Tactics and tools for when you’re new to presenting and/or don’t know where to start with your presentations
It’s not just presenters who feel the pinch of nerves! Chatting about the Commonwealth Games a while ago, my friend Alan Stevens posted on the Professional Speaking Association’s Facebook group a comment from one of the shooters, saying that they didn’t feel … Continue readingUsing apples to handle presentation nerves
How to sound interesting in presentations is one of the most common questions I get about training. Here’s possibly the most simple of all the tips for being more interesting … Continue readingHow to sound interesting in presentations: by telling the toucan
Presentations that share the presenter’s story are both common and usually pointless. Here’s why and what you to do instead. … Continue readingusing your story in 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 … Continue readinghandling distractions in your presentations
You might have heard of the VAK model – the idea that people are either Visual Learners, Aural Learners or Kinesthetic Learners. It’s largely tosh and what you should be doing is matching the medium (V, A or K) to … Continue readingWhat are good visuals in your presentation
As Saturday, June 1st is officially #SaySomethingNiceDay, I thought it might be “interesting” to research (and blog about!) something I’ve personally always found difficult – how to give feedback on a presentation. As that’s a significant part of my work … Continue readingHow to give feedback about a presentation
This post comes in two parts. Part one is about not starting with any “why” at all and the second part is about not starting your presentation with your “why”. The start of your presentation isn’t the right time to … Continue readingPresentations – don’t start with why! Simon sinek was sort of wrong!
It’s nearly conference season, so here we go… I have to confess I’ve been driven to write this so that I can sleep better and let my frustrations somewhere to go. Last year I attended some conferences where I wanted … Continue readingMake a better conference presentation
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 … Continue readingPresentations without scripts?
I’m a member of an online support group, where there’s been a conversation recently about whether or not scripts are a good thing in presentations. Early opinion was divided – some said “scripts are a good thing in presentations” and … Continue readingPresentations with scripts. Good, bad or ugly?
Creating a presentation is one thing – checking it is another. (Notice that I don’t say ‘writing’ your presentation, because you shouldn’t be thinking that way.) The painful fact is, however, that mistakes on your slides can give people who … Continue readingProofing (and otherwise checking) your presentation
What’s the five day challenge? It’s a set of emails, one a day for five days. There’s cracking material in the emails and what’s more, they’ll signpost you to content both specially created for the challenge and part of our … Continue readingFive Day Challenge – are you ready?
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 … Continue readingConfidence – trust the tech
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 … Continue readingConfidence in the heat of the moment
Who do you suppose are the speakers who display some Presentation Genius? And what do they have in common? … What allows this presentation genius to show itself? Practice. No-one can give a great presentation the first time. … Continue readingCan we break presentation genius down into smaller components?