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There is wide acceptance that it’s a lot more difficult to persuade an audience about anything if you don’t personally “believe” – no matter what your topic is. Why then do so many erudite speakers who believe fervently in their topics still fail to convince – or get...

More presentations are messed up by poor organisation than by inadequate preparation. How can one substantiate such a statement? Quite easily actually, because you are usually asked to present on a topic with which you are familiar, so even if short on preparation, your knowledge...

The best way to get your message across and secure your objective is to say what you mean. This is best done by speaking clearly and using simple language. You’d think that should be easy. It seems it is not. Far too many folk think that the podium is the ideal opportunity to...

The ability to connect with an audience is critical in getting your key message and the content of your presentation across. It is so important that it must be considered a make or break factor. If you hook the audience from the start, you’ve immediately increased your chances of...

Savvy presenters understand that the hour prior to going live is more stressful than the presentation itself. With your preparation and rehearsals behind you, you’re dealing with last minute issues such as arriving at the venue on time and organising your set up. Hopefully, the...

Would it surprise you to discover that most people do not go about preparing a presentation expecting a successful outcome? In fact, the vast majority focus on their content (what they’ll deliver) rather than on what they want the outcome to be. There are several reasons...

The very best outcome of delivering a presentation is to achieve your intended result, regardless of the compliments you achieve. That’s why you went to all the trouble in the first place. It feels wonderful to “pull it off” successfully. But successful...

Sportsmen and women rely on past results to estimate what they are likely to achieve in future. The best results become their benchmarks. The logical assumption is that what was achieved before can be achieved again – or perhaps better in the future. When an athlete has an...

One of the most frequent fears expressed by student presenters is that of presenting to senior managers or executives. Why does positional status seem to add to presentation stress? What makes seniority a cause for added stress and what makes them different from presenting to...

You can engage an audience with technique. You can also do so with warmth and authenticity. The great presenters call on both, in generous doses. Let me be clear from the outset – successful presentations require good content. But when mediocre content is delivered...

The most recent trend about presentations is that people are no longer complaining about them so much as avoiding them. I wonder why? Perhaps it’s a bit like the really inconsiderate drivers on our busy roads complaining about how badly everyone else drives. Fortunately for them,...

Despite the fact that there are more self help books available now than ever before, it seems that we humans continue to make the same mistakes over and over. But not all of us. Just, well – most of us! The puzzling question is why? I think I may have an answer. In our...