WEBVTT - Don't read your slides

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>tip is that if you are giving a presentation, don't

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<v Speaker 1>read your slides. The only reason to have slides is

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<v Speaker 1>to show something visually beyond what you are saying. Every

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<v Speaker 1>meeting will be better if you keep this rule in mind.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip was inspired by Bill McGowan's new book, Speak Memorably.

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<v Speaker 1>McGowan is a communications coach. He teaches people from lots

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<v Speaker 1>of different walks of life how to present more effectively.

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<v Speaker 1>As you might imagine, a lot of speakers use PowerPoint,

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of people presenting at meetings use PowerPoint. There

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<v Speaker 1>is almost no getting away from Microsoft's presentation software, and

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<v Speaker 1>it does do some useful things. But you know what

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<v Speaker 1>PowerPoint isn't a script to be read from mcgwen uses

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<v Speaker 1>the phrase good PowerPoint hygiene, and a key part of

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<v Speaker 1>that is that you should not read your slides. There

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<v Speaker 1>is no quicker way to forfeit the engagement of the

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<v Speaker 1>audience than to narrate your deck. He says, the more

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<v Speaker 1>text you have on your slides, the less your audience

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<v Speaker 1>will listen to you. After all, they don't need to

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<v Speaker 1>if whatever you are going to say is written right

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<v Speaker 1>there on your slide. I suspect people do this narrating

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<v Speaker 1>their slides so they know what they should be saying.

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<v Speaker 1>They treat their slides as notes, But then why not

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<v Speaker 1>have notes? In most cases that is okay if you

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<v Speaker 1>are on a big conference stage giving a ted talk

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<v Speaker 1>or something that is different. But if that is the case,

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<v Speaker 1>I hope you know your material well enough that you

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<v Speaker 1>don't really need it written out word for word. Those

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<v Speaker 1>people shouldn't be reading their slides either. The purpose of

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<v Speaker 1>a slide is not to provide notes. It is to

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<v Speaker 1>show something visually that will reinforce the point you are making. Truly,

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<v Speaker 1>that is the only point of having slides. So you

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<v Speaker 1>could talk about boosting sales and then show a graph

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<v Speaker 1>where your sales are clearly going up. Or you can

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<v Speaker 1>talk about a confusing interface and then show a picture

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<v Speaker 1>highlighting exactly why it's confusing. Or you can show a

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<v Speaker 1>picture that illustrates your point that people are always looking

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<v Speaker 1>at their phones, because it is a photo of people

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<v Speaker 1>in front of the Grand Canyon and they are all

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<v Speaker 1>staring at their phones. Those are interesting slides. Your script,

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<v Speaker 1>on the other hand, is not an interesting slide. People

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<v Speaker 1>will glance at the words and then tune you out.

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<v Speaker 1>They might wonder why all of this couldn't have been

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<v Speaker 1>an email instead. Longtime listeners know that I don't use

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<v Speaker 1>PowerPoint in my speeches most of the time. Most of

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<v Speaker 1>the time, conference hosts are actually excited about this, because

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<v Speaker 1>the audience has seen so many slides that it's kind

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<v Speaker 1>of nice to have a break. My time management speeches

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<v Speaker 1>are done more as a one woman act, and just

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<v Speaker 1>as with performing a play, I have memorized the various

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<v Speaker 1>versions of my talk that I might give. I know

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<v Speaker 1>that is not feasible for your average two PM meeting,

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<v Speaker 1>where you are simply showing the management team your progress

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<v Speaker 1>on a project. It wouldn't really make sense to treat

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<v Speaker 1>this as a one person show. But that said, thinking

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<v Speaker 1>a bit more about what should be on a slide

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<v Speaker 1>and what shouldn't, and making sure that the slides compliment

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<v Speaker 1>rather than duplicate your talk, we'll go a long way

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<v Speaker 1>toward making that two pm meeting a little less boring,

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<v Speaker 1>and that would make the world a better place. In

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<v Speaker 1>the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's

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<v Speaker 1>to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening

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<v Speaker 1>to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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<v Speaker 1>you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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<v Speaker 1>from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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