Don’t Give A Presentation Until You Do This 10 Times
The CEO of a large company lost the audience—his top salespeople—in the first two minutes of his presentation. I was there to witness it. Slides were out of place and financial data was wrong.
Four Pitch Tips From Richard Branson, Sara Blakely And Tyra Banks
This week marks the finale of an unusual pitch competition sponsored by Virgin Media Business (the business broadband division of Virgin Media). More than 3,000 entrepreneurs from the U.K. and Ireland took part in VOOM 2016 and submitted pitches for the opportunity to...
Three Keys To Telling Personal Stories That Move Hearts And Minds
My father Francesco spent his teenage years in an internment camp during World War II. His family was among the 165,000 Italian expatriates living and working in East Africa when the war broke out.
4 Public Speaking Traps You Should Avoid, According to TED Talk Curator
Are you a rambler, a bore, or a wanna-be motivational speaker who's all style and no substance? These are some of the presentation styles that TED Talks president Chris Anderson believes could ruin your reputation as a speaker. In his new book, "TED Talks," Anderson...
5 Public-Speaking Tips TED Gives Its Speakers
“Presentation literacy” isn’t an option anymore, according to TED Talks curator Chris Anderson. “It’s a core skill for the twenty-first century.” Anderson calls presentation and public-speaking skills a “superpower” for those who want to express their ideas. TED...
How To Make Data In Your Next Presentation Instantly Memorable
A statistic left on its own doesn’t often tell us much and that’s why journalists like New York Times sports writers are trained to put statistics “into context.” Without context, a data point simply doesn’t mean much to people who don’t closely follow a particular topic area.
An Economics Professor Shares The Career Lesson He’s Taught 20,000 Students
Economics professor Larry Smith was surprised to learn that his blunt TED Talk on following one's passion went viral, attracting more than 5 million views. After all, the talk "Why You Will Fail To Have a Great Career," was the same message he'd been hammering home to...
The Simple, 3-step Formula That Made Steve Jobs’ Speeches So Compelling
Steve Jobs was the world's greatest business storyteller. He transformed the often unimaginative product launch into a theatrical production, complete with a cast, sets, props, and music. At the center of it all, Jobs was the showman who used the classic components of...
I’ve Analyzed 500 TED Talks, And This Is The One Rule You Should Follow When You Give A Presentation
Harvard professor Amy Cuddy thought she had made a mistake.
In 2012 Cuddy, stepped on a TED stage to deliver a presentation on how body posture influences behavior. In addition to the data, she shared a deeply personal story of how she fought her own battle with “imposter syndrome” early in her career.
Storytelling Secrets of 10 Great Leaders
Carmine contributed an article to Director. Director is Britain's top magazine for business leaders. In a busy market, getting your company’s story to the attention of potential customers can be challenging. In new book The Storyteller’s Secret Carmine Gallo reveals...
Brands Leverage Power of Storytelling To Court Top Job Candidates
Storytelling is the fundamental building block of communication. In a world where people are bombarded by choices, story is often the deciding factor in whom we decide to do business with.
It turns out that storytelling is equally influential in recruiting — and whether the candidate decides to work for you — or another company.
3 Communication Skills 35 Business Legends, Billionaires, And TED Experts Have In Common
"Storytelling can be used to drive change," says billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson as he sits by a campfire sharing stories with his team. "Telling a story is one of the best ways we have of coming up with new ideas." Branson is one of 35 billionaires, business...
Bill And Melinda Gates Have Educational Superpowers
A group of students asked Bill and Melinda Gates what they would choose if they could have any superpower in the world. Their answers—more energy and more time—serve as the theme for the 2016 Gates Annual Letter. I read both essays by Bill and Melinda Gates which...
Storytelling: The Human Edge In An Age of Robots
Ideas are the currency of the twenty-first century. In the information age you are only as valuable as your ideas. Your ability to package your ideas with emotion, context, and relevancy is the one skill that will make you more valuable in the next decade. During a...
Branson, Buffett Agree: This Skill Is Your Ticket To Career Success
“Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess,” says billionaire Richard Branson. In a recent Virgin blog post Branson explains why he believes communication is the skill that will set you apart from the crowd. “Today, if you want to succeed as an...
