Capture Your Audience's Attention with Visuals

• 00:01 I do not recommend that you give somebody the full printout of your PowerPoint,
• 00:08 and put it down in front of them right before you speak.
• 00:13 Because most people can read much faster than people can talk.
• 00:18 You can talk 140 to 160 words per minute,
• 00:21 people can read sometimes 6, 7, 8, 900 words per minute.
• 00:26 So if someone's interested in your topic and you give them the whole deck and
• 00:31 has lots and lots and lots of text, it's more efficient and
• 00:35 more rational for them to be doing this and ignoring you.
• 00:39 Why would you want to encourage people to ignore you?
• 00:44 Makes absolutely no sense.
• 00:47 That's one of the huge problems with PowerPoint,
• 00:50 is you're asking your audience to multitask.
• 00:54 Hey, audience member, listen to me, no, ignore me, look at this handout, no,
• 00:59 ignore that and look at what's here up on this slide,
• 01:02 you're asking people to multitask.
• 01:04 All the clinical research on multitasking,
• 01:06 shows human beings simply aren't good at it.
• 01:08 If you doubt me, look at the highways and look at all the people basically killing
• 01:13 themselves because they can't resist driving and texting at the same time.
• 01:17 Human beings are not good at multitasking.
• 01:20 All the research shows that if you give one person one task,
• 01:24 let them finish it, give them another task, let them finish it,
• 01:28 give them a third task, let them finish it.
• 01:31 Versus giving the three tasks to one person, and say do it all at once.
• 01:36 The person who is given it one at a time,
• 01:39 will finish all three tasks sooner than the multitasker with fewer errors.
• 01:45 And I believe in taking that approach
• 01:48 when it comes to audiences in PowerPoint slides.
• 01:52 If you're speaking, don't have a slide up, if you have a slide up,
• 01:57 don't talk, let people look at the slide.
• 01:59 If you're giving somebody a handout, give it to them, let them read it, wait till
• 02:04 their head comes up and they're looking at you again, before you start talking.
• 02:10 Great speakers are keenly aware at all times of what their audiences are doing,
• 02:15 and what they're looking at.
• 02:17 But again, the basic rule of thumb is, just test it on audiences,
• 02:22 it's really not that complicated folks.
• 02:25 And here is the number one tip I can tell you,
• 02:28 is audiences don't remember bullet points in text.
• 02:34 You can say it has to be done that way, you can say these experts are saying,
• 02:39 well, three bullet points and eight words, but test, I might deceive you,
• 02:44 other presentation experts might deceive you, but your audience can't deceive you.
• 02:50 If they don't remember it, they can't really lie to you and tell you they do
• 02:54 remember it and here's what the message, they're not going to be able to do that.
• 02:58 So the ultimate arbiter is not me, it's not what other presentation experts say,
• 03:03 and it's not even what you like to do or what's convenient for you.
• 03:07 The ultimate is what does your audience remember?
• 03:11 So keep that in mind, when it comes to PowerPoint.
• 03:15 Also keep in mind, PowerPoint is only one visual tool,
• 03:17 there's nothing wrong with props.
• 03:19 So, for example, when I want to convey the importance of video recording yourself,
• 03:25 I don't just say, video record yourself.
• 03:28 I will reach into my pocket, pull out my cell phone, and I'll say it's simple,
• 03:32 all you have to do is talk to your own cell phone.
• 03:35 So nothing wrong with a simple prop like that.
• 03:39 Additionally, I mean look at someone like Steve Jobs,
• 03:42 he had all the technology in the world at his disposal.
• 03:44 Now his company doesn't use PowerPoint,
• 03:47 they have their version of it called keynote.
• 03:50 He could obviously use that, but
• 03:52 when he wanted to unveil his newest thinnest laptop,
• 03:56 he didn't just put up a slide that says, thinnest and 0.2 inches.
• 04:02 He didn't put up facts like that, he said, how thin is this new laptop?
• 04:06 He paused, he had someone walk out on stage,
• 04:10 hand him an envelope, he says, it's this thin.
• 04:15 He reached in the envelope, and he pulled out the laptop.
• 04:21 Here it is, many many years later, and people all over the world remember that,
• 04:26 it just drove home this image and this message of wow,
• 04:30 this laptop is really thin and light.
• 04:32 So just because you can use PowerPoint, just because it's easy for you,
• 04:37 doesn't mean you should overlook other basic tools, props, real world things,
• 04:42 things that are tangible, because that's what helps the memory process.
• 04:47 So, that's your homework lesson right now, come up with a visual for each and
• 04:51 every one of your message points.
• 04:53 It could be a PowerPoint slide, it could be an actual prop,
• 04:59 but you need a visual for every single slide.
• 05:03 That your homework, do it now.

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