Your Presentation Best

Be Like Don Draper, Be Mad Have you ever seen a presentation that really caught your attention and kept it? Can you still remember the presenter and the message? If your like most people, this doesn't happen often enough. Think about all the presentations you've seen in the last year. How many were great and how many sucked? How many were a waste of your time? What's the single most important element in any great presentation? It gives your audience something of value. They leave your presentation knowing it was good for them. That's the secret of Mad Men's Don Draper. He makes sure that the only ads which his agency puts out scream  "value for me!" , the viewer, the audience.  Whether he's selling candy, cars or shaving cream, the viewer feels that the product is good for them.  That's  the best way to get your audience to remember your message . The take-away:   Do what Don does .  Make it about them. Always make sure you a

Are You Creating More PowerPoint Zombies? A common question I get during my presentation workshops is:   How do I get and keep my   audiences attention?   How do I keep them from turning into PowerPoint Zombies? I think the best answer has always been:  Give them a reason to listen!  This usually means addressing their priorities, needs and/or problems in some concrete way. I would add to this a truly radical idea in the corporate world:   give your presentation   WITHOUT PowerPoint .  That's right, no PowerPoint.  You will totally capture them right from the start because presenting without PowerPoint rarely happens.  You will be a freak, and freaks always get people's attention. They'll listen to you just to see "What the hell is this guy/lady doing?!" They'll stay tuned in becase you will be so much better able to plug into them (and they to you) if you don't have to compete with your slides. If you have done you homework and are presenting a

Just another brick in the Wall? Monotony.  We all hate it. SO why do we see so much of it in corporate presentations?! I'm not talking about the droning voice that bores us.   I'm talking about  the Monotony of PowerPoint slides . Slide after slide that look the same:  same corporate identity template, same layout, same "Oh sweet Jesus I've seen this a million times before!" visual monotony that tunes us out and eventually turns us off. Visual monotony is a perfect way to kill your message.  How to fix this?  Simple:  break the monotony. Be bold and creative.  Be innovative.  Be exciting.  Above all,  be different. The only requirement is that your visuals are concretely tied to your message.   You can do this with the slide itself and/or vebally.   Never forget, your job is to bring the slides to life and build a bridge to your message. If you dare to be different, you will wake and shake your audience.   You will  stand out .  You will  be rememb