Pitching sucks. The word alone conjures up dull PowerPoint decks, pushy tactics, and shouty emails. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Danny Fontaine, an expert in innovative pitching, presents a game-changing guide that transforms pitching into an exciting, creative and enjoyable experience. Drawing from his billion-dollar pitching experience, this book delves into the psychology of connection and storytelling mastery, alongside practical methods for persuading any audience. And it's all backed with anecdotes of some of the very best, and worst, pitches of all time.

These techniques work in any context, from corporate boardrooms to classroom lectures to after-dinner speeches, proving that great pitching is all about creating experiences and evoking emotions.

Forget PowerPoint and discover how to captivate any audience, win more deals, and have fun doing it.

The big idea: If you want to get heard in the information age, you need to change the way you write. Now. Smart Brevity will teach you how. Brevity is confidence. Length is fear. This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact and deliver it in a concise and visual format. Now, the co-founders of Axios have created an essential guide for communicating effectively and efficiently using Smart Brevity - think Strunk and White's Elements of Style for the digital age. In SMART BREVITY: Write Less. Say More. Be Heard, Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz teach readers how to say more with less in virtually any format. They also share communications lessons learned from their decades of experience in media, business and communications.

A comprehensive, up-to-date and relevant communication text which engages readers through both a theoretical and an applied lens. Blends technological awareness and ability with basic communication skills and practices. Provides numerous examples as well as video clips. Aimed at students and employees, including those at executive management level.

Harness the power of communities, both inside and outside of your organization, to drive value and revenue, activate your employees' and customers' talents, and create a highly engaged, loyal customer base. What if you discovered a blueprint that could grow your brand's reputation and loyalty, dramatically reduce customer service issues, produce content and technology, and cement a powerful, lasting relationship between you and your customers? Communities have been a popular topic since the rise of the Internet and social media, but few companies have consistently harnessed their power, driven tangible value, and effectively measured their return on investment (ROI) like: Salesforce.com has seen tremendous results with their community network of over 2 million members advocating for, supporting, and integrating Salesforce.com products Star Citizen used Kickstarter to raise over $150 million to build their new video game and a community of over 2 million players. Red Hat collaborated with their community to build industry-leading technology, which led to a $34 billion acquisition by IBM Companies such as PayPal, Facebook, Bosch, Microsoft, CapitalOne, and Google, have also built communities inside their organizations, which have fostered innovation, broken down silos, and helped their organizations to operate more efficiently and collaboratively. People Powered helps C-suite leaders, founders, marketers, customer advocates, and community leaders gain a competitive advantage by answering the following questions: What is the key value proposition of building a community? What kind of community do we need and how do we build and integrate it into our organization? How do we incentivize and encourage people to get involved, build reliable growth, and keep community members engaged? How do we develop authentic, productive relationships with community members both online and in person? How do we get departmental buy-in, hire effectively, and create consistent, reliable community engagement skills in our organization? What are the strategic and tactical pitfalls and roadblocks we need to avoid? How do we make sure that our community continues to grow with us-and more importantly, how do we make sure that we continue to grow with them? People Powered pulls together over 20 years of pragmatic experience into a clear, simple methodology and blueprint to not just answer these questions, but deliver results. It also includes contributions from industry leaders including Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Emmy-award winning actor), Peter H. Diamandis (Founder of XPRIZE, Singularity University), Jim Zemlin (Executive Director, The Linux Foundation), Mike Shinoda (Co-Founder, Linkin Park), Jim Whitehurst (CEO, Red Hat), and more. Don't get left behind-become an industry trailblazer and ensure your company's longevity by tapping into the most dynamic force both outside and inside your organization: the people. A small selection of endorsements for People Powered: "Jono is an expert at integrating the potential of communities with businesses. People Powered provides a clear and thoughtful blueprint for others looking to tap into this potential and unlock benefits for their own organizations." -- Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO, Red Hat and author of "The Open Organization" "If you want to unlock the power of collaboration in communities, companies, and teams, Jono Bacon should be your tour guide, and People Powered should be your map." -- Jamie Smith, former deputy press secretary to President Barack Obama. "If you want to tap into the power that communities can bring to businesses and teams, there is no greater expert than Jono Bacon." -- Nat Friedman, CEO, GitHub "People Powered equips businesses with a powerful community building formula. It is clear, consistent and thus a genuinely effective tool for integrating community into the day to day operations of a business. Highly recommended." -- Paul Salnikow, CEO, The Executive Centre "If you don't like herding cats but need to build a community, you need to read People Powered" - Jamie Hyneman, Co-Host and Co-Creator of Mythbusters "Whether you are a start-up or a corporation, if you are not building a community, you are missing an enormous opportunity. People Powered needs to be on every executive's bookshelf." -- Maxx Bricklin, Co-Founder, BOLD Capital Partners

