With more than 40+ years of business, I have seen and given more than my share of presentations. Do you know my biggest favorite? Using facts that people find simple things to stand out, hands down.
Why should this be such a challenge? In my opinion, it is because the presenter needs the crutch. What do you think?
Galileo once said that “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” Great marketers uncover those obvious, but unexpected truths to win consumers hearts and sell products.
I like to take inspiration from many TED Talks. The experiences I’ve reviewed in these talks grip audiences, entertain, convey information, and deliver strong messages.
I’ve become keenly aware of the many examples that inspire me to keep getting better.
Most breakthrough thoughts aren’t built on a bundle of wonderment, novelty and new ideas. In fact, they usually involve just one big idea. The rest is execution, patience, tactics, and people. The ability to see what’s happening and to act on it.
The rest is doing the stuff we already know how to do, the stuff we’ve seen before, but doing it beautifully. You probably don’t need yet another new idea. Better to figure out what to do with the ones you’ve got.
I’ve also been able to master some tricks of the trade that consistently help me design slides that rise above the noise and connect with audiences. Here is a short video to illustrate.
We will not impact everyone in even our greatest presentations. But if we can get enough people talking about the content in the hours or days after our time on stage, then that may be enough.
That’s something. That’s a small victory.
Maybe we have lit a spark or motivated someone just a little to explore our message more deeply in the future.
That is change. It may not be a big change, but it is a change…and that is making a difference.
Garr Reynolds, who is an internationally acclaimed communication expert, shares valuable tips on this particular stage in presentation making:
“…I usually use a legal pad and pen (or a whiteboard if there is enough space) to create a rough kind of storyboard. I find the analog approach stimulates my creativity a bit more as I said. No software to get in my way and I can easily see how the flow will go. I draw sample images that I can use to support a particular point, say, a pie chart here, a photo there, perhaps a line graph in this section and so on…”
This isn’t intended to be picture-perfect, nor to represent exactly how your slides will look like. In fact, this has nothing to do with aesthetics (yet).
This is simply a draft to organize the key elements of your story.
Reynolds also quotes the McKinsey presentation handbook to explain the importance of this process:
“…presentation structure is paramount. Without it, your wonderful style, delivery, and great supporting visuals will fall flat. If you took the time in the first step to outline your ideas and set them up in a logical fashion, then your thinking should be very clear. You can visualize the logic of your content and the flow of the presentation. If your ideas are not clear first, it will be impossible to design the proper structure later when you create visuals and supporting documents. Your audience needs to see where you are going…”
Put the audience first
Even when we are “telling our story” we are telling their story. If designed and told well, our story is their story.
Yes, the plot—the events and facts and the order in which they are arranged—may be unique to us, but the theme is universal.
The message or lesson must be accessible and useful for your particular audience. The advice may not be new and it may not sounds exciting, but it’s true: Know your audience.
Lots of examples of putting the audience from the works of Brian Halligan also.
Tell more personal stories
Melinda Gates shared her story of being hired at Microsoft during a keynote. She explained she was the only woman in her hiring class, and during orientation, a new colleague picked a fight with a VP at the company.
Gates later learned that a colleague had been advised to be more aggressive.
It was at that moment that she began to question if she could fit into the culture at Microsoft with “abrasive” and “combative” colleagues.
Tying the story back into the theme of her keynote, she realized: “emulating the people around me to be in their mold [wasn’t working].” Gates said, “Maybe I wasn’t the problem. Maybe the mold was the problem.”
Using a personal story from her early days at Microsoft helped Gates evoke an emotional response from her audience, helping them to empathize and understand different points-of-view while reinforcing her main message.
Make them feel
Storytellers—filmmakers, novelists, etc. — know that it is an emotion which impacts people most profoundly.
Yes, facts, events, structure are important, but what people remember—and what is more likely to push them to act—is the way the narrative made them feel.
The narrative that creates emotion!
Have a clear theme
What is your key message? What is it you want people to remember? What action do you want them to take? Details are important.
Data and evidence and logical flow are important. But we must not lose sight of what is important and what is not.
Often, talks take people down a path of great detail and loads of information, most of which is completely forgotten (if it was ever understood in the first place) after the talk is finished.
