I was a guest speaker at ‘Inside & Out’ yesterday. It was a networking event for London-based banks as a part of their diversity efforts. Its intention is simple. To recruit brilliant people, who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans-gender into the banking industry. Why? Because they want great people, whatever their sexuality….
An audience’s willingness to act on your recommendations frequently depends on the severity and breadth of change you’re suggesting. In other words, your audience’s response to you, rests on how serious your audience thinks the problem is and how dire the consequences of inaction. ‘It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. ‘…
How about this for corporate nonsense- “Combining the strategy, business processes, implementation, and technical support skills of a CRM systems integrator with the data management, analytic, and marketing skills of a database marketing service provider to deliver and operate closed-loop marketing and sales environment.” What do you think the company ‘talking’ actually does. Do they…
One way to help us become more interesting to our audiences is to understand what they find interesting. Quotations are one of those things that can help you to become more interesting, and better remembered when you get up to speak. Why? Because quotations are like little golden nuggets of cleverness that people will pass on to their friends, kids and families if they hear…
You might not know that in the original script for the first “Rocky” movie written by Sylvester Stallone, in 1976, Rocky dies after the fight that ends the film? It might have saved us from the dreadful Rocky’s II through VI but I bet that “Rocky” (Which was a truly original piece of writing in the fat,…
Last week I asked you if you knew about how much help was available to save your life in this recession. Now here’s some more good advice, to help you build on that, from a reliable source. In May 2009, Omniture asked 120 US-based Marketing Managers to rate the relative effectiveness of their digital-marketing media….
Ok. it’s not ideal but sometimes were called upon to make a speech with little or no time to prepare, so what do we do? We spend the time on structure not content, that’s what. Structure is the skeleton of the speech and just enough structure allows us the freedom to fill in the gaps…
I was asked this very pertinent question the other day, and I answered it, lazily, as follows- Your clients love your work and ask you back to do more at the next opportunity. You make money. Then someone said- “But what about doing a great job, objectively? Making a real difference, rather than just having your…
You are most often the final ingredient that makes a good presentation on paper go well in the real world. Meet people (even if you know them) as they come into the room, shake hands, have a brief chat with them to help show your confidence and ‘break the ice’. Show enthusiasm for the subject….