Imagine the impact that would have on your audience? They might just pay more attention to you, the presenter, rather than focusing their attention on all those words you crowded onto your busy PowerPoint slides – all 200 of them!

It’s a revolutionary idea and one whose time has come.

When giving presentations, Less is the new more!

Below is a copy of the email that Seth Godin sent out today on this important matter.

The 200 slide solution

From Seth Godin, author of The Purple Cow

The next time you find yourself on the hook for a 40 minute presentation (with slides!) consider, at least for a moment, a radical idea:

A slide every 12 seconds. 200 slides in all.

You’re used to putting three or four bullet points on a slide. That’s at least four distinct ideas, but more often, each of those ideas has three or four sub ideas to it. In other words, you’re cramming 32 ideas on a slide, and you’re sitting on that slide as you drone on and on. Perhaps you spice it up with some reveals or animated bullets, but it’s still 32 ideas going stale before our eyes.

What if you blew it up? Just one word on a slide. Or, perhaps just one image (no cheesy stock please). Maybe you write, “Cheaper” on one slide and, “More durable” on the next…

Slides create action. When did you decide that the appropriate amount of action was six or twelve times every half hour?

How would your pace change if you had 200 slides? How much better would the integration of slides and talk be?

I don’t honestly expect you to do your presentation with 200 slides. I’m hoping this exercise will help you realize that you might not need any slides. Or that 50 or 100 slides will pick up your energy and make your argument more coherent.

But please, don’t do that presentation you did last time.

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To follow Seth Godin, do what I do and subscribe to Seth’s blog (it’s very very good!)

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Recommended Books:  another great resource on getting your PowerPoint under control – buy the book Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. It’s like the “safe sex guide for PowerPoint”. Again – very very good.

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Training Workshops. Lastly, if you are motivated to improve your presentation skills and confidence and want to learn how to reduce your dependency on PowerPoint and other technical crutches, CALL ME at (860) 408-0033.  I teach a high engagement presentation training program called The Motivated Presenter™.

You will learn the tips and tricks of going “PowerPoint-FREE!” and how to strengthen your communication and persuasion when giving presentations.

The presentation training program is available as a corporate on-site group workshop in an accelerated 1-day or intensive 2-day format. It is also available to individuals using a 1:1 executive coaching format.

Here’s what one client just sent me last week following his participation in the Level 1: Essential Fundamentals of High Engagement Presentations:

“I just wanted to thank you for the 2 days that you spent with us.  I can honestly say that I gained much more from your seminar than you can even imagine.  Not only did I gain some invaluable insight on how to gather my thoughts and create a powerful and strongly communicated message, but I also was able to rethink how I look to present material based on the audience that I am presenting to.  I came out of those two days with some vigor, ready to take on a whole slew of new challenges.”-Scott Decoteau, Lead Art Director / New Media, LEGO Systems Inc

“When we understand that slide,we’ll have won the war,” said General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO force commander

This slide was generated by a consulting company (PA Consulting Group)  But they are not totally to blame for this horrific piece of visual communication. The client – some military official- approved this piece to show in the presentation.

The article goes on to suggest that:

“PowerPoint has become public enemy number one for many US officers who find themselves battling slide presentations rather than insurgents. Some have gone as far as to declare all-out war on the software after the military command was over-run with mind-numbing 30-slide presentations. General James N. Mattis, the Joint Forces Commander, isn’t taking any prisoners in his approach. PowerPoint makes us stupid”

Brigadier General H.R. McMaster went one step further and banned the presentation package when he led an offensive in Tal Afar, Iraq, in 2005.

‘[PowerPoint is] dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,’ Brigadier General H.R. McMaster told the New York Times. ‘Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.’

For the safety  and comfort of your next audience, please be careful how you use PowerPoint. It can kill rapport, create confusion and bore your audience to death. For new ideas and alternatives to PowerPoint, please check out the web page Stop Global Boring: reduce your PowerPoint emissions now! If immediate triage is required, download the audio training program Stand & Deliver to your computer.

The workshop was sponsored by my clients, The Traumatic Stress Institute, a division of Klingberg Family Centers.

All forty of these amazing individuals had been trained in Risking Connection, a philosophy that supports the transformation to trauma-informed care and advocates for relationships and connections as the best treatment for healing traumatized children and adults.

