Presenters take heed

Presenters take heed 11/02/2010

In case you don't have time to read an entire book* or take a training class, please help your audience avoid a painful experience. Don't bore them to death with details that don't matter or subject them to your unenthusiastic reading of 97 slides, bullet by bullet.

Please, I beg you, before you open your mouth, just do these 5 things, and item 1 twice for good measure.

1. Know your audience.
2. Do not show technology. Show solutions. Problems solved. Efficiencies. Not bells and whistles.
3. Share stories, perspective, your own view on items. Not features.
4. Don't fill empty air space with extra words. ("You know", "if you will", etc.)
5. Please practice, learn, read, watch others. If we were all born with natural speaking abilities, there would be no need for caffeinated beverages.

'Nuff said?

Arrrgggggggggggh.

*Start with any book on speaking by Joey Asher but "Even a Geek Can Speak" has all of the answers and changed my life. Really. Unfortunately, no one is paying me to say this. But Joey, we can talk.

Comments

Geni Whitehouse
Countess of Communication

Brotemarkle,Davis and Co. LLP

Author of How to Make a Boring
Subject Interesting : 52 ways
even a nerd can be heard

Read about my next book and evil plan - hatched on Pi day of 2011.

I am an accountant on a mission. I want to permanently remove the blight of BORING that has attached itself to members of my profession.

But the boring blight doesn't stop there. It's everywhere. I've found it in wineries (although it's a tad more palatable when served with alcohol), in science labs, even in Art museums. And technology people carry the "B" gene too. But the condition need not be fatal.

I work with CPAs through my strategic partner, Mentor Plus, an
organization that has been providing
CPAs with the skills their clients
crave for more than 19 years.

I lecture around the country to
accountants and technology
audiences and I have a ball.

I was a partner in an Atlanta CPA firm when I realized technology was
my true passion and I have been
fighting the nerd versus geek battle
ever since.

And through some stroke of absolutely amazing luck, I now find myself in Napa -- the most gorgeous, hospitable place imaginable.

Are you on Twitter?

You can follow my nerdy life
there : evenanerd

Contact me

geni@evenanerd.com

I am a graduate of the Jeff Justice
Comedy Workshoppe and the
Persuasive Speaker course taught
by Speechworks. I highly recommend both of these organizations.

I am not unbiased, nor do I wish to be. I have done work for anyone and everyone in the software industry or the accounting profession. But if I am not impressed by what you do or can't find an angle that is interesting or unique, I won't work for or with you. And if you are stodgy or boring, there are not enough dollars or even euros to make me help you.

See samples of my
writing here:

www.salestaxradar.com

www.mybizcounts.com