Ep. 39 How To Be Unforgettable Using Captivating Customized Images

Hey there, Mark Brown. It was about three years ago. I was presenting in Oregon. I was pretty confident, I was pretty comfortable. I was my normal passion itself. With great intention for the audience. And our mutual friend, marketing guru Kathy Armillas, who I had just met, came up to me and said, you know, you're amazing, but your visuals are horrible. They don't match your brand. I was like, what my brand? I didn't even know what that was. And she forced me out of kindness and in love and with the right intention to revisit what my brand image was on the screen. And Mark, you remember we interviewed Mark camp who invested $10,000 in his slides, which is incredible, which most people will not do that. And you don't have to invest that much, but you do have to take inventory on are images, helping you tell your story in an unforgettable way.

You're right, Darren. We must tell our stories with captivating, customized images.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcast with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time, stage time, stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation. Ahas. Let's dive right in.

Oh, Mark. Check, check, check, check, check. Check your visuals. Check, check, check, check your visuals.

All right, nothing hurts. Well, other things hurt. But when you're told your visuals kind of suck, it gives you an instant wake up call. And believe me, I'm thankful for all those webmasters and friends and marketing experts who have loved on us and given us guidance to help us create captivating images.

Yeah, it's just so important and I think sometimes people just think, okay, well I've got an image. It's about what I'm talking about or, you know, one of our pet peeves. My pet peeve that just, you know, the only thing worse than saying the word gesture to me is using cliche clip art. It's just so painful. And if you're listening to this, we know you're serious because you're listening to the Unforgettable Presentations podcast. So we appreciate that you're looking, looking for some new insights, ways to upgrade what you're doing and this is one of those ones. Seriously, we're going to ask you to step back and take inventory. And is there, are there ways for you to upgrade your images to Tell your story in a more captivating, compelling way.

I got to confess, Darren, for me, very early on, and I'm sure for many other speakers as well, it's the convenience of doing a quick Google search. Click on the word images and Images show up in zero 0.15983726 seconds. Thank you, Google. And it's very convenient to find one that works for you. And I freely confess, guilty until I found someone who could help me with customizing my images. And the excuse is. Sorry. The reason we give is the convenience, the speed, the facility. We're all in a rush, we're all under deadlines, we want to get a new thing going and we find a really cool image, that somebody has a really good picture. I could never take myself let just. You're laughing already.

Yeah. And it's illegal, as Patricia Fripp says, someone owns everything, so it's owned by someone. And our friend Ed Tate, we talked about this with him, that one of his well meaning assistants went and got an image, put it on his website and some of the web, the smart, savvy image, people who have theirs out there that other people grab, there's an embedded cod. And so he found out it was this big battle and he ended up bringing it down and it cost him $700 for a mistake. Now that is online, but they can't go into your PowerPoint or keynote presentation when you're doing a live presentation. But even more importantly, how does it make you look? Well, if it's clip art, there was a day when Clipart was cool. Those days are long ago.

Maybe the previous millennium, I don't know. You're right, Darren, because when Ed told us that, he negotiated the cost down to 700. And the thing is, he said he wasn't even aware it was there because he had entrusted the website to his.

Webmaster and he didn't even like it.

What's that doing there? Ed and Darren and I kind of chuckle about this now, but in a very serious way that could have cost him a lot of money out of ignorance, not saying that he was being a bad person or he was being pilfering or plagiarizing. And the assumption that many of us make is if it's out there in Google and it's Clipart, it's available to anyone to use and we need to be aware, as Darren said, as you said, that's not really the case. It is not legal to just take an image off the web and just use it. Even though, quote unquote everybody does it.

Yeah. And there's legal ways to do that. There's Getty Images, unsplash. There are a lot of sources that you can do that legally and so can everybody else. Use that same image that's not yours. Put on your big boy, big girl pants. It's time for you to own your images or have them created for you or pay a photographer to get your own. What?

Well, you see, Darian, what just occurred to me, not just occurred to me, but as a speaker put it to you this way, just pulling an image off the Internet that's commonly used or that meets your needs is not very different from telling a joke in a conference that somebody else tells later on the same conference. And trust me, it has happened to me. And wow, we both have egg on our faces. There's not much difference. We don't think about it in those terms. I'm a speaker, I'll tell my own jokes. I'll use a great one liner. It's the same thing when you copy and use somebody's image that's on clipart or on the Internet. So simply put, don't, don't, don't. I say one more time, please don't do it that way. As Darren says, you can bring your own camera, take your own images or pay someone to customize them for you. And we'll talk a bit about that today and why it's important to do it and how you can do it.