In this workshop, we elected to focus on a specific skill with the field of presentation and public speaking – story telling. This blog post is designed to motivate and equip you to:

“Never make a point without telling a story. Never tell a story without making a point.”

Why tell stories?

Stories remain one of the most powerful forms of communication. They not only are effective in capturing and holding the attention of children, but can mesmerize adults as well.

The purpose of telling stories during your presentations is to engage, to entertain and to teach. All of these attributes make story telling a dynamic technique for professionals who desire to be high engagement presenters.

Mastering the art of story telling can increase your presentation persuasion power and make you a more engaging speaker. Stories are also a sure fire way of opening your presentation.

Brain researcher John Medina, author of Brain Rules, suggests that story telling in presentations is a very effective way to “wake up” your audience and re-engage them. His brain scan studies show that the human brain fatigues every ten minutes or so. We must do something at minute 9 and 59 seconds, or we lose them. Medina recommends story telling and use of metaphors. (p.s. buying Medina’s book is a no-brainer. I highly recommend it!)

What’s makes an effective story?

Your story must be clear, it must be compelling and it must be concise. Your stories should also be relevant to the context and audience in which you are telling the stories. Lastly, your story telling effectiveness will be influenced by your story content and your delivery of the story. Effective stories can be told in the shortest amount of time possible. Don’t drone on with your story or your audience will be wondering “where is she going with this?”

How to shape your stories
Here is a simple formula that you can practice to tell effective stories as part of your high engagement presentations. It’s called the Incident-Point-Benefit story telling technique.

The great part about this story-telling template is that you can create many different points and benefits from the same story, depending upon your audience and what you are trying to achieve.

Each time you tell your story, you can draw a different point and different benefit, depending upon what you are trying to achieve in your presentation.

Caution: never tell a story that you are still hurting from. If you find yourself feeling angry, bitter, sad to the point of tears, then you are not ready to share this story in a public presentation. Save it for later.  Being overly emotional during story telling can negatively affect your audience and alter your outcome.

Resources to help improve your presentation and public speaking skill set

• Download the free workbook Power of Personal Narrative
• Download the 3-part story telling template. Use this template to write out your signature stories.
• Click here to access more free resources to help you improve your presentation

Need more?

This story-telling training module is now available as part of our half-day training workshops series - ideal for working professionals who are time-starved but want to advance themselves professionals. Here are the other modules now available to you in this series:

• Workshop #1:  Success by Design: How to Effectively Plan and Organize Your Presentation Content
• Workshop #2:  The Power of Personal Narrative: Story Telling for Greater Presentation Impact
• Workshop #3:  Improve Your Presentation Visuals: PowerPoint Do’s and Don’ts
• Workshop #4:  Masterful Delivery: vocal power and body language intelligence for presenters

If you can spare a full day or two days to advance your presentation skill set, check out our Level 1 and Level 2 training workshops to mastering the art of high engagement presentations.

We also offer 1:1 executive presentation delivery coaching to help you prepare for a “high stakes” presentation. When your upcoming presentation really matters to your career or business, your best investment is to engage an expert to help you prepare, practice and polish.

Contact Kathy McAfee at (860) 408-0033 or leave a comment below and we’ll be in touch with you shortly to discuss your specific needs and challenges.

So, what can you do to produce a better outcome? Two areas that most professionals need work on are:

1. Planning. Don’t skip this vital stage. Don’t copy/paste from an old presentation and fool yourself that you are planning. You’re just being lazy. Discipline yourself to use the Clean Sheet Thinking method of pre-planning your presentations. It takes just thirty minutes to get a high level game plan together. Thirty minutes will make you much more laser focused.
2. Practice. I mean live rehearsals, not flipping through your slides nodding your head that you recognize the content. Diligent practice will turn you from a reluctant or average presenter into a strong, confident, powerful presenter. Ask a group of peers or trusted advisors to sit in on your practice session and give you focused feedback. Alternatively, hire an executive presentation coach to critique and coach your presentation delivery. This will help you mitigate risks with high stakes presentations.

Read about other common presentation pitfalls. Don’t be lazy or unaware. Get motivated about your next presentation!

