Storytelling with You

chapter 9refine through practice

You've planned and created your content. But amazing content can fall flat if it isn't communicated well. In this chapter, we concentrate our attention on you—the presenter.

When you are the one talking through your analysis, project, or presentation, you play a critical role in that process. Consider presentations that you've sat through in the past. If you're like me, they run the gamut, from awful to awesome. Which end of that spectrum they fall closer to often depends primarily on one thing: the person communicating the information. Does the way they talk make me want to listen?

I once attended a conference where there was a short presentation about a rare bird in New Zealand (the ka‐ka‐po‐, which is in danger of becoming extinct). I didn't intentionally choose this session; it was a single‐track event, and I happened to be sitting in a comfortable chair near friends I don't get to see often. I was surprised at how intriguing I found the topic. It did not engage me because I was interested in this particular subject matter, but because the presenter was clearly so passionate about it. That type of excitement is contagious. I could see how much he cared about the topic, and it actually made me care more than I otherwise would have. The speaker used some good visuals, too, but those were icing on the cake. He was the one who made it engaging.

A polished presenter is able to overcome mediocre materials. The opposite is not true. You may have ...