Dan Roam
@Dan_Roam
Show and Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations
Key Takeaways
The "moving parts" of a presentation:
I think that any time there's a presentation or public speaking, there are really only three moving parts. The first one is us. Let's say this is me over here. Then, the second one is my idea. Let's just represent that as this box. Let's say I've got this nice, little present that's my idea. Then, the third part of any presentation is, of course, the audience. These are the only three moving parts.
On getting better with practice:
Imagine saying, “I can't talk.” The first time you talked, you probably didn't talk really well either. It took a lot of training and a lot of practice and getting comfortable with it. The same is true of our drawing. We need to have some tools. We need to have some understanding and we need to have some practice.
On extraordinary presentations:
What I'm going to suggest is every time we have something that we want to share with other people, we can present it in such a way that we are so excited about it and so thoughtful about it that it inspires everyone else that we're sharing it with, however small or big that idea might be, to be as excited about it as we are. That's what I call an extraordinary presentation.
On the speaker’s approach:
If I imagine that there's a group of people I'm going to be sharing this with, what is the most important for them? Do I want to be an expert, do I want to be a guru, do I want to perhaps be a little bit more humble, do I want to be a newbie, do I want to be really perceived as absolutely straight forward or do I want to be perceived as perhaps a little bit more cynical? They're all legitimate. Who am I going to be?
On telling visual stories:
Albert Einstein, look what he said, “I rarely think in words at all. My visual images have to be translated laboriously into conventional, verbal and mathematical terms."
On how great public speaking leads to success:
I've come to believe this, there is nothing that is more important to our professional success than our ability to share our idea in public. Yet, there is nothing more fearful for most of us than public speaking. Right there, we already see why success can be so hard because the one thing we most need to be able to do well is the one thing that most of us are even afraid to try. We've got to get past that.
What does it mean to speak like a pro?
It means that when you are talking to other people, youaresoconfident inyour knowledge thatyouhaveanideathatis worthwhile and what that idea looks like that instead of being worried when you're talking, you are simply just talking and telling the truth.
Top Resources:
- Book: Show and Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations
- Book: The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
- Online course: Napkin Academy: Use pictures to clarify complexity, banish confusion and defeat fear
Where to find Dan:
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