The Best Creative Presentations Don’t Need PowerPoint

Believe it or not, you are the star of your presentation. I cannot stress enough how important the talents and gifts of the presenter are to the greater narrative. Don’t get me wrong, for the audience to best track and engage with your presentation, slides are important. But what is most important is your story. The best creative presentations don’t need Powerpoint, they need a great narrative. 

A setback I see many clients battle is trying to tailor their narrative to their existing deck. The problem is, they are starting in the wrong place! It is important to solidify your narrative before even dreaming about what the slides behind you might look like. Here at Ethos3, we have made that part of our process. When working with clients, we massage their narrative first, making sure that their story takes center stage. The rest will fall into place much more naturally once the verbiage is locked in.

Anticipation Kills Clarity
As creatives, often we get excited about color, shape, font, image, etc. It’s easy to put the cart before the horse and try to visualize what the screen will say before deciding what you will say. The problem with that, is that anticipation kills clarity. Your presentation needs your full attention to nail down a compelling narrative. If you are focused on color palettes and visuals, that will detract from your story. Allow the healthy anticipation to build while you finish telling your story, and then that will drive even greater creativity when the time finally comes to design your slides.

Avoid the Re-Designs
Another foreseeable issue with designing first, is having to constantly re-design. A narrative is much more easily changed in a storyboarding or outline phase of the presentation building process. Changing a sentence is as easy as tweaking it, deleting it or moving it to a different part of the story. Once you have slides designed, often even minor adjustments to the narrative can cost you hours in re-designs.

Creativity Thrives on Structure
Having a structure from which to base your design direction will help your creativity flourish. Once your narrative is exactly how you want it, you’ve created a great jumping off point for your visuals. The best creative presentations are able to aid the reader in understanding your story clearly, instead of muddying the waters.

Creative presentations don’t need PowerPoint, they need you!  As you hone your narrative, don’t forget to leave breathing room to interact with the audience, tell a joke about current events, or breathe fresh air into your speech. You don’t have to be rigid with your structure, but you do need to fully understand what you are saying. Need someone to help you find that balance between scripted and free-flowing? Our presentation coaches can create a custom training from your material. Reach out today for a quote!