Avoid costly mistakes and create more profit by writing a strategic book. A strategic book acts like a brochure or business card on steroids. So don't waste time selling your book, let your book sell you The Seven Secrets of Successful Authors is the first step towards planning, publishing, and productising your strategic book correctly, so that it becomes a laser-focussed marketing tool that gives you more clarity, credibility, and collateral. The book describes a simple foolproof system for writing a book, with every step already planned and mapped out in detail for you to follow? The Seven Secrets of Successful Authors exposes a simple process to get your knowledge, skills and expertise out of your head and into print sooner than you ever imagined possible. The author has worked with many business-owners, entrepreneurs and specialists who aspired to become successful authors in their fields of expertise. They're people who wanted to increase their credibility FAST and stand head and shoulders above their competitors. Successful authors use a simple ABC framework to write a Strategic Book: Achieve Strategic Clarity. Planning a clear strategic direction gives focus. Boost Personal Credibility. Publishing a Strategic Book enhances your personal reputation. Create Profitable Collateral. Productising creates profit from your existing skills and knowledge by creating collateral that attracts pre-sold prospects who want to become customers. The Seven Secrets of Successful Authors was written to support authors through the first part of the ABC framework. Here is what you'll discover inside: Secret 1: WHAT to write about Secret 2: WHO to write for Secret 3: WHY your readers buy books Secret 4: HOW to design your book Secret 5: WHEN to finish writing Secret 6: WHERE to promote your book Secret 7: WHICH specialists to use

Getting the message across in business. This is the essential guide for office managers, secretaries and students intending to follow a business career.

The subject matter covers all the important aspects of efficient management and dealing with customers and clients effectively.

Interviews, the mass media, advertising, advertisements, meeting procedures, business letters and reports are discussed in detail.

Practical hints are provided for good language usage and editing.

The subject matter focuses on problems and deficiencies in South African businesses.

Case studies and practical applications offer students the opportunity to test their newly acquired knowledge.

The comprehensive bibliography offers a wide range of extra reading on these topics.

Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs provides quick-fire, practical advice and real-life examples and success stories to help entrepreneurs build and market their own personal brands.

In today’s fast-paced, interconnected world, you need to have a personal brand, apart from that of your company. If you haven’t already got one, you need to start cultivating it into something of your choosing before it becomes defined by those around you. Learn what your personal brand is, why it’s critical to your success as an entrepreneur and what you need to do to grow, maintain and nurture it.

Donna Rachelson, a specialist in branding and marketing, and the author of three books, distils and shares her insights from years of experience in helping entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses through the building of their authentic personal brands. Jam-packed with easily digestible nuggets of information and easy-to-apply actions, and with contributions from seven other entrepreneurs from different industries and at different stages of their personal branding journeys, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs is a must-have in any entrepreneur’s personal development toolkit.

Today's ever-changing marketing environment, accompanied by unpredictable competitive actions, creates uncertainty for enterprises and presents dilemmas, challenges and problem situations that necessitate planning ahead in order to survive. Directional/strategic marketing planning presents a step-by-step approach to developing plans that give direction to future marketing actions. Directional/strategic marketing planning begins with the marketing audit, which provides a clear understanding of the enterprise's current position in the market, the nature of the opportunities and threats in the external environment, and the enterprise's internal strengths and weaknesses. Once the basic directional market options available in the future have been determined, specific decisions that the marketer needs to make given a range of specific plans are discussed. Directional/strategic marketing planning is aimed at third and fourth year marketing students.

The ability to communicate effectively is one of the most important life skills a person can possess. It can pave the way to success, not only in terms of career but also in every other aspect of life where communication plays a role. Advanced communication skills focuses on essential communication skills and competencies for all aspects of the world of work. Advanced communication skills takes an integrated theory and practical approach to learning. It is designed to foster workplace communication in order to benefit interpersonal relationships, which in turn leads to personal enrichment, greater job satisfaction and increased productivity. The final chapter contains a selection of case studies with questions to assist in the evaluation of communication skills. Advanced communication skills is aimed at managers, personal assistants, professional secretaries and all those studying towards certificates, diplomas or degrees in colleges and universities. It fully covers the syllabus for Communication N5/N6 at technical and vocational education and training colleges, and will prepare students for the national examinations in these subjects.

Harness the hidden power of kindness. Kindness isn't merely about getting along with people and being nice. It's a game changer in business, the door-opener to opportunity, and the key to authenticity and confidence. It's a superpower that can be honed through an intentional lifestyle of kindness and is especially important in these divisive times. Can something as simple as kindness really be the answer? Through years of developing her own kindness practices and studying those of others, Good Morning America correspondent and anchor Adrienne Bankert has experienced firsthand the unbeatable power of kindness and witnessed its transformative impact on others. Adjusting our perspective from being closed off and self-centered to a mindset of kindness ripples into a staggering amount of personal fulfillment and growth. No matter our age or ethnicity, where we come from, or how much money we make, every one of us can be kind. Every one of us can be a change agent. Your Hidden Superpower will help you: See simple acts of kindness from a new and empowering perspective; Learn how to make kindness a habit and experience more peace, inspiration, and impact; Engage kindness at work and enjoy remarkable opportunities-plus, know how to get from "here" to "there" quickly; and Activate kindness as a force to reconnect you to your authentic self, replenish your passion and creativity, and find your voice.

