Mind Your Business

Mind Y ur Business

Debra Jasper: Doing Business in a Virtual World

By Yitzchok Saftlas

This column features business insights from a recent “Mind Your Business with Yitzchok Saftlas” radio show. The weekly “Mind Your Business” show – broadcasting since 2015 – features interviews with Fortune 500 executives, business leaders and marketing gurus. Prominent guests include: John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and Pepsi; Dick Schulze, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Best Buy; Beth Comstock, former Vice Chair of GE; among over 400+ senior-level executives and business celebrities.

Yitzchok Saftlas, President of Bottom Line Marketing Group, hosts the weekly “Mind Your Business” show, which airs at 10pm every Sunday night on 710 WOR and throughout America on the iHeartRadio Network.

On a recent 710 WOR “Mind Your Business” broadcast, Yitzchok Saftlas (YS) spoke with guest Debra Jasper (DJ), founder and CEO of Mindset Digital. Debra works with Fortune 100 leaders around the world to connect in a fast forward world while communicating with clarity and impact in today’s virtual age. Debra is one of the top “Winning Women” entrepreneurs in North America.

Let’s start with communication in a virtual world. Is communicating virtually the next critical skill to have?

I do think we talk a lot about virtual as the new reality, and it’s dramatically changing how we do business. The world changed overnight. We’ve all changed with it. And we’re not going back to what we were doing. So, what are the skills for doing business and creating impact in a virtual world where so much of what we know and love has just gone away, at least for now? I’m not saying it’s not coming back, but even when it does, we’ll be communicating on small screens and we’re going to have to learn how to make a big impact on a small screen.

What are the three or four key points, key tips, that people should keep in mind when they’re communicating virtually?

Well, let’s talk about these client relationships we all have and how we get and sustain them. The first thing is, of course, you’re trying to get a meeting or build a connection and you’re not playing golf anymore and not running into people the way that you used to. So, what do you do? People are looking you up right now and making a quick decision about whether to take your phone call or meeting. And so, you have to have a fully optimized online presence. That’s step one.

Step two is, let’s say they do take the meeting with you. You really have to know how to lead a great Zoom call. And if you’re doing a presentation, virtually, you have to know how to create a great presentation over a small screen. So, what’s a powerful opening? What’s a powerful ending? How do you communicate effectively when the screens are much smaller and your audience is not just distant and distracted, they’re distressed?

And thirdly, you have to know how to follow up with people and reach out to them through email or other approaches in a way that’s short, organized, and skimmable, because people have very short attention spans – eight seconds on average.

Debra, beyond the online presence, what else do you need to be doing today to communicate in this new virtual world? A lot of it is better understanding what it means to have a virtual audience. As I mentioned, they’re not just distant and distracted, they’re also distressed. Let’s talk about the brain science of distress for just a moment. We know how much is coming at us. There are days where we all just think we have to turn off the news. We cannot take it anymore. We’re overwhelmed and overwrought. When trying to communicate with clients who are distressed and distant, the brain science shows that it’s harder for them to listen, learn, and remember what you told them. That’s why visual storytelling is going to be more powerful. Most of the information we take in is through our eyes, and we’re seven times more likely to remember visual information. So, when you’re delivering those virtual presentations, they’re going to have to be highly visual if you have any hope that your client is going to remember what you told them.

Can you share some tips on small things people can do to improve their LinkedIn pro-

file?

Here’s two quick tips for listeners. If your profile starts with, you know, Bob has been in business for twenty-five years…no one cares about the history. Do not start with the history. I always say I would never go up to you and say, “Hi, my name is Debra. Debra is a dynamic leader.” We don’t talk that way and can’t talk that way on LinkedIn. The other quick tip is, if nothing

else, at least proofread. There are a lot of business banking officers out there. If you look careless, like you haven’t even bothered to proofread, then I think you may be careless if I do business with you. So, we say casual is great, but casual does not mean careless.

On the note of being careless, I have a theory I call the mortification factor. I like to work with people who, if they make mistakes, are mortified. What worries me is when you work with someone and they make a mistake and they’re like, no big deal. I feel better when the person says, “I made a mistake. I’m mortified.” I think the mortification factor tells a lot about how much one cares about their work.

Debra, I want to talk about writing for action. Can you explain about the SOS method?

