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September 24, 2009
If you’re presenting from a lectern, don’t grasp the sides of the lectern like a drowning sailor clinging to a piece of driftwood. Your white knuckles will show and you’ll only become more tense. Instead, rest one hand atop your notes (if any) or in the center of the lectern top and use your other […]
September 23, 2009
Now that rerun season is over, I can relax in front of my HDTV and enjoy the newest work of the great writers for Madmen or Big Bang Theory. TV is a strange universe where, for months on end during the summer, we’ll tolerate recycled shows that we’ve already watched three or four times. I […]
September 22, 2009
Studies at the University of California examined the impact on an audience of the words a presenter speaks, his or her tone of voice, and body language. Surprisingly, it turns out that your words–the message you want to convey–amount to only 7% of the impact you make. Tone of voice accounts for 38% and body […]
September 21, 2009
While it’s generally impossible to understand why a cat decides in mid nap that it suddenly needs to dart to the laundry room, I have learned a few lessons that actually make some sense out of my bully of a panther’s puzzling shenanigans: Usually, you can’t get inside the mirror to figure out what the […]
September 18, 2009
Connecting with your audience members by approaching and turning toward them is crucial to a presentation’s success. Standing behind a lectern and pontificating is not “connecting.” You need to reach out to and gain eye contact with individuals and individual segments of your audience if you expect chemistry to brew and credibility to grow. Therefore, when […]
September 18, 2009
On the Jewish calendar, this evening begins a new year—5770. So, although resolutions are not really part of the Rosh Hashanah tradition, at this time in our political, social and communications history, a few pledges, like the following, may be in order: We will allow winners to hold on to their microphones without jumping on […]
September 17, 2009
Since you, not the slides, should be the focal point for your audience, stand in the same line of sight as the screen. The slides should support you, not vice versa. If you’re 90 degrees from the screen, you’ll never be able to draw the audience’s attention from the motion, light and color of the […]
September 17, 2009
The core reason for giving a live presentation for marketing purposes is to present YOU, not your PowerPoint deck. For training or instruction, yes, what’s on the screen may be most important. But for a standard business presentation, your goal is to create chemistry, convince your audience you can deliver on your promises and clarify […]
September 16, 2009
Now that the kids have gone back to school, maybe it’s time that we did too; because there’s so much new to learn every day. The pace of technology has accelerated so rapidly in the past year—even the past weeks—that the term “Internet speed” seems somehow antiquated. Next month marks the 40th anniversary of the […]
The Technology of Basics
September 29, 2009
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Okay, so now when we board a plane, it’s pretty much no food, no movies, no free tickets for frequent fliers, no free aisle seats, no paper tickets and no free baggage checks. But you might be able to connect to the Internet, watch cable TV, play trivia games against someone sitting in 27C, or […]