Powerful Presenting For Leaders

This week, David bought a new microphone to improve the quality of his podcast recordings. It has only taken the idiot 120+ episodes to do it.

In this episode, David talks about how important it is to crank up your professionalism BEFORE it starts to become noticeable.

Unless you're an idiot, of course in which case, stay as you are.

The Oscars generated billions of words about the Will Smith and Chris Rock situation.

And about the same number of conversations about what is acceptable for a host to say to an audience member.

In this episode, David goes through his very specific formula about what you can and definitely should NOT say to an audience.

As a leader, people in our circle of influence expect to hear our voice and opinion but when and how we use that voice to mention current affairs can be a delicate issue. In this episode, David talks about how to do just that, shares examples of how to do it badly and gives an example from one speaker who won't discuss it publicly at all. And for very good reason.

It's always a nervy time testing new material.

You don't want to be stuck delivering the same old stuff every time you present but it takes courage and a leap of faith to use brand new material.

In this episode, David talks about how dead ducks don't quack (bad material is just bad material and will never come good), how to measure how successful material is from the response of an audience response and most importantly, when to cut and run.

Coaching commercial clients is fun and inspiring because they walk through the door keen to learn and improve.

But teaching kids round the kitchen table is a trial that most parents would rather substitute with tooth removal without anaesthetic.

In this episode, David talks about how he recently coached his daughter on presentation skills and how improving yours isn't just about you becoming a presentation rockstar; it's also about the ability to share your new found toolkit with others.

A successful senior manager in a major company spent the day with David yesterday at his house learning presentation skills.

Problem was, she was already speaking beautifully for the very narrow type of presenting she does. And will probably do for the remaining 5 years or so in her career.

But the problem was only for David. His client walked away with the most important thing she was looking to achieve - validation that she was on the right track.

In this episode, David talks about how speaking isn't always about educating your audience. Sometimes, it is about validating their path.

Mel Robbins is a fantastic motivational speaker and David has both listened to her Audible podcast series and an interview with her.

She was asked about her presenting style and she said that she fills her talks with analogies to get her message across.

In this episode, David explains how analogies are incredibly powerful but also that putting in more variety and using other techniques is the optimum way to help you achieve your true speaking potential.

David appeared on the TV show, The Weakest Link, many years ago. He got through to the final three but astonishingly, one of the other two contestants didn't realise that the strategy that would WIN her the money in the final would not be the one that had got her TO the final.

In this episode, David recounts the amazing experience and how leaders need to understand that the style of speaking they do when they are on their way TO the top is not the type of presenting they need to do when they GET to the top.

In business, everyone brags about the key elements that make them stand out.

In David's case, he is forever going on about appearing on Oprah, having a #1 bestselling book and breaking a Guinness record.

But sadly, when leaders speak, their humility means they pass over these crucial points too quickly in their talks.

In this episode, David explains how to make your credibility work for you and most importantly, when to tell the audience.

David heard the title to this podcast in a newsletter and thought it very apt for his progress through his speaking career.

In this episode, he explains why presentation skills progress only happens when we truly push ourselves out of our comfort zone, as cliched as that sounds.

David also talks about the difference between who we are and who we are becoming through the concept of the Hegelian dialectic and most importantly, how this applies to leaders when they present.