Review of "Silver Goldfish, Loud & Clear: The 10 Keys to Delivering Memorable Business Presentations," by Stan Phelps & Alan Hoffler

Review of

Silver Goldfish, Loud & Clear: The 10 Keys to Delivering Memorable Business Presentations, by Stan Phelps & Alan Hoffler ISBN 9781952234040


Five out of five stars

Help to spare your audience when you present

 If you have ever taken classes or attended presentations, then it is almost certain that you have been a victim of the presentation pits. This is where the presenter could bore the paint off the walls, causing the audience to lose interest and have little to no information transferal. The consequences are that all would have been better off daydreaming, for at least there, a good idea might have emerged.

 This book contains advice on how to make a presentation work, where the information is transferred, and no one enters the area of brain lock from inertia. The foremost point is that doing presentations right is an acquired skill that all can learn, it simply takes work, practice, and an overwhelming desire to succeed. Presenting well also takes courage, for it is necessary for you to set yourself up with a potential for failure if you are to succeed. Being dull is safe, but hardly helpful to you and your organization achieving your goals. The same advice for getting to Carnegie Hall also applies to delivering winning talks.

 This book is one in a series of “{Insert color here} Goldfish” books written by the authors, there is little in the way of color coding, the precious metal in the title should not be considered the pinnacle. Each of the books deals with a different subject matter. For example, there is “Yellow Goldfish – Nine Ways to Drive Happiness in Business For Growth, Productivity and Prosperity.”

 On a side note, on page 21 the authors talk about how the growth of goldfish is limited by the size of their confinement and that they can grow rather large when not confined to a fishbowl. I can personally attest to this. A friend of my father’s was an avid fisherman and he once caught a goldfish in Cedar Lake in Cedar Rapids that was close to 20 inches long. He called us up and we went over to see it. Very impressive and memorable.