Here’s a really useful post from Dr Nick Morgan at Public Words, a well written and beautifully presented blog on err.. the kinds of words you say in public- Nick Morgan, Public Words: What Questions Should You Ask to Prepare a Speech?. A great and comprehensive list with a simple of addition from me, particularly…
For people like me, who fail to be funny and original at the same time, here’s a set of great quotes from the UK’s ‘Total Politics’ blog. You’ll find political quotes, anecdotes and one-liners from around the Western world that the ethical among you will quote, and the rest of us will simply errr- recycle….
It’s not often that a golfer makes me laugh. And even then it’s usually clothing related. I love the game but loathe the fake press conference ‘insight’. And I don’t blame the golfers. Journalists often like the easy option in a press conference and rehash tired old cliches and long-dead ‘incidents’ looking for a scoop….
I once bought a book by Edward de Bono, called ‘How to be Interesting’. It wasn’t. But it’s a great title isn’t it? Why might someone as fascinating as me buy a book like that? Well, it’s simple, I was seeking an answer to all of the questions I’d been asked around ‘how do you…
I’ve been working in Barcelona again this week, with a global pharmaceutical company, and here’s a small, but significant lesson I learned from Xavi, an IT Director about finding the right ‘hook’ for a speech to his IT colleagues. We were talking about understanding our audience before we start to create our message,- ‘Fit‘ as…
The rule of three is powerful technique that any presenter should learn to use. First noticed by the ancient Greek orators, followed by the Catholic Church, and reinvented by marketeers in the 20th Century, it’s a simple tool you can use to plan, deliver and drive your presentations. It’s based on the fact that people…
This was going to be a reasoned summary of all of the latest thinking on retention & memory, to help presenters get their audiences to remember what they’ve spent ages preparing to tell them. But it’s now something different. Why? Because I began to wonder, yet again… Why it is that when I’ve read Macbeth…
It’s a question I’m often asked by clients- The honest answer is, obviously, ‘It depends on who’s in the audience’ but in reality you have to choose an influencing strategy before you start to prepare your pitch. Most people only have one approach, and use it without thinking, and some people know a few strategies, but are…
It happens a lot doesn’t it? We have a proposal to present to a group of clients, and we know that the clients don’t agree on how to proceed, but we have a plan and we have to present it. Our success depends on our ability to find favour with all of the influential interest…