Make a PLAN and Make It Great – CA style

by Phil Gerbyshak on November 16, 2009

Recently I spent a week in California speaking to 5 HDI chapters to share points from my book 10 Ways to Make It Great! Every time I do the presentation, I mix it up, re-do parts of my PowerPoint slides, and think about things a little differently.

What follows is the presentation for those who wanted to see it. It’s meant to be delivered, not to stand alone, but I think you’ll get the big points.

Recession Proof Your Life – Make a PLAN and Make It Great (CA version)

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A few things I’ve learned from giving presentations that may be helpful if you use PowerPoint to do presentations.

Less is more – By less, I mean less TEXT. Don’t stuff slides full of text, just add a point and a photo and talk to the photo. It makes sure people pay attention to what you’re saying, and you don’t insult their intelligence.

Keep it simple – I used to worry about sharing all the information from my book, and focused on the 10 points in my book…and I’d lose folks and not connect with them. Now, I focus on 4 key points and share multiple stories about each of them…and folks get MORE out of my speeches. Sounds counterintuitive, but it works.

Make it personal – Don’t make fun of other people, make fun of yourself. Use your own stories. Find stats that are relevant to the people you’re speaking to.

Keep everyone in mind – Pictures work…for some people. Stats work…for some people. Nothing works for everyone. Keep everyone in mind, and try to offer a little something for everyone.

Create a call to action – Motivational speeches are great…but about an hour later, you wonder what you just heard. I now try to include something folks can actually DO to put the tips I offer into action in each speech I give.

Review your points – Some folks like to make sure they got all your points. For these folks, reviewing your points makes them very happy, so they can fill in the gaps in their notes or can take down just those 4 points and have something to take home with them and take back to their manager.

What are your best tips on how to use PowerPoint to enhance your presentation and avoid death by PowerPoint?

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Article by Phil Gerbyshak

Phil Gerbyshak is a self-proclaimed relationship geek who loves people way more than he loves tools.

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Jesse Petersen November 16, 2009 at 6:45 am

I love being a student of excellent PPT presentations. Nothing is worse about a meeting or presentation (or a college course, for that matter) than having verbose slides read back to you.

I make it a point to not put on a slide anything I say, unless it’s for emphasis, and only 1-5 words even then.

Professional graphics and a good sense of what bothers YOU about being presented to will take a PPT creation far, far, far.

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Phil Gerbyshak November 17, 2009 at 8:26 am: Thanks for sharing your feedback Jesse. I too am a student of the game, and I learn more with every presentation I give or attend.

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Hilary November 18, 2009 at 11:22 am

Hi Phil .. good points made – and glad you kept it simple and I’m sure you’d be very good at telling stories about yourself ..
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

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Lukas Sparks February 18, 2010 at 10:12 am

I have been extolling the virtues of drinking coffee from a porcelain mug for a long time. Congrats on the last 100 days at the day job and your new venture!