Death By Powerpoint and losing momentum

Episode 7. Episode 7 of the 20 Biggest Mistakes that all presenters, facilitators, salespeople, leaders, teachers make that blow up their presentations, kill their sales and drive people away, and don't educate anybody. Okay, so this is episode seven of the series. Hopefully you're getting a lot out of these. Any one of these is going to make a gigantic difference in your presentations online or offline. So here we go. Episode seven, death by PowerPoint. Death by PowerPoint. Okay, so again, over the years, PowerPoint has become a very popular way of presenting online. It's actually a very useful tool, actually more useful than in an offline room. But still, you've got to be very, very careful about PowerPoint. PowerPoint is great because it's visual. That's great. But let me ask you something. In a presentation, where is most of the passion? Where does most of the passion and energy come from? You. Comes from you. So the minute that they're looking at a PowerPoint slide, they're not looking at you. The source of the energy and passion is off to the side or disappeared entirely, and they're focused over there. So when you're in a room, the screen's typically somewhere else and you're someplace else, and so they're not focusing. Can't focus on two things at the same time. Remember, energy is everything. Energy is everything, which we'll talk about in a second. So in maintaining energy in a room and maintaining connection, it's important to know that you are the source of most of that. Okay, so PowerPoint slides can be good if they're used as an aid, not if they are the presentation. So what do I mean by that? For example, I've seen people that go through 50, 60 PowerPoint slides, and sometimes I'm looking at the slide, I don't even understand what the slide has to do with what they're talking about. I've lost track because they're beautiful visuals or they've got a lot of writing on them. Some people say, well, I need the PowerPoint slides because that's where my presentation is. All the bullet points are all there. Well, if that's for you, don't bore the participants with it. If you need it, have your own laptop over here with your PowerPoint over here, so you can look at it as you need to, but don't bore them with all that material you put up bullet points, they're going to be reading, they're not listening, and the energy comes from you, not from there. Now, online, through zoom and in conferencing, PowerPoint slides are actually a little bit more useful than they are in an offline example for several reasons. When you are in this type of environment, you have a couple choices. Me talking to you like this. I could put up PowerPoint slides or, or I could do a flip chart in the background, or I could use my iPad and draw for you. Now, all of those are good, but any one overdone is not good because in most cases, any one of them, with the exception of the flip chart. The problem with the flip chart, sometimes the screen's reverse, sometimes it's hard to read, sometimes it's hard to see. You got to be very, very careful. I use PowerPoint slides in some of my webinars, but I only use them sparingly. So if you're going to use PowerPoint, throw up a PowerPoint slide, explain it a little bit, and then take off the slide and talk to them about what it was. So the energy then comes back to you. Don't leave it up there and you become a little circle talking head like over here in the corner of the screen. You, you don't want to do that because you are it. Now Again, use a PowerPoint visuals. Visuals are good with a very few words. I Recommend Instead of PowerPoint, use of flip charts. See my flip chart over there? Yeah. My flip charts are over there. I recommend flip charts. I don't like flip charts so much on a zoom call because they're hard to read. I'm changing that technology here soon, but using an iPad. IPads are good because an iPad will fill the screen. It's very colorful. It has all the same advantages of a flip chart. The only challenge with that is that the iPad fills the entire screen and you're left out of it except for a little thumbnail of your face. So again, if you're going to do that, you develop the slide, you develop the flip chart. And there's a way to do that, believe it or not. I have a 30 page manual on how to properly use a flip chart, which is the same for an iPad because there are that many things about it, but to use it effectively with high impact. But when you use it, use it sparingly. So you do your flip chart, whatever chart you're going to do, develop it, talk it through, then take it off, talk to them for a while, explain to them, interact with them, ask some questions, get them to discuss, then go to the next one or the next two. So break it up a little bit because what happens is people get mesmerized or they get hypnotized by one form of media. So when you're on here, you got to mix it up. A couple PowerPoint slides over here, a couple iPad here. Either use an iPad or flip chart. I wouldn't use both. Okay. Unless you have some technology like an electronic flip chart or some of my friends have that I'll be getting soon, which is very high quality and works just as well as an iPad, if not even better, because it's actually a little bit bigger and a little bit more spontaneous. So I am in the whole thing with you, along with the flip chart. Okay. If you're going to do that, you stand with the flip chart. You. You stand there closely and it's a fill in the blank. So how does that work? Say the most important part about success is accomplishing your. What you don't tell them and you write the word goals. Let's say they write the word goals and then you have them say it. What's the word goals? So again, how you use it rather than just writing it and telling them is an opportunity to engage the room. Now, again, you have to set up a context for that, which we'll talk about in one of the episodes, if we haven't talked about it already. But don't kill them with PowerPoint. Don't kill them with PowerPoint. And particularly if the only reason you're using the PowerPoint is to keep you on track with your presentation. That's a horrible, terrible reason. Because now it's all about you and it's not about them. You got to think about them right now. Education. Universities all over the world are struggling. Students are revolting. Parents are filing lawsuits because they are trying to go online because of the pandemic, and they can't, because they don't know. If they just knew half of the things you're learning in these episodes, they could conduct these programs, particularly the next piece that I'm going to tell you, because without it, it's. It's just like watching a YouTube video. And you can turn it off anytime you want to. You don't have to pay attention. You can be listening to music, doing other things. You want their 100% focus. So don't kill the room with PowerPoint slides the minute you start saying, yeah. And so our sales presentation, I got about 10, 15 