Guy Kawasaki Quotes

I think that no one, or very few, are born as good presenters. It's a skill that you learn. The key is the 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides given in 20 minutes using no font smaller than 30 points. If people just adhered to this rule, they would double or triple the quality of their presentations.

A speaker who does not strike oil in ten minutes should stop boring.

PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play - very loud, very slow, and very simple.

If you want me to give you a two-hour presentation, I am ready today. If you want only a five-minute speech, it will take me two weeks to prepare.

There are few things that will take you further in life, than your ability to make a good presentation.

I think nobody wants to hear a sermon. Well, some people do, but maybe not through music or not with me. No one wants to hear me give a speech that way.

A pastor has to be media-savvy if he's going to reach everybody. I don't mean to be ugly and harsh, but to be forthright and candid. And the result is that people that don't like you start listening.

One thing that I have noticed is that whatever be the function, however poignant or serious, the audience always prefers a speech laced with a bit of humor.

Ah, the first rule of public speaking -- always start with a joke.

I'm going to make a long speech because I've not had the time to prepare a short one.

Public Speaking is a skill that can be studied, polished, perfected. Not only can you get good at it, you can get damn good at it and it makes a heck of a difference.

If a man cannot make his point to keen boys in ten minutes, he ought to be shot!

If I walk into a room of 500 people, my standard is, if I can't give 400 or 450 of you something, a language or a new way of seeing something, then I have failed. If I get 100 of you, I am a failure. I have to get a majority.

Why would you get up there and bore people? I never have figured that out. These people are supposedly in the entertainment industry, and they finally get up there to that podium and they become the most boring people in the world.

Speak on, but be not over-tedious.

He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood.

There is something in the eloquence of the pulpit, when it is really eloquence, which is entitled to the highest praise and honour. The preacher who can touch and affect such an heterogeneous mass of hearers, on subjects limited, and long worn thread-bare in all common hands; who can say any thing new or striking, any thing that rouses the attention, without offending the taste, or wearing out the feelings of his hearers, is a man whom one could not (in his public capacity) honour enough.

A good talker, even more than a good orator, implies a good audience.

For myself I never plan the way I deliver a message. I do prepare the content, and then I open my mouth and give it. And so the expression, the gestures, the emphasis on words, all of that just comes.

Maybe you've had the experience where somebody's asked you a question and you give an answer, then later in the day you think, "Oh, I wish I'd said that!" I tend to journal these things and put the answers in sermons.

Audience interest is directly proportionate to the presenter's preparation. You better spend time and energy on any presentations where the stakes are high. If you are trying to close a large sale or speak at a conference to an audience of potential clients, you better be ON your game. An audience can tell how much energy you spent on your presentation, which is a reflection of how much you valued their time. If they gave you an hour of their time, you need to make it worth it to them by treating their time as a valuable asset by making the content valuable to them.

Giving his lecture for the third time freed Dr. Lionel Gift from paying much attention to it. He had a naturally expressive style of delivery, hones over the years in elementary-econ lecture halls. He knew, without even thinking, to address the middle rows of the hall, but to occasionally "shoot" the listeners in the back corners. He knew how to make eye contact and solicit the attention of those who were thinking of other things.

A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation.

If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if an hour, I am ready now.

I've found great virtue in two-thirds of the way into the message; right before I'm really want to nail home a point, pausing to tell a joke or to tell a light-hearted story, because I know my audience has been working with me now for 20 or 25 minutes. And if I can get them to laugh, get oxygen into their system, it wakes up those who might be sleeping, so there's something about using a story to draw people back in right before you drive home your final point. In that case I think it's real legitimate just to use a story for story's sake.