Good in a Room

How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience

By: Stephanie Palmer

Narrated by: Judith Brackley

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Business consultant and former MGM director of creative affairs Stephanie Palmer reveals the techniques used by Hollywood's top writers, producers, and directors to get financing for their projects and explains how you can apply these techniques to be more successful in your own high-stakes meetings.

As Palmer has found, the strategies used to sell yourself and your ideas in Hollywood not only work in other businesses, they often work better.

Whether you are a manager or executive with an innovative proposal, a professional with a hot concept, a salesperson selling to a potential client or investor, or an entrepreneur with a business plan, Good in a Room shows you how to:

Master the five stages of the face-to-face meeting

Avoid the secret deal breakers of the first 90 seconds

Be confident in high-pressure situations

Present yourself better and more effectively than you ever have before

Whether you want to ask for a raise, grow your client list, launch a new business, or find financing for a creative project, you must not only present your ideas in a compelling way - you must also sell yourself. Good in a Room shows you how to construct a winning presentation and deliver the kind of performance that will get your project greenlighted, whatever industry you're in.

©2008 Stephanie Palmer (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Stephanie Palmer delivers clear, useful advice on how to successfully move the good idea in your head into the other heads in the room. It is hard to think of a more valuable skill." (Peter Kaufman, CEO, Glenair Inc.)

It was ok.

First off, kudos to anyone willing to share their talent to teach others. Ms. Palmer does that and I appreciate it. She also walks you through real world scenarios she has been in. From there, I did not feel I got as much about how to put a project together and sell it as I have from other books.

My main reads are: Screenwriting, Movie Making, Memoirs. I read 1 to 4 books a week via Audible, so I have made my way through most of the books that fall in these genres. This book is good and I recommend it as an overall knowledge base, but not the best.

Not bad

Overall there was some good info. But the narrator was sounded so dry I kept wanting to turn it off. It also could be edited down with ease. There was one part in particular where she started listing examples, and she went way over what was needed. That happens several times.

2nd Nature

I am going to saturate my mind with this read until it's common practice.

Thanks

Superb Advice for Hollywood and Beyond

While its initial stage is the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, Ms Palmer has broadened her applications to all walks of life - any situation in which the sale is important. It's not just about showmanship, it's about whole person communication. Best of all, Ms Palmer is very humane, and her writing takes on a compassionate while pragmatic perspective.

Great info

Some really interesting insight and actionable advice in this book. Narrator was not a good choice however; this book is about pitching to executives or forming business relationships and having a powerful presence "In the Room" but the voice sounded more appropriate for a guided meditation and got a bit lost in the ambient road noise of commuting so I frequently had to skip back to try and catch what was said when I listened in the car.

Anyone who pitches anything will benefit form this!

Sales, creatives, not for profits, startups, all will benefit from reading this. It is a complete guide to getting in the room (to give your pitch), to preparing, pitching and follow up. If you depend on routinely giving any pitches or presentations at all, this is a must read.

Fantastic! Just what I was looking for.

As a sometimes shy writer, the idea of pitching my ideas and screenplays filled me with apprehension. But from the very beginning, I felt much more calm and relaxed about the process as I read this book. The ideas about creating a 'teaser'' and trailer to interest people in you and your product without being overbearing were worth the price alone, as was info about the 'mini meetings' between your big 'rooms'.

Throughout, she uses four examples -- a business person, a sales person, an entrepreneur, and a screenwriter -- and honestly I found each one interesting and informative, even though the stories of Hollywood were (of course!) of the most interest to me.

I have already put some of the (anti) networking ideas into effect (with great results) and look forward trying out other techniques in more important rooms down the road.

This isn't a book about transforming your personality; it's about simple but all-too-often forgotten foundations of respect, clarity, and hard work. It's also permission from the kind of person you want to impress in a room that -- surprise -- being a real human being is much more effective than creating a super sell-o-matic 'closer' persona. What a relief!

Highly recommended.

A must read for everyone!

Good and much needed advise. Personaly liked most the part where they talk about gaining fespect an reclaimimg personal time.

Great to get perspective from a former gate keeper

There are also some great take aways for non industry people as well.

The greatest take away for me was to always stay courteous and professional as you build your relationships in your career.

Seems like common sense but if that were the case, she would not have written the book and we wouldn't be reading it.

Much Too General to Be Useful

"Good in a Room" is 75% air. Writers and Creatives beware: this ex M-G-M exec spends precious little time on the screen process and the advice is so basic it's laughable. Pass.