Visual Impact: Crafting Presentations That Speak Louder

Brandi Starr [00:00:35]:
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of Revenue Rehab. I am your host, Brandy Starr, and we have another amazing episode for you today. I am joined by Emily Snyder. Emily is a visual storyteller with an enthusiastic passion for presentation design, specializing in transforming complex content into captivating presentations that seamlessly blend storytelling with eye catching design. Emily brings nearly two decades of experience in marketing and branding to the table. Her strategic collaboration with clients ensures that their messages come to life through beautiful, impactful visuals. Emily's journey began with a sweet 16 invitation, igniting a love for design that has flourished into a thriving career. Emily, welcome to revenue rehab.

Brandi Starr [00:01:27]:
Your session begins now.

Emily Schneider [00:01:31]:
Thanks, Brandi. And thanks for that awesome introduction that, like, gave me all the good feels. I appreciate that.

Brandi Starr [00:01:36]:
Well, I appreciate it and I, you know, I am a person who thinks in PowerPoint, so I am looking forward to our discussion. But before we dive into that, I like to break the ice with a little woosa moment that I call buzzword banishment. So pick an overused buzzword that you'd like to get rid of forever.

Emily Schneider [00:01:59]:
Yes. Especially in my industry. I feel like make it sexy just should not apply when you're talking about PowerPoint, sexy is a thing you feel. It's not a thing that we design in business.

Brandi Starr [00:02:11]:
I have to hang my head in shame because I definitely have used that phrase many, many times with our internal designer. So I will try really hard to not say make it sexy today, at least.

Emily Schneider [00:02:29]:
I mean, it works, but it's. I don't think it applies in the right way. That there's better ways to articulate, is what I believe. Right. So anyway, yeah.

Brandi Starr [00:02:38]:
And it is definitely one of those phrases that doesn't fit there but does get overused.

Emily Schneider [00:02:44]:
Yes, exactly. Exactly.

Brandi Starr [00:02:46]:
Now that we've gotten that off our chest, tell me, what brings you to revenue rehab today?

Emily Schneider [00:02:51]:
Yeah, I'm just here to share what I do, my magic. I, you know, my zone of genius allows me to light up and shine and do the work that I love and make an income and an impact. And so if I'm here to help somebody else shine a little brighter, make it easier for them to tell their story and teach them, you know, some of my strategies or share with them, I should say, some of my best tips. I'm so happy to pass that forward. I'm very, you know, understanding that not every project has the time or the money to invest in somebody like me. But, like, there's all, there's so many ways that we can be more intentional with how we set up our stories, especially when it comes to the visual aspect of PowerPoint or presentations. And so I am so happy to share some of that with your audience.

Brandi Starr [00:03:35]:
Awesome. And I know from our just, you know, kind of past conversation or interaction that nailing that board presentation is one of, you know, the key places that is critical for our audience and making sure that we're conveying that key message effectively. And, you know, that we take out some of that challenge with the amount of time that it takes and all those sorts of things. So as we go into this conversation, I believe in setting intentions. It gives us focus, it gives us purpose, and most important, it gives our audience an understanding of what they should take away from our discussion. So what's your best hope for our talk today?

Emily Schneider [00:04:16]:
Can I give you three? Less is more. Consistency and intention and being intentional with your story.

Brandi Starr [00:04:27]:
Okay. And I love that. And I think those are good. And in terms of doing anything visual, I do think that that is, like, good advice. Less is more. Consistency is key. And what was the third one?

Emily Schneider [00:04:43]:
Being intentional.

