kinds of things, too. Would you recommend that, Jan?
Jan 11:48
Yeah. That, yeah, that's, that's a good idea. And I just was invited to give a speech to the American Association of University Women outside of Austin, Texas. And when I got the invitation, I thought I would be driving there. But we know that didn't happen. So, we just made arrangements. And you all were in a waiting room before you came in. And she just kept everyone else in the waiting room. She let me in right away. We had a 30-second talk about, you know, the logistics of the meeting. And then she let everybody else in. So, it worked out fine.
Betty 12:26
Yes, go ahead, Kathy.
Kathy 12:28
Sometimes it's nice to have a helper, kind of a, what do you call it, a moderator or something if, because if you're the the facilitator and someone is in the chat box, having a second person asked those questions or, you know, feed those comments into the conversation, because the person who, like you as the host, would find it difficult to do chat at the same time.
Jan 12:58
Well and you know, on Facebook, on Sew Powerful Live that Jason and Cinnamon do the last Monday of every month, I'm the moderator on Facebook and Torey Elwell is the moderator on YouTube. And so, we're watching all the comments. And then we're feeding certain comments to Jason to mention on air because it's too disconcerting to try and read the comments and be on air. So, I think that's a really good point.
Jan 13:28
And I don't know if you all are aware, but that you can chat with each other and the group. So again, Chris, I don't know how this works on the phone, so I'm so sorry. But if you hover your mouse over the bottom, you'll see some options, and one is Chat. And if you click on it, there's a place in the lower right hand corner where you can type type a comment, like Kathy just did. Be careful because the default is that the message goes to everyone. So, if I wanted to say, Can you believe Pat is wearing that pink sweater again? And I send it to everybody, then Pat would see that. So, and I don't recommend saying that. That's a lovely sweater, Pat.
Kathy 14:15
You can also do a direct message.
Jan 14:17
Right. So, I could just say to Kathy, can you believe Pat is wearing that pink sweater again?
Jan 14:29
Yeah, yeah. So, so chat is, chat is helpful, because it's also good, where you could say, you know, I couldn't hear that. I didn't understand that. And then, I mean, I like raising my hand in a Zoom meeting. I mean, you know, because it's, it's, I mean, I think sometimes it could get the attention of the presenter. If somebody is presenting and you need them to clarify or slow down, we just raise our hand and, you know, that's what happens. So.
Betty 15:00
It gets very complicated though, when you've got maybe 20 people or more with you.
Jan 15:04
It does.
Betty 15:04
So there's there's a group size issue that plays into how many, you know, extra features we want to use.
Jan 15:11
Well, that that's absolutely true. And typically, I think you can see, I think you can see 25 people at a time. And I'll just relay a real quick story. My husband and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary on September 7th at 2:30 in the afternoon, which was Labor Day, and we got married at 2:30 in the afternoon on Labor Day, originally. So, we were going to have, well, we were going to go to Europe, and then that all got canceled. So, we planned a Zoom party, and we invited 100 people. They were on Zoom, our pastor conducted the ceremony, we restated our vows. Everybody did toasts, we all talked to each other.
Jan 15:56
But I could only see 25 people at a time. I had to keep flipping my screen to see everybody. But it was, so that's my Zoom experience, my best Zoom experience. It was really fun. Some high school friends had recorded a song and I was able to play that and share that with everybody. So, Zoom can be really good. And Kathy, you listened to the podcast today, I know. And, you know, I tried to remember which of those ladies said this. It might have been Dolores who said, by being on Zoom, she's able to have one on one conversations and see people, and you see their names too. You know, that's the other, it's like everybody's wearing a name tag on Zoom, where they've gotten closer together because they have all these Zoom meetings. So anyway, that, the pluses and minuses.
Betty 16:48
Any other Zoom comments that anybody would like to make or tips or any questions about Zoom for this purpose? And we're talking through the tips. And I think we are just about ready to talk about the anatomy of a 30-second talk. I would like to add, that I hadn't written down, but the practice part is so important. And as I've practiced my speech for you tonight, as short and quick as it is, I found that I have done it many more times than I actually recommended. I'd recommended reading it out loud to yourself three or four times, reading it out loud and timing it, putting your timer on with your phone or whatever timer you have, reading it out loud in front of others three or four times.
Betty 17:34
But then the last part is you want to get to where you're off the page and memorized. And so that is our goal as we move forward with our 30-second talk.
Betty 17:44
The parts and pieces that make up a good 30-second talk are these: 1) introduce yourself, 2) make a quick connection with the audience or the person, 3) have a personal connection with the organization (Sew Powerful in this case), 4) and mention something about the mission, something that's appropriate to your relationship with this person. And then 5) include the ask or the call to action. So, I think everybody would be comfortable with the introducing yourself.
Betty 18:13
Have any of you struck up a conversation with someone about Sew Powerful that you just met at, in the JoAnn line or at a quilt shop or someplace else? Kathy is saying yes. Could you tell us a bit about that?
