269- Mastering the Art of Visual Storytelling

Unlock the secrets to transforming your PowerPoint presentations from mundane to memorable with insights from Emily, a seasoned expert in the field. Join us as we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of presentation design, emphasizing the necessity of updating skills from outdated techniques of the past. Emily's passion for simplifying complex information and her knack for fostering audience connections make this episode a treasure trove of practical advice for presenters of all ages and skill levels.

Venture into the world of effective communication, where we confront the notorious "death by PowerPoint" and offer strategies to avoid it. With Emily's guidance, learn how to create slides that captivate rather than confuse, by balancing words, visuals, and white space. Our conversation sheds light on streamlining content without sacrificing quality, using AI thoughtfully, and crafting cohesive narratives that resonate with diverse learning styles, especially in academic settings.

With a focus on simplicity and consistency, we reveal how these elements can elevate your presentations to new heights. Tips such as maintaining a coherent style with visuals and leveraging technology responsibly are just some of the nuggets you'll gain. Connect with Emily on social media for ongoing inspiration and practical resources to refine your presentation skills. Whether you're a seasoned professional or a novice, this episode promises to equip you with the tools to leave a lasting impression on your audience.

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Chapters

• 0:15 Tips to Elevate Powerpoint Presentations
• 6:33 Simplify PowerPoint Presentation Design
• 15:43 Mastering Effective PowerPoint Presentation Designs
• 22:22 Simplicity and Consistency in Presentations
• 36:04 Embracing Simplicity in Presentation Design

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

welcome everyone to politically high tech. This is the second to last episode of this season, 269 to be exact. Have someone here who's going to definitely give you tips how to elevate your boring. I'm gonna say, like it is boring, dull and even, at worst case scenario, hideous powerpoint presentations. You got the cure for that, okay. Your powerpoint is ugly, she's your girl. If it's boring, she's your girl. If it's just forgettable, she's your girl, okay. So we're gonna cure the boring, the ugly, the forgettable powerpoint presentations, or even portfolios, because powerpoint can be used for so many things instead of just presentations.

Speaker 1: 1:05

And it's been. You know it's a old I won't say old, but it is a veteran player in the block. It survived many trends. I have used powerpoint since middle school. Yes, I'm aging a little bit. So my current job all right, it has. It's been stable. It's been stable, I should say, for a long while, and some of you let's look, a lot of us uses it. I don't care what country you're from, as long as you have access to a laptop, wi-fi internet doesn't matter. You have access to the microsoft powerpoint and it's such a great tool.

Speaker 1: 1:42

I'm gonna say just for my personal story, just a little bit, because I don't make it too much about me mastering this tool 10 years, not 10 15 years ago. 2010 is different from mastering it now. So if you think your 2010 skills are great, you got another thing coming. That's because of the boring and bland. It was amazing 15 years ago. No, no, no, no, no. You gotta put some designs movie. Make it interesting, and don't read the PowerPoint, because I would get bored. I could read it faster. It's much clearer for me just to read what's on the slide. Okay, well, I'm just saying I'm a proud harsh critic of that. I've seen that happen so many times. It's unbelievable. This tool has been around, but I doubt we have a lot of experts. Emily here is going to help you out with that.

Speaker 2: 2:36

So before we get into it, emily. What do you want the viewers and listeners to know about you? Thank you for having me. I loved your intro to it. You're right, it is a tool that's been around, but the uses of it have evolved for how we engage with it. What do I want people to know about me?

Speaker 2: 2:47

My magical knack is simplifying information. I love helping people better connect with their audiences, make more impact, be more precise and just drive businesses forward. There's so many opportunities and conversations that we have in the business world and PowerPoint is such a great tool to support and enhance those conversations, to create clarity, create alignment and, when it's done well, simple consistency. You can really make such an impact and really drive what you need in those decisions forward, and it's such a win-win.

Speaker 2: 3:20

I love helping people build their confidence and with a strong presentation, I think, or when you have a strong PowerPoint slides right in your presentation to support your voiceover you're not reading it. You're more confident as a presenter, as that key information share and it makes such an impact. So it's so fun to share my zone of genius with everybody. I'm happy to be here and hopefully I can educate and give people some tips or get them curious on how we could partner and create stronger impact together and this is a message I'm going to say to the so called boomer label if you're young at heart, you're still willing to learn.

