The YouBlog

Shhhhhh . . .

IN A WORLD OF TOO MUCH NOISE, it's amazing how powerful it is when someone speaks quietly to us. Fiery oration can be stirring, but what really gets us is when a speaker pauses, drops his or her tone, and speaks to us in simple words about what really matters to them (and, hopefully, to us). That's when a speech is most genuine and affecting. That's when we get the best sense of who they really are and why they care. Forceful words reach our heads, quiet words reach our hearts.
        Of course, you can't do a whole presentation in whispers. That would get annoying and seem totally false. But finding one moment when you can pause and quietly say, "This is what really matters" — that will have greater impact than anything you might shout.

What Will They Remember You By?

MEMORIES ARE SUCH FASCINATING THINGS. Do we really remember things exactly as they appeared or occurred or were presented to us? Sometimes, if the experience was so moving or transformative that it burned a clear, visceral image in our brains. More often, though, memories are established based on a feeling or an overall impression or maybe just some garish green shoes. And they rarely encompass everything that was expressed. More often, it's the highlights that remain — highlights which color opinions, decisions, and actions.
        I'm not pushing you achieve outbursts of "Oh, my God, that was the most extraordinary thing I've ever sat through!" You just can't guarantee that people will respond in such a fashion. And if they do, it's because of what's happened inside them, not strictly because of something exceptional that you've thrown at them.
        So let's take the simpler, and more repeatable, route of "What will they remember you by?"

        Your view of the world? Possibly, but not likely.
        Your Features & Benefits, or your service's methodology? Nope.
        Their uneasy feeling as you waffle around for a closing? Yep.

Here are a few more:

        Their relief at finding an answer to their needs? Yes.
        Their excitement about discovering a better way? Yes.
        Their feeling like they found a kindred spirit? Yes.

And what's the key difference between these two sets? The first group is focused on what you're trying to push. The second group comes from the feelings that your audience or prospects experience, as they connect what you're saying to what they need or want.
        Sure, your product's features might help them achieve a sense of relief, but if you don't lead with why those features are relevant to your audience, you're just like one of those grey boxes above.
        So the idea to consider today is what they will remember you by. And if you don't have a clear, concise idea that connects to their needs, issues, or goals, then write down how you'd like them to remember you, and then work backwards from there.
        Don't make it a long list. Just write down one or two short phrases — ideas that they might express —  and then see how you can reach that point in what you have to say.

[For a related post, check out: "Remember This!"]

One Thing at a Time

OKAY, IT'S ONE OF MY MANTRAS — use graphics to help tell your story. But that doesn't mean that any image works. This is particularly true with diagrams or pictographic representations of technical matters. You've probably seen these — wild collections of boxes and circles and cylinders, washed over by text and arrows and a varied assortment of colors. They're visual nightmares, at least for the audience.
        And that's where the disconnect happens. To the person who creates images like that (or directs others to do so) (often with the charge of "There's still space on that slide. Fill it up!") (like an old boss of mine, who actually said that) (but I digress).
        So someone creates an image that they feel is the perfect encapsulation of a process or technical set up or a "solution" to a problem. It has all the elements that need to be considered — except how the audience is going to absorb it.
        What may seem "perfect" to the presenter is often a sensory overload for the audience. Too many things to divert one's attention. No hierarchy of elements. No big-picture context in which to arrange the details that fill out that vision. No parsing or sequencing of steps to help develop the story. It's all just barfed out on one slide. And after the audience recovers from their initial, visual battering, they struggle to follow the presenter's descriptions of this visual hash.
        Ugh.

So what do you do?

One approach is to choose a central element and build your story around that. Is there a critical part of the process where things are breaking down, or where your "solution" makes everything right again? Establish that as the key element, so they get the context, then go back to what leads up to that, and what follows beyond the central point. Layer in the pieces only when they're needed, and this will be a much more manageable and effective experience for your audience.
        Another approach is to show how things are today (in as simple an arrangement as is possible), and then show how things can/should evolve in the future. This is the approach suggested by Bruce Wyman in his post, Simplification of Things, Part 1 of Some (hat tip to Brad Feld for highlighting Bruce's post in Why Does This Slide Suck?). Bruce converts an overly complex slide into a Before/After sequence with far fewer elements. His makeover is clean and simple, and far easier for an audience to follow.

Here are two other ideas to consider:

1) Have all the elements you need already visible, but gray everything out except the central piece. Don't make any of the text elements visible yet either. Then, as you go through the story and highlight different parts, bring those pieces into full-color view (with text labels as needed). This requires extra work to achieve such a build, but your audience will get much more out of this approach (versus barf-it-all-out-there-at-once).

2) As a variation on the last idea, make each of the visual elements a clickable zone, so you can jump around to different parts of the "story". This makes the discussion far more interactive, since you can focus in on those elements that matter most to your audience. Taking this approach requires even more time in preparation, since you have to set up which slide each element links to, but it's really effective in establishing a dialog — and a shared depiction of what matters most.