Join me as I talk with Eric Gallegos, a man of many professions and skills including producing the documentary Bite Size and is currently rocking it in San Francisco as Business Development Manager for inDinero a series A funded startup that creates software to help small businesses track and manage their finances.
My favorite of Eric’s skills and abilities is the uncanny ability to make any type of message come to life, and that’s exactly what we discuss on this episode.
We discuss some of the best strategies, tips and tricks to create compelling stories, pitches, and lectures from our experience and HBR’s Guide to Persuasive Presentations. If you are an entrepreneur or student looking to rock a presentation, then this is one episode you don’t want to miss.
I’ll be having Eric join me on future episodes as well, so if you have any questions, please post in the comments below.
As always, you can watch, read, or deep dive into this week’s Cliff’s Notes.
Enjoy!
Eric’s References
Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Cliff’s Notes – HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations
- People in audience came to see what you can do for them, not what they can do for you
- Anticipate resistance by raising and addressing concerns before they become mental roadblocks
- Amplify your message through contrast of what is and what could be, create tension/drama and resolve it
- Build an effective call to action, craft sound bites, apply storytelling, add emotional texture and metaphors
- Great presentations are short (60% of your allotted time)
- Persuade beyond the stage, fully immerse audience beyond the speech, before with email and social media, during with handouts, after with thank you notes, surveys, etc.
- One idea per slide they can get in 3 seconds or less, avoid clichés, have contrast, flow, white space, visualize info for them
- No such thing as over preparation, allows you to be more present during presentation
- Anticipate tech glitches, know AV person, bring backups of everything, test all equipment, play all media, use props, make stories come to life by re-experiencing them on stage
- Anticipate any and all questions from audience in preparation so won’t be stumped during Q&A
Deep Dive – HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations
- It’s in crafting and re-crafting your message and rehearsal that excellence happens
- Understand the audience’s power
- You’re not the star of the show, the audience is
- Stay humble in your approach
- Use their goals and desires as a filter for what you present
- Give the “why” it matters
- People in audience came to see what you can do for them
- Not what they must do for you
- Audience = hero; you = mentor
- Give hero special gift (insight)
- Teach them “magical” tool (new skill or mindset to enable them to reach their objectives and yours
- Help hero get “unstuck” or out of a difficult situation
- Segment the audience
- Decide which subgroup is most important to you and zero in on their needs
- Find ones who will have greatest impact on adoption of your ideas
- Some content that appeals to greater group but tailor to target
- Excitement, data, bring in “big shots”, catch up newbies in crash course
- Decide which subgroup is most important to you and zero in on their needs
- Present clearly and concisely to senior executives
- When present with senior executives:
- Long presentations with reveal at end won’t work
- Expect interruptions during presentation
- Get to the point in 5 mins or less
- Give them what they asked for
- Set expectations
- Executive summary slides
- Rehearse
- When present with senior executives:
- Get to know your audience
- What are they like? Why are they here, what keeps them up at night, how can you solve their problems, what do you want them to do (clear action step), how might they resist, how can you best reach them
- Research online
- People fall asleep because doesn’t feel conversational
- Define how you’ll change audience
- Before writing presentation: map audiences at beginning and end
- The end is whole point of presentation
- What views, beliefs, behavior do you want them to have
- How must their attitudes and emotions change
- Change doesn’t happen without a struggle
- Understand audience: demonstrate empathy for sacrifices they may need to make
- Before writing presentation: map audiences at beginning and end
- Find common ground
- Resonant frequency: object’s natural rate of vibration
- You can move people listening to you
- Find that common ground (what’s inside them is inside you) something they already believe
- Shared experiences, common goals, qualifications
- Resonant frequency: object’s natural rate of vibration
- Define your big idea
- 1 key message that compels the audience to change course
- contains: your point of view (specific)
- contains: what’s at stake –> why the audience should care about your perspective
- complete sentence that has both a pain and rewards
- Generate content to support the big idea
- Use tactile tools like paper, white board, and sticky notes
- Generate as many ideas as possible
- Existing, building on existing, creating new content
- Brainstorm: alone (mind mapping), group (be kind), and again alone
- Go for quantity not quality at this point
- Anticipate resistance
- People will adamantly defend their own perspectives to avoid adopting yours
- Logical resistance (challenge from another line of reasoning)
- Emotional resistance
- Practical resistance: acknowledge sacrifice they’re making show you are too and how will all be better
- Raise and address concerns before they become mental roadblocks
- Ask key stakeholder for a reality check before presenting
- Amplify your message through contrast
- People are naturally drawn to contrast because life is filled with it
- Create tension between contrasting elements and resolve it
- People will adamantly defend their own perspectives to avoid adopting yours
- Build an effective call to action
- Make it clear and break down into distinct manageable tasks
- Doers, suppliers, influencers, innovators
- Make it clear and break down into distinct manageable tasks
- Choose your best ideas
- Convergent thinking now, time of divergent thinking over
- Organize your thoughts
- If people read just the titles, will they get what I’m saying?
