The White Rabbit

Matt and Alper dig further into an article Alper wrote recently about how the beliefs and mindsets we carry around make it hard to present well. Interestingly, many of these scripts that run in the backs of our heads are useful elsewhere in other contexts, but can get in the way too!    

In this episode, economist Zombor Berezvai goes into the importance of telling stories, even when presenting to academic audiences. You'd think that academic audiences would be fine with the unprocessed presentation of data, but as Zombor reminds us, even those groups prefer the data be presented with a story that makes sense of it.   Zombor's LinkedIn profile:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/zomborb...

In this episode, Berk Temuroğlu goes further into organizational changes as a startup's sales base expands to other markets. In particular, how the company's investor base will evolve, how the new investors can help the company, the inevitability of a culture clash during the expansion, and more.

Berk Temuroğlu, in the first part of his repeat guest visit, goes into what challenges a startup, having conquered the world of domestic sales, typically faces when launching into the challenging world of international sales. In this episode, Berk talks about who to choose to lead the expansion, what he calls "the wheel of engagement," weathering the period of boredom, the inevitable evolution of...

In this episode, Matt goes into three of the constraints he often puts his clients into. Sometimes the best way to cut is to subject yourself and your presentation to artificial constraints. In real life, you won't have to meet these artificial constraints, but if you're at 39 minutes and you have to cut it to 20 minutes, maybe top-down (39, 38, 37, etc, on down to 20) won't work. Maybe what you n...

This goes out to all the people out there in their mid-30s who say "My technical skills got me where I am now, so they'll be enough to keep me going." If that's you, you're absolutely correct about the first part, your technical wizardry, and your development of it, worked great for the first 10 years of your career.  But over the next few years of your career, you'll see your technical skills bec...

A couple weeks ago, Alper went into the spiritual side of the business for him. Today we turn the tables on Matt and make him explain the spiritual side from his perspective, and it has to do with bringing peace to others, but not in the way that phrase is usually used.

Berk Temuroğlu goes into corporate managers adopting a founder mindset (and vice versa), the importance of integrating the problem/solution cycle into your communications, and including risk in the ROI calculation. Berk, being that he has one foot in the startup world and another foot in the corporate world, points out that startup founders have, in recent years, become pretty good at describing t...

Alper expounds on a more spiritual way of looking at presenting. Who would have thought Rumi would come up in a conversation about presentations? And yet in this episode, he does. Warning: The phrases "existential" and "serving others" come up in this episode, so be careful with this episode if presenting is nothing more to you than firing up PowerPoint and cranking out some slides.        

In this episode, Max Traylor, consultant to consultants, goes into ways creative businesses can productize their services, other than designing templates and selling them on Canva. One of the core points he makes is the importance of looking at your process, and the value in productizing your process, not just your output. Also, another interesting point he brings up is that consulting is like the...

In this episode, Memet Yazici, who runs a private investment advisory service, goes into a key part of the investment process, the management meeting, and in particular how the audience expectations are different in a meeting with venture capital people compared to a meeting with private equity people. For our listeners who are not in the investment world: This episode is about more than a step in...

Matt and Alper debunk the 93% myth as it has been misapplied to communication, and give some alternatives about what key skills are needed instead. And who would have thought that drywall anchor bolts had something to do with presentations. In this episode, we learn that there is, in fact, a connection.        

Matt and Alper wish a Happy New Year to those celebrating, shoot down the idea of organizing this into seasons (after all, it's a podcast, not a TV series), and go into preparing for a non-linear presentation. For all of you who were hoping our recent discussions of non-linear presentations were excusing you from the need to prepare, sorry, they're not. 

You know the feeling. The palms are sweating, the temples are wet, the mouth is dry. Is it a heart attack, or is it just an old-fashioned case of the jitters? In this episode, Matt and Alper lay into the misconception that nervousness is always bad, that it should be stamped out completely wherever it appears. So grab a glass of water for that cotton mouth, kick back in a nice comfy chair, and lea...

Inspired by a recent guest's comment, Matt and Alper dig into Alper's patented 4-step process for presenting bad news, not just bad news to the board, but bad news to pretty much any audience. The four steps are: 1. State the obvious (be upfront about the problem); 2. Tell them why you believe this happened; 3. Tell them what next steps you will be taking; 4. Give them a timeline. Anybody who need...

In this episode, agency coach Brad Farris goes into the big picture of what a speaker is going through. Interestingly, he sees nervousness as not entirely a bad thing. He also goes into making mirror neurons work for you, how audience agreement doesn't necessarily mean everyone thinks like you do about something, and how to go about presenting bad news.

Today we talk about pitching to procurement. It's a department feared by many, and with a reputation for commoditizing all who appear before it, but Ebru reminds us that the procurement department is staffed by regular folks just like the rest of us, and the department is nothing to be feared. This episode is filled with ways to build a relationship with a company's procurement department so that...

Matt and Alper go into one of Matt's favorite phrases, "Kill your darlings," including how to implement it, why it won't make your audience think you're stupid and simple, what it means for slide design, and more. A hot tip: It's an alternative, easier, "back door" way to achieve a potentially difficult and nerve-wracking style they've discussed in the past, the non-linear presentation.

Jonathan Stark guests on the podcast again, this time to tell us how to have a conversation that will uncover the real reason the client has called you in. Jonathan outlines the three specific questions to ask, plus why it's so important to just sit there for a bit and let the client do the "brain dump." Also, the value of trying to talk them out of hiring you, and why they're unlikely to think, "...

In this episode, guest Jonathan Stark, the king of not billing hourly, goes into how he came to the realization that hourly billing is a huge mistake, how hourly rates are actually "corrosive" to your relationship with your client, and how moving past them ushers in a huge mindset change.  Also, dear listeners, feel no inadequacy. Notice that Jonathan mentions he started this process in 2006, so h...

Alper riffs on a subject a guest brought up recently, that maybe the pushback you get during your presentation isn't about you, it is legitimate questions about your idea. We tend to take things personally (after all, we're human, at least most of us), but as Alper says, it's "crucial" to separate pushback related to you from pushback related to your idea, and to not get caught in the trap of feel...

This week business owner and industry organization board member Ebru Demirel goes into how to present an idea to a company or organization. In particular, she talks about the need for transparency, the willingness to discuss the downside risks of an idea, the importance of training and preparation, and the value, for the leaders being pitched to, of making rapid decisions.        

Almost every slide designer has heard the phrase, "But we can get this done in [insert country here] for a fraction of the price. Slide designers aren't alone in feeling this pressure. So in the interests of hearing how another industry deals with this, today we talk to business coach Geraldine Carter to find out what Certified Public Accountants are doing about it.        

On the docket for today, measuring the efficacy of a presentation. Can it be done? Our answer: Yes. Actually, it's not so simple. Matt not-so-secretly suspects that the presentation itself has no value, and Alper suspects that it does. 

Matt and Alper revisit the low-hanging fruit, the clients' perennial favorite question: "I have a surprise presentation coming up in a few minutes, what are the quick things I should do first to get the biggest part of the improvement?" Hint: They are: 1. Answer the Three Questions, 2. Follow a simple story structure like "man in hole," 3. Make sure your headlines match your message, and 4. Use th...