Ernest Hemingway’s succinct masterpiece, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn,” gave rise to a whole new genre, the Six Word Stories. But more importantly it makes the point that a story doesn’t need to be long to be complete. A story can change the world – your world – in some small way whether it…
Clare is one of those consultants who could (if only she sat where I sit) see that she has all of the attributes to become a brilliant pitcher for business. She’s a highly trained and qualified professional, she’s modest, some might even say shy, and she knows how to make her subject interesting to her audience….
I’ve been working with a set of really skilled and experienced presenters for the past few months. The executives had a set of massively important strategy presentations to give to their Global CEO and his executive team. Their Company realises that even the most experienced and skilful sometimes need a little support in really challenging…
I was asked to give a thought to a colleague who was giving a speech on presentations to a very corporate crowd the other day. He said… Give me one thought that you think would help this crowd give better presentations. So I did. It’s a piece of advice about story structure. I’ve said many…
I was forced to attend a driver education programme in the UK recently, having been caught on a speed camera doing 34 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone. Well I wasn’t really forced to attend. I was given the choice to pay a £90 fine and accept 3 penalty points on my driver’s…
Here’s a really useful guide to speech structure. A quick start to organising your thinking for 5 common types of business presentations and speeches- Progress report Strategy recommendation Product sales presentation Decision rationale/explanation Teaching session Simple, repeatable and practical- Nick Morgan, Public Words: 5 Quick Ways to Organize a Speech. This is a part of my Fit,…
If you want a great example of how to create interesting and relevant ‘keynotes’ from the unlikely combination of sources as varied as sport, psychology, pharmacology, dog training, infomercials, gynaecology and business- among many others, look no further than here- Malcolm Gladwell’s blog. gladwell dot com – malcolm gladwell, blink, tipping point and new yorker…
Most corporate presentations lack that little bit of ‘story structure’ that is the foundation of making sense to, and being remembered by, the audience. A simple, 3-act story requires that your presentation has- A definite beginning- That sets the context, introduces the characters (the presenter and the subject of the presentation), and sets the question to…
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…