Help the audience understand your
message with a presentation that uses persuasive visuals
Research on presentations shows that visuals are more effective than text. But how do you create the type of visuals that inform and persuade? Do you need graphics software and training? No. You already have PowerPoint and that’s all you need. You have just never been shown how to use it to maximum effectiveness.
After reviewing thousands of PowerPoint slides, I have concluded that there are four stages that presenters move through as they learn how to use visuals more effectively. First, there is the "PowerPoint as teleprompter" stage where the presenter writes what they want to say on each slide and reads it to the audience. Then there is the "PowerPoint as speaker notes" bullet point slides where the bullet points are really there to remind the presenter what to say. When a presenter discovers visuals, they usually move into the stage where the slides are crammed with incomprehensible graphics that do nothing except confuse the audience, I call this "PowerPoint as visual noise".
My desire is that presenters move to the fourth stage, Using Persuasive Visuals. A persuasive visual has a headline summarizing the key message of that slide, a meaningful graphic that illustrates the point, and a callout that directs attention to the most important part of the graphic. No matter what stage you are in right now, I can help you start to create and use persuasive visuals to make your presentations even more effective.
My name is Dave Paradi and I wrote “The Visual Slide Revolution – Transforming Overloaded Text Slides Into Persuasive Presentations”. It was selected as one of the Top 10 Business Books of 2008 by Canada’s leading national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. Their reviewer said it is “a very strong book in an area where most of us are very weak.” (click here to see the full review). I have developed a five-step method for creating persuasive visuals that I share in my workshops with presenters just like you.
Here’s what people have said after attending one of my sessions:
“This course has provided me with a ton of ideas I can use in my presentations. Context being one of the most important I can use. A highly recommended course.” – Business Development Manager, Canada Post
“I found the makeover slides beneficial. The importance of thinking differently about slides – what does the audience want!” – HR specialist, 3M Canada
“I’ve received knowledge that I did not have before which will be extremely useful when I put together any kind of PowerPoint presentation” – Marketing Coordinator, AAOS
“The greatest benefit to me was visualizing the use of graphs. Translating data, whether financial, quality, issues, org charts into simple and clear visuals will benefit myself and my company greatly.” – New Business Development Specialist, General Dynamics Land Systems
“I can more effectively determine the key points I want to make in my presentation and create PowerPoint slides that more clearly make my points both visually and in text. This was excellent! Many actionable ideas. Clearly demonstrated how to take existing slides and significantly improve.” – Marketing consultant, Chicago
“I will be able to produce slide presentations which are clear, concise and interesting for the audience.” – Law Clerk, HOOPP
“Without a doubt, this session will allow me to dramatically improve any future presentation with a focus on meeting audience expectations.” – Staff member, City of Vaughan
Every session is customized to the unique needs of your group, so if you want to combine topics from the four areas listed below, feel free to pick and choose and I’ll design a session that is just right for your staff. Each workshop always includes customized slide makeovers so participants see the ideas applied to their own slides which convinces them that the ideas will work for them.
Do these ideas really result in a dramatic improvement? You’ve heard from past participants, but you can judge for yourself. Click here to watch my bi-weekly Slide Makeover Video Podcasts posted on my YouTube channel. You’ll see the improvement and know that the ideas can be applied immediately to make a difference in your next presentation.
Custom design a workshop with topics from four topic areas
I offer topics in four areas, and we work together to select the ones that are right for your group, whether it is a half-day session up to two full days including hands-on instruction.
