Doesn’t everyone at some point in their career end up working on a team? You’ve probably had to collaborate with your colleagues on a high-stakes meeting or presentation. This process can turn out to ...
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If we’ve learned anything from the past 18 months, it’s a renewed appreciation for how critical people are to the resilience and success of everyday business operations. Understanding how each person ...
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Whether you’re attending the ATD International Conference in-person or virtually this year, you won’t want to miss our super session for a behind-the-scenes look at how we built next-generation ...
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If you think email marketing’s time has passed, think again. It may not be the sexiest tactic out there, but the data is clear: Sales and marketing professionals have good reason to keep pounding out ...
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Let’s face it… virtual meetings are here to stay. In today’s business climate, that critical meeting you scored with a room full of decision-makers has gone virtual. No longer does that deck you ...
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Your boss just asked you to send them “three to five slides” that they can use to present your idea to their boss. You now have two challenges: First, you must truncate your presentation to get to ...
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You’ll probably recognize this scenario: You’ve spent weeks preparing to deliver a huge proposal, including countless hours researching, designing, and putting together a tightly scripted 30-minute ...
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Doesn’t it seem that Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong, will go wrong) always happens when the pressure’s on, a deadline needs to be hit, or that super important presentation (that you’ve been ...
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Today’s workforce is hyper-competitive. It’s hard to stand out, and if you’re hunting for a job, you need strategies to appear more credible, authentic, and memorable than your peers. What’s the best ...
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The key to unlocking innovation for many senior leaders is figuring out ways to improve how multi-functional teams collaborate and communicate with each other, with clients, and with external groups. ...
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Inboxes are overwhelming, particularly for busy managers, key stakeholders, and VIP executives that everyone wants a response from. Most of us are bombarded with dozens of emails each day, if not ...
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Most of us work on some kind of team where we present our proposals, updates, or recommendations… collectively. Team presentations require a powerful narrative and strong coordination to be ...
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Our brains love stories. When you use storytelling to share information and ideas, they often stand out and are more memorable to the listener. Stories also engage visual, auditory, and kinesthetic ...
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Whether you’re trying to persuade someone to support your project or motivate a team, storytelling is a fundamental business skill. So what makes a compelling narrative, and how can you improve your ...
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Portland-based “sister-preneurs” Lee Lazarus and Janine Kurnoff are on a lifelong journey together, building practical, experiential visual storytelling workshops that teach talented businesspeople ...
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Nobody would blame you or your team for trying to save time building presentation decks. Whether you’re prepping a do-or-die proposal or simply giving the boss their umpteenth status update, time is ...
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In 2021, sales leaders that ground their communications in storytelling—and guide customers to a central BIG Idea—will beat out the competition.
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2020 has been—to put it mildly—a dramatic year for the planet, the U.S., and The Presentation Company. Amongst all the change, one thing has remained the same… and even grown: the need for great ...
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Let’s face it: Business storytelling is one of the greatest ways to amplify the meaning of your facts and figures and inspire your audience to act. No wonder it's all the rage in the business ...
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Today, the world’s most successful companies have discovered that the best way to spread ideas and drive business forward—both internally and externally—is through business storytelling. Think about ...
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Do you have a passion for helping talented business professionals grow in their roles? Do you have a background in virtual training delivery combined with executive coaching experience, and an ...
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Ever wish you had a guidebook for becoming a strategic, influential communicator? This one’s for you. Because, let’s face it: We all strive to come across as credible, authentic, and persuasive in ...
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These days we’re all hyper-vigilant about sanitizing our hands and surfaces. But did you know this good hygiene can actually translate into your virtual meetings and presentations?
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Did you know virtual meetings can be a goldmine full of insights? That’s right… all of those chat conversations, poll responses, and whiteboard brainstorm sessions are teeming with juicy information. ...
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Shapes can be incredibly powerful. It’s a statement you’ve probably never heard before, but it’s true—circles, squares, and triangles can really pack a punch when it comes to data visualization.
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Have you ever considered how the size of your data display could impact how well your insights are received by your audience? Odds are… probably not. But data experts know: Size is a critical ...
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Picture this: You’re in a brainstorming session with a colleague online. You’re attempting to mark up a diagram of your company’s new product roadmap, but you’re finding it difficult to draw clearly ...
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Let’s talk about one of data visualization’s best friends: color. When used correctly, color can be a powerful conduit for making your data insights shine. A smart pop of color will highlight key ...
