Brilliant Presentation:
What the Best Presenters Know, Do & Say
By Richard Hall
Pearson / Prentice Hall
Distributed by Trans-Atlantic Publications Inc.
December 2008
ISBN: 9780273720768
182 Pages
$36.50 paper original
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 The stuff of brilliant presentations
Fires
Five critical processes
2 Coping with nerves
Nerves are normal
It’s the voice that is key
How to avoid freezing
So how do brilliant presenters feel?
Be honest with yourself
What is actually going on?
Be self-aware
To be nervous is normal
Summary
3 The five levels of mastery
The world of the non-presenter
Five steps to brilliance
This is what brilliance is
Brilliant presenters are shameless
Summary
4 The context of the presentation
Have you got the plot?
First, get the exam question right
Summary
5 How to write a brilliant story
A brilliant story
Death to mission statements and other jargon
Truth is a powerful weapon
Does the story grab the imagination?
Become a story student
The elements of a great story
The best presentations were brilliant stories
Great memory hook, but what’s the story?
Tellling it like it is - brilliantly
Summary
6 How to give your story colour
A nearly brilliant presentation in the making
A bare presentation is like bare walls
Summary
7 How to illustrate your presentation
Think of slides as your music
Bad slides slow you down
Professional slides help
Professorial vagueness has its place
Less is more
Why people avoid slides
Summary
8 Performance
What acting can do
In praise of work – in praise of America
Illogical arguments show up in a presentation
Why? Why?? Why??? Why???? Why?????
A strong argument helps you feel confident
Summary
9 I’ve got the power
The power of PowerPoint
Pluses and minuses
Be fair – blame the workman, not his tools
PowerPoint has improved working lives
Let’s get a bit more technical
Things to do to your PC
You have only one chance
You thought the technical stuff was easy?
Summary
10 The book as a presentation
Following my own advice… almost
Discovering what really happens
Impediments to brilliance
How to do brilliant presentations
11 Really understanding your audience
Brilliance wrecked by not listening
Lessons in how to understand audiences
12 From ordinary to brilliant
A change and a commitment
Getting the story right will drive everything else
How do the brilliant presenters do it?
13 The graduation to brilliance
A scale of improvement
Summary
14 So you made it - brilliant, well done!
This is the brilliant formula
How with it are you?
Presentation has never been more important
Summary
15 Applying your skills to smaller meetings
No slides. Why not?
You've been promoted, so make the first meeting count
You want to be promoted, so raise your game
Be prepared: the key advantage
Make your meeting sound as if it's worth going to
Location: choose it, use it, make it memorable
Learning to think on your feet
The brilliant executive summary
Brand your meetings so they want to come again
Enjoy yourself
16 Summary of the lessons in this book
The biggest challenges to brilliance
What you must avoid
My top three brilliant tips
Author
Richard Hall is Chairman of RH&a and Showcase Presentations Limited and has been recently Chair of many marketing services businesses including flying Pictures and kaizo. His background is in marketing and advertising. Now he specialises in executive mentoring, team building and strategic consulting. He has just finished his fourth book for Pearson, The Secrets of Success At Work. He says his mission is to turn good people into great people by inspiring them, by accentuating their positive assets and by making them feel excited by the world in which they live.