To offer a practical self help guide to those who want to excel at business pitching, presenting and speech making and who seek to get their ideas, products or services to a wider audience. To be influential and engage with power and impact be it to an audience of one or many at the front of the room, around a boardroom table, at a networking meeting or a social function. We live in an age of sound-bite selling and instant gratification, where our attention span is that of a goldfish and our recall of information is about the same. So how do people like Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Simon Cowell, and Tony Blair manipulate and move us to take the action they desire us to? You may not agree with what they say, but you should not ignore how they say it, and the effect it has on their audiences. Key features are repetition of key points, relevant personal stories and emotionally connecting words and phrases. Taking the principles, processes and experiences of my previous careers, I have developed a number of empirically proven frameworks, used by major organisations and owner-run businesses to develop their selling and presenting skills. Let me share those business winning processes with you to put those same keys in your hands. The first step to your success is to understand these abiding principles: - -Look right -Sound right -Use the right phrases -Understand what your audience wants If not, you might as well whistle in the wind. So often, I have heard business pitches and presentations of excellent content but they fail to win business. Why? Because the speaker has been unable to reach out and touch the consciousness and emotions of their audience. In this book I will walk you through step-by-step guides of how to impress and motivate an audience of one or of many. We'll start from the moment before you open your mouth, through to when you close it. After a long career developing selling propositions and business presentations, I've come to a realisation that, when considering how to improve our personal impact and influence, there are universal principles. When these are adhered to they can transform the average sales presentation into one that is engaging, persuasive and compels people to take the action you want them to take. These principles are not specific to any sector, personality type or presentation style. Having worked across a wide range of industries and with people from every level of business, I've found they consistently deliver incredible results. I have also studied the great orators of our time and analysed their vocal tricks, use of language, body positioning, emotional devices and the 'convincer strategies'. They use these to sell their ideas, propositions and concepts and they work regardless of their subject and their audience. I will share these principles with you, along with client case studies from the individuals, major organisations and client companies I have worked with and the results of my analysis of legendary speakers. They include Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, John F Kennedy, Jay Zee, and Dr Joseph Lowery, who delivered the Inauguration Benediction for Barack Obama (more of him later). These processes are not theoretical, but tried and tested systems that I use on a daily basis to achieve positive results, win high-level contracts and gain referrals from my talks. They are techniques that I coach others to use to gain buy-in from colleagues, customers, clients, stakeholders and their boards of directors. A great presentation does not just happen. It should follow a specific framework enabling you to prepare effectively, develop compelling content and deliver that content with power and impact. It has to have a dynamic, clear and specific message that engages us at a deep psychological level. I hope you enjoy the journey we'll take together.