Posts tagged as:

notes

How to persuade other people to ditch the bullets

May 14, 2009

You’ve read Presentation Zen and Slideology and you’re convinced about the benefits of using visually-engaging PowerPoint slides when you present. But everyone else in your organization stubbornly sticks to the bullet-point slides. How can you persuade them to change their minds?
The absolute first thing to do, is to be a good role model. When you [...]

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How to prevent and recover from mind blanks

May 7, 2009

Are you concerned that you might suffer a mind blank during a presentation? The fear of a mind blank can be a large part of the fear of public speaking for many people. It happened to Sally Field in her Emmy Acceptance speech in 2007:

How can you avoid this happening to you?
How to reduce the [...]

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5 steps to effective Powerpoint Presentations

November 25, 2008

Stepcase Lifehack just published a blogpost on tips for more effective PowerPoint presentations. I was surprised to see some outdated and unhelpful advice. Here are my five steps to create an effective PowerPoint presentation. I’ve written about many of these steps before, so I’ve provided links to more detailed posts if you’d like more information.
1. [...]

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5 ways bullet-point slides damage your brand

November 16, 2008

Your presentation style is part of your personal brand. If you’re still clinging to bullet-point slides, it doesn’t matter how dynamic you are as a presenter, your personal brand will be damaged.
That’s because when you use bullet-laden slides in your presentation, your audience will make five decisions about you and your presentation:
1. This is going [...]

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I wish I’d spoken at my father’s funeral

October 26, 2008

Being able to express yourself publicly at important ceremonies and celebrations – funerals, weddings, christenings and birthdays – is one of the greatest gifts.
My father died 10 years ago. I was going to speak at his funeral. But when we arrived at the church all I could see were the distinguished, CEO-looking men in the [...]

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Stop being a slave to your PowerPoint slides

August 16, 2008

In my last post The lost art of notes I suggested that you have your own set of hard-copy notes so that you’re no longer reliant on PowerPoint for your notes.
The second step to break free of PowerPoint as your autocue is to have a printout of your PowerPoint slides.
The benefits of a printout of [...]

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The lost art of notes

August 14, 2008

In my post The PowerPoint Revolution hasn’t gone far enough I said that PowerPoint should be an equal partner in our presentations.
There’s a major obstacle to implementing this principle. That’s using the PowerPoint slides as your notes. If you use PowerPoint as your notes, PowerPoint always cues you. You click, you speak, click-speak, click-speak.
If you [...]