Stanley K. Ridgley, PhD is one of the Great Courses Professors the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post have dubbed a "rock star professor." He is the author of BRUTAL MINDS, the 2023 expose on higher education that reached #1 on Amazon's Democracy Bestseller list. Ridgley is also the author/presenter of Strategic Thinking, the million-dollar best-seller video course published by The Great [...]. Ridgley is Clinical Full Professor of Management at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business. At Drexel, he serves on the faculty senate. He holds a Doctorate and Master's in International Relations from Duke University and an International MBA from Temple University. He has also studied at Moscow State University and the Institut de Gestion Sociale in Paris. Dr. Ridgley is a former Military Intelligence Officer and served five years in West Berlin and near the Czech-German border, where he received the George S. Patton Award for Leadership in Bad Toelz, West Germany. Dr. Ridgley's intelligence activities versus the Soviet Union included signals and electronicintelligence as well as Russian translation and analysis. He served as a tactical intelligence officer on the German frontier with a combat arms unit and as a liaison officer during Soviet military inspections. Dr. Ridgley teaches courses on Strategy and Competitive Advantage, Technology Innovation, International Business, and Competitive Intelligence. He has lectured and presented widely in the United States, Russia, China, India, France, Singapore, Spain, and Colombia. Dr. Ridgley is a staunch defender of Individualism and Enlightenment values in the university as the best defense against the seduction of authoritarians, charlatans, political poseurs, and noxious ideologues of every sort.

Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; PART I: THE WORLD OF PRESENTING; Chapter 1. I Hate Presentations; Chapter 2. Public Speaking: The Twenty-first Century Presenter; Chapter 3. Basics of Your Talk; PART II: THE SEVEN SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL SPEAKERS: FROM STICK-PUPPET TO 3D PRESENTING; Chapter 4. Stance; Chapter 5. Voice: “I Feel Especially Powerful Today!”; Chapter 6. Gesture; Chapter 7. Expression; Chapter 8. Movement: No More Stick-Puppet Presenting; Chapter 9. Appearance; Chapter 10. Passion: Evoking Emotion, Displaying Earnestness; PART III THE STORY; Chapter 11. Storytelling I: The Secret Weapon; Chapter 12. Storytelling II: What Kinds of Stories?; Chapter 13. Storytelling III: How Do We Tell a Story?; PART IV: GROUP PRESENTATIONS; Chapter 14. The Curse and Blessing of Group Presentations; Chapter 15. Group Presentations I: Getting Ready; Chapter 16. Group Presentations II: What to Do?; Chapter 17. Tools of Analysis: Orient, Eliminate, Emphasize, Compare; Chapter 18. The Case Competition; Conclusion; Glossary; Index