by Hugh McAllister for Glen Oaks Escrow

Miss DD The Disco DJ is ready to face the competition…I can hear the Bee Gees now: ”Staying alive, staying alive…”

I’ve never thought much about the design of a bra.  That is a decidedly male perspective on undergarments.  From what I have observed they are uniquely suited to their intended purposes and since I don’t wear them, I never thought much about them.  Not surprisingly, women pay more attention to them.   Each year, for 6 years, Glen Oaks Escrow’s team (notably a primarily female population) has given a lot of thought to bra design, but for a reason far more egalitarian than a concern for personal comfort.  Bra design is one of the annual fundraising activities, sponsored by “Soroptimist International Of Glendale”, a philanthropic organization of professional women that contributes time and financial support to community programs that benefit women and girls.  The “Bras For A Cause” program is specifically designated to aid in the diagnosis of breast cancer, in both men and women, and to support victims of the disease.  A $100 entry fee puts organizations in the game. 

Bras designed by the entrants are judged and awarded rankings based on a set of predetermined criteria.  These rankings help establish market value and then, in a silent auction they are sold to the highest bidder. Proceeds from the sale go directly to the continuing programs.

This year the Glen Oaks Escrow lead designer is Julie Macias.  Her task has been to design a bra around the theme:  “Bras For A Cause Go To Work.”  The result is here in the pictures:  “Miss DD The Disco DJ!”  A dash of ‘70’s glitter mixed with function and form defines this year’s submission. 

We’re glad to be a proud sponsor of the 2009 “Bras For A Cause” and equally proud of our designer, Julie Macias, creator of the GOE 2009 Bra for a Cause entry. 

Almost anyone can get up and talk in front of a group.  They are, in a word, competitive presenters.  In other words, they are no worse than anyone else!  The question is:  Is that good enough for you.  If not, take the lead from Glen Oaks Escrow.  Study the skills that will make you the best.  Learn strategy and tactics.  Integrate the 4 principles of powerful presentations.  Practice so that your delivery is as polished as your message.     Remember that you have a message that’s worth sharing and share it in a way that adds value to the audience.  As you begin each presentation, ask yourself these questions:

Ø   Who is my audience?  What is the most effective way to present the message?

Ø   What strategic style will work best, deductive or inductive?

Ø   How shall I grab attention right out of the gate? (“Ho-hum Crasher”)

Ø   Why should the audience care? (“‘Why Bring That Up”)

Ø   What are the key points (in ranked order) I need to communicate (“For Instances”)

Ø   What do I want the audience to do?  (“So What”)

Ø   Will visual aids help communicate the message?

If visual aids are appropriate, what kind?  If you use slides, make sure to design them with impact in mind.  Ask yourself if you have achieved these objectives

Ø   Are they clear?

Ø   Are they concise

Ø   Are they Graphically powerful/uncluttered?

Ø   Have I used images effectively?

When you prepare to deliver the presentation do you…

Ø   Know where to stand and how to use visual aids you may be planning?

Ø   Have gestures choreographed?

Ø   Know what questions will come and how you will answer them?

When you are done you will be ready to do more than get up and talk to a group.  You’ll have prepared to become excellent, not just competitive!

For more information contact Hugh McAllister, Director of Training at Glen Oaks Escrow.  He can be reached by phone at 818-459-1202 or by e-mail at hmcallister@glenoaksescrow.com

Whenever you hear the term “PowerPointÔ Presentation” it’s time to cringe!   That’s the viewpoint of Glen Oaks Escrow’s training director, Hugh McAllister.  According to McAllister, ‘that’s no reflection on the PowerPointÔ program.  It’s quite good, actually.  It’s a reflection on the assumptions about the act of presenting, assumptions that seem to say the presenter is secondary, a support to the software and hardware used for visual aids.”

Let’s set the record straight:  Whenever a human being is the presenter, every tool at his/her disposal is secondary.  Approach it that way and the power of the software, any software, is ready to be harnessed.  In reality PowerPointÔ is so often used that it is a part of almost every presentation.  Here are some tips for using it well:

Ø        Use images whenever practical.  Remember that saying about a picture and 1,000 words.

Ø        Design slides using 2 rules:

§        Rule of Thirds

Place the points of interest (when using images) at the intersection of 3 lines that divide the slide into 3 sections.  This increases the visual impact.

§        Rule of the Inverted “S”

Arrange slide content (when using words) along an inverted “S”.  The dead spaces can be found away from the line of the “S”.

