Little Black Book: The Sunday Times bestseller. Otegha Uwagba

work is a great way of boosting your profile, and makes you much more appealing to work with.

       KEEP IT REAL

      Above all, be authentic. Your personality is the most important part of your brand, so stay true to yourself. Your online persona should be genuinely representative of what you’re actually like in person. If your sassy Twitter alter ego turns out to be a timid wallflower IRL, the disparity between the ‘real’ you and the ‘curated’ you is only going to be a let-down, which won’t work in your favour. Don’t let a preoccupation with your ‘brand’ get in the way of the really important stuff either, or spend more time self-promoting than doing the hard work of actually honing your craft. The best personal brand is being really good at what you do.

       Chapter 4

       PUBLIC SPEAKING 101

       HOW TO GIVE A KICK-ASS PRESENTATION

      ‘I like a good speaker, and I appreciate an intelligent audience.’

      – Dorothy Parker, poet, writer and critic

      To thrive in the creative industries, you’ve gotta give good pitch. Being an effective saleswoman – of your work, of your ideas and of yourself – is one of the most useful skills you can cultivate, which means mastering the art of giving convincing presentations. Read on for some tips and tricks that can be applied in most situations, whether you’re giving a talk at an event, or pitching to a prospective client, investor or employer.

       WORD COUNT

      If you’ll be delivering your talk using a slide show, keep the number of words on each slide to an absolute minimum. There’s nothing more boring than sitting through a talk where the entire contents are written out on each slide – people will