If you're one of those people who always follows the latest trends in something (fashion, technology, fitness, dieting, education, etc.) then you may have experienced this kind of frustration. You know how awesome an idea or a product or a service is but everyone you tell doesn't quite get it or can't quite see how that would be helpful. This is the price of being an early adopter. It is also the power.

You are in a unique position of being able to teach other people what you have discovered about the latest 'thing'. This of course takes time. Don't worry, the media/Internet/colleagues/Oprah and other sources will eventually get the message across that what you discovered all those months and years ago is in fact valuable. So what can you do while you're waiting for your customers to sign up for Twitter or your friends to get a Facebook account or a Flickr account or to get into Zimba, or flat shoes or [insert trend here]? 

Answer: become a guru.

Experts know a lot and want to let everyone know it. Gurus teach and inspire and mentor others. They have usually been there and done that. They give people superpowers (abilities to do awesome stuff)!)

So what do you do? How do you give people superpowers? Start a blog, feed it to Twitter, publish an e-book, publish a real book, create a toolkit with downloads and video tutorials and podcasts and resources, design a course or a workshop and deliver it in person on put it online. Simply: you teach.

When the 'trend' moves from early adopters (people who pre-ordered the iPad) to the middle of the bell curve and the mainstream (people who will buy one in a year's time) get into it they will all be asking, "OK I get how this iPad can help me - how do I use it?" And that's where you come in. You've already been sharing ideas on your blog. Get them to subscribe to your mailing list, let them download your free e-book, offer to sell them a toolkit or a course or workshop showing them how to use the trend to help them in their life and in their business.

Takeaway

Adopt early. When the mainstream catches on then be the guru they look to.

Note: There is a difference between jumping on the bandwagon of anything that is new and finding gold nuggets of new stuff that will help you be happy and successful at work and at home. The first is a time waster, the second is worth it's weight in gold.

Your turn

What's the new idea, service, product, system, technique or tool that you discovered? What are you doing to become the guru people can turn to? How will you give people superpowers? Comments are open.

This stop-motion video by Nate Gillis and Callum Paterson is a great example of how to tell a story and package it. Now your version doesn't have to be as elaborate or well animated or animated at all. This could have easily been a cartoon in the newspaper. The point is that stories spread and stories sell.

You have to use uncommon thinking and uncommon ideas if you want out of the ordinary results for your business or your blog or your fundraiser or political campaign.

Reverse engineer

So what makes this video great? A simple story told in a simple way. Using a fun medium. Tic tacs are an unexpected character doing an unexpected activity. With an unexpected ending. The punchline could be, 'Tic-Tacs: More than you expect in every pack.' Or something like that.

If this was an ad for your 'thing' what punchline could you add? 

Your turn

What's your story? How can you package it? How will you sell the idea to others?

Check out this video about Adobe CS5 Production Premium (one of the bundles of new Adobe software).

What I like about this vid is the hand-made effects at the start. They take it back to the old-school of animation and props being used to tell a story. If you think about the Common Craft show, this is a technique for packaging your ideas that still works really well.

The best part is

Motionographer did an interview with the makers and included some behind the scenes info.Check it out.

I think I actually like this more than the video itself. Think about the last DVD you watched. Did it have a behind the scenes section (sometimes called 'special features')? Most of them do. But why? Who cares about behind the scenes or the back story to whole production experience or how they did that special effect in the Matrix? Answer: tons of people.

Part of the magic of the DVD experience (for me at least) is see a little bit of 'how we did that'. The effect of this on the audience is two fold:

• It shows how much skill and creativity and resources go into making something that might last for 30 seconds on screen
• It helps you feel like part of the movie or the story or the characters or actors lives

How does this apply to your business?

Add behind the scenes features to your Web site or presentation or proposal. These are normally called case studies. But that usually takes the format of 'problem, solution, result.' This is fine. But take it a step further by taking a leaf out of film maker's books. Go behind the scenes and show the creative process in action, the design decisions you made, what you left out and why, how you made that cool thing/effect and who you have on your team doing all that stuff. Help your audience (customers and prospective customers) feel part of the magic of what you do and really showcase how much talent you have.

Behind the scenes is a great promotional strategy. I plan to feature a lot more examples of business who do this in the future so stay tuned.

Your turn

Have you taken your audience 'behind the scenes'? How? When? What happened as a result? Post a comment.

Austin Kleon uploaded this slidecast to SlideShare last year. I've always loved how he used some simple tools to create a clear communication using visuals and an audio commentary.

Cool aye!? Imagine sharing how to set up a Web site in Wordpress or how to uncover a client's needs or how to plant a garden. Essentially this is a bare bones, animated napkin sketch with voice over. Quick, cheap and pretty easy. If you want to lead a tribe by teaching others what you know then this is one great way to do it.

So how did he do this? I sent Austin an e-mail and he kindly told me how.

1. Drew the final image (at end of slideshow)
2. Created a series of images be deleting parts of the final image
3. Inserted the images on his slides to show them building from a blank canvas up to the final image
4. Uploaded to SlideShare
5. Added audio

And that's it.

Of course if you have some sweet graphic design skills then you could create some vector graphics and use those in your slidecast, but that is necessary to create the kind of slick presentation that Austin did.

I plan to do a slidecast to show you exactly how this is done from start to finish. Stay tuned.

Here are some of my favourite resources for designing presentations:

Garr Reynolds - Presentation Zen 

The guru of presenting. Check out Garr's resources for organising, delivering and designing slides for your next presentation. Explore all of this site and read the blog every day. You too can become a presentation master.

Simple to remember yet powerful rule to apply when designing presentations.

Seth Godin - Tribes at TED

One of the worlds best marketers and a pretty good presenter. Watch and learn my friend.

The CommonCraft show

Not presentations per se, but a great use of stories and visuals to sell ideas.

Blair's presentation tip of the day

You and your story are your presentation just like the actor and his/her lines are the movie. Sound and lighting and backdrops and props (your slides and other multimedia wizardry) can either support or detract from you and your story. Use them wisely.