Your Presentation Best

Negotiation Pearl of Wisdom #2 "I wish I'd had a Plan B..." Do You Have a BATNA? If you don't, you're not ready to negotiate. Many negotiators know what they want, but what happens if they can't get it? They invest time, energy and money to achieve their goal, and sometines it works. Often it doesn't and their not prepared if Plan A fails. This usually leads to accepting an unwanted result or ending up with nothing. Protect yourself and your team by always preparing a BATNA. Basically, it's your Plan B that you can easily shift to if Plan A doesn't work out. Your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement gives you power, flexibility and security. The only requirements are that your BATNA is better than the status quo, and that you are willing to actually use it if necessary. The better your BATNA, the more power, flexibility and security you have. Want to bring your team to the next level of Negotiation? Sign them up for our Negotiation E

The  All Blacks  get ready for action. Prepare, Practice, Ritual:  How to Manage Presentation Stress and Nervousness, Part III And now let's take a look at   Ritual .  As anyone who's had to perform knows, there's always nervous energy before the big show. It doesn't matter if it's an athlete, a rock star, an experienced actor, or a presenter. The human body is hard-wired to automatically go into fight or flight mode at the first sign of danger. Now, genrally speaking, performing isn't dangerous, but the feelings we get before we perform send the same signals to the brain.   That means that no matter how prepared and practiced you are (and the more, the better), the brain will still swtich to fight or flight mode. The question is not do you have some nervous energy, the question is what do you do woth it? Do you let it rule you as fear or do you channel it into a productive way? A personal Ritual before you perform can help you to fo

MY Friend, The Flip Chart One of the most under-used and forgotten presentation tools is the  Flip Chart .   The main reason for this is PowerPoint. Ever since PowerPoint and other slide mediums  rose to dominance in the world of corporate presentations,  communication has gotten worse, not better.   This is because PowerPoint tends to become the show, the whole show and nothing but the show.   Presnters lose contact with their audiences and audiences lose contact with the presenter. Throw into the mix that most slide decks suck, and you've got a recipe for turning off your audience and losing the chance to sell your message. How can a flip chart help?  In several ways. Way one:  it's different.  If you don't use slides, you stand out.   That always  gets peoples attention . Way two:  it let's you tell and spontaneously illustrate your story and your message.   (You don't need to be an artist, just able to draw simple things like a happy face or a stick

How much is 1.2 million T-shirts? Imagine the Allianz Arena filled more than 18 times... That's a lot of T-shirts! A gentleman I worked with at a leading sports brand wanted to highlight the number of graphic T-shirts his business unit was selling. Rather than do the usual boring PowerPoint sales chart, he used powerful imagery of the Allianz Arena to bring the sales figure, one of his KPIs, to life. By placing this imagery at the beginning of his presentation, he captured the audience's imagination and was able to make a much more interesting and memorable KPI report. He followed with the "standard" PowerPoint KPI charts, but the Allianz Arena slides gave the audience a great and unconventional way to put thsoe numbers in context. Don't be afraid to be creative. Don't be afraid to be different. The only rule is that you must clearly link your imagery with your message. So go ahead and do it: Bring your KPIs to Life. "I enjoyed working with D

Give Them A Reason To Listen Make sure you give your audience a reason to listen. If you don't, they won't. Great presenters know how to turn their audience on. They know it's all about giving their audience  something they need , want, and value. So ask yourself the question:  "Why should my audience listen to me.  And if they do, what will be their reward?" Find out what their top priorities and pain points are. Then, think about which of their priorities and / or pain points your presentation can address. That's what your audience wants to hear about. That's what they care about. That's  how you give them a reason to listen. Be Your Presentation Best. Got a Presentation Question?  Ask Me: dan@boswell-training.com www.boswell-training.com

If you know what your audience wants, you can give it to them. One of the most important skills of a great presenter is being a great relationship manager. Getting to know their needs, priorities, and problems makes presenting to them easier and more effective. It also let's them know you care about them. This builds trust, they key ingredient in any good relationship. The more you focus on what's important for your audience, the better your relationship will be.  And the easier it will be for you to influence them. Be Your Presentation Best www.boswell-training.com