Ø        Keep colors to a minimum.  Do not design slides to look like a bowl of Fruit loopsÔ

Ø        Use strong colors for word slides (dark backgrounds & bright text colors)

Ø        Keep words to a minimum (9 lines, 5 words per line (+/-)

Ø        Use upper & lower cases.  The eye reads these more easily than all upper case

Ø        Consider visuals other than slides (objects, mounted photos, costumes for instance)

Always remember, visual aids are there to assist you, the presenter. That is why they are called “aids “.  Never allow yourself to be overshadowed by them!   You are primary and they are secondary.

So far in the Glen Oaks Escrow series of postings on presentation skills we’ve outlined a flow, indeed a rhythm that good presentations follow.  You’ve seen how we grab attention (the “Ho-hum Crasher”), how we focus on the audience (“Why Bring That Up”) and how we develop the body (“For Instances”) using the inverted pyramid tool to ensure we deliver the optimum content in a way that engages everyone.

In the last discussions you saw how ending with the “For Instances” leaves a question that, if unanswered, could derail the presentation and take it from great to mediocre; certainly not a goal to which we aspire!  Here’s the secret of ending a great presentation in a way your audience won’t forget:

Just as you grab attention with the “Ho-hum Crasher” and follow it immediately with an explanation of why the audience should care (‘Why Bring That Up”), the “For Instances” must be followed by a call to action, something you want done.  We use the term “So What” to describe this pivotal part of the presentation.  Re-read the posting that describes the body of the presentation, the “For Instances”, and you’ll see how they can leave the audience cold if they are not put into a context.  If your presentation is for sales this is called the close.  Ask for the order.  If you are giving advice, as was the case in our example, tell the audience to follow it.  Here’s our example brought through the “So What” stage…

Ho-hum Crasher:  “Time is money!”

WBTU:  This is important to each & every one of us here today because your clients, like Glen Oaks Escrow’s clients, live and die by closings… 100% correct …100% on time.  If you want clients for life, close on time!

Everyone wants clients for life.  Here is where you can present the things the people in the audience need to do to assure their clients stay with them.  Each point can be expanded to fill the allotted time:

For Instance:  Here is what you need to do…

Ø   Communicate with the client.  Let them know where they stand

Ø   Follow a consistent process that always delivers on time service

Ø   Treat your clients like old friends

So What:  If you’re like us, you want clients for life.  If you communicate effectively; if you use a proven & consistent process and if you treat all of your clients as old friends, you’ll be well on your way, s Glen Oaks escrow is, to having client loyalty that can (and will) last a lifetime!

Make sure the audience is led to the conclusion you want.  Without a “So What” this may not happen and the power of your entire presentation is in jeopardy.   Can you afford to have that happen?

For more information contact Hugh McAllister, Director of training at Glen Oaks Escrow.  He can be reached by phone at 818-459-1202 or by e-mail at hmcallister@glenoaksescrow.com

There is a rhythm to every presentation.  That’s true for Glen Oaks Escrow professionals and it’s equally true for you!   A powerful presentation, as you’ve begun to see in previous postings, grabs attention (the Ho-hum Crasher), focuses it on why each person in the audience should care (Why Bring That Up) and, as you’ll see, builds a case in the body of the presentation (the “For Instances”) that supports the Why Bring That Up! 

In the “For Instances” you’ll have the opportunity to prove your point (or points).  This is the body of the presentation and it deserves a great deal of attention.  You make your case and you set yourself up as an expert.  You tell stories, present data and prepare the audience to say yes to what you will ultimately call on them to do.  Here is a tip for building your “For Instances” that will really come in handy!

Organize the information in ranked order of importance, from the most important to the least important point.   It’s called the inverted pyramid. 

Most important idea at the top of the inverted pyramid.

Least important idea at the very bottom of the inverted pyramid

 You can make your presentation as long or as short as you need it, simply by following this simple approach.  Whether you have 10 minutes or 60 minutes, the inverted pyramid approach virtually guarantees you can deliver the content with power and authority.  You’ll no longer be apologizing for not having enough time or for running over the time you’ve been given!  

Go back again to our example…

Ho-hum Crasher:  “Time is money!”

WBTU:  This is important to each & every escrow officer because your clients live and die by closings… 100% correct …100% on time.  If you want clients for life, close on time!

Everyone wants clients for life.  Here is where you can present the things the people in the audience need to do to assure their clients stay with them.  Each point can be expanded to fill the allotted time:

For Instance:  Here is what you need to do…

Ø   Communicate with the client.  Let them know where they stand

Ø   Follow a consistent process that always delivers on time service

Ø   Treat your clients like old friends

 At this point in you r presentation you have done three important things:

Ø   Grabbed attention

Ø   Focused it on an audience concern:  Client Loyalty

Ø   Described the things to do to assure you get it

What if you ended there?  You have one last question in your mind:  So What?  That will be the topic of the next post in this series!

