Hey guys, Payman here. Today, I want to talk to you about the six things you need to do before you create your presentation.
So here's the thing: What most people do when they create presentations is
they jump right into it. They open up PowerPoint or any other program they're using and they start putting together the content, the slides and images randomly.
That doesn't end up being a very good end result. So what I've done in this case is I'm going to divide this
video into three parts. One is going to be about this episode: the six things needed to do before you create a presentation:
the brainstorming, how to define your audience,
the storyline and so on. And the next one is going to be about actually creating your presentation, putting the slides together, the color scheme
establishing your theme
and then, last but not least, is going to be bringing it all together. We're going to be talking about consistency and
finalizing your compelling presentation. So let's get started: first one is going to be
Brainstorm, as I mentioned. Whenever you're creating or presenting something creative you want to first start with brainstorming
what that allows you to do is to get your creative juices flowing. So by
Sketching things out in an informal way
You kind of let the ideas pour in. I personally like to use pen and paper
There's something about being able to write things, being able to scratch things, being able to
fold it and throw it away, and then bring other things into place
It allows you, through a process of elimination, to come up with a much better and compelling presentation
So the other part is mistakes are welcome when you're brainstorming
And that again allows you to come up with a better end result
Now what you also want to do then in the second part is to define your audience. When you are presenting to your audience
you need to understand who your audience is, what their needs are
What is the style and the vocabulary, the types of images that you want to use that actually pertain to your audience?
Are they going to be scholars? Are they businessmen? Are they investors?
Are they going to have a short or long attention span? Of course, most people have a short attention span when it
comes to presentations. We'll get to that a little bit later
and you want to think a little more broadly because in real life, when you're presenting in school
You're going to be presenting to a certain age group in a certain, very specific audience. But in general, outside of that
often your audience
Instead of saying they're going to be one type of very specific person or individual, you actually have to create audience personas
the audience persona embodies the type of people you're going to be talking to so it allows you to tell them your
your arguments with strong evidence
you're going to be appealing to their interests and their concerns as a whole and
last but not least, you want to stick to three main arguments. If you have too many,
You won't be able to support them with enough evidence and the presentation will be way too long
Now, number three is defining your goal and the purpose
This is a very important part of presenting because you're going to be doing everything we talked about but at the very end
You actually have to have a purpose. What is it that you're trying to do?
That's the conversion process. The conversion comes at the end of the presentation
So I like to compare that to let's say when you walk through a store.
You know that retail stores are made in a way so that they welcome you in, they give you a certain type
of experience. You find the products that you want and through a discount and certain other incentives
You're kind of enticed. At the end of the day, you're walking with a certain number of items
And you purchase them and that is the conversion process. So your presentation should be the same thing. There's going to be a conversion.
That's going to be end result. Okay. Now let's go to the next one: defining your setting, the medium
in which you're going to be presenting. You have to understand that in order to create a presentation that appeals to that environment
so, where are you going to be presenting?Is it a seminar school? Is it for a webinar Is it a video? The slide deck
That's behind me, that's actually been created primarily for the purposes of this video. It would have been a little bit different
If I was doing, let's say, a webinar or seminar and so on
Defining your story
Defining a story is very important. In fact, a lot of presentations, when people create them
They don't match them to a story
It's an actual journey from start to finish. If you can attach a story to your presentation
You can give your audience a bit more of a memorable experience
Ask most people
The last presentation that they remember is most likely about a certain story, not so much the meat of
the content. So if you can actually attach certain
points into that story, you're going to have a much more memorable
Presentation, and with that said, your story of course. There's a start
There's an end
You're taking the user through a certain experience. You're taking them from a certain destination, from Point A to Point B
But that doesn't mean that it has to be a linear experience. Actually, you know, straight roads are boring
So you want to have curves and that allows you to have a much more compelling
presentation for your audience and of course
One of the great things you can do in a presentation, and I can't emphasize this enough, is to have a surprise
So the element of surprise helps to kind of introduce some excitement, catch your audience off-guard, it may
Just be a GIF. It may be a certain type of imagery
Maybe a comical thing that you throw in. It just kind of helps to create a better, more compelling
presentation
And let's talk about the outline. So once you have all of those in place,
you have an understanding that now you can create your outline
So then, what you want to do is
go to your computer, word processor and so on and start typing things in
But don't go too far. Stick to the main points
You're not writing a book. You're just outlining the main key points and the supporting ideas because you
Are going to be filling in the gaps when you're presenting. Most of the talking is going to be done by you
Therefore, presentation slides are just a medium in terms of supporting your points
So let's go through another experiment.
You've got to tell it like a story and
As I mentioned, stories need to be memorable and so you want to start with an introduction and
Next, is actually going through process of how it's done in the theater.
There's a certain process you go through to tell stories
There's a rising action and that's where you actually create suspense
and tension in the narrative. And then you go to the climax. The climax is basically where the tension is at its highest level and then
You continue to the falling action and in that case, what you're doing is resolving the main problem in the story
And, last but not least, is the
Resolution that's your conversion. The end point of it again.
Six things you need to know before you create a compelling presentation. Put these to work and let it marinate. The next episode
I want to talk about creating your theme and slides and the color scheme
We're gonna have a lot of fun with that. See you guys in the next episode