Lonnie Pacelli's Blog, page 58

They Avoid Looking Into Your Eyes-One Minute Lessons on Raising Autistic Kids

So What Really Matters?

Several years back I got into a conversation with a colleague about our kids.  He told me of how he took his daughters to the circus.  He wasn't able to afford it, but decided to go anyway.  While they were at the circus, he looked over at his oldest daughter.  The look on her face was one of utter contentment and delight.  Seeing his daughter's face caused my colleague to get all choked up.  The price of admission was redeemed through a priceless moment that my colleague shared with his daughter.   
I had a similar experience with my eldest.  We were at Disneyland a number of years back watching the evening fireworks show.  I looked at my daughter's face and saw that same utter contentment and delight that my colleague experienced with his daughter.  While looking at my daughter, I myself had the greatest feeling of contentment knowing that she was thoroughly enjoying herself. The thought of it chokes me up all over again.
Yup, we have days filled with irritating emails, ugly meetings, and demanding customers.  What's really important, though, is to take stock in what really matters in life. For me it is my faith and my family.  If those two things are going strong then everything else is a distant third.

Take a few minutes to think about what really matters to you and that you're taking time to delight in those things.  Don't let the nagging irritations of the day bring you down.

They Don't Read Other People Well-One Minute Lessons on Raising Autistic Kids

They Have Difficulty Expressing Their Emotions-One Minute Lessons on Raising Autistic Kids

Book Giveaway: Six-Word Lessons for Dads with Autistic Kids

Enter to win one of five copies of Six-Word Lessons for Dads with Autistic Kids on Goodreads.
Ends July 31.
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Giveaway ends July 31, 2016.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

One Minute Lessons on Raising Autistic Kids - I Screwed Up Way Too Much

Check out this one minute lesson about the need for Dads to check their parenting style with an autistic child.

One-Minute Video Trailers on the Cheap - How to Create a One-Minute Video Trailer in PowerPoint

I've adopted video as a key component of my communication strategy to my subscribers and customers.  In doing so, though, I've decided on the following guiding principles:Videos need to be personal, short, and sweetVideo + text is more impactful than video aloneContent needs to be structured to ensure the recipient gets something from the video and has a clear call to actionVideos need to look relaxed and casual while projecting professionalismVideo production needs to be easy and freeIn meeting these guiding principles, I've devised a one-minute video trailer strategy using PowerPoint animation and the video camera on my  Surface Pro 4.  This strategy is simple to use, looks professional, and most importantly costs only about two hours of my time to do.  I've received great feedback on this approach and want to share how I do it to help you create concise trailers on the cheap.
Note:  this method involves having a basic understanding of PowerPoint, animation, and slide transitions.  If you aren't familiar with these features then take some time to learn or have someone who knows animation and transitions work with you. 

In PowerPoint, create a new 2-slide presentation.  The first slide will be the body of your presentation and the second slide will be your logo, website and other information.

Write out your one-minute trailer in less than 180 words.  Keeping things short, sweet and to the point is crucial. My trailers have five sections, as follows:

1. Intro - includes name, company, title, website
2. Tagline - the mission or connection point with my viewer
3. Title - the trailer topic I want to discuss
4. Body - description of the trailer topic
5. Takeaways - three things that I want the viewer to know

After you've written out your trailer, format slide 1 with the content like this:
Format slide 2 with your logo or book cover and call to action like this:
Now you're ready to record your trailer.  I print out the script and tape it directly above my computer camera which forces me to look up while speaking.  I like to stand back a bit and be animated in my speaking (being Italian I have to use my hands you know!) Speak loud and clear and show some excitement.  Record your trailer then after you're done insert your video into slide 1. 

OK so by now you have all of your content in slides 1 and 2.  Now comes the animation part that requires some PowerPoint knowledge.  For all of my text animation I set it all to start "automatically with previous" then play with timing delays to synchronize my video with the slide content.  You will also want to ensure your video is set to start automatically by right clicking on the video, clicking "start" then choosing "automatically."  
Play your presentation in slideshow format.   Your video should start playing automatically.  For each section of text, set the animation timing delay to align with your video.  As example, your intro will have about a two second timing delay, your tagline will have about a ten second timing delay, your title will have about a 15 second timing delay, etc. Keep doing this process for all of your sections of text until you are happy with your video and animation alignment.  Remember to save your PowerPoint document frequently to avoid losing any work.
After you're comfortable with slide 1, you'll want to do an automatic transition to slide 2 so the viewer is left with the call to action.

After you're happy with the trailer, you are ready to save it as an MP4.  This is as simple as doing a File -> Save As then selecting MPEG-4 video (*.mp4) as your file type.  PowerPoint then saves the slideshow as a video file.  Below is my finished trailer:
Once you're done with the trailer, you can now upload away.  I put mine on my website, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Amazon, Goodreads, Pinterest,Vimeo, and Youtube. 

The first time I did this it took me about six hours to format the slides, write the script, record the video and figure out how to do animation.  Now that I've got it down I can produce one start to finish in under two hours. 

Doing these simple one-minute trailers can be very effective in helping you get your point across with a bit more polish and professionalism than a standalone video.   If you want to save some time you can get the PowerPoint template for my above trailer by becoming a subscriber or emailing me a screenshot of you following me on social media.  I'll send it off to you promptly.

One Minute Lessons on Raising Autistic Kids - They Just Want To Be Alone

Get a one minute lesson about how people with autism need their alone time.

Lesson 17 - Manual procedures: we'll design them later.

Six-Word Lessons for Project Managers on Amazon, kindle, iTunes, Nook and moreToo often technologies are developed and thrown "over the wall" for stakeholders to work out procedures.

Ensure there is a clear understanding of how people will do their jobs using technologies and manual procedures.

​See all 100 lessons at 6WordLessons.com.

One Minute Lessons on Raising Autistic Kids-They May Have Very Obsessive Interests

I'm starting a new video series targeted to families (particularly Dads) with Autistic kids.  Each video is about one minute long and gives you some practical takeaways to help you cope and give you hope with Autism.  This is the first in the series and is entitled They May Have Very Obsessive Interests .