For more information contact Hugh McAllister, Director of training at Glen Oaks Escrow.  He can be reached by phone at 818-459-1202 or by e-mail at hmcallister@glenoaksescrow.com

If you’ve been following this series, you have already learned how the Glen Oaks Escrow sales team has been learning to create powerful presentations using strategy and 4 simple, core principles.  The first principle, the “Ho-hum Crasher” teaches that it’s important to grab listener attention in the first statement, the first action the presenter shares.  Words, props and even costumes are all tools at the presenter’s disposal.  Wise choices will lead to powerful presentations! 

Once attention is on the presenter, it must be focused.  The question now on the mind of everyone in the audience is this:  Why is this important to me?  Why did the presenter bring that up?  The next principle is easy.  Give the customers (in this case the people in the audience) what they want.  In the second statement leave no question why this is important.  According to instructor Hugh McAllister, “this is where presentations often fail.  Presenters tell the audience what they are going to say, but do not sufficiently communicate why it matters to the audience.”  In the Glen Oaks Escrow Power Presentations course the participants (Deborah Boykin, Fred Razon, Jan Whishaw, Jeff Russell, Jim Kurowski, Roubina Der Sarkissian, Shelley Valencia & Yvonne Garcia) have learned that the reason the presentation are important to the audience must be stated, explicitly, immediately after the “Ho-hum Crasher.”  There must be no doubt in the mind of anyone hearing the presentation that the information is important and why it is important.  Key phrases can be used to make sure there is clarity:

Ø   The reason I’m telling you this is…

Ø   This is important to everyone in this room because…

Ø   You need to know this because…

Go back to one of the examples we used in our previous posting describing the “Ho-hum Crasher.”   Add a WBTU (Why bring That Up)…

Ø      Presenting to escrow officers the importance of closing on time:

Ho-hum Crasher:  “Time is money!”

WBTU:  This is important to each & every escrow officer because your clients live and die by closings… 100% correct …100% on time.  If you want clients for life, close on time!

The Ho-hum Crasher, as you see, set the stage for the body of the presentation, the “For Instances.”  We’ll cover the body of the presentation in the next posting!

For more information contact Hugh McAllister, Director of Training at Glen Oaks Escrow.  He can be reached by phone at 818-459-1202 or by e-mail at hmcallister@glenoaksescrow.com

Neutral may be the best way to describe an audience just before you begin your presentation.  It’s up to you to create the “first impression.”  You need to create an interest in you, the presenter, with the first statement you make or the first thing you do.  Crash through the ho-hum attitude that the audience has at the start and engage everyone to whom you’re about to speak.  Carpe diem (Seize the Day) as the Romans would say.

The term we use at Glen Oaks Escrow for the statement that seizes the day, is the “Ho-hum Crasher.”  It breaks through the neutral feeling the audience has and creates engagement.  Everyone is listening for the next words, the next idea.  Here are some tips to remember when crafting your “Ho-hum Crasher.”  It needs to be..

Ø      Appropriate for the audience

Ø      Ethical/Moral

Ø      Legal

Above all, remember that the Ho-hum Crasher must capture the attention of the audience.   Here two  examples:

Ø      Presenting to escrow officers the importance of closing on time:

“Time is money!”

(make this statement while holding up a watch in one hand and dollar bills in the other)

Ø      Explaining to a group of empty nesters why funding the state university system is critical

“A student today, your surgeon when you’re retired….”

These examples are not wild or crazy.  No costumes were needed (they are generally optional) and no jokes were told.  The statements simply yet powerfully grabbed the attention of the audience; in this case you, the reader.   By the way, the principles we’re demonstrating here work as well in writing as they do in any verbal presentation.   

Now you understand how to capture attention, how to create the first impression you want using the “Ho-hum Crasher.”  Next time you’ll learn how Glen Oaks Escrow knows to focus that attention!  You’ll learn, just as the Glen Oaks Escrow team has learned,  to use the “Why Bring-That Up” principle to create maximum  impact!