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Running virtual meetings, presentations, or trainings can be super stressful. You must corral the attention of people hidden behind their screens, engage them, answer questions, solve technical ...
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We’ve all been there: You’re on a virtual call and want feedback from the group. You ask them to post in chat or respond verbally… and you’re met with *crickets*. You panic: Did they hear me? Are ...
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According to Antonio Damasio’s book “Descartes’ Error: Reason, Emotion and the Human Brain,” neuroscience tells us that humans respond more powerfully to stories than plain facts or data alone. We ...
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Business storytelling is a powerful way to sell your ideas and spur people to action. But for many of us, telling our story in an online environment can feel clunky and uncomfortable. So how do you ...
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Think about the last time you were “wowed” by someone in business. Was it the way they navigated difficult questions? How they commanded the room (or perhaps even the “virtual room”)? Or was it ...
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Our new reality: All selling is virtual selling. And even for the smartest, savviest salespeople, it isn’t easy. Sure, your face-to-face sales skills might be incredible—winning contracts, clinching ...
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Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: We’ve all sat through virtual meetings and presentations that are awkward, unengaging, or just plain boring. The truth is… they shouldn’t be. Online ...
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There are loads of articles circulating nowadays about how to deliver more engaging online presentations and meetings. Most are filled with generic, barely helpful tips like “Make your presentation ...
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Calling all teachers! TPC is helping educators navigate the world of online learning and keep their students engaged as we all manage through this “new normal”. We’ve created a quick survey to ...
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Picture this: You’re meeting virtually with your customer… or team… or (fill in the blank). You ask for their input on the initiative you’re discussing, but you’re met with bitter silence. You start ...
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Whether you’re meeting with colleagues, presenting to customers, or facilitating training, Zoom is one of the most popular virtual meeting platforms out there today. So how do you set yourself up for ...
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Corporate learning has never been more relevant. Companies today are cultivating broad, dynamic development environments, rich in skills that aim for long-term career advancement among nearly all ...
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So, here we are... working from home. If you’re like many of us, you’re logging in virtually from your kitchen, living room, or your bedroom. You may even have children, pets, roommates or spouses ...
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It’s never been more critical to communicate clearly and purposefully in a remote environment than now. But how do we get started? How do we transform in-person interactions—which often come so ...
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Here we are. Our new reality for the next few weeks (or months). A whole bunch of people working from home, some super-comfortable conducting business online, others lacking critical skills to manage ...
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Want to learn business storytelling fundamentals in an hour? Join us at Training magazine's annual conference on February 26th at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort.
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TPC Contributes to Training Industry: Drowning in Data? These 3 Simple Visual Tricks Will Rescue You
Picture this: Your team is prepping for a presentation to win a big deal … or have a budget approved … or (fill in the blank). It should be wildly successful, since your team is made up of smart, ...
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How will teams elevate their ideas and drive business forward in 2020? Well, much like in years past, they’ll gather information, build a strategy, develop recommendations, and try to sell their ...
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You’ve been working for weeks on your program proposal, and you’re finally ready to present it to your vice president. There she is, sitting at the conference table, gazing up at your projected ...
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May your holidays be filled with wonderful stories, and many more in 2020 ❄️
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Everyone wants to boost his or her professional skill set to become more credible and influential. The question is, which skills should we focus on? Better yet, what is the one skill that will boost ...
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Want to learn business storytelling fundamentals in 75 minutes? Join us at the upcoming ATD Cascadia conference on November 7th.
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Whether you consciously realize it or not, color is a powerful way to associate ideas or products with certain emotions. The Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science found that colors influence ...
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Want to naturally “own the room,” navigate difficult questions, and influence decision-making? The magic happens when you apply storytelling to business communications. Watch this video to learn how ...
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The Presentation Company, which teaches practical visual storytelling and data visualization techniques to teams at the world’s top brands, won Brandon Hall Group’s coveted “Best Result of a Learning ...
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The Presentation Company, which teaches practical business storytelling techniques to teams at the world’s top brands, won Brandon Hall Group’s coveted “Best Advance in Senior Manager Development” ...
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Many major corporations—like Netflix, Visa, and Proctor & Gamble—are aggressively seeking diversity in who they partner with and hire. Besides the obvious social reasons to do this, there are ...