Brandi Starr [00:04:45]:
Overall, be intentional. And I wrote those down to make sure that I don't forget them. And so, as I've talked to different executives, especially, you know, there's lots of SaaS, PE backed firms, there's lots of publicly traded companies. Board presentation time is an extremely stressful time for multiple reasons, and we obviously won't cover all of them here today. But there is always a consistent need to make sure that what is being put in front of the board is meaningful, tells the story of what's happening in the business, and is also concise because I think every executive, and even more so in marketing, I think a consistent complaint that I hear is marketing is given just a sliver of agenda time to talk about all of the things. And so that ability to be concise, that less is more, being able to tell a story in a way that speaks the language of business while also sharing what is happening in marketing, it is really a challenge. And so I want to start with just asking kind of what are some of your best practices, things that you've helped clients with, like, give me all the good stuff on, you know? Cause I guarantee there's somebody listening to this who is in the midst of board presentations, trying to figure it out and, you know, make it effective. So let's just start with your advice.

Emily Schneider [00:06:23]:
Totally. So I love that question. I feel like I get asked this a lot by my clients, too, who come and are like, this isn't working. How do we make this better? Right. What's the first step? So the first step to me is really articulating who your audience is and understanding what your delivery, where that's going to be and what that's going to look like. When you think about what your audience or who your audience is, there's the main thing you want to go in with is knowing what you want them to feel, think, and do, right? So during, before you meet with them, while you're in that presentation and after, and when you can be intentional with that, you can set up your story to really align to what you need them to do, feel, and know by the end. Also that I think that's something that's super important is just understanding how this is being delivered. Is it a big board meeting? Is it a big presentation with everybody there, right, in a big conference room or in a gallery or gallery, right? Or one of those big auditoriums? Or is it just an email? Is it something that's just being updated, but you need to show some visual love to so that it really comes to life.

Emily Schneider [00:07:28]:
And so when you have those two things and you know what those are, the next step that I always go into is making sure that the story itself, the content, is really articulated properly. I am not an expert, nor will I ever want to claim that I am the writer. Right? I don't provide the content, but I'm really good at refining. I'm a really good rule refinement master, so I can help my clients look at their story and make sure that you're setting it up for success. Once you know your audience, what you want them to feel, think, and do, right? And once you know where you're going to deliver, that story becomes a lot easier to write or to edit. When you start with the end in mind, you set the stage, you're automatically, again going back to letting your audience know what you want them to do at the end or what you're looking for. And then just like a story, you have your three parts, the beginning, middle, and end. And when you can cadence your, your story around that, giving, you know, the beginning, setting up where you are, where you've been, you know, you've kind of already said what you need to do.

Emily Schneider [00:08:26]:
But going into a little bit more details, the middle is really that heart of the story, it's where the tension is. It's where the investment needs to make. It's where the focus needs to be. It's really talking about kind of what the problems or opportunities really lie and where that the heart of energy is going to be spent, not only in your presentation, but in that business. And then the end is kind of reminding everybody about what's been shared and giving them action to, and opening the floor to create a conversation, to ask some questions, or to get more clarity on what you've shared and when you can lay your story out in that sequence. What I found is those conversations at the end are not asking clarity around what you share. They're asking, actually asking clarity about the business where you want to move forward, what decision you need. Right.

Emily Schneider [00:09:11]:
You're getting more granular or more specific about the conversations you need so that they can make the informed and impactful decisions that you need to move your business forward. And so that part is something that I work with my clients on, but sometimes they'll bring it to me. And then the sweet spot is when you talk about the visual story. Right. And so the way I approach that is in three parts, you think about slide intention, overall, the content itself and the visuals. This is something that we look at from a totality, from a full deck presentation standpoint, but also each individual slide. Because each slide should has its own job and its own role in your story. When you think about slide intention, it comes down to very two simple things.

Emily Schneider [00:09:59]:
Balancing content and visuals, and being really focused on what those two to three key takeaways are. You don't want to overwhelm them. Like you said, you don't want to. Death by PowerPoint, I think also might be a buzzword that I tend to hear a lot. But I appreciate that because that's why I'm here. But the idea that, like, we can't digest information when it's. There's so much of it. So the.

