It makes sense to be authentic when presenting, because this is the easiest state to maintain. As someone wise once noted, “if you are going to be a liar you need a stupendous memory to keep up with who you told what”. Presenting is something similar. Maintaining a fiction in front of an audience takes a lot of skill. In fact, if you have that much…

When I read this quote from Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon from 1971 that “ a wealth of information would create a poverty of attention” I thought about its ramifications for presenters. Today, we are firmly swimming against a King tide of information overload, so Simon’s dystopian prophecy has come to fruition. This is the Age of Distraction for aud…

The largest meeting venue in the office complex was big enough to handle hundreds of people and it was packed. This presentation involved all the senior heads of the Department going through their strategies for the coming year. One after another, we took to the stage and spoke about our areas of responsibility. I was one of the five who spoke. My …

I listen to some podcasts on writing, trying to better educate myself on the craft. I was hopeless at English at school, so the rest of my life has been a remedial fix in that department. Fundamentally, these podcast authors are aimed at fiction writers, rather than non-fiction scribblers like me. A lot of what we do in business on our dog down day…

Presentations have become tediously monochrome. The speaker speaks, the audience sit there passively taking it all in. After the speaker’s peroration, they get to offer up a few questions for about 10 to 15 minutes or so and then that is the end of it. With the pivot to online presentations, the fabric of the presentation methodology hasn’t changed…

Many people break the rules of presenting, usually unknowingly. They have Johari Window style blind spots, where others know they are making mistakes, but they themselves are oblivious and just don’t know. This is extremely dangerous, because when you don’t know, you keep hardening the arteries of your habit formation. It is diabolically difficult …

Bonseki is a Japanese art creating miniature landscapes, on a black tray using white sand, pebbles and small rocks. They are exquisite but temporary. The bonseki can’t be preserved and are an original, throw away art form. Speaking to audiences is like that, temporary. Once we down tools and go home, that is the end of it. Our reach can be transien…

In Part One, we looked at the ideas of primacy (the first thing we remember) and recency (the last thing we remember) and what this means for speakers. Now in Part Two we will go deeper with our entry and exit points of the chapters within the talk and how to choreograph the big crescendo for our polemic’s sparkling conclusion. We naturally have to…

Primacy refers to the beginning of something, as it enters our brain. This new entity has a powerful impact on our memory and our concentration. To muscle itself into our existing brain thought stream, takes a lot of mental energy. If successful, the new direction grabs us more powerfully than continuing with the same existing thought pattern. Rece…

Bruce Springsteen’s song Glory Days lyric, “Boring stories of Glory days yeah, they’ll pass you by” pops into my head sometimes, when I hear a speaker reminiscing about their glorious past. I was sitting there at a chamber function when the speaker began to talk at length about his start in sales and his experiences. It was fascinating for him no d…

For many people it may seem we are getting into oxymoron territory here. “Public speaking…enjoyable? You must be kidding mate”. Many are called upon to speak and reluctantly they give their talk without talent, enthusiasm or particular motivation. A duty, an unavoidable pain, like going back to the dentist for that root canal. As we rise in our car…

Experts, pseudo experts, amateurs, believers, sceptics, supporters, enemies make up that sea of faces in front of us when we get up to speak. We can get some basic data from the organisers about who is in the room. What industries, companies, gender, age configurations are arrayed in those venue seats. What we can’t tell are the information assimil…

In our High Impact Presentations (HIP) course, we do a number of presentations over two days of training. What I love about teaching this programme is that you see the results immediately. If we are teaching leadership or sales, it is very hard to see immediate results and those programmes are multi-week efforts. Day One we have the first presentat…

Sometimes the organisers of the presentation event ask us if they can distribute our slides before the speech. They are thinking that this will help the audience to follow what we are saying. Especially in Japan, audience members are probably better at reading than hearing the content. So having the slides at hand to refer to during the talk makes …

Donald Trump has made this technique of “many people say….” famous for dealing with opposing views. This is not an exercise for or against Trump. Rather, it is just looking at different ways we can head off opposition to what we are saying. We should have a point of view when we speak and therefore we should also be prepared for opposing points of …

Whether we asking to give a talk or asked to present, we need an audience. The onus is on the meeting hosts to take care of the logistics of the venue and the associated tech needed to carry out the presentation. We cannot leave everything to them though, because our personal brand is tied up with the success of the event. Now “success” can be defi…

A request came to me recently asking me to speak to an audience. So my first question was, “what would you like me to speak about?”. The answer was fairly broad. Actually, that is good and bad. Good, because there is plenty of scope to tackle various subjects, but bad because it is rather vague and obtuse. Where to start? I absolutely won’t be sear…