Speaker 1: 3:55

You go overcome this, because some of you kind of fear these changes. And I get it, but have fun with it, play with it, experiment with it. That's all I'm gonna say before I get into it. And trust me, there are some, I would say, seasoned people, I don't even say elderly, seasoned folks. We were like 20, 30 years experience probably worked to like the pre, like the bubble computer error, like 19s with black and green and black screen, with green text and numbers.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Look, you could do it too, as long as you're a lifelong learner. I want to encourage it. I don't want to make this into an accidental ageist episode, because that is not my intent, and if I do that, please cancel me, because I don't want that to happen. So you could be practically five years old to like, I don't know, centennial, as long as you're willing to learn. That's it. It's the will and the drive.

Speaker 1: 4:50

I think that's one key thing I could say before you catch computer phobia. I don't know what's the exact term for that, for lack of a better word, or AI phobia to be more exact. That's what's spooking a lot of people, not exactly computers, but AI phobia as well. So I'm not going to go with my normal model you know, if you don't learn AI, your career will die, kind of thing because I'm trying to do something new in this new year's resolution. I'm trying not to be all doomsy about it or give you fear-mongering alarms about learning the AI. So I'm changing.

Speaker 1: 5:22

I could evolve, you know, I'm trying to have a nice, nice, more gentle approaches and just say oh, if you don't learn ai, your career is gonna die, all right. So I used to do that, just to be dramatic, get your attention. But I realized that has got to be a better way and maybe you turned some of you off because I was putting that fear to your head even more. So my apologies if I have affected you that way. I own up to it. That's a mistake I made. So this is something for 2025 and for the future next season as well. Totally changed my tune with that. So first question I got Kai to start with the negative sometimes. What are the common mistakes people make when it comes to these PowerPoint presentations and how can they be avoided? I think I already listed a few, but I'm sure you got a lot.

Speaker 2: 6:14

I mean you listed like the top ones right? I use the term death by PowerPoint, so where we over-communicate, where we have all the words on the slide and we read exactly, where we don't focus on what the intent of the slide is or the overall presentation takeaway and we give everybody the kitchen sink or everything in the kitchen sink. I think part of what I've learned is and through my journey, like you said, with PowerPoint and just my career is that I think sometimes when we don't feel confident, we think we need to over-communicate, we need to tell all the details of the story, right, even just in personal life. How many times have you had a conversation and you're like I didn't need to know what time you showed up at the movie and who the person took your ticket was? Like, just tell me, you were late. But when we over-communicate, we think we're kind of doing more justice or we're supporting that, but we actually create confusion, and so I find that the term of death by PowerPoint kind of covers it all. It's a mixture of fonts and colors creating chaos. It's not creating this synergy and this flow and giving yourself even like the lack of preparation.

Speaker 2: 7:19

It's really evident in PowerPoints, I think, when we copy and paste, when things feel compiled, you know, even taking a bunch of decks and pulling them together, the content may be right, but if you don't make it look like it all goes together, you lose your credibility, you lose your trust, you lose your audience. There's so much neuroscience that goes into connecting and presenting and sharing with your updates or your information, and so we have to be really cognizant about that. It doesn't take a lot of work. It just takes the right mindful and intention work to get there.

Speaker 2: 7:53

I think that kind of covers the general of it. Any other questions about like I never like to focus on the negative. I'm always like there's so much opportunity when I get really ugly. But as a visual person who always saw and still sees the world as simple shapes and breaks it down to understand it, I think that when we overdo that, when we don't take the time to simplify, you lose people so fast and it's so hard to bring somebody back in and keep them engaged once you lose them. So I think it's really important to create that connection, that authentic trust, and really take the time to build not only your story but your slides that support your story.

