Tactics and tools for when you’re new to presenting and/or don’t know where to start with your presentations
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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Storytelling is a big part of presenting… and frankly of our whole culture. When we go to the pub we don’t sit around in silence, and a lot of that time is filled with sharing stories. Gossip is a story after all. Back-in-the-old days is nothing but stories. When-I-was young… you get the idea. From …
I’ve not been a marketing speaker in my head. I’ve turned down goodness-only-knows how many possible marketing and sales conferences, because I had in my head the idea that marketing conferences were aimed at marketers – not the ‘real people’ I mainly help with my training. Now however, it’s all changed and I’m looking for …
Ever heard someone say, “Find your story“? It’s a popular thing for presentation trainers at the moment as they can then sell you training to do just that. And if what you want is a wee bit of personal development, fine. It’s handy for a bit of feel-good and catharsis, too! You might even get …
Read more “Presentations about “your story”. What’s the problem?”
In case you don’t know, I’ve got a new conference presentation called “StoryMaking“, which is about using stories in everything from marketing to motivation. One of the most common questions that floats around about using stories is how to find them. “Oh, nothing interesting ever happens to me“. Tosh! It’s particularly tosh ‘cos big exciting …
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 – …
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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 …
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?
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