PowerPoint slides. All right? People are going, 15. Oh, my God. Okay. If you're going to tell. If you have them, don't tell them how many you have, okay? Because it's called projection. In other words, you tell. I got 15. They're going, oh, okay, that's two. That's three. That's four. Okay? So you see, psychologically, it's not a good idea. So don't kill them. Don't kill them with PowerPoint at all. Again, if you're using flip charts or using an iPad, use at least two different colors every time you write. Use the thick lines, don't use the fine lines. They have greater, bolder impact, higher impact, and much more memorable. And if you do the same presentation more than once, do the same flip charts every single time, and what will happen is those will be permanent imprints in people's brains. They will remember visually what you put on those flip charts or on that iPad much longer than they'll remember anything you said. Okay? So don't kill them with a PowerPoint. All right, now step 14 still. Episode 7. One of the biggest mistakes that people make, and I've just alluded to this, is letting the energy die. Letting the energy die. Oh, my goodness. My goodness. For eight to 12 years of the average person's life, they're forced to sit in a seat in a classroom in school and listen and not move. It's no wonder the kids are bored in school, and very few of us remember what we learned there. Learning requires energy. Learning requires energy. Learning requires what? Thank you. Learning requires energy. Plus, there's clear evidence that you learn a lot more when you're awake than when you're asleep. Okay? Most presenters drone on and on and on, maintaining their own energy levels at best, but they let the energy of the room get away. You can't let the energy die, okay? You cannot let the energy die. Everything we've been talking about and all. Where are we now? This is number 14 out of 27 episodes. I'm just going to tell you that everything that I've been teaching you is all about energy. And if you can apply just two of them, you're going to notice a difference. But you got to be consistent with it. You got to be bold enough. If you're going to ask a question, demand an answer. Demand a what? I can't hear you. Demand a what? One more time. Demand a. Hit your space bar and tell you. Demand a what? Thank you. Now, obviously you're not doing that because this is a YouTube video, but you understand that if I'm going to ask a question, you got to be bold enough to demand a response. And it will create the energy. People say, oh, it's annoying. They don't like it. Too bad. At least they're engaged, okay? You don't want them indifferent. Better to them to be a little bit antagonistic, but at least engaged. Plus, as we talked about before, if you set it up in the beginning and let them know that this is what you're going to do and why you're doing it, people will be receptive and you will build a reputation based upon not what you teach, but the way you teach it. Okay? Don't let the energy die in the room. You can raise someone's mental energy and focus by asking them to do something physical. We call that a state change. It's called a state change. So in other words, what's a state change? We have physical, mental, emotional state. Physical, mental, emotional. Do it with me. Physical, mental, emotional. Okay, those are three states. Okay, you do it. Let me see you. Physical. Come on, do it. Physical, mental, and what? Emotional. Okay, good. So what did I just do that was a state change? I asked you to do something physical. Here's why. We know that those three things are all linked up in your brain someplace, right? But here's the good news. Based on learning research, what we know is that when you change one of those states, you change them all. If you change one, you change them all. Now, which is the easiest one to change? Physical. Obviously. Physical. So the minute you. The minute if I told you to. If you're on a zoom call and there's a box next to you, and I say give the person next to you a high five and tell them they're awesome. Go like that. Okay? And everybody's doing that. What's going to happen? Not only did they get physical, what's going to happen? Are they going to smile? Yeah. Are they going to be awake? Yeah. So I had them do something physical immediately. It shifted their mental and emotional state at the same time. You change one, you change them all. So you can do very obvious. You can see your room is checking out. Get everybody to stand up, put on some music, have them do some sexy dancing. Something crazy. Okay? Have them do five jumping jacks, sit down and tell them why you're doing it. Look, everybody looks pretty wiped out and bored. Here's what we're going to do. And what will happen is you'll refresh the body. The body needs to be refreshed. They're called state changes. And by the way, this is true for you, too. You sit in front of this camera all day long. You're presenting all day long. You need a state change. Go outside, walk around, play with the dog, Go jump in the pool. Whatever you need to do. Get a state change, okay? And then come back. What will happen is your body will reset, it'll refresh. Don't let the energy die. There's no excuse, people. The only reason you would not do it is because you're afraid, which is not a good reason. The only reason you do it is because you think you're going to look stupid. Well, which would you. You're going to look stupid and everybody's checking out and say that you suck. Or would you rather have people just say, oh, that was wonderful, and lie to you? Or would you at least like to go out there and say, well, geez, at least they tried to engage us. The guy was a little weird, but it was a lot of fun. Which do you prefer? Don't let your psychosis get in the way of other people learning and having great energy and having a good time. It's not a good excuse. Okay, so offer some state changes right now. If I had you make a list of all things, what could you do? You could do stretching. You could do dancing. You could do visualizations. You can tell a story. You can. Again, physical ones. High fives. Make yourself a list of about 10, 10 state changes that you could use on any kind of a zoom call. I've given you more than that already. And if you're watching your group, and by the way, one of the rules, everybody's got their cameras on all the time. Think about it. Teachers force the kids to have their cameras on, and if their camera's not. The camera's not on, you lose points. You get 10 points a day for attendance, okay? So you lose those 10, and that becomes. If that becomes 70% of your grade, you're going to have your camera on. You're going to be present, okay? So you set the context, okay? You set that context properly. All right? All right. So don't let the energy die. Be a little bit outrageous and have a good time and get them to be a little bit outrageous. Play games with them, have them dress funny. All kinds of things that you can do, okay? Be amazing.