Emily Schneider [00:10:22]:
So focusing on those key two to three things per slide is really going to help you lead your audience in this, in what you want to share with them and get them to follow along. When it comes to content, this is where less is more and consistency are huge. Less content, less words. A headline should be a headline, it should be brief. It should be like one line. Bullet points don't need to be paragraphs, even if you're going to go bold something. And that's where consistency comes in, treating things similarly, stylizing your fonts, your colors, so that you create a cadence. If you're going to bold something, what happens if you delete everything else that's not bolded? Is your point still there? You've just simplified your content, and now you have maybe 30 words per slide instead of 100 because you're focusing on what you're telling.

Emily Schneider [00:11:10]:
The slides and their intentions should be supporting your voiceover, should be supporting the visual or the story you're sharing. They shouldn't be the story, if that makes sense. They're like the background music. I like to use the analogy that I help my clients become the orchestra conductors. Right? The conversation conductors, just like an orchestra or a conductor in an orchestra, tells the different sections when to play their music, how loud, how soft, what comes alive, what doesn't, and they create this beautiful harmony. Exactly what your slides should do. They should reinforce what you're saying and bring that to life in a beautiful way so that people can hear it, they can see it, and then they can feel it. And in the end, that's.

Emily Schneider [00:11:51]:
That's like a win. If you can get into a room and you can create that emotional connection, you can be that. That conversation conductor and that leader. And then, of course, visuals, we never want to like, I never want to forget those. But visuals don't just mean a picture. They don't just mean a graph. They mean bringing something to life in a captivating way that really draws attention and allows somebody to digest information. So color is a huge way to bring visuals to life.

Emily Schneider [00:12:20]:
Using the same color when you're talking about a product, if you have multiple products you're talking about in your business, every time you mention a product, that product use the same color when you stylize or you're calling out data, maybe it's just treating things in a really bold way and designing them in a visual, impactful way that supports the key point you're making. And what I found and what I think is an amazing fact is that we are 65% more likely to retain information when it's visually designed. So the power of taking a bullet and making it into something that stands out, again, a data point and saying 91% of consumers believe XYZ. If you can highlight that and it's not just in body copy and it's that 91% stands out, it's bold, it's in a color that resonates with that product like we talked about, you've made such an impact, and now people are going to remember that. They're going to hear what you say and they're going to visually see it on the screen. And that impact is what you need and is the sweet spot. Icons, pictures, charts, anytime you apply those to your death, you want to create consistency. You want to use them intentionally.

Emily Schneider [00:13:29]:
Find a style and repeat that pictures can sometimes be all black and white to make a really great story. Or icons or illustrations. Create consistency with the stylizing of how you choose and what you pick. Because again, that consistency and simplicity allows your audience to really listen in and focus and use your slides as the background music. And then the last point, I know, I know there's so much here, but when you talk about data, sometimes, again, less is always. More is, again, one of my key principles, less is more. You don't always need every data point. You don't need to show every date.

Emily Schneider [00:14:06]:
If you're doing an X and Y chart, can you simplify those axes? Can you only highlight the key numbers in that chart or in that graph that you want to talk about? You can show them all. But if you can emphasize and draw attention to where you want your audience to see you remove a lot of that confusion and you allow the conversations or the questions at the end to be around the topic and the information that you want it to be and not, and not confusing them with all of the stuff that could be there.

Brandi Starr [00:14:37]:
Yeah. And I think you hit on a lot of great points.

Emily Schneider [00:14:39]:
There you go. Thank you. Sorry.

Brandi Starr [00:14:41]:
You know, I was working on a PowerPoint right before we got on, and there's a few things I'm like, I gotta go back and change that. So this is, this is always helpful. I love when I can learn from my guests as well. And so I want to kind of dig in to talking about charts and visuals because so often when we are presenting to the board, there is a lot of numbers and there's a lot of data and trends and all of the things. And I do agree that there is this, you know, strong internal need, I guess, to show all of the numbers and all of the trends and all of the things that go into this. So I'd love to hear you expand more on those ways that you're talking about, really highlighting the stuff that's important and not showing everything. Can you give a few more examples of, you know, just thinking of things we might be presenting that lend well to that advice?