As a former writer, I came to the business world with this old notion that you got to tell me what you’re going to tell me and then tell me what you told me. In a world with eight second attention spans, that doesn’t work. It’s very old school business advice and doesn’t work today. So what does work? Every piece of content that goes out the door – whether it’s your email marketing campaigns, evites or anything you do – has to be short, organized and skimmable. That’s why we call it the S.O.S habit. We have something we call the three “whats.” I would encourage everyone to use this. Any time you sit down to write an email or any kind of content for your website, it has to include the following “whats”: 1) What is this message about? 2) So what, why does my audience care? 3) And now what? What am I asking you to do next?

If you can’t answer those three questions, you’re not ready to send the message.

When you apply S.O.S, you get faster responses because when you send shorter, cleaner, clearer emails, responses come in more quickly. You can set up triple the number of meetings and get rid of the back and forth where people are wondering, what are you asking me?

communicate a specific tone

when communicating virtually or even in person?

I love that question because sometimes people say, “Short, well, people will think I’m rude” and it’s like, no, short does not mean rude. You can still take a moment to say “hello Debra” versus “Debra.” Don’t bark at me. You can still say, “It was terrific talking with you yesterday.” It’s fine to have some personality. Don’t meander and go on and on – just get to the point. But the tone is even harder these days in a virtual world. It’s harder to read body language when all you can see is a small part of me on a screen. Of course, there’s a lot of misunderstood emails out there. Emojis can help convey that you mean the email in a friendly way.

Let me share one of my favorite

quick tips about tone. I have five fast fixes around tone, but one of them is around priming for the positive. We have to think more about all the negative words we use. And here’s a quick example. Ban the word, “unfortunately” from every email. If you email Stephanie on my team and say, “Stephanie is Debra available at 10am next week,” she should never answer, “Unfortunately, Debra is not available on Tuesday.” Rather, reply that Debra can make 9 a.m. on Wednesday work. It’s a very simple thing, but you’re starting with what you can do versus what you can’t. dling Zoom conferences?

A good presentation on Zoom is difficult. If you’re leading webinars or a client presentation on Zoom, you have to think about narrative, a strong opening and powerful ending. We talk a lot about giving three key points because we have short attention spans. Audiences cannot stay with you if you have ten points.

One of my big tips for Zoom calls these days – whether you’re giving a presentation or you’re just on a client call – is never end with questions. You want to own the ending. There’s nothing worse than saying, “And so, what questions do you have?” It just takes the energy out of the room. Somebody could have a really complex question you don’t know the answer to. You don’t want to end there. Instead, what you say is, “I’m going to wrap up but first,

what questions do you have?” You can say, “OK, those are great questions. Thanks so much. Now let me wrap up” and then you get to own the end of the webinar meeting. And ideally, you’re going to own it with a storyline, something memorable the client will take away that will remind them that they want to do business with you.

Visuals can double your memory recognition. Don’t just tell me a story, show me a story. If you are walking the client through financial data or numbers, you have to unpack that in a more visual way and design it for a small screen. There’s nothing worse than putting up a slide and saying, “I know you can’t see this, but…” We have something we call the three second rule. If I can’t make sense of your slide in three seconds, you have to rework the slide.

“People have very short attention spans – eight seconds on average”

Let’s go to perhaps one of the most important topics that we can get to in tonight’s show, and that is Zoom meetings. It’s here to stay. Don’t just ignore it, saying I can’t and I’m not going on one more Zoom call because then you’ll be out of business. Debra, what are your tips to ace it when hanNow, Debra, you shared some tips, but perhaps you have some additional tips on how someone can strengthen their presentations virtually.

It’s very important that you do not start your webinar by reading to me. There is a reason that we read to kids and they go to sleep. Here’s what I heard someone say yesterday: if you start by reading to me, it’s not going to be a very effective meeting. Then, of course, you have to think about your lighting, background and technical aspects. You really have to go on and watch some of those free YouTube videos to make sure you know where the mute button is. You will lower your credibility if you don’t spend enough time feeling comfortable with the platform that you’re using.

Debra, as we approach the

close, any final thoughts?

You know, I so appreciate getting a chance to talk today about how we do business in a virtual world. We started out by saying virtual is the new reality. I do think that means all of us have to basically do business in a new way. We’re going to have to work hard and learn new skills if we want to make a big impact on a small screen. That means we have to think differently, write differently, and present differently. And overall, just communicate with more power, clarity, and impact because our audiences are distant, distracted, and distressed.

It’s a fascinating and exciting time to be doing this work, but there’s a lot of work to do.