CHAPTER 4

Crafting YourPresentation

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.

—DALE CARNEGIE

You have probably heard that Dale Carnegie quote before. What you might not realize is that this simple three-step process for organizing your presentation is actually a streamlined version of Aristotle’s ideas on giving persuasive speeches. It’s a rhetorical structure that has convinced audiences made up of emperors and senators, kings and queens, judges and juries, customers and prospects, business leaders and decision makers across the millennia. There are at least three reasons this bromide has been around for centuries:

1. It keeps you, the presenter, focused and on track as you prepare and deliver your ...

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