I've had the privilege of teaching at MIT and Tufts for 20 and 15 years respectively. The experience...
So far this semester, Abby Curran, Senior Consultant from Simon Kurcher has lectured on pricing, Brian Bresee, Director of NA Partnership Sales at Hubspot, has instructed us on blogging, and last week Abha Gallewale, Manager of Global Social Strategy at ASICS, discussed specifics of social media. Ramiro Sarabia, Brand Partnerships Manager at TicToc, is on tap for this afternoon, followed by Ashley McManus, Director of Marketing at Affectiva, and Marketing Guru, Jamie Turner next week.
All experts, all very engaging and, in the eyes and minds of many of my students, they elicit... "how do I get to do what they do?" about their own careers.
Two weeks ago, in our mid-term presentations, the content of which was excellent, I felt that I could do a much better job than I usually do in terms of providing the students with "best practices" to enhance their presentation skills. In fact, we do "best practices" every week with six students a week presenting their own value propositions with constructive comments from the rest of the class. I also provide my own content on presentations, which is on our Derby Management site, along with providing and a solid reference book from HBR. Even with all of that, I've always felt that I could do a better job in what I provide as content.
Which led me to invite Zach Merchant, a Tufts 2017 alum, to class two weeks ago. Zach and I have been close ever since he was a junior in my course, and I learned at that time that he was a reporter at a weekly newspaper in Arlington, MA where I went to high school. Zach and I have worked closely together as he launched his TV career as a reporter and weekend anchor in Georgia, and most recently we talked in detail about his next career step which recently brought him to WCBS in Washington as a reporter while he attends Georgetown Law.
I've seen Zach reporting at the anchor desk where everything was perfectly in place, and I've seen him working at night in sheeting rain covering floods in rural Georgia while holding his iPhone as his only recording device. Always polished, always focused and always appropriate to the specific presentation, so I knew he would be perfect in class, which he was. I thought that I would share with you today his Three Big Ideas about making the perfect presentations.
1. Be clear on the core essence of what you are saying. Define your North Star!
2. Create "Moments" and string those together from the opening to the conclusion
3. Define the Back Stop
What I've learned after all of these years of teaching and also consulting for decades with a large number of very diverse companies in a broad array of markets and industries is that very direct communication using the basic principles of making presentations often count as much as the actual content!
Consider Zach's 3 Big Ideas as you look making the best of your time during the remaining 30 pre-Christmas selling days left in the quarter!
This semester, the six companies we selected from 21 entries include...
There's no cost for this, but it does require a commitment of time...just as it would with a marketing agency. If you have a need and would like to participate, just connect with me at jack@derbymanagement.com, and I will set up a call to discuss or just send you the instructions, and then we can do a call.
If you are considering hiring an entry-level person as...
Just connect with me since I have numbers of bright, hard-working, and driven individuals that I would highly recommend...all of whom, of course come with "The Jack Derby Seal of Approval" .
If at any time, you have a need for a confidential sounding board in business planning or for Sales or Marketing, just connect with me at any time. Text or email me, and I will quickly set up a call.
I'm a pretty good listener.
Obviously, no cost for a call or two; just an opportunity to listen intently and make a few recommendations based on decades of experience.