Speaker 1: 8:35

You hear that, so don't put too many words. That used to be my big issue going back then because, just like you said, I used to think, oh, I'm just giving, I'm just generously giving people information. Here you go. But let's be honest, that's and I'm gonna say this and I might get in trouble. Let's treat people. Let's treat everybody like they got adhd. Okay, I think that's a simple way to go about it. Let's just treat, let's just assume everybody that has adhd. They can't focus or ocd, try to cater to those folks. Let's just assume everybody has that.

Speaker 2: 9:04

I like to say that we live in an intention-seeking economy, so we're used to always having all these things come at us at all the time. But if we over-communicate all the things, you don't register it. When it's simple, when it's one thought, when it's one right. Think about, like, even just engaging with social media, and like the short clips they're short clips, right. Think about, like, even just engaging with social media, and like the short clips they're short clips. They show the words that people are saying, so that so, people who are audible, who are visual, who have sound, who have emotion, there's so much kind of connection that needs to happen when you present, and so you kind of to your point. You've got to. You've got to be able to make sure that you're reaching each person based on their learning styles, and that's where, like, I geek out about the neuroscience.

Speaker 2: 9:47

You know we can sit there and we can listen to somebody present and if we're not focused on what they want us to say, we have all the words on the slide or we're using a million fonts and colors and we don't know where to look.

Speaker 2: 9:58

We're taking the one thing that kind of. We resonate the first thing we read, the first thing we hear. We're tuning everything out, including the speaker, and we're creating our own story about oh I remember the time I rode a bike or I remember the time that data came back and it was wrong or it was right or it was really cool because we had so many right responders and you're not listening anymore. And so when you can simplify that and when you can focus on this is the data that I'm talking about and that I want my audience to know and you don't show any of the other unneeded information you help to your point. You help those ADHD people, you help the learners who are visual or the audio learners. You really give them that clarity and focus. Simple is always better. That's one of my favorite tips to share is less is always more when it comes to presentation.

Speaker 1: 10:45

For the academics out there, and this is especially for the academics. Business people get this. Don't try to show off your intellect and put a whole essay in the slide. We get a tune out immediately. We might even be freaked out. Some of us are going to look at the wall. All right, that. You know. That used to be my big problem. I used to just always over communicate, over communicate. I said why is it not being touched? My slide looks nice and pretty, but it had too much words. All of them told me to my face it has too much words.

Speaker 1: 11:15

You don't have to read the presentation, and I know that sounds hypocritical, but in my early powerpoint presentation days I used to make these same mistakes. I'm being very honest, so you learn from it. Don't take those feedback very personally or think that these people are attacking you, because sometimes it's very easy to get defensive. Look, I know it's easy to get defensive because you want to do your best, but people don't see it. Well, just take feedback. They're giving you the answer. Might be a little late, but hey, you could do your next powerpoint presentation and just get better and better from there.

Speaker 1: 11:50

Oh, and a disclaimer, I am not a powerpoint expert. Let's just say you know, I know a lot. I'm not, I'm not gonna consider myself a powerpoint expert, I'm just an experienced powerpoint consumer user. That's. That's the most fanciest title I could give myself without cringing or feeling like I'm lying to you, because it is an amazing tool and it's going to stay there for a very long time. It's not going anywhere, despite the canvas and even the copilot.

Speaker 1: 12:17

Even Power BI, which I actually love that tool, you can even incorporate it into that. Even you can attach a form. I mean, this is recent additions, like a few years ago, 2010, most of these things, they didn't even exist. And even the ai, even the ai designer suggestion. I'm pretty, pretty sure I'm saying the name of the feature wrong, but you know we're talking about the way you go to your right, a little lightning green icon. They give you suggestions. Some may be good, some might not be great, but if you're an expert you don't need that. I would say use it as a draft. Maybe call it better design than just do it. That's all I could say for that. So anything else you want to add before I get to the next question, I was just thinking.

