The White Rabbit

Having broadcast for about 5 months, Matt and Alper decide it's time to tell the audience how they got into this business, so people don't think they're just random axe murderers who showed up to talk about presentations. Up today: Matt and how he got into this business.

Alper wraps up this mini-series with a deep dive into must-have principle #6 of the entrepreneurial pitch deck: Exit, and how it is so sorely needed, and yet is lacking in almost all pitch decks. A shout-out goes to Mathieu Carenzo, Alper's mentor in Barcelona. Mathieu is not a slide designer, but rather a business school professor, a seasoned entrepreneur and a dynamic business angel with current...

Alper goes further into must-have principle #5 of the entrepreneurial pitch deck: Scalability, and scalability of a particular type (hint: it's not scalability of revenue or headcount). A shout-out goes to Mathieu Carenzo, Alper's mentor in Barcelona. Mathieu is not a slide designer, but rather a business school professor, a seasoned entrepreneur and a dynamic business angel with current investmen...

Alper goes further into must-have principle #4 of the entrepreneurial pitch deck: Team, and what needs to go on that slide and what is just table stakes, even though entrepreneurs seem to love putting it on there. A shout-out goes to Mathieu Carenzo, Alper's mentor in Barcelona. Mathieu is not a slide designer, but rather a business school professor, a seasoned entrepreneur and a dynamic business...

Alper goes further into must-have principle #3 of the entrepreneurial pitch deck: Timing, and suggests some more imaginative ways to represent that element on a slide. A shout-out goes to Mathieu Carenzo, Alper's mentor in Barcelona. Mathieu is not a slide designer, but rather a business school professor, a seasoned entrepreneur and a dynamic business angel with current investments in scale-ups. T...

Alper goes into the first two of six must-have elements in an entrepreneur pitch deck: Market, and Value Proposition, and how to represent those in a slide deck. A shout-out goes to Mathieu Carenzo, Alper's mentor in Barcelona. Mathieu is not a slide designer, but rather a business school professor, a seasoned entrepreneur and a dynamic business angel with current investments in scale-ups. This ep...

Matt and Alper cover 6 of their presentation pet peeves, and try to do so quickly without droning on and on for 6 hours. Avoid these common mistakes and your audiences will appreciate it!

Alper asks Matt what he means by the phrase "vocabulary is a zip file," a phrase Matt uses a lot but that probably warrants some explanation, and Matt demonstrates how you can use vivid words in your presentations, even when you are speaking to an audience that might not know your fancy native-speaker terms.

Alper witnessed a presentation this week where the speaker missed out on using three particular tools he probably should have taken advantage of. They are very common, but even so, all too many presenters overlook them. Don't overlook these three tools, and your presentations are almost guaranteed to be better.

Matt uses this phrase all the time: "Talk to the dog." What does that even mean? Finally, an answer to the question.

Matt and Alper, both fans of Blair Enns, take one of his structures (a sales cycle structure) and see if they can map that structure to presentations, too. Warning: They are taking somebody else's one thing, and seeing if it can be repurposed for a different thing. Your results may vary.   Show notes: Blair Enns' website: http://www.winwithoutpitching.com/

Alper tells us about 3 favorite apps useful for presenters. The apps: Camo Studio: https://reincubate.com/camo/ Duet Display: https://www.duetdisplay.com PromptSmart: https://promptsmart.com

Matt makes an observation about how PowerPoint training and presentation training are often conflated, and offers a theory as to why.

Alper and Matt go deeper on the issue of audience resistance, and the unfortunate tendency of presentation training to try to overcome it, instead of elicit it and then leverage it. This was not an intended episode, but last week's discussion of resistance triggered it.

Alper talks about his evolution from trying to overcome audience resistance to actively eliciting it, and how others can seek it out, too.

Matt and Alper make good on a promise to give people a story structure they can actually use in business presentations.

Alper punches holes in Matt's "No Visual Design" theory, and Matt clarifies what he means.

Matt reveals a "controversial" opinion he fears is going to get him run out of town by an angry mob, and then he finds out it's not actually that big a deal.

Alper describes a horrific video crash, and how to avoid being embarrassed when that happens.

Matt goes into the first three questions you should ask before any presentation. They sound obvious, but they are surprisingly not.

Alper goes into what is a leave-behind, what is its purpose, and how do you decide what to put in it.