Transforming Overloaded Text Slides into Persuasive Presentations
This is the core area and details the five-step method for creating persuasive visuals based on the ideas in The Visual Slide Revolution. The following topics can be included:
- Presentation Structure & Sequence – seven steps that will ensure your presentation delivers a clear and organized message
- Slide Design – How to select colors, fonts and layouts that enhance your slides
- Principles of Persuasion – Applying the research on persuasion to the development of slides so we can create visuals that persuade people to action
- The KWICK Method of creating persuasive visuals – five steps that will transform the usual text only slides into visuals that more effectively make your point: write a headline that summarizes the key point; recognize the words or phrases to look for that suggest which powerful visual you should choose for the slide; examples of visuals that you can use in your own presentations; how to make the point of the visual stand out clearly so that there is no doubt what your point is; use animation and other techniques to focus the audience on your message when you present
- Slide Makeovers – see the ideas applied to slides that the participants have submitted in advance
- Slide Delivery – tips from the pros on setting up for the presentation, delivering the slides, handling problems if they occur and ending your presentation in a way that results in action
Hands-on Creating Persuasive PowerPoint Visuals
This is best scheduled as a follow-up to the core Transforming Text Slides topics because in this area participants use their own computer to create the persuasive slides they saw in their Transforming Overloaded Text Slides section. Participants receive “quick reference” job aids that they can refer to back at their desk so the learning is not forgotten after the workshop. This section is focused on the needs of the group and topics that can be covered include:
- Slide Masters & Layout: setting colors & fonts, inserting background graphics, working with placeholders, selecting the appropriate layout
- Using a slide from another file: two ways to import a slide, how to fix problems that can occur, how to customize the slide, how to tell what may be hidden on the slide
- Creating an effective graph: why create a graph in PowerPoint instead of importing from Excel, how to copy data from Excel, cleaning up the default graph, adding text labels to a graph, animating a graph
- Creating diagrams: working with different shapes & options of shapes, layers on the slide, automatically aligning or distributing elements, using the grid for positioning, making semi-transparent shapes, filling a shape with a photo, aligning in a text box
- Working with Photos: cropping and sizing, maintaining the aspect ratio, compressing high-res photos, converting vector files, using the transparent color tool, using screen captures, zooming in on a portion of the image, capturing from PDF files
- Using Media Clips: importing from DVDs or cameras, where to save the files, editing tools for media clips, changing the audio embedding limit, inserting media clips on a slide, setting media clip options, moving presentation and media files
- Animating elements on a slide: animation effects, sequencing & start options, using custom motion paths
- Linking to other content: using hyperlinks to other PowerPoint files, Word files, Excel spreadsheets, PDF content, web sites, different slides in the same presentation, designing non-linear presentations
- Creating Handouts: designing the handout master, selecting which slides to print and what order, creating handouts in Word, dealing with speaker notes
Cutting Presentation Preparation Time by Using Content Templates and Creating a Slide Library
In today’s business world, every presentation must be customized to the audience and the situation, while still maintaining the consistency that builds your brand. And therein lies the challenge. If you give presenters complete freedom to create slides, you achieve customization but lose consistency. If you mandate “canned” presentations, you get consistency, but lose the customization that is necessary to convince an audience that you understand their unique situation. Neither of these approaches works in practice. So what does work? An approach that blends the consistency of key messages contained in a slide library with the flexibility to use the consistent messages in unique ways. These topics can be delivered either with or without participants working on their computers, depending on the needs of the group and the time available. Participants will see their own slides used as examples. Topics that can be covered include:
- How to determine which slides should be in your slide library
- Using content templates
- Developing a slide library
- Creating a presentation using templates or the slide library
- Fixing common problems when importing slides from other presentations
- Ensuring the presentation has a consistent look
- Sharing a slide library in a group
- Updating your slide library
Creating and Delivering Effective Web Presentations
As travel budgets shrink, more presentations are being delivered over web-based services. There are important differences between live and web-based presentations that presenters need to know in order to have a successful presentation on the web. This section is best delivered live where a second computer is attached to a web service as a participant (I provide the web presentation service) so you see exactly what your remote audience will see. Topics that can be covered include:
- When to use a web-based presentation and when not to use one
- What you need before you start looking at web-based presentations
- How to select a web meeting service
- Planning your web-based presentation
- Designing your web-based presentation
- Before the web meeting
- Instant web-based meetings
- Delivering your web-based presentation
Which organizations have already benefitted from my ideas? Click here to see a list. You’ll find that my ideas apply across all industries and situations. Whether you are a non-profit, government, medium-sized firm or Fortune 500 corporation, the ideas will work. If you provide services, manufacture physical products or are a retailer, the ideas will work. Because in every presentation, you want the audience to understand and act on your message.
When you schedule one of my sessions, you’ll have an opportunity to purchase book and video resource bundles for the participants at great discounts. This way, everyone will have the tools and reference material needed to apply the ideas to their own presentations. As a manager, you won’t hear excuses such as “I can’t remember how he did that.”
Call me at 905-510-4911 or click here to e-mail me so we can start planning a session that will bring an immediate return on your investment.