Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Episode 9: Presentation skills for entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are always in the spotlight, always presenting themselves and their company. This week, our small business experts offer their tips for improving your presentation skills.

Laura Allen - Top Three Tips for Creating a Powerful Presentation That's ALL YOU!!! and Bonus Hint called: Don't be like Glinda, the Good Witch
Laura Allen has three terrific creative tips:
STEP ONE: Find an Idol: There are lots of presenters I admire. Right now I really like Karen Salmansohn. She named her website NotSalmon.com because she was tired of people spelling her name wrong.
STEP TWO: Make it EXCITING! Do you remember when Oprah gave away a car to every member of her audience? Well, that was EXCITING!
STEP THREE: Keep it REAL for YOU. My friend Johnny Dapalito has a workshop called “Actors Where Are you Going?” I'm not an actor, but I love going to workshops and Johnny is an INCREDIBLE presenter so I've been to two of his seminars so far.
BONUS TIP: Don't be Like Glinda, the Good Witch; Your presentation doesn’t have to be perfect, Really.

Chris Brogan - Improv Presentations and The Storyteller’s Promise
Chris Brogan knows what it takes to make effective presentations: improvise, entertain, involve.

Ted Demopoulos - Four ways to compete with the Oranutangs
Ted Demopoulos has four simple tips to help you make a terrific presentaiton, even if you have to compete with other outlandish presentations.
  1. Relax! The audience wants to like you!
  2. Don’t rely on your props.
  3. Smile! Act like a friendly human.
  4. Have Fun!
Benjamin Yoskovitz - Constructive Criticism for Small Business Owners
Ben Yoskovitz provides 5 steps to giving good constructive criticism, focusing on building people up, criticizing and building them up again.
Download Ben’s handout.

Steve Rucinski - Delivering effective presentations
Steve Rucinski has three keys for delivering effective presentations.
  1. Focus on your audience
  2. Know your venue.
  3. Know your content, and practice!
Download Steve’s handout.

Jon Swanson - Tips for Presentation Chickens
Jon Swanson used to teach this stuff! The Entrepreneurial Chicken shares what truly helps overcome your fear of presentations: really care about getting your information across.

this is an audio post - click to play

No comments: