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JULY 11, 2006

The Education of a Late-Adopter Blogger | Main | Addendum to How to Get a Standing Ovation » January 18, 2006 How to Get a Standing Ovation When I started public speaking in about 1986, I was deathly afraid of public speaking--for one thing, working for the division run by Steve Jobs was hugely intimidating: How could you possibly compete with Steve? Read More] Tracked on February 01, 2006 at 12:53 PM » Fad from iphotings Blog Now now, ripping cds to iPods is not Fair Use, says RIAA.

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Max Atkinson

JUNE 14, 2011

At the 2006 Conservative Party conference, David Cameron sought to go one better than Tony Blair by summing up his three priorities in 3 letters: Not surprisingly, I had no trouble at all in remembering these three letters and confidently predict that you won't either.

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Executive Speech Coach

APRIL 26, 2006

By John Robert Colombo This article addresses these questions about speech anxiety and the fear of public speaking. Why do we fear public speaking? Is speech anxiety normal? What can we do to face our public speaking fear and speech anxiety? Fear of Public Speaking Speech anxiety is a general term for the sense of fear or panic that overtakes a person when he or she is called upon to speak or otherwise perform in public.

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Executive Speech Coach

JULY 17, 2006

What is the difference between a good executive speaker and an embarrassing executive speaker? Clear purpose Attention to detail Appreciation for the skill of public speaking Preparing for the speech Embarrassing executive speakers don’t prepare. They believe that their presence or message is important enough to make up for their lack of preparation. Sometimes that might be true. But why take the chance? Why embarrass yourself? Why not prepare and develop better presentation skills?

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Executive Speech Coach

JULY 1, 2006

Why are you speaking? Be clear on why you are speaking. Understand your purpose because that will help you be more successful. Before you speak ask yourself this critical question: "What do I want people to do, think or feel after I speak?" Whenever you deliver a business presentation you want to influence what your listeners do, think or feel. When you prepare to speak ask that question of yourself – and be honest. If you don’t know why you are speaking your presentation will fail.

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Executive Speech Coach

JULY 24, 2006

Learn more about the next teleseminar - July 27, 2006. Every time you speak your listeners are practically pleading with you to hear a story. Your listeners prefer to hear your message conveyed in stories. Because stories are engaging, instructive and memorable. The better you can tell your stories the more successful a speaker you will be. Learn how to create and tell your stories, thereby becoming a more compelling speaker.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

DECEMBER 22, 2006

The most searched for term in the area of PowerPoint are phrases around background templates. This is the basic look of your slides. There is an entire industry devoted to cranking out new templates for you to buy. They aren't going to like what I am about to say. Save your money! Why buy one when you can create a background template that is much more effective than most out there and will be completely unique to your presentations?

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

DECEMBER 20, 2006

I met recently with a new client who wants my help in creating a presentation for an upcoming meeting with their company executives. They have an existing presentation on the topic, so why do they need my help? Because the audience has changed. The existing presentation is for detail oriented staff who need to know all the numbers and facts in this division. But executives don't. If you use a presentation geared for specialists to present to executives, you will lose them within two minutes.

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Executive Speech Coach

DECEMBER 19, 2006

One of my speech coaching clients in the Heath Care sector told me that she did not tell stories in her presentations because she had so little time to convey tons of information. That is a common remark from my speech coaching clients. And a common trap. The presenter wrongly believes that what she wants to say is so important that there is no time for fluff. The reality is that no one really listens to what you say – until it is interesting to them.

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Executive Speech Coach

DECEMBER 15, 2006

Michael Richards used to be known as the lovable and loony Kramer of the popular TV show Seinfeld. Now Richards is known as a racist. Whether he is or isn’t a racist is unimportant. He demonstrated racist characteristics in his angry rant and with the words he used. He apologized – but it’s difficult to erase the image of that rant. If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and feels like a duck, then it must be a duck. That is the way your audience judges you when you speak.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2006

Today PC Magazine published an article reviewing some projectors and started with a review of what factors they consider important for selecting a projector. The author, M. David Stone, suggests that many people don't realize that some of what they consider important criteria are actually not (read the article here [link] ). I have to disagree with him on three of his assertions. First, he says that for most business presentations an SVGA (800 x 600) resolution projector is just fine.

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Executive Speech Coach

DECEMBER 12, 2006

Opening – Body – Close There are three parts to a good presentation. Guess which part bad speakers focus on? The Body. Guess which parts are the most important? The Opening and the Close. Why are the opening and the close of your speech so important? The opening is important because this is the first impression you make on your audience. This is your opportunity to grab their attention and establish rapport. Your credibility was established in your introduction (if it was done well).

