This week in the world’s #1 newsletter on leadership communication:
- Why Most Presentations Are Forgettable (And How to Fix It)
- Webinar: Clear Talk, Bigger Checks
- Decision-Making Under Pressure: Lessons from a Kidnap Negotiator
- How to Tell a Data Story
Why Most Presentations Are Forgettable (And How to Fix It)
Think back to the last presentation you've heard. Can you recall the key takeaways?
Probably not.
Most presentations suffer from the same fatal flaws: bullet-point overload, zero emotional connection, and data dumps without a clear narrative.
But it doesn't have to be that way. You can make your presentations unforgettable.
Why a Presentation?
It starts with understanding what the purpose of a presentation is.
Most presenters think it is to provide information.
Wrong.
To share information, you are better off sending an email. It is faster and people can refer back to it.
The purpose of a presentation is to move people to action.
How to Create a Top 1% Presentation?
Here are 10 shifts, blending my experience helping hundreds of leaders master presentations with insights from neuroscience and psychology.
The idea is that you work with human biology, not against it.
#1 – Control your 10%
Studies show that often people don’t remember anything from a presentation. Nothing. Nichts. Zéro.
If a presenter does a great job, they retain 10% of what they hear after 48 hours.
This means you absolutely have to control your key message, i.e. your 10%.
What is the one thing they should remember?
The other 90% are there to support the 10% and make them credible and memorable.
#2 – Understand the Audience Memory Curve
Start and end strong.
Audiences are most likely to remember information presented at the beginning and end of a presentation, with a dip in retention during the middle.
#3 – Tell a Story, Not Just Data
Don’t just add a little story somewhere. Turn your presentation into a compelling narrative. It makes all the difference.
You can get my 21 Storytelling Frameworks here.
#4 – Avoid the Split-Attention Effect
When presenters put too much text on their slides, what does the audience do?
They read it. And stop listening.
The split-attention effect occurs because the audience can’t effectively listen and read at the same time.
Bullets kill, so kill the bullets.
#5 – Prevent Cognitive Overload
Cognitive load theory taught us that if you throw too much info at the audience, they will switch off.
Simplify content to match the audience's capacity to process and understand information effectively.
#6 – Avoid “Seductive Distractions”
Including interesting but unrelated images or anecdotes – known as "seductive details" – can divert attention from your 10%.
Eliminate irrelevant details to get your message across.
#7 – Contrast & Surprise
The best communicators have range.
Vary tone, pace, visuals. The brain craves novelty.
#8 – Use the “Familiarity Bias”
Use familiar language.
Avoid jargon and “big words” that an international audience may not understand.
#9 – Re-hook the Audience Every 2 Minutes
Attention wanes after 90-120 seconds.
Keep the audience engaged with stories, humor, and questions.
#10 – Use Winning Words
More research is emerging that leaders who use evocative and emotive language win attention, elections, and deals.
Language that deliberately stirs emotions, creates vivid imagery and appeals to the senses is sticky and convincing. (more on that soon)
A great presentation transforms, it doesn't just inform. Make your next one impossible to forget.
WEBINAR
Clear Talk, Bigger Checks
📅 Date: May 14
🕕 Time: 6pm CEST / 5pm BST / 12pm EST / 9am PST
In this power-packed training, I’ll show you exactly how to:
💰 Turn conversations into cash
🧠 Communicate with clarity and conviction
🎤 Speak with presence and power – online and IRL
PODCAST
Decision-Making Under Pressure: Lessons from a Kidnap Negotiator
I do a podcast to help you become a top 1% communicator. You should subscribe.
Scott Walker is a world-class kidnap-for-ransom negotiator who deals with hostage takers, pirates and cyber-attacks.
He has successfully negotiated more than 300 such incidents using the principles he shares in his best-selling book ‘Order Out of Chaos’.
The New York Times called it “a masterclass in communication excellence”.
Now Scott is back with his follow-up, ‘Eye of The Storm’ – a book that lifts the curtain on how we make decisions, and how we don’t become slaves to our emotions.
Since we all make hundreds of decisions every day, becoming better at this skill can be a game-changer for your life.
As always, Scott delivers with clarity, humor and fresh insights. He shows us how to thrive in any situation, regulate our emotions under pressure, and build our decision-making muscle.
Find the the full episode here:
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
How to Tell a Data Story
The world is drowning in data and so are most businesses.
The problem: in many cases no one acts on it because it is not presented in a convincing, memorable way. Most data gets lost in the daily noise.
Data needs a storyteller. In Data Story, Nancy Duarte sheds a light on how to explain data and inspire action through story.
Here’s how you make data sticky and actionable:
- Formulate your data point of view (POV). “Fix our online shopping cart” is not a dataPOV, but “changing the shopping cart experience and shipping policies could increase sales by 40%” is.
- Your dataPOV is the conclusion of your story. How did you get there? Tell that story.
- Your story may include heroes and adversaries for dramatic effect. Heroes could be the high performing employees, users or customers that drive up the numbers. Adversaries could be inefficient processes or bureaucracy or clever competitors.
No one wants a talking spreadsheet. Bring your data to live with a story.
Have an inspired weekend!
Best,
Oliver
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