In business presentations, if you think it’s obvious - it isn’t
According to some research I’ve just re-read, there are only six basic types of selling-story: the most powerful stories are those while fall into the category called “I know what you’re thinking”. People love to be understood and if your presentation can show them [...]
“Tell stories and make a point”: that mantra pretty much sums up a huge range of useful stuff about how to make presentations. We’ll talk in a moment about why that’s useful but take a moment, if you can, to look at this list of the different types of story you can use in [...]
So what’s the difference? Well, according to at least one online dictionary claptrap is ” Pretentious, insincere, or empty language” where as a Clap Trap is a trick used to generate applause: it’s an old theatrical gimmick… apparently now obsolete.
Except, of course, that we know it isn’t - because Clap Traps are still used [...]
Yesterday was the last of our public presentation skills training courses before the summer and we were working with our usual mix of introverts and extraverts. The latter are easier to present to because their faces will give you, instantly, feedback on how well you are doing as a presenter – that’s the nature of [...]
….as at half-past three on a rainy Monday at least… Actually this post is based upon an on-the-spot interview I did for my local newspaper. I’ve edited here for sense but Andrew Mernon’s original is here if you’re intersted.
Tune your speeches into what the audience needs to know. The biggest [...]
Patsy Rodenburg knows a thing or two about having ‘it’ – whatever ‘it’ is. She’s the Director of Voice at London’s Royal National Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In short, she knows her stuff.
So, when she brings out a new book about ‘Presence’, I pay attention. You can read [...]
Well, for me at least, the good is that they make you sound interesting (all other things being equal of course, which they never are!). I remember reading some research (which I can’t find to reference, sorry!) suggesting that call centres tended to employ people from certain places because they and “generally trusted” accents [...]
You’d be amazed at how many times I’ve heard that in the introductions of our public training sessions: sometimes it’s even true. While it’s true that sometimes your boss will tell you “to PowerPoint” (interesting how it’s become a verb, isn’t it – rather like “to Google”). It’s at least as common for people to [...]