It's scary.

Uh, oh yeah. A boy with his toys.

Yeah. When I see them, I mean, my brain just goes, if you're a pro or an emerging pro, you're better than that. You're better than that. And I get it, we're all in a certain level, trying for the next level. But we're asking you to please let go of clip art of even the Getty images. Now, if there's a reason, okay, maybe you have a reason. But ask yourself, check, check, check, check. Is it a reason or an excuse? Right now? Photographers are dying for work, right? They don't even have to come to you. Look, I'm guilty of this in the old days myself, but I also am guilty recently that I need to upgrade my images. So I did a photo shoot, hired somebody to do custom branding images for me recently, Mark, you know, we brought her to the event and it just, all of a sudden, even my team was like, wow, that's great. That's not the same thing you've been using forever. So Mark, let's just have a conversation. Maybe A little checklist rather than a whole strategy and everything. Just like some things that they need to check on and the. Why. Why do they need to. And Mark, the first thing that I want to bring up was when Kathy held that up and showed me the mirror and I looked at it, I was like, ugh. You know, I felt like, yeah, my slides are from the 90s, all right, 80s, 80s, 80s. But the truth of the matter is, like when you're rebranding. When I was doing that because of that insight, I understood that when I hired somebody to create my slides, they didn't have to create 100 slides. There was just like five or seven basic slide templates that I could just add to that were branded with my colors, my image. And so you don't need a ton of them, but just a few slides. Hire somebody, get a friend who's got some skills in that area. But just as far as giving you those basic template slides, look, you need a title slide, that slide that every time you start your new program, you have three keynotes. Well, you should have three different title slides. Your points of wisdom slide, what are those sub points that you're making? And then all the other evidence to back it up. That would be what I call a content slide. So that holds your bullet points and it may have the point of wisdom at the top subtly just to remind the audience where they are. You might have a quote slide whenever you're quoting someone or when your co presenters or maybe a mentor some quote that meant something to you or was a game changer for you. So when they see that slide, you're almost training your audience. Here's a quote, here's a quote. But your quote slide needs to look different than your content slide. Maybe a list slide whenever you have a list. So I have a basic list slide and then just a plain white slide with a subtle logo or branding on it. And then we'll talk about my other favorite, which was a game changer and so simple. But just have those branded slides now you add your content to it as opposed to, you know, it doesn't. It's not a lot to have five slides made, but get a pro to help you. If you can't afford a pro, afford a pro. Or find a talented friend who knows what they're doing and look at some other people and what they're using. Ask some friends for advice, get some samples to model.

Well, Darren, you mentioned friends or a pro. What are your thoughts on using a service like maybe fiverr.com where you find Someone there who can create for you based upon your. Your style or. Or your requirements. I know you've often mentioned to people that they have used Fiverr or some use a program called Upwork and they get people who can help them that way. What are your thoughts on that?

Or 99designs. It's a great way to go. Do something, Just upgrade your image. It pains me when I see pros. We have some friends who are amazing presenters, but their slides haven't caught up to their talent. And I love. When Mark Camp, in an earlier episode, was talking about he invested 10,000 in slides. And then at the end of his program, I love this wisdom. The end of his program, he started hearing, wow, your slides are amazing. Your slides are amazing. And. And nobody mentioned his content. And then he realized he had to upgrade his content. That's great. That's okay. Now you both have been upgraded, one inspired by the other, but it's a conscious choice. And so we've got to always be upgrading our images. But we're going to talk not just about those slides and branding. That's just one tiny little aspect. We actually want to go deeper and talk about more custom, personalized ideas.

Yeah, I think it's important to understand that when you say personalize and customize, the audience will remember you because it's your presentation, your brand, your images, and you have customized them. And if they see that image anywhere, they'll go, ah, that's Darren Lacroix. Ah, that's Mark Brown. Ah, that speaker who is now listening to our podcast. It's also a way for your audience to remember you, to call back to you. And who knows, it may even reflect for you for another gig.

