The other day I was working with a client on her PowerPoint slides. We looked at the first slide, then the second slide, then the third slide. She asked me what I thought. “Should we add this?” “Should we take that out?”
The thing is, she had an even more basic problem: her slides were interfering with the story she was telling. The slides had all the graphs and data and charts you “should” put in a business presentation, but all that average, “should be there” data was drowning the story coming out of her mouth. It was a fascinating story, a story the audience would love to hear. It was a story of brilliance and creativity and hard work, but the slides were saying, “Oh, by the way, there’s nothing special here. I am giving you exactly what everyone else does.”
In a presentation, you have a huge opportunity. A bunch of people are sitting in front of you, waiting to hear what you have to say. If you are about to rock their world with a brilliant story, do not sabotage your story by wrapping it in a soggy noodle of an average slide deck.
About Matt Krause
Matt began his professional life as an import buyer, and since 2006 has been teaching companies how to connect with their investors and clients better. His clients work in Istanbul, London, and Madrid for companies like Allianz, 3M, P&G, Citibank, and Reckitt Benckiser. He also walked across Turkey and wrote a book about it.
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