Presentation Effectiveness

Pattern Interruption

November 5, 2019 By Carol Keers Leave a Comment

When giving a presentation it is important to provide variety to keep the audience interested. One example is to use a full screen visual as a pattern interruption to break up your data slides.

The above photo is from a magazine called Milk Street. Their editors go around the world to find food ideas. The caption says, “In Mumbai, men called ‘dabbawalas’ deliver 280,000 lunches a day. Just one in 6 million goes astray.” This photo would be a great option to add to a supply chain presentation.

Executive Presence Tip – Carol Keers

Presentation Checklist

January 24, 2019 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

What’s your pre-flight checklist for a key communication moment? Your airline pilot does it, your surgeon does it, and so should you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a persuasion moment, a presentation, or a comment in a meeting; being aware helps your executive presence.

Here’s a checklist one of our clients found most helpful. Before you open your mouth, check your

Breathing,
Body posture,
Facial expression,
Listen for key words others are using.
Based on those observations, choose your point, and then speak concisely.

Carol Keers’ Executive Presence Tip

Seinfeld Jokes

October 2, 2017 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

Netflix is doing a special with Jerry Seinfeld where he dissects what is funny.

Seeing how Jerry Seinfeld worked so hard to make his humor seem like it was casual and off the cuff is a lesson for all of us who need to communicate with impact. A Wall Street Journal article describes how Seinfeld used a Bic pen and a yellow pad to try to make his jokes as clear and concise as possible.

He saw candy advertised as breakfast cereal to be great humor. He even looked at the cereal names to see which ones would be fun. Choice of words can make a big difference. “Fruity Pebbles” works much better than “Oat Bran”. He would try to strip out every unnecessary word. He liked surprise.

Example:

“I think Nietzsche said often after a bowl of Cookie Crisps,
‘If it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger’
He loved Cookie Crisps … and it almost killed him.”

Seinfeld liked pen on paper because he felt like an artist as he wrote his jokes. He would cross out parts and insert other words to get it just the way he wanted it to sound. He has saved all of his yellow pad pages dating from 1975 when he started. He has filed the jokes so he can pull them out when needed for fresh ideas.

Application

Your Personal Teleprompter

May 19, 2017 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

Overcoming one of the biggest fears just became easier.

A senior and experienced executive called with some uncharacteristic fear in his voice. It turned out that he had committed to speak to an industry conference with several thousand people in the audience. He would be using a teleprompter for his speech. He had only used a large teleprompter once before, and he remembered it not going well.

He wanted to practice his speech with the moving script of the teleprompter. Until now, that request would have required a teleprompter operator, and some computer software that most people do not possess.

A recent breakthrough is the ability to use an iPad as a teleprompter, and also have the speed of the teleprompter adjust to the speaker by doing voice-to-text translation. The PromptSmart app has a number of other features as well that make it great for practice and delivery of speeches. I prepared a one-minute demonstration of the prompter. It follows my reading of the prompter text, even when my spoken words do not fully match the script. Problem solved.