Thread: Dexter Moscow Interview

NLP Presentations - Dexter Moscow

Presenting - Discussion between Michael Beale and Dexter Moscow, December 2007.

Dexter Moscow does what he loves best - training others to get their message across with power and impact whether in front of a camera or in front of an audience of 1 or many.



(please allow up to to 2 minutes for the MP3 file to dowload if you want listen to the discussion)

http://www.nlp-expert.co.uk/presenting/dexter.mp3



Michael : Good afternoon Dexter.

Dexter : Hello Michael, how are you doing?

Michael : Very well, very well.

Michael : Firstly let me say that I'm very grateful that you've agreed to take part in this podcast, I've heard some really good things about you and I'm very much looking forward to what you have to say. For the audiences benefit, can you introduce yourself a little bit and say just a little bit about what you do.

Dexter : Yes. As you said, my name is Dexter Moscow, and I always say, that is my real name, not my stage name - because people don't believe it. My company is AudienceDynamics and typically what I do is work with individuals who may be very technically good at what they do, but they find it difficult or challenging, getting their message across to other, and to really amuse and entertain people with power and impact, whether it be corporate or individuals.

I suppose I help them present in the best possible way.

Michael : Ok, leading on from that. What do you feel makes a good presentation?

Dexter : A really good presentation is really like any good story. It should have a beginning a middle and an end. It should be impactful and I suppose open with a really strong message.

Michael : Right.

Dexter : And a strong indication of who that person is, and to end with a call to action if that's what's required.

Michael : Ok.. If you were going to teach me or somebody else how to present well, what are some of the key things that you'd get them to do?*

Dexter : The first thing that I would do because we're led to believe that public speaking is one of the most fearful things that we will do in our lives. So I would lend from your experience, and I would ask people to visualise the positive outcome of this presentation and see people in their mind applauding and congratulating them on a fantastic presentation, and saying what a wonderful message!

We need to go and do something! So not just about presenting, but really making it impactful, making people take action so that's the first thing I would do, if fear is an issue.
Then I would suggest that they really plan, and rehearse begin to think about what they need to say and the message that they need to convey.

Michael : And what after that, they're in a good state and they know they have to plan - what else do you think is important? *

Dexter : Well, it's a bit of self advertising here, but because of my years of experience working in television and also pitching people business as well I've developed what I call the seven keys to perfect communication and the perfect element is an acronym that when you have those seven keys you will be successful, and I can explain that a little bit more if you wish to.

Michael : Yes, please do.

Dexter : Perfect, as I say is an acronym that stands for the key elements that I believe a presentation should contain. I'll just run through them very briefly for you.
P stands for Personal Impact, so that means what will we look like and how we sound when we first stand up.

The second element, the first E, if you like, is Emotional Connection, when we make an emotional connection with people, we show who we are, we tell stories about ourselves then that really creates a connection with you and your audience, whoever that audience might be.

Then the R is the Right to Talk, really what we've done in our lives will give us a right to talk in our subjects, or to motivate, or to explain to somebody that what we do is what we believe is right.

The F stands for Facts. Because after initially we've made that connection with somebody, we have to give them the facts, we have to tell them what we've succeeded at, the bottom line figures if you like. If we're in a business environment, what we've achieved in terms of percentage, various elements like that.

The next E is an Encapsulation of what we do. We live in a sound-byte society, so people don't want lots of information thrust at them. They want it packaged. So if you can encapsulate what you do in key phrases, we see it all the time, Nike has Just do It, Finger Licking Good we see it all the time Or Coke The Real Thing when we encapsulate a message, and if we can make an emotional connection with that message as well, then that can be really effective.

The next element of perfect is C, standing for Credibility. That could be testimonials, that could again be relating facts, but in a much more personal way. So our own personal credibility.

And the last element of perfect T, which is The Company, our company, what we've achieved, and the companies that we've worked with, and the people that we've worked with.
So once a presentation has got those elements incorporated into it and on tv we have to convey all of that in just under thirty seconds if you can encapsulate and incorporate all of those elements, that it a perfect presentation.

