Ten Radical Thoughts for Business Speakers

1. Wars are won and lost before the fighting begins. Speeches & presentations win or lose before the speaking begins.
2. Conceive of your talk as a problem solving device. Define the problem the audience has. Solve it for them.
3. If the problem is small, give a small talk.
4. Argue psychologically, not logically.
5. Rehearse enough so as to be able to give the talk without electricity. Your listeners should be able to sit in the pitch dark, hear your words, and see, in the theater of the mind, what it is you’re saying.
6. Always start your presentations with a story.
7. Never use PowerPoint unless you need to prove your point with data.
8. If you must use PowerPoint, put no words on the slides—onlygraphics or pictures.
9. If you must use words on PowerPoint slides, use no more than six words per slide.
10. Always end your presentations with a long, rhythmic sentence that builds through a series of semi-colons; that sums up your substance with a flourish; that reverberates to the fluorescents with your conviction and your theme, and—throwing aside all boring business protocol—reaches down into the roots of your seated audience to say, “This—this!—is the best talk you’ve ever heard.”

Please let us know if we can help.

Sims Wyeth
Sims Wyeth & Co.
Business Communication Training and Consulting
Tel: 973-783-4205
Fax: 973-783-0113
Email: contactus@simswyeth.com
Website: www.simswyeth.com

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