Public Speaking & Presentations

June 30, 2009

'Let Me Tell You a Story'

During a business trip in Reno, Mario Moretti Polegato took a walk in the Nevada desert. His feet began to hurt in his rubber-soled shoes, so he took out a pocket ...

June 23, 2009

The $200,000 Presentation

Over the last few weeks I've been working with a division of a Fortune 500 company on a $200,000 presentation. That's not a typo. Part of the reason the presentation ...

June 16, 2009

Sell More by Saying Less

When selling, the fastest way to turn off a potential customer is to talk for too long. I once asked New York real estate queen Barbara Corcoran, founder of the ...

June 9, 2009

Enhance Your Brand with Video

In March, Zurich Financial Services (ZURN) CEO James Schiro embarked on a worldwide trip to reassure employees that the company was healthy, despite all the bad news ...

May 19, 2009

How to Sell More Than a Product

The coffee wars are brewing. Boiling over, actually. If you've read a newspaper or watched TV in the last few months, you know that Starbucks (SBUX) and McDonald's ...

May 12, 2009

Delivering Happiness the Zappos Way

"Happiness in a box." That's how one customer described the feeling of receiving her shoe order from online retailer Zappos.com. Much has been written about how Zappos...

May 4, 2009

E-mail Newsletters That Customers Actually Read

I recently received an e-mail that had me riveted from start to finish. It contained a true story about two men aboard US Airways flight 1549—the one that ...

April 28, 2009

The Two-Hour-Plus Presentation

In the age of YouTube (GOOG), texting, and tweeting, your audience's attention span is shrinking. It's becoming harder to keep your listeners engaged for more than 90 ...

April 14, 2009

Put a Human Face on Your Presentations

Attaching a patient's photo to his or her file makes radiologists feel "more connected" to the patient. The radiologists, in turn, provide "longer, more meticulous ...

April 7, 2009

Making Your Presentations More Relevant

American Idol's newest judge, Kara DioGuardi, tells contestants on the popular TV show to "be relevant." She says audiences respond more favorably to artists who are ...

March 24, 2009

Presentation Lessons You Didn't Learn in B-School

I recently gave a seminar on presentation skills to a group of Fortune 500 marketing professionals, many of whom hold MBAs from top business schools. After the seminar...

March 10, 2009

Why Persuasive Speaking Matters

According to Bill Lane, Jack Welch's speechwriter of 20 years, leaders at General Electric (GE) are required to be able to give powerful, persuasive presentations. ...

March 3, 2009

Restoring Confidence, One Presentation at a Time

Most business presentations end with a call to action. This column begins with one: Stop delivering a message of defeat and desperation. It won't win you investors, ...

February 24, 2009

How Amazon's Bezos Sparked Demand for Kindle 2

Amazon's (AMZN) new e-reader, the Kindle 2, begins shipping Feb. 24. The press conference and subsequent interviews CEO Jeff Bezos used to play up the launch of the ...

February 17, 2009

Bill Gates: The Great Communicator?

Microsoft MSFT co-founder Bill Gates, who is considered a brilliant technologist and a leading philanthropist, has not been known for his public speaking skills. His ...

February 10, 2009

Four Steps to a Lively Demo

Jim Grubb has a role that blends two of his passions: theater and gadgets. As Cisco's (CSCO) chief demonstration officer, he appears on stage with CEO John Chambers at...

February 3, 2009

The Seven Secrets of 'Media Darlings'

As you watch the news over the next few days, pay attention to the experts who are quoted. You'll probably see some of the same names and faces. When I worked at CNN ...

January 20, 2009

How to Handle Tough Questions

Last week, I spoke to a group of auto executives who were looking for advice on how to answer tough questions about new cars they would soon be introducing in ...

January 13, 2009

Presentation Tips from Macworld and CES

Last week, some of the world's most prominent business leaders gave presentations at two major annual tech conferences, Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show. As ...

December 30, 2008

Manage Your Fear of Public Speaking

Most people who fear speaking in front of groups simply avoid it or spend sleepless nights ahead of the dreaded event. But there are effective ways to prepare ...

December 16, 2008

More Important Than the Holiday Party

The number of companies holding holiday parties is at 20-year low, according to a recent survey from executive-search firm Battalia Winston. But whether you're simply ...

December 9, 2008

Making YouTube Work for Your Business

It took John F. Kennedy less than 18 minutes at Rice University in September 1962 to inspire a generation to land a man on the moon. It took Barack Obama 17 minutes at...

December 2, 2008

Bridging the Gap Between Boomers and Gen Y

The other day I walked into a local restaurant and listened as a fiftysomething manager lashed out at a twentysomething employee. Such interactions occur far too ...

November 25, 2008

The Four Elements of an Inspiring Vision

When a group of Wharton executive MBA students asked me recently to speak to their class, they told me they learn plenty about accounting, modeling, and supply-chain ...

November 18, 2008

Five Ways to Win Over Customers

On a recent weekend this November, dozens of strangers wished my daughter a happy birthday. The strangers were employees at the Disneyland Resort (DIS) in Anaheim, ...