I had the privilege of working with the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut this past summer, training their “loaned executives” and agency speakers on how to give high engagement presentations that move audiences to action. These motivated individuals would go on to make countless presentations to the many organizations, companies, labor unions, government groups, hospitals, etc., that were participating in the United Way 2009 “Live United” fall campaign here in Connecticut.

Today was their campaign celebration luncheon, where they announced how much they had raised through the generous support of thousands of people working at companies across the region. The celebration took place at the Pratt & Whitney Hanger – a very inspiring spot of history, innovation and high ceilings. For all intensive purposes, this was a “thank you” event, where the United Way wanted to recognize the many people who had made it all possible.

These types of awards and recognition banquets can be hard on the audience – tons of clapping for people you don’t know, sitting in uncomfortable chairs for long stretches at a time, eating high fat foods. You know what I’m talking about.

The United Way team WOW’d their audience with an unexpected skit that definitely proved to be “high engagement.”

Rather than announcing their fall campaign total $$$ results with a drum roll or some other common reveal method, they put on their own version of the DEAL-NO DEAL game show.

Rather than the short-skirted babes on the TV show, The United Way took the  high road and involved their twelve loaned executives, each holding a silver brief cases (very official looking!).  They had two contestants, the unseen “bank manager” and a very charismatic master of ceremonies. The sound effects were fantastic: the telephone rang, the music was exciting, the props were engaging and their PowerPoint graphics were clean and supportive.

The audience was fully engaged and having a great deal of fun with the blue/white plastic “clapper hands” and raucous shot outs. In the end, we all learned that the United Way fall campaign resulted in a pledge amount of $ 25,784,118. This is an amazing result given the economic conditions facing our community and nation. It’s a testament to the enduring spirit of people to help others and the fact that no matter how difficult things are for us , everybody has something to give.

Congratulations to the United Way, its staff, volunteers, community leaders and fans who believe in the value of making our community and world a better place for all!

She lived up to her impressive speaker introduction, which amongst all of the awards and accomplishments, described her as “the sassy and no nonsense woman.” Michelle Singeltary is a columnist for the Washington Post (her column the Color of Money) and is the author of Spend Well, Live Rich: how to get what you want with the money you have.

I listened to Michelle from two vantage points:

1. From the perspective of a woman who wants to and needs to get smarter about money. To read more about what I learned from Michelle about money – keeping it and making it work harder for you – click through to my summary.
2. From the perspective of an executive presentation coach who works with professionals to present themselves and their ideas to others more powerfully.

What can we learn from Michelle as a speaker / presenter?

What did she model for us that can help you to become a more powerful, confident and effective communicator in front of large groups?

Here’s what I took away:

• She spoke from the heart and brought all of her to the stage. We enjoyed Michelle as a personal finance guru; Michelle as a mother of 3; Michelle as a wife;  Michelle as a frugal, “cheap skate” who hangs on to money because “every penny has a purpose”‘ ; Michelle the faithful, church-devoted and tithing member; Michelle the woman.
• She expertly choreographed the energy build in the room, starting with a casual friendly beginning and leaving us with high energy determination.
• Her message was simple and her information was well organized. Specifically she introduced the Five S.T.E.P.S. to financial freedom and lasting wealth. Click through to read a summary of her talk.
• She was controversial and challenged our thinking with phrases like “credit is evil,” “stop swiping your life away,” and “you never save money when you spend it,” and “the sense of entitlement leads to financial ruin.” She warned our young people that they are “texting and talking way your wealth.” She motivated us with the idea that “priorities lead to prosperity” and that we must learn to discern between “needs and wants.”
• She shared personal stories throughout her presentation, including difficult stories from her family upbringing, to inspiring stories of her grandmother, to humorous moments with her children. This made us feel like she was one of us, not above the challenge and strife of life. Excellent rapport and connection with her audience.
• She included family photos in her presentation, including her wedding photo, her baby picture and teen daughter’s photo. This generated the “oooh” response from the audience and increased her likability.
• She was bold, not hesitate, to “sell” her books from the podium, including her newest one “21 day financial fast” and challenged us to take it. She did this right up front in the presentation.
• She gained our permission upfront to step on our toes and to talk straight and tough with us.
• She entertained us with streaming video, including short clips of video parodies, ridiculous but real advertising commercials to make her point.
• She allowed time for Q&A and handled it brilliantly. At one point, she had a young college graduate up in the front of the room and demonstrated how she could pay off her $60,000 in college loan debt in 2-3 years. Accountability was high in the room!

