by Sharon Ferrier | May 20, 2024 | Powerpoint, Presentation skills
Last year during an interview, Jeff Bezos said ‘No PowerPoints are used inside of Amazon.’ He is not the first CEO to react this way. In 1997 Scott McNealy, then president of Sun Microsystems, banned the use of PowerPoint throughout his company and a 2015 article in...
by Sharon Ferrier | Nov 17, 2022 | Pitching, Presentation skills, Speech Writing, Stories
I love working with entrepreneurs. To succeed as an entrepreneur, you have to be creative, resilient, and persistent. What we see as ‘overnight success’ is the cumulation of many years of hard slog, rejection, and disappointment. I love asking them about how they...
by Sharon Ferrier | Aug 19, 2022 | Confidence,Persuasion,Speaking, Presentation skills, Speak up & Persuade, Speaking, Speech Writing
I swear I have learnt more about persuasion and influence raising teen boys than anything else I have read or done!When #2 son was in his early teens, he developed a sarcastic tone to his voice. It’s hard to explain in written form, but imagine Bart Simson...
by Sharon Ferrier | Feb 24, 2022 | Presentation skills, Speech Writing
A few years ago I attended the TEDx conference in Adelaide. I was also involved in coaching some of the speakers who were due to present at the event. I LOVE TED talks and to see local South Australian speakers shine at the Adelaide TEDx event was a joy. If you are...
by Sharon Ferrier | Oct 1, 2021 | Confidence,Persuasion,Speaking, Presentation skills
I’ve noticed something interesting happens when people are asked to present to a Board of Directors. Understandably, they become very nervous. Their fear is that they will not look or sound intelligent, or they may be caught out with a tricky question. And so, they...
by Sharon Ferrier | Jul 26, 2021 | Confidence,Persuasion,Speaking, Presentation skills, Speak up & Persuade, Speech Writing
Several years ago, I worked with a client who had to give a three-minute pitch in order to qualify for millions of dollars in research funding. He spent the whole of the three minutes explaining how brilliant he was and the work he had done previously. And I thought...