BtD #018: Better Graphics, Better Slides, Better Stories ⊶ Before the Deck
In 2011 I closed my office door, left Corporate and bought an airplane ticket to India.
Three years later I returned and opened a yoga studio in my hometown of Western New York.
As a yoga teacher, I was diligent about upleveling my skills. It was a form of deep nourishment as a teacher and helped me to stay grounded and connected as a student. Kia Miller, a masterful guide in the yoga space, remains my core teacher to this day. I would follow her to the ends of the earth — and often did.
But this is about you…
Developing a persuasive presentation story is an evolutionary process and by the time you reach the stage of slide design you’ve likely already put a lot of thought into the verbal expression of your businesses core messaging.
How do you then structure a solid slide outline and create presentation graphics that support your intellectual property and cohesively develop the frameworks that demonstrates your audience’s transformation? In other words, how do you craft a narrative that captivates your audience, ensures clarity, and reinforces your key messages effectively, through well-designed slides?
The presentation journey
You’re taking your audience on journey of transformation in which you guide them through a visionary landscape — the glories and the perils along the way and painting an image of what the destination holds.
As a presenter you are creating a container for this transformation and the most precious currency you and your audience have is time and attention. You need to make your point and make it well without wasting a moment of either. This means moving beyond generic graphics, sharing your intellectual property with tailored models and frameworks that only you can create.
Learning to Fly
When I was developing my skills as a Yoga teacher, I followed Kia’s lead. She’d explained reaching mastery requires practice and that you’ll get there a lot faster if you follow a simple strategy: when you imitate and then integrate, what organically arises is your ability to innovate.
Relying on Kia’s online classes, I got to work, studying the way in which she sequenced poses, the language she used, when to incorporate breathing techniques and how to effectively guide a class and still create the space for students to have their own unique experience.
I used Kia’s expertise as the basis to develop my own. Just as she did 30 years ago with her teacher. And I used this technique until my roots were well established and I was ready to fly.
Designing Better PowerPoint Graphics
The truth is you don’t have to attain expert-level mastery to create inspiring, persuasive slides.
If you’re a founder, B2B consultant, EA or community leader, you’ve likely already spent hundreds of hours designing and redesigning slides. My mission is to help you leverage that experience.
Before the Deck
In the coming months I will be expanding my business structure to help you leverage what you already know about designing slides in PowerPoint. This evolved approach is designed to deepen your expertise and streamline your workflow, creating a platform for you to communicate the power of your ideas more effectively. This comprehensive strategy includes:
Command PowerPoint® functionality — going beyond the basics
Leveraging advanced design techniques — opportunities to learn through deconstructing, re-designing and customizing graphics
Practice!
Beyond — Tell Better Stories
If you’re still working on turning your vision into a compelling creative narrative go to the expert: Jeremy Connell-Waite (he/his). Jeremy is my absolute hero in the world of storytelling. His website betterstories.org is a virtual treasure trove of deep insights and inspiration to support you with this facet of your ideation process. He’s also an amazing individual to follow on LinkedIn.
Thank you for joining me 🤍!
