Is your presentation making the audience lose trust in you?

Now go out and get yourself some big black frames
With the glass so dark they won’t even know your name
And the choice is up to you cause they come in two classes:
Rhinestone shades or cheap sunglasses

- ZZ Top, Cheap Sunglasses

I have the worst luck with sunglasses.

No matter how cautious I set out to be, they always end up:

• sat upon
• scratched by my car keys
• pulled in two directions by a toddler
• swimming in a non-fresh toilet bowl

In high school I had a friend who always bought the most expensive sunglasses he could find. I think he had a revolving account at the Sunglass Hut. After months of gazing upon his shiny black shades of wonder, I splurged on a pair myself. I forked over my entire paycheck (because who needs car insurance?) and got a slick pair of Ray Bans.

Less than a week later I left them at a Taco Bell. I kicked myself for years (and still do, but it’s more about my sad choices in food).

That day I lost a high-ticket item but I gained a new principle: Never spend over $10 for a pair of sunglasses.

In fact, I’ve spent only $1.00 each for my last two pairs. UV-coated, hipster styling. Of course, even when they’re cheap they need to actually protect my eyes from macular degeneration. And they should look reasonably fashionable (no hand-clapper attachments or dolphin shaped arms, thanks). It is possible to find sunglasses that meet my needs without considering the additional purchase of safety cords or velvet-lined cases. Now I greet the sun protected and stress-free.

Yesterday I dropped my cheapo shades onto the floor of a coffee shop bathroom. They were unscathed (and the floor was dry), but had they become bent, scratched, or… wet, I would have chucked them without losing any sleep.

My friend and I have different lifestyles and different priorities. He buys the Acer laptop from Costco and spends as much on eyewear. I splurge on expensive computer gadgetry and crow about my dollar sunglasses. Yay us.

Is there a Presentation Hut at the mall?

If presentations were sunglasses, here’s how the two classes would break down:

The Dollar Store Presentation

This is the DIY solution. This is the one you hack out on the plane on your way to the conference because you’ve been so frickin’ busy with other things (translation: you procrastinated). You can still make this work. But you don’t want to look like you hacked it out on the plane.

For audience members, it’s not endearing when you joke about how crappy it all looks. It sounds like either you don’t have time for us little people or you just didn’t plan well. Now we trust you slightly less, and you haven’t even started on your message. Here are a few tips while you whistle in the dark (tray tables up, Ladies and Gentlemen. We are landing):

• Don’t get fancy. Seriously. Simple is your friend.
• Use one font. A serif or a sans serif, but stick with it. Do I even have to say don’t use Comic Sans? Don’t.
• Solid color background. Something light paired with dark text for high contrast. The lights might be on and it will be harder to read. Gradients are super duper awesome! Don’t use them.
• No animations. No transitions. Yes, I agree it’s fun to play with. Now stop using it.
• Don’t use crappy photos or clip art. What’s crappy? Pixelated. Blurred. Microsoft. If you use photos, either don’t use a border or use the same border on each one. Consistency is your next best friend after simplicity.
• If you have data charts, use the same color scheme in all of them. If you got them from someone else, at least give them all the same border.
• Format each page the same way. Help people forget about the format so they focus on the message.

We notice. We care. We want to trust you as an expert – but not in designing presentations. So skip the impressive, fancy treatments. We just want to hear your message.

The Rhinestone-covered Ray Ban Presentation

This is hiring someone to design it for you. You have to pay for this, but then you don’t have to worry if you did all that other stuff right. Let someone else figure out what’s right for your content, because there’s more to crafting a great presentation than just picking colors and fonts. Hey. You can watch the inflight movie for a change.

The choice is up to you

Just as there’s a place in the world for both cheap sunglasses and fancy shades, there are situations best suited for both DIY and hiring a designer. A few examples:

• Internal presentation to educate staff = DIY
• Client presentation to sell your services = Hire designer
• Small, free workshop with people who already trust you and “get” you = DIY
• Big 2-day seminar where people paid big bucks to absorb your wisdom = Hire designer

Bottom line: you don’t want people commenting on your presentation (good or bad), you want them to comment on your message. You want them to trust your information.

Help us trust you. We really want to.

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