We all know a great presentation when we see it. With Jerry Weissman’s new book, Presentations in Action, we get lessons from 80 great presentations about what makes them great.

For those that have ever presented to a group, you’re familiar with the myriad of issues one needs to address (and often realizes they missed once in front of the group – too late!). This book can help keep those lessons in mind before it’s too late.

Needless to say, it got me thinking a lot about presenting, so I sent the author some questions he’s answered here:

Public speaking is the world’s greatest fear. What are some basic things experts have done to take the edge off?

35 years ago the bestselling The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky included a survey that asked respondents what their worst fears were. At the top of the list was speaking before a group; it ranked more fearful than death, flying, and insects. Since then, countless experts have offered countless solutions, among them:

• Lie down to slow down your heart
• Run around the block to pump up your heart
• Pop a pill
• Take a swig of alcohol
• Focus on an imaginary spot in the back of the room
• Imagine your audience naked

Most of these are purely physical solutions to what is not a purely physical problem. Moreover, a physical approach to overcoming the fear of public speaking will make presenters or speakers feel like performers, and intensify their anxiety.

The simple solution is to put presenters’ minds at ease by doing what comes naturally: treat every presentation as a series of person-to-person conversations. This focus on concentration is practiced in many related fields such as sports, music, and acting. Presentations in Action offers several case studies of each, including one example of the power of the conversational approach involving Bill Clinton.

Presentations are about more than just how you communicate. What are some tips for specific words to use, or avoid?

In this day and age of Sarbanes-Oxley wariness about forecasting and hyperbole, businesses have become defensive in their outbound communications to the public, press, and customers. Counseled by their legal staffs, corporate communicators—at all levels and in all forms—express their future plans in the conditional mood: “We believe…” or “We think…” or “We feel…” so as not to make forward-looking statements. While this may satisfy the attorneys, it sounds weak and uncertain to audiences who seek guidance about future direction and plans.

This is not to say that communicators should immediately switch to the declarative mood and start making rash predications. By all means, use the conditional mood, but instead of “believe,” “think,” and “feel,” try:
“We’re confident…”

How can some key principles easily translate when you present in a different country?

The entire thrust of Presentations in Action is to demonstrate the universality of all communications. Two of the key aspects of all presentations are applicable in any country.

• PowerPoint slides. All humans—regardless of their native language—perceive slides with their highly-sensitive sensory systems. If the slides are too dense, your audience becomes overloaded and stops listening to you. A simple rule of thumb to reduce sensory overload is to treat your slides as headlines and let your audience get the story from you. To make it even easier for your audience, confine the headlines to one line—avoid wordwrap.

• The presenter’s delivery style. Most humans are comfortable in one-to-one conversation. Most presenters try to become performers in front of the room. A simple rule of thumb is to treat every presentation as a series of person-to-person conversations.

How can a presentation best inspire action in people?

Action occurs only when a presenter addresses both ends of the spectrum that spans the gap between what the presenter wants and what the audience wants:

• Call to Action. “What’s your point?” is anathema to audiences, yet many presenters fail to do what salespersons are urged to do: Ask for the order. This failure comes about as a result of two misguided assumptions: that the audience will reach a conclusion on their own, or that asking for the order is too pushy. Faint heart never won fair lady. Ask for the order.

• Provide a benefit. Generations of sales managers have had to remind their sales forces to sell benefits, not features, and yet the problem persists. To prompt a benefit, presenters can leverage the common axiom, “What’s in it for me?” by saying instead, “What’s in it for you?” or its acronym, WIIFY. The shift from “me” to “you” triggers the benefit to the audience.

If you use only one acronym, use WIIFY.

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Jerry Weissman is the world’s number one corporate presentations coach. His private client list reads like a who’s who of the world’s best companies, including the top brass at Yahoo!, Intel, Intuit, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Netflix, Dolby Labs, EBay and many others.

