Agendas in presentations are usually seen as afterthoughts, useful low-level roadmaps, or necessary evils. Big mistake! An Agenda skillfully used can make or break a presentation. How much thought do you give to this part of your presentations? An Agenda strategy takes into consideration… Timing Content Agreement and Feedback Timing is Everything If you have an agenda, …
On the “people-are-more-interested-in-their-kids-than-in-yours” theory, meaning that listeners do not want to hear everything you know about your offer, but only what is relevant to them, here is a quick method for figuring out what will have the greatest impact on them in your presentation. Create 5 Written Lists 1. What are all your firms assets? 2. What are all the …
Facebook believed that sharing information freely was a beneficial thing for society and they successfully built their platform now used by some 2 billion users worldwide who bought into that idea. Recently, however, an unintended consequence of that business model has been the widespread use of Facebook by bad players who are exploiting that platform …
One of the most important and hardest presentations you will ever make is the one you give about yourself to an interviewer. There is a weak way and a winning way to answer the question, “Why should we hire you?” Do you know the difference? It’s Not Your Resume Your resume is just the price …
When you were a child, you likely enjoyed saying, (or trying to say) “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,” or “She sells seashells by the seashore.” There is something that engages the ear and hooks into our memory about a sequence of words or phrases that begin with the same sound. For business people, what was a game in …
The current flap over Trump’s condolences to the wife of LA David, the young man who was tragically killed in Niger, illustrates again how important word choices and their delivery are whether you are President of the United States or a professional in business. The post below was originally published Nov. 20, 2012 Current events are …
What Does __ Mean to Listeners? A friend who works for a leading NY landmark event venue recently remarked that they had a “buy-out” last week. “Really?” I said, “This famous landmark was sold!? Who bought it?” “Bought it? No one bought it,” she said. “But you had a buy-out,” I said. “Yes,” she replied. “XYZ company bought out the entire venue for its corporate event. …
You never know when you’ll encounter an example of excellent salesmanship, least of all at the movies. However, that is exactly what happened over the holiday while watching “Hidden Figures,” the wonderful new movie with an outstanding cast that includes Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner. It’s the surprisingly little known story of three amazing black …
Volumes will be written about the 2016 election and we’ll leave that political and historical analysis to historians. For readers of this blog who appreciate that “words matter,” here are three observations from this morning’s reporting on the election that are food for thought for business communicators. Who Are You? Frank Luntz, nationally known pollster, …
A James Joyce sentence can run the length of a page. Ernest Hemingway wrote short simple sentences. When it comes to literature, both are revered for their genius and dramatically different styles. However, when it comes to presenting or speaking, a Hemingway style is the safer bet for success. I was reminded of that this …
Politics aside, from a strictly presentation point of view, it was hard to beat the visual and emotional impact of Khizr Kahn at the Democratic National Convention pulling out a copy of the United States Constitution from his breast jacket pocket to underscore his attack on what he sees as Donald Trump’s unconstitutional views on …