How to Wash a Chicken: Mastering the Business Presentation

When I was reading the book, I was totally attracted by the words. The wirter is so humor. You can tell that he must be a kind and caring man.

Had to read this book for one of my college courses and all I can say is WOW! If you struggle with presenting, this book will change your life. You learn that presenting is not as scary as we make it out to be, and the author really explains what makes a GREAT presentation. There are tips for selling ideas to just about anyone! I highly recommend it.

Tim Calkins is one of the top professors at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management due to both his business/marketing expertise and his presentation style. During class, I routinely found myself in awe of how well he controlled the room and engaged the class in discussions. He is a true master at presenting to groups and audiences. Reading through the book, I continually found myself nodding along with the insights on both the good and bad side of presenting. I learned a lot about how to present from seeing Tim in action, but being able to have a book with all of his insights and the reasoning behind his methodology is like a dream come true. I highly recommend this book for any business professional, as you'll be able to greatly improve your presentation style and understand why it is working as well!

I have had the opportunity to see Tim Calkins present on several occasions. He is a polished presenter and I was pleased that he has distilled many lessons into this book. Like a good coach, he provides practical insights on the basics of a good business presentation that will improve your game. One example is to avoid wasting time in a meeting by knowing the four times that you should present (when you need a decision, support, people to understand a situation, or your boss asks you to present). Making effective presentations is rarely covered in business school curriculums, so this book is a welcome tool for those looking to develop a critical skill.

This book is helpful for two audiences: current business students, and current business professionals. Learning how (and why) to make a presentation can be vital for progressing in one's business career, but this is a skill that most people gloss over.Most business classes teach students how to analyze business problems, but most of them don't directly teach students how to present this information in a compelling way. This book does an excellent job of filling this gap.Too many business professionals consider presentations to be an afterthought or a waste of time, when in reality they should be treated as an opportunity. Tim's book explains this well, and gives extremely helpful advice ranging from the strategic to the tactical for anyone planning on giving a presentation.

The recurring theme of How to Wash a Chicken by Tim Calkins is that presentations can make or break your career. Tim is absolutely right! I've seen this play out in both my career and the careers of many others. In fact, based on that, I'll buy this book for my entire team. How to Wash a Chicken is full of practical advice that is gold for a novice presenter and a fantastic review for the expert presenter. It is also loaded with resources to help you continue improving your presentation chops. Just like Tim's first book, Breakthrough Marketing Strategies, this one should be sitting on your desk, written full of notes, Post-It Notes popping out, with dog-eared pages.

When you finish this masterful guidebook, you'll know why Kellogg School professor and global marketing consultant Tim Calkins wins all the awards and is in such high demand. How to Wash a Chicken is loaded with engaging stories, practical advice, and good humor. I especially love his "25 Presenting Tips" -- they alone make the investment worthwhile. If I only could have read this book 30 years ago, when I was 25, my life (and the lives of countless meeting attendees) would have been so much better :) !

In this book, Tim Calkins does an amazing job describing how we can all be great presenters. The book is insightful, super-pragmatic, well-written, really well-organized, and it has a wonderful conversational tone! The key points are illustrated with compelling examples from Tim's own experience. Reading this book was like having a personal coach reminding me of all the most important things to keep in mind for my next presentation. I would recommend this book for all levels and types of presenters.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It is very simple to read and follow with very clear guidelines on how to do an effective presentation. Author is very experienced and it shows in his anecdotes and gives insights on how and why common errors don't work (putting a lot of content on slides, having people take different parts of a presentation, etc..). Focus is a bit more on business presentations - however, I think much of the content can be applied to anything.

This is an incredible book: Practical and contemporary. The problem with many books to improve presentation skills is that they focus on big epic speeches or fancy TED talks or something like that. I had never seen one like How to Wash a Chicken that focus on presenting business cases, recommendations and business plans. It address the challenges that any business person has faced at some point and gives concrete tools, tips and examples on how to deal with them. From the decision to present, to preparation to follow-up, this book covers it all with elegance and even humor at times. It's the kind of book you read once and keep near your desk for reference because if you want to improve your business presentations you will need it. Congrats Prof. Calkins on this major achievement.

Great reading. The book shows important topics about presentation. Both on preparation and execution. The reading is easy and extremely enjoyable.

Worth a read for all those who like to present

Great read . Tim addresses basic issues of modern day presentation