Presentation Advisors Blog

4 Presentation Tips I Learned from My Cousin

The great thing about writing your own blog (as opposed to writing for a company’s blog) is your ability to be 100% transparent.  While I reserve this space for all things related to presenting, I can and will at times speak about things going on in my personal life.  I actually think transparency, specifically crossing that line into your personal life, is a fantastic way to command an audience’s attention and give them a STAR moment (Something They’ll Always Remember).

I little more than a week ago I lost my cousin, Meredith.  Just yesterday I returned from California where we celebrated her life.  She was 25 years old, beautiful, and choc-full of life, energy, and fun.  Her smile lit up a room and she made everyone in that room feel at ease with her presence.  She loved her family, friends, and animals dearly and made sure they always knew it. 

The chapel was filled…standing room only.  A chapel twice the size wouldn’t have held all of the people who attended to say goodbye to Meredith.  During the ceremony, her courageous older sister stepped up to the podium and spoke about the lessons we’ve all learned from Meredith.  Needless to say, there were numerous.  On the plane ride home, I thought about these lessons.  I found that I had learned many lessons about presenting from Meredith that I thought I’d share with you. 

• You’ll never be rewarded for being timid – Meredith was one of those people born with the gift of gab.  Not that she incessantly spoke, but she could speak to anyone, anywhere, about anything.  There was no audience that intimidated her.  Even if you were meeting her for the very first time, she instantly made you feel like you’ve known each other for years.  This isn’t a gift that we’re all blessed with, but that doesn’t mean you should give up.  Presentations are conversations.  Meredith was never scared to speak up, let her thoughts be heard, and ask any question under the sun.  She was a success because of her fearlessness.


• Don’t EVER underestimate yourself – Meredith was only small in stature.  Everything else about her was larger than life.  When you saw her you would assume she was shy and probably a pushover.  You couldn’t be more wrong.  I have the utmost faith that Meredith could lead an army into battle.  She was that confident.  You may not be the best speaker in the world.  You may not have hundreds of presentations under your belt.  That doesn’t mean you won’t/can’t succeed.  If you commit the effort needed to make a great presentation, it will be great.  You’ve just got to believe.


• Love what you do, and everyone else be dammed – Passion is essential to effective presenting.  Meredith’s passions defined her life, and it didn’t matter what anyone else thought.  As an avid horseback rider, seeing-eye dog trainer, and pet owner, she was passionate about animals.  She dressed up her dog (named “Gryffindor”) in crazy outfits.  I’m unsure how often she brought him out in public in those outfits, but whenever she did, I’m sure she could care less what everyone else thought.  Her animals were her passion, and that was that, for better or worse.  When you’re presenting about something you care about, your passion will come through.  Don’t worry about whether or not your audience will share this passion.  Some will, some won’t.  That’s the way life is and nothing will ever change that.  But if you make sure that you are presenting with passion, I promise your presentation will be great.  Again, some audience members may share this passion and some may not.  Regardless, there should be no argument that you care about what you’re talking about.  See what I mean here.


• Colors are the spice of life – Another one of Meredith’s passions was her shoe collection.  She had TONS of them.  We all gathered for a reception on Saturday and spread throughout the lawn were pairs of her beautiful, colorful shoes.  Each one of them was as colorful as the next.  There was nothing bland about Meredith, making her unforgettable to everyone who met her.  On the contrary, presentations today are often forgettable.  They are riddled with text and lack any semblance of color.  Stop making your presentations like EVERYONE ELSE'S!  Use bold, vibrant colors.  Use images that take up the entire screen.  Give your audience something to LOOK at…something to remember.  Spicing up your presentation is the only way you’re going to differentiate yourself.

Going through life experiences like this tends to give us a much needed reality check.  It brings us closer to our loved ones.  It puts things in perspective.  Meredith was truly an amazing soul, who even in her passing saved the lives of 5 children in need of vital organs and will continue to help over 50 in total. 

One of Meredith's favorite movies was "Little Miss Sunshine."  I think this clip from the movie truly captures the essence of presenting the "Meredith way." Believe in yourself.  Trust in your abilities.  Fear no one.  Embrace your passions.  Don’t be afraid to show your true colors.  Your world will be a better place.

This post is dedicated to my dearest cousin Meredith Thomas McFarlane.  Dedicated, loving, and more fun each day.   

3 Tips for Creating PowerPoint Presentations Under the Gun

I was recently reading a post entitled "Style vs. Substance" over at the Dahle Communications blog.  The post addressed the issue of whether you should focus on the style of your speech or the substance of your speech.  In other words, should you spend more time practicing your presentation or delivery of the speech or is it more important to focus on the quality of the content/story.  It's a very good post.  I suggest you read it.

This post got me thinking about "Under the Gun" presentation design.  The average businessman/woman rarely has weeks (or even days) to create and prepare for a presentation.  More often they'll have just days or even hours to develop, create, and practice a presentation.  Unfortunately, this often ends in either poor delivery, poor design, or both. 

I'm not claiming that a presentation can't be designed in under 24 hours.  Quite recently an award winning presentation was designed in exactly that amount of time.  But we have lives away from work and it's extremely difficult to commit to an overnighter just to develop the story and design the PowerPoint. 

Unfortunately, more often than not presentations designed under the gun fall right into the bullet-point trap.  It's just too easy to open the corporate .ppt template and start typing in the titles and bullet-points.  Thus ultimately results in a poor presentation.  So what's a novice presentation designer to do?

1. Get off the grid and develop the story first - As the first rule in my ebook on effective presenting, developing your story "off the grid" or in "analog mode" is very important.  When people hear "presentation" they immediately think "PowerPoint" without truly thinking about their message, their story, or their big idea.  There are a number of mind-mapping programs out there that can help develop your brain-storms, but I like to truly get away from the computer.  Get yourself in front of the biggest whiteboard you can find and start mapping your story.  What's the one core message you want your audience to leave with?  What are your macro points?  Even just a pen and paper will do here.  Like the Dahle Communications post I previously mentioned, Travis said "Your message should be the most important part of your speech."  Don't sacrifice your message simply because you want to project some text.


2. If your TRULY under the gun, don't force a PowerPoint - Too many times presenters think they have enough time to create effective supporting imagery, but in reality it's just enough time to dump all of their information in text form.  If you don't have time to search for the right imagery and theme, don't use PowerPoint at all.  Develop the story, create some notes for yourself, and instead of wasting time with a PowerPoint, create a nice looking take-away with all of your important points and ideas.  


3. If you do have enough time, find effective imagery to back up your message - When under the gun you have to prioritize.  Wasting valuable time stressing over the "perfect font" won't do you much good.  Try to find imagery that supports your message, the larger the better.  Remember, your the objective of your PowerPoint is NOT to also serve as a takeaway.  If you have time to make both, please do, but don't try to save time by morphing both into one.  Simply search for a supporting image and use as few words as possible on your slides to make your point.  

There's no magic potion you can pour over your presentation to make it perfect.  Well, none that I know of at least.  I've been under the gun to create numerous presentations and this method has worked best for me.  Develop the story first, choose wisely as to whether or not you have time to create a supporting slide deck, and find effective imagery.  I've seen numerous presentations that had zero "slide-design" (as in shapes, text, gradients, etc.), instead opting for all full-screen slides.  They were just as effective. 

I've always been one to preach that you don't have to be a designer to create effective presentations.  You simply have to see your presentation from the audience's point of view and remember that YOU are presenting the important information, not your slides.  Like Jazzy-Jeff is to Fresh Prince, your slides are there to back you up.