This blog a resource for presenters — not pro-speakers, but real people who need to make presentations as part of their 'day job'.
I have to be honest, this blog only gets updated every month or so. If you want a bit more, sign up for the (almost) weekly newsletter instead called "TalkTactics".
[jcolumns inbordercss=”1px dotted gray”] Well, it’s All Hallow’s Eve – or hallow’een as we tend to call it. Basically, that’s it. Confidence Month is over (for now! 🙂 ). Let’s wrap up the month with a short and simple observation… sometimes you have to JDI. Think about it – when you learned to ride a …
Let’s face it, technology can be one of those things that adds to our nerves and anxiety – we fear it won’t work; that it hates us; and that the evil gods of tech are waiting for the chance to humiliate us in front of everyone. The solution is simple. Don’t use technology you’ve not …
There are many good things about the internet but one of the less good things is that it’s almost impossible to get a definitive version of the quote you want. In this instance, I want to quote a tennis player – but the point of this blog is that no matter how un/confident you feel, …
RP – could be Received Pronunciation, but on this occasion it stands for Reflective Practice. Great, but what’s Reflective Practice? At it’s most simple, it’s the habit of looking back at something (performance, project, meeting, whatever) and asking yourself how it went – but doing it in a structured, objective and helpful way. Why would …
Read more “Confidence and Reflective Practice in your presentation”
Amy Wood Brooks works at the Harvard Business School and in 2014 she wrote a paper called “Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement”. Not the sexiest title for a document but the content is pretty darn exciting. She was looking at handling nerves and so on – and doing so in a pretty hardcore …
This is an embarrassingly simple tool for handing nerves, so that you can find your confidence. It’s particularly handy for when you’ve in the middle of some big event or other. It could be an interview, asking someone for a date or a raise, or a presentation. It works like this.. When you’re very nervous …
Worked up? Well, sort of. I’m thinking of how you tighten your muscles in Progressive Muscle Relaxation? (Let’s call it PMR for short.) This is a pretty short article because, frankly, it doesn’t take much explaining. Just do it. 🙂 [jcolumns] What’s PMR? There are lots of systems, definitions and so on, but according to …
I don’t think I’m saying any strikingly new when I suggest that confidence can come from two sources – inside and outside. I’m not suggesting their totally independent, of course: for example, dressing nicely and being complimented that you look good is an external thing, but it can have an effect in your internal confidence. …
Let’s start simple. I outlined what I mean by confidence here. And for me, assertiveness how you act – but before we look at the two together, we need to be sure what assertiveness is. What it isn’t is riding over other people, their needs and wants and rights. Demanding you get the best table …
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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