Hint: It could be you.
Introduction
When we feel stagnation in one area of our lives, it’s normal to ask ourselves what’s holding us back from being truly successful. It can be tempting to think we are at fault — that we are not doing something correctly or that we should have made different decisions in the past. But is it fair to ask this about our presentations, as well? Absolutely.
Perhaps you’ve been presenting with the same company for years, and you remember a time when people were intrigued, interested, and drawn in by your presentations. But recently, maybe they seem bored of your style or your slides despite you putting in just as much effort as you had before.
What could have changed? You’ve perfected your slide format, and you’ve even compared your newer slides to your old slides. You’ve worked on your pitch the same way as you always have, and your message is simple, clear, and impactful.
Whatever changed, it’s clear that your impact has been lost — now it’s up to you to renew the interest you know you’re capable of. Let’s start by asking, “Where is your audience’s attention?” and following up with the more fundamental question, “How can we tell?” The answer here body language. An audience who is paying attention to your slides will only make brief and occasional eye contact with you — when you state a conclusion or make a joke, the timing of their expressions will not match your conversation pace. Alternatively, if your audience is paying attention to you, they may briefly glance at your slides, but will be otherwise engaged with you. Their eye contact and timely expressions tell you that you have their attention. In reality, it’s likely a mix of both — some people learn better when reading text, while others learn better listening to the message being told to them.
A personal story
I recently sat through a terribly fluffy presentation (long winded and very little content) in which an individual (“Bill”) was trying to pitch a concept (the “Widget technique”) to an audience. With no idea of who their customers might be, Bill made his pitch generic — he appealed to the mindset of the individual instead of their background, ethnicity, gender, etc. This made Bill’s pitch interesting, because you knew he was speaking to others who shared a similar mindset as me! He kept talking about the value of the technique instead of talking about the technique itself. After 10 minutes of droning on, his message had become old but his presentation style became really interesting because he did something I’d never seen before.
It was clear that Bill had practiced his pitch — he knew every line he would say, and he did so with enthusiasm and gusto. He’d already captured his audience’s attention by appealing to their passions and their mindset. Although he spoke in a rushed manner, his posture, gestures, and mannerisms were controlled — this had the combined effect that his speech rate was based not on nerves, but rather on a passion to help me, personally.
But it wasn’t his pitch or appeal that interested me, but the use of his slides. While giving his speech, Bill would make sure to say a specific sentence, word for word, to drive a point home to his audience. Immediately after saying one of his key sentences, Bill would advance the slide/animation so that the sentence he just said would show up on his slide! In doing so, he trained his audience to a) pick up on key points he was saying, b) allow his speech and his slides to work in tandem, and c) allowed his audience to have an ongoing summary of the most important points of the conversation.
Removing barriers
Using this presentation technique, Bill was ensuring that the slides played a minimal role in his message — he was taking the guesswork out of which item I was paying attention to! His slides were there if I wanted to quick mental recap, but I knew there was no point in reading ahead because there was nothing more to read than what he was currently talking about! He was removing the barrier of where my attention was placed.
The reason this presentation style stood out to me is probably the same reason it would stand out to you. In many academic conferences or work presentations, we have the tendency to put up a slide full of information and discuss the slide point by point. That is, our current slide often holds information from the past, present, and future — the audience can guess what we’re going to say before we say it! If they happen to not like the message (or misinterpret what we are about to say), they might tune out before we have the chance to explain. No matter how pretty the graphics on your slides, you still run the risk of your message being misinterpreted. Giving the audience a chance to read ahead means that all your practiced transitions, message delivery and slide aesthetics can be reduced to confusion.
Conclusion
There are plenty of free materials that can help you build a slide deck. There are tutorials out there on how to reduce your nerves, grab the audience’s attention, and how to make your slide deck as visually appealing as possible. But the key to open communication is keeping your audience with you, in stride, throughout your presentation. Like in any conversation, if someone is lagging behind, not paying attention, or racing ahead to the conclusion, confusion becomes possible and plentiful. We want to structure our slide decks, our conversation, our speech, and our transitions the same way we would tell an interesting story: one line at a time, one concept at a time, and establish building blocks that let the user follow us to our destination.
Present Proper is there to help you overcome your presentation anxieties and place you on the road to success. We work with you and your team from day one to establish your message, your goal, and your impact, all personalized to your situation and your timeline. Our philosophy is the same philosophy we present in our blogs — we are here for you, and we will not stop until you are satisfied with your success. Begin by contacting us today or set up a free consultation to see how we can best help you.
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