Well, even Mark, when we're doing webinars, your custom background that Cynthia Leigh made for you, which goes with your website. So if I go to your website and I see you and I see your custom visual background, virtual background behind you, like, that's you, that's your brand. And when we're passionate, when we're an expert, when we bring our expertise to something, it's connected to that image. So now that brand, that's what a brand is. That brand is now transferred when they see something else. So if your content's high quality, they recognize your brand, Your content's high quality, they recognize your brand. Your content's awesome. They recognize your brand. Now whenever they recognize your brand, they're going to feel think awesome.

Which means back to Mark Camp. You got to make sure your content is commensurate with your brand. And that they both, they both give the audience a positive memory of you and what you've got to offer. I know. One big word a day. That's it. I'm done.

Seriously, that one I gotta go look up. Alright, so just number one, have your template slides. Upgrade them if you need to. Make sure you have a brand palette that they're going along with your brand colors. Like, Mark, your background goes with your website, goes with your other visuals. So that's awesome. That's the intent of the brand. Now let's go to my super magic simple one that when Kathy told me about, I was like, what? Whenever you have, say, a custom image, a picture that is from your past or just any visual, here's the key. It's so simple. Put it on a plain black slide. I call it your black ground.

Oh, nice.

Your background, your background, your background is black. And. And what's powerful? It seems so simple and it's almost like I feel guilty that I don't have to work harder at it. But I remember Mark, on our last virtual presentations workshop, we showed this to Ed and he's like, whoa. Wow. And then he just went back for our next one and I saw him doing that to all of his. It's simple, but what it does is it makes it pop. And it's not like, let's just say a lot of my slides are blue because that's my brand color. It's not putting an image on the blue that's not as powerful as the plain black ground. To have your image stand out and so simple, so powerful. But yet what is it doing? It's bringing the image to the forefront instead of making it look semi cheesy because it's on a white slide or a blue slide or whatever color slide. It's just plain black.

We love that. Yeah. It's a simple way to let it stand out and there's no other distractions. That's a really good idea and I recommend, just try, go to your computer, put an image up there, put a black background and compare that to what you currently have. You just might be surprised.

Yeah. All right. One of the other ideas or concepts. So that's number one. So branded slides, first, Second, use a black ground. This may seem obvious, but in our humor Bootcamp, I use this and it's crop it for impact. Crop it for impact. Now, everyone understands you can crop a slide, but have you taken the time to sit back and actually crop it? What else is there that we could actually. That's a distraction. It might have been there in the moment, but it becomes a distraction. So, Mark, last year when I was in India, I went to Mother's house, Mother Teresa. And right outside, there were some armed guards. And I just. They were just sitting there. They were bored, and I decided to have fun with them. So I had our friend Honey, who was there with me, taking me on the tour, take this picture. And it's a picture of these guards, and I was just goofing around with them, and I cracked them up, and I was like, ooh, this is cool. And then I cropped it, and all of a sudden it became funnier because you could see more of my facial expression. You could see more of them laughing. And it got rid of a lot of the extra. Extraneous.

Yes.

Is that the word? Extraneous background that could cause us to focus on that rather than the intention of this one slide. This one image. So I actually, in the humor bootcamp, I show A, which shows a whole picture, B, which is super hyper focused. And I want to still see the body language because that was part of it. So we got to think, what is it that gets the humor across in this photo? And then I would go, A or B, A or B, A or B, and everyone would say, B, which is the one that was cropped for impact. So I ask you to go back to your images that you use and ask yourself, could I crop it a little bit? Is there anything to show? Distracting, simple, powerful. But it's your presentation and it's your story.

Yeah. Many of us, you know, we do our own photographs or group pictures, and we crop people out for various reasons. Maybe I'm no longer dating him. I'll crop his butt out of my picture, which happens also, too. Or we see something in the background that's kind of weird. And we crop our photographs on our mobile devices, on our iPads, and we laugh about it. But if you ask the one question, why am I going to crop this? Why did I take that person out? Because you thought didn't belong there or didn't fit in the same way. Look at the visuals you're going to use for a presentation and the impact it could have on your audience members if you crop out that which distracts and leave in the items or the images or the parts of the images upon which you want them to focus. Because like zoom, zooming in, it's like giving laser focus to key components of the image. And that actually helps you to give laser focus and pinpoint the key elements of the point you want to make from the photograph. It's a really simple concept. And as Darren said, step back, look at them. Ask yourself from the vantage point of your audience member, what are they seeing? What are they receiving? What are they interpreting? If you think like they do, you might be surprised how effectively you can crop your images as well.

