presentation tips

We had a fascinating conversation with a workshop participant last week. He shared a real story, about a presentation he gave soon after he joined his current company. He worked hard at it, he prepared, and he was nervous, but ready. He made the presentation, it seemed to go OK, and then afterwards he asked […]

My colleagues and I see a lot of PowerPoint slide decks. More than we can count, actually. So we have a deep reservoir of context on what makes a good slide deck and a bad slide deck. And very often, people make a critical mistake when thinking about slides, and how to make them better. […]

According to some sources, more than 30 million business presentations are created each day. And you know what? Most of them are terrible. We’ve all sat through the proverbial terrible presentation with no purpose, nothing memorable, no clear action items, too many slides, the monotonous drone of the boring presenter. There is a reason business […]

Let me know if this sounds familiar… you have a presentation to give. You immediately begin thinking about your slide deck. You pull out the last presentation you gave on the topic, you dust it off and realize that some of the same slides will work. So you are on your way. Then you look […]

Do you want to be an effective communicator? Be more memorable? Do you want people to follow your lead, support your idea, or buy your product or service? Of course you do. When I say “be memorable,” I’m not suggesting that you do something outrageous so that they remember that crazy person who did “x.” […]

I just returned from my 25th college reunion this past weekend, and yes… it was fun and exhausting, and a wonderful walk down memory lane. I spent time with great friends who I see regularly, occasionally and almost never, and all of it was amazing. Every reunion contains countless “so what have you been up […]

Last week, during a series of workshops with one of our best clients, a fascinating topic came up for discussion. As we were reviewing the themes of The Latimer Group’s Model for Persuasion, one of the participants commented that “this seems more art than science.” The conversation paused for a few moments, we all thought […]

During a client workshop recently, the participants and I were talking about how different the world is now, compared to even twenty or thirty years ago. We were telling stories about life prior to email or the internet or 1000-channel-cable menus. I shared the fact that my kids have hardly ever seen a commercial because the television […]

One of the most frequent questions or objections we hear in our workshops, usually delivered right about the time we are teaching our Latimer Group Model for Persuasion, is this… “I don’t have the time to do the things you are telling me to do. I know I need to, but I just don’t have […]

(Note: This post was originally published in August of 2013. But it’s more important now than ever.) My family and I spent the weekend with some dear friends, and over the course of a weekend of laughter, swimming, ping pong and wine, the conversation turned (for a few minutes) to business. My good buddy, who […]