Mr. Weissman founded Power Presentations, Ltd. in 1988. One of his earliest efforts was the Cisco Systems IPO road show. Following its successful launch, Don Valentine, of Sequoia Capital, and then chairman of Cisco’s Board of Directors, attributed “at least two to three dollars” of the offering price to Mr. Weissman’s coaching. That endorsement led to more than 500 other IPO road show presentations that have raised hundreds of billions of dollars in the stock market.

Mr. Weissman’s focus widened from coaching IPOs to include public and privately held companies. His techniques have helped another 500 plus firms develop and deliver their presentations.

Mr. Weissman is also the author of four business books Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, The Power Presenter: Technique, Style, and Strategy from America’s Top Speaking Coach; In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions, and Presentations in Action: 80 Memorable Presentation Lessons from the Masters.

Tim Sanders lights up the room when he walks in, and his words have a similar effect. The positive messages of his previous books, Love is the Killer App, The Likability Factor, and Saving the World at Work, have inspired both big corporations and small organizations to focus on people, how they can help them, and work better together.

His new book, Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence is now available, and it’s his best yet. Drawing on personal stories from his youth, to his rise in leadership positions, the book focuses on individuals, and clearly describes how building one’s confidence, in the face of adversity or lack of money, can create a life rich beyond expectations.

I sent Tim a few questions about his experience writing the book, and about some of the messages inside. His responses are below. I think you’ll agree it’s worth pursuing.

How does this book differ from your previous books?

Today We Are Rich is the prequel to my first book, Love Is the Killer App. By prequel, I mean that the new book reveals the ‘story behind my story’ and the root of my point of view about people being loving creatures that almost always give back.

In Love Is the Killer App I infer, but do not explain the nature of The Abundance Mentality. This belief, that’s there’s enough to share, underlies all of my work. The new book explains that Abundance stems from a strong sense of self-confidence, trust in others and faith in something bigger than one’s self. We cultivate it through our lifestyle, especially our thinking patterns.

The Abundance Mentality makes you a calm big-dog in life. It is an antidote to jealousy, envy, greed or competitiveness. It’s a silo buster in the business world.

In the fall of 2008, I was compelled to reach back into my childhood, warts and all, and recollect why I was so committed to giving – especially during times of apparent scarcity. It was during that time I reconnected with some of the books I read as a child on the farm: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie, Guide To Confident Living by Norman Vincent Peale and The Magic Of Believing by Claude Bristol. All of these books were released between 1935-1942. They addressed The Greatest Generation and their parents with advice on overcoming what Hill called “The Fear Of Poverty” – the most crippling fear known to man.”

Pop-spiritual books like The Secret reduced their meaningful and action oriented works into short-cut ‘just see it and you will achieve it’ techniques. While these seemed plausible in 2006 at the top of the real estate bubble, they left people emotionally decimated in 2008 and 2009.

Today We Are Rich shares seven principles of lifestyle design that turned me around two different times: Once as a scrawny outcast and later as a sideways-moving adult. During two major recessions, I’ve been able to stay poised instead of paralyzed through them. While I’ve talked about these experiences on the lecture circuit, I’m sharing them with readers for the first time.

Per the title of the book, what makes us rich today, and how can we maintain that beyond today?

Today We Are Rich is a statement, a declaration of your abundance. There are two kinds of rich: Bank account and Rich In Spirit. The first kind comes and goes, frequently via the business cycle or disasters/windfalls of some sort. The second kind you build up by sharing what you have and making a difference. When you share, then, you are worth something to the world – either as a person or an organization.

No matter how much money you lose, you can always find a way to help someone or some other group out that’s worse off than you. It’s that realization that gives you unbreakable confidence during the worst times. When you look at the history of recessions, the leaders of industry that had the Abundance Mentality were the entrepreneurial risk takers that rose up from the ashes with game changing products, services and charities.

Let’s talk bank account now: Confidence is economic rocket fuel. Leaders that believe they will do well in a circumstance are more influential, less prone to emotional meltdown and operate with a sense of flow. Sales people that possess total confidence are more likely to close business and gain endless referrals. One study even suggests that your overall level of confidence was a better indicator of your future earnings than your educational background or work experience. Total confidence then, is money.

