As a guy who works with lots of big corporates, writing speeches, rehearsing speakers for big pitches and presentations, I’m forever coming up against the ‘Corporate Template Trial’. The corporate PowerPoint pattern, usually created by the Communications Department, which everybody must use when creating slides; but which creates bigger problems for the speaker who actually…
I was working with a client last week and all through the session, I could tell there was something bothering her. I always assume that it’s something I’m doing that she can’t get over. My aftershave, accent or irritatingly intense manner. But this time I was wrong. She told me, eventually, that she didn’t like…
Overview Explaining a complicated concept is an art form. In the first post in this series I followed a simple analogy told by Albert Einstein to introduce some broad concepts that might help us explain complicated subjects to lay audiences. It’s easy enough to do when you’re faced with like-minded peers but when you go…
Not long after his arrival in the USA, Albert Einstein was invited, by the wife of one of the professors of mathematics at Princeton, to be guest of honour at a tea. Reluctantly, Einstein consented. After the tea had been served and people had eaten their cucumber sandwiches, the over-excited hostess, thrilled to have such…
You might have seen this slide before, as it’s often used as an example of the worst presentation slide ever. You can see why, I’m sure. But sometimes analysing extremely bad examples can help us to understand how we can improve our own presentations – even when we have (I hope) much better slides to…
We all have good and bad days as presenters. I think that complacency is a performer’s most dangerous (legal) habit. In pondering the kinds of thinking and approaches that hurt even highly skilled speakers I came up with this. The 5 most irritating things that good presenters do, but great presenters don’t are: 1. Think that…
Presentation slides are a lot like adverts. They’re your chance to visually tell your story – share something about you, your company, products or ideas with others. Like adverts, presentation slides come in all styles. But the best are simple, with one clear message and only one thing demanding your attention. I took this picture…
Our Fit, Focus & Flair model gives us and our clients a shortcut for developing some of the best presentations you’ve ever seen. Fit is all about making sure the things which you’re going to say are relevant, appropriate and tailored for your audience. The benefits of Fit A guy called Josh came to…
Our model for creating the best presentations your audience has ever seen is called Fit, Focus and Flair. Focus is what helps you to deliver a streamlined presentation that your audience can sum up in one word, and act or reflect upon for the following days and weeks. The benefits of Focus There’s been…