Kathy 18:32
Well, after she measured several pieces of fabric, she's like, so what are you gonna do with all of this? And then, you know, that led to the conversation of, I told her what it was and what it involves and say, oh, okay, and then I'm like, do you have a place that I could advertise? And well, we have a bulletin board in the back that, if you want to put up a poster. And I said, okay, thank you.
Betty 19:00
So it was a quick conversation.
Kathy 19:02
Well, yeah, cuz she she was counting so she couldn't, we couldn't carry on a conversation, you know, in between pieces, you know, kind of.
Betty 19:13
Anybody else have a quick short story about a time? Yeah, Laura.
Laura 19:17
The gal who is at the post office at the grocery store, who takes all my boxes and puts all the postage on, she asked what's in them because the last box I sent I mentioned that there were 27 purses inside the box. So, we had a little discussion about the mission and what the purses were going to be filled with. And then I gave her one of the little flyers and she seemed just real pleased with the idea that somebody was taking this on, but I don't think she sewed. So, the call to action was was lacking in my conversation.
Betty 19:50
That's an opportunity for us to address moving forward here. Anybody else?
Jan 19:53
Well, but you know. This is the thing. You never know who she's going to tell, I mean, it's like a pebble in a pond. You just, you just can't, can't predict what's going to happen. So.
Betty 20:08
I have a story. I was at JoAnn's and I go there quite often to fill up with my SF 101. And the lady at the counter who was measuring, I bought 20 yards because when you have a coupon, you're going to overbuy.
Jan 20:21
Right.
Betty 20:22
And that poor lady got flustered. She kept stopping and starting, and I think it took her four tries. And we did talk about sewing and purses and Zambia, and that kind of thing. But I didn't have a well-structured, rehearsed, little short 30 second, one minute thing in my pocket. And this program is going to help me have that next time I'm there. Anybody else have any stories of any thing that's happened recently? Nope.
Jan 20:47
Well, Pat, you... oh, Chris.
Betty 20:49
Chris.
Chris 20:50
Yeah, I was at a quilt shop in Northeast Iowa called Forest Mills and I was looking around, and I usually go for the remnant piles or the clearance section. And I was talking to a friend about my purses I make and the owners overheard me and she said, Well, I have some fabric back here I'll be glad to give you. Oh, she had a huge piece of fabric. And then when my friend went up to pick up her finished quilt, they sent down another huge piece of fabric. So, and it's great. It's flannel, but it's beautiful fabric. So that talk was worth, worth a couple pieces of good fabric, that's for sure.
Jan 21:36
How nice.
Betty 21:36
Sure was. Wow, that's exciting. I hope that happens to me someday. That would be fabulous.
Jan 21:43
Pat, I'm sure you've had experience with it.
Pat 21:45
I'm an introvert. So, it's hard for me to initiate a whole lot of conversation. Except at the quilt festival. They would come by the booth. I could start talking to them. I love your idea of wearing a purse. I think that's really great.
Betty 22:10
You don't seem like an introvert to me...you seem very personable...
Pat 22:13
I'm fine in small groups. I just don't do well in big crowds.
Betty 22:19
Okay. Well, hopefully some of the practice we're going to do here will help us gain a little confidence to.
Pat 22:25
That's the point.
Betty 22:25
The larger groups. I'm glad you're here to do that. Any questions at this point in time? Yes, Kathy.
Kathy 22:34
So when you asked that question, like if you meet someone at the at the cutting table, and they're asking about the project, and maybe your course will help resolve this. How do we determine how serious they are? I mean, are they just asking in passing? Or how do we present it so that it maybe inspires them to pursue it? So so what talk is that? The, you know, are they just being courteous and asking? Or do they really want to know more?
Betty 23:08
My opinion is I would start with your 30-second one that you're going to work on between now and two weeks from tonight, and gauge then the interest at that point. If they ask a question, or want to know more, then you can expand that to what you'll develop as your 60-second, to add more information about the mission and personal experiences. But I would start with that 30-second.
Betty 23:30
You're right, you want to gauge what the interest is. And to know if you can go on farther. Sometimes, are you the type of person, I don't know if you guys are like I am. And my kids always got mad at me. We're traveling, and I'll just strike up a conversation with anybody and about anything, whether it's the weather, the delayed plane, the lost luggage, whatever it is. And so I can start the conversation, but then I quickly try to figure out if it's worth pursuing further, or if we're done talking and I need to mind my own business at that point. Yeah, Pat, we you going to say something? Oh, Jan, you were going to say something?
Jan 24:04
Well, you know, it sounds like JoAnn's might be our common denominator here. But, you know, so the first time you're there, and you give them the 30-second speech, and then you come back, and they go, Oh, you're that purse lady. And then that sort of opens the door to tell them more. And, you know, whether they want it or not, maybe is, is I'm telling them because I've got a captive audience. They're having to stand there cutting my fabric, but and then other people around you hear it too.