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Ever wonder how you can apply storytelling to something as simple as an email? Watch this short video to see a vague, confusing email transformed into a clear, succinct story:
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Imagine this…you are in an online storytelling workshop alongside colleagues overseas. You share a sample story of a program you’ve been laboring over. Your Parisian colleague quickly comments on ...
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Ask nearly any senior leader what their biggest frustrations are and, more often than not, they will answer, “long-winded, unclear communications that pack in too much information and not enough real ...
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We’ve gone digital. Welcome to our scalable storytelling solution that increases cross-functional collaboration and gives learners the flexibility to access content on their time, on any device. Jump ...
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By Melony Bravmann, Chief Learning Officer at The Presentation Company. The human brain is wired to learn. It’s also wired for story. Stories help learners connect with ideas through the power of ...
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When planning any high-stakes communication, knowing who your audience is absolutely essential. But what happens when you are pitching to a variety of people with widely differing interests? In other ...
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One of the most common—yet dangerous—mistakes you can make when creating data visualizations is making your audience work hard to understand your key insights. The good news? This one simple ...
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We're excited to announce we’ll be speaking at the ATD International conference this year! Watch this short video for a sneak peek at our session, taking place Tuesday, May 21st at 1pm. See you there!
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We live in a visual world. Billboards on the highway, TV commercials, and social media newsfeeds are constantly trying to sell us messages. But these visuals aren’t built merely to be colorful or ...
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We don’t always deliver our ideas in person. More often, we leave our proposal, sales pitch, or product update to the mercy of the send button. But – as any great communicator knows – timing and flow ...
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Data justifies nearly every business decision we made. But too often, our valuable insights get buried among the "noise" of traditional charts and tables.
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These days, it’s a battle royale trying to hold people’s attention. To make matters worse, we often needlessly clutter our slides with data and obscure our insights with visual debris. To give your ...
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The financial services industry – heavy on data and metrics – might not seem like the right place for corporate storytelling. But dry, generic messages of performance history, customer service stats, ...
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Are you reluctant to give feedback to colleagues? You're not alone. Nearly all of us are tasked with collaborating with peers at some point in our career.
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Do you use icons in presentations? Icons are a great alternative to photography when it comes to visualizing your ideas. Watch this short video by TPC's to learn more about how to insert icons in ...
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“I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or laugh knowing how many wasted hours I’ve spent designing decks,” is a line your CFO does not want to hear! Unfortunately, whether people admit it or not, this is ...
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There are many charts options for displaying your data. So how do you choose the one that is going to make your numbers shine? Better yet, how do you know which chart will tell the most memorable, ...
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By now, everyone has heard about the undeniable power of business storytelling as a way to get ideas heard. Beyond helping you humanize and organize your thoughts, storytelling also impacts the way ...
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Neuroscience tells us that two powerful tools — storytelling and visuals — capture attention and drive people to action. The best storytellers do this because they remember one important fact: people ...
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These days, there’s a big push to embrace storytelling in business communications. Companies are hiring acting coaches and improv troupes to help liven up their dry, monotone communications. Kudos to ...
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It happens to the best of us: Mid-presentation, we suddenly notice something both unnerving and terrifying: vacant, bored, or – heaven forbid – hostile faces in our audience. We might try to talk ...
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Think back. Do you remember much from the last presentation you attended? Proposal you read? Virtual meeting you dialed into? If not, don’t panic…you’re not alone. Most of us don’t remember a whole ...
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We’re addicted to data. It helps us find golden revenue opportunities. It helps us slash project costs. Whatever path we seek or decision we are trying to make, we rely on data to get there. But ...
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Many of us are secret (or not so secret!) procrastinators. This is surely what drew interest in this popular TED talk by Tim Urban. But 23 MILLION views?! Even if many people identify strongly with ...
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One of the most difficult chasms presenters must cross is understanding their audience’s mindset. When you get people in a room (or in front of a screen), you want to make the conversation about ...
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Your presentation is starting out great. You’ve got highly-visual slides, the technology is functioning, the crowd is paying attention… well wait, they were paying attention. Now you’re noticing – ...
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Recently, we explored a key skill in corporate storytelling – how to build a presentation that addresses the needs of multiple stakeholders (rule of thumb: three different stakeholders? Three ...
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We live in a data-driven world. But we don’t spend huge amounts of time and money collecting data just for fun. We look for numbers to answer crucial questions and guide us in nearly every decision ...
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Taking steps to understand your audience usually puts you on a promising path for a memorable presentation, right? But what if our careful preparation is still not enough? What if we still miss that ...
