I do my best to make this blog a resource for presenters - not pro-speakers, but real people who need to make presentations as part of their 'day job'. If there's something you really want to know about, just email me and I'll see what I can do (no promises except that I'll read your email - use simon@ and you can guess the rest of my address. :) )
Also, I have to be honest, this blog only gets updated every month or so. If you want a bit more, consider signing up for the (almost weekly) newsletter instead called "TalkTactics". You can also sign up for a bucketload of freebies too!
This month's most popular (and useful?) blog posts are:
Or scroll down if you're just browsing!
I got a slightly disgruntled client email recently. They were more than happy with the content of the training and were chuffed to bits with the general results I got, but they thought some of the stories I use to illustrate my content weren’t helpful. Long story short, one of those stories had triggered something …
Read more “when stories in your presentation are a bad idea”
What should you put on your first slide? You know the one, the one that’s up there before your presentation. It might be there while your audience come in or just for a few minutes at the start of your turn, if there’s a speaker before you. Your mileage will vary of course because of …
I’ve been asked about using AI to write presentations. I’m sure things will change in the future, but right now my answer is “Don’t”. As an illustration I asked for a medium length bio about me which I’ve put in black below. My thoughts are cut in, in red. Bio for Dr Simon Raybould – …
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Presentations are often thought of as being rubbish ways to get over lots of messy information – the complex and complicated. Here’s how to handle it.
Unpopular opinion here… it’s over-rated. I hear/read a lot of stuff online saying that it’s critical to “be your authentic self” when you present (all the time, really, but I’m writing about presentations here). You should be, onstage, the person you are before and after your presentation, they say. I’m not suggesting being seriously disingenuous …
What’s that? There are different types of nerves? Afraid so, yes. What’s more, if you’re using techniques to control one particular type of nerves but you’ve actually got a belly-full of the other type, it’s not going to help your presentation at all. Presentation nerves can come from: I’ve got tools for all three, but …
Read more “Presentation nerves – coping with different types”
That’s not a big blog title at all. Nope! 😉 Ah well, go big or go home, I guess. There are a few things I need to look at here and I can only go over them at a top level in a blog but with a bit of luck you’ll be able to see …
I’ve been away, did you miss me? Almost certainly not! And that’s fine ‘cos you’ve got a real life – and it’s also almost inevitable! Why? Because as humans we tend very much to just pay attention to what’s important to us. We filter out what we don’t need and only see what we’re looking …
Read more “Presentation lessons from my holiday – honestly!”
Are your presentations "okay on the day" but don't have an impact? Adding stories to your presentations will make the biggest difference, helping you really engage with your audience. But not sure how to get started?
This will close in 23 seconds