Jan 24:38
So I mean, I think it is tricky and and I've heard this statistic, that people don't really engage or recognize until they've heard something seven times. So, the first time you tell somebody something, it may not resonate with them, no matter how eloquent you may say it. It might just be that they're not ready or it's just not registering. And I mean, that's why they play comer- the same commercial on TV over and over and over. And, I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've, I've watched a commercial, I'll go, Oh, look at those cute kids. And then at the end, it's like, well, what product? I mean, I don't even know what product they're selling. And then maybe the next time I'll watch it, and I'll get a little bit more out of it. And, you know, I think it could be the same here. So.
Betty 25:27
Okay. Any other questions or comments before we move on?
Betty 25:33
Okay, so the next segment is my giving you my 30-second speech, which is not on Sew Powerful, so I don't taint your future speech. But what I'd like you to do is to do me a favor, and we'll do this every time. I would like for you, when I'm done, or while I'm speaking, to add any comments you have about how I'm performing in the chat box and send those to Jan, so that I don't see them. And what Jan will do is then she will summarize those for me. And without telling me what Pat said or what Laura said, or what any of you said, she'll just give me the overall arching concepts of what everybody thought about how I did with my speech. And as we do that tonight, that will be the model for us moving forward, as each of us gives a speech next time. Everybody can make comments too. And at that point, it'll be to me as the coordinator, but for tonight, because I'm giving the speech, it will be to Jan so that then we can improve. And then we're not knowing exactly who said what.
Betty 26:38
So, and Pat, I do love that pink sweater. So. Okay, so if you're ready, I'm going to do my 30-second speech. Is there anybody who has a timer on their phone, who would like to time me to make sure I'm within the right timeframe? Ideally, it's about 25 to 35 seconds on this first one?
Kathy 27:00
Just a minute, Chris doesn't have a way to give feedback. Should she email her stuff to Jan after the meeting?
Betty 27:08
Great idea, if she doesn't mind. Chris, what do you think?
Chris 27:10
That's what I figured I do.
Kathy 27:12
Yeah. Okay.
Betty 27:14
Okay, so Jan'll wait to hear from you before she sends me along. And Jan, you're muted.
Jan 27:22
I was gonna say, if you would, mute your microphone, because that, when, we want that to be our practice that we'll all be muted while someone is giving their talks.
Betty 27:30
Good. Good point.
Betty 27:38
And Laura, if you'll start the timer, when I say Hi, my name is...
Laura 27:43
Okay.
Betty 27:44
Thank you.
Laura 27:44
Okay.
Betty 27:46
Hi, my name is Betty Johnson, and I'm a travel consultant with the local travel agency. It sounds like you enjoy traveling just as much as I do. My husband and I recently cruised to the Panama Canal. And last year, we rode trains through France, Italy, Germany, and Belgium. As a travel consultant, I've access to an array of vacation options, and I can help you plan your next spectacular trip. Here's my contact information, so feel free to call or email me when you're ready to think about traveling again.
Betty 28:20
You can go ahead and unmute yourselves.
Laura 28:23
32 seconds, very good.
Betty 28:25
Okay, I practiced 100 times, or at least 80 times, I really did. So if we think about that, and if you'd go ahead and write a few comments, and I'll just talk for a moment, I introduced myself at the start: Who I am, what I do. I tried to make that connection with travel with the person right off the bat, so there had to have been something that we knew about with travel. I talked about a personal experience. I told them the options that I have. And really, I inserted the mission of our travel agency in there, you didn't know that. But I did that: we provide, you know, spectacular, navigate, navigators of spectacular vacation experiences. So, I threw that in there. And then my call to action at the end was, here's my contact information, you can call and email when when you're ready.
Betty 29:12
Anybody have any comments you'd like to share with the group or any questions about that? It goes by like [snap] that. You think it's gonna take forever to get through your speech, and it's over before you even kind of can think you're even doing it. So that's where the practice comes in, the timing comes in, doing it in front of somebody and stumbling through it a few times comes in. It pays off. I can't tell you how many times I did it, but it pays off in the end. Jan?
Jan 29:44
And well, and one other thing from my experience when you have a timed speech, is sometimes you try and cram too much information in. And one of the things my speech coaches always said, there's two things you probably can never overdo in a speech. You can't speak too loudly, and you can't speak too slowly. You need to be able to speak at a pace people can understand. And if you have more information than that, you've got to take it out.
Betty 30:17
We're at the end of the agenda.
Jan 30:18
Thank you for listening to Session One, please tune in to Session Two.
Jan 30:40
If what you've heard today inspires you to want to make a difference, I urge you to explore the Sew Powerful website at www.sewpowerful.org. That's SEW POWERFUL dot ORG. The website has great information about the organization. It's where you can download the free purse patterns or even make a donation. We hope you will join us again next week when we bring you another Sew Powerful story. Thanks for listening. Now, go out and have a Sew Powerful day.
