using your story in presentations
Presentations that share the presenter’s story are both common and usually pointless. Here’s why and what you to do instead.
Welcome to the better presentations blog!
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:
- How to make a cheap studio for better online presentations from your home or home-office... https://presentationgenius.info/online-presentations-with-a-cheap-studio/
- How to use stories in your presentations (not just telling them! ;) )... https://presentationgenius.info/a-story-matrix-and-using-them-one-your-presentation
Or scroll down if you're just browsing!
why appearances matter in presentations
Appearances in presentations matter because of the Oppenheimer Effect. I’ve known of the Oppenheimer Effect for years – partially as a social phenomenon and partially from personal experience. When I was a researcher I was the best there was at what I did. (Don’t get too excited about that: after over two decades as a …
pluralistic ignorance
I’m a bit of a fan of the podcast You Are Not So Smart. It’s a classily understated podcast based on interviews and grown up conversations with experts. (Lots of people say they are experts, David McRaney talks to the best, trust me!) One recent episode, on something called “Pluralistic ignorance” really struck home for …
MAT model
Tips for better presentations are everywhere. What we need is a way to use those tips to make better presentations – a framework for presentations.
How to sound smart in presentations
Let’s face it, we’ve all been there – we want to make a good impression when we present. Maybe the boss is there, or maybe it’s our first presentation in a new job… perhaps it’s just that you want to give a strong impression to your audience… or whatever… but the need to be seen …
When to use jargon in your presentations
Jargon has a bad press – and in very many ways thats for good reason. We’re constantly told not to use jargon in our presentations but that’s simplistic advice from trainers trying to sound good with cool-sounding-tips. BadVice alert! Let’s look at what jargon actually does first, before we give it a blanket ban in …
handling distractions in your presentations
This is a bit of a personal-reaction blog, because a lot of people are asking me about how to make presentations or have meetings for that matter in rooms where there are lots of distractions. (Dedicated presentation-spaces are few and far between!) There are lots of things you can do and while some of them …
Your presentation’s three levels of impact
Let’s talk about your presentation’s impact. (Oh, and if you’d rather watch video than read, skip to the bottom of this blog – I’ve recorded to very short ones for you.) I wanna differentiate between first, second and third-order impacts – so let’s start with some definitions. Stay with me – it gets interesting later! …
100 creative presentation ideas – a review
Not long ago, I got a contact request on Linked-In from Bogdan Klopov at Visme. Visme are a new-ish presentation software company that I tried out a couple of years ago. The software is cool, with a drag and drop interface that feels like it’s a balancing act between things like PowerPoint and the simplicity …
