The Presentations Japan Series

How To Prepare With Your Coach For Your Big Speech   There is a major event looming on your schedule and as President, you will be expected to deliver the keynote address to a very important audience.  This was the situation recently when I was coaching a major corporation's President for his speech.  I realised that the people around the President, don't have a clear idea of what is needed to pro...

Designing Your Presentation On The Head Of A Pin   The head of a pin isn't much real estate is it.  The metaphor for presenting is to have pin point accuracy around what you are presenting. Going straight to the slide deck production component takes us too broad.  This should be the last element, rather than the first.  The temptation though is to get into thinking about different visuals, graphs,...

Presentation Visuals Mastery Part Seven We continue with part seven concluding session of Presentation Visuals Mastery. Last week we talked about when presenting, you need to transfer your energy to the audience.   However don't have your energy levels at the maximum volume all the time.  That just wears an audience out and wears you out too.  Instead, you need to have some variation.  Very strong...

Presentation Visuals Mastery Part Six We continue with part six of Presentation Visuals Mastery. Where we stand is important.  But as a presenter where should we stand? If it is a big venue and the screen takes up the whole background, I like to use the front, left and right side of the stage for a bit of variation. I try to stand as far to the front as I can, on the very apron of the stage.  I tr...

Presentation Visuals Mastery Part Five We continue our series on presentation visuals mastery. Using visuals when presenting helps us to relay the key messages.  However, sometimes you don't need to have things up on the screen at all.  You can show the visual and then disappear it.  You do this because you don't want to have the screen images competing with your verbal message. Just hit B. Then t...

Presentation Visuals Mastery Part Four We keep with our theme of dealing with all aspects of the visuals part of your presentation. I have seen lots of people get lost with their notes.  They have copious notes and then they start reading them to us.  Don't.  That's my advice. Don't.  Don't read your notes. Have your points, sure.  Have some points, have some notes.  That's fine.  No one will begr...

Presentation Visuals Mastery Part Three We are continuing our in depth series on mastering presentation visuals. When you have a presentation to give, always get to the venue early and run your slides through their projector, on their screen, in that venue. You can spot trouble immediately and make any final adjustments you need to make there and then. Often the environments are different in a way...

Presentation Visuals Mastery Part Two Here we are back with Part Two of the exciting journey into how to use visuals when presenting.  Given how straight forward this is, you wonder how come so many people make a mess of it?  Let's keep going with some guidelines to help us stand out in the crowd, as the special few, who are professional and know what they are doing. Bar graphs are great.  They ma...

Presentation Visuals Mastery (Part One) Today we are going to look at the proper use of visuals when we are presenting.  Many people ask us at Dale Carnegie, what should I do with preparing my PowerPoint or my key note presentation?  What about visuals?  What's too much?  What's too little?  What's the best way to make this work for me?  Well there's a couple of things we need to consider at the v...

Um, Um, Um, Er, I, Um, Ah, Um... My former colleague was a notorious "ummer" and "ahher". "Um, I, um, would, um, like to um, say um, thank you, um, for um, this um, opportunity". Listening to him was seriously, seriously painful.  Time seemed to freeze over, as it took forever for him to get to the point, which was mostly lost due to dreadful syntax. Your brain basically goes into meltdown mode an...

Naomi Osaka's Public Speaking Lessons   Congratulations to tennis star Naomi Osaka for winning the Australian open and rising to Number One ranking globally.  Japan loves to see Japanese athletes doing well, so this new ranking is a first for Japanese tennis and a big deal here.  I looked at her press conference and her acceptance speech and what a contrast. In the press conference she was asked t...

How To Handle Killer Questions From Your Audience   We have probably all been on the receiving end of it or have been a witness to it. The presentation is completed, after which come the questions; some are fact finding, some seek clarification, while some are just plain really nasty.  Perhaps the questioner is not trying to be mean, but the result is the same. All eyes in the room burn a hole int...