How could Michelle improve her speaking/presenting effectiveness?

I loved listening to and watching the powerful and sassy financial guru, Michelle Singletary. I have only two pieces of critique and constructive feedback for Michelle Singletary on her presentation skills:

1. Reduce the number of PowerPoint slides by 75% and clean them up. No slide, no matter how fancy or informative, can stand up to your magnificence. (you don’t even need them, really!)
2. Move away from the podium. Walk the stage. Let us enjoy your commanding presence more. It would be a real present!

With her powerful content and masterful delivery style, Michelle Singletary doesn’t need podiums or PowerPoint. She is powerful enough!

For more tips on how you can improve your presentation skill and confidence, check out our free presentation resources.

It’s critical that you spend time scripting, practicing, and rehearsing these sections of your presentation. Never wing it. Plan it. Commit to memory. Time it.  Walk it through.  Practice it until you have it near perfect. Execute it brilliantly.

Here are five strategies for creating a more powerful opening and closing to your presentations:

1. Take them to the promised land;
2. Avoid palaver or idle chatter;
3. Put the good stuff upfront in the presentation;
4. Avoid the weak wind down;
5. Your energy will make all the difference.

Here’s more insight into each of these five strategies:

Take them to The Promised Land. The idea here is that you must grab their attention immediately. Capture their attention right off the bat with some powerful statements. Give them a compelling WHY they should listen to you.

Avoid palaver or idle chatter. Resist the temptation to waste the precious few minutes of your presentation opening with a general greeting such as:
“Good Morning Everyone. I hope that you all slept well and that you are as excited as I am to be here for this meeting.” While civil and polite, this is just meaningless chatter. It’s a waste of your time and theirs. They know that it is morning. It’s up to you to make it good.

Move the Good Stuff Up Front. I was working with one key marketing executive at a leading financial services firm. She had made some powerful statements about mid-way through her presentation. We pulled those statements up front to create a gripping beginning. Think of it as re-arranging the furniture or pictures in a room. A little change can make all the difference in impact.

Avoid the Weak Wind Down. Your closing comment(s) is the second most important time in your presentation. Most presenters never consider how they are going to close the presentation. They just let it happen, usually by either running out of time or asking a throw-away question like Are there any questions? Don’t let your presentation close by itself. End solidly and with purposeful intent. Demonstrate one more time that you are expert in your field and clearly in charge of this presentation. Seal the deal.

Your Energy Will Make the Difference. There is no substitute for a genuine enthusiasm and belief in your topic. The energy you bring to the presentation by way of your voice, your movement, your passion, and your creativity will go miles toward creating a more powerful, lasting impact. You have control over the volume on that energy. Personally, I like to start with high energy, but you choose the intensity level based on the response you wish to create and your preferred style. Stage it. Choreograph it. But at the very least, think about how energy will play into your presentation.

Some of my favorite techniques for opening and closing a presentation include:

Techniques for Presentation Openings:

1. Tell a Personal Story. Get personal. Launch immediately into your personal story. Assume a casual, friendly posture to make it feel like it’s just you and one other.
2. H.M.O.Y. which stands for How Many of You Have… Start with questions that get people immediately involved by raising their hands. A series of three H.M.O.Y. questions is a fun and easy way to start your presentation. Here’s how it might work…

Let me begin by asking you a few questions…
How many of you came here today to learn more about the state of our business and our changing relationship with customer ________?  [Raise your own hand high…and pause.]
That’s great…
How many of you came here today to find out if and how this situation might impact you and your specific line of business?   [Again, raise your own hand high as an example of what you want them to do…and then pause.]
That’s great…
How many saw a bunch of your colleagues going somewhere and followed along because you thought there must be free food involved?  [Raise hand, pause and allow for the laughter.]
That’s great….
Well my name is _____________ and today I’m going to share with you_________

Techniques for Presentation Closings:

True confessions. I have always been challenged with how to close my presentation. I would never plan it and just pray that it would go well at the end. The result was that I usually over talked, rushed and ran out of time. Aware of my weakness, I have pushed myself to plan ahead and to experiment with my presentation closings.

