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Want to learn how to create training videos guerilla style?
I’ve been asked to lead the chapter meeting for my beloved American Society for Training and Development. Join us for this interactive session taken from real-life business experiences on how to use video as a compelling tool for training and telling impactful “teaching stories.” Let’s transform this training request into a training video!
Takeaways include sample videos that went from conception to roll out in under 10 days and tips that make training videos go viral.
PARTICIPANTS WILL LEARN:
• To use stories to create teaching moments
• To find creative allies within your organization for video collaboration
• To use a flip camera and simple editing software to complete a video
ABOUT OUR PRESENTER:
Jean is a professional speaker with eleven years of training and coaching experience. She
has presented in six countries for up to three hundred people. As a consultant, her latest
career adventure is as the Training Manager at YogaWorks where she is the go-to person for
video. She regularly writes, casts, location scouts, directs and edits training videos on the
fly.Jean received her B.A. with cum laude honors at UCLA in Communications and Business
Administration. She completed the Train the Trainer course with ASTD-LA and served on
the Board for two years. As a performing artist, she studied at the renowned Neighborhood
Playhouse School of Theater in New York. She has performed in theater, television, voice-
over and film. -
Okay gentle blog readers. If you are like me, you have embraced blogging but not tweeting. Today I gave a presentation for ASTD-LA where tweeting became an intregral and interesting part. I will share it with you now so that together we can embrace this new tool.
Colleague and fellow Board member, Terrence Wing, tweeted as a way to take notes. Basically, he was sharing his notes with all of his Twitter followers. And there were intelligent learning professionals out there who began to comment (tweet) in real time about the content of my presentation.
Cristie Mullins from Evanston, Illinois virtually “joined us” and so did Donna Bailey from Salt Lake City. The training began at 8:10am this morning. What follows is a portion of the Tweet Transcript.
TWEET TRANSCRIPT
RUNNING A TIGHT SHIP: KEEPING YOUR TRAIINING FRIENDLY AND FOCUSED
Facilitweeter: Terrence Wing (@TerrenceWing and @liquidlearn) www.liquidlearn.com
8:35:08 am TerrenceWing: Semper gumby; Always be flexible – @jeanfranzblau at morning session on training tips #astdla
8:37:07 am TerrenceWing: Tip – set the mood in the beginning of training @jeanfranzblau #astdla
8:38:40 am TerrenceWing: 6 second rule – the trainer has 6 seconds to greet learner b4 opinions set in @jeanfranzblau #astdla
8:42:39 am TerrenceWing: Tip: Adult learning: break every hour. YES!! @jeanfranzblau #astdla
8:46:07 am TerrenceWing: Tip: set the rules and expectations early. Let learner contribute by setting rules too @jeanfranzblau #astdla
8:57:11 am cdmullins: RT @TerrenceWing: Tip “Adult learning: break every hour. “#astdla - how many of you have tried this? My audiences prefer 2 hours
8:58:35 am dmccraine: RT @cdmullins: RT @TerrenceWing: Tip “Adult learning: break every hour. “#astdla - 70-90 mins is my rule-of-thumb, or the glazed eyes!
8:58:43 am cdmullins: RT @TerrenceWing: 6 seconds to greet learner b4 opinions set in #astdla - Tips about greetings? Diff btwn friendly / overbearing?
9:00:01 am cdmullins: RT @TerrenceWing: Tip – set the mood in the begining of training @jeanfranzblau #astdla ”How should we do this?”
Thanks, Terrance. You were a terrific facilitweeter!
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A client asked me to deliver a series of seminars from 5pm-9pm on Monday evenings. I’m a morning person so I knew this time frame could pose a challenge. I felt out of sorts and sometimes lost my train of thought. I was finding it hard to maintain momentum.
One evening I was feeling hopelessly lethargic. I wasn’t inspiring myself much less the group. I felt demoralized on the long drive home that night. Was anyone getting anything out of this?
The upcoming topic was stress relief. As I reviewed the material I had prepared, I got a happy feeling of anticipation. This was going to be good.
And it was – the group was interested and I was at my best. I know I made an impact by the depth of the group discussions and the smiles of acknowledgment. One participant emailed me the next day to find out what else I might be teaching.