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Ask any executive what their biggest frustrations are and, invariably, they will answer, “long-winded, unfocused presentations that pack in too much data.” Modern institutions – from major ...
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Executive presence… you’ve either got it or you don’t, right? ...we beg to differ. Whether you are a data guru or a budding manager, anyone can “own the room”, navigate difficult questions, and come ...
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Everyone knows that investing in the right professional skills increases your odds at career advancement. Who doesn’t want that? But for most of us, finding the time for additional training is a ...
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After an exhilarating four days in San Diego at the 2018 Association for Talent Development International Conference and Expo, the TPC team was buzzing. ATD pulled out all the stops for their 75th ...
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You've probably heard that storytelling is all the rage in the business world today. But you might be wondering, "What is corporate storytelling and how do I get started?" Read on to learn Corporate ...
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You’ve got minimal time with big decision-makers. They’ve got competing priorities. Want to make your time count? Learn to create a strong, story-filled narrative they’ll easily grasp, remember, and ...
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Since a young age, we were all asked the infamous question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” As a child, your answer was likely a firefighter, princess, astronaut, doctor or Superman. We ...
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Kevin Campbell is more than a Master Trainer at TPC. He’s a master at generating true behavior change in employees at some of the world’s top brands. In the well-functioning machine that is TPC, ...
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You don’t have to be Steve Jobs to give insightful, powerful, memorable presentations. You just need to improve your visual storytelling skills. TPC partnered with the Association for Talent ...
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As of January of this year, there are an estimated 11.6 million women-owned businesses just in the United States alone. This is an impressive stat, given recent discussions on women in the workplace, ...
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So much has been written on the psychology of color and using it in presentations to incite emotion and convey ideas. When expressing ideas visually in a presentation with shapes and graphics, we ...
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Looking for simple yet powerful data visualization techniques? We've made it easy. TPC Co-founder and data storytelling expert Janine Kurnoff demonstrates some of her favorite data ...
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TPC co-founder and storytelling evangelist Janine Kurnoff joins the Brandon Hall Group podcast to discuss the power of storytelling in business and how every single one of us has the ability to ...
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You’re busy. We know. But before you pull in slides from your boss’s deck or grab those charts from the marketing guy, ask yourself: Am I offering a clear storyline with an agenda, or am I just ...
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How did you actually learn to drive a car? Was it the Drivers Ed classroom, or when you actually buckled up, turned on the engine, and pressed the accelerator? We apply this same logic to our ...
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Throwing a bunch of tables and charts into a presentation doesn’t make for great data visualization – just ask your boss. :-) Nobody wants to sit through slide after slide of numbers jammed on ...
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We all know that telling a story with our data is what gives it meaning. But sometimes, it's difficult to know how much data to include. We have a simple way to determine what’s worth including…can ...
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Let’s address the elephant in the room: We’ve all witnessed presentations by well-meaning data gatherers – who offer charts and tables galore – but fail to distill their numbers into a clear, ...
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Are you a data nerd? Do you love ‘mining the numbers’ for deeper meaning and trends? Then you’re in the right place. The amount of data that companies need to process and analyze in order to gain ...
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When it comes to presenting to executives, we know this for sure: more data is not necessarily better. Unfortunately, most of us have learned this the hard way. We’ve struggled to make distracted, ...
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We spend an incredible amount of time and money collecting data. That’s because data justifies nearly every business decision we make. But too often, we overwhelm customers, prospects ...
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For a startup, reaching investors, board members, key partners and business reporters is essential to your success. But most business people get over 100 emails a day — and at least 30% of that is ...
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Ready to directly confront your fears and anxieties about presentations? Good. Janine Kurnoff, Co-founder of the Presentation Company, joins Park Howell's Business of Story Podcast to lay out the ...
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“I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or laugh knowing how many wasted hours I’ve spent designing decks,” is a line your CFO does not want to hear! Unfortunately, whether people admit it or not, this is ...
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Remember the last time you were stuck in a business presentation with endless bullets, heavy data, and text-filled slides? Last week? Yesterday? Right now? Business meetings are notoriously boring, ...
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Ah, sales and marketing. They go together like peas and carrots. Macaroni and cheese. Peanut butter and jelly. First, the talented marketers gather clever insights, data, and case studies to create ...
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Maybe you've got a new initiative that needs funding, you're trying to close a deal that will skyrocket Q4 revenues, or you're just trying to keep the boss (or your boss's boss) awake during a ...
