The White Rabbit

Alper goes into the four things you need to consider in the early stages of preparing your presentation. These are things you need to do before opening your slide design software.And oh, by the way, make sure you are not using Prezi.

With this episode, the podcast reaches its 4th anniversary. Alper goes into dealing with nervousness, and specifically, the importance of reframing it as what it is.And, by the way, don't ever expect your nervousness to go away, no matter how experienced you are. Alper has been doing a webinar for four years, and still gets nervous, and Matt, even after doing this podcast for four years, still gets nervous before each episode. Reframe your nervousness, don't try to conquer it.

Matt and Alper dive into the subject of POV (point of view), it being a significant part of Matt's business.

Owned-media expert Matthew Rawle goes into the error of thinking you need large numbers to make a newsletter work, how much to talk about the technical details of the problem you solve vs. how much to show pictures of your dog, and how to make a newsletter work if you are a corporate employee.

Brad Farris returns to the podcast to discuss the annual setting of goals, the importance of being able to zoom in and out on those goals, the importance of being able to keep both of those views in your head at the same time, and the value of flipping the "have-do-be" script we all tend to use.

Wes Wheless comes back on the show to talk about the 4 techniques he used to build trust with a new audience. In his case the new audience came after a business pivot, but these four techniques are equally relevant to anyone building trust with an audience in a presentation.These 4 techniques also form one of the major frameworks he describes in his upcoming book, so listen up, we are getting a preview of the book!

Ben Steele returns to the show to talk more about LLMs, including how the addition of context can mitigate, but not solve, the inherent problem of averageness, ChatGPT on the dating scene, and various ethical angles on the role LLMs play in our lives.

Returning guest Yalin Yuregil talks about selling software across borders, especially into Europe, including some of the factors you'll need to consider for your organization.

Chrissie Bettencourt, CEO of a company specializing in remote communication and a certified neuroplastician, gives some great tips on presenting or proposing an idea when you are up against a local incumbent, and on how to increase engagement in remote presentations.

Ben Steele goes into AI and where it is useful for our presentations, and where it merely makes us sound more average and flat. In the process, he brings forth some excellent, and very artistic, turns of phrase.

Alper and Matt discuss the ramifications of the popular phrase "provide value," with Matt being highly suspicious of the phrase.

Repeat guest Wes Wheless goes into a business pivot he had to make. Alper, Wes, and Matt discuss what presenters can learn from this pivot.

Guest Ebru Demirel discusses face-to-face meetings, the concerns of potential customers, and more things involved with growing a business in another country, even when you are already well-established in your own.

Matt offers up a real-life example of a potentially explosive conversation, and Alper helps him sort out his understanding of what's going on and how to put those techniques to use in presentations. Also, Matt tests a contrarian opinion, but Alper quickly shoots it down and sends Matt back to the drawing board.

In this episode, Lyuba Levchuk, president of Istanbul Toastmasters, goes into her public speaking journey and gives some tips on making your next presentation the best it can be.

You know how sometimes you run into people who have done all the "right" stuff -- taken the trainings, joined a public speaking club, even practicing in front of the mirror ad infinitum -- but they still have that nagging feeling that something might be holding them back? Well, in this episode Alper digs deep into 4 of these "advanced blockers," mindsets that might be getting in the way, things that he has either experienced himself or seen others going through.

In this episode, Matthew Rawle discusses owned media and the ways it can better help you connect with your audience.

Sevil Kubilay, a recent arrival in Startup Land, goes into The Transition (going from corporate life to startup life), the hesitance to put herself into her company's story, and a common misconception of Japan's ikigai.

In this episode, guest Pranav Kale riffs on how to find your big idea, the importance of knowing what your big idea is, how to sync it with the words the market might be using to describe it, and, surprise surprise, what all this has to do with Subway sandwiches.

In this episode, guest Nick Richtsmeier talks about how the internet is affecting the mindset of your audience members. This is a great episode for beginning to understand the mindset your audience members are in long before they even show up in the room for your presentation.

Matt and Alper go into ways to build trust with your audience during your presentation, including, perhaps counterintuitively, saying no.

Wes Wheless, in going into something he calls intellectual headshots, talks about the importance of distilling your larger body of work into a set of clear visual representations of an idea, and how those visuals allow your idea to travel.Link to the Headshots, and other good stuff:https://www.developmyip.com/whiterabbit

Baldwin Berges, an advisor for the European Commission and the Islamic Development Bank, talks about doing business in emerging markets. In particular for us presentation-related folks, he talks about some of his tips and tricks for researching your audience, and a couple top-level frameworks you can use for understanding a group's dynamics.

Guest Brad Farris dives into how presence saves time. Often, we humans tend to think being present costs time. But listen up as Brad goes into how it can help you solve problems faster and have more time on your hands at the same time (no pun intended).

Our guest Luka Krejci, a presentation trainer from Croatia, talks about presentation training in general and his new book Presentation Cookbook in particular. Also, Matt and Alper focus on different aspects of the view outside Luka's office window.

Alper dives into an episode we did recently with Alex Smith, applying Alex's principles of strategy to the world of presentations.

Matt and Alper riff on a couple comments from recent guests, to the extent of us humans being less rational than we like to think we are, and what can we do about that, if anything.

Selim Selveroğlu, a product manager for Dell, goes into the "Me First" vs "Connection First" communications strategies framework, and some of the ways he trains people on how that framework can help them improve their communication.

Şebnem Dağ Güven goes into the importance of storytelling in sales and how she goes about training her people in that skill.

Alex Smith of basicarts.org talks about the two stories every company needs, and how important having a well-defined strategy is before making them.

