LAUSR

Hey there! If you’re just joining us, we’ve been talking about seminars, good and bad. And that terrific movie, The Sting, directed by the inimitable George Roy Hill. The one with Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and Robert Shaw. Not the terrible sequel, which I don’t ever want to think about again. Ever. We’ve been using the chapters of The Sting to illustrate what makes up a good talk, one that we listen to attentively and don’t fall asleep in. We even learn something interesting, when it’s done right. We talked about the first two parts: the Set Up, where we hear about why we should care about the topic, and the Hook, where we actually become interested. I am often amazed how often these two essential features do not appear in a talk. Think of it this way: you spend a great deal of time working on the subject of your presentation; why should anyone in the audience care or be interested in this more than you are? If you seem to be bored with the content, I’mgoing to bewaymore bored. I don’t care if you’ve given this talk dozens of times, you have to be the most engaged and interested person in the room. Right? I wish that were always the case. But the next time you hear a really great talk ask yourself: did they seem ho-hum about it, or were they passionate? And did some of that passion rub off on you? So let’s get back to your presentation. We Set Up the talk, they took the Hook, and now it’s time for...