When I was in the States last year, I met up with Nancy Duarte… and she interviewed me. She’s now written up the interview on her blog. Find out more about my story and why I’m passionate about helping people be better presenters – and particularly helping people overcome the fear of public speaking. Here’s the link: Nancy Duarte interviews Olivia Mitchell.
And here’s five more links to great writing on presentation skills:
Even TED speakers get nervous
TED is an elite conference where invited speakers give 18 minute talks on the ideas they’re passionate about. In this short post on the TED blog, TED speakers talk about what it’s like to give a TED talk. Main takeway – if you’re not nervous , you’re not pushing yourself enough – you’re playing safe.
What you can learn from Dan Pink
Another of Andrew Dlugan’s signature speech critiques (scour his blog for many others). This one features a 2009 TED talk by Dan Pink which is worth listening to in it’s own right. Andrew has a wonderful talent for deconstructing a talk and showing us why they work (and occasionally why they don’t).
An elegant way of addressing the elephant in the room
Diane DiResta was about to teach a class of young girls when she was told that their school principal had died unexpectedly the day before. How did she handle it?
Jon Thomas’s best 20 posts on PowerPoint presentation design
Jon’s blog is a fantastic treasure trove of slide design advice and now he’s collated a list of his best posts that will help you create visually engaging and effective PowerPoint presentations.
Speaking Perfection is a Myth
This is a recurring rant of mine – and it’s well-articulated in this post by Rich Hopkins. If you fall prey to the disease of perfectionism, then you need to read this.
If you’ve recently read a great article on presentation skills, do leave a link to it in the comments.
Thanks for the links, Olivia, and great to see you posting again!
I’m having trouble with the TED Blog and Jon Thomas links (but the others work OK). Please could you check those two. Thanks.
Hi Craig
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve corrected the links now. Happy reading!
Olivia
Thank you for those links, they are very helpful for advice on public speaking.
I have just found this brilliant website called Present.Me where you can combine your power point with a video of you presenting. It is really helpful when practising a speech and is so easy to use (you literally sign up to an account and start your first Present.Me). I have also noticed that people are using it as a tool for delivering presentations if they can’t be there to do it in person.
Anyway, I would suggest checking it out, especially if you want to rehearse. Present.me
This is great advice for my pupils. I have directed them to the site.
Charlotte – Present.Me is a fantastic site isn’t it? I use it when I cannot get to class and it allows the kids to watch it in their own time and pause and take notes. I also get the kids to create one for an assignment and it’s great to hone their presentation skills.
These links you have shared are a fantastic source of knowledge, and it’s great that you’ve shared them! It’s posts such as this that keep me coming back to your blog.
I never thought of such blogs, thank you Olivia, I’ve entered TED Blog an hour ago and I am still reading and learning. I’m mostly nervous when giving speeches.
Hey Olivia: Great post, I checked out one of the articles you mentioned and am going to the rest of them. Thanks so much for this great list.
For me, an organization that offers affordable professional essay writing is the ideal learning assistance service. I enjoy ordering assignments from this website https://www.academicghostwriter.org/hire-essay-ghostwriter/ because it helps me save a ton of time and lets me relax knowing that the work will be of high quality. When many of my friends consulted me for guidance, I audaciously provided them these guys’ contact information.