Emily Schneider [00:15:44]:
Yeah, totally. I love that. And I spend a lot of work in designing charts. Right. And it's, it goes back to simplicity. It goes, it's all about, the first thing is always identifying that you have the right type of chart for the data and the story you're telling, you know, a pie chart is beautiful, but if that's, if you want to talk about the whole, you know, the whole system and then breaking it apart, it doesn't necessarily show how, how months are growing or the impact of a bar chart where you can see change and growth happening.

Brandi Starr [00:16:12]:
Right.

Emily Schneider [00:16:12]:
There's different needs for different data, and that's something that I work with my clients just to better understand what they need to say and something to think about. Each kind of chart has its own unique little nuances, I would say. But the biggest point is, can you keep taking information away in terms of labels? Do you have to have a key? Is there a way that you can color code a key somewhere else? Can you have, can you highlight copy in your, if you have a little bit of content on that side, can you highlight that copy or color or bullet that in that color that then matches the chart so you don't have to overdo or repeat information. I'm really big on, like, simplifying axes and even making them, you know, subtle, smaller, italicized, going to gray. Do you need all the lines and those information behind, or can you just have in a bar chart the bars and then can you put your data in the bar so you don't have to have. I've seen it where clients will provide the table right from Excel and the bar chart, like the design chart, do you need both? What is one doing that the other that the other is not? How do you take away information to really focus on what you need? There's also the beauty of calling out things, whether it's in highlighting, which sometimes I'll do gray boxes or dotted lines behind things to show the section of what I want to focus on in that part by bar chart, let's say. So again, if you're looking at a year long story, but you want to focus on one quarter, create a container that allows for that information to stand out, or can you push back the other, the other bars with an opacity so that one kind of stands out so you can still show everything but you're driving emphasis in that area. And then sometimes some of the things, you know, people will want to call out changes at the end and they'll kind of, or put, like, all the data on, you know, if you have a dot line chart in a way, and I'm a big emphasis of like, can we tell the date? Can we tell the story visually and then, and then on the side, call out all those things? So again, we're creating consistency and simplicity by grouping like minded things together that still, still are connected to the data but allow it to kind of sequentially tell that story.

Emily Schneider [00:18:32]:
Again, we read left to right, so how can you keep the eye moving? Because that's how we naturally will view things.

Brandi Starr [00:18:37]:
Yeah, and I, like you've said sort of repeatedly in different ways, keep taking away things to see. Like, is the message still clear? And I think when there is so much that we're doing and marketing and revenue that we want to put out there, I love that point of what, like, if we take this away, is our slide, is our message still clear? Like, what can we keep taking away till we get to the point that it is simple but also still really leaning in to the message?

Emily Schneider [00:19:10]:
Yeah, that's actually an exercise I learned early on in my career when I worked in a marketing agency with the copywriter. And we were designing point of sale. And it was like, whether it was the words itself or the visual, what can we, you know, you do that exercise until you basically get to the point where like, okay, it doesn't make sense anymore, then you add the last thing back in. Right. That's how you kind of know your bar. So it is really fun. I also going back to like, the idea of like three, two to three points per slide. I'm a big component of more slides with less on them.

Emily Schneider [00:19:38]:
It also aligns to, it allows you to talk about, really focus on what you want to say. Now, your chart might, might stay the same, but what you focus on might, you know, you might play with that again, color opacity blocking. But what you're doing also is you're visually switching things up. And we know our minds, you know, the neuroscience of how we listen. And especially, I just heard the term attend. We're in an attention economy, right? We're all and everything and anything is creating us to get distracted or that squirrel brain kind of space. And so when you can change things up subtly, you, you reengage your audience and you bring them back in. And so if you keep that story really, you know, sequential and in that flow, they can come back.

