5.0 out of 5 stars 75 great lessons in effective presentation from a master
January 3, 2013
By Jeff (Northern California)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
Full Disclosure: I’ve been through the author’s 3 day introductory course and am a huge fan of his insight and lessons.
Winning Strategies for Power Presentations tackles a problem endemic to our current times: short attention spans. In fact, Chapter 54 is about the difficulty of presenting to a crowd lost in their Crackberries. Ironically, it’s the only topic where Jerry admits trying a lot of techniques and not finding one he likes.
Well, never mind, because the other 74 chapters offer sound advice for many challenges in communicating effectively in presentations. Each one takes a problem and in anywhere from 2-5 pages gives practical advice distilled from several of his other books. As usual, he’s informative, entertaining, and quite insightful.
If you’re new to Power Presentations, this is a great book to start with. However, if you’re really serious, you will want to move on to his other works where the chapters are longer and the advice is more detailed. Think of this book as the appetizer. When you’re done, you’ve got several great full courses in front of you.
If you’ve read any of his books before or taken one of his courses, this book is a great reminder of his advice. I caught myself reverting to 2-3 old habits recently and this booked snapped me right out of that.
Finally, Jerry has a keen eye for really good and really bad examples of public speaking. Although he refers quite often to politicians both in this book and in his courses, he also pulls material from many other fields of endeavor. He’s not afraid to show examples of people who contradict his advice and can get away with it (e.g., Ronald Reagan not moving his hands when he speaks.) This book is a thought provoking, quick read, that should make you want to read everything else he has written. There is no one else like Jerry Weissman.