Speaker 2: 13:01

When you're talking about the idea of um, the slides and how we over communicate or how we use it, I like to use the analogy um, I'm a big music lover and so when you think about orchestra or just a band in general, right, they take the time, as in an orchestra you have the conductor, but in a band you have the leaders, or or the key players. They take the time to, to, to spend, to prepare, to figure out what instruments need to play, how loud, how soft, how the beats come together and how these different parts work together to create this harmonious, beautiful experience. And as an audience member, as a listener, you're engaged, you listen, you feel something, you move your body and you stay in tune. Right, and I have young kids and they like to pick up on music so fast because it's so easy to create that connection. And so when you think about your slides as that background harmonious music to your presentation, you remove all that extra content, you just focus on what you want, you design it, you simplify, you highlight, you use imagery to create this emotional, harmonious connection. You really get to elevate that experience and you really set yourself up not only as like a, you know, a more seasoned user of the platform, but as that leader and as that thought leader and as that expert on the topic, yes, there are a million AI options out there. Canva has them, there's slide galleries, there's websites I mean there's AI where you could create your own presentation and, like you said, powerpoint has them. But what they don't do is they don't know, at the heart of your presentation, what your point is, what your key takeaways are, who your audience is, who you are as a person and how you create this harmonious connection. And that's where really focusing in on your presentation design will elevate that entire experience for you and your audience listening, or, if you're sending it out, right, there's all.

Speaker 2: 14:56

Powerpoint is a tool that can be emailed. It can be a PDF, it can be an interactive piece, like you said, it could link to other things, but if you're not focused on who it's for, who the audience is and why, and what you want them to think, feel and do, at the end you're never going to make a difference. It doesn't matter if you use AI or not, because AI is the one that actually makes it feel less specific, right, but you remove that If you use it as a tool to help simplify my headline, to give me what kind of image should I use? If this is what I'm talking about and I want to create an emotional connection, I want to keep people engaged. Ai is amazing as a support tool, but it's not going to be the thing to actually build and press and return or press send from and you hear that people you direct the direction of the ai.

Speaker 1: 15:43

Don't let ai control you, because there's a guaranteed fail, and I did that just an experiment. I read my own powerpoint presentation. What the heck is this? This is all over the place. I mean, they're trying to help you know, the attention is good, but you don't want to ask me.

Speaker 1: 15:56

The driver, not ai. That's an important tip I want to say as an experienced ai user again disclaimer, I'm not an ai expert just don't let ai run you. You run ai. Okay, it may be a pain in the neck sometimes, trust me, because we types are in prompts. It's going to give you crazy stuff you didn't ask, like, for example, if you're putting money, you might have a bank, like a bank safe as well. I don't want, I didn't want a bank safe. I just want cash showing cash. You know, mistakes like that do happen. So just make sure you're the driver, not ai. You're the boss, not ai. Okay, ai is your partner at best and at worst. It's a difficult co-work. All right, that's what I'm going to say about that. Um, all right, let's get to the positive. There you go. Let's do 180 on this.

Speaker 1: 16:54

We already did the negative over communication designs all over the place using million fonts, million colors. Looks like a kid, just throw a bunch of paint on it. No, they gotta think you're childish, irresponsible, immature. Well, that look, we humans. We judge quickly, like in seconds, okay, and our attention span is no better than a goldfish today, which I knew that was going to come. I feared that, but it was going to come anyways, because all the social media bombardment that you added really played a big part into that. Even me, my attention span used to be decent, but now I was like, okay, let me go here and go here and go search. You went to like 15 different clips without even realizing and you learn nothing. Really, really, I mean it's. I mean it's great we have all this information, but it's how we use it. Right is it's our guidance, it's our intention with it is what's important.

Speaker 1: 17:45

So just what people call doom scrolling, that's become such a buzzword. So scroll, scroll, scroll, watch negative stuff Not good for you. And I try to be more mindful of mental health and that's definitely not helping you with that. I don't want to drift too much into that, but it's definitely impacting your brain. Your dopamine receptors are fried. Okay, that's your little neuroscience I'm going to get. I don't want to make it all neuroscience-y unless it's relevant to this topic, but that's the most I'm willing to go. What are successful elements? I think you already said it Simple Designs that have synergy. I mean, I'm sure you got more.

