The 8 Poisonous Practises KILLING your Presentation

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PICTURE
THIS.
It's just after lunch at a Financial
Services conference in Australia's
Gold Coast. The Dead Zone. Everyone
has eaten and should probably be
taking a siesta.
Instead, they are sitting inside a
dimly-lit conference centre, trying to
stay awake. Most of them are there,
not by choice, but because they need
to be present in order to collect their
professional development points.
At this moment, we’re up to what
could be Slide #24 — but who really
knows anymore? For this tired
audience, all slides start to look the
same after the first few. In fact, they
could be from any of the presenters
that day — it becomes hard to
distinguish one presentation from the
next.
Energy levels are low, and any
chance of audience engagement was
lost a long time ago. Like the end of a
lopsided sporting match, it's just a
matter of watching the clock as it
winds down. The presenter’s voice
loses its poise as he realises that this
is a lost cause.
Suddenly, there’s a small spike in
interest as we get closer to the end
— and the audience tries to figure out
if it's over yet. When we finally get to
the finish line, there will be a small
awkward clap, no questions and a
mass exodus from this hall to the
next — where the process will
inevitably repeat itself.

W i t h o n ey a f e w
e x c e p t i o n s , e v e r y
p r e s e n tat i o n i s m o r e o r
e e s s d o i n g t h e s a m e
i n e f f e c t i v e t h i n g
Have we become trapped in some sort
of brainwashed existence in which we
simply ‘put up’ with this routine? Is it
really the best way to get things done?
If we add up the time and cost
involved in getting everyone together,
how much resources are being
wasted? It's madness.
That maddening, unpleasant scenario took
place well over 10 years ago — and I was
the presenter. Working for a bank, I was
trying my hardest to make things work, and
this fateful presentation was the inflection
point at which I realised there must be a
better way.
Fast forward to today, and I now lead a
presentation design team that has, over the
last six years, worked with over 1,500
clients, from TED Talks to $500 million
pitches.
PICTURE
THIS.

At Presentation Design Co,we initially
worked exclusively in Prezi and left
PowerPoint alone for a number of
years. However, the deep thinking
and client consultations that were
needed to make a great Prezi meant
that when we eventually came back
to look at slides, we saw that nothing
had really changed.
We could see there were some
common mistakes being made by the
majority of presenters. The same
mindset of ‘Do the same as everyone
else’ was still there — and, despite
advances in technology and the
understanding that attention must be
won, most presentations still missed
the mark.
As a team, we review and remake
hundreds of PowerPoint
presentations each year. Rather than
battling through the frustrating DIY
process of making their own decks,
clients send us their raw content,
which we then polish and transform
into something that creates an
impact.
We specialise in doing this within
tight timeframes — so, without
having to worry about spending
several late-night hours searching for
images or making smart-art, clients
can instead focus on structure,
delivery and rehearsal. As a result,
these are the presenters who are out
there winning the war for attention.
Be different.
Be authentic.
Be Better.

8 Poisonous Practices
The ‘About us’ seide
The stoeen stock image
Lack of consistency
Jamming it aee in
O1
O2
O3
O4
The ‘About us’ seide
The stoeen stock image
Lack of consistency
Jamming it aee in
O1
O2
O3
O4

The ‘About us’
seide
The Poison
Feel familiar?

We’re all busy people, and
we want to get the best
out of our time — so
beginning your
presentation with a focus
on yourself, not your
audience, is a crappy start.
A lengthy ‘About Us’
introduction is the
equivalent of meeting
someone in a social setting
and spending the first five
minutes talking exclusively
about yourself. Credibility
is important, but people
need to know that you care
about what affects them
long before they can begin
to care about you.
I f y o u r f i r s t
s e i d e s a r e s e e f -
c e n t r e d , y o u ’ r e
p o i s o n i n g y o u r
p r e s e n tat i o n .
The ‘About us’
seide
The Poison

The Remedy
The ‘About us’
seide

The Remedy
The ‘About us’
seide
DID YOU DO THIS?
Instead, try starting big:
explain the context of why
your work is in their best
interest. Help them to
understand why you’re
presenting to them, and
provide some sort of
alignment or proof of mutual
interest.
Identify the reasons why
their engagement with you is
a valuable investment of
their time. There are different
ways to do this, but one of
our favourites — especially
for sales presentations — is
to begin with the following
structure:
The world is changing >
There will be winners and
losers from this change >
Our product/service is
helping you to take
advantage of this change
Once you start with this kind
of approach, it can create a
completely different energy.
From this point on, your
audience understands your
approach, solution, case
studies, and the reasons why
you can do this better than
anyone else.
Then, you’ve got the chance
to talk ‘About Us’ — and the
further down the
presentation you can place it,
the better you’re doing.