All right, next on our little checklist, is there emotion in the image? Is there emotion in the image? If you go back to our very first podcast episodes, you see that our image, our branded image of unforgettable presentations podcast is me and Mark. Me and Mark. And we both have white backgrounds, so it was easy for the person who put it together to make us. Us look like we're shoulder to shoulder, and it's us. The photos are professional. They're clean, they're crisp, and it worked. And now it's time to upgrade. So if you got something that works, that's fine. Are you asking. Resolve to evolve. Resolve to evolve. So when, Mark, when you remember when you and I did the photo shoot recently, we just. We sat around, we had this professional photo, photographer, Camilla, and she sat there and she posed us. We joked around, we laughed, and she just. Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap. Hundreds of pictures were taken, but there was one great one of you and I just sitting there on the couch. Sitting on there in the two chairs facing each other, actually. And we were just having a good time. But there was so much emotion in the photo that it just spoke. It spoke volumes. It spoke about our relationship, if you are willing to admit it, but.

Oh, Darren, go ahead.

And then when we looked at the images, great. But then in between us, there was this pottery and this plant or something coming up out of the pottery. So we talked to our friend Gina Zappala. You call her. What's your nickname for her?

Oh, yeah, Gizmo.

Gizmo. And she took that image, she removed that image of the pottery in the plant, and boom. It then almost. It was almost like cropping it. It made it closer. It made it less distracting in the background. So find that person. Hire that person who's the Photoshop expert. They can not just take your photo and enhance the coloring and the shading. Look, this is your image. Why would you not not do this? We're judging you whether we like it or not, whether we're even conscious of it or not. So take them time. Look at. Maybe you need to upgrade some of your images or some of your photos, but is there some emotion in the photo?

And the thing is, Darren, also, when you use your own Customized and personalized images. You are emotionally connected because it's your image, it's your brand, it's your people, it's your scene, it's your home. It's personal to you. And when it's personal to you with that emotional connection, it's that much more helpful to you as part of your presentation because you are connected to it, an authenticity about it. It's part of who you are. And that almost subconsciously, it prompts you to present with greater passion, because that's mine. That's who I am. I'm revealing a part of myself to my audience. And that also enhances your relationship, relationship with your audience. Do not discount the value of the personal image with giving the audience a chance to get to know who you are, what you represent and who you are. Like, it's not just about what you say, it's who you are because you want to build an audience relationship.

We deliver better when we're looking at our own photo because we're emotionally connected to it. So what it does, it also brings us back. It brings us, us back to that moment. If we're reliving a story or we're reliving a moment in our life, so we're better at delivering. Like, you can't discount that. That is critical. And I've never, ever, Mark, been emotionally connected to Clipart.

Really? I'm shocked. Darren Lacroix. Now, people know Darren. Darren prepares well for every presentation locally, internationally. He has a set list of things to bring with him. And he has always, in my memory, always carried a recording device and his camera and his camera phone, because Darren is a bit of a shutterbug. And having traveled internationally with him, I can verify that. But you know what? I look at Darren's images in his presentations. I'm telling you, he will use images that he takes. And he and I have been to so many places together. And it's always snap, snap, snap. And invariably these are the images and the videos that make their way into his presentations, into our presentation, because they are ours. They are what we experience on our own. And we can tell better personal stories that connect us to our audience and our material if we use customized, personalized images. Darren, I gotta ask you, where did that idea first come from in your head? Just capture it and use it. Was that just, just because you got smacked in the head over your bad Clipart or what?

Well, actually, I had used images before, but I didn't really understand its purpose and its power. Ooh, that was good, Mark. I just noticed that myself. That was good.

Very good.

