What is a Presentation?

One of the most important take-aways from Tony Jeary's "Life is a Series of Presentations" is the idea that presenting is something you do all the time. Most people have the notion that they're only presenting if there's a large audience, a darkened room, and some PowerPoint slides. Don't think this way! It's only when you think of every conversation, phone message, email, and blog posting as a presentation that you really begin to communicate with the proper mindset. Every presentation has a goal and achieveing that goal should be the focus of that presentation. The goal could be simply to get the dry cleaner to understand that your pants need to be ready by Tuesday, but without understanding that you have a goal and focusing on it your communication gets confused. The bottom line is this: Live as if life truly is a series of presentations and by honing your skills on the little, everyday presentations you'll be ready for that once-in-a-lifetime presentation.

Welcome to Matt's Presentation Skills Blog

Welcome to my blog about presentation skills! I've been in Toastmasters for over five years and have earned two Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) awards. For a few years I've been a master instructor for Intel University's (Intel's in-house training group) Presentation Skills course. I'm also certified to teach Public Speaking for the University of Phoenix. During this time, I've come up with some (in my humble opinion) pretty good advice on how people can improve their presentation skills. Some of the advice is based on my own expereince, some of it is based on something I've read, some a combination of both. I'll be sure and note the difference and hope that you find this blog useful. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to post them. Thanks!