Sharpen your presentations with this simple trick
George Bernard Shaw said:
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
Now answer me this. What's the one step most people miss when writing a presentation? Most people load up slide software and just get into it. Two problems with this:
It's easy to add more slides as you come across more information
It's easy for that slide mix to create the illusion of a narrative
You have a sequence of stuff. You don't have a story. The assumption is ‘slides, then story’. But there's a simpler, more effective and calming way to do it.
Follow the opposite principle: ‘story, then slides’.
And this benefits all of us immensely. So how do you do that?
Go crazytown on your research. Screenshots, random notes, photos, whatever.
Paste them into a google doc (or Claude Projects!). Nothing fancy. Drop it all in. This is your source of all knowledge.
Then – important – step away from the screen. You want perspective and distance.
Get some paper (or another doc, or record it on Otter AI) and write down the flow as you remember it.
Go back into your mega draft and see which pieces fit the flow, and which don't.
The reason i like this process is that it primes you to only stick to the memorable stuff. Before memorable comms, you need memorable briefs. Before that, memorable presentations.
After all, if you can't remember the contents of what you're saying, why should everyone else?
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