Tactics and tools for when you’re new to presenting and/or don’t know where to start with your presentations
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".
I hate practicing my presentations. So does everyone else. Here I am arguing withe Sid The StoryParrot about putting it off until my wife’s gone out. Why? Because it’s embarrassing to get things wrong in front of people. In my defence, part of that is because the last time I did that for a Big …
The book “The Alter Ego Effect” by Todd Herman talks a lot about using an alter ego to get things done… that is, a “different version of you” that knows what it’s doing when you don’t etc. Psychologists and so on refer to the related issues as having a ‘social self’. Essentially this is the …
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 – …
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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