My story
The early years
When I was 7 I started to read a lot & was accepted aged 8 into my first selective school because of my reading ability. I also acted, & together with reading this helped to develop a speaking voice. In those days we were a pretty Christian school & at the end of term we had a service at the local church & I was always asked to read a bible lesson.
Frozen & speechless
In my last year of school, when I was School Captain Of Dulwich College, my great friend Richard who had revived the debating society asked me to speak at the last debate of the year. When you don’t prepare, the world tends to give you a harsh lesson & the debate went badly, I was lost for words in front of my peers & highly embarrassed.
Regular to nothing
After the debate debacle, I didn’t speak or present again. I worked for a year & then studied for four. Plenty of new experiences for sure but no longer any presenting, speaking, performing or acting. I had gone from regularly seeking attention by speaking & presenting myself in front of an audience, to almost nothing in just a few short years.
A dream job
After university, aged 22, I travelled to Hong Kong & a dream job at an investment bank. My office on the 43rd floor overlooked the harbor. I worked for someone who presented all around the world. We’d find interesting ways to present financial data; we were the first to present on a laptop & he was ranked number 1 analyst for 3 years in a row.
Watching not doing
But I never did the presentations myself, & my confidence didn’t return. I moved to sales where I arranged for others to give presentations. But the idea to present again had returned & slowly turned into action. This is the key. At parties I started to prepare & give short speeches mostly to friends & standing on a chair.
Student
I studied books on how to give presentations & began to fall back in love with presenting. I started to take any chance I could to speak. Parties, events, birthdays, leaving dos. The more I did it, the better I got & my confidence rose. As long as I prepared, I wasn’t afraid. I was excited to do it & I got positive responses with people coming up afterwards to say they’d enjoyed it.
Full time presenter
My investment bank work changed to a role just like my boss had 10 years before & I started presenting regularly. I was hired for my next job purely based on presentation skills. I presented around the world using some of the techniques we had used before & adding my own. In just a few short years, I became a professional presenter & earned over $1m.
Teacher
I become a presentation teacher & to help me & my staff, we developed a simple method, the ‘7 Steps To Giving A Great Presentation’.
The lesson I’ve learnt is to forget about natural ability. Study & work for those who are already great, innovate to become even greater & when you find success, turn it into a system & repeat. That lesson is this ebooklet.
I hope it’s as useful to you as it is to me.
Be a great presenter.
Sebastian
Jakarta, July 2018
This ebooklet is dedicated to my father Dr James Caveney Sharp, who inspired it.
When I was 7 I started to read a lot & was accepted aged 8 into my first selective school because of my reading ability. I also acted, & together with reading this helped to develop a speaking voice. In those days we were a pretty Christian school & at the end of term we had a service at the local church & I was always asked to read a bible lesson.
Frozen & speechless
In my last year of school, when I was School Captain Of Dulwich College, my great friend Richard who had revived the debating society asked me to speak at the last debate of the year. When you don’t prepare, the world tends to give you a harsh lesson & the debate went badly, I was lost for words in front of my peers & highly embarrassed.
Regular to nothing
After the debate debacle, I didn’t speak or present again. I worked for a year & then studied for four. Plenty of new experiences for sure but no longer any presenting, speaking, performing or acting. I had gone from regularly seeking attention by speaking & presenting myself in front of an audience, to almost nothing in just a few short years.
A dream job
After university, aged 22, I travelled to Hong Kong & a dream job at an investment bank. My office on the 43rd floor overlooked the harbor. I worked for someone who presented all around the world. We’d find interesting ways to present financial data; we were the first to present on a laptop & he was ranked number 1 analyst for 3 years in a row.
Watching not doing
But I never did the presentations myself, & my confidence didn’t return. I moved to sales where I arranged for others to give presentations. But the idea to present again had returned & slowly turned into action. This is the key. At parties I started to prepare & give short speeches mostly to friends & standing on a chair.
Student
I studied books on how to give presentations & began to fall back in love with presenting. I started to take any chance I could to speak. Parties, events, birthdays, leaving dos. The more I did it, the better I got & my confidence rose. As long as I prepared, I wasn’t afraid. I was excited to do it & I got positive responses with people coming up afterwards to say they’d enjoyed it.
Full time presenter
My investment bank work changed to a role just like my boss had 10 years before & I started presenting regularly. I was hired for my next job purely based on presentation skills. I presented around the world using some of the techniques we had used before & adding my own. In just a few short years, I became a professional presenter & earned over $1m.
Teacher
I become a presentation teacher & to help me & my staff, we developed a simple method, the ‘7 Steps To Giving A Great Presentation’.
The lesson I’ve learnt is to forget about natural ability. Study & work for those who are already great, innovate to become even greater & when you find success, turn it into a system & repeat. That lesson is this ebooklet.
I hope it’s as useful to you as it is to me.
Be a great presenter.
Sebastian
Jakarta, July 2018
This ebooklet is dedicated to my father Dr James Caveney Sharp, who inspired it.
