Present Like a Rock Star

About a year ago I designed my first big presentation for my boss. It was nerve-wracking, because unlike most work I do, I was going to be in the audience when he presented. In fact, I was in the control room behind the computer. We worked very closely on the deck and reduced text to an absolute minimum. The presentation, like all good presentations, was about him, not his slides. As I often tell people: 

Less Slide, More You

And yet, I really had no idea if this was going to end up as a “See-Say” presentation. We all have seen this where the speaker simply voices everything that is written on the screen leading most to ask which is the redundant part: the speaker or his slides? A great slide should serve as a jumping off point for the speaker to explain the message further. Sometimes, I even like slides to make absolutely no sense absent the speaker. (This certainly dissuades printing and distributing a deck.)

The challenge with avoiding a “See-Say” presentation is that most people simply are not good speakers. Their slides become their crutches and they are incapable of living in the moment and truly owning their material. Fortunately, my boss was and is a fantastic speaker who doesn’t tie himself to a verbatim script. 

At right is an example of one of that presentation’s transition slides. My worry was that he would simply say, “We kept our clients’ confidence.” But he didn’t voice those words at all. The words are the takeaway headline here. What he said was much more insightful and in the moment.

That experience led me to one of my favorite presentation metaphors. A good speaker is like a good musician…

• You, the speaker, are the singer
• Your speech is your singing
• Your slides are your guitar

A good speaker needs to be able to multi-task in the moment. Sometimes it’s all about an a cappella verse or line (a black slide), and sometimes it’s all about a guitar solo (a great picture, graphic or chart that speaks for itself), but mostly it’s about slide and speech together. And like a great song, you can’t just play the melody and sing it as well. (That would be the “see-say” version of a song.) It’s about instrument and voice doing different things, but achieving harmony. 

Rock on.