This Element is an excerpt from The Truth About Confident Presenting (9780132161602) by James O’Rourke. Available in print and digital formats. Expert techniques for making sure people pay attention to your presentation, from one of the world’s leading business communications experts. If a presentation is a learning occasion for the audience, it’s also a listening occasion: an opportunity to hear, tune into, and make sense of what’s being said. But, listening is hard work. It involves intellectual and physical effort. Unless properly motivated, it’s something most people would rather not do. So, how do you get an audience to listen?

The world is full of sound - most of it unwanted and unplanned - which can change our moods, our behaviour and our performance. This book explains clearly how to use this fact to great advantage, in terms of productivity and customer performance. In a few years, a company's sound will become as important as its logo and public image. Here is a practical guide to planning and managing sound for increased profit in all aspects of business.

FOREWORD BY GUY KAWASAKI Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the Net — presentationzen.com — shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" in today’s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations.

Called the Bible of Public speaking, Knockout Presentations is a “seminar in a book” that reduces fear and gives speakers the steps to craft and deliver a talk that will make them a knockout on the platform! It’s the next best thing to having Diane DiResta there to teach in person. DiResta provides all the fundamentals without the fluff. Speakers learn what confidence looks like, sounds like, and how to speak the language of confidence, reduce preparation time, craft a compelling talk, size up an audience, overcome fear, and master questions and answers. The Dos and Don’ts at the end of each chapter help speakers review and remember the principles even after putting them into practice. Speaking is the new competitive advantage and Knockout Presentations gives speakers tools and techniques, templates, and resources to improve their skills.