Speaker 2: 18:26

Yeah, so I like to preach three kind of principles Simplicity, consistency, intentionality. And really it starts with and we've talked about it starts with knowing your audience. It starts with understanding how and what you're going to deliver and where that, what that space is. So, whether it's digitally, whether it's a keynote speaker in person, whether it's a small group and you're in a small conference room or right, it's an email, understanding who your audience is and knowing how much information is important based on who they are and what they need to know. I have a one pager, a tip on my. I have a free resources tab on my website so we can include that in the show notes that people can download, and I like to use a triangle as an, as an, as a visual example. Right, I'm such a visual person, but so the bottom of the triangle, those are your peers, those are your, your, the people you work with on a daily basis. They're doing the same kind of work or like very level, same level, and as you move up the period, as you move up the pyramid, right, you kind of get, you're starting to elevate leadership and thinkers and those really crucial decision makers. They don't need all the specific details of the day-to-day of that information, and so the tip of the pyramid is less, and when you think about it and you put an arrow next to it, it's how much information you're communicating. And so that is a starting point of how of really of a successful presentation. It's not just what it looks like, it's what it's set up for. So knowing your audience and what you want them to think, feel and do throughout and at the end specifically, is some of my is like the first place to start and then I get I don't.

Speaker 2: 20:07

I'm not a content writer, but I do help my clients refine their content. But it's crafting this narrative and it's telling the story stories at the traditional beginning, middle and end. Use that to your advantage. We don't need to reinvent the wheel tell a story, but what you need to do that's different, I think, in a presentation is you have to start with the end in mind. So I kind of say end, beginning, middle, end. You may you're not going to repeat yourself word for word, but you may show things again because you want people to know why they're there, what you want them to hear and do and what, what your purpose is. If not to your point, you jump in and we're telling we're just engaged, we're not focused, we don't know why we're here.

Speaker 2: 20:46

I'm going to think about where I came from, what I need to do next, what's on my to-do list? A story or something that happened to me? Right, I'm going to start daydreaming about winter break, let's say as an idea on a page, on a post-it note. Start putting them up and seeing how they work together. It's such a brilliant creative exercise.

Speaker 2: 21:12

I also recently heard and I didn't know the truth behind this, but the idea of when you think or when you learn, or when you're processing and you're on the computer. You know there's something about the gamma rays and the ways our eye works with our brain again getting into a little neuroscience, but I geek out about this. It doesn't work and it doesn't connect in the same way as handwriting or like black and white paper are offline. I think you can kind of say when people read digitally versus non-digitally. When you write things down or you're drafting something. Again, there's something about that hand-to-mind connection that's really powerful in telling your story and drafting it.

Speaker 2: 21:49

That I really recommend. So, once you know your audience and once you have your narrative set, now we get into the fun stuff. So to your point design, simplicity, consistency, intentionality. I break it down into three parts, so slide intention overall, your content and then your design. I can go into details, but I know it's a lot. Do you have any questions or do you want me to clarify anything before we start talking about three parts at this time?

Speaker 1: 22:16

Oh no, feel free. This is going incredibly fast, so feel free to give us more details.

Speaker 2: 22:21

Okay, great. So when you think about slide intention again, simplicity, consistency and intentionality, they apply to all parts of it you need to have two or three key points that you want to make per slide. That's it. If it's more, it goes on the next slide. Nobody's going to sit there and be mad that you changed slides, that your visuals change To your point. They're going to be mad that I'm sitting on a slide for 15 minutes because I'm not going to pay attention. So, two to three points per slide and limit and balance the amount of words and visuals and white space. Give your audience a space and time to digest the information. You can talk a mile a minute. They're going to retain that, but they're not. But if you just give them the right things to focus on on that slide that support all the things you're talking about, maybe don't talk a mile a minute, sorry, but you know what I mean. You can talk at your normal speed. You really help keep them engaged.