I have recently had a lot of fun using physical prop to create a lasting visual memory. Using a simple everyday object, you can create a memorable and meaningful connection between the object and your key message. I have successfully used Boomerangs, women’s shoes, and river rocks. Get creative and leave them with something to remember you by.

Here’s an example of how I used a Boomerang to close my Motivated Networking Follow-up presentation:

Check out our Presentation Tips for more ideas on how you can become a more powerful and motivated presenter.

To raise the bar on the presentation skill and confidence of you and your team, call Kathy McAfee at (860) 408 -0033 or check out our presentation training workshop series The Motivated Presenter:

• Level 1: Essential Fundamentals of High Engagement Presentations
• Level 2: Advanced Delivery Techniques for High Engagement Presentations

Here’s to your presentation success!

I had one such “learning experience” this week. I was given the opportunity to share networking tips and facilitate a group exercise with 800 women during the afternoon  networking reception at the BWF – the Business Women’s Forum in Hartford, CT on September 29, 2009. I had given a workshop called “Motivated Networking Follow-Up” to a group of 100+ professional and business women in the morning. It was an absolute home run by all measures. I was feeling pretty good. (read more about the highlights from this event)

Then it happened.

The audience at the afternoon reception did not respond to me or my message. The wine and appetizers were captivating the women’s total attention. Their need to unwind and just relax proved to be more compelling than my introduction and presentation content. They had had their fill of listening and learning new things for the day. They just wanted to spend some quality time with people that they knew. Few were interested in participating in the “Facilitated Introductions” networking exercise that I had designed.

What was my biggest mistake? I wasn’t flexible enough to respond to the situation. I stayed the course and proceeded as planned hoping to engage enough people to make it work. I even moved onto the floor, me and my wireless microphone, to see if I could engage more people. This was the longest 3 minutes of my speaking career. As my good friend told me the next day “We felt so badly for you. You were dying up there.”

I knew I had lost them. I could see it; sense it; feel it; hear it. I lost them at my instruction “put your wine glasses down.” Big mistake. Never separate people from their liquor or dogs from their bones.

The “could-a / would-a/ should-a” afterthoughts. So here I am, unable to sleep – a full 36 hours after the event- tossing and turning and playing out various scenarios. I just made sense for me to get up and to write them down and share my thoughts. Some of these alternatives just might have worked.  Here are some of my creative ideas for how I might have responded to this challenging situation:

1. Could I have followed in the footsteps of the morning keynote speaker Victoria Labalme and done my own version of the Park Avenue Shuffle? A fellow Stanford University graduate with more guts than tennis racket re-stringing company? I think  I would have danced to Mark Shepard’s song “Adventure Girl” – a tribute to comedian and fastest talking woman & adventurist, Fran Capo.
2. Would I have thought in the moment to invite all of the workshop leaders up on stage with me, including L. Kay Wilson, Karen Hinds, Debbie Fay, Jill Butler, Lena West, Veronica Holcolm, Barbara Phillips, Faith Roberts and the others? I would have inspired them with the old adage “Dance like no one’ s watching” or as author/professor/feminist Gina Barreca humorously rephrases “Dance like you’ve never been hurt before.”
3. Should I have been more creative in my presentation and taken a bigger risk? For example, I could have come dressed in my black belt Tae Kwon Do uniform and demonstrate a few choreographed “forms” and/or self defense moves and shared with the 800 women that networking is a good defense against an economic downturn or potential lay off situation. Having your network in place before you need it is just a  good, sound career management practice. So why are most women hanging out with the friends and colleagues that they see everyday? You should be “talking to strangers” and expanding your professional network.

Most of these “rewriting history” ideas are all about movement and the element of surprise. They are about be daring and bold and unexpected. Perhaps I was constrained by my prepared PowerPoint presentations (yes folks, I cheated on my PowerPoint-FREE diet!) Or perhaps this was just one of those tests that life puts you through to see how you’ll respond and how you’ll handle yourself.