To stay rich into the future, you must invest time and energy into your point of view. As Dave Ramsey told me in 2008, “a guy that’s confident because he’s on a roll is like a guy that’s a fast runner because he’s being chased by a tiger.” That’s why millions of Americans are having personal recessions today, triggered by events on Wall Street. They coasted through the good times, but reality caught up with them eventually.

In other words, don’t wait for windfalls and boom times to believe in yourself. You need to liberate yourself from the market when it comes to your outlook – and that means you need to likely change the way you live from your waking moments on.

With the increase of technology and information in our lives, how can we foster a healthy “mind diet?”

It’s hard, almost impossible, not to be consumed by the information being targeted at us. We carry always on gadgets, constantly check our social networks and the ensuing stream of information is all but random – much of it negative.

To feed your mind good stuff, you need to be as judicious about what you put into your mind as you are with what you put in your mouth. Even though fast food is everywhere and sugary foods are ubiquitous, millions of people have successfully filtered them out of their diets. This is what we need to do with our info-diet.

Instead of surfing the web, purposely read good books that give you an understanding of the future, or help you perform better in your life. Instead of jumping out of bed and checking your email, put it off an hour while you read, rehearse your day and work on your business relationships. Instead of carrying your smart phone everywhere you go, set to ‘Interrupt Me’ – leave it in your car or turn it off completely.

Don’t follow negative minded or depressed people on Facebook, twitter or LinkedIn. They are toxic to you, and if you catch their funk, what good can you be to others?

Scrutinize the magazines and newspapers you read for their commitment to inform you, inspire you or harmlessly entertain you. You’ll know the scare merchants by their apocalyptic headlines, designed to glue you to them (and the ads they serve). Filter out the shock-blogs and stay away from gossip – it’s a socially acceptable form of pornography.

What are some elements of a great conversation, and how can people put those into practice?

I’ll direct this to leaders here. Napoleon Bonaparte once said “the leader’s role is to define reality, then give hope.” It’s a balancing act, a ying-yang between today and tomorrow’s promise.

Great conversations are grounded with a rational sense of today’s circumstance. No hiding from the facts. But they also manage to project into the future, and often focus on solutions more than never-ending problems. There’s a dynamic to them, like a great song or movie, where the conclusion is both empowering and energizing. Think about the last great conversation you’ve had – it possesses these elements, otherwise it was depressing or pollyannish.

One other note: Great conversations are collaborative and build on ideas instead of shooting them down. Too often at work, we take on the curmudgeonly role of Devil’s Advocate, trying to prove we are smart. We trot out top-of-our-head objections, thinking that our conversational partner never thought through them. It’s insulting, usually. If you are the final decision maker that’s writing the check, sure, it’s important to put ideas on the grill. But as a colleague, when someone has an idea, you should build on it like an improv troupe. You just may come up with a Lennon-McCartney like piece of magic.

Beyond saying thanks, why is ongoing gratitude so important?

Gratitude is a muscle, not a feeling. When you believe that others are helping you, you do not feel like you are alone. When you focus thoughts on who is helping you, why they want you to succeed and how big of a difference it’s making – you will develop a strong sense of trust in others.

Also, you can’t be hateful when you are grateful. Your mind has only so much room, and gratitude is as expansive as fear. Maybe more so. When you start out a day or even a meeting with thanks, you paint yourself into a positive corner.

The other reason you should give thanks is that it will help others understand where they are making a difference. This will reinforce the behavior, and likely create more good deeds or innovations on their part. Think about the concept of recognition at work: It’s a thanks given, a feeling of appreciation, and increased satisfaction on both parts.

Here’s the problem, we lose our gratefulness due to a lack of exercise. Think about the new-hire employee. Talk about gratitude! What happens when they become a veteran team member? In many cases, they lose all the Love for the job, and disengagement ensues. In the book, I share how one manager gathers team members to take on the role of a new-hire, looking at the company’s assets fresh. The exercise gives them boundless energy and enthusiasm, as it often reveals new tools to bring to bear on a circumstance that’s much more favorable than they ever thought.