A 1955 Mercedes SL 'gullwing' currently costs around $2m at auction. When they come up.

A 1955 Mercedes SLR 'gullwing' Uhlenhaut just sold for a shocking $142m.

The only major difference between the two cars is the wonderful back story and history attached to the Uhlenhaut.

In this episode, David explains the value of a back story and how we can use it to get greater engagement from our audiences.

David recently went to Croatia to do last minute on site coaching with a client who he had been working with for 6 weeks from home.

Coaching at the event they were speaking at was a first for him and taught a ton of stuff.

In this episode, David is going to share what he learned and also what he did that made them come off stage fist pumping the air.

David recently got asked to speak at a major event. Problem is, he didn't know how major...because he didn't ask!

In this week's episode, David goes through what you should ask a client when speaking externally.

Or you could REALLY miss out.

David has just appeared on The Rob Beckett Show on BBC Radio 2. It was a fun slot called Geek Of The Week!

As always, David uses his media appearances as a great example of how to apply presentation skills.

With Beckett being a professional comedian, it made for a very fun and lively interview. The clip is included in this week's podcast.

 

The second half of the interview that David conducted with Dave Hyner. Dave does not hold back in giving his opinion on the good, bad and ugly in the world of speaking.

He drops knowledge bombs all the way through this interview.

A fascinating insight into a top class speaker.

Dave Hyner has spoken to more than 1 million people over the last 25 years. He is a Hall Of Fame speaker with the former Academy for Chief Executives.

He has spoken internationally, written books and done enormous amounts of study and research to make sure that what he speaks about works.

In this episode, David interviews Dave and gets into everything involved in the world of top class speaking.

 

Brevity is the #1 law in all of speaking.

Get on, say your bit in the shortest time with the least number of slides and the fewest number of words then get off.

Even if you have a time slot to fill, keeping it super succinct and moving along is really key.

In this episode, David talks about why it is so important and uses a really cool example of selling fish!

This week, David bought a new microphone to improve the quality of his podcast recordings. It has only taken the idiot 120+ episodes to do it.

In this episode, David talks about how important it is to crank up your professionalism BEFORE it starts to become noticeable.

Unless you're an idiot, of course in which case, stay as you are.

The Oscars generated billions of words about the Will Smith and Chris Rock situation.

And about the same number of conversations about what is acceptable for a host to say to an audience member.

In this episode, David goes through his very specific formula about what you can and definitely should NOT say to an audience.

As a leader, people in our circle of influence expect to hear our voice and opinion but when and how we use that voice to mention current affairs can be a delicate issue. In this episode, David talks about how to do just that, shares examples of how to do it badly and gives an example from one speaker who won't discuss it publicly at all. And for very good reason.