The Poison
THE STOLEN
STOCK IMAGE
“Hey Google…”

Over 90% of presentations
are populated with photos
using the following
approach:
New slide > Google search
> Steal and insert
S t o p , b e c a u s e
t h e r e ’ s n o e o n g e r
a n y r e a s o n y o u
s h o u e d b e d o i n g
t h i s .
In addition to the fact that
it’s stealing, it also looks
generic. As a result, it's
poisoning your
presentation from the
inside. If you’re doing this,
you’re not alone. I’ve even
seen this bad habit crop up
in presentations from
senior executives in ASX
200 organisations, so don’t
punish yourself too much.
The PoisonThe Poison
THE STOLEN
STOCK IMAGE

The Remedy
THE STOLEN
STOCK IMAGE

The Remedy
There are three easy fixes
that I can suggest:
1 . T h e F r e e O p t i o n
Unsplash offers free,
beautiful, high-resolution
imagery. They have a huge
library of amazingly-curated
images.
2 . T h e Pa i d O p t i o n
There are multiple paid
image sites at your fingertips.
Try Twenty20 — it’s not
cheap, but they provide real,
usable stock photos.
3 . M a k e Y o u r O w n
This is the Holy Grail. Show
off genuine pictures of your
staff, clients and products to
prove to the world that your
business exists. This used to
feel like an impossible task,
but Snappr makes it super
easy to connect with a range
of awesome photographers,
even at short notice — and,
you get to keep the beautiful,
high-resolution photos.
We’ve seen clients have great
experiences with Snappr —
use the code 82KFZekT to
get $20 off a shoot.
THE STOLEN
STOCK IMAGE

JAMMING IT
ALL IN
The Poison
“We need to tell them about….”

The traditional mantra of
presentation design (which,
by the way, we completely
disagree with) is ‘one idea
per slide’. In our experience
with the open canvas of
Prezi, we found that
PowerPoint was really
limiting when it came to
showcasing things like
process maps, customer
journeys, and timelines.
M a k i n g t h i n g s
r e a e ey s m a e e s u s t
t o f i t t h e m i n t o
o n e s e i d e i s
p o i s o n , a s i t ' s a
r e a e ey i n e f f e c t i v e
u s e o f a v i s u a e
a i d .
It skews the experience of
moving through different
sections of a journey —
which is what a good
presentation should aim to
be.
JAMMING IT
ALL IN
The Poison

JAMMING IT
ALL IN
The Remedy

With the use of simple push
transitions, you can create a
panoramic experience within
your presentation. This can
be a wonderful thing to
watch, as you can pass
through a timeline across
multiple slides, or even move
up and down.
With a bit of deeper thinking,
you can then play with the
idea of travelling through
time by jumping forward a
couple of slides, pairing it
with the concept of, say,
reaching a project’s end goal.
You could then move back a
few steps and start to bring
your audience with you along
the journey to success.
Used properly, this is a
powerful technique that
doesn’t need any advanced
skills. Try to have fun with it,
and enjoy watching the
impact it has on your
audience.
JAMMING IT
ALL IN
The Remedy

THE FRANKEN-
DECK
The Poison
“I’ve created a monster..”

Back in the banking days,
we would usually receive a
fresh deck from marketing
after a six-month wait. It
would be out of date at
this point and, although
still ‘on-brand’, it would
need to be customised for
each presentation.
After a further few months
of swapping and changing,
it would morph into a
Franken-Deck: a complete
mish-mash of layout,
styles, image use, and low-
resolution screenshots of
graphs and other slides.
When millions of dollars
have been invested by you
or your company in
beautiful branding, high-
end offices, a slick website
and you’ve made sure to
wear your ‘power
presentation’ outfit — the
act of turning up with a
Franken-Deck is poison.
THE FRANKEN-
DECK
The Poison

THE FRANKEN-
DECK
The Remedy

Professional presentations
are consistent in their look
and feel, as this helps to
build credibility.
One of our services is a
PowerPoint Polish, whereby
our highly-experienced
designers work their magic
by pulling these jumbled
features together — often on
short notice with tight
turnarounds
However, as a DIY option,
there are some simple
remedies that don’t require
any specialist design skills:
1. Cut down on the number
of layouts that you use
2. Create consistency in
screenshots by placing
them within a picture of
a laptop
3. Use only three font sizes,
if possible — Heading,
Sub-Heading and Body
4. Replace your mix of
Google images with a set
of high-resolution shots
that share a common
style of perspective (See
Poison #2)
THE FRANKEN-
DECK
The Remedy

SHALL WE CONTINUE?