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

DECEMBER 9, 2006

Last week Microsoft officially introduced the new version of Office, Office 2007, which includes a new version of PowerPoint. One of the major differences in the new version is the user interface. The familiar menus and selections have been replaced by a new ribbon interface which makes more options visible in a graphical ribbon across the top of the screen. I showed it to a buddy of mine and he made an observation that was very interesting.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

DECEMBER 5, 2006

Yesterday I wrote about how we are all going to be compared to great presentations that our audience's see and little did I know that today's Oprah show featured Al Gore and his presentation on global warming. Watch how he uses rich graphics, video and almost no text. See how he uses callouts on his graphics to make the point clearer to the audience. The reason that this presentation has been turned into a best selling documentary DVD is that the audience gets what he is talking about.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

DECEMBER 4, 2006

I was speaking to a customer service manager on a flight recently and we started with the usual questions on what each of us did. When he found out that I help presenters strategically use PowerPoint visuals to enhance their presentations, he commented that he does a number of presentations and was better than most because he didn't read sentences from the slide, but used bullet points.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2006

Today is the official launch of Office 2007, including new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. If you are a small or medium sized business that doesn't have an army of IT professionals around to tell you how this might impact your business, you will want to check out my latest article. I have identified two potentially significant impacts to any business and steps you can take to prevent any problems. You can read the full text by clicking here: [link

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

NOVEMBER 29, 2006

One reason presenters pack slides with too much text and information is that they claim that since they will be printing the slides as their handout, they will need the audience to have the detail for future reference. But what happens is that the barrage of information on the slide overwhelms the audience and the presentation is a failure. There is a better way.

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Executive Speech Coach

NOVEMBER 27, 2006

When you don't know what to do, what should you do? Pause and smile. Imagine that you are speaking to a crowded room of eager listeners. Suddenly your mind goes blank - you forget what you just said, and what comes next. If you speak in public this will happen to you. You've seen it happen to others; they stammer and sputter and even apologise. What should you do?

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

NOVEMBER 23, 2006

At the end of October I was in San Antonio speaking at a conference of business communication professors. The topic we were talking about was how to teach students to create an attractive template for their slides. The professors agreed that too many students (and in my experience presenters of all ages) spend too much time formatting every slide individually instead of using the slide master to set the common look.

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Executive Speech Coach

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

How do you know if you've delivered a successful presentation? When I ask this question of my audience the answers are usually, “you get applause” “they ask questions” “people stay awake” “you see them taking notes” “they laugh at your jokes” However, none of them is a true indicator of a successful presentation. No one has yet given me the correct answer to this question.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

NOVEMBER 17, 2006

Today I wrap up a survey I have been doing for the past month on what resources people need to improve their PowerPoint presentations. One idea that had been suggested to me before I started the survey and has been backed up by a strong showing in the survey what the topic of transforming text heavy slide sinto more visual slides. It seems that many people want to have more visual slides but aren't sure how to go about doing it.

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Executive Speech Coach

NOVEMBER 17, 2006

Be a better public speaker How can you be a more effective public speaker ? Say less. Say it clearer. Say it with conviction. George Torok Executive Speech Coach PS: the concept is simple. The difficulty is in doing it. George Torok Speech Coach for Executives Executive Speech Coach & Business Presentation Skills Expert George Torok www.SpeechCoachforExecutives.com. presentation skills public speaking

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

NOVEMBER 14, 2006

One of the recent trends in executive presentations is to create what is know as dashboard slides. A dashboard slide is a way for executives to get a quick view on projects, initiatives, financial or other measurements of interest. It is usually designed to have a red, yellow or green light beside each item indicating the measure of that item against a standard. In some organization they have even created these displays on internal web sites so the displays are updated in real time.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

NOVEMBER 14, 2006

Today's Cubicle Culture column in the Wall Street Journal contains an article talking about the problems with PowerPoint usage in corporations today. You can read the article today by clicking here or it should be posted at the Cubicle Culture archives here later this week. In the article they quote my suggestion that poor presentations cost organizations over $252 million dollars per day. To see the full article on this calculation, click here.

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Executive Speech Coach

NOVEMBER 13, 2006

If you or someone you care about uses PowerPoint in your presentations then you will find these articles helpful. They might save you some embarrassment, might rescue a big sales presentation and might rejuvenate your career. Don’t be seduced by the “ease of use” of PowerPoint. Don’t become a PowerPoint body-snatcher. Don’t check your brains at the door because of PowerPoint. PowerPoint Sins PowerPoint Sins, errors, and myths you must avoid when presenting with PowerPoint.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

NOVEMBER 10, 2006

I am a strong advocate of using a presentation remote to advance your PowerPoint slides. It is a professional way to present and gets you away from the computer and closer to the audience. But I recently saw an example of how not to use a remote. The presenter had one of the nice small remotes that fit in your hand, but for some reason kept it in his jacket pocket. And kept his one hand in the pocket to work the remote.

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Executive Speech Coach

NOVEMBER 10, 2006

The international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential. What they said about George Torok: “Truly eye-opening and entertaining. A great way to see the clear relevance of effective executive speaking and understand easy, specific ways to improve your own style.” Carolyn Rush, Regional Vice President Ontario AIESEC Canada “George makes everyone feel comfortable together as a group, yet pushes each individual outside of their public speaking comfort zone.

