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When creating a slide, one of the best pieces of advice I received was to think of each slide as a billboard. With that framework in mind, suddenly you have a way to evaluate how good each slide is at “being the billboard” for your key message (aka your hard-earned work). Great billboards tick most…

Last week we spoke about stepping into your nervousness and owning it as a superpower. It can be a significant paradigm shift, but it doesn’t necessarily remove all the anxiety related to giving a presentation. I get it, anxiety can be (and is) crippling. I’ve been there myself many times. In the lead-up to a…

It’s 5 minutes before you go on and the auditorium is packed! Okay, don’t be nervous. Deep breaths. You can do this! You do a quick mental run through each slide double-checking the main talking point for each one. Don’t forget slide 3… that one is a bit tricky. Focus on the chart. That chart…

When people talk about accessibility in presentations, the initial conversation usually starts and ends with colourblindness. To be honest, it’s a good place to start – just check ​last week’s newsletter​ 😁 However, accessibility is more than catering to those with permanent disabilities. The broader definition also includes temporary disabilities and even covers situations like…

There are more than 350 million colourblind people in the world. That’s more than the entire population of the United States! That is a lot of people who don’t see your slides the way you think they do. It’s likely that someone you work with is dealing with this too. It’s hard to imagine what…

Isn’t it strange that meetings have a standard time period? It’s either an hour, 30 minutes or a 15-minute catchup. I once worked at a company where the standard meeting length was an hour. If you needed to get anything done, you’d have to get into the calendars and book your meeting weeks in advance.…

Building on the BLUF technique ​we learned last week​, I want to share a foolproof presentation format that will finally answer that common question we face in the workplace: “What should the agenda be for this week’s presentation?” Every week you sit there scratching your head trying to find some new way to capture the…

It’s the morning of the big presentation. You wake up early, skin still glowing from the face mask you wore to bed. Your lucky socks and “special occasion undies” slide on with ease after a great shower. The presentation script is flowing so well while you apply body lotion. Those practice runs before bed really…

Our brains need icons. Let me explain… 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. ​MIT neuroscientists​ found that the brain can process entire images in as little as 13 milliseconds!!! Even more impressive, your brain has the power to process images 60,000 times faster than text. That’s 3 times faster than blinking!…

You have the power to control minds. And most people won’t even be aware that you’re pulling their strings. Last week we learned how to trick everyone into thinking we were ​expert slide designers​. This week we continue the trickery by employing persuasive design techniques. I like to think of it as a little nudge,…