Speaker 2: 23:12

When it comes to content the three things to be really important about and this is when we talk about content it's like the text on the slide Headlines. Keep them as headlines, keep them brief. Think about a newspaper article. You can read a headline and you kind of know what the article's about and what my takeaway might be Use your headlines and your subheads to your advantage. Make them short. Use AI. It's such a great tool to say here's my copy. Brief it. Take your bullet, make them bullet. They should only be like two or three words per bullet. They shouldn't be run on sentences. If it's a run on sentence, it might be a whole slide. Or again, I love taking my longer formatted thoughts and going into AI and being like help me make this really short and simple. It helps people stay engaged and it keeps them aware of what you're talking about. And what you also want to do with your content is you want to pick a font or two colors as well, and you want to stay true to those throughout the whole thing. Because that simplicity and consistency, along with simplifying your headlines and your content overall, again, we're having two to three main topics per slide. We're having six to eight bullets, 30 words max, ideally. Again, this is all like in a hypothetical great world. All of that really helps to keep your audience engaged and staying with you as you present and you tell this story. I am totally a fan of more slides, less on a slide. I think it does something. Again, when you change that slide, you're getting your audience to be like, okay, there's something new. I need to listen to, it's different. I'm going to stay engaged.

Speaker 2: 24:49

And designing your text is just as important as designing the visuals that support your text. Text can be the visual, and so that leads into the third bucket of when you apply consistency, simplicity and intentionality to your visuals bucket, of when you apply consistency, simplicity and intentionality to your visuals. It's like a no-brainer, it's a win-win. So what does that mean? We kind of talked about using brand colors and fonts throughout, but it also is about creating data and charts, or designing your percentages and your infographics in a very simple and compelling way.

Speaker 2: 25:19

I don't need to know if I'm telling you a year update, right. I don't need to know every single date that this data was collected in my Y or X access. I just need to know the key dates that you're talking about or focus in on just that one quarter. You can give me a summary of the thing verbally, of saying we had a great year, we started here, we ended here, and then you focus in on the data that you use consistent colors when you talk about like-minded subjects, front timelines, orders, whatever that may be. When you create a synergy and you pull colors through our brains, do this magical thing of putting the pieces together if you set it up properly.

Speaker 2: 26:00

And that's where imagery is so important. Now, photography, icon illustrations, graphics those are all really important too when they're used properly, but they should be supporting what you're saying, whether it's a full image that's going to get this emotional connection across the whole page. Maybe you have one word that helps set it up. Maybe you have no words, but it's stylizing things and picking things again that are consistent. So go for a photo style. You try and use a similar style throughout Illustrations, icons. Again, you don't want to mix different styling of things because our brains are going to get confused and they're not going to see that action. So anything you can do to simplify that for your audience to really leverage what you're saying and highlight those things so critical.

Speaker 1: 26:50

Well, audience listeners, I really hope you're paying attention here. Don't pretend to have ADHD.

Speaker 2: 26:58

The one pager has it all right now. Very simply.

Speaker 1: 27:01

Yep, and don't worry, we're going to be sharing that website. That's going to be in the links in the description, especially some of the freebies that she has. Trust me, she has a lot of stuff that could definitely help you elevate your PowerPoint presentation to the next level. Okay, all that she says. It makes complete sense Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity and coherent synergic design. Because look, if you do, I don't know a green slide on one, and if you do, I don't know an orange one. Flipping the topic, I don't know what people do. What is this? There's some more finances. Now you talk about oranges. How does that connect? I mean, can make connections, but do we really want to use that brain power to do that?

Speaker 2: 27:47

You're making them use their brain power to create that connection and now they're not listening and they don't know what you're actually talking about, because they're trying to figure out how it's connected or why it's connected. So you're right, it's like you've got to do the heavy lifting for them so that their brain can put the simple puzzle pieces together.

Speaker 1: 28:05

Um, less is always more, I mean I think in life too, right, less is always yep, and that's what we've been learning. I mean, you hear that a lot. There is a reason why it's doing great. You know, simple, it's always best. As you know, less is more in this case. I know it sounds like oxymoronic phrase, or some of you that like to be analytical and super logical, but you do less to get a better impact and attention span. Okay, to get the to absorb your message. There you go, I broke it down for you so you don't have to be a snob. That makes sense. There you go, I broke it down for you. Pay attention. I hope you're really listening to what she's saying. These are valuable, valuable tools, not just tools. I mean excuse me tips on how to use the PowerPoint presentation to elevate your portfolio, your presentation, your storytelling, all of the above. Now for the how question. How do you integrate a storytelling element into a PowerPoint? Because some people just use it just for boring stats.

