Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Tip Newsletter - Issue #185, May 19, 2009
Published & Copyright by Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.  Circulation over 8,200
In this issue
Latest Slide Makeover
 Comments from recent workshop attendees
Getting the audience excited before you speak
Use my content in your publications
From the blog
The Visual Slide Revolution book at www.VisualSlideRevolution.com
One of the Top 10 Business Books of 2008
Click on the cover to learn more
Book Dave to do a live program for your group:
1) Transforming Text Slides into Persuasive Visuals
2) Hands-on Creating Persuasive PowerPoint Visuals
3) Cutting Presentation Preparation Time by Using Content Templates and Creating a Slide Library
4) Creating and Delivering Effective Web Presentations
Click here to learn more and book Dave.
Dave's Travel Schedule
June 2 - Toronto, ON (Pension Plan staff)
June 28-30 - New Orleans, LA (SHRM Conference)
July 22 - Toronto, ON (Sales group)
August 21 - Toronto, ON (MBA Students)
September 15 - Orangeville, ON (Utility company trainers)
October 13-14 - Atlanta, GA (PowerPoint Live conference)
October 17 - Edmonton, AB (CAPS Chapter)
November 25 - Toronto, ON (CSAE National Convention workshop)
 Latest Slide Makeover Video
A common bullet point list is transformed by focusing on how to give the audience context and help them understand the information.  It is not necessary to eliminate all text, but restructuring it often increases the effectiveness.  Click on the video below to play it in your browser via YouTube (or click here to watch it on my web site in QuickTime format).

Slide Makeover Video at www.YouTube.com/thinkoutsidetheslide
Book Dave for a workshop and your staff will have comments like these recent attendees

"It was great!  Not only did I learn useful shortcuts, how to think beyond text slides and how to get my point across with graphs and pictures instead of text, but I was engaged the whole time.  Proving that Dave’s process really works.  Fantastic workshop!"
"I’ll never look at my PP screen the same again.  Ideas will allow me to produce a far more convincing, interesting and worthwhile presentation.  Thank you very much, fantastic day."
"I’m shocked – way above my expectations which were already high."
"Very informative ….Great real world examples delivered with intelligence."
Click here to learn about how I customize every workshop to deliver exactly what your group needs.

PowerPoint Tip: Getting the audience excited before your presentation

This is the description for the session I will present at the Annual Conference of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) next month in New Orleans:
“Too many HR presentations look like the text of a manual was copied onto the slides. How can you create persuasive visuals when you aren’t a graphic designer? This session will show you a five-step process for creating persuasive visual slides that allow you to present in a conversational manner.”

Why do I share it with you?  Because it illustrates how we can get the audience excited about our message before our presentation even starts.  If you are presenting before colleagues or managers internally, in front of prospects and clients, or at conferences as I do, you want the audience to walk into the room positively anticipating what you will say.  You can achieve this with a well-written description of your presentation that is included in a program, agenda or brochure.

I have learned a lot about writing descriptions of my work from the world of direct mail copywriting.  These are the people who write the brochures, letters and e-mails that convince people to buy a wide variety of products or services, such as newsletters, health-care products or consumer goods.  Here are a couple of tips that I’ve picked up that can help you.

First, you need to get into the mindset of the typical attendee at the presentation.  What are the topics of greatest interest to them?  What ideas would they be looking to take back and implement in their job or life?  Note that this is very different than the typical approach of considering what we, as presenters, want to tell them.  Second, make a specific promise of what an attendee will get from your session if they attend.  A common technique is to use a numeric promise, such as five key lessons or six steps in a process.  This helps convince people that attending your session will give them a measurable outcome.

Once you have written a great session description, you will find that your presentation is already well planned.  This process forces us to narrow down all the ideas we could share and focus on what the audience needs to hear.  Now we will deliver a focused message to an audience that is ready to hear it.  I’d say that’s a winning formula for any presentation.

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From the Blog at PPtIdeas.blogspot.com: Can you condense your presentation into six words?    

Six words?!? Am I joking? No.

I was intrigued by a recent contest being run by SpeakerNetNews (BTW, if you are in the speaking business and aren’t subscribing to this weekly e-mail newsletter, you are missing out big time – go to www.SpeakerNetNews.com and subscribe right now). They were inspired by a web site that collects six word stories and asked subscribers to submit a six word presentation. That’s right, only six words!

I took this as a challenge. If I was really clear on what my message was, I should be able to boil it down to six words. It took a few tries, but I condensed my presentation down to “Explain persuasive visuals, don’t read slides.” Let’s look at each word or phrase and what it means. First is the word “explain”. This means that what you say will add to what is shown visually. Next is “persuasive visuals”, which is a visual that has a headline, a visual in context, and focuses the audience on the key point that will be explained (tie back to the “explain” word). The last phrase, “don’t read slides”, is advising presenters to avoid the single most annoying thing that they can do, according to the audiences I have surveyed.

I thought I did quite well, and it seems like the judges agreed. My entry was one of the entries chosen to be voted on by subscribers at http://www.speakernetnews.com/six-word-speech-contest.html. If you are a subscriber, old or new, go and vote for your favourite in the different categories that they have. The results get announced after voting closes on May 25th.

How does this apply to your presentations? I think this is a great exercise. How clear are you on the purpose of your presentation? Could you boil it down to six words? If not, you may need to spend some time focusing on the real message you want to deliver. Clarity of purpose is probably the single thing you can do to improve your presentation the most. Once you are clear, you can direct every word or visual towards that purpose. Without clarity, you don’t exactly know where you are going and neither does your audience.

Try condensing your presentation down to six words and see how it forces you to clarify the purpose of your presentation.
Contact Dave: Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com or call 905-510-4911
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