I'll write that down when I go back to telling my story of chump to champ. So after I had won the world championship and I started speaking around the world to Toastmasters groups, I think started realizing that a few things were happening. That, number one, I was trying to convince people that the power of stage time. Stage time, Stage time, Stage time. And when I thought about it, I realized, how can I show my importance? So a lot of times a great image starts with a great question in terms of what am I trying to get across? What am I trying to get across? When you. When you do that, when you ask that, then you look at, okay, what image could help me tell the story? So when I talked about stage time, stage time, stage time, I realized, hey, my license plate in Las Vegas says stage time. I never want to forget the one habit that brought me to where I am today. And so I can tell you about my license plate, but when I sit back and show you my license plate, it then, I believe, creates a more deeply impacted memory peg in the audience's mind of the importance of it. So if you're familiar with the Patricia Fripp speech model that we talk about, it takes one of the points of wisdom, and it becomes one of the pieces of evidence that helps my visual learners get the impact of that. But I think one of the most inciting personal custom images that I've been using for the longest time was when I get in front of an audience and I try to really teach them what I learned the hard way. This is what I said. I said, look, I show a picture, an image of me holding the trophy, a picture my mom took. Okay? So my mom took this picture of me holding the trophy. So I'm now more emotionally connected to this because my mother took it. So because of that, I say, you know, look, I understand I've met a lot of people around the world who are jealous of the trophy. I get that. I understand I was jealous of the men and the three women who had won before me since 1938. But in all my travels, I've never, ever met anyone jealous of my closet. And I show a picture of a closet full of VHS videotapes, of speeches I've given and have gone back and studied. So this is a visual that represents the work and effort behind it. So I can tell them to record themselves all they want, but when I show them an image connected to me, that's true. I didn't make this up. I didn't arrange the Closet. I didn't go and buy VHS videotapes to try and impress someone. This was really my closet. But when I show that image, I can almost hear the wow in the audience's mind because it reinforces like, don't be jealous of the end result. Be jealous of the work ethic that got me there. And so one of the habits I would teach is record yourself every time. I can tell them all day. And I have a joke about that, and I say, I know you're sitting there thinking, I don't want to record myself. I hate to listen. Well, guess what? We had to listen. You should be forced to listen. And so then I show those visuals. So the point is that that visual from my own closet is like a powerful representation of the habit, but it's mine. Unless somebody steals it. But then, you know, but then even if they steal it, they're not as emotionally connected to that image as I am.

Yeah, the old saying is, a picture is worth a thousand words. As you said, Darren, you can talk about the work you put in to watch all these 10 years of contests, and back in the day, it was VHS. It wasn't just a DVD or a YouTube video. You had to go and get the VHS and everything. And the picture shows us it provides actually evidence to the amount of work he was willing to put in. It's not just a cute image, it's actually evidence to support and prove the work he did. Right. And you can see there, it's a gazillion VHS videotapes. Forget books. This is just videotapes. Think about the impact of an image of yours that showed the work you may have put in, showed the emotional strain you were under, showed the bond of love you have with your family. Whatever your topic may be, if the image not just be cute, but serves a direct purpose to reinforce your message, chances are, as Darren says, for those who are the visual learners, that's what they're going to remember about your experience, your life, your struggle, your triumph, whatever your topic may be. It's therefore connected to you because that particular image of that bookshelf with those videotapes, that. That is a Darren Lacroix image. And the connection is continually and forever made. That's what he did to get his trophy. What am I willing to do? And in the same way, when you use a customized, captivating image, the audience connects the point of the image to you personally, and you are forever linked to that image. Do you want to be linked to a piece of clip art?

Methinks not Karen, there are some images that you could create for fun to emphasize a point. So a lot of people mark you and I when we're speaking to toastmasters around the world, but I use this, by the way, for NSA professional speakers as well, is I say, so many people want that trophy. And I'm trying. So I'm intentional. It's not just for fun, for the sake of fun, intentional humor, or as Craig says, detour. Free humor, organic humor. I say, you know, look, if you want a trophy, buy one. I show an image. I went to a trophy shop near me, and I said, hey, can I take a quick picture? And I just was in this aisle surrounded by trophies, and I took a picture, and I'm. I have this expression on my face. Huh? You know, here you go. If you want a trophy, buy one. It's easier. It's $35. Well, what I'm trying to do is get the. The audience to step back and say, what am I really doing this for? Is it for the trophy? Because if it is, 35 bucks saves you a lot of frustration.