BLAH, BLAH,
BLAH
The Poison
“Zzzzzzz”

As I look back at my early
experience with banking
presentations, I can see I
was trying to do too much.
My thinking at the time was
‘The more content I have,
the more effective I will be’.
Sound familiar?
The mistake here is that we
aren’t leaving enough space
for the audience to digest
what’s being presented. To
make an impact, you need
to have breathing room to
allow for reflection and
processing. The standard
practice of lining up heavy-
content slides back-to-back
is crushing our ability to take
everything in — so our
brains simply shut off.
I f y o u ’ r e n o t
p r o p e r e y s pa c i n g
o u t y o u r
p r e s e n tat i o n ,
y o u ’ r e p o i s o n i n g i t .
BLAH, BLAH,
BLAH
The Poison

BLAH, BLAH,
BLAH
The Remedy

BLAH, BLAH,
BLAH
The Remedy
When you’re in front of an
audience and in the
moment, it can be hard to
make yourself pause and
give your listeners some
space. The remedy for this
is forcing a pause by design
with the use of Break Slides.
These are slides that have
either a picture or a simple
layout, but no new
information. When used
after presenting heavy
content, they give the
audience’s brains and eyes a
break.
In addition, it's a refreshing
moment to enjoy as a
presenter, allowing you the
chance to stop, read the
audience, and gather your
own thoughts before
delivering a new chapter —
a win-win.
Pro Tip: Instead of using a
static image, look into
sourcing a low-speed video
loop of something that
matches the content you
are presenting.

NOT PROVING
IT
The Poison
“Trust me….”

NOT PROVING
IT
The Poison
Have you ever seen a
presentation in which the
presenter admits that their
product or service doesn’t
work, is too expensive or
has failed for clients?
Or is it more common that
they present their product
as a wonderful solution
that will benefit all?
My guess is that you
usually witness the latter.
So, it would be fair to point
out that your audience will
naturally be rather
sceptical of both you and
your claims. We often see
presenters poison their
presentations by failing to
acknowledge this, and
failing to substantiate their
claims with examples from
real-life clients.
I f y o u a r e u s i n g a n
a b s t r a c t c o u e d - b e
c e i e n t e x a m p e e
( f i n a n c i a e a d v i c e
f i r m s t h at ta e k
a b o u t
s u p e r a n n u at i o n , I ’ m
e o o k i n g at y o u ! )
w i t h ‘ m ay b e ’
r o u n d e d n u m b e r s ,
y o u ’ r e d o i n g i t
w r o n g .

NOT PROVING
IT
The Remedy

NOT PROVING
IT
The Remedy
I’m a real person and so
are you. We want to hear
about what happens in the
real world with other real
people and businesses. Let
your real-life clients be the
ultimate evidence in
backing up your claims. If
you don’t have them, get
them.
If you can’t prove that what
you’re saying is real, then
stop and ask yourself if
there’s any chance in hell
that your audience will
believe you.
Authentic, real-life, client-
use cases win over fake
ones every time.
Now, this doesn’t have to
apply to just numbers. If
you work in a service, show
your audience what kind of
impact you have made in
improving the lives of your
clients.
Pro Tip: Make a video. If
getting hold of visual
footage is not possible for
cost or privacy reasons,
record it as audio and play
it alongside an image on
the screen.

BEING
BORING
The Poison

BEING
BORING
The Poison
DID YOU DO THIS?
Over the years, I’ve opened
our workshops by posing the
same question to
participants: “Roughly what
percentage of presentations
have you been to that you
actually felt were effective?”
The average response from
over 3,000 people? Less than
10%.
O n e o f t h e d e a d e i e s t
p r a c t i c e s i s b e i n g
b o r i n g .
Unless it’s fronted by an
amazing presenter, a 45-
minute presentation is hard
for an audience to get
through without experiencing
a drop in engagement. In Dr
John Medina’s book, he
explores what can happen
when presentations creep
over the 45-minute mark.
I’ve seen lots of engaging
people become boring
presenters. They feel
pressured into becoming a
perfectly-polished speaker,
and it’s not them. They feel
as though they’re acting out,
trying to be someone they’re
not — all because of the
crushing stress they feel
when standing before a large
group.

BEING
BORING
The Remedy

BEING
BORING
The Remedy
Be Brave.
By this, I mean have the
courage to be the real,
authentic version of yourself.
When you do this, it changes
your relationship with the
audience and it brings you
together.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t
rehearse or be professional.
Keeping on track with a
healthy level of preparation
will give you the confidence
to be genuine, have fun, be
humorous, take a risk and
tell stories that emotionally
connect.
If you’d like to see what
being a brave presenter
looks like, watch this.
We worked with Nadine
Champion in the lead-up to
her TEDx Sydney talk in 2015.
Closing out the day, she
chose to be brave in front of
the entire audience at the
Opera House. It’s a beautiful
mix of authenticity and
courage — you will feel
inspired.
As you watch it, keep in
mind that this was Nadine’s
first ever presentation. If
you’re someone who
presents regularly, ask
yourself honestly what you
can do to be brave.
Nadine Champion
Watch
Now

THE QUESTION
SLIDE
The Poison
“Anyone…. Anyone..?”

