Here’s an example of the Prezi presentation that I used in my short speech to ‘The Inspired Group’ meeting in Cambridge, UK this evening. The subject was ‘How to add wisdom, guile and breadth to your inner circle…’ for entrpreneurs and small business owners who are members of this lively and well-run networking group. Thanks…
Slides are always saying something about you. Busy and dull. Cliched and generic? Simple and interesting? What ‘brand’ would you rather have? As Leonardo da Vinci said, and who are we to argue with the man who changed the way we see the world – “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” Short and to the point,…
In the second episode of – ‘things we do in work that seem ridiculous but we all do it anyway…’ Here’s the solution to that recurrent problem. Your boss wants a report that can also be used as a presentation or a presentation that can also be used as a report. So what do we do typically? We want to do what our boss…
I’ve mentioned Orwell before- See here. And it’s still my view, as a speechwriter and presentation coach, that if more speakers followed these rules than the kind of stuff we tell them on training corses, the quality of corporate presentations would improve beyond measure. They’d be- Shorter Simpler Easier to understand For a simple explanation…
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…
I was working with Dystin Johnson, a British actor and screenwriter the other day, and in our discussions when trying to help a client run an effective training session for salespeople for a really exciting new product- we got into a discussion about ‘the story’. I was thinking that the story is the thing that…
You’re going to look around a house that you’re thinking of buying. It’s a a Saturday morning. You’re making a commitment. You’ve given up 2 hours of your valuable time, and you’ve left the kids with Grandma. The details of the property looked good enough, the price seemed right, and the sun is shining as…
PowerPoint slides, bullets, data, Waffle, jargon, handouts (paper), Anecdotes with no punchline, Or point to help you underline. Music, graphics, sound effects, That simply, don’t support the text. Images that make no sense, Or patronise the audience. Graphs and charts of pie or venn, The thoughts of Chairman Mao or Zen, Buddhists when your thoughts…
I was working with clients from a major UK insurance company last week. They are intelligent technical experts working as high end internal consultants looking to deliver real, tangible results through, process, technology and operational improvement. We were looking at the kinds of pitches that they do when asking for funds to deliver these amazing…