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In this interview with stand-up comedian David Whitney we talked about...:   - Fear of public speaking   - Preparation before getting in front of an audience   - Storytelling  - How to find the funny if you are a very serious person   - Rehearsal   - How to read the audience in the moment   - Dealing with a difficult audience   - What to do before going on stage   - Public speaking lessons for business professionals   - and much more...

In this interview with Keynote and Conference Business Speaker Lee Warren we talked about...:   Why grown-ups don’t use PowerPoint   Why you should care about presentations  How to warm up    Why all presentations are selling something   How to find your key messages with a single question  Why you should rehearse  The difference between rehearsal and practice   How to customise your talk for different audiences   How to prepare for difficult audiences   Tips for online presentations    +++  If you’d like to learn more about how to create and deliver business presentations that get engagement or the sale, come and say hi at one of our next events in London: http://ideasonstageuk.eventbrite.com

If you want to be able to create and deliver great presentations, you need to make sure you meet 5 key success criteria. Remember the word SCORE: Simple Clear Original Related Enjoyable In this video I unpack the Presentation SCORE method.

Make your next presentation naked. 

There are three key arts of presenting: Preparation (your story) Design (your slides) Delivery (your presence) Which of the three do you think is the most important one?

You might have a great story to share with your audience, but if you use poor slides that don’t support and reinforce your message, your audience is not going to understand and remember. 

Voice coach Jimmy Cannon shares some great tips for business professionals who want to improve and control their voice for public speaking and presentations (and singing).  Here are the links I mentioned in the interview:  - Upcoming FREE events: http://ideasonstageuk.eventbrite.com - Additional free resources to help you improve your presentations (report, webinar, presentation skills assessment tool): http://bit.ly/presentation-valuebundle

If you were to summarize the objective of a presentation in one word, what would that be? 

This is the very first thing you need to do when preparing presentations. 

What do you think makes a good or bad presentation? 

Here are the 3 key ingredients you need in order to make great business presentations. If you think it’s just about PowerPoint, you’ve missed the point. 

99% of business presentations suck. Why is this a problem? 

As Mark Twain said, there are only two types of speakers: those who get nervous and those who are liars.   In this interview with Olivia James, Performance Anxiety and Trauma Consultant, we talked about public speaking anxiety.    Listen to the podcast to learn: ✔ What makes people nervous when speaking in public   ✔ How to deal with it   ✔ Practical advice to reduce your nerves     +++ Here are the links I mentioned in the interview:   - Upcoming FREE events: http://ideasonstageuk.eventbrite.com  - Additional free resources to help you improve your presentations (report, webinar, presentation skills assessment tool): http://bit.ly/presentation-valuebundle

How can you make sure your audience gives you a round of applause once you finish your presentation? There's a simple technique which works all the time.

Ehsan Ghavimi is a High-Performance Life Coach and TEDx Speaker. He helps young professionals achieve extraordinary results in their lives, work and relationships.   Ehsan was afraid of speaking in front of an audience until he went to an improvisation workshop that changed his life. He always felt like he had something to say but didn’t know how to say it. Improvisation helped him find his voice.   Ehsan went on to become an Improvisation and Public Speaking Coach, and this led him to become a High-Performance Life Coach. He has performed at the world’s biggest arts festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, and told his story on the TEDx stage.   In this interview we talked about communication, storytelling, improvisation, presentations, standup comedy and everything in between. 

Gina Barnett is a great communication consultant who is also a speaker coach for the Main Stage TED Conference. And she also wrote an interesting book on communication, body language and presence: Play the Part.

Most business professionals assume that their presentation is over when the presentation is over. It’s not. Q&A is an integral part of your presentation, so make sure you get it right. 

Why a presentation isn't always the right medium.

What are the three essential aspects to consider in order to create high-quality presentations? 

Have you ever thought about which kind of background works best for your slides? Light, dark, black, white?