All posts tagged "Featured"

  • 5 Small business marketing tips for business Growth

    5 Small business marketing tips for business Growth

    Do you ever feel stuck or unsure of what to do next when it comes to creating a buzz for your Business? Below are 5 tips of how you can stand out and become noticed by...

  • 4 Tips for women who want to start a food business

    4 Tips for women who want to start a food business

    Your grandma’s secret chutney recipe. That barbecue meat rub that all your neighbours’ envy. The cupcakes you made for a friend’s baby shower. The kitchen is your zone of genius, where you whip up foods...

  • 9 Strategies to minimise risk in business

    9 Strategies to minimise risk in business

    From large corporations to small sole-proprietorship businesses, every single one of them carries with it many kinds of risks. Risks such as consumer market transitions, legal issues and personnel safety.  For every potential risk, a...

  • 5 Strategies for creating content that’s insanely sharable

    5 Strategies for creating content that’s insanely sharable

    Do you ever wonder why some content gets tons of love and shares while others just fall flat? The goal of any content creation strategy is to make it irresistibly shareable so that it generates...

  • Do women even want it all? (and 7 realisations for those that do)

    Do women even want it all? (and 7 realisations for those that do)

    In some ways, having it all isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Stretched in lots of different directions, lack of time, lack of support, unfair and conflicting expectations and negative inner monologue can really...

  • How women psychologists are reshaping the workforce

    How women psychologists are reshaping the workforce

    It’s no secret that the world we live in today is still very much plagued by inequalities of all kinds. When it comes to gender biases, the conversation is still as difficult and multi-faceted as...

  • 5 SEO tips for beginners

    5 SEO tips for beginners

    If you have a website and you want people to find it through Google, you’ll want to consider search engine optimisation (SEO). SEO is a form of online marketing which helps Google understand your website...

  • How to boost your confidence and make an impact

    How to boost your confidence and make an impact

    When you spot a colleague – or dreaded rival! – who seems to overflow with confidence in the workplace, it’s easy to assume that they’re working from a position of complete inner-belief. In fact, there’s...

  • Think of the last good movie you watched. It likely had creative visuals, a compelling script, music, rhythm and heroic characters. All these elements came together in a neatly presented package that led you from one point to the next. They weren’t just hobbled together at the last hurried minute! Care, thought and attention went into every last detail. This kind of perfectly executed structure, whether it’s the latest Hollywood blockbuster or a presentation to your team, is crucial to engage your audience and influence them to act. An influential presentation needs to have a solid structure that is easy to follow. It must have lots of signposts that lead your audience all the way through, on a journey. That means that the structure of your content, the order of your ideas, must support you as you speak and help your audience understand the information you are telling them. 3 steps to structure your presentation Master communicator Nancy Duarte spent two years reading mythology, philosophy, and researching screenwriting and other story methodologies that have stood the test of time. In the course of her research, she uncovered a structure that some of the world’s greatest communicators had been using for years (including Aristotle). It’s called ‘Persuasive Story Form’. This structure takes your audience back and forth between ‘what is’ (current state) and ‘what could be’ (the future world with your idea). You can use it for everything, from a movie script to your latest presentation. Beginning: ACT I Have an honest conversation about the reality of the situation Give them a glimpse at the solution – with your idea. Middle: ACT II Create tension and contrast for your audience Use a balance of emotional and analytical insights. End: ACT III Begin with your call to action, what you want your audience to do Finish with an inspiring description of the world with your idea in place Ensure they leave committed to taking action. Structuring each and every presentation in this way is a sure-fire win. Call on them to act Most importantly, you must always remember to have a call to action at the end of your presentation. Once you have shown your audience the need for change and how it will benefit them, you then need to tell them how they can be part of the change. This closing call-to-action slide is the last step in achieving your objective. Make sure your audience clearly understands what is needed from them to make this happen. Do you need to show them a link to a website? Can they follow you on social media to find more information about you? Do you want them to share the results with clients, customers or stakeholders? You can only claim that you have a ‘winning presentation’ if your presentation achieves what you wanted it to achieve. If your audience does what you want them to do; that they respond in the way you want them to respond. That is how you measure whether your presentation has been successful or not. So spend time on the structure, take them on the journey, the highs and the lows before you tell them what you would like them to do next.

    How to structure a winning presentation

    Think of the last good movie you watched. It likely had creative visuals, a compelling script, music, rhythm and heroic characters. All these elements came together in a neatly presented package that led you from...