- Clear and active titles
- If people read just the titles, will they get what I’m saying?
- Appeal to people’s minds and hearts
- No presentation should be without emotional content
- Emotion: pain and pleasure in some sort
- Tell personal stories with conviction and how they felt
- Lose the jargon
- Would grandma understand what I’m saying
- Craft sound bites
- Are your sound bites memorable? Will people share and discuss them
- Great quotes get picked up and repeated
- Rhythmic repetition: beginning, middle and end of presentation state same thing
- Concrete comparisons: metaphor/simile
- Slogan: concise and easy to remember statement
- Don’t deliver with lot of fanfare, make sound bite seem spontaneous
- Are your sound bites memorable? Will people share and discuss them
- Apply storytelling principles
- Stories provide most compelling platform
- Feature transformation: show others going through similar transformation that audience will go through
- Clear structure that’s easy to digest and retell
- Make sure your stories always have a clear beginning, middle and end with clear transitions
- Create a solid structure
- Create conflict by juxtaposing what is with what could be
- _what is_/–what could be
- Alternating between the 2 to provide small releases of tension, ultimately getting to where trying to be
- Stories provide most compelling platform
- Craft the beginning
- Begin by describing life as you and audience know
- Should be shaking head in agreement with what say=> create bond
- After introduce “what could be” little tension
- Present it naturally in story so people feel moved not manipulated
- Once established, remainder of presentation to bridge the two
- Begin by describing life as you and audience know
- Develop the middle
- In many ways most compelling part
- As move back and forth between is and could be, present is unappealing and could be is what audience begins to want
- Try using contrasting themes to hammer home even more
- Like reward/sacrifice theme
- Make the ending powerful
- About how blissful world will be when they adopt ideas
- Avoid ending with a list of actions
- Focus on moving your audience by defining future rewards and their efforts will be worth it
- Benefits to them, their “sphere,” the world
- About how blissful world will be when they adopt ideas
- Add emotional texture
- Do you have the right mix of analysis and emotions?
- If need more emotion, add stories
- What is –> stories that make people shudder or feel disappointed
- What could be –> a little awe, or fear in heart if don’t do
- Personal stories told with conviction: but appropriately dramatic
- Checklist of possible stories
- Important times in life, relatives, authority figures interacted with, peers, subordinates, enemies, important places to you, things you cherish, and things been hurt by
- If need more emotion, add stories
- Do you have the right mix of analysis and emotions?
- Use Metaphors as glue: powerful tools
- Find one to connect each point to audience’s mind
- Weave throughout presentation same metaphor
- Avoid overused themes (ex. Sports) and stock photos
- Draw from own life and pictures
- Find one to connect each point to audience’s mind
- Create something they’ll always remember (STAR moments)
- Drives things home
- Shocking stats: reinforce it by explaining in a unique way/contrast
- Evocative visuals: add contrasts for bonus
- Memorable dramatization
- Emotive anecdote: powerful story/prop
- Choose right vehicle for your message
- How people you’re addressing process info and what vehicle would be best way to reach them
- Audience + venue – formal/informal – staged/spontaneous
- Make the most of slide software
- Show audience only what they want to see, when they want to see it
- Create documents: PowerPoint can be good: slides as .pdf handout
- No one wants you to read your slides in presentation
- Use teleprompter notes
- Visualize ideas: that’s what it’s for
- Images, graphs, quotes to move things along
- Create documents: PowerPoint can be good: slides as .pdf handout
- Show audience only what they want to see, when they want to see it
- Determine right length for presentation
- Great presentations are short
- Plan for content being only 60% of your time (rest Q&A, panel, etc.)
