Most people start a presentation by opening PowerPoint. I start by thinking about people. What do they care about? What problems are they trying to solve? What will make this topic matter to them? Over the years, I’ve come to treat presentations like products—designed with a user (audience) in mind, built with a clear value, and delivered with empathy.
In this post, I’ll walk you through my personal process for crafting presentations—from early brainstorming and storytelling to slide design and delivery. If you’ve ever felt stuck staring at a blank slide, this one’s for you.
The Slides Will Follow
When I think about creating one slide, I start with my slide framework and see what kind of messages I want to portray there. I take a couple of things into consideration, keeping in mind that beauty and artistic vision are not one of them.
The most important thing for me is that I always want people to focus on what I’m saying and not on the slides. This means that I don’t put walls of text or hard-to-read things on my slides. Rather, I hide information behind animations and expose them when they are needed. Slides should complement my narrative, not distract from it. I want people to listen, not read, so I do a simple focus test. I check how long it takes to read a slide. A couple of seconds? Great! A couple of minutes? Not so great, maybe write a blog post instead?
Adapt slides to your storytelling pace
I prefer to stay on one slide for longer and talk through things more slowly. I’ve noticed that if I have a huge number of slides, it pressures me to talk faster, and I get into a mode of “I have to go through all of them before I run out of time.”
With that in mind, I’ve settled for having fewer slides to be more present in the moment when talking. I allow plenty of time on each slide for audience questions. I also build some slides as optional ones to use in case of any unforeseen circumstances. I can skip them and just mention them through storytelling; I don’t have to use them.
Visualize Your Thinking Process
I often try to present my logic and thinking in a graphed-out way. If your presentation includes talking through your thinking process, it’s very beneficial to invest time in trying to draw it out on a slide. Any time you want to present something logically, draw it out as a diagram and then think about how to simplify it and whether it’s possible to add a picture or two for visualization.
Influence Emotions
Slides influence our mood and emotions. The colors and themes inside the slideshow will influence how people think about the topic you present or you as a presenter. For example, when I had a presentation on changing mindset as a leader, I used my intro slide to showcase a silly picture of me. Why? Because I needed a way to showcase my goofiness and that I don’t mind exposing my weak points, so that the audience feels more inclined to share their challenges.
Use slides in combination with words to invoke feelings in people, create a relaxed atmosphere, especially when the audience’s engagement is needed.
Slides Don’t Tell the Story — You Do
When I just started to do presentations, I was obsessed with making the perfect slides. I wanted my audience to see the story even without me telling it. Nowadays, I use slides complementary to my storytelling. I spend a lot of time thinking about the slide framework concepts we’ve discussed above. How to explain concepts, what feelings will be invoked by the talk, and how much freedom to give the audience to draw their own conclusions, even if those conclusions are incorrect or incomplete.
But wait, if you are presenting, why would there be a misunderstanding? Communication is a two-way process. It involves sending and receiving a message. Very often, when we build a presentation, we put a burden of understanding on ourselves as presenters, effectively turning communication one-way. Why is this bad? Your story may include too many details, and you may try to cover all angles to avoid a misunderstanding, and in the end, you’ll probably end up putting too much text on slides, so it’s more relatable.
My experience in communication and presenting developed over the years has taught me that every person who receives a message interprets it in their own way. So, you’ll always have a healthy level of misunderstanding. Every attendee will also try to fill in the gaps for themselves when receiving the message. And that’s exactly what I am counting on. I rely on audience inference. I want them to ask questions to shape the storytelling, and I want them to find themselves in my message. This makes me more relatable, and it works better than if I overexplained things.
Having that in my mind, the goal of my presentation and storytelling isn’t to send a clear and understandable message, but to start a conversation and seek that deeper level of understanding. I don’t put pressure on myself to present in a way that everyone understands 100%.
To avoid unwanted interpretation, leave room for plenty of questions. My personal rule is that people can interrupt me whenever they want. I recommend this rule only if you have an easy time going back to your presentation. I do it for a simple reason. I don’t want people to focus on what they want to ask and wait until Q&A. I also have a Q&A at the end to cover any gaps in expectations (e.g., topics my presentation didn’t cover and the audience wanted it to) and to give the introvert thinkers a bit more time to frame their questions.
The Secret to Compelling Storytelling
Storytelling is not just about words. Yes, what you say is important, but how you say is the key. People pick up on your energy and emotions. To achieve a good first impression, I need to relax and be in a good mood. Once, I got sick a week before the presentation. When the time came to present, I still wasn’t at my best, so I decided to postpone it. It would be a disservice to everyone if I couldn’t give 100% of my energy.
Another important factor in compelling storytelling is setting a tone for who I am to the audience. Typically, I would try to make a couple of jokes at my expense, showcase a silly personal photo, or openly share some battle stories and personal mistakes.
In general, being vulnerable and using direct communication gives people psychological safety to do the same. Another thing that works is simply saying “thank you” to the individuals who are willing to participate. People will mimic your emotions and attitude, so it’s only logical that you need to put your own foot forward before they do.
When Things Go Wrong
If one thing is certain, it is that things will go wrong—your internet will die, you will get flustered and forget what to say, you will mispronounce your words or forget them, you will have to change the direction of your talk, and skip things.
Keep in mind that the audience doesn’t know what you had planned, so it doesn’t hurt them. Your value is based on the whole, not just one slide or one mistake. Don’t stress about it, mitigate what you can, and make a joke out of what you can’t influence. Improvising will come with experience, and my process as described above helps me change the structure on the fly while maintaining the main message.
How do you get better at storytelling under pressure?
Repetition and practice. And a lot of it! For me, mentoring others helped a lot. Because it’s presentation and storytelling in its purest form. Explaining something in simple terms, especially when you’re an expert and your mind is racing through the topic, is one of the hardest things to do. Understanding something on an expert level and conveying it expertly to others requires different skills.
You Don’t Need Perfection — You Need Feedback
Any good product has feedback forms, and it iterates through feedback loops. Repetition and feedback are your shortcut to greatness. Collect feedback at every step of your presentation-building process. And repeat it. It will help you understand your strong points and direct where to focus your energy on improvements. It will help you find your unique style and process and make you confident as a presenter. At the end of your process, don’t forget to ask yourself the following:
- Did it solve a problem and provide value?
- Was it simple to understand and covered everything?
- Can the takeaways be used now?
- Did it have a soul? Did it connect with the audience?
If yes, then my friend, you’ve got yourself a great presentation!
If you managed to read all of this and didn’t fall asleep, thank you! Reach out if you want to discuss any specific aspect of the post. Now go, share the knowledge and do it with style!
