Professional Documents
Culture Documents
October 2013
Corby Guenther corby@bulletproofcommunications.net 415.559.6185
Were overwhelmed
Were constantly bombarded with information. We get so much email that people ignore the vast majority of it.
Its hard to get anyones attention while theyre dealing with all that noise and information.
Were often working with people in distant locations and time zones who have other priorities and expectations.
When you do take the time to read anything, its often badly written, hasnt had much thought put into it, and hard to understand.
Its di!cult to do business or to collaborate in a written format. Its next to impossible to make a human connection.
Technology has eliminated many opportunities for direct interaction. Live presentations help by getting us together in one place.
Be persuasive
Planning your presentations gives you the chance to frame the argument.
Your wardrobe and the way you present yourself can redene how people think of you.
Strong presentations help you earn an audiences attention the next time you need it.
Company-wide meetings
Keynote speeches
The big ballroom presentations that provoke fear in speakers and audiences.
The presentations that many of us sit in every day without realizing how important they can be.
Interviews
Elevator Speeches
Wedding Toasts
Presentations dont always involve groups. Some of the most important are one-on-one.
A critical non-work event. Just remember to make the bride happy and you cant go wrong.
Chronological
Quotations
Probably the rst kind of story that comes to mind in presentations. Whats the backstory? How did we get here? Whats next?
Stories dont need to be complicated. They can be as simple as a pair of before and after pictures.
Starting with a quotation that illustrates your topic is a classic presentation strategy and gives you evidence for what you want to say.
Metaphor
Personal Anecdote
Using an extended metaphor to tell a story gives your audience a familiar structure to follow.
Another variation on Chronological or Before and After stories. You can use Cause and E"ect to focus on how a specic situation occurred.
Making your topic personal and showing the audience how you relate to it is a big step toward getting them to share your ideas.
Keep it relevant
Just as you should never tell a joke at the beginning of a presentation solely for the sake of telling a joke, you need to make sure that your stories are directly relevant to the objectives for your presentation. If your audience cant gure out why youre telling a story theyre likely to think youre showboating and wasting time.
Message
Audience
You
The reason your presentation exists in the rst place. What do you want to accomplish?
Who are they, why are they there and what do you want them to do, think or feel?
Why are you giving this presentation and not someone else? How can you be persuasive?
Stay focused on your goals and the strategies youll use to achieve them.
Storytelling can be the most e"ective way to bond with and persuade an audience.
Show them that you know your stu", but dont overwhelm your audience with information.
All formats arent suitable for every presentation. Plan what you use strategically.
Be yourself
Dont try to be someone youre not. Chances are the role wont t you.
Make an e"ort to be your best at every presentation. Try to be alert, enthusiastic, present.
Show your audience that you really believe what youre saying. Be condent rather than tentative.
Be exible
Do something unexpected
Tell your audience something about yourself and theyre more likely to feel positive about you.
Dont get thrown o" by small details. Change your plans when you need to.
Surprising your audience is one of the best ways to get them to remember and act on your presentation.
Be engaging
Be enthusiastic
Its your responsibility to create a relationship with your audience and involve them in your presentation.
If you want your audience to be excited about your topic you have to show them that you are.
Sales is all about presenting and persuading, so theres a lot we can all learn from sales techniques.
Be conversational
Try to make your voice and the words you use sound as normal as possible, not inated or awkward.
Dont do anything that will make the audience turn on you. Once they do you have no chance to persuade.
Removing information from slides and putting it in handouts helps solve the slideument problem.
Rather than just printing slides, design custom handouts to serve as the record of your talk.
Clean up your slides by putting branding in handouts, where your audience will have this information later.
Dont distract from your own talk by distributing handouts at the wrong time.
Dont waste time and e"ort on handouts if the audience or occasion doesnt require them.
Resist the urge to distribute handouts instead of having a talk. Your role is too important.
We procrastinate
Rather than face our fear, most of us put o" our presentations, which just makes it worse.
Because we procrastinate we dont give ourselves enough time to create an e"ective presentation.
Our fear of the audience causes us to avoid dealing with them or even making eye contact.
Nerves make us look and sound awkward, which can ruin our credibility with an audience.
Avoiding interaction with the audience wastes the opportunities to persuade presented by a live talk.
Simplify
Dont feel like you have to show the audience everything you know. Give them just what they need to see.
Keep in mind what you want to accomplish and remove anything that doesnt help accomplish it.
Force yourself to edit by self-imposing a limited number of words or slides for your presentation.
Follow a model for creating slides like the 10/20/30 rule or our Six Slide Solution.
Audiences dont want to read blocks of text. Give them headlines and theyll be grateful.
Know what each slide is meant to accomplish and remove anything that isnt relevant.
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Reading your slides will bore your audience and likely put them to sleep.
Make sure that the oldest person in the audience will be able to read your slides anywhere in the room.
Keep any animated transitions simple and avoid using sounds to accompany them.
Dont forget that your visuals represent you and your ideas. Dont let them make a bad impression.
Minimize your use of logos and branding to avoid overwhelming your slides.
Simplify your data Dont overwhelm your audience with information they dont need. If you are a lawyer, scientist, or accountant who needs to give an audience raw numbers to prove your point or establish your credibility, give them the information as electronic les or handouts.
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Keep each item short The whole point of bulleted items is to make them quick and easy to read. Try to keep them to one line of text. Number (or eliminate) long lists Wed rather you just remove long lists, but use numbers instead of bullets so you can easily refer to specic points when you have many items. Omit transitions Your transitions between items in a bulleted list are all assumed to be and since all of the items are supposed to be similar and carry the same weight. So you can get rid of the seconds,
nallys, and even worses on your slides. Its the speakers job to verbally insert these kinds of transitions for their audience. Avoid sub-bullets Sub-bullets introduce too much complexity on slides. If they are important enough that you need to include them, reorganize your slides so your top-level bullets become headings of their own. Dont bullet sensitive information Bullets are perceived as abrupt and efcient. Dont use them when what you really need to communicate is sympathy or warmth.