Hi it’s Eugene here and I want to tell you about The Art of War for Business Pitch, Presentation, and Public Speaking book we are writing and invite you, listeners of the podcast, who would be interested in being interviewed by me, for this book, to email me at eugene@eugenemoreau.com.

I will get in touch with you via video and we will have a chat about your pitching, presenting and speaking adventures. This window of opportunity will be open for the next 30 days. As a thank you, I’ll make sure you get 5 signed copies of the book when we publish it later this year.

Last week we started a ‘mini-series’ which ‘borrowed’ from a LIVE WORKSHOP I facilitated in 2016 as a celebration for reaching the milestone of 50 Episodes in The EPIC Thought of the Day podcast.

We are focused on the foundation principle in Sun Tzu’s Art of War: “The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors…”  and we are talking about becoming a platform master through The Governing Laws for Platform Mastery.

In the last episode, we started pulling the thread on the subject of ‘Control’ and how platform mastery starts with it. Today, we are going to carry on with this session.
Hope is a useless strategy.
As a communicator, we want to move beyond having hope. Hope is built on doubt. It plants the seeds of uncertainty in the minds of the audience. It is the opposite of control. In fact, when you do not have control… or in other words, you are coming from a place of ‘hope’ – your body will send that message, in the little things, like fidgeting, no eye contact, vocal weakness rather than vocal strength.

What you do want is ‘planned, purposeful direction’, which is the true definition of control. This changes the game and your audience will sense this.
Presentation is a discipline.
Just like the pursuit of a business degree, the planning and execution of a platform communication, or a business presentation, is a series of sequential steps. A leads to B, which leads to C and connects with D… and so on.

Just like it took time for you to ‘achieve’ your degree, it takes time to ‘achieve’ control. The ability of transferring information from your head and heart, to the head and heart of your audience… takes time and skill.
Safety First!
Your audience are wanting to feel safe, no matter who they are. They want to know that they are in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. And when you don’t ‘look’ like you are in control… your audience don’t feel safe.
Here’s the action point of the day.
Safe speakers are great speakers. Safe speakers have great presentation brand. Safe speakers are in control. An audience will go with you all the way, when they know that you know what you are doing.