Hello and welcome back to the Awfully Quiet Podcast. Look at you tuning in again. I'm so excited for this community to be growing, for you to be here, for us to connect and have a conversation. And today is going to be about something that came up. For me time and time again over the past couple of weeks, and I got to say, it's been quite a few weeks for me at work in my corporate job.

It was one of the busiest times throughout the year. We had a big conference that happens. Once a year where marketing present the brand plans for the upcoming year to, you know, the sales teams to markets internally. And it's always this kind of high stakes, high visibility situation, you know, lots of eyes on what you're going to be presenting and a lot of pressure.

If I'm honest with you this year, I got to lead this presentation and, you know, the strategy, the plans, the work with the agency, the agencies that goes into this, this big, big presentation, and, I had all the feelings from obviously being really proud of being able to lead something like this, proving myself, being part of that and yeah, getting to be visible.

And when it comes to that topic of visibility, Internally in the organization of, for an event that is really, really high stakes. There's often things that come up for me. One of the things that come up, and I want to know if you relate with this, is I get competitive. I want to do really well and I wish it was only that, but I really want to be the best.

I want to be my best. I want to go into a presentation, into an event, into a conference like this. Knowing that I've done my best, knowing that I've done, you know, the best I could do at this. And you can imagine that, that, you know, sets you up for all sorts of trouble and struggles and I've had it all.

But the one thing that I really want to touch on today that I'm sure you have dealt with in the past is all about pretty PowerPoints. And other ways introverts stand out when presenting. Now, when it comes to pretty PowerPoints, I have a bit of a history. I love a PowerPoint and that's where the problem lies.

I think. In, in my past, I've always been somebody who, love to communicate in a way that was very visual. I always appreciate a PowerPoint deck that is coherent, simple, lean. All the same fonts, great visuals, you know, something that doesn't really look like a PowerPoint. And then you come into the corporate world and you start to work with people who couldn't care less about great PowerPoints and I feel like especially marketers, like this is one of the things that I'm just baffled with.

It's like, you know, as marketers, there's always this misconception that as a marketer, you're there for the, for the visuals, for the creatives, for the pretty pictures. But honestly, I'm seeing a lot of marketers not good at PowerPoint. Sorry to say it's how it is. So you see, you can sort of sense my attitude around PowerPoints.

I feel like being able to convey something on a slide. Making complex things simple, visually appealing is a skill. It's, it's, it's a, it's absolutely a skill and it's so, so important when it comes to big moments throughout the year. And when it comes to big presentations, I truly believe. That a presentation going into an event like this has to kill, has to be great.

And part of the problem lies in that too, as you can imagine how I approached this whole thing was I'm going to do the best presentation ever presented on the brand. I'm going to wow everyone. I'm going to put my team into the best light possible and we're going to kill it. So, you know, fair to say there was quite a bit of pressure that came and that I probably put on myself, but I, you know, took it to a point where, it was probably not just helpful anymore, but also a little bit toxic.

So what I want to make sure you understand is there is always positives when it comes to behaviors like that. So if you are somebody who is great at PowerPoint, is great at visualization, That's awesome. Like, honestly, you know, go for it. Go all out. If that's what you are good at, do it because that's, at the end of the day, what you're going to be known for.

But then there is always this point where it becomes unhelpful, where it becomes toxic. And I certainly Dove into, you know, way beyond that point in the past couple of weeks now, what did that look like? It looked like I had a really difficult time collaborating with others when it comes to the creation of the slides.

I feel really anxious when I see somebody else. in the presentation. And you know how these things are in corporate, like you co create the slides. You're, there's always five different people that you see in the document working on slides, you know, not adhering to the font size that you gave them and putting boxes that are not aligned and colors that don't match the colors of the master slides.

It's, you know, It's just triggering to me. I can't, I just can't. And it's something helpful for me. It's, fed and it's fueled my stress, my anxiety, and I ended up feeling really exhausted, really overwhelmed. I ended up with a bad migraine just days before the presentation and up until the final night before the presentation, I put all my effort.

Into aligning, into making it look pretty, into, you know, aligning the communication, the speaker notes, everything. And I made myself feel really bad for it. And there was this one piece of advice that I saw on social media during that time was all about saying that, you know, you shouldn't spend too much time worrying about PowerPoint slides because great corporate leaders apparently focus less.