In today's episode, Rick Pizzoli returns with valuable suggestions for startup companies who are moving from founder-led sales to a more professional sales team. Even if you're not in this startup demographic, there are some great learnings coming out of this episode about how the sales transition is going to affect your organization.

This episode's guest is Rick Pizzoli, the CEO of Sales Force Europe. Rick goes into things like what prompts a company to want to sell abroad, how to get your employees and investors on board, and some of the nuts and bolts of selling into the EU specifically.

Alper goes into the three mistakes he sees people making all the time. Learn what these are, don't make them, and you'll be ahead of half the game.

Yalın Yüregil goes into various aspects of selling into another country, specifically the importance of addressing operational issues you think you already figured out, adjusting your expectations, staying away from the all-to-common mindset of "it works here, so it will work there too," and the legacy experiences of your buyers.

Matt goes into what he took away, from a recent interview, about building trust. He touches on commitment (hat tip to Robert Cialdini, someone Matt and Alper both have mixed feelings about), how to build trust into a pitchdeck, the importance of describing the problem and its role in building trust, and a couple studies he found that looked into what parts of the body are involved in the building of trust.

Vlad Cazan, co-founder of Romania's KFactory, goes into his company's efforts to sell in other countries, particularly into the UK. In particular, he goes into the importance of patience and preparation, and what to do when you don't have any connections in the target country yet. Vlad also mentions the importance of, when considering what countries to target first, to ask yourself which ones are most open to doing business with a partner outside the country. Like some of our previous guests, Vlad also mentions that your star employees back home might not be your star employees in the new country.

Bertay Fişekçi, employee engagement expert extraordinaire, goes into his public speaking journey, starting with what initially prompted him to work on that skill, how he got past initial fears once he started down that road, and how it helps him in his daily life now.

Matt and Alper blow out the carbon (a phrase an old family friend of Matt's used to use to mean taking an old car out on the highway for some exercise). In this case, that means they cover a couple miscellaneous pieces of business. Matt is considering updating a staple of his trainings, The Four Things, and Alper discusses a video he recorded recently where he takes a side on the "visualize the positive" vs "prepare for the worst" debate.

In this episode Matt interviews Alper on other ways into angel investing. Matt has a dream that we can provide a service and magically become part owners of, say, Microsoft, but Alper squashes that dream, saying that yes, some actual money is probably going to be needed. But don't worry, if all you want is to brag to your friends over a beer, you can probably get in for not much, but you're probably going to get, well, not much.

Brad Farris returns to the podcast to describe a pivotal moment in the emotional regulation of how you show up for any communication event, be it a presentation or an employee's performance review. Matt plays the guinea pig (in other words, test subject), providing the disastrous subject matter Brad uses to troubleshoot and advise. This episode is perfect for anyone who wants to make sure the right person shows up for that crucial communication event.

In this episode, Melda Sofuoğlu, a former client of Matt's, goes into what she has picked up over the years in the presentation world. Also, Melda, having worked in multiple countries, weighs in on the age-old question: Is presenting less data on a slide a culture-specific thing, or is it universal?        

In this, the 100th episode of The White Rabbit, Matt and Alper talk about what has changed in the world of presentations over the past two years. In particular, what they keep coming back to is that the magic only appears when you show up regularly, and the possibility that others won't get what you were talking about, and don't take that too personally, sometimes you just need to let go.    

Following a recent episode, where Matt posed a question to Alper in binary terms, Alper digs deeper into the potential problems associated with any binary approach. Alper points out a recent Netflix documentary that provides an excellent view into what can go wrong if the presenter gets pig-headed, and instead of changing tack, ignores the signs and plows ahead with the plan anyway. Anyone uncomfortable with the presence of unknowns needs to listen to this episode.    

Matt asks Alper for his opinion on two perspectives, which Matt soon realizes sound opposite but are actually not, and Alper offers up a third perspective. If you've ever wondered who the most valuable person in the room is, this episode is for you.              

Alper compares PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, and Canva. Each has its pros and cons, and Alper does his best to stay diplomatic and acknowledge that.  Listen in on this one if you want to hear a pro weigh in on the "should I export or not" question.    

Matt and Alper dig further into an article Alper wrote recently about how the beliefs and mindsets we carry around make it hard to present well. Interestingly, many of these scripts that run in the backs of our heads are useful elsewhere in other contexts, but can get in the way too!    

In this episode, economist Zombor Berezvai goes into the importance of telling stories, even when presenting to academic audiences. You'd think that academic audiences would be fine with the unprocessed presentation of data, but as Zombor reminds us, even those groups prefer the data be presented with a story that makes sense of it.   Zombor's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zomborberezvai  

In this episode, Berk Temuroğlu goes further into organizational changes as a startup's sales base expands to other markets. In particular, how the company's investor base will evolve, how the new investors can help the company, the inevitability of a culture clash during the expansion, and more.

Berk Temuroğlu, in the first part of his repeat guest visit, goes into what challenges a startup, having conquered the world of domestic sales, typically faces when launching into the challenging world of international sales. In this episode, Berk talks about who to choose to lead the expansion, what he calls "the wheel of engagement," weathering the period of boredom, the inevitable evolution of the organization, etc.  

In this episode, Matt goes into three of the constraints he often puts his clients into. Sometimes the best way to cut is to subject yourself and your presentation to artificial constraints. In real life, you won't have to meet these artificial constraints, but if you're at 39 minutes and you have to cut it to 20 minutes, maybe top-down (39, 38, 37, etc, on down to 20) won't work. Maybe what you need to do is subject it to artificial constraints. The use of these artificial constraints forces a message discipline that you just don't get with the 45-minute format.