Now in paperback-the Wall Street Journal bestseller that reveals the secrets behind Steve Job's legendary presentations, with a new introduction about his legacy. Celebrating the inspiring life and vision of Apple's game-changing CEO, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs has become the essential go-to guide for top-level executives, middle managers, organizational speakers, startup entrepreneurs, and pretty much anyone who needs to engage, persuade, and captivate an audience. This is as close as you'll ever get to having the master presenter himself speak directly in your ear. Communications expert Carmine Gallo has studied and analyzed the very best of Jobs's performances, offering point-by-point examples, tried-and-true techniques, and proven presentation secrets that anyone can master. You'll learn how to take charge of a room, create an inspiring brand story, deliver unforgettable moments-and do it powerfully, effortlessly, and effectively.

Communicating @ work unpacks the various and complex communication challenges in today's multicultural and technological working environment. It is written in a conversational, accessible style, and covers not only a range of communication situations and formats but also uses a holistic, practice-based approach to illustrate the application of effective communication principles in the workplace. Examples, margin comments, provocative chatroom questions and online supplementary material elaborate on concepts and offer down-to-earth guidance on everyday business communication transactions and conduct. Every chapter has been updated with the latest findings and debates. Given the accelerated proliferation of multimodal digital devices and networking opportunities and challenges, the authors have also increased their focus on new media, particularly the role played by social media in business contexts and corporate reputation management. This edition's comprehensive coverage of spoken, written and visual communication for business and industry makes it an ideal textbook as well as a valuable reference in the workplace for professionals.

Digital evolution has become increasingly present in our lives, whether on cellphones, computers, watches, or other appliances. As a result of the wide access we have to the digital world, the amount of data generated daily is vast. This density of information generated at every moment can be the insight needed for the success of an organization. Much is said about data-based decision-making to generate the best results. The new capabilities of data intelligence unleashed by the emergence of cloud computing and artificial intelligence make it one of the most promising areas of digital transformation change management. Enhancing Business Communications and Collaboration Through Data Science Applications provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area. It is written for professionals who wish to improve their understanding of the strategic role of trust at different levels of the information and knowledge society. Covering topics such as data science, online business communication, and user-centered design, this premier reference source is an ideal resource for business managers and leaders, entrepreneurs, data scientists, data analysts, sociologists, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

A handbook designed to help the appraiser in selecting phrases and words that accurately describe a broad range of critical rating factors.

Work - it can be a struggle, but maybe it doesn't have to be. Gratitude Communication at Work is about a simple act of communication - expressing gratitude - that can go a long way to making our work lives better. While gratitude communication can be a byproduct of an already healthy organizational culture, it can also be the way that we create that culture and alter our more immediate work experience. The 100 in-depth interviews on which this book is based show that gratitude communication offers the promise of not only feeling better about ourselves and our professional relationships, but that it also plays an essential role in increasing internal organizational effectiveness and facilitating client breakthroughs. Innovative and straightforward research-based solutions give readers the power to put gratitude communication to work in new ways so they can experience gains in their own professional worlds. Gratitude Communication at Work is the ideal book for courses in organizational communication and culture, business/managerial communication, and corporate social responsibility. The book is also a valuable resource for professionals in leadership roles.

Dramatically improve workplace relationships simply by learning your coworkers’ language of appreciation.

This book will give you the tools to create a more positive workplace, increase employee engagement, and reduce staff turnover. How? By teaching you to effectively communicate authentic appreciation and encouragement to employees, co-workers, and leaders. Most relational problems in organizations flow from this question: do people feel appreciated? This book will help you answer “Yes!”

A bestseller—having sold over 600,000 copies and translated into 24 languages—this book has proven to be effective and valuable in diverse settings. Its principles about human behavior have helped businesses, non-profits, hospitals, schools, government agencies, and organizations with remote workers.

Charming, charismatic, and delightful or manipulative, self-serving, and cunning? Psychopaths are both and that's exactly what makes them dangerous. Bestselling author of the international phenomenon Surrounded by Idiots, Thomas Erikson reveals how to identify the psychopaths in your life and combat their efforts to control and manipulate.

Using the same simple four-color system of behavior classification that made Surrounded by Idiots so popular, Surrounded by Psychopaths teaches readers how to deal with psychopaths in their lives by becoming aware of their own behavior and their weaknesses. Vivid example stories illustrate ways that psychopaths can take advantage of various behavior types, helping readers identify their own weaknesses and be proactive about protecting themselves. Erikson outlines some of the most common forms of manipulation used by psychopaths--and others--to influence those around them. Since manipulation can often be a feature of ordinary, non-psychopathic relationships, the book also includes practical methods and techniques to help readers confront controlling people and rehabilitate negative relationships into mutually respectful ones.

By understanding your behavior as well as the tendencies and strategies of psychopaths, Surrounded by Psychopaths will teach you to protect yourself from manipulative influence in your workplace, social life, and family.