Presentation pointers from ‘Empire’

PR and marketing pros can learn how to sell an idea—along with their brands—from musical maven Cookie Lyon.

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For an entrepreneur and marketer, it’s easy to focus on how the challenges Empire Enterprises faces compare to those of real life.

There is always an employee like Becky who is outspoken, but knows her stuff, or Anika, who will do anything to get ahead. If you’re around long enough, you’ll run into a Cookie or Lucious, if you are not like them yourself.

With every episode of “Empire,” viewers are left talking about at least one big scene, such as when Cookie stepped in for Lucious at the investor party. Her impromptu speech was spot-on and composed extremely well. Who wouldn’t want to invest in the company at that point?

Here are five things from Cookie’s speech that are vital when it comes to offering a presentation to potential clients, reporters or investors:

1. Be authentic. When people buy your brand, they are buying you. You must remain true to the experience, work and outcome stakeholders should expect to get.

If you are not part of a 50-year-old major corporation, do not attempt to present your brand as such. Starting off with a false persona will always show during your pitch or during the evaluation of your brand.

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