The Power Presenter: Technique, Style, and Strategy from America's Top Speaking Coach

See notes on presentations and Presenting to Win

Learn the successful presentation techniques used in over 500 IPO road shows and featured in "The Wall Street Journal" and "Fast Company".

Jerry Weissman is the presentations coach to Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and many of America's top executives, including founding Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle, Intuit founder Scott Cook, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings, and many others.

The "San Jose Mercury News" says that Weissman's IPO presentation coaching "is worth 10% on a company stock."

Now America's top coach reveals the same powerful strategies he teaches to CEOs in expensive private sessions.

Learn why your body language and voice are more important than your words, how to present with poise and confidence naturally, and how to connect with any audience emotionally.

Filled with illustrative case studies of Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, John F. Kennedy, and many others, "The Power Presenter" will bring out the best in anyone who has to stand and deliver.

"Readers of 'The Power Presenter' will have access to video clips referenced in the book".

Table of Contents

• The Wrong Way and the Right Way to Coach Presentations

  Case Study: Dizzy Gillespie

• How Speaking Style and Delivery Can Raise the Value of an IPO

  Case Studies: Cisco Systems; Isilon Systems; Two Weeks of an IPO Road Show; RetailRoadshow.com

• Your Actions Speak Louder than Your Words

  Case Studies: Ronald Reagan; Dr. Sacks' Aphasic Patients; Nikita Khrushchev; Marcel Marceau

• The Crucial Task: Creating Audience Empathy

  Case Studies: The Deer in the Headlights Revisited; Shocking British Couples; Italian Laboratory Monkeys; Robert Krulwich; Bob Dole; Gray Davis versus Arnold Schwarzenegger; Barack Obama

• The Butterflies in Your Stomach

  Case Study: September Morn

• How to Prepare Your Content

  Case Studies: Will Poole and Jeff Raikes, Microsoft; Patrick McGovern, IDG

• You Can Be a Power Presenter—Charisma Not Required

  Case Studies: The Transformations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton

• The Mental Method of Presenting: Make the Butterflies Fly in Formation

  Case Studies: The Actors Studio; Barack Obama versus Hillary Rodham Clinton; Libby Dole; Carly Simon; Marya McCabe, Microsoft; Lawrence Steinman, MD; The Squinting Woman

• Learn to Speak with Your Body Language

  Case Studies: Joe Moglia, TD Ameritrade; Marshall Klaus, MD; Sir Isaac Newton; Generals Richard Neal arid H. Norman Schwarzkopf; The Kennedy-Nixon Debate

• Control Your Cadence

  Case Studies: The Frenchman Who Paused; Jazz Artists Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Amanda Car-r, and Dizzy Gillespie; General Israel Putnam; Ludwig van Beethoven; Dr. Krzysztof Izdebski and Claude Steinberg, Pacific Voice and Speech Foundation; Leonard Bernstein; Lorin Maazel; The Further Transformation of George W. Bush

• Masters of the Game

  Case Studies: Sir Winston Churchill; John F. Kennedy; Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.; Reverend Billy Graham; Ronald Reagan; Barack Obama

• What Every Speaker Can Learn from Barack Obama

  Case Studies: Abraham Lincoln; John F. Kennedy; Sir Winston Churchill; Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.; Ronald Reagan; John McCain

• Graphics Synchronization

  Case Studies: Federico Fellini; Olivier Fontana, Microsoft; Bill Jasper, Dolby Laboratories; Goldman Sachs

• Graphics and Narrative

  Case Studies: Leslie Culbertson, Intel; Katherine Crothall, PhD, Animas; Eric Tardif, Piper Jaffray; Abraham Lincoln

