The message matters.
Let’s make it resonate with your audience.
Message development is an art and a science. And we are masters at helping presenters tell a compelling story. We incorporate science (neuroscience, really – how an audience listens and comprehends information) and art (storytelling and story flow, graphics, and engaging content that doesn’t distract) to help presenters make an impact with their audience. We work in close collaboration with you to develop that story, make sense of the content, and deliver information that people want to hear and remember. There are four key components of great presentation messaging:
The audience is everything.
The Present with IMPACT™ message development process starts with a clear understanding of your audience and what you want them to believe, think, or do as an outcome of what you share. Your message must be relevant, believable and easy to digest, which means you must speak in the language of your audience. Nothing kills a great presentation more than speaking above or below your audience level, inundating them with overwhelming data points or charts, or using jargon they don’t understand.
Tell a story. Make it listenable.
The best presentations tell a story and are built on a message that matters. The message only matters if it resonates with your audience. This is true for any presentation, whether you are being paid to keynote, facilitating a workshop, sharing quarterly results to stakeholders, or delivering a Ted Talk.
Great presentations have a clear story arc from beginning to end and incorporate a thoughtful transition from one slide, idea, or fact to the next. Each slide builds on the one before it or provides additional context. There is a meaningful connection of content throughout the presentation, which makes it listenable, and helps the audience comprehend and understand what you are sharing.
Keep it simple. Make it memorable.
If the presentation involves ample data or complicated content, then the messaging must be easy to digest and the graphics simple. If you use slides, they must support, provide context or reinforce what you are saying, not overwhelm or distract. When your audience starts reading your slide, you are no longer the focus and whatever you say goes in one ear and out the other. They either read the slide or listen to you. Pick one.
Set an expectation. Transition with care. End where you started.
Think of your presentation as an engaging book: the title sets an expectation and the transitions from one key point to the next are the chapters. This is how you make it easy for the audience to stay with you. Put a stake in the ground at the beginning by telling them what you will be telling them. Then transition through each of the sections and end where you began to remind them what they now know. The End.