For more information contact Hugh McAllister, Director of training at Glen Oaks Escrow.  He can be reached by phone at 818-459-1202 or by e-mail at hmcallister@glenoaksescrow.com

Success is built on the union of strategy and tactics.  It’s true in every significant endeavor.  Your presentations are important to your success just like financial planning and growth are important.  In this series we’ll talk a lot about tactics.  You’ve had a peek at that in the introduction.  First, however, let’s talk about strategy

There are two major strategic elements in planning a presentation.  They are the following:

Ø   Know your audience

Ø   Select the delivery style

People are complex.  They respond differently based on many factors.  In the November 2008 teambuilding program for manages, the Glen Oaks Escrow Sales Team learned about the role personality styles play in how people receive information.  From the standpoint of presentations the insights were critical:  If we can understand how people receive and process information we can present it in the way best suited to them.  We learned that there are 4 core personality styles, each of which communicates differently.  Consider the descriptors associated with these different styles:

1.      Direct, bottom line oriented.  Committed to goals and the means of achieving them.  Concise & direct.. Decisions are focused on goal achievement

2.      Excitement driven.  Creative.  Unconventional. Spontaneous.  Decisions often heavily influenced by gut reactions.

3.      Relationship focused.  Feelings are important in decision- making.

4.      Be organized.  Use data in decision- making.  Details are important.

Visit the people to whom you’ll be presenting.  Get to know their personalities.  The way you deliver the message will be based, in part, on how the decision makers process information.  At Glen Oaks Escrow we use the PeopleMapÔ instrument offered by Dr. Michael Lillibridge of Lutz, Florida.  For more information visit his web site at www.peoplemap.org

The second component of strategy is style (deductive or inductive).  In the deductive style the premise is stated first and the details are presented in support of the already unveiled conclusion.  In an inductive style (used often for presenting bad news) the details are presented first and they lead up to the conclusion.  Experience suggests the deductive style is the best in most business situations.   

For more information contact Hugh McAllister, Director of Training at Glen Oaks Escrow.  He can be reached by phone at 818-459-1202 or by e-mail at hmcallister@glenoaksescrow.com

It’s the bottom of the ninth in Game Seven of the World Series. There are two on and two out when the second baseman steps up to the plate. All he needs is one base hit to win the game. The first pitch zooms by, strike one. The second one looks low and outside, but the umpire disagrees. Strike two. On the third pitch he gears up, paces himself, and lets loose the swing to end all swings. Crack! The ball goes flying into right, over the fielder’s head, and into the stands. Game over, and the second baseman won it all.

Timing is everything in baseball. Timing is everything in escrow too, and your escrow officer is the batter at the plate for every part of the transaction. He’s watching the agents for the documents, calling the companies for the reports, and coordinating the funds to get payments through as fast as possible. An escrow officer is always at bat and arrives with a full-count already waiting.

For you as a customer, this means to choose your escrow officer wisely. All it takes is one officer who checks his swing at the wrong moment to take your transaction past its closing date and into extra fees. At Glen Oaks Escrow, we ensure an officer who is ready to watch your transaction every step of the way until you have sailed into home, also known as a closed escrow.

Many people dread public speaking.  Glen Oaks Escrow’s training director, Hugh McAllister, is helping the company’s sales team overcome that fear and hone their presentation skills.   “It’s an easy formula,’ explains McAllister.  “People need a strategy and a structure for designing powerful presentations.  Then they need to practice.  It’s that simple!” 

Putting this concept to work, a new in-house course called “Power Presentations” is underway at Glen Oaks Escrow.  Participants are learning how to select the proper strategy and how to build a strong delivery using 4 key principles of presentation structure.  They also are learning how to design visual aids for maximum impact.   Here’s a sample of what they are discovering:

There are 4 principles that underlie every presentation.  They are easily and simply stated this way:

Ø      Crash through the neutral feelings the audience has when you begin.  We call it the “Ho-hum Crasher.”    Make sure this the first statement in your presentation.   Also be certain that it is appropriate for the audience and contains the tone you want to convey. 

Ø      Once you have grabbed attention, focus it on why this statement is important to the audience.  We call this “Why Bring That Up.”  

Ø      Once the audience’ attention is focused on the message and its importance the next step is to provide the details of the presentation.  This is the body of the presentation, which we call “For Instance.”  

Ø      The final phase of the presentation is the call to action, the close in sales.  In this course we call it “So- What.”   It is a restatement of the “Why Bring That Up” with a specific action required of the audience, whether to buy a product or a service or to support specific legislation, or to take any other action the presenter wants the participants to take.

These 4 principles are the fundamentals of powerful presentations.  In upcoming posts you’ll hear more about how you can use them to enhance your professional success. 

For more information contact Hugh McAllister, Director of Training at Glen Oaks Escrow.  He can be reached by phone at 818-459-1202 or by e-mail at

hmcallister@glenoaksescrow.com