Ep 169 When to Use Slides in a Presentation - Public Speaking June 17, 2016

So when should you use slides when giving a presentation?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public, to the media, at work and in life Speaking with TJ Walker.

So when should you use slides? What's the decision process that you should use when trying to decide whether to use a slide or not in your PowerPoint or your keynote presentation? Let me start off with the affirmative and tell you exactly the positive reason to do it. You should use a slide if and when you've come up with a visual, an image that is not text based that will make your idea more memorable and more understandable than you simply saying it. That's right. People need to understand your idea better than if you just said it out loud, and they need to remember your idea better than if you just said it out loud. If you can say yes to both of those things, then use slide. If you can't say yes to both of those things, don't use the slides. I fundamentally believe that's all you really need to think about when trying to decide whether to use slides or not. Unfortunately, people put in all sorts of other questions, issues and thought processes into this before deciding whether to use slides. More on some of those issues in a moment.

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Unfortunately, there are a lot of horrible reasons to either use slides or not use slides. One thing I hear from my clients all the time is oh tj I don't need slides. I've got it. Well guess what? The slides aren't for you. You should never ever ever use PowerPoint slides for yourself as a speaker to figure out what to say or where to go next. Your slides are entirely for your audience. They are not for you. If you need notes, then use a good old fashioned piece of paper, preferably with large font doubled over. That's for you. Or if you want to use a screen, I don't recommend that some people do it. TED and other conferences teleprompters. That's not for people who are lazy and want to save time. It actually takes more time to use a teleprompter. But what happens unfortunately is a lot of people use their PowerPoint slides as the poor man's, the poor woman's teleprompter. Horrible idea so you don't want to avoid using slides because you don't need it because they're not for you. You also don't want to use slides because you need it and you need something to keep you on track. Horrible, horrible reason. Let's look at other reasons people use PowerPoint slides. Well, it was created and the staff created it, and we've spent $82,000 in billable time on graphic arts, so I have to use it. Well, guess what? No, you don't. You don't have to use something because of sunk cost. The only thing that you should be thinking about when you're using slides is will this literally help my audience? Will it help them understand the idea more and will it help them remember the idea? That should be your guiding thought process. So it's not a way of segmenting your presentation. It's not a way of building your brand identity with your logo. I've never yet met an audience member saying, oh, I really enjoyed that speech. And I definitely have a much better sense of IBM now because I saw the IBM logo and I'm just picking on them arbitrarily. So no, don't. It's not an opportunity for you to build your brand with your logo. The number one way to build your brand when giving a presentation is to actually get a great presentation that's useful and memorable, by the way. So that's not why you want to use slides. Some people want to put a question mark at the end. Oh, any questions? Well, putting a question mark up on a slide is a stupid waste of time. It doesn't make it more obvious to people that you're going to take questions now because you've just told them, I'll take your questions now. So it serves no purpose. It's a complete, utter waste of time. Now let me give you an example. And since this is mostly most of the audience is on the audio podcast side things, I'm not going to put up an image now. I'm simply going to tell you about it. But when I'm giving one of my presentations on how to give a successful presentation, one of my five key points, and I am a big believer that you can only have five key points, is that you should practice your presentation on video until you're happy with how it looks and you don't need a big fancy studio and you don't need to hire me and fly me in from the other side of the world and spend tens of thousands of dollars, although that can be a nice thing for all of us. All you really need to do is you could be in your bedroom or hotel room, sitting on a chair or a bed, holding your own cell phone, talking to it, practicing it. It's simple, requires zero extra budget, really doesn't require that much time. So I use a PowerPoint slide to reinforce that the slide is not my brand, image, logo, it's not slick graphics. The color isn't particularly impressive. I don't have bullet points of, remember, key point practice on video? No, it's simply a picture of me not looking very flattering, sort of dressed like a slob at home, holding my cell phone, talking to my cell phone. Is it going to win Awards in PowerPoint slide graphics competitions? No. But when I ask people what do they remember after I've given a presentation, they typically tell me, oh, I really remembered I've got a practice on video. And if I say, oh, what slides you remember? They'll actually say, oh, yeah, there's that sort of goofy, funny slide looking awkward. And you're holding a cell phone and you're obviously recording it on video. So is that a good slide? Not in terms of graphics. Not in terms of anything that's going to win Awards at PowerPoint graphics competitions. But does it make people understand my message more of it's important to practice on video? Yes. Does it make them remember my message of it's important to practice your speech more by practicing on video? Yes. That's why it works. That's why, in my opinion, it's a fantastic slide, because it accomplishes those two goals and I gave thought to it. It wasn't just a transition. It wasn't just a minor point, like trying not to say too many ums and ahs, which, by the way, I think is a very minor point, unless you're saying thousands of them. It was really thought about. I focused on, this is one of the top five ideas I have to have people remember. You know another one that's really important that I stress again and again and again is the importance of narrowing your message down to your top five points. Don't be greedy. Not five per slide. It's not 50 or 100 in the whole presentation. It's not tell people everything you know. It's literally narrow down things to your top five ideas. So what do I do to drive that home visually? When I'm using a PowerPoint slide, I actually just have a picture of my own hand. Not great photography, not the best lighting, but I set it up with, how many ideas should you try to convey in your next presentation? And I put up the slide of the five again. It's not going to win any awards at graphic arts competitions, but people understand the idea and it just drives it home even further. Now, another reason, and I'm ashamed to say I'm guilty of this Next bad excuse. One of the excuses people use for not using slides is they're lazy. It's like, I don't really want to bother coming up with images. That's a horrible excuse. I will confess that I've been guilty of that in the past. I've rationalized it of well, I want to show people how good a speaker I am on my own and not use gimmicks and technology. You know what I was rationalizing? I do have, in fact, images that help people understand messages more and I use them. Doesn't mean I'm not willing to give a speech without it. But if it's something I can plan, something I can use, I should do it and so should you. So that's my advice to you, really give thought to how do you help your audience? The most great speakers are focused on on what's helpful and useful and memorable and easy for the audience, not what's easy for them as the speaker. Do that and you will make a wise decision regarding slides every time. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me as always. May all of your presentations in life be a huge success. Hope to see you tomorrow.

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