Michael : And say now that somebody has just finished a presentation, and has just come to the end how would you suggest that they reviewed their performance? What things at do the end do you think they should look at to really see if they've done a good job our not?

Dexter : Right there is a number of ways to do this. The first, and I do this myself is, especially with a front-of-the-room presentation, I will create a feedback form and distribute it to the audience to find out how well I did.

And I would then walk amongst the audience, and ask did you enjoy it? and what is the thing that you got most from it? and find how effective that has been, and ask them, don't just give me platitudes, really tell me what you think. How effective was I? When I do QVC I know immediately whether I've been effective I will see how many items have been sold, and that's a real monitor. I will also look at my tape, to see how well I did, and ask people to review it with me, and tell them again please be absolutely honest what did you think of the presentation?

Michael : You've talked about feedback forms What do you think is the most important question or the most important couple of questions that you could put on a feedback form to get useful information back?

Dexter : Right two key points here. One is, not what did you think of the presentation? but what did you get out of the presentation? If it's an instructional presentation, then I would ask What would you be able to use immediately? *

Michael : Oh ok, I like that, I like that.

Dexter : Because that's a real defining element. It isn't about how well I did, but how well I did for you. That's what people really get out of it. One of my companies called Audience Dynamics, I believe I know what my message is, but I also have to understand what the message is that my audience wants.

Michael : Ok. And that really leads onto my next question, what happened in order for you to become good at presentations?

Dexter : I think it's what we just said. I ask people to be perfectly honest about how I came across. And they understood what I was saying to them, and if indeed, whether that is good for them. And experience. The more you do, the more you understand what works and what doesn't work. So that's really what happened with me.

Michael : When you present, what beliefs do you have about yourself? It could be about your identity, your behaviour, your skills. What do you actually belief about yourself when you present?

Dexter : You've asked some very searching, very in depth questions, and belief is essential. You have to belief that the message it is that you have will be beneficial to somebody. I always say it's like this, You literally need to put yourself in their shoes. Because when you understand what they need, when you understand that if they don't get their concerns and questions answered within the presentation, and it can be a business pitch as well, then that is where they stay inside their heads.

The question remains unanswered and they tend not to listen to the rest of the presentation. So I spend a lot of time knowing who my audience is, and trying as best as I possibly can to match their needs so my belief is that it's going to be great and very beneficial for them.

Michael : What sort of things do you believe about your audience? *

Dexter : I believe that my audience are questioning, so whether this is a QVC viewer, a corporate or business pitching situation, I believe that they are viewing me with some element of scepticism. So I need to make that personal connection so that they actually come with me, and at least listen to me, and what I'm saying.

Michael : An who are you when you present? Do you have a particular mission? Who is Dexter when you're up there on stage?*

Dexter : I believe that I'm the same person. Whether I'm at the front of the room in the tv studio or the way I'm talking to you now I hope there's no difference. I'll slightly moderate that on television we have to be slightly bigger than we are, and be slightly more animated perhaps a little more passion than we would give on the face of a situation but essentially we should be exactly the same person in all of those modalities.

Michael : Ok and just to finish off I'm going to ask you for your contact details in a minute but is there anything that you think it's worth saying to out listeners, about presentations that maybe we haven't covered yet. *

Dexter : Yes. I think that the key here is preparation. And again it's self advertising, but I think that go to my website, we'll give the details here in a second and download the Seven Keys to Perfect Communication it is there, and it's a very simple framework to follow.

And I think after we've done that framework, we know what our presentation looks like, what the content is be passionate about what you do you know better than I do that the key to success is 93% of what we do is none verbal communication. It is our body language, it is our voice tonality, but after that it is the voice that we use and it is the tonality in which we speak.

So to get people to buy into us, to have total credibility, we must be passionate, we must have absolute belief in what we're talking about.

Michael : Ok, and if you could give your contact details.*

Dexter : My company is audience dynamics. My email address for me personally is dexter@audiencedynamics.co.uk and website is www.audiencedynamics.co.uk

Michael : Excellent. Thank you very much for your time.

Dexter : Pleasure, great to speak to you Michael.

Copyright PPI Business NLP 2007