- Trim slide deck
- Practice with timer counting up, trim, then down
- Find out what slide should be on for quarters to keep pace
- Have 2 endings
- You can drop rest if going over: make seem natural
- Executive summary of points and then rousing speeches
- You can drop rest if going over: make seem natural
- Great presentations are short
- Persuade beyond the stage
- Fully immerse audience beyond the speech itself
- More you interact, more likely will change people’s behaviors
- Before: email them list of points to cover
- Post your bio and pre-reading material
- During: handouts (print more that enough, recruit 2 extra volunteers)
- Tape secret messages under chair
- Color coded cards for feedback
- Prop like a prototype
- Post slides online
- After: thank you notes, survey, supplementary reading/viewing material
- Don’t overtly solicit audience, make seem like they’re getting more value and insights, worth their time
- Fully immerse audience beyond the speech itself
- Share the stage
- Audiences find monologues boring: have new things continually happen
- Bring in other presenters: experts, team members, etc.
- Mix up media; slides, posters, props, videos, humor, drawing
- Audiences find monologues boring: have new things continually happen
- Think like a designer
- Design driven portfolios trounced market
- Create slides people “get” in 3 seconds
- Audience can only process information from one stream at a time
- Make sure slides can be comprehended within 3 seconds or won’t hear what you say as they read them
- Start with clean surface, limit your text, arrange elements with care
- Co0ordinate visual elements: 1-2 typefaces max, and have photos in same style
- Audience can only process information from one stream at a time
- Choose the right type of slide
- Walk-in slide: when people enter the room: branding, image to set tone
- Title slide: information of talk
- Navigation slide: see where you are in the presentation (don’t put too much info)
- Bullet slide: don’t display all at once
- Big-word/quote slide: give attribution, for stunning effect
- Data slide: don’t overwhelm
- Diagram: show connections between ideas or illustrate processes
- Conceptual image, video
- walk out slide: call to action
- Story board: one idea per slide
- Sketch out and keep simple
- Put on post-it to limit idea and help clarify what want to say and how to say it
- Avoid visual clichés
- First image comes to mind usually the clichés think for creative ones
- Arrange slide elements with care
- Design principles to simplify slides
- Flow: placement of visuals impacting how eye travels
- Should go back and forth on slide once and be done absorbing info
- Contrast: focuses our attention
- Shape, size, color, proximity
- White space: feeling of luxury and higher value
- Hierarchy
- Unity: consistent style, color, and imagery
- Flow: placement of visuals impacting how eye travels
- Clarify the data
- Highlight what’s important
- Tell the truth
- Pick the right chart for they job
- Find narrative in the data: why, what, how
- Use concrete comparisons to express magnitude
- Turn words into diagrams (diagrammer.com)
- Network: hub and spokes, flare, ring
- Segment: doughnut and pie
- Joint: hook and overlap
- Flow: loop, parallel, linear, merge and divide
- Stack: vertical, horizontal, concentric
- Use the right number of slides
- No right answer: none to 2-3 per minute, really depends
- Know when to animate
- When things move eyes are drawn to them
- Apply judiciously like how things work, create contrast, looks natural and doesn’t annoy
- When things move eyes are drawn to them
- Design principles to simplify slides
- Sketch out and keep simple
- Rehearse your material well
- No such thing as over rehearsing: don’t memorize though
- Frees you up to be more present in presentation
- Leave plenty of time to
- Get honest feedback from speaker
- Printout slides and have them jot down what you said well, didn’t, etc.
- Prepare a short version just in case
- Fiddle with slides: refining images is form of rehearsal
- Rehearse: look for choppy transitions, inconsistent graphics and awkward builds
- Practice on camera for body language
- Know the venue and schedule
- Scope out room in advance
- Get info on
- Floor and seating plan
- Food plan (snacks, sit down meal, etc.)