You can use images in simple ways as well. You know, Darren and I do webinars quite frequently. We have people sign up from all over the world who don't know us. And part of what we do is we tell our story very, very briefly, but to give our audience background on us. And to many people, my story is un. Unique because I was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. But I have a fairly grainy image of the house my father had built in 1965, the house I grew up in. And that one simple image of that house gives the audience a picture of who he was. I could have said, I grew up in a house in Jamaica and get some kind of clip of it, Some Rastafarian yaman with dreadlocks, which are not be genuine. But the photograph I show is the house I grew up in in Kingston in the 1960s and 1970s. And so I talk about my being a soccer player in high school. I show the image of me with actual hair on my head when I was playing ball in high school, when I was a student leader. And within, literally within two minutes, the audience begins to feel some kind of understanding and connection to this kid who grew up in Jamaica. And when, you know, we go through and show my high school pictures and what my classmates say about me, all these little personalized images show me as I was then. And the audience begins to understand, man, this guy's life must have been interesting. It's not meant to Say, look how great I am, but simply give you an idea of my life, my history, what I've been through, my background. And guess what? In fewer than three minutes, the audience gets to know me a little bit better. We establish a relationship better. And in the smallest and simplest of ways, the audience says, you know what? I can relate. And Darren doubles down with his sob story of being on the bench playing football. But that's another story for another time. Yeah, go. My point being your personal story and your images about your life give you a better connection to your audience. Yes, Darren, go ahead, buddy.

Yeah, Think of your backstory, too. So one of the reasons we use Mark's yearbook image is because it says in his yearbook that he was always seen in the center of a crowd relating one of his experience to listeners. His listeners have to make sure they have their dictionaries with them for frequent consultations. So this helps us on so many levels because we're telling the story of. Mark was a natural born teacher, but he still needed a mentor. I was the listener who needed the dictionary because no one spoke to, you know, no one said, ooh, let's listen to Darren. Like, that wasn't me. I was the quiet, shy kid. So when we're telling our stories, we show Mark his background because it sets up our point. It's not just for the sake of using a yearbook photo. Mark. I remember back in the. I think it was the late 90s, like, every NSAER was showing a picture of their family. It was like the thing to do, but we gotta remember the intention. Why? So there's gotta be that purpose behind all of your images to again help you tell your story. It brings it to life. It helps it go deeper. We gotta think of that. Why? I know Mark. I don't want to use names, but we had someone speak at my NSA chapter. So this could have been in the past two decades. But they showed these images and they were trying to talk about lifestyle, and they were talking about, they've been here in the world, and they're in the world, and they're in the world. Okay, I accept that you made your point. You showed these exotic places, and then they showed more and more and more and more and more. And now I felt like I was watching a slideshow of vacations with my mom and dad in the living room with the slide projector. Now it's like, okay, but why 32? You made your point in three. Got it. No problem. But then they belabored the point. It was almost like a deep insecurity or something. And to me, it was just. It discredited the presenter because of the why now? They might be rich and famous and making millions, but now in my mind, I wonder, because why not you have this privilege of our time. Why not teach us? You made your point. Now you're belaboring it and your cred is going down.

Yeah. And we run the risk in a scenario like that. Please hear me carefully. We run the risk of giving our audience the impression that we really have nothing much to say. So ask yourself, why do I use these visuals? Why do I use this many visuals? And what is my intent behind using the visuals? Again, it can be a wonderful tool. We have to be careful. They aren't a wonderful crutch. They can be a wonderful tool, but don't make them a wonderful crutch to compensate or to cover over your lack of meat. I shouldn't say meat for the vegans, your lack of content. So be very, very careful. Do the images complement my content or do they overtake my content? Do my images complement my content or do they overtake my content? And can they be seen as a crutch rather than a tool? That's self. That's introspection. Here I gotta check myself. We must all check ourselves because the images can be powerful as tools, but not overused as crutches. Darren.

Yeah, it's like, what's your purpose? What's your meaning for being there? And Mark, I think one of the other powerful images that, you know, some people use, but I want to make sure everyone understands why it's so powerful. Mark, you do this when you talk about the gentleman who wasn't looking at the lens where you do phone text captures, or if you're talking testimonials, you can tell me someone said this, but when you show me the words on an image or you show me an image of their Facebook post that I know it was posted on Facebook. That's not me. A private email that's telling the world that has even more street cred. But, Mark, talk about the text slide images that you use. Again, talking about the story about the man who was looking at the images on his iPad, not the camera lens.