The lesson I learned is that sometimes I must keep plugging away. Struggle can turn into ease in time. I also can pay attention to the topics that really light me up. Self care and stress relief are important to me and it showed. These are the avenues for me to keep following.
What topics really light you up?
Light your own fire.
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I just got back from Australia this morning. This was my fourth and best business trip Down Under. Below is my group of “delegates” (their word for attendees) in Brisbane.
Brisbane is pronounced “Briz-bin.” With each trip I learn a little bit more how Australians speak differently than Yanks. You’ve heard of tossing shrimp on the barby, yes? I realize now that barby is just the beginning. I call the Aussie nicknaming of common nouns an “adorable-ism.” Here are some recent discoveries:
Tennis shoes…Tennies
Rockhampton (a city)…Rocky
Sunglasses…Sunnies
Here are a few more for you to adorable-ize. Let’s see how you do:
- Drink
- Woolworth’s (a supermarket chain)
- Magnetic Island (an island close to the city of Townsville)
This is Magnetic Island (okay, Maggie!)
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I had an attitude about Rockhampton. I’d been here once before and remembered it as a boring town.
On the elevator up to my room, a lady described a show she just saw and loved – Menopause the Musical. That was unexpected. The show was playing this weekend only and was fully booked. Another lady who worked at the hotel overheard our discussion. She tracked me down later to say it felt like it was meant to be: some hotel guests had extra tickets. Did I want one? Well, where was the theater, I asked. It was a block away.
This is how I found myself among hundreds of woman on a Saturday night. I was sitting in the best seats that I’ve ever had for a big show. One of the actresses had such delicious Lucille Ball physical comic ability that she had the audience screaming with delight. I felt in the middle of a local cultural happening.
And now I get to revise my opinion of Rockhampton.
Lucky me!
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I was frustrated with myself. For the past few days I’ve experienced a series of consequences of my not looking closer at my itinerary before this trip. Today is Saturday. I planned to see Magnetic Island in lovely Townsville. I double checked when I would be flying out on Sunday and realized that I’m not flying out on Sunday. I’m scheduled to leave in an hour.
I can be flexible; I pack and am ready to leave. Now on the way to the airport, the sheer silliness of my day becomes clear. I’m to take two flights traveling most of the day even though a flight to where I am going ought to take an hour. And I’m flying from somewhere nice to somewhere more remote with not much to look at or do. A whole day earlier than necessary. And so I was in a funk.
First, I made a series of calls to my girlfriends in LA. I needed to vent about my quality problems. Thanks Mandy, Laura, Tamara and Karen – I’m so lucky I could reach out to each of you!
Next, relying on the kindness of Qantas strangers, the helpful check-in ladies strategized for me how to make my day better. I would take a later flight (they would waive the fee) and take a taxi to the beautiful Townsville Rock Pool. With my bathing suit tucked away in my backpack, I was there in 10 minutes. I swam, swung on a swing set and took advantage of a cable zip pull thing intended for kids, but what the heck. There was a Dalmation barking incessantly nearby while I was swimming. He was leashed to a tree and clearly wanted attention or play. I felt bad for him.
His master set him free just as I was starting a short run on the beach. I watched him bound with joy in the sand, stretching his legs and using his muscles in pure pleasure. I ran along the shore as he did and his presence encouraged me to go faster and further than I normally would.
He easily loped in front of me. At a turning around point, I cheated and got a head start on him while he was sniffing at some rocks. Within seconds he passed me and at this point, seemed to adopt me as a friend. We were getting eye contact as we ran along. I would slow down and speed up to see what he would do. Eventually a large lady in a red bathing suit caught his attention and he adopted a new friend. It was time for me to wash up and taxi back to the airport – in much better spirits.
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At 7:00am, my prayers will either be answered or not. This is when I will find out if the assistant assigned to help me with my seminar has experience. I’m expecting over seventy people to attend today and guiding a newbie makes double work for me.
“Hello, Jean. My name is Kate. I’ll be assisting you to…oh! I think we’ve already met.”