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Executive Speech Coach

NOVEMBER 7, 2006

Build trust when you speak How can you build more trust when you speak? Talk slower. It allows listeners to hear and understand you better. Pause often. It allows people to think about what you said and it demonstrates your confidence in your message. Look every member of your audience in the eye at some point. We trust you more when you appear to be looking at us. Don’t stare at your notes, the screen, the back wall or the boardroom table. We don't trust a speaker who won't look at us.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

NOVEMBER 6, 2006

Why should you use a graph on a PowerPoint slide? To illustrate data that would have more impact when shown visually that any other way. So if you are trying to have greater impact, why would you choose colors for a line graph that the audience would not be able to see? A recent slide was a perfect illustration of this problem. The background is a dull medium-dark blue. Five lines on the graph: bright red, which is OK, then burgundy, dark blue, light blue and dark green - Huh?

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

NOVEMBER 2, 2006

I have seen timed builds used twice recently and both times it left me scratching my head wondering why the presenter created their PowerPoint slide that way. A timed build is when the bullet points or items on the slide automatically appear at a scheduled interval. For example, a set of four bullet points could be timed to have each bullet point appear 15 seconds after the previous point. Timed builds, in my opinion, are distracting for both the presenter and the audience.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

OCTOBER 31, 2006

Today is Halloween for many and it brings to mind thoughts of scary things. I want to share with you today some of the scary mistakes I have seen presenters make so that you can avoid these mistakes. Is there text there? When I was working on a presentation for a client in the travel industry once I came across a slide for a ski resort that demonstrated what not to do when putting text on a picture.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

OCTOBER 25, 2006

It is getting close to election time in many areas and the lawns and streets are rapidly becoming decorated with signs for candidates for various offices. One thing presenters should notice when they are driving by these signs is which ones are easiest to read. Why should you care about the readability of election signs? Because it is a great learning lesson for what is readable for a text slide. In both cases, the message needs to be understood quickly so it can be acted upon.

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Executive Speech Coach

OCTOBER 25, 2006

Your body language might embarrass you Your body language might be sabotaging you Your body language might be confusing your audience What is your body language saying about you? Your body language might be saying that you are: Confident Truthful Comfortable Friendly Passionate Or.your body language might be transmitting that you are: Nervous Lying Impatient Antagonistic Uninterested Your body leaks messages What is it saying about you? Do you know the signals?

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

OCTOBER 23, 2006

This weekend our son will be singing a solo in church. Yesterday the lady who is the best soloist at church gave him some advice in getting prepared for his upcoming solo. She told him to make sure he knows his music and the words so that he can concentrate on the performance and not worry about the words or the notes. Her advice is the same I give speakers. Know your message so well that your presentation then can be a conversation between you and the audience.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

OCTOBER 18, 2006

I think that almost every presentation can benefit from using a clear agenda. It gives you as the presenter a structure to your message and helps the audience understand your message easier (according to research done by Prof. Richard Meyer). Most agenda are a text list of topics and each time you switch to a new topic you use a title formatted slide to introduce that topic area. And in many cases this is very effective.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

OCTOBER 17, 2006

If you are going to use PowerPoint to present, at some point in time you will have to deal with the equipment failing. You may not have had this happen to you yet, but you will. Even though the equipment is far more reliable than it was when I started presenting with computers and projectors over 10 years ago, it is not perfect. And I like to say that it is not a matter of "if" you will experience equipment failure, it is only a matter of "when".

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Executive Speech Coach

OCTOBER 16, 2006

Dear George, As an international leading provider of exhibits for Tradeshows, Museums and Special Events, Exhibits International was recently short-listed for a major US museum project. A complex venture, securing this project was pivotal to the reputation, growth and future success of our company.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

OCTOBER 12, 2006

The press has been widely reporting the release yesterday of the PowerPoint presentation created to support the claim by Floyd Landis that he did not take banned substances during the Tour de France bike race. I am not commenting on the substance of the claims or counter claims, but want to focus on a few comments on what was done well and what could be improved in the presentation from a PowerPoint perspective. If you want to view the presentation, use the directions at [link].

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Executive Speech Coach

OCTOBER 11, 2006

How to survive in the boardroom with Donald Trump Never interrupt the Donald. When Donald Trump tells you to shut up - shut up. Never suggest that you are like the Donald. But it's okay to suggest that you would like to be. If your competition is getting dumped on – shut up. Don’t even hint about Donald Trump’s hair or wives. Don’t start your pitch with the word “honestly”. Don’t plead, beg or cry to Mr. Trump. Don’t fight with anyone in the boardroom. Do that before you arrive.

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Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Blog

OCTOBER 10, 2006

Shadow fonts or shadows on shapes seems to be popular these days on PowerPoint slides. Why, I'm not sure. Most of the time I see a shadow used it is used for one of two reasons. First, the presenter added a shadow because they think it looks cool. For those of you have attended my seminars, you know that one of my key philosophies is that "Clear is more important than Cool". Research has shown that any distracting elements on a slide reduces the audience's understanding of your message.

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