Blog posts

Seven Ways Humour Will Benefit Your Next Presentation

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 25, 2023

“The most viewed TED speakers deliver on average one joke per minute in their keynote speeches. The best deliver two jokes per minute.” Jeremy Donovan

Humour is the holy grail of communication. Those who have it are lauded, those who don’t are usually forgotten. Yet it is not easy and can go wrong. You will stand out but standing out means it’s easier to knock you down. So why should we make them laugh when it means risking our careers?

Here are 7 reasons to add humour

How do you win back an audience?

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 23, 2023

This is a painful story to relate. A few years ago I was one of four speakers at a conference of engineers. It happened to come at a time of huge stress. I was juggling too many balls - speaker, coach, writer, director and Dad.

Next afternoon I was on 60 minutes. The audience had been nicely warmed up and my first few lines were greeted with gales of laughter. Then it all went wrong. The harder I tried, the worse it got. I was wading through treacle. I knew I wasn’t connecting. I knew I was bombing. So what did I do? I just ploughed on.

The Importance of Being Yourself

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 19, 2023

A while back I was having a chat with another Jack, the husband of my niece, who’s also an actress. I was joking about my (also an actress) wife’s inability to load a dish washer. I cringe a little as I write those words.

Jack said, “Yes Jenny’s the same. But then I think I could be married to someone who’s great at loading dishwashers or I could be married to the amazing wonderful gorgeous Jenny?” I refrained from pointing out that maybe you could be gorgeous and wonderful and also good at loading dishwashers. 

What do most leaders forget when presenting remotely?

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 17, 2023

THAT ONLY 10% ARE LISTENING. Why? Because the other 90% suspect the presentation will be dull, boring and nothing very surprising or  interesting will happen on the journey. It's all going to be a bit safe.

How to impress your client during a video-call

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 12, 2023

An ad agency got in touch recently, because they’d just lost a huge client pitch via Teams and wanted win them back.  When they asked the client what had gone wrong, they were told it was because they didn't look like they wanted it. Ironically the opposite was true. They were desperate to impress and as I later discovered, as a team got on really well.

Avoid the Day of the Zoom Zombies!

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 9, 2023

“Welcome to the terrifying world of the Zoom Zombie… coming to a work place near you. A wall of faces, emotionless, dead eyes, voices of presenters a low drone, endless … slowly sucking the life from all who see them.” 

If this trailer rings true  - and I suspect for the majority of businesses it does, then there is a hideous cost. Here's some stats and they’re scarier than real Zombies.

Podcast with Michael Levitt, Breakfast Leadership Network Show

Submitted by Jack Milner on January 4, 2023

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