I dare you!!

I am now convinced that PowerPoint should only be used when absolutely needed.

Last week I shared the stage with experienced speakers at a District meeting. I was the only one without PowerPoint. Guess who's presentation was the only one without technological hitches?

Imagine me - Mr. PowerPoint, not using slides! You may be saying to yourself "This is stranger than truth". "Are my eyes deceiving me?"

Let me explain. In my presentation I had no need to show visuals and structured my presentation to require a lot of audience interaction. I opted for an extended Q&A session where I provided the questions to the audience and we discussed the questions and answers. There is no justification to use PowerPoint here.

As I saw my peers present on the stage, I realize how much work is still needed to train presenters. It seems so simple to me "Don't read your slides to your audience". You lose eye contact and your audience reads faster than you do, which means that text on your slides is a lose-lose situation.

Your natural tendency is it to glance at the slides, or turn and read the slides to your audience. The only way to make sure that you never read text to your audience is to not have text on your slides. This logic escapes most presenters.

I challenge you to present a slide show with text on the slides and overcome the natural urge to read the text to your audience. If you ever find a way to do it, then post a comment here. I dare you!!

The secret ingredient for PowerPoint Presentations

Today we took in the new movie - Kung-Fu Panda. We saw it for my son's benefit and it was a long, tough 91 minutes.

The only line with any value was when the Panda’s father told his son the secret to the family’s "Special Ingredient Noodle Soup". Papa said "Po, there is no secret ingredient. It is special because when you believe you have a secret ingredient, then you make it special".

Later, after many "BAM" and "Ka-Pow" scenes Po finally understands the Dragon Scroll. The Dragon Scroll supposedly reveals the secrets to defend the known world against evil, and holds other magical powers. To every one's surprise - the scroll is empty. It does not contain any text or instructions for success. It reflects back your face when you look into it. Again "There is no secret ingredient". It is only your thinking that makes it so.

It is you that is the secret ingredient to success with your PowerPoint Presentations. Not spectacular slideshows or 35 flashing fonts. You, your stories and your examples are the Secret Ingredient.

Blended PowerPoint Presentations

Answers.com defines the word "blend" as "To combine or mix so that the constituent parts are indistinguishable from one another".

When is work fun, labor, and pleasant? Don't these terms blend together sometimes, making fun work and work fun and pleasant? I was down at Portland, CT today working with my friend as we prepare his sail-boat for the coming season. It was hard work polishing the boat. It was also fun to be outdoors and anticipate the pleasure of the summer sailing season. The time together blended into a combination event.

In an upcoming presentation, I will again be making the point that PowerPoint slides are only one part of your blended presentations. Other components of a blended PowerPoint presentation are your stories, examples, audience activities and your eye-contact when you hit the "B" button and turn off the projector.

So when can we call a PowerPoint presentation "blended"? When all these components are mixed together for the benefit of the audience and leaving out one component detracts from the audience experience. Leaving out your stories and only having PowerPoint slides makes for a sub-optimal presentation.

What about your PowerPoint Presentations? Can you honestly say that you deliver "blended" presentations?

NSA New England, Which style works for you?

I attended an informative, actionable and fun meeting at NSA New England chapter yesterday. Six professional speakers shared their insights and experiences with members. If I read 100 books on Professional and Public Speaking, I would not have received this volume of timely and valuable information.

My head is swimming with all of the ideas and information I received. Professional speakers implement different speaking models and each model has benefits and drawbacks. The perfect fit is one with benefits that suits your unique needs as a speaker.

This is the same with PowerPoint presentations. You need to find the presentation style that works for you, if you want to deliver memorable presentations. Do you prefer a fast-paced slideshow style? Or do you prefer to spend 2 to 4 minutes on a slide while you tell a story about your point and then engage the audience with personal examples?

I strongly believe in very few slides, with notes that display in the Presenter View of PowerPoint and coach clients to use this approach as well. Few slides with personal examples put you as the speaker in the desirable position of speaking directly to the audience with heartfelt conviction. Your audience senses that you are totally sincere in this situation and you prove that you are presenting for the benefit of the audience.

Try various PowerPoint Presentation styles and see which pace and style works best for you. Stay within the guidelines documented in "Dodging the bullet points", such as minimal text and generous use of high-quality photographs. You audience benefits as you discover your best presentation style.

Illogical Insanity

Do you have slides in your PowerPoint Presentation that you gloss over, ever time you present your slideshow? Even a photo can detract from your presentation if you constantly flip through it and never stop to build your message with this slide. All slides in your presentation must support the main message you are communicating.

We just got back from purchasing a new vacuum cleaner. Our first stop was my favorite electronics store. I won't mention the name, but it was not the Best place to Buy a vacuum cleaner. We experienced illogical insanity in the store which reminded me of pointless slides in a presentation.

Among the 14 available vacuum cleaners, we selected one that suits our needs. We did not see any new vacuums on the shelf, only the dirty demo model. We took it off the shelf to make sure it is light enough to carry up our stairs. After my lovely wife hunted down a youngster posing as a salesperson, we asked if he had one in stock.

After looking at the same shelf that we did, he reached the same conclusion that we did - no new vacuum cleaners on the shelf of the desired model. He promised to order one and we could pick it up next week. We said "Sure - perfect timing".

He went off and returned to tell us that this model of vacuum cleaner is on back order with no estimated date of delivery. We may have to wait months if we ordered this model from him. We thanked him for his trouble and decided to look for a vacuum cleaner in a competitor's store.

