FBP Newsletter #8: Nail your next Presentation

Hello and welcome...?to my weekly newsletter, where I share a weekly tip on how to become a great FBP, plus?updates on?other free resources?we provide our clients to help lift the impact of finance professionals in their organisations.

The key moment of your presentation

This is the 8th edition of my newsletter that I started this year and I have yet to address one of the key skills that sets apart any FBP......PRESENTATIONS!

Any time you get a chance to present you get a chance to propel your career.

And any time you get a chance to present you get a chance to destroy your career.

No pressure here.....but it's a pretty important skill

And being good at them separates the best, from the rest.

If there is one key moment in your presentation that I focus on more than anything else, its the start.

Those first 15 seconds when your audience is deciding, do I want to listen to this.

Get it right and they think "Yes!"

Get it wrong and you lose your audience and your confidence and its an uphill battle from?which very few recover.

So how do you nail it.?

Practice and commit to memory?that first line or two.?

Practice saying it, adjust your tone, volume, pauses,etc so when you say it, it comes out perfect.?

And practice it until its auto pilot and comes out as you want.

I am going to go into this some more in the coming newsletters so stay tuned. But for this week if you have a presentation you need to do.....focus on the first 15 seconds.

It's when you win or lose the audience, and in finance that's half the battle won right there.

FREE WORKSHOP - Managing your workload

One of the biggest frustrations we hear with any finance team or individual we work with.....

"I just don't have the time!"

So we have put together a FREE one hour workshop to help try and address this for you.

A simple and easy to use tool,?that you can apply the minute the workshop finishes

Get it right and within a month you will have freed up your time to be working on those critical issues.

And with a little discipline and planning, you'll be home in time for dinner every night.

So join me

WHEN: Wednesday 22nd February

12pm-1pm Sydney time

9am-10am Singapore time

8pm-9pm New York time

5pm-6pm Los Angeles time

"The brain is a machine for jumping to conclusions" -?Daniel Kahneman (Thinking Fast and Slow)

A few weeks back I spoke on ChapGPT and AI coming into our world thick and fast.

Which is great.....and will significantly improve our efficiencies.....but it comes with a warning label.

Don't lose sight of how much more important your critical thinking skills have now become.

AI is like google on steroids. You can ask it questions and get some pretty good answers. And you can get it to write just about anything ie legal documents, crappy Linkedin posts, etc

Why dig more, the answers are there and they look pretty good so they must be correct.....right?

Maybe, maybe not

The key for finance individuals (and most people) is to not let it do all of the thinking for us.

Don't let it do the system 2 thinking for us so we don't have to.

Critical thinking skills and reasoning are some of those System 2 skills and what sets a good finance person apart.?

They ability to ask great questions, assess the answers, adjust and think through the issues they are confronted with.?

In Dan Kahnemans best seller "Thinking Fast and Slow" he introduces this concept of System 1 and System 2 thinking.

It is a really detailed read on how the mind works, and how inherently lazy we can become if we allow ourselves.

Its a big one this book, and parts can be deep, but if you are looking to improve your critical thinking skills understanding what is in this book is essential.

And remember, I don't get royalties for any of the book recommendations.?They are just suggestions that hopefully help you like they have helped me.

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