For the last 15 years I’ve worked on my presentation skills to the point of obsession.

I’ve worked with coaches, participated in courses, modeled incredible speakers, read several books and probably practice more than the average speaker does.

Through it all, there’s one simple piece of advice I was given by my coach that has served me well for the better part of a decade now.

I can also tell you that this advice transcends beyond presentations and can be applied to client/prospect meetings, team meetings, cold calling, warm calling, and just about every area of life.

Before I tell you what it is, we have have a pinkie promise (or at least a high level promise) that you won’t dismiss this idea as basic or simple or simply not sexy or sophisticated enough.

Here it is . . .

Have fun!

Whenever I’d speak with my coach about an upcoming speaking gig or a meeting with a potential client, the last piece of advice she’d always give me was “Paulie, don’t forget to have fun with it”.

Whenever we’d do a run through of a keynote I was working on, she’d often stop me and ask “Paulie are you having fun?” I’d get pissed at her at say “Of course I’m having fun. What’s more fun than having a nasty old broad interrupt you to ask you a bullsh*t question?” Then she’d set me straight  by saying “Well you know you’re having fun but how about letting us know by smiling. You look like you lost your best friend up there today!”

Other times she would be at the back of the room and take her fingers and stretch a smile on her face to remind me to have fun and smile. No doubt a result of this women dropping way too much acid in the 60’s.

I fought her on this  because I felt I was too good for simple advice that was the equivalent of paying an expert top dollar to have them tell you “Don’t forget to tie your shoes”.

It wasn’t until she showed me several video tapes of my sessions and turned the sound off that I realized how crappy my non verbal presentation was.

Reluctantly, I took her advice and smiled more and injected more fun into my presentations. I found myself sharing laughs with my audience and was about a 1000 times more relaxed . . .

Which in turn made my audience more relaxed and in a better state to receive my message.

I began to notice that meetings with potential clients became less formal and more like a visit. I wasn’t closing more as a result but people sure were buying more.

This Part Is For The Skeptics

I’ve had a few people criticize this advice by telling me that it’s easy for me to be happy about what I do because I own the company.

My response . . .

“If YOU don’t like what YOU’RE doing, YOU have no business doing it!”

Your audience whether it be a small committee, a large group or even 1 person can always spot someone who’d rather be someplace else.

And they have this crazy way of responding in kind!

Whether it’s face to face, Webex, Skype or conference call, you and I have to present constantly but;

How do you make an impact when you’re being judged by people who have about a 9 second attention span?

The short answer . . . It isn’t easy!

We’re going to be addressing this, big time, on October 22nd in our How To Win The Deal With IMPACT webinar.

Here’s what you’ll gain by joining us  . . .

• How To Keep Someone’s attention With One Simple Tactic
• 8 Better Ways Of Building Rapport Without Looking Around Their Office For Things To Comment On
• How To Get ALL Of The Stakeholders Involved In A Discussion That Will Excite Them And Get Them Off That Fence Of Indecision
• How To Keep The Discussion From Going Prematurely To Price (Fess up, you hate that, right?)
• 10 Killer Ways To Create A “Doubt Resistant” Presentation (You do understand that most buyers are skeptical. Don’t you?)
• How To Make The Intangible Benefits Of Your Solution Seem Way More Tangible (I can’t even begin to tell you how many people miss this one completely.)
• The One Question You Absolutely Must Ask During Your Presentation (No it isn’t any of that “Always Be Closing” nonsense!)
• Why “Death By PowerPoint” Is Bullsh*t And How You Can ROCK Their World With Yours
• 3 Things To Include In Your Proposals That Your Competitors Won’t
• 1 Deadly Tactic To Minimize Your Competition . . . Without Badmouthing!

Since “meetings” take on many different formats, we’re going to discuss how to apply these tactics;

• In A “Face To Face” Setting
• Conference Calls and Skype
• Webex
• One on One
• Groups

Right now, early registration is under way, which means that if you enroll BEFORE September 30th, you’ll get the 90 minute webinar, worksheets, recording of the webinar (slides and all) and a free eBook to reinforce the program, for $79 instead of $99.

For more information, please click HERE!