Yeah. I had a buddy of mine, we were talking about the power of using looking at the camera, doing a virtual presentation. I had a friend of mine who was doing a Q and A live on Facebook with a host, and I'll call the host, Jim, and I noticed that he never looked at the camera lens. And I sent him a text saying, hey, man, you didn't look at the camera. You felt like you weren't talking to us. And in our exchange, he says, I'm not sure I could have done. I was looking directly at my iPad, making sure I look right at Jim, who's on the iPad. And he said, thank you for the constructive criticism. But the point I was making is that many of us don't realize the camera on the iPad is not in the middle of the screen. I said, that's not where the camera lives. And this is a common mistake most people make. The camera is a little dot in the corner of the iPad. And I told him about that, and I used that. I sent him a screenshot of an iPad real quickly to show what a camera lens was, because it was helpful, and that image was powerful. And so many people say, you know what? I didn't realize that, Mark. Yeah, I got to look at that dot on my iPad. It's so counterintuitive, but it's so important. And I use the image to reinforce the lesson I was teaching. And so many people got in. Our workshop are going, wow, Yeah, I got to find a way to fix that. And then we doubled down. You also use images to show ways that we can fix that problem as a means of educating and teaching our audience members. Yeah.

Mary Lou Avezino, she sent us an image where she took a picture of a person right cut off right below the nose, and we see the eyes, and she pasted it. She cut a little hole in the nose and put the lens right there and pasted it on her computer. I was like, that's genius. That's powerful. So I could tell you about it, but when you see it, it lands much more deeply. Yeah. This is just so important. Screenshots. Screenshots are your friend when you're teaching zoom. Zoom's the thing. Now, where's the button for gallery view? Speaker view? How do you pin? How do you rename? So at the beginning of our virtual presentations workshop, we literally train people. How do we do it? We show them the screenshots with arrows clearly pointed out to make sure they understand. The whole point of custom visuals is to tell your story better, make it simpler and clearer. So our audience walks away enlightened. Now, Mark, I just have to bring this up. You know, I can't give a presentation without talking about. Thank you slides. All right, this. This is more. In the corporate world, when I spoke to a bunch of executives at Wells Fargo and their treasury division, I had so much fun. It was awesome. And I showed them and I explained why. Like, you need a slide to help you say thank you. Why not just shut off the slide and say thank you? It's still a horrible close. Still a horrible close. Still your last words linger. Don't let it be thank you. Oh, I'm polite. No call to action, foundational phrase, whatever you're doing at the end. And every time I did that, because I did it at several conferences of theirs, people would come up, like, in secret, like a drug deal was going down. Hey, thanks. I just went out and I cut out all my thank you slides because they were presenting later in the day. Again. What's the intention? Your intention is to say thank you. That's polite. It's so much more powerful to shut off the slide and say it. So that is one of those images that takes away from your credibility and your connection. So get rid of the thank you slides. If you're a corporate presenter, we understand you were trained that way. You saw a billion others your whole corporate life. Let it go, let it go, let it go.

You'll be frozen in time.

Nice job. There you go, Mark. You got it. You got it.

Flown by today, man. This is great. Yeah.

So, Mark, I just think there's so much, but I think just taking the time. Hire a pro, get help. If you can't afford a pro, hire a talented friend. Bring a friend in, bake them a cake, do something. But you gotta take inventory. It affects how your audiences receive your message. Upgrade whenever you can, get some new visuals created. We've got to constantly be doing that.

Yeah, and you mentioned getting a pro. It could be a friend who's a cartoonist or an artist. It could be an artist or a graphic artist. Anybody you know? I had a graphic artist do slides for me too, and it was not expensive. You could use fiverr.com. the point is, you need to work on upgrading and making sure your slides scream your name. And Darren, I got a couple of keepers real quick. I want to share. Do you mind?

Go ahead.

This one. Put your images on the black ground, as in the black background. Nice. I like that. A pun. Understand the purpose and the power of your images. You said that without even thinking. You had to understand the purpose and the power of your images. And a great image starts with a great question. I love this one. A great image starts with a great question. And use your images as a tool, not a crutch. Use your images as a tool, not a crutch. What do you got, Darren?

Well, I want to thank Cathy Armillas for enlightening me. I can never look at it the same way again. The downside is I'm a much more judgmental for other presenters, which is not good. But at the same time time it's a coach. It's how our brain is worked. So I will obviously keep my mouth shut a lot. But I hope Mark and I hope that this podcast has enlightened you and encouraged and inspired you to go check your images. And Mark, I gotta confess, I am a closet cropper. Literally and figuratively. I cropped my closet.

You did for the good of all.

But Mark Brown, thanks for being here. Thanks for taking the time to do this and helping other presenters be unforgettable friends.

Tell your story with captivating customized images and we'll see you on stage or online. We're out.

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