How Storytelling Hooks Your Audience
If you want people to pay attention to you, wrap your idea in a story. The story provides the bliss point; the moment your audience falls in love. In music the bliss point is ‘the hook,’ the lines and beats that turn a song into a hit. In pop music a handful of...
Smart Leaders Pitch Ideas Using Third Grade Words
The average third grader should be able to read the headline to this column. The words are short. Most are one syllable. The sentence is free of jargon and the language is easy to understand. In fact, if you run the headline through Flesch-Kincaid, a tool to measure...
Marco Rubio’s ‘Robotic’ Debate Threatens Heart of Campaign
Marco Rubio’s performance in the New Hampshire Republican debate is being ridiculed among voters, in the press and on social media. The word often used to describe Rubio’s performance is one of the most damaging in communication. He’s being called a “Robot.” On...
The Secret Weapon That Will Make You and Your Business Stand Out in the War of Ideas
A Silicon Valley venture capital investor turned to me during a recent lunch and said, “I’ve seen more than 2,000 pitches, and I can only remember about 10 of them.” “What made the 10 stand out?” I asked. “They all told a personal story.” Professional investors agree:...
New Brain Study Shows How Marco Rubio Gets Attention And Wins Hearts
In the two GOP debates of January 14 and January 28, a group of registered Republican voters were sitting in a Southern California lab with sensors hooked up to their torsos and fingers. The sensors were collecting six types of brain signals which, according to...
The Winning Formula Driving Top Super Bowl Ads And Business Pitches
The actor Kevin Spacey once told a group of marketing professionals “Good content marketing is not a crap shoot. We know how this works…story is everything.” Spacey’s right. Story is everything. Winning pitches—in television commercials or business presentations—tell...
Copy Hollywood’s 3-Act Structure To Make Your Pitch Irresistible
“Story is everything. Good content making is not a crap shoot. We know how this works,” the actor Kevin Spacey told a meeting of business marketers. Spacey is right. Thanks to neuroscience we’ve learned more about storytelling in the last 10 years than we’ve ever...
To Ace a Job Interview, Master This Type of Pitch
Think about your last job interview. How much time did you spend preparing the pitch? No, I’m not talking about your pitch, but the company’s pitch? A lot of well-intended job-hunting advice focuses on preparing a job seeker to answer questions about themselves. While...
5 Elements Of A Show-Stopping CES Presentation
There’s a tremendous amount of pressure behind the scenes of a CES keynote presentation. The teams responsible (designers, marketers and speakers) rehearse for weeks. Every message, demo, and slide are meticulously crafted. Each year at least one keynote...
Articles Praises Livermore’s Planning Vision
Originally written for Forbes.com, the Independent writes a summary of the article. Livermore was the topic of a Forbes Leadership story published Dec. 15. Headlined, "A Community And Its Businesses Thrive Under A Shared Vision," the article says of Livermore, "One...
Why We’re Fascinated With Ben Carson’s Powerful (And Disputed) Personal Story
Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson has a compelling life story. His book, Gifted Hands, is an inspiring story of a man who overcomes grinding poverty and his own self-doubt to become a famed neurosurgeon. Recently details of the stories Carson tells and...
Sequoia’s Michael Moritz And Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson Reveal The Traits of Great Leaders
From England’s Manchester United to the startups of Silicon Valley, success leaves clues and famed venture capitalist Sir Michael Moritz has successfully identified many of them. Moritz is one of the most intriguing people I’ve interviewed in years. It shouldn’t come...
Pitch Your Idea With The Star Wars Method of Storytelling
Who or what plays the role of the Galactic Empire in your product narrative? It’s not a silly question. Your choice of a villain may mean the difference between building positive buzz for your product or having it thrown into the trash heap of discarded ideas....
Billionaire Investor Says Follow Your Obsession, Not Your Passion
Common people who find uncommon success don’t find their passions -- they follow their obsessions. In 25 years of studying communication I’ve never met an inspiring entrepreneur who didn’t have an abundance of passion for his or her product, service or company....
Aaron Sorkin on Steve Jobs: ‘I’m Attracted to Good Stories’
After a screening of the new movie Steve Jobs in San Francisco, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, Moneyball) and director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) answered audience questions about their film. The 30-minute Q&A provided a fascinating glimpse into...