Presentation Coaching

I learned to present the hard way, by trial and error and made all the mistakes. In my first presentation I talked to my feet, not my audience; it was a corporate presentation and I did not believe in the messages I had been asked to convey by my boss. After leaving the corporate world and starting my own business I quickly had to learn the art of presenting and was so super-confident in my second presentation that I refused to hear the criticisms that were laid in front of me by an expert panel of judges; my audience. My third presentation was to a venture capitalist, who had reviewed our executive summary, liked what he read and invited me to come and present the business. Not knowing what to expect I had no presentation prepared and when asked to tell him about the business I replied, “well, haven't you read my business plan?” Wrong answer and, no surprise, no investment! Indeed, again I was not prepared for my first presentation to city investors when taking the company public; my aged laptop took too long to boot up and snappy slick presentation was off to a bad start. Also embarrassingly (and don't make this public!) I ran over time in a business angel presentation finishing with 3 slides to go.

But I learned by my mistakes. Simplistically a good presentation; engages and caters for the audience it gives them what they want to hear (not what the presenter wants to tell them), is delivered with passion, voice is projected so those at the back can hear, is delivered in a language the audience will understand and is practiced so delivered in the allocated time. I successfully pitched my business to raise first round venture capital funds and subsequently took it to the stock market where I raced round the investment institutions in the city of London giving up to 5 presentations a day. Presenting became my life for a few months and second nature. 

Since then I have been invited to speak at various conferences, won best speaker in a business speaking competition and relish the opportunity to speak and present. I was lucky enough to be chosen by the Department of Commerce to train business owners who had been selected to give a 10 minute business presentation in the investment stream of the Leading Lights Investment Conference in 2008, have worked with finalists of the Innovator of the Year competition, business angel groups and have taught new innovators and early-stage technology businesses to present understandably in 'business language', preparing them for seeking funding.

If you think I can help you contact me (but you're really far better off finding someone local or trying out your pitch on your friends and family.)