On making their PowerPoint slides look pretty and more about, you know, the message and more about what they're conveying. And that hit really hard for me because I know this to be true. I know and I've seen great leaders present.

Let's say ugly presentations, you know, PowerPoints that were just like, you know, when there's still watermarks over some of the images, when there's icons that are clearly from 1995 or older than that, when it all's just giving old school, you know, not aligned, different fonts on a slide, all mismatched and.

You know, you know, the presentation I'm talking about, but I've seen great leaders present or kill it at presenting anyway, they don't care about the slides. They, you know, they're still charismatic enough. They're still outspoken enough to carry through that and to. You know, to entertain people regardless of a bad PowerPoint.

And so I made myself feel really bad. And I was like, you know what? You shouldn't be, you know, this is not, this is not helpful. But at the same time, I also couldn't, I couldn't, I stressed. Over every little detail up until the last second, the last evening before the presentation. And then when I finally thought it was perfect, I went to bed.

And now I want to tell you what happened on the next day. Because the next day I woke up, I got ready, put my rollers in for the perfect curtain bang. I got my Americano coffee, I sat down in front of my laptop, I opened it, I looked at the presentation. I was really proud. I loved that presentation. I thought it killed.

I looked at it and I was like, Oh, wow, that's what I'm going to be presenting today. That's what my team and I are going to be going out with today. And I felt good about myself. I was like, yeah, you know what? The end of the day, you overexhausted yourself again, but this presentation is a killer. And one or two things I need to tell you about myself when it comes to presentations is, I stress about them, you know that by now, but also introvert me, I get nervous and anxious before a presentation.

And I think you might be able to relate with that. I get sweaty. I, I get my face, you know, I'm starting to blush. I, there's just clear signs of nervousness going into. A presentation. So I know that about myself and I can work through that. I've done it a hundred times now. It's not going to stop me from presenting.

It's not going to stop me from doing a great job. I just know my face is going to be red, but I have done it a hundred times and I know I can present anyway. I know that it's going to be a great presentation anyway. So not just stressed about that anymore, but all that's happening. And knowing that about myself, I realized.

That in feeling really proud about what I had to present and feeling really proud about the pretty slides that I was going to share, that helped me perform, that helped me thrive. I realized that's what I need to do a great job. I fucking care about a good PowerPoint. Full stop. I know this about myself.

How the fuck did I question that? Why? Yes, there are people who don't care. I do care. It's helping me thrive. So that's the first thing I want you to take away from this is There is so much career advice out there, there is so much on the internet, there is so much that I say that may not resonate with you.

You always need to take things with a grain of salt. If there is somebody out there who says, you know what, don't worry about making it look pretty. It, you know, that's not what counts that may be a relief for you if you don't really care about, you know, how things look and how things, you know, you know, whether things are visually appealing.

Well, I think you should, but you know, what I'm saying is take the advice that is helpful for you. Take it to heart and the advice that just feels, you know, we're just going to feel bad about yourself and you just feel called out. Question it. We're allowed to question career advice and to think about what is it that I really need.

For me, that's a great PowerPoint. And We went into that presentation and I shared my screen. It was a virtual event, shared my screen, let the team through their parts of the presentation. I presented parts of it myself. And you know, when you start to feel how people resonate, you see some reactions to some of the things on the slides, you see the chat blow up.

With like all of those great plans, I instantly got feedback messages saying, Oh, great presentation. Love your style. And then the most important one that I got said, I love the presentation. The slides had your name written all over them

and I can't, that's. Sorry, but that's the reason I'm never going to not bother about my slides. That's all I needed to hear. It's the recognition, you know, that real cherry on top. And, but, you know, the last nail in the coffin of Never going to not bother about great PowerPoint slides. And honestly, I know I'm, what I'm saying is you should, you know, always take career advice with a grain of salt, but I want to leave you with some good reasons of why it is important for you to focus on PowerPoint slides and on making things look pretty, and I'm even going to give you three tips at the end of like, how can you make your PowerPoints more impactful?

Cool. I know this is a very mundane topic, but at the end of the day, such a game changer. So the first thing of why I believe great PowerPoints matter is it's such an introvert friendly tool. Like, honestly, there is so much when it comes to public speaking and communication and bringing a point across that is stressful for us introverts.

We don't thrive in front of an audience. There's. Always going to be that certain amount of nervousness that goes into that. So if you can carry yourself with something that is visually appealing, that, you know, the audience is going to resonate with, that is going to underpin what you're voicing over and what you're saying, it's the best thing that you can do, honestly.