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Corporate Storytelling Workshops Clinched Bronze Prize for “Best Results of a Learning Program” The Presentation Company, which provides visual storytelling training for some of the world’s most ...
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I’ve had just over a week to absorb all of the rich and eye-opening knowledge shared by thought leaders at the ATD International Conference and Expo in Denver, and I’m still filled with awe at how ...
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If you’ve ever had to present data, you’ve undoubtedly wondered about what visuals to use. Beyond making your data look great, you want it to be easily editable and, most importantly, actually MEAN ...
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Picture this: The CEO of your company has asked you to whip up a deck for his upcoming keynote. You fire up your Mac and weave visionary statements, startling facts, and elegant charts all into an ...
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Most of us have received the memo: dazzling visuals can punch up your presentation. And thanks to stock photo sites like shutterstock.com, istockphoto.com and Getty Images, there are an unlimited ...
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Chances are, your company has at least two templates that you build presentations in: one standard template and one widescreen template. Do you ever wonder why there are two, or get confused about ...
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Selling products and services is no longer about showing up with your slides and simply responding to client’s needs. Today, we know that top sales people approach their customers by providing them ...
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Want to build visual, story-driven presentations quickly? Get ahold of great plug-and-play corporate presentation templates. Yeah, yeah, yeah… you’ve heard it before. Presentations that tell a story ...
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Do all great presenters have professional copywriters and graphic artists at their disposal? The reality is… no. And they don’t all possess some rare skill that allows them to instantly whip up ...
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Chances are, you’re probably emailing your proposals, executive summaries, or strategy reviews much more often than presenting them live. And if you’re worried this hampers many of your great ideas ...
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Developing PowerPoint decks takes time… but probably less time than you’re spending now. Let’s fix that. We’ll start with all those functions that need to be repeated over and over. You know... ...
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On any random day, you will find two people, working for the same company, eagerly presenting their product updates, project reviews, and strategy pitches. They certainly look similar—with high ...
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Think of the last time you were in a presentation that was loaded up with charts and tables. Do you remember the key points? Did the data surprise, shock, or create any kind of emotion in you? ...
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PowerPoint is the second most popular communication tool after email. Yet there is huge variation in how effectively entrepreneurs use it. As an enhancer or a barrier, it’s the visual elements ...
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You’re getting ready to present a great idea... supported by a whole bunch of data... to the boss… What could go wrong? A lot. Bosses are human: they will remember 10% of what they hear, 20% of what ...
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It’s no secret — it’s the visuals that get your message heard and retained. Pictures are processed 60 thousand times faster than text. Here are three common visual layouts that work to catapult ...
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Communicator, Designer, Craftsman Definition of success: I measure my success by the success of the people I love and work alongside. The goal is to make a multiplicative impact. I build the content ...
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Masterful WebEx Presentations - Part 3 Your WebEx presentation was meticulously planned. Flawlessly delivered. Your audience vigorously interacted with you – and with each other. Time to pack up and ...
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Masterful WebEx presentations – Part 2 In Part 1 of our series on Masterful WebEx presentations, you learned about interactive tools that lock in audience engagement, how to build slide - decks for ...
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PART 1: Masterful WebEx Presentations: Planning and Design Most agree. It’s crazy-scary making virtual presentations to a large, unknown audience. Hell, it’s scary presenting to a small, known ...
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Can you imagine buying clothes that are stylish, but have no buttons, zippers or pockets? This is how many companies attempt to build corporate PowerPoint templates: beautiful to look at but, ...
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Bar charts. Line charts. Pie charts. We long to nestle our data in these colorful displays in hopes of breathing great meaning into our numbers. But too often, bad chart choices and misuse of our own ...
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We understand that presenting data in PowerPoint can be a daunting task, especially when you don't have time to get creative. Here are 3 easy tips for presenting data effectively when you're short ...
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We build a lot of custom PowerPoint templates for Fortune 500 customers and often we’re asked to create two versions: a standard template (4:3 aspect ratio) and a widescreen template (16:9 aspect ...
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Why use the Insert Chart feature in PowerPoint versus pasting Excel charts into a PowerPoint slide? What's the benefit? Well, if you're trying to manage file size, want to maintain confidentiality of ...
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Here’s the bitter truth: Your 800-word opus on the status of your upcoming product launch looks like a horrifying avalanche of words on your boss’s computer screen. She clicked out of it immediately, ...
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