No one wants to look at slides like this.

You don’t go to sleep thinking, “Darn, I WISH I had seen another PowerPoint presentation today.”

But, you might end the day saying to yourself, “I wish I had been more inspired today.”

Inspiration comes from stories that reinforce your message that can be supported by great visuals.

Five practical steps to dance with your deck of slides

📺  Define Your Core Message First  ➡  Start with your content. Know what you want to say, to whom you’re talking to and why they need your info. THEN design your deck.

📺  Share One Idea per One Slide  ➡  Do the T-Shirt Test. Ask yourself, “Does my visual fit on a T-shirt?”

📺  Design for Consistency  ➡  Stick to the same fonts, colors, and layout style throughout. Preferably use the same fonts and colors of your organization’s brand.

📺  Add More Visuals, Use Less Text  ➡  Bullets kill. Paragraphs are even worse! This may sound novel… visuals should be visual.

📺  Practice for Seamless Flow  ➡  Rehearse, looking out and not at your screen. Know your beginning and end. Practice through your entire deck so transitions feel natural and the timing stays tight.

📺  A very cool bonus trick to regain your audience’s attention, and have them look at you rather than the screen ➡  You can turn off your visuals without turning off your computer or messing up the order of your ppt deck by (drum roll 🥁 🥁 🥁): pressing the “B” key on your keyboard. This turns your computer screen and the screen others see to black.

To restore your visuals, press any key and your screen will be restored, exactly where you were before you turned the screen to black.

This horrible visual was created with AI assistance.