The White Rabbit

Ben Steele goes into AI and where it is useful for our presentations, and where it merely makes us sound more average and flat. In the process, he brings forth some excellent, and very artistic, turns of phrase.

Alper and Matt discuss the ramifications of the popular phrase "provide value," with Matt being highly suspicious of the phrase.

Repeat guest Wes Wheless goes into a business pivot he had to make. Alper, Wes, and Matt discuss what presenters can learn from this pivot.

Guest Ebru Demirel discusses face-to-face meetings, the concerns of potential customers, and more things involved with growing a business in another country, even when you are already well-established in your own.

Matt offers up a real-life example of a potentially explosive conversation, and Alper helps him sort out his understanding of what's going on and how to put those techniques to use in presentations. Also, Matt tests a contrarian opinion, but Alper quickly shoots it down and sends Matt back to the drawing board.

In this episode, Lyuba Levchuk, president of Istanbul Toastmasters, goes into her public speaking journey and gives some tips on making your next presentation the best it can be.

You know how sometimes you run into people who have done all the "right" stuff -- taken the trainings, joined a public speaking club, even practicing in front of the mirror ad infinitum -- but they still have that nagging feeling that something might be holding them back? Well, in this episode Alper digs deep into 4 of these "advanced blockers," mindsets that might be getting i...

In this episode, Matthew Rawle discusses owned media and the ways it can better help you connect with your audience.

Sevil Kubilay, a recent arrival in Startup Land, goes into The Transition (going from corporate life to startup life), the hesitance to put herself into her company's story, and a common misconception of Japan's ikigai.

In this episode, guest Pranav Kale riffs on how to find your big idea, the importance of knowing what your big idea is, how to sync it with the words the market might be using to describe it, and, surprise surprise, what all this has to do with Subway sandwiches.

In this episode, guest Nick Richtsmeier talks about how the internet is affecting the mindset of your audience members. This is a great episode for beginning to understand the mindset your audience members are in long before they even show up in the room for your presentation.

Matt and Alper go into ways to build trust with your audience during your presentation, including, perhaps counterintuitively, saying no.

Wes Wheless, in going into something he calls intellectual headshots, talks about the importance of distilling your larger body of work into a set of clear visual representations of an idea, and how those visuals allow your idea to travel. Link to the Headshots, and other good stuff: https://www.developmyip.com/whiterabbit

Baldwin Berges, an advisor for the European Commission and the Islamic Development Bank, talks about doing business in emerging markets. In particular for us presentation-related folks, he talks about some of his tips and tricks for researching your audience, and a couple top-level frameworks you can use for understanding a group's dynamics.

Guest Brad Farris dives into how presence saves time. Often, we humans tend to think being present costs time. But listen up as Brad goes into how it can help you solve problems faster and have more time on your hands at the same time (no pun intended).

Our guest Luka Krejci, a presentation trainer from Croatia, talks about presentation training in general and his new book Presentation Cookbook in particular. Also, Matt and Alper focus on different aspects of the view outside Luka's office window.

Alper dives into an episode we did recently with Alex Smith, applying Alex's principles of strategy to the world of presentations.

Matt and Alper riff on a couple comments from recent guests, to the extent of us humans being less rational than we like to think we are, and what can we do about that, if anything.

Selim Selveroğlu, a product manager for Dell, goes into the "Me First" vs "Connection First" communications strategies framework, and some of the ways he trains people on how that framework can help them improve their communication.

Şebnem Dağ Güven goes into the importance of storytelling in sales and how she goes about training her people in that skill.

Alex Smith of basicarts.org talks about the two stories every company needs, and how important having a well-defined strategy is before making them.

In today's episode, Rick Pizzoli returns with valuable suggestions for startup companies who are moving from founder-led sales to a more professional sales team. Even if you're not in this startup demographic, there are some great learnings coming out of this episode about how the sales transition is going to affect your organization.

This episode's guest is Rick Pizzoli, the CEO of Sales Force Europe. Rick goes into things like what prompts a company to want to sell abroad, how to get your employees and investors on board, and some of the nuts and bolts of selling into the EU specifically.

Alper goes into the three mistakes he sees people making all the time. Learn what these are, don't make them, and you'll be ahead of half the game.

Yalın Yüregil goes into various aspects of selling into another country, specifically the importance of addressing operational issues you think you already figured out, adjusting your expectations, staying away from the all-to-common mindset of "it works here, so it will work there too," and the legacy experiences of your buyers.