Google on Innovation by Ben A. Ratje

Every wondered how they innovate at google?

One of the world's most innovative companies
sharing its ways and ideas in this video. Have a
look at what google CIO Douglas Merrill has to
say:



Usually one of the major keys to create an innovative
culture is to have a FUN office environment.

Have a look at the new google office in Zurich:



What can YOU do to become more innovative and
create a more innovative environment?

Get excited,

Ben

www.influence7.com

Master Marketer Seth Godin by Ben A. Ratje

Marketing matters!

Having worked myself in marketing, sales
and partially advertising, I can say with
certainty: It's an absolute MUST for your
success!!!

Without proper marketing your products or
services will be a success and neither will
you.

Especially if you have your own business (or
want it someday in the future) marketing is
the one area you will not be able to delegate
for the most part.

The question is just who do you learn from
about marketing?

Even though I've read lots of books and taken
lots of workshops on the topics, there are only
a few people I will listen to (because many of
them I believe simply aren't good enough).

One of the few people I recommend to learn
from about marketing is Seth Godin.

(BTW, when I say learn from I'm talking to
young and old. I don't think you can be too
old or too young to continue learning about
marketing)

His blog is the most famous marketing blog
(a marketer who makes his own blog No. 1,
how is that for credibility) on the planet full
of great tips.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Besides being a great marketer, Seth is also
a pretty strong presenter.

Have a look at a presentation he gave at TED
and another one he gave at GOOGLE:





Get excited,

Ben

www.influence7.com

P.S. My favorite book from Seth currently is
"All Marketers Are Liars"

Too Many Presentation Are a Waste of Time! by Ben A. Ratje

Most presentations are nothing but a chit-chat.

Sad…but true!

After most presentations, no audience takes action.

Imagine after Obama’s presentations no one voted for him.

Imagine after JFK’s moon speech no one did anything.
(Armstrong wouldn’t have his big moment)

Imagine after Steve Jobs giving one of his product presentations

no one goes out and buys the next iPod or Mac.

It would have been a waste of their and their audience’s time.

EVERY presentation needs to lead to some sort of ACTION.

One way to do so is to simply tell your audience at the end of

your presentation SPECIFICALLY what they should do.

If you want to take it one step further, you can ask your audience

to write those action steps down. Another way is to give them

printous with the action steps you want them to take.

Get your audience to take action after your presentation –

WHATEVER IT TAKES! (...make it worth their while and yours!)

Get excited,

Ben

www.influence7.com

The Lazy Way to Presentation Slides! by Ben A. Ratje

Have you heard of www.slideshare.net yet?

It’s a website that gives you the opportunity to share

and find (yes, also download) slides.

SlideShare currently has 8 million members, so it’s a

good opportunity to find LOTS of slides, or share your

slide with LOTS of people.

Just for your protection: Many of the slides on there

sadly are old-school and out-of-fashion.

A few though are very nice and good to use. Here is

one example (it's not the best but it's pretty good):

http://www.slideshare.net/darmano/thinking-visually-presentation

I recommend you first learn about proper slide design

from either the book ‘Presentation Zen’ by Garr Reynolds

or my book ‘Presentation Latte’.

Either one will give you an understanding of looking for

‘proper’ slides.

Happy slidesharing!

Get excited,

Ben

www.influence7.com

Presentation Zen by Ben A. Ratje

Do you know the No. 1 Presentation blog in the world?

(no, it’s not this one…at least not yet… ;-))

If you are really into presentation, chances are you

probably heard about it:

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds, who is also the

author of the bestselling book with the same title.

http://www.presentationzen.com/

Garr’s blog is focusing more on presentation slide

design, and also offers lots of other great information

about presentation. I strongly recommend you read

his blog and read his book!

The funny thing is too, that Garr is kind of my neighbor.

When I first heard about the blog, I thought “Zen???”,

just to figure out a few minutes later that he actually

lives in Japan (which is not too far away from Korea

where I live in case you didn’t know).

So, I’m sure I will meet him someday in Japan.

He seems like a really great guy and from his blog and

his book I can tell we share more than just our passion for

presentation.

Also, have a look at the presentation Garr gave to

google. I’m sure you can learn a lot from it:

P.S. Which successful people will YOU meet this year?

Get excited,

Ben

www.influence7.com