The more details that you include and the more complex your talk, the more you must be very clear on what it is you want your audience to hear, understand, and remember.
If the audience only remembers one thing, what should it be? Write it down and stick it on the wall, so it’s never out of your sight.
Hook them early
The fantastic filmmaker Billy Wilder said we must “Grab ’em by the throat and never let ’em go.” We’ve got to hook our audience early. Don’t waste time at the beginning with formalities or filler talk.
Start with a bang. Get their attention and then sustain that interest with variety and unexpectedness, built upon a structure that is taking them someplace.
Audiences usually remember the beginning and the ending the most—don’t waste those important opening minutes.
Too many presenters—and writers for that matter—get bogged down in backstories, or details about a minor—or even irrelevant—points at the beginning and momentum dies as audience members begin scratching their heads in confusion or boredom.
Demonstrate a clear change
Affecting a change is a necessary condition of an effective speech. “A presentation that doesn’t seek to make a change is a waste of time and energy,” says business guru Seth Godin.
Presentations and talks are usually a mix of information, inspiration, and motivation.
Anytime we get on a stage to speak we are talking about change. You can think of change in two ways.
First, the content of every good presentation or story addresses a change of some kind. Second, an effective presentation or a story told well will create a change in the audience.
Sometimes this can be a big change and sometimes it is quite small. Too often, though, the only change the presenter creates in the audience is the change from wakefulness to sleep.
Do the unexpected
When we are surprised—when the unexpected happens—we are fully in the moment and engaged. In classical storytelling, reversals are an important technique. Do the opposite of what the audience expects (their expectations were based on your earlier setup).
Your surprises do not have to be overly dramatic ones. Often the best way is more subtle. You could, for example, pose questions or open up holes in people’s knowledge and then fill those holes.
Make the audience aware that they have a gap in their knowledge and then fill that gap with the answers to the puzzle (or guide them to the answers). Take people on a journey of discovery.
And this journey is filled with bits of the unexpected. This is what keeps the journey moving forward.
Use the three-act structure
The idea of the three-act structure used in presentations is that, after all, to tell a story. It has been used for decades in theatre and cinema, and it is a fairly simple formula. You have three acts to tell your story, and each act serves a purpose to advance that story.
The first act
This is where you establish the origin or problem; in a movie that would be the first scenes where you get to meet the main characters of the movie, and the starting point of the movie’s journey.
In a presentation, the first act is where you tell your audience about the problem you’re trying to solve, and what the current state of things is for that particular subject.
This introductory part is critical since most spectators are quick to judge you based on the first seconds of speech. There needs to be a hook, a truth about your value proposition that motivates people to pay attention to you.
Sometimes rookie presenters make the mistake of leaving all the good stuff for the end of their pitch, and by doing so, they risk having enough momentum for the audience to even get to that point without falling asleep
The second act
It usually begins with a plot twist. A sudden turn in the story that unfolds the main events of the play. In a presentation, this comprises the development of your pitch.
It usually builds up as you move along in your slides, up to the point where you reach the climax of your entire presentation.
This whole part gives you the opportunity to explain what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, why you’re the one to carry out the task better than anyone else, what is the vision you are pursuing, etc.
The third act and climax
The highest point of interest, of immersion within the plot, should occur at the end of your second act. This is called the climax of your presentation, and depending on the presentation’s purpose, it opens up the opportunity to do “the ask.”
That can range from revealing your new product, how much money you are raising, the release date of a new project, etc. If your presentation is compelling enough, the audience is fully on your side.
After the climax, the third act is usually the shortest and helps summarize the main points. It also brings closure to your whole story.
The bottom line
Not everyone appreciates your efforts to be remarkable. In fact, most people don’t. So what? Most people are ostriches, heads in the sand, unable to help you anyway.
Your goal isn’t to please everyone. Your goal is to please those that actually speak up, spread the word, buy new things or hire the talented.
What was previously a rapacious monopolist, is now an enthusiastic collaborator. Such as Microsoft.
That’s no accident. Today, we need to compete in an ecosystem-driven world in which nobody, not even a firm as big and powerful as Microsoft, can go it alone. Power no longer comes from the top of value chains but emanates from the center of networks. That means that strategy needs to shift from dominating industries to building collaborative ecosystems.
