Presenting With Pizzazz: Chapter One

Hey everyone,

I finished the book I just started the other day, Presenting With Pizzazz.  Impressed?  Don't be, it's only 99 pages long.  It's full of some really good stuff though, facilitation tips and games.  It's great to read it after I've both been to conferences and led conferences, because I can remember facilitators using tips and I can identify where I could use them.

Even though it was short, I got A LOT out of it.  I'm actually going to go through each chapter in a different post to talk about the different posts, quotes and ideas.  

So first, here's a few quotes I liked from the introduction.  

"It doesn't really matter what you know.  It's what you do with what you know that's important." 

"If you want them to HEAR it, YOU talk.  If you want them to LEARN it, THEY talk." 

And now, Chapter One: "Never Talk Longer Than the Average Age of the Group."

At first I read this, and thought, "What?" But remember, this isn't a book about speeches. it's about facilitation.  And, wrote the author:

"Never talk longer than the average age of the group.  It doesn't mean that you stop speaking entirely for the rest of the time.  It just means that you stop for a few moments and let your audience DO SOMETHING with what you just told them."

And it had some great ideas for Pair and Shares that I'm anxious to try.   Good stuff.

Alright, that's all I'm going to do in this post, 'cuz I think if they get too long people don't read them.  I wouldn't.  :)  The next book I'm starting is "Soar With Your Strengths."  I'm really psyched about how quickly I'm getting through them, and getting a lot out of them too.

Have an awesome week,
Rachel