Then he put the dirty demo model back on the shelf, ready for the next customer to go through the process of selecting this model and finding out that new vacuum cleaners are not available for purchase. I have heard that doing the same thing over and over again, each time expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity. Well, our salesperson qualifies. His actions were completely illogical. Why not take the model off the shelf? Why not put on a label "OUT OF STOCK"? Who knows.

As presenters, we cannot allow slides to remain in our presentations if these slides do not add value or support our main message. If you cannot provide your audience with a story, or example to support your slide, then remove it from your slideshow. Do not repeat your performance with the next audience, and expect a different result.

2 questions

Today - short and sweet questions.

1. Are you making a presentation, or a paging through a PowerPoint slide show? What is your PowerPoint Presentation style? I see so many presenters merely paging through slides and wish that I could reach into his or her brain to educate them. Your PowerPoint presentation is firstly a presentation and secondly supported with striking visual aids.

2. Valentines day - My family celebrated at a local restaurant chain store. 14 years ago I took my wife-to-be on our second date. Sweltering hot summer evening in Pretoria, driving a 20 year old dented and rusting Chevrolet 3800. If you had told me that one day we would be blissfully married and living in the USA, I would have told you that you had been out in the sun too long. Us live in the USA? We worked in entry level positions in dead-end departments in a South African Government service. I struggled to put petrol in the car let alone buy an airplane ticket. The sun was certainly powerful enough on that day to cause delusions.

Well, here we are in 2008. MBA certifcate hanging on the wall, helping clients all over the world to dramatically increase business presentations through effective PowerPoint Presentations. As Alan Weiss says "Ya never know". You have to try.

You have to try and pursue a higher traditional degree if you need it for your career. (Starting my path towards my MBA through years of part-time study proved to be a wise decision, hence my steadfast belief that everyone needs higher education). If can do it with my checkered academic record, then most certainly can get your next degree as well. But I digress.

If you being tells you to move to a different country to fulfill your destiny, then you have to try. You won't know how successful you can be, unless you try.

What is your being telling you? What is your next step? Are you willing to act despite your fears, self-doubts and the abundance of people around you "advising" you on your foolishness? True, you may fail. But I bet you that you have a greater chance of succeeding if you "burn the boats" and put your mind towards success.

A Speaker with an Overhead Projector

Listened to a great speaker tonight at NSA - CT Chapter. I marvel at the opportunities in the USA. I can attend NSA meetings at the Connecticut chapter and the New England Chapter in Boston because both are within driving distance. This allows me to learn from experienced professionals.

Tonight's speaker does not use PowerPoint - preferring to use the Overhead projector. Yet I again realize that the Pow'Rful Philosophy applies to both technologies - stay away from text, don't read your slides to the audience, and use lots of stories.

Think when you are making your next presentation, even if you use an overhead projector and transparencies. How can you convey your message without reading your slides to your audience.

Judging slides

People who have missed a presentation often ask for a copy of my slides. I gladly send the slides over, but my slides have little meaning outside of my presentation. This is because my slides are visual aids to my presentation and not a document of my presentation. Above is a sample slide from a presentation I gave this week.

Your PowerPoint slides must also support your presentation. Your slides must not be your presentation. You should make the impact on your audience through the photos on your slides, your examples and stories.

Put the details that support your presentation in a report and make it available to your audience before or after the presentation. Do not put your detailed statistics on your slides.

You are the presentation. This means that you tell personal stories, give examples and answer audience questions in your presentation style and with your unique knowledge. Your presentation should be different from my presentation, even if we use the same set of slides.

Take a look at the slides you typically create. Are they 90% (or 100%) text? If so, then chances are that I can read your slides to your audience, just as well as you can, and either of us could bore the audience to tears. Act as Judge, Jury and Executioner. Judge your slides, convict yourself if appropriate, and cut the text out of your slides to support YOUR Unique Presentation.

Photos in Juxtaposition

When you want to show contrast follow Al Gore's example and put the photos in juxtaposition.

Here are the "before" and "after" photos of this morning's snowstorm in South Windsor CT.

These photos clearly show that our weather forecasters overestimated the accumulation. We had predictions of 8 to 14 inches of snow. Instead, we received 5 inches.

You can use photos such as these to support your points in your presentation such as "Overestimating accumulation leads to false alerts and costs overallocation of resources for snow removal".

Where can you take personal photos and use them in your presentation? Take many photos with your digital camera and build up a library so that you have access to personal photos for your PowerPoint presentations.

Takahashi Method

I was reading Presentation Zen (blog by Garr Reynolds) and pondering the different styles of effective PowerPoint Presenters.

A few days ago I posted Dick Hardt's presentation. Here is the Takahashi Method for your review.

Now ask yourself. How can you use these methods to develop your style? What category of presenter do you classify yourself as?

I see Dick's method and the Takahashi method as overkill for the presentations that most of us make in our everyday lives. However, we can still learn by studying these methods and allowing them to influence our presentations for the better when we get the opportunity.

Where do you think you could incorporate either of these presentation styles in your presentations?

Unique presentation style of Dick Hardt

I came across this presentation by Dick Hardt. Check it out here. Fast-paced and visually stimulating to get the message across.

I believe Dick's presentation is effective, although he uses more slides than I propose we use with the Pow'Rful Process.