Be Fearless.  Become A Considered Self Promoter To Grow Your Business   I am infamous in Tokyo. I always ask the first question of the speaker at an event.  "Oh Greg, you always ask the first question", people say, as if it was a bad thing. They don't get it.  In my case, I have found that having an interesting question is one thing, but having the chance to get it answered is another.  In the pas...

The Impromptu Talk   If you are called upon at an internal meeting with the big bosses, or during an external public event, to suddenly speak on a topic do you say, "whoopee, here is my time to shine" or do you find you are suffering from instant whiteout of the brain?  Not being prepared at any time is bad.  What about when all those beady eyes are focused on you and you are panicking? You don't...

One Of Your Most Vital Presentations   Usually when we hear the term "presentation", we think of a public arena, a big crowd and a lot of formality.  These public occasions are important because this is your personal and professional brand on show to the world.  There are other presentations though, which are in the family bosom of the company, away from the bright lights and the fanfare.  This is...

Firing Up An Audience   Whenever I am in the USA, I love watching the different television preachers in action.  I am not looking for salvation particularly, but I am looking for hints on how to work an audience.  Now obviously competing with their promises on how to get to heaven is going to be difficult, but we can see some things that work which we can use in business for ourselves.    They are...

The Japan Gap Between Speaker And Audience Is Still Vast   Lawyers in Japan are an elite group.  Senior lawyers are the elite of the super elite.  When I landed in Tokyo on April 1st, 1979, Tokyo was completely different city than what it is today.  A low rise, rambling, conurbation maze of small streets and ugly grey buildings, long stained by air pollution.  Like the city itself, many things wer...

If You Want Your Audience To Be Enthusiastic Act Enthusiastic Yourself   There is an old truism in sales, "sales is nothing more than the transfer of the enthusiasm of the seller for the product or service to the buyer".  What are we doing when we are speaking?  We are selling!  "Hang on a minute there Greg.  I am a professional, I am not a car or vacuum cleaner salesman", you might be saying to y...

Including Dialogue In Our Presentations   Normally when we give presentations, they tend to be pretty dry affairs.  We marshal the facts, relate what happened, tell stories perhaps but in a one dimensional way.  We are relating what happened, but are not making any attempt to bring it alive.  However, what do we seek when we are looking for entertainment or education – we are looking for dialogue....

Plumb Your Own Experiences For Content When Presenting   It is ironic how talkative we are on some subjects, but how lost we are when it comes to giving public talks.  If you were asked by friends about your holiday trip to Italy, you could probably go on for hours quite comfortably telling us about the food, the sights, the locations you went to and what you saw there.  That romantic boat trip on...

What Is The Right Length For Your Speech   This was a gala affair for a very worthy cause.  A grand setting. Beautiful ladies in evening gowns, men resplendent in their tuxedos. The host of the charity event was duly introduced, to give an opening speech.  The speech actually started quite well.  He told a powerful story about a young person struggling in their life. The trials, tribulations and b...

How To Get Speaking Gigs To Promote Your Personal Brand   A businessman reached out to me after attending my recent speech on "The Seven Deadly Fails Of Selling In Japan", which I gave to the American Chamber of Commerce here in Tokyo. He wasn't interested in hearing about how to sell in Japan, but he was frustrated that he was too low profile in his industry.  The consequence of being invisible i...

Creating Your Personal Style When Presenting   When we are writing, we can create a style of our own.  The way we use certain vocabulary, the phrasing we apply in our sentences, the types of subjects we tackle.  What about when we are speaking?  What would we like to be known for?  When people hear we are speaking, are they saying to themselves, "I need to attend that talk"?  The answer to can we...

Presenting By Video Conferencing   Technology is getting pretty good these days so joining meetings remotely is becoming more and more common.  Years ago the platforms were not that stable and the actions and voice synchronization had a problem with delays.  I had a job interview with a panel by video conference which was horrible.  The panel looked very small on the screen because the system coul...