- Show flow: what will order of events be
- Will you be introduced or do you need to prepare an intro
- Record: locate the cameras
- Anticipate tech glitches
- Often malfunctions: give self at least 30 minutes to setup
- Get to know the AV person
- Bring backups (of all equipment)
- Test all equipment
- Pre-record demos (in case bad internet connection)
- Test slide deck (click through all slides)
- Try out comfort monitors for visibility (teleprompters)
- Play all media
- Confirm projection (so don’t walk into light beam)
- Find out if people will attend remotely (what will they see)
- Manage your stage fright
- A little bit of fear can be good
- Don’t let it overwhelm you
- Quiet your mind: self critical part and internal chatter
- Breathe, laugh, visualize, remember audience’s flaws
- A little bit of fear can be good
- Set the right tone for the talk
- Critical to make positive first impression
- Pre-communication: thoughtful email with telling subject, agenda, and explicit about what audience will get
- Atmosphere: music, props, lighting, projected image à set the mood
- Appearance: suit up to address potential clients, casual for direct report to convey accessible
- Under-dress: I don’t respect you; overdress: I’m better than you
- Disposition: match the message
- Critical to make positive first impression
- Be yourself: open and sincere
- Audiences will be gracious if you are real
- Humility when you are big shot won’t win any fans
- Communicate with your body
- Project emotions with your face
- Before the talk, try moving all muscles in your face
- Peel yourself from the slides (avoid turning back on audience to look at slides)
- Open up your posture
- Exaggerate your movements and match gestures with content
- Project emotions with your face
- Communicate with your voice
- Flat delivery will bore audience
- Create contrast and emphasis through vocal variation
- Flat delivery will bore audience
- Make your stories come to life
- Re-experience your stories as you’re telling them
- Use sensory details to set the scene: paint a visual picture of all 5 senses
- Get the most out of Q&A: powerful way to address audience’s concerns AND drive your point home
- Plan when you’ll take questions
- If need to build a thorough case: at end, ask audience to hold questions
- If making a series of points: questions after each point when fresh in their mind
- Anticipating questions people will ask so won’t be stumped
- Listen empathetically for subtext
- Question/concern behind the question
- Admit when you don’t know something
- Keep a tight rein on tougher crowds
- Have moderator take microphone back after each question so audience member doesn’t barrage
- Address person and tough question but then turn to rest of audience as you answer to move on to next person
- Tell them limit 1 question so can get to more people
- Plant people with tough question others too scared to ask
- Have moderator take microphone back after each question so audience member doesn’t barrage
- Leave strong final impression
- Don’t end on Q&A, bring back to summary and rising call to action
- Plan when you’ll take questions
- Build trust with remote audience
- With video: eye contact and gestures, avoid looking down at camera (look condescending)
- Stand keep hand gestures tight to chest
- Without video: your voice is keyà stand up à vary volume, pitch and tone even more key
- With video: eye contact and gestures, avoid looking down at camera (look condescending)
- Keep remote listeners interested
- Webinar: most people multitask
- Try to break content into small bits and move through points quickly 20 seconds a slide
- Distraction of e-mailing and browsing internet biggest competitors
- Make presentation interactive
- Have them research something and post
- Take a survey that they want to know results of
- Reward participation with free thing
- Enjoy your own material: enthusiasm in voice (smile)
- Pause strategically: break into white noise will make more people pay attention to what’s coming next
- Picture your listeners: they are humans you’re talking to
- Post pictures of smiling family next to camera to remind you
- Keep your remote presentation running smoothly
- Provide clear instructions: how to register, login, software requirements
- Plan for tech snafus: contact info for technical questions
- Test your slides
- Start on time: login 30 mins in advance to be sure A/V works
- Reduce: personal noise (jewelry), environment noise (close door/fan), visual noise (desktop notifications), communal noise (mute listeners)
- Use facilitator to manage many of the details
- Never deliver a presentation you wouldn’t want to sit through
- Use social media to build relationships with audience
- Observe their behavior beforehand: what’s the group talking about and join in
- Provide a channel to communicate: hash tag
- Ask for their input: in your planning stages of presentation
- Spread and reinforce your ideas with social media
- Stream your presentation
- Time release messages and slides: craft slides with social media in mind
- Have a moderator post and moderate discussion
- Update you as you deliver so can address online Q&A
- Take photos and post immediately
- Repeat audience’s sentiment: reciprocity is currency
- Encourage live blogging of journalists
- Don’t be too overt: if try to force a twitter icon next to presentation, doesn’t get shared as much
- Be novel
- Gauge whether you’ve connected or not: gather feedback
- Back channel: moderator can text good questions
- Live audience: feedback is their body language like posture and facial expression
- Get them to laugh and clap
- Survey your audience
- Analyze sentiment and your reach
- Follow up after your talk
- Once you’ve won people over, help them implement by
- Encouraging them
- Removing roadblocks
- Providing additional insights
- Send personal notes: thank you’s and I’m sorry’s
- Email the audience: summarize big ideas, key points, call to actions, new bliss
- Be accessible: lunch or block off calendar for them to sign up
- Send materials promised
- Call or meet with individuals in person to listen to their concerns
- Book “next steps” meetings
- Present again
- Once you’ve won people over, help them implement by
- You’re not the star of the show, the audience is