Author name: Jon Torrens

When it comes to giving a presentation, split your preparation time into two stages:  Creating the material. Rehearsal ONLY. Most people I’ve worked with don’t bother rehearsing at all. Some people ‘run through it in their head’, which seems a good idea, but – in my opinion – it’s pretty useless. Changing the content right […]

If you feel that your presentations aren’t really grabbing your audience – don’t give a presentation, have a conversation: + Try to be informal. Your subject may be important or serious, but a light touch may make it easier for your audience to accept.+ Be authentic. If you’ve had a bad experience, you might bond

A story would be great for your talk, but what if you can’t think of one? Well, consider the process of preparing for a recent project – perhaps even the talk itself: ‘Unfortunately, I had to tackle this daunting project’‘Fortunately, I knew the subject inside out’‘Unfortunately, it became way tougher than I’d imagined’‘Fortunately, I met

The content of your talk is obviously very important; your audience wants substance, useful information and an inspiring message. However, I often see speakers for whom the other half of their talk is a bit poor: the delivery. Your audience is looking for emotional guidance on how they should feel about you and the talk.

The key to your talk’s success is preparation. Obvious, I know. Here’s a process I recommend: Stage 1: Write your material.+ Start thinking (and even better, speaking) about the subject, and capture those ideas in some form. The aim is to quickly build a basic structure that is strong enough to support the complete talk.