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. :) )
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Before I was a presentation skills trainer – not quite in my youth – I spent about seven years touring as the technical director of a dance company. I learned a lot from them to do with discipline and hard work. I learned about focus and I learned what effort looks like. (I might even …
A bit of a change here in this blog! This is a a guest post from Meetupcall and therefore very different from the usual presentation genius stuff! At Meetupcall, they’ve been looking at some famous speakers from history and sharing their thoughts on what makes them effective. Don’t try too hard to do exactly as these …
Once upon a time I was taking instruction on playing the piano with a view to becoming a professional pianist. I never got that far (I was never that good, not even close!) but it gave me an interesting perspective on how professional performers work. And it’s not like it’s portrayed in the movies. (C’mon, …
Read more “How to present better: Presentation stage management”
Your brain is a wonderful thing. Some brains are more wonderful than others, of course (such as my wife’s) And people have been researching how they work for a long time. Even before neuro-science became popular (or even possible!), people were looking our learning capacity… How does this research apply to presenting? Way back in …
Read more “How much can tell your audience in a presentation?”
I’ve been writing and providing presentation wisdom(?) for a few other people recently! Here are two for the marking guys Andrew&Pete. Firstly, here’s a tongue-in-cheek look at using powerpoint templates. (Caution – large does of sarcasm are involved) https://www.andrewandpete.com/powerpoint-templates/ And more recently I look at how to structure your presentation using an analogy taken from …
If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard someone complain about seeing themselves present on video, just look at themselves on a photograph, or even listen to a recording of their own voice… well I’d be rich enough not to do this 🙂 As it is, however, no one pays me when they …
Read more “Why do people hate seeing and hearing their own presentations?”
You’re known to have good presentation skills, so you’ve been volunteered… It’s coming up to that time of year again – the one when you have to do ‘reviews’… presentations which look back on how the year has gone… that sort of thing. Frankly (and personally) they tend to fill me with dread, ‘cos most …
In the last couple of posts, I’ve talked about: why literal scripts aren’t a good idea for your presentation; and a few things you can do instead of using a script while you present. Now it’s time to wrap up the series by looking at how you memorise what you’re going to say, whether or …
In the previous post in this series, I looked at why presentations without scripts were generally not a such a good thing. This time, I’m looking at what you can do instead. Why do you want a script for your presentation? The main reason – by which I mean the reason almost everyone says they …
Leading a team or doing your own marketing? Awesome! But not having the impact on the world you think you should? Less Awesome.
StoryMaking is my new book that looks at how to tactically use stories in your presentations, your marketing and your sales. It's my usual light-weight style over heavy-weight research!
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The StoryMaking System is the result of reading (in mind-numbing detail) over 400 peer-reviewed research papers, dozens of books, thousands of ours of observational research and blood sweat and tears!
It's the framework for designing a presentation which gives you the fastest way to getting something is (almost) guaranteed to work. It gives your audience what they need - and only what they need - to be impacted.
The key elements are:
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