“If we want to develop, in any sphere, we have to know what we’re doing now – how we’re talking, how people react to us, how persuasive we are, how confident we appear, etc. Once we can see that clearly, we begin to see how to change. Woven throughout all of our work is the skill of developing self-awareness: physically, vocally and psychologically.”
If you run any kind of successful business, you’ll have to pitch and present to clients. Whether a formal PowerPoint demo, or an ‘introductory meeting’, we all get the invitation to ‘come and tell us what you do’. The trouble is most of us believe that when a client asks us to come and pitch […]
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If you’ve got a presentation coming up, then watch this video. Much more important than ‘presentation skills’ is your ability to affect an audience and make them act on your message. The story in this video will show you how to get your message across to your audience, and sometimes let you ditch PowerPoint too! […]
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How do you articulate the value of what you do to someone else? When I work with clients, in any industry, one of the first challenges I give them is to explain what they do in a way that is compelling to a client. So far, no one has been able to do it. Isn’t […]
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I met the exec team at a client of mine recently to report back on a project I’d been running for them. We had a great meeting, the atmosphere was good, and at the end I was asked to think about taking on another project for them near the end of the year – a […]
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I’m a bit unusual, I suppose, among presentation coaches, in that I spend more of my time standing on stage presenting than teaching people how to do it! There are two reasons I spend so much time delivering presentations – 1. I love it 2. It’s the single most successful way I know to promote […]
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I think it’s fair to say that you’re always pitching, to some extent, when you’re at networking events. Whether you’re talking internally about projects and opportunities, or whether you’re responsible for new business and are trying to meet new clients, pretty much everyone at a networking event has something to sell. For many of us, […]
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“Hi, my name’s John, and I specialise in helping companies just like yours…” We hear messages like this all the time at networking events, and I don’t think I’m the only person who tunes out within the first sentence.
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In the previous post, I wrote about a networking situation we’re all really familiar with – you meet someone you’ve always wanted to meet, and then you blew it because you weren’t prepared. I spend my working life sitting down with people and helping them to communicate better, either by presenting, pitching or networking and […]
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It’s a busy room, you’re lurking near the walls. You’ve made an effort at this networking event, and you have spoken to one new person. Unfortunately, he had the charisma of a cereal packet and tried to give you a detailed overview of his ‘game-changing business idea’ which sounded a lot like all the other […]
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If you’ve ever come to one of my talks, you’ll know that I constantly emphasise the importance of knowing your audience – who are they and what do you want them to do? The video below shows Steve Jobs (a hero to many professional presenters) in a question and answer session from 1997, when he […]
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