452: Debbie Millman - Visual Storytelling, Building Your Brand, & Fostering Your Creativity

Well, usually those types of reviews and reports are more for the orator-

Yeah

... as opposed to the audience.

Yes.

And so what it becomes for the audience is remedial reading, because all you're getting is somebody reciting what is on the slide in front of them.

Right.

And if that's what it is, you're wasting your time.

People will check out, because they can read a lot faster than somebody's actually speaking.

Yeah.

And so they'll read it, the person is still speaking, and at that point, maybe they're three-quarters of the way through reading, the other person that's in the audience is done reading, and that's when they pick up their phone.

So I think that slides should be used for directional guidance, just one bullet point with one statement or one image, and let that enhance what you're saying, not prescribe what you're saying or reflect what you're saying.

[laughs]

So how...

Do you coach people on this stuff? Do you ever work with clients on things like this?

I work with my students, but I don't work with clients in that way, no.

So what are some things you tell your students? 'Cause you're, like, preparing them for this life that they're gonna fall into, and they may think, "Oh, what do I do, Debbie? My..." or "My, my teacher told me to do this, but now everyone else does this.

What should I do?"

Well, a big part of what I try to teach my students is how to make an effective presentation.

Yeah.

And you have to really relentlessly prepare.

You have to prepare and visualize every scenario.

First of all, you have to know something that you're speaking about so thoroughly that somebody could wake you up in the middle of the night and ask you about it, and you would be able to answer without notes and without prompts.

So you really need to know what you're talking about.

A lot of people don't really, really know what they're talking about.

They need the slides just to read, yeah.