You see it. The presenter publicly self-immolates. They might butcher the start, get lost in the weeds of their content or be put to the sword at the end in the Q&A. They can’t engage with their audience, are incoherent and quivering the whole time. It is a train wreck on display. Reputations and credibility are flayed alive. Here is the irony – th…

I have the opportunity to give a number of presentations each year. I video them as well, so I can study where I can improve them further. What I find very interesting though, is that I am a poor model in some ways for others, who don’t have that chance to present publically so often. I was teaching some presentation skills classes recently and the…

Bonseki is a Japanese art creating miniature landscapes, on a black tray using white sand, pebbles and small rocks. They are exquisite but temporary. The bonseki can’t be preserved and are an original, throw away art form. Speaking to audiences is like that, temporary. Once we down tools and go home, that is the end of it. Our reach can be transien…

Think about the business presentations you have attended over the years. How many speakers were really engaging you during their talk. How many speakers can you even recall? One of the problems is that most business presentations are the “inform” type and are downloads of a whole bunch of data about the topic they are covering. Numbers don’t have t…

At different times, I have done both formal and informal one-on-one coaching for people who want to improve their presentations skills in Japan. Most people can understand the concepts of voice modulation, gesture usage, posture, movement on stage, energy projection, design elements, slide deck build rules, rehearsal importance, etc. The one area w…

Recently, I was asked to coach the President of a 100,000 person company with a long history for his presentation. What I noticed was how difficult it was to do a good job of promoting the firm, without it sounding like a blatant commercial for the business. Many of us in business are asked to give public presentations and these are excellent oppor…

Seamless Slides and Stellar Delivery. Unlocking AI’s Potential in Presentations In Japan Something I had never heard of before called “Steampunk” popped up in my TikTok feed. Now I write a daily blog published on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and X, called “Fare Bella Figura: Make a Good Impression, Be A Sharp Dressed Man” on the subject of classic m…

We see a lot written about public speaking and presenting. Usually it is on the assumption we are the sole speaker or one of a line-up of speakers who wow the audience one after another. Interestingly, a lot of speakers I see these days are often members of expert panels, herded together by the MC and taken through the key points of the topic. I al…

I had two interesting experiences last week. One was watching the aspirants for a top position in a Chamber of Commerce go head-to-head for the votes of the members by giving talks about why they should be elected. I love attending these types of events because as an instructor of public speaking; I know there are always a lot of life and business …

In Australian politics, they call it a “Dorothy Dixer”. This is when one of your confederates from your own political party ask a ruling Minister a real soft ball question in the parliament during Question Time, to allow for a fully pre-prepared answer. Dorothy Dix was an American newspaper advice columnist who would answer reader’s questions, and …

There are 6 elements we should check when putting our visuals together. Review this checklist before you start building the slide deck and your presentation will be much more impactful and successful. 1. Make sure you are boss of the visuals and not the other way around Often, the speaker is overshadowed by the visuals and everyone’s attention is d…

It's been a while since I attended a highly technical talk by serious experts. The audience, however, was not as expert, so the two speakers knew they were addressing a less specialized group. Complex topics require special handling.Piling a lot of data onto one slide is a big no-no, but that didn’t stop our intrepid, geeky speakers. One of them, a…

As a vigorous networker, constantly in motion, always looking for new clients, I attend a lot of events. Usually there are speakers or panel discussions or sometimes both. In this regard, I probably see over 100 people a year presenting in Japan. One consistent theme across all of these presentations is the lack of understanding of the “ba” (場) whe…

This seems a ridiculous construct – of course we when we are presenting in business we shouldn’t lie. However, look at what is happening in the rest of the world. Kellyanne Conway introduced “alternative facts” into the American political debate to explain lies. Donald Trump rails against the fake media and fake news. It would appear that many peop…

It was a big affair. The entire Shinsei Bank retail staff were assembled for a series of updates from the Division Heads on what each Division was doing and where they were going. One of my erstwhile lifelong banker colleague Division Head gave his presentation. It was dull, monotone, low energy and not engaging in the least. Unfortunately for him,…

Recently I was teaching a class of technical experts to have more impact when they spoke. Like many specialists, their areas of expertise required great detailed knowledge and experience and they have to interact with other non-expert parts of the organisation. In their case, they have to report to senior management and they also had to deal with t…

Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Tennessee, was regarded by many as certain to be Kamala Harris’s pick for the role of Vice President, as part of her campaign to defeat Donald Trump. Ultimately, she chose Tim Walz. The six-minute speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention then, was a good opportunity for Shapiro to position his own future cre…

Watching the avalanche of speakers to the Democratic National Convention has been interesting. Some really hit the mark and others not so much. What makes the difference? From what I could see they were all using teleprompters, so effectively they are reading what they wrote to us. Some I felt were just reading back to us what they wordsmithed and …

In my observation, American politics continues to descend into a morass of nastiness topped up with a lot of name calling and rabid criticism of the other side. In my native country of Australia, politicians won’t publicly call their opponents “stupid” or “weird”, because they know the voting public won’t accept that type of behaviour. In our natio…

Most business speeches are very definitive. We did this, and it worked for us and you could do the same and also get similar results. Usually, we are asked to speak because we have had good results and have rich experience in our industry. The hosts believe that others will be interested in hearing what we did, so that they can take lessons from it…

I am not an American, so I cannot vote. I always tread the line of neutrality when discussing what is happening in America, turning myself into the Switzerland of speech giving advice. Previously, I have written about the presenting skills of both Biden and Trump. Now I move on to the new Democratic candidate for the US Presidency. Republican polit…

As an Aussie, I can’t vote in the American elections, so I am a casual observer of what is going on. I was watching a very recent interview with Donald Trump and he briefly made mention about his public speaking approach. That got my attention, because I teach this stuff. Of late, I have been using Joe Biden as an hanmen kyoshi or teacher by negati…

Joe Biden gave a disastrous debate performance. His team floated the idea that he had a cold and that was why his voice sounded so weak and soft. There was also talk that his prior busy international schedule had also taken a heavy toll on him. Should he have gone on with the debate? Looking back, I am sure he regrets the decision to go forward wit…

American politics is a must watch for the rest of us. Whoever becomes the next President will have major ramifications for every country on the planet. I will not get into a political discussion about who should be the next leader, but I do want to pick up on some relevant aspects of the campaigns. In particular, the way Joe Biden handled the recen…

What an interesting panel discussion we had. Georg Loer, an old friend of mine, after 17 years running NRW Global which stands for North Rhine Westphalia, was handing over the reins to Carolina Kawakubo. The guest panellist was Jesper Koll, a very well-known economist here in Tokyo. All three have been guests on my podcast Japan’s Top Business Inte…

The premise of tonight's theme is how we position ourselves for the client before we even meet them. With the advent of social media, people will know they are going to meet you and will check you out. That wasn't possible before, but it certainly is now. So, how do we put ourselves in the best light, in the best position before we meet the buyer o…

It is not often that we get a front row seat to watch a group of very senior businesspeople compete with each other when presenting. If you like blood sports, then this is right up your alley. This is a zero-sum game for seizing the brass ring and even better, it is conducted in the full glare of the assembled masses. This is an annual event, which…

Our presenter was vivacious, sparky, bright and engaging. She works in a cool area of business and has the opportunity to see what works and doesn’t work in many industries. This enables her to pull together terrific insights and back these up with hard evidence based on numerous case studies and who doesn’t love a good case study. A big crowd turn…

Foreign companies often want to appoint a Japanese person to be the head of their Japan operation. This is done on the basis that they will know what is best for the business. This proclivity has made many washed up, tremendously mediocre Japanese Presidents a lot of money and substantially extended their careers. At some point the shareholders, or…

The Lord Mayor of London covers the whole con-urban spread of greater London and the Lord Mayor of the City of London covers 1.12 square kilometres of the financial district with a population of nearly 11,000 people, so it is a bit confusing. Alderman Lord Mayor Professor Michael Mainelli gave a speech to the British Chamber of Commerce recently. I…

“Will It Blend” was a genius idea from Blendtec, kicked off with a $50 budget in 2006. The campaign saw Tom Dickson’s videos go viral and take a boring blender manufacturer into the pantheon of marketing presentations. They have 187 videos on YouTube and 845,000 subscribers to their channel. So far, their YouTube channel has had 294 million views. …

We are usually asked to speak at events by some hosting organisation and these can be breakfast, lunches or evening occasions. Each has its challenges. Not that many people seem to be great in the early mornings and the energy level of the audience can be very low, as they are still sleepy. This sleepiness is definitely a problem for after lunch pr…

I am terrible. I procrastinate about starting the assembly of my presentation. Invariably, by holding off starting, I create time tension, which forces me to elevate the priority of the presentation and lift its urgency above all the other competing demands on my time. I should start earlier and take some of that tension out of my life. So, everyon…