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A cool opportunity has come my way. I am working on putting together a series of workshops for the speaking club at the University of Chicago’s business school. Essentially, they want to know how to improve the effectiveness of their executive and business presentations. As I’ve done coaching and training in this area before, it’s a great fit for everyone.

Ironically, one night last week I had the Cubs game on and a commercial came on depicting a woman giving a business presentation. She is speaking without emotion, without passion and in an impressive monotone. Everyone in the room is bored and the caption comes up, "Every business meeting ends. Eventually." We have probably all experienced something like that: trapped by a speaker who shows no interest in their topic.

It's one of the most important elements of a successful presentation: passion and enthusiasm for your topic. If you don't care about your topic, nobody else will either. It seems simple doesn't it?

When I've coached executives on speaking, I always ask them the following questions: Why are you giving this presentation? Why is the presentation important to those who are listening to it? Why do they need to hear it? Interestingly, most generally, they have no idea why it’s important. The first response is usually, "Well, I was told that I needed to give the presentation." How can anyone do a good job if that is as deep as the motivation goes? The key is to keep digging and get to why the presentation has value to the listener.

Before stepping to the microphone make sure that you have answered the following question for yourself:

How am I about to help the people listening to me?

To Your Success,

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