Presenter or Narrator?

You may have heard of ‘death by PowerPoint’, but how do you avoid becoming a perpetrator of this?

Just in case this is a term you haven’t come across before, I can almost guarantee that you’ve been on the receiving end!  Essentially, it was coined to describe a presenter who has far too many slides and too much information on each slide.

If you’ve every been in the audience where the presenter read great tracts of text from the screen, you’ll know what I mean.

When PowerPoint introduced lots of bells and whistles, excited slide deck creators grabbed them and their audiences had to suffer through text that spun into place, sound effects and images appearing from all directions.  

Good presenters realised that less is more and that the slides are a support act, not the headliner!

Slides are a VISUAL aid

It can be tempting to use your slides as an aide memoire, but too much text on slides makes it harder for the audience – and harder for you too.

Put yourself in one of the audience’s seat.  A slide appears with a lot of text, what do you do?  Most of us start reading.

While you’re reading, you’re not really listening to the presenter, so you may be missing key information.  Now comes the next stumbling block, if that slide stays on the screen, a good percentage of the audience will read it again!  If the presenter moves on a chunk of the audience will have missed the bus!

Our brains react differently when it’s just an image.  It doesn’t take up the same kind of brain space as text.

Less is more

I once was given a presentation to deliver on behalf of someone else – it was a 15 minute presentation – with 83 slides!

I defy anyone to maintain concentration when the screen is whizzing by faster than you can digest what’s on it!

Only use slides when you need a visual to help people understand what you’re talking about.  Things like:

• Before/after images
• Graphs and charts (but keep them simple)
• Models
• Diagrams
• Stand out quotes (not yours!) that help you to make a point
• Pictures that help to demonstrate what you’re talking about

When you’ve finished talking about the current slide – turn it off.  If you haven’t got another slide yet, click the B key on your keyboard (some remote clickers have the option for ‘blank screen’).  B = black – so this will turn your screen black, click B again to return to your presentation.  W turns the screen white, but them you become a black silhouette against a massive, square, bright background!

Remember you’ve been asked to make a presentation – so the spotlight should be on YOU, not on your slide deck.  You’re not there simply to read the slides.

How busy are you?

I think the word ‘Business’ evolved from ‘busy-ness’!  Lots of businesses are created because someone has a passion for something – and then they discover that their business needs more than their passion.

When your passion is your core offering, the other ‘stuff’ that goes with running a business can feel onerous.  The administration, the accounts, the customer acquisition, recruitment, management, marketing – the list is a long one.

It can result in you being very busy, but not doing the very thing you started out in business to do.

If I had to recommend just one book for a potential business owner to read it would be The Emyth Revisited, by Michael E. Gerber.  This outlines the pitfalls of not giving enough thought to how you run your business and offers lots of practical advice to help you to stay ‘in love’ with your business.

I’ve got the T-shirt

I’ve been self-employed for 30 years and have made most of the mistakes small business owners make.  These are the key challenges – and my suggestion for not falling into that particular pit!

Challenge:  I don’t need a bookkeeping system, the business isn’t big enough yet.

Suggestion:  But it soon will be and trying to backtrack when you’re really busy is not good news.  My advice, get an accountant and/or a bookkeeper at the beginning and that’s one worry off your mind.

Challenge:  I can do the administration during out-of-office hours.

Suggestion:  You can, but that’s a recipe for burnout.  My advice, allocate a time every week during working hours for administration.  As you get busier this is something that you could outsource to a good VA if you’re not ready for an employee yet.  Alternatively, you could take on a part-time person.

Challenge:  If I tell enough people about my business I’ll start to get customers.

Suggestion:  Networking definitely works, but pick your networks to ensure you’re connecting with the right people for your business.  If you’re trying to reach the trades, networking in groups full of accountants and solicitors isn’t going to work!  My advice, invest some time in developing a detailed ideal client profile and then go where they hang out.

Challenge:  If people like what I offer, they’ll give me a testimonial.

Suggestion:  They are probably willing to, but they won’t do it unless you prompt them.  My advice, have a system for asking for feedback.  This may be on the email that accompanies their invoice, or a phone call after every order is completed (this will depend on the type of business you’re in, it’s not practical for high numbers of sales).  Many companies have an automated system that sends a reminder to provide a review.  Find what works for you and then automate it.  Third party validation is valuable.

Challenge:  I don’t have time to do marketing/social media/write blogs and newsletters etc.

Suggestion:  If you don’t do marketing you’ll struggle to keep your business afloat.  People forget quickly and are attracted to the next ‘new shiny object’ (i.e. a competitor they’ve just seen a social media post by).  My advice, get a system and set aside a couple of hours a week to populate it.  You don’t need to post on social media every day – but you do need to post good quality material.  When your company grows and you can afford it, outsource it to experts.  An hour or so a month of your time can give a marketing service enough material for a month of content for your blog, social media, newsletter and email marketing campaigns.

These are just a few of the typical challenges, but they’re not uncommon.  I did get an accountant the day I started my business, but I’ve fallen into the other pits at various times.  I’m always learning!

How good are your stories?

Everyone loves a good story, but when you’re running a business finding good stories can be challenging.

There was a time when a regular press release would go out to the company’s press list, but how many of these got published?  The answer is ‘very few’.  But why?  Simply because what you think is interesting is not necessarily the same thing that a publication’s editor would classify as interesting.

Editors have to publish material that keeps their audience engaged, or they stop buying/reading the publication.  Lower reader numbers mean less advertising revenue – and most publications depend on their ad revenue to stay afloat.

For many companies, regardless of size, coming up with a good story is a major challenge.  And, different types of publication will be looking for different styles of story.

What works – and what doesn’t

Let’s start with the down side:

Nobody is interested in a new team member – unless there’s a powerful story about how their appointment will impact on customers/the environment/the community.

Opening a new office or branch won’t get anyone’s attention - unless there’s a compelling reason that affects the readership of the publication.

The launch of a new product has to be sufficiently innovative and leading edge to get past an editor.  Editors are not interested in anything that smacks of a business trying to get free advertising, so your latest product needs to fill a gap in the market, fulfil a burning need or be a completely new concept to rate any column inches.

What may get attention:

An interesting profile of your CEO/MD or one of the senior team, with some background and their take on something relevant to the readership.

A thought-leader article.  In the right publications, your opinion and strategies on something that your potential clients will find useful could be a good way to get published.  Sharing your expertise will add to your authority.

A project that works with a charity – particularly a local charity for local publications.  Charities generally get good coverage locally, so something that your company does to support them, consistently and beyond simply donating or volunteering, could make a good story.

Go niche

The challenge for most businesses when setting out on the media trail is to look at the local newspapers and magazines, then at the national dailies.  But are they where your ideal clients are looking?

You’ll be far better off getting published in The Caterer if your audience is in the hospitality trades, than in the Daily Mail.

Before you start looking at sending out unsolicited material to the press, do some homework and find out:

• What your target audience actually reads
• Whether these publications accept unsolicited material
• Whether you can contact the relevant editors and open a conversation

Every publication has its own style, so ensure you’re familiar with the publication before contacting the editor.  This will ensure that any suggestions you have for articles are relevant to that particular publication.

It’s better to have a small press list of highly targeted publications than a long list of random newspapers, magazines and digital publications.

A little planning and a sound strategy can really pay off.