Learn from the guru on presentations…it’s harder than you think to build a compelling pitch

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Learn from the guru on presentations…it’s harder than you think to build a compelling pitch

By Jon Gillespie-Brown | November 11, 2008

Again and again I find myself telling my MBA students about how to present.

They tend to get everything wrong, every time, no matter how many times I tell them or ask them to learn.

Why? Well it’s probably because it’s very hard to "simplify" ideas and then present them in an easy to understand way, especially if you are very highly educated!

I find it very hard myself and I think it’s an art that people don’t spend enough time on or invest in…communicating clearly for almost all my MBAs is key to their final results and yet they leave it to the last minute, prepare badly, present badly and produce terrible materials…

So I am writing a quick post to set them on the straight and narrow once and for all and I hope this helps you too!

As they are all very busy I want to summarize my guru (Garr Reynolds) on the core things you need to know and then suggest you invest in his excellent book right away: Presentation Zen.

Organization & Preparation Tips

http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/prep.htm

Top Ten Delivery Tips

http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/delivery.html

Top Ten Slide Tips

http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html

Some sample slides

http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/sample1.html