Yes indeed, Kate was very memorable. Six months ago when I was last in Perth, she was assigned to me. It was her first day on the job. She was eager to help, did the best she could and (here’s the memorable part) was exquisitely beautiful and inappropriately dressed.
This time Kate was more experienced at the job. The other two qualities remained the same. Kate arrived to work in a little black dress with lots of cleavage, red lipstick and tall high heel boots. Her makeup was flawless; I could tell she spent a lot of time to look as she did – like she was on her way to a nightclub rather than to register participants for a business seminar.
She was careful about her work and took pains to do a great job. We were wrapping up our day. I was reading customer evaluations and one attendee remarked about Kate’s attire. Here was my dilemma: was it my place to make a suggestion. I was her manager, but only for the day. Was it worth the awkwardness?
Then it occurred to me, Kate is new to the workplace. Could it be that she doesn’t know? If that’s the case, it would be a gift to her to receive some feedback. I took the risk and spoke to her about it. Here is what I learned:
First, that Kate was 17 years old. Second, that she has financial stresses, limited clothing options, and that she chose to wear “the classiest clothes” that she owned.
Kate’s choices were an attempt to honor the job she was hired to do. The result was not what she intended. I felt protective of her and sad, too.
Kate’s evening plans were to head to a favorite pub for a beer. Mine were to read in my hotel room, brood a bit, and blog.
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Groggy from the flight that spanned the globe, I was on line to give my luggage away for yet another journey that would stretch from the east coast all the way to the west. I opened my backpack to get out my passport and heard a clatter. My blue mouth guard container bounced to the floor. I easily retrieved the container, but I couldn’t find the mouth guard itself.
A mouth guard (for the uninitiated) is the thing that prevents me from grinding my teeth at night. For our purposes you should know that it’s clear, plastic and expensive. Imagine a river of grey and white speckled flooring and Jean with very tired eyes looking, looking, looking and not finding.
What to do? I can’t stand there forever. There was a long queue (Aussie for “line”) of people with their luggage; I enlisted some help with a general announcement. Now I didn’t feel so alone with my problem. It was helpful to see so many people looking downward with me. Still nothing.
I had a five hour layover, maybe I would spend it right here on this line. $100 for every hour is about how much this mouth guard costs. I stepped out of line for a different perspective. “What are you looking for?” said one lady. As I answered I stepped back and felt something under foot. Luckily that thing didn’t break.
“Yes!” I shouted, both arms shooting up like an American football player after a touchdown. I would have kissed it if it weren’t just on the ground and moments before under my shoe.
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Gifts get dropped in my lap.
My client, SkillPath, asked me to give a seminar for the Pine Mountain Lake Association in Groveland, California near Yosemite. I’m a city girl with a heart for the mountains, so I was essentially paid to be in paradise.
I was put up in a bed and breakfast that’s a historical landmark. It’s right next to the oldest saloon in California. As I checked in, I saw information about a room that’s apparently haunted by a ghost named “Lyle.” I wanted to meet Lyle. I didn’t feel at all scared about it. I was able to get that room.
Lyle allegedly turns on and off faucets and the TV. Here’s one guest’s story:
Lyle’s most consistent trick is that he removes ladies cosmetics from “his bureau” and puts them in places like under a chair. I was encouraged by a local to put all my cosmetics there just to see what would happen. I felt like that would be rude so I abstained from testing out the ghost’s ire.
Lyle's bureau
The room was a pleasure to be in. I felt and experienced nothing odd except that I didn’t sleep well. But I will attribute that to the baby back barbeque ribs I had for dinner. Mmm good and totally worth it!
Taking time to smell the dandelions
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I’d like to offer a new tip for the road warriors among us. When living in a hotel room, it’s easy to miss the comforts of home. Even something as simple as bathroom air freshener might seem a luxury.
A friend from my women’s group introduced me to a product that eliminates bathroom odor before it even gets started. It’s called “Just a Drop.” You drip a drop into the lieu before you have a seat. The result is zero bathroom odor. And it comes in a tiny bottle that fits right into your TSA zip-lock bag.
I ordered one for home and one for the road. Not that bathroom odor is an issue for me. I’m a very dainty person.
