I spoke once to a group of 8th graders about presentation skills.  I remember thinking to myself, “Man, I wish someone had told me the things I’m going to talk to these kids about when I was in the 8th grade.  These kids are so lucky to have me come speak to them.”  My overconfidence should have been my first clue that I wasn’t ready to speak to a group of 8th graders.  I hadn’t taken my own advice and found some 8th graders to interview as I prepared …

When I first followed up with the people from Florida Head Start to do my pre-session interview, I admit, I underestimated how important presentation skills were to their leaders’ jobs.  While every leader needs to be able to present well to inform and motivate their staffs, I wasn’t sure why else the managers and directors of the organization would be motivated to improve their ability to present.  It didn’t take me long to find out.

With the first person I interviewed in preparation for my …

Kathy’s story is similar to so many other’s that I’d heard before.

“I was at [Major Fortune 500 Technology Company] and I was the intermediary between the customers and IT.  We were rolling out a new product and they asked me to go a big meeting in Houston to talk about the new product.”

“Your audience will be 30 sales guys, so keep it really high level.” At least, that’s what Kathy was told.

Her first indication that something was off …