Speaker 2: 29:08

So I think storytelling, or visual storytelling, is the PowerPoint.

Speaker 2: 29:13

It's when you take these tips, when you think about your audience, when you're cognizant and aware and spend the time to craft your narrative well, and then when you take the time to design it and lay it out and create that sequence and you give yourself again the time to do it.

Speaker 2: 29:28

One of my requirements with clients is I need 10 days minimum from kickoff to delivery, because we both need time to digest, to feed back, to go back and forth right, to iterate together. If it's done overnight, we're not spending the time we need to craft the story. So the story or that visual story is really part of a process and when you again know what you want your audience to think and feel and do throughout this, you will then make every decision that aligns to that and that is creating storytelling. Storytelling is a way to engage your audience, to get your point across and to allow them to understand it and to hear it and to your point. And it's not just words or it's not just a slide or it's not just one thing. It's creating this harmonious experience so that we can stay engaged and feel something, think something and then do something.

Speaker 1: 30:21

Yeah, hear that elevated. That just shows stats. Oh, we achieved the second quarter's goal. Oh, we fell short of third quarter by 30%. How do we get there? What visuals, text and what's synergic designs? You need just, uh, really capture ready to get your intent, uh, you know, to grab their challenging attention span because, look, it's just getting shorter and shorter and shorter as time goes on. So you really have to do a lot of heavy lifting. I know that's annoying to some of you, but if you really want to build on a great PowerPoint and hold it to your attention, you're going to have to do the work. There's no way around it.

Speaker 2: 30:59

Or start simple, right. Start with like picking one font and two colors to use and keeping your headline in the same spot every time. Don't even worry about content, just worry about that and you'll feel, you'll see the difference. And then the next time maybe it is about. Okay, I don't need all this data. I'm talking about quarter three and I'm just going to highlight quarter three information on this slide, or I'm going to have a second slide that's just quarter three. So I have my first slide that shows the whole year, my second slide that shows quarter three. Those little differences will combine or compound to make a bigger impact over time and you can make it easy for you to apply.

Speaker 2: 31:40

It doesn't have to be all done at once. I agree it's overwhelming. Again, my process with my clients I start with three slots. Our first review is three to five slides. I'm not doing a whole deck because I want to make sure that I understand the story and that I'm digesting the information in the way that they're building it, um, and so that I can become knowledgeable about their story and that it's lying right. And so I think you gotta, you gotta do that same for yourself, like I don't know what I'm talking about, or pretend that you don't, and break it down for somebody who doesn't know, and do one thing at a time.

Speaker 1: 32:09

Yeah, one thing at a time. Start simple, to fight this overwhelmed feeling because, don't get me wrong, it'd be overwhelming, especially with all the options that we have more than ever. I mean 2010 powerpoint, pretty simple for me. 2025 powerpoint I still say I'm intermediate. 2010 powerpoint I'm master level. 2025 I'll say I'm intermediate because there's so much features that I'm sure I'm not utilizing to its I don't say full potential, but to its high grade potential and how to incorporate with such an engaging, elevated Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

Speaker 1: 32:50

Alright, so I'm just being honest. That's why I don't consider myself an expert. You want to say 2010? Okay, yeah, of course I almost know everything about that one, even the crazy stuff, maybe even a little bit of developers' tips and tricks. But other than that, 2025 is I'm still learning, I'm a work in progress. That's all I can say. And it's different now and I'm sure it's going to change in 2026, 27, 28 and so on. You know that's how it stood, relevant to the tech market, and that's all I'm going to say. Because if you don't change it, just imagine PowerPoint 2010 version just stays there.

Speaker 1: 33:29

2025 people are going to move on from it. Canva will get more customers. All these other competitors will get more because in an alternative reality they stuck to 2010. They'll be absolutely they'll be gone off the market, gone by. Well, this is so 2010, this is 2025. Get it together so, products that evolve with the market conditions, they generally survive. That's just basic marketing economics 101. Okay, and that's what I'm going to say about that. Anything else you want to add? Before we start doing a shameless plug, are you ready to do a little bit of it? We're going to elaborate more on your shameless plug-in.

