The Persuasive Presenter Quiz

A literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea.

At the end of the day, words and ideas presented in a way that engages listeners’ emotions are what carry stories. It is this oral tradition that lies at the center of our ability to motivate, sell, inspire, engage, and lead. And the stories that move and captivate people are those that are true to the teller, the audience, the moment, and the mission. ~ Peter Guber

Barber’s philosophy of food focuses on pleasure and thoughtful conservation — on knowing where the food on your plate comes from and the unseen forces that drive what we eat. He’s written on US agricultural policies, asking for a new vision that does not throw the food chain out of balance by subsidizing certain crops at the expense of more appropriate ones. The current model of agriculture is unstainable, it’s high on capital, chemistry and machines. In contrast to sustainable ecological models – it’s a business in liquidation.

When you structure the close first so your presentation meets the needs of your audience, you will experience the following benefits:
- The close helps you get clarity about the purpose of your presentation
- The close helps you shape the opening – including relevant stories and analogies in the opening that align with the close
- The close reduces preparation time – the more you prepare the close first, you will discover a marked reduction in the time you spend creating a persuasive presentation.

In Stephen King’s book, “On writing,” he admits that as he writes the opening of another potential best seller, he does not know how it will end. Unlike Stephen King, when you prepare your next business presentation, you don’t have the luxury of starting with, “It was a dark and stormy night,” and hope that your presentation will engage your audience and end the way you planned it.

I know it sounds boring and counterintuitive, but start with the end when you prepare your next business presentation. It will be much more of a hit with your audience. And of course, when you deliver it, start with the planned take-off, and the landing will be supreme.

The introduction needs to hook the audience and draw them into your subject. It can include a provocative statement, statistic, rhetorical question, fact or story. It’s an opportunity to spell out the challenges, the competitive advantage, the cost of opportunity and the need for change etc.
The introduction needs to be clear and to the point.

Taking a long drink of water to gather your thoughts or looking at your notes can work. Usually an audience can read what’s happening and the longer you pretend, the more you and the audience becomes uneasy. Authenticity and integrity are key to the success of any presentation. Your audience wants you to succeed. You can redeem it by being authentic. Tell the audience you have lost your train of thought, and ask if someone can remind you.

The best approach to creating an elegant, impactful and sophisticated presentation is to invest in buying high quality graphics or photographs from an agency like iStock. Eliminate clutter. Include single words, or 1-liners and impactful images. Include all detail in handouts or as pdf’s for online reference [many people bring iPads and laptops to presentations so you can refer people to a link to download the detailed material during the presentation or as pre-reading before your presentation.

Anthony Atala first provides an example of regenerative growth in salamanders to engage his audience. He then quotes a statistic, "Every 30 seconds a patient dies with a disease that could be helped with tissue replacement." And then he hooks his audience with examples of regenerative medicine. At the close, Anthony provides a realistic assessment of the way forward.

Jill does tell a personal story from her own life. She does show the audience an actual brain with the spinal cord hanging down and how the brain has two distinct hemispheres. But she goes further. To help us make sense of the way the brain functions, she introduces a computer analogy - the right hemisphere is like a parallel processor and the left hemishere is like a serial processor. And then she proceeds to illustrate what the difference is in human experience and what makes us unique.

Sir Ken Robinson is a master storyteller and tells true human interest stories that illustrate and support his key point of view. Apart from his humour which might not be that understandable to everyone [British humour], he uses a key story about Gillian Lynne to illustrate how schools kill creativity.

Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.

Benjamin Zander tells stories and uses everyday examples to illustrate his key points. He uses the piano and the whole stage to engage his audience. Yet he does not lose sight of the two main objectives in his presentation:

1. To invite the possibility that classical music is for everybody
2. To awaken possibility in people

Is your school or workplace divided into “creatives” versus practical people? Yet surely, David Kelley
suggests, creativity is not the domain of only a chosen few. Everyone can build their creative confidence.