A pilot does a pre-flight check. Musicians tune their instruments. Radio announcers do a sound check. But what type of prep do you do before your performance? Your performance can be anything from going to work every day, to a keynote speech, to an important sales call, to delivering a [More]
Even though you may be on stage when you are making a presentation, it is your audience that deserves the focus. They don't care about you - at best they only care about how you can "solve their problem". And at worst, they want to be entertained. Changing focus to [More]
You're about to meet a new sales prospect, or interview a new supplier. Or, you're about to meet a new company, and you know very little beyond their name and industry. How can you find out more before you find yourself in front of them? There are four basic techniques [More]
In business school years ago, I learned an important lesson. It's not just what you say, but how you say it that can make a difference. Back then, we were asked to hand in two copies of each major assignment. One copy went to the professor who would mark us [More]
When you are speaking to a large group, who is more important - the audience or you? Picture this: there is an entire audience sitting on the edge of their chairs, listening to each and every one of your words. You may have been paid thousands to deliver your speech. [More]
Recently I had attended the Montreal Jazz Festival. Over the course of several days, dozens of bands of all styles - blues, big band, dixie, fusion, to name a few - played to thousands of spectators. For those not familiar with the genre, most jazz follows a similar story line: [More]
Formal presentations are critical to your professional success: they are used when you are pitching your ideas to colleagues or clients, when delivering a speech, and even during the job interview process. When we were taught how to make a speech back in grade school, we were given the rudiments: [More]
I once worked for a brilliant leader... whose mother tongue wasn't English. To my horror, I discovered that he didn't always understand every word that I spoke or wrote. With increased diversity and a more global business environment, expect this to happen more and more frequently. The challenge selling a [More]
Most first impressions are formed within the first 10 seconds of conversation. Most hiring managers will take only 20-40 seconds to screen a resume. Most prospects will tune out a sales presentations in the same amount of time. What is the key to forming that first great impression? To speak [More]
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