Techniques for designing better presentations (before you get to the delivery stage!)
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. :) )
Also, I have to be honest, this blog only gets updated every month or so. If you want a bit more, consider signing up for the (almost weekly) newsletter instead called "TalkTactics". You can also sign up for a bucketload of freebies too!
This month's most popular (and useful?) blog posts are:
Or scroll down if you're just browsing!
You know the ones. The rags-to-riches story. The against-all-the-odds story. The bad-to-worse-to-victory story. We’re told to use them because they’re inspirational. Whoops, that turns out to be a mistake. Why? Because… Because pretty much be definition such a story deals with exceptional people over coming staggering odds. And, again by definition that means these people …
How “big” should the stories be in our presentations? How “epic” and inspirational? The answer isn’t quite as spectacular as it might sound…
I’m constantly asked how to “make my presentations interactive” because people “need to be more engaging”. Let’s set aside the fact that you don’t need to be interactive to be engaging for a moment, and look at how to be interactive – specifically being interactive by using questions – either digitally or physically. Something to think about …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Presentations are often thought of as being rubbish ways to get over lots of messy information – the complex and complicated. Here’s how to handle it.
I often get asked how to make ‘stand out’ moments in presentations. People want/need presentations to be memorable, and moments that make your audience go “Wow” are a great way of doing that. But there’s a problem. Presentations with stand-out (wow) moments mean that’s what people will remember! That’s true almost by definition. Why? Because …
“What do you want your presentation to do?” It’s not a hard question – well not any more than “What’s the meaning of life?”. 🙂 Typically, when I ask it, the answers I get are to do with process, not outcome – and that’s entirely naturally and normal. It’s my job to get past that …
Read more “designing your presentation with just one question… and then more questions”
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!
This will close in 23 seconds