Speaker 2: 34:11

No, I mean, I think we covered a lot of things. I just like I said, simplicity, consistency, intentionality, start small, think big. And there's actually an amazing song by Michael Franti, that's that, and I use that approach every day. It really makes such an impact.

Speaker 1: 34:25

All righty then. So listeners and viewers go to her website. I am emilyschneidercom. It's a nice purple font with a bolded Emily with a little high from the M. I don't know why the second M is talking to it, but that's the design. That's the official design. If you go to any other Emily Schneiders, I'm sure it's kind of common. That's not the real thing. I'm going to put in the link so you can go there. Do a little heavy lifting for you. I'm going to provide a link Especially to her website and even some of the. It has some free resources, her portfolio. I really recommend you check out the portfolio. She is a woman of action. Just look at it. Look at a nice green agenda. At a glance I mean, I don't even know what the heck I'm reading, but I'm curious. All right, that's the power of design.

Speaker 2: 35:22

Yeah, it gets you curious instead of oh, boring, I don't care or I know this right, or if I know this, and I think I'm already an expert at it I've tuned it out. I don't need to listen to you anymore. So, yeah, stay curious. I love that yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:39

So I mean, this is a really beautiful design. So look at the encore values with the, with the rainbow, line them nicely with the crowns. Well, except for the light blue that's sticking out being the outlier, there's always one rebel the light blue crown, always one rebel. You see, I'm paying attention to that detail because I'm curious. I love it. I'm curious instead of just, oh, I don't care, boring. I want to get this over with. Nice, nice, nice, all right.

Speaker 1: 36:04

So just go to a website and it'll have her and have her face right there saying Hi, I'm Emily Schneider, freelance PowerPoint designer, and she has not just amazing design, she has some videos and she does so many other things. There's even some free resources for you as well. Okay, so buy up this Master of Magic. There's some free tips. Listen to her other podcast. She's been on sharing this and there's watching this.

Speaker 1: 36:35

There's past stuff and I'm sure that I'll say at least some of it are relevant. Okay, that we might have forgotten, because you know well, it's just fan and short. Sometimes you got to go back to the past and just get that aha moment. Oh, I forget about how to be simple instead of just doing a bunch of crazy color designs just to impress my stakeholders, while they're just tuning out already because they're bored and they're miserable. They're going to think a child did it for you. Okay, that's all. That's all I'm going to say. So I'm also.

Speaker 1: 37:08

There's some social medias as well, and she has her Facebook and linkedin. I'll put all those in the link as well. Connect, talk. She's friendly. She's not gonna go through the screen and just yell whatever. She's nice person. All right, just talk to her. She'd be more than happy to help. I could tell you can't fake authentic passion. Some people tried, but even you detected audience. This one, you have some brains and you even have great discretion. Just tell you oh, this guest is a little phony. This was authentic, okay, so just check her stuff out. All right, and is there anything else you want to add before I wrap this up?

Speaker 2: 37:53

No, I said send them to my website. Or also, I'm super active on LinkedIn. I always love connecting and networking with people there. So Emily Schneider on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 38:01

So go to LinkedIn if you want the fastest response possible. Ok, I'm going to just emphasize that. Let's start doing that moving forward, because some people, like you, know social media apps more than the other. Me, I personally, like youtube, okay, but youtube is not the best, you know. This is our best tool to socialize. Unless you want to comment on the video, I'll curse somebody out or compliment whatever, and you know, linkedin is full of professional people, so you're not going to get people cursing you out less likely, of course but YouTube a whole other story, a whole other beast. Okay, that's all I'm going to say about that. The reason I'm saying that, because some people prefer different social medias, and it's okay. I'll just post all of them, alrighty. Now a little gutsy questions, anything you want to add before I really wrap this up just reinforce simplicity, consistency and intentionality.

Speaker 2: 38:54

It really goes such a far way when it comes to presentation design.

Speaker 1: 38:59

Okay, so whenever you have listened to this podcast, you have a blessed day, afternoon or night. You.