I am proud that I have spent more time laughing at myself rather than beating myself up over the event.  I wouldn’t have traded the opportunity even if I knew the outcome. All PR is good PR, they say, and I believe them. And, I believe that feedback is a gift, even if it is negative criticism.

I am curious to hear from those of you who attended the 2009 Business Women’s Forum. What was your take on the afternoon reception? What would you have done in my shoes. (perhaps I should have worn the magical green shoes!)

Ahh….I feel like I can now get some sleep. This burden is off my chest and I feel empowered by being able to write about my thoughts, feelings and ideas. I guess this is the POWER of blogging. Best yet – it’s cheaper than therapy!

Thanks for reading…and for adding your comments below.

– Kathy McAfee – America’s Marketing Motivator

Photo credits: Cynthia R. Lang Photography (860) 953-2299

Presentation coaching investment pays off for this subject matter expert

Insurance and financial services professional, Scott Kallenbach is a graduate of the LIMRA executive development 2-day workshop Powerful, Persuasive Presentations taught by me, Kathy McAfee, executive presentation coach.

Scott also enlisted me for private session of presentation delivery coaching to give him the extra edge.

After a 4-hour focused coaching session, Scott perfected his presentation opening and closing, developed effective use of compelling props, theme, and techniques to maximize his audience engagement. Scott even used a red ladies handbag to visually drive home the message about the “power of the purse” and female spending power.

Scott called me from the airport on his way home to report the great news. Here’s what he said:

“Kathy, I just wanted to let you know that, pardon my French, but I kicked absolute [butt] today.  It was awesome.  Not only was the audience looking forward to what I had to say, they paid attention. In fact,  I used one of your suggestions to emphasize a point and told the audience to, “write this down, this is important,” and the next thing I knew, people were grabbing their pens and anxiously awaiting to hear what I was about to say.  Midway through my performance I was thinking about how much I was enjoying the experience.

When I was done, I was mobbed like a Rock Star.  Not only were people telling me what a great job I had done, but they wanted me to continue to share my thoughts. It was beyond my expectations. Thank you so much.  This was the most powerful presentation I have yet to deliver, and it strengthened the relationship with the client that extended the invitation.”

- Scott Kallenbach, Associate Director, Strategic Research, LIMRA International

The Value of 1:1 Executive Presentation Coaching & Training

When I asked Scott what he thought about the private 1:1 presentation coaching session with me, this is what he told me:

“Although you were pricey, I must admit that it was money well spent - I truly could not have done as great a job as I did without you.  Your creativity and inspiration were critical to my success.”

Scott’s comments reminded me of the old L’Oreal commercials “It’s expensive and I’m worth it!” This may be one of the best compliments that I received all year! Thanks Scott!

How Can You Benefit from Presentation Coaching/Training?

Check out our Presentation Training Workshops & Coaching Services

The modern talking pad

by Seth Godin BLOG “marketing, tribes and respect”

“I think this is a big idea, but your mileage may vary. I’ve been having great success with a hybrid of the yellow legal pad and a printed presentation from Keynote (or Powerpoint). I use it during small meetings where more interactivity is useful, and where the group is too small for a laptop to be the best way to present slides (I think running a presentation says, “I talk, you listen…”)

Here’s how it works:

1. Create a presentation. A good one, not one filled with bullet points. Instead, graphs, images, a few words to anchor a discussion. A page might be nothing but a blank 3 x 3 grid.
2. On every page, remove some of the information.
3. Print the presentation out (horizontal, not portrait).
4. Bring it to Staples and have them spiral bind it with covers. (Not that cheap plastic comb, though.)
5. Get a good pen. Now, when you make your presentation, sit next to the person you’re meeting with and go through the booklet page by page, writing directly on each page. As you work your way through the ideas in the booklet, the two of you can talk about what’s in front of you and mark it up. It’s not a brochure, it’s the outcome of a working session. Leave it behind when you go. “

- end of Seth Godin’s blog article  -

Interesting idea, isn’t it? I can see its applications in a sales presentation and possibly other settings where the audience is small and you want to create a more intimate and interactive environment.

For more refreshing and innovative ideas from Seth Godin, you can subscribe to his blog “Marketing, Tribes and Respect”