It's the most introvert friendly way to present number two is creating pretty PowerPoint slides shows that, you know, your stuff, it shows that you have understood what you are presenting to a point where you can simplify it. Enough for the audience to take it away and really get what you're saying, really bring a message across.

There are so many bad power points out there and, you know, so many slides full of text and bad pictures, bad icons, and you, you know, you're not really sure what to Some where somebody is on, you know, presenting and it's just not helpful. It doesn't help you. So a pretty PowerPoint making it impactful, helping your key message stand out shows that, you know, your stuff shows that you can work strategically shows that you can bring structure and shows.

That you are a great storyteller, and that's another skill in the corporate work world that just stands out nowadays. You don't want to underestimate that. Now, the reason number three, why pretty PowerPoints matter is that. They just create positive word of mouth. Did you ever create a slide deck? And then you found it sort of started to travel.

It sort of started to people shared it with one another. Somebody who you never shared your PowerPoint with reached out to you and said, look, I got this. PowerPoint deck that you created. I have a question of, you know, for this topic. Can we connect? Wow. Look at that. Suddenly you're known for a topic that you.

Never talked about. Just put it on a slide. Just put it in a deck. It traveled. It creates positive word of mouth. It builds some of your personal brand. It builds some of your signature of what you're known for. You can use this to position yourself, to bring your point across. You know, in your own peace and quiet in front of your laptop with your coffee, you can, you know, all by yourself with your headphones on, you know, create those slides, make it impactful, put them out into the world and they start to travel and they do the heavy lifting for you.

There are so many good reasons to not feel bad about spending time and effort on a good PowerPoint. And I learned this about myself this week. So I'm not going to question this again. I felt I really wanted to share this with you. Like I said, it sounds like a very mundane topic to begin with, like who the fuck cares about PowerPoints?

But at the end of the day, I am really fucking proud of What my team put together, what we presented this week, I am sure these brand plans are going to kill it, are going to help our sales teams thrive. And it all comes down to making it something that is concise, that is clear, that is entertaining. And yeah, at the end of the day, I think that's a job well done.

Now, if you struggle with. Creating slides and creating PowerPoints that stand out and actually do all of this job for you. Three things that I want to leave you with. What I often see people make mistakes of when it comes to slide decks is just the amount of context that people are trying to convey. On a slide, and what I often find is that, what, you know, what some people say in five slides, it can be set in one slide.

So the first question I want you to always ask yourself is, can this be a one pager? Can this 10 slide presentation deck be conveyed in one simple page? How can I make this happen? You will always get a lot of recognition. For saying something in one slide that other people say with five to ten slides, figure it out, do it, and then tell me how it went.

Number two is ask yourself on any particular slide, on any given slide that you work on, if this slide could scream one word, what would it be? What's the key takeaway? One of the best pieces of advice I got, from a previous manager was always like, what do you want them to take away from this? What is the message that you want to bring across?

What does this one slide say? If it doesn't say anything, or if it's too complicated, scratch it. It's not worth it. And then number three, how does this presentation make people feel? That's a powerful one. Do they feel overwhelmed by the amount of text, by the amount of information, by the complexity of it?

Or do they feel at peace? Do they feel like what you're presenting to them is easy? Because that's exactly how you want to make them feel. You want to make them feel like they can understand what you're saying. You do not want to create presentations and slides to make anyone feel bad about themselves for not getting it.

And often, this is exactly how people feel when they're being presented with those hefty, text heavy slides. They can't, they, you know, you're not putting them in the position where they can get it and just feel bad about themselves. Don't make people feel bad about themselves, give them something that is easy, makes them feel at peace, doesn't make them feel overwhelmed.

It makes them feel good. It allows them to grasp what you're saying. And if they were being asked of what you said, they can say one to three key takeaways. At the end of the day, that's what this is all about. It's not about, you know, being known as the person who does pretty slides or being known as somebody who, you know, creates great visuals and he uses all the right font sizes, but it's really about being somebody who can communicate effectively.

Who brings a point across simply and who can engage and entertain an audience. And so if you're anything like me, if you're introverted, if you're out there, you know, you know, looking to become a more impactful, a better presenter, I hope that you've taken some of this away and this is helpful and you, you know, go away feeling better.

better about yourself and your PowerPoint skills. And with that, I'm going to leave you and hopefully see you next time. Bye.