This is a simple blog with simple ambitions! It exists purely as a place for you, gentle reader, to get hold of all the free material I’ve created so far for the Reluctant Storyteller. Most of them are one-take live … Continue readingReluctant storyteller resources
It’s all about the story, we’re told. Tosh. Stories are great – fantastic even – and they’re an amazingly powerful tool in your presentation tool kit but they’re not the answer to everything. They might be the closes thing there … Continue readingreconnecting with your audience
Intro I did an interview recently with the wonderful (and lovely) Geoff Nicholson for his podcast, talking about the new #ReluctantStoryteller project I’m working on. I’ve popped this into a quick video if you want to watch for three minutes … Continue readingstorytelling – the four steps
There’s a lot of crap presentations training around at the moment saying “tell stories”… just “tell stores”. That’s about as much use as saying “be tall” to someone struggling because they can’t reach the top shelf. I used to have … Continue readingA story matrix and using them one your presentation
Presenting is like gardening. When I plant something in my veg patch there are a lot of things that determine whether it grows (or grows well). There’s the quality of the plant (my presentation preparation and content); there’s how well … Continue readingPresenting is like gardening
Credibility as a presenter comes from how much your audience like you (Warmth) and how much they trust you (Competence). You need both. … Continue readingbeing more charismatic when you present
A long time ago I wrote about what we can learn about presenting from Maya Angelou – mainly about the need and approaches to rehearsing. It’s time I updated to that. In particular I want to move on from that … Continue readingMore maya Angelou
A while ago, I started to explore some of the reasons for not using not using stories in your presentations (and a few other things). Now I’d like to expand on that. Let’s assume that you’re using them for a … Continue readingwhy telling stories in your presentations isn’t working
What’s an identity variable? I self-identify as male. I self-identify as married. An identity variable is something that is you use to build your self image. If I looked in the mirror and found that instead of a six-feet-tall white … Continue readingpresentations and identity variables
How your room is set up makes a huge difference to how well your presentation is likely to go. Lots of it is obvious but some not… … Continue readinghow to lay out the room for your presentation
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about interacting with the slides themselves (that’s a different blog). I’m talking about interacting with your audience when your presentation uses slides. After all, one of the big things that Prezi claims is … Continue readinginteractivity in presentation slides
So you’ve heard of “death by powerpoint” and you’ve all be shot at by the screen-full of bullet points on a slide. And you promised not to do it to your audiences – but you did. Why? Because knowing how … Continue readinghow do I replace bullet points in my presentation?
This one has been nagging at the back of my head for a long time and I might piss a few slick, professional presenters off. I’m braced… but it needs to be said for the sake of audiences and presenters. … Continue readingwhy journalism has no place in presentations
I’ve talked before about one of the best ways to start your presentation, so here’s the other bookend – the close of a presentation. Let’s talk about questions and let’s talk about applause. Your audience expects one of these at … Continue readingHow to end your presentation
Great delivery can’t save rubbish content. We often forget that there are three key parts to an outstanding presentation… it’s not just (or even mainly) about how well you present in the room … Continue readingpresentation delivery vs content vs structure