• The Power Presentations Pyramid

  Case Study: The NAFTA Debate: Al Gore vs. Ross Perot

• Coda-Ending with the Beginning

  Case Studies: Ronald Reagan arid Joe Moglia Reprised; Cindy Burgdorf, SanDisk

Detailed Contents

• Preface: The Wrong Way and the Right Way to Coach Presentations
• Introduction: How Speaking Style and Delivery Can Raise the Value of an IPO
  • The Universal Challenge
  • The Deer in the Headlights
  • Fight-or-Flight
  • Reducing the Adrenaline Rush
  • The Mental Method of Presenting
• Your Actions Speak Louder than Your Words
  • Audience Advocacy
  • Impact
  • Actions Speak Louder Than Words
• The Crucial Task: Creating Audience Empathy
  • Empathy
  • Presenter Behavior/Audience Perception
  • The Effectiveness Matrix
• The Butterflies in Your Stomach
  • Fight-or-Flight
  • The Limbs
  • Time Warp
  • Adrenaline-Driven Behavior/Audience Perception
  • The Moment of Truth
• How to Prepare Your Content
  • The Seven Steps of Story Development
  • The Seven Steps of Story Development
    • 1. Establish the Framework of Your Presentation
    • 2. Brainstorming: Consider All the Possibilities
    • 3. Roman Columns: Find a Mnemonic Device for Your Main Themes
    • 4. Flow Structure: Provide a Road Map for Your Audience and for You
    • 5. Graphics: Use Visual Aids
    • 6. Ownership: Don't Pass the Buck
    • 7. Verbalization: Practice the Right Way
• You Can Be a Power Presenter—Charisma Not Required
• The Mental Method of Presenting: Make the Butterflies Fly in Formation
  • The Power of the Mind
  • What Was Going through Your Mind?
  • Concentration
  • Conversation
  • Person-to-Person
  • Think "You"
  • How to Get Head Nods
  • Read the Reaction/Adjust Your Content
  • The Dynamic Circle
  • Proof Points
  • Delivering Your Message
• Learn to Speak with Your Body Language
  • The Four Stages of Learning
  • Comfort Zone Paradox
  • Repetition Over Time
  • Change
  • The Moment of Truth
  • Reduced Instructions
  • Visual Components
  • Vocal Components
  • Qualitative versus Quantitative
  • The Chain Action
  • The Kennedy-Nixon Debate
• Control Your Cadence
  • Phrase and Pause
  • Speak Only to Eyes
  • Complete the Arc
  • Two Practice Techniques
  • The First 10 Seconds
  • Large Groups
• Masters of the Game
  • The Great Communicator
  • The Great Orators
  • Conversation and Empathy
• What Every Speaker Can Learn from Barack Obama
  • Debut
  • The Obama Phenomenon
  • The Power Presenter
  • Chapter 4: Verbalization
  • Chapter 6: Person-to-Person, Head Nods, Read the Reaction/Adjust Your Content
  • Chapter 6: Think "You"
    • Antithesis
    • Alliteration
    • Anaphora
    • Anecdote
    • Topspin
  • Chapter 7: Speak with Your Body Language
    • Eye Connect
    • Reach out
    • Animation
  • Chapter 8: Control Your Cadence, Complete the Arc
• Graphics Synchronization
  • Tell 'em, Show 'em, Tell 'em
  • Title Plus
  • The Back Link
  • Speak Only to Eyes
  • The Power of the Pause
  • The First Time
  • Tools of the Presentation Trade
    • Presenter and Screen
      • Present with the screen at your left
      • Present in the screen plane
      • Present at the edge of the screen
      • Avoid the projection beam
    • Presenter and Audience
      • Face front
      • Illuminate for Eye Connect
      • Present at the eye level of the audience
      • Check sightlines
    • The Lectern
  • B-School Versus C-School
• Graphics and Narrative
  • Title Plus in Action
  • Bullets
  • Quotations
  • Numeric and Relational Graphics
  • Narrative Flow
  • The Trilogy: Inseparable and Disruptive
• The Power Presentations Pyramid
  • Story
  • Graphics
  • Body Language
  • Tools of the Trade
  • Q&A
• Coda Ending with the Beginning
  • The First Day on the Job
  • Bookends
  • The Best Compliment
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index