The White Rabbit

After more than 8 months of dispensing weekly presentation tips, Matt and Alper decide to give something back to the community: Talking about the business of running a presentation business. Having run their own presentation businesses for more than 10 years each, they weigh in on one of the topics newbies in the business often ask about: What are the milestones one can expect to go through? This week, Matt lays out the milestones of the evolution of his business.

Matt and Alper tweak a story-telling structure they've mentioned before, and then can't decide whether to rag on an author or give him props.

Matt and Alper go into the importance of making a strong start in your presentations.

Almost no one says, "You know what you need to do? You need to start weak," and it's probably not the first time someone told you to start strong, so Matt and Alper try to offer up some tangible ways to start your presentation.

In this episode, Alper discusses Blair Enns' book Win Without Pitching, and in particular a few of the main principles that got him started righting the ship in his own business. Note that as much as Matt and Alper are both big fans of Blair Enns, they are not paid shills, just enthusiastic readers and listeners.

For more information on the WWP, you can visit their website at: www.WinWithoutPitching.com

Matt rereads a famous messaging book, Chip and Dan Heath's Made To Stick, and recounts the six ways they recommend overcoming the Curse of Knowledge.

Suffering from the Curse of Knowledge is so deeply embedded in the human experience that you'll probably never get over it completely, but these are six things that'll get you closer.

Alper goes into 4 things that really get in the way of your most important job in any presentation: Connecting with the audience. Do not let these 4 things interfere with the mission. They include corporate templates, stories, and more.

These 4 things are not just any pet peeves, they are things that show you are worshipping the wrong god. 

Lots of people hold up the Hero's Journey as the end all and be all of a great story structure, but who has time to study it? So in this episode, Matt and Alper provide an alternative that normal people can actually use in their daily lives.

Matt goes into six tips you can use when doing what he calls "putting your head in the lion's mouth" -- presenting to people who might be way above your pay grade.

Alper and Matt also discuss whether these same techniques can be used in other cultural situations, too.

It's one of the most popular questions Matt and Alper get: "Help, an angry audience member is confronting me, what do I do?" Today Alper goes into what to say and do in situations like that, including what to do when the angry person just won't let it go.

Matt goes into how he, a self-admitted know-nothing when it comes to visual design, "cleans" a presentation, rails at what he calls the "Happy People Slide," and briefly touches on the need for trust when the "cleaning" process is so radical.