Sims Wyeth founded Sims Wyeth & Company, Inc. in 1995 in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers.
Presentation Pointer: Give your talk a spine
September 2nd, 2010I recently spent a day with a group of quantitative investment managers who wanted to improve the way they present their services.
What they needed was structure. They needed to tell the audience what topics they would cover…then cover them. Or tell the audience what claims they would be making, and then prove them. Or define a problem that the audience had, and offer their investment approach as a solution to the problem, giving reasons and examples.
Without a clear structure, a talk is invertebrate, and listeners like vertebrate talks.
Give your talk a spine.
Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.
Presentation Pointer: Ask the right question
August 30th, 2010A group of people were asked to watch a video of a collision between two cars. Viewers who were asked, “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” gave answers averaging 40.8 MPH.
But other viewers reported speeds averaging only 31.8 MPH when asked, “How fast were the cars going when they made contact?” Keep in mind that each group had seen the same video only a few moments before these questions were asked.
When facilitating discussion or framing a presentation around a question, be careful how you phrase the question. Even when slightly altered, questions can generate widely different answers.
Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.
Presentation Pointer: Mind the gaps
August 23rd, 2010The spaces between words are as important to your message as the words themselves.
I spent a day with a brilliant man who wedged into the spaces between his words handfuls of “Okays?” and “You knows.”
They gummed up the works. His signal was scuttled by noise.
Mind the gaps.
Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.