THE QUESTION
SLIDE
The Poison
So, let’s say you’ve worked
through all seven of the
previous remedies and
you’re on your way. Like a
diesel train, you’re creating
momentum and energy as
you engage your audience.
You reach the crescendo of
your presentation, and click
— the questions slide
appears.
Ah, that awful awkwardness
as you scan the room,
looking, hoping, to see
listeners on the edge of
their seats with their hands
up, waiting to ask you well-
thought-out, purposeful
questions that build on the
ideas you’ve just presented.
Instead, crickets.
Feel familiar?
My question for you is: why
are you doing this? If you’re
doing well, why are you
taking all that hard-earned
momentum and smashing it
into a barrier? If you’ve been
speaking to an audience for
any length of time, it's not a
natural transference to
suddenly stop and make
them the speaker.
My guess is that we are
doing this because it's what
we’ve always done — and
it’s what everyone else
does.
?

THE QUESTION
SLIDE
The Remedy
There are a lot of different
approaches you could use to
fix this problem, but the aim
here is always to keep
momentum and gently
transform the experience
from a presentation into a
conversation. You can’t risk
crickets, so you must do
everything you can to
prepare for an interaction.
If you start off right, then this
will become self-
perpetuating after the first
few questions — you don’t
have to drive the whole thing.
Try the following:
1 . T u r n I t A r o u n d
Start to ask yourself
questions. It’s not as crazy as
it sounds. By doing this,
you’re getting the ball rolling
and not relying on someone
else to be the first to speak
up.
Don’t just ask yourself silly
questions. Ask challenging
questions. Be bold, be funny,
and pose questions that your
audience would like to ask,
but aren’t brave enough to.
“Are you too expensive?”,
“Isn’t company B cheaper
and better at doing this?”, “I
heard that you really stuffed
things up in the roll-out with
company C!” — you can be
brutal.

THE QUESTION
SLIDE
The Remedy
THEN DO THIS!
2 . D o r o t h y D i x e r s
When US advice columnist
Dorothy Dix wanted to write
about a certain topic, she
would also be the one to
submit the question. Arrive
early and identify audience
members that might be
helpful.
Request (nicely) if they would
ask you a specific question at
the end of your presentation.
Even if they don’t speak up,
you can (again — nicely) call
on them, reiterate their
question and give the
answer.
3 . M a k e A P o e e
This is a great way to capture
the vox pop of the room at
larger events. Tools like Sli.do
can make this process feel
effortless.
Ask sharp questions that
relate to the audience and
ask them to vote. This live
reveal of the results will give
you an insight into your
audience, and the chance to
give a commentary on the
findings.

THE QUESTION
SLIDE
The Remedy
4 . P e a n t G i v e away s .
This might sound remarkably
tacky, but it was a pet-trick
of an old boss who
successfully pulled it off
dozens of times. Most
presenters have some sort of
giveaway — a promotion, a
complimentary item, a free
gift. Figure out what would
work best and be the most
feasible for you.
Arrive early and strategically
tape your token of choice to
the bottom of the chairs. If
it's too big, then write it out
and put it in an envelope. At
the conclusion of your
presentation, announce the
giveaway and ask people to
check under their seats.
It's an unexpected surprise
and a lot of fun. As you’ve
just done something
enjoyable and interesting for
your audience, ask them to
share something (apart from
the prize) new or insightful
that they have taken away
from your presentation.
This may not be suitable for
every presentation, but you’ll
know if it's for you.

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“We wanted to refresh our workshop
and webinar presentations to
provide the end user with a more
engaging and connected experience.
We sat down with the team and
they immediately understood our
needs and the impact we wanted to
achieve. The development process
from start to finish was
collaborative, supportive, exciting
and rewarding
- Alex Lloyd
Tertiary Information Service
“
The team have been
absolutely fantastic to work
with. Not only have they
provided us with visually
impressive and highly
professional presentations, but
they are always very
responsive and make every
effort to meet (and often
exceed) our expectations as a
client
- Chris Champion
Positive Partnerships
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
Kris Flegg
Founder
PRESENTATIONDESIGN.CO

AUSTRALIA - SYDNEY
100 Harris Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009 Australia
+61 2 8004 5002
www.presentationdesign.co
hello@presentationdesign.co
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(Satellite)
152 Elizabeth St
Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia
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The 8 Poisonous Practises KILLING your Presentation

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