Emily Schneider [00:20:19]:
If they have wondered or if something triggered and they have an idea, when you change that visual, they're going to get stimulated. Like, oh, there's something new. I'm reengaged. And so those simple tactics really do help, again, keep your audience engaged and drive you as the leader and the thought leader to move forward.

Brandi Starr [00:20:38]:
Okay. And I want to go back to something else that you talked about, to dig into it a little bit more as well. So you talked about the beginning, middle and end. And, you know, if I think about how many board presentation scenarios go, usually there are slides and things that are sent in advance of the meeting so that the board members can kind of absorb and analyze the information. And then there is the, whether it's a zoom or everyone in a room, you know, virtual or in person room, and you are able to present those things and they're able to ask questions. And some of the challenges that I have, you know, heard others express with how they lay those slides out is they only get the option of one. Like, they can't do a, you know, send version and a present version. And so there's this balance of, I need to put enough on the slide so that without my commentary, they can make sense of it.

Brandi Starr [00:21:44]:
But I also don't want to put so much on the slide that it's hard to make sense of anything. And so, you know, thinking, well, that question is more slide to slide. But I also want to kind of talk about that beginning, middle, end transition of, like, how do we, when your presentation has to stand on its own and be absorbed and also be presented, how do you balance that storytelling, beginning, middle, end, you know, what's on the slides? Because I think that's one of the challenges. It's like, we know the story we want to tell. We know what data we have to support it, but how do we craft that in a way that fits both scenarios?

Emily Schneider [00:22:28]:
Yeah. And that is definitely a challenge.

Brandi Starr [00:22:31]:
Right.

Emily Schneider [00:22:31]:
Because you're kind of looking at from, if you think going back to, like, where your audience and your delivery, those are two different needs. And so you. It is. It is a totally a challenge. I totally get you, actually, I was just reading a book this week about slideology by Nancy Dorti, who is one of, like, the most influential presentation designers these days. And she made a suggestion that I actually haven't thought of, so I just share it, if it's possible, is put your voice over or put some more details in the notes. And then when you send that slide, you have your single slide, but you can have your notes in, like your more, like all that, whether it's your script or just more detail in this, in the notes so people can digest it. You can even kind of save it out from PowerPoint, you know, in notes view.

Emily Schneider [00:23:15]:
So I was like, oh, that's actually a great way to help somebody plan ahead but still be able to kind of craft it the way they want. But this is a great question because really, what it comes down to is understanding what is really important, what your sequence is. Even in a slide, where do you want them to look first, look second and look third. And that's where the power of visuals come in and understanding how we digest information, blocking things, creating different sections can be one way. I use a lot of, you know, gray is a great subtle background color, but it allows containers. This is where stylizing your headers or things like minded. So again, you can have multiple points on a slide, but if you start to treat things, I have a subhead and then I have some bullets and maybe some body copy, but I break things apart, little lines to the body. You can use graphics to help break the space apart very subtly, very simply, that will allow you to have more content on there without overdoing it.

Emily Schneider [00:24:18]:
And again, sometimes if you have to put everything on there, it could be a choice of what the hierarchy of communication and the sizing of things. So not only is it placement left to right, but it's sizing. And then when you can group things by containers, creating icons that can subtly go next to things again, that are kind of, here's our three things, and now we're going to break them down. And there's no shame, to be honest, in kind of looking up to like other, other inspiration slides, I get asked a lot like how is AI affecting my work? I don't think AI is ever going to overtake the touch of a human. Right? And AI is powered by humans, but there's so many great resources and just tips or tools. Just googling how do I show three parts in a nice way can give you some ideas of how to break content apart. And so there's definitely great resources out there that can be a tool to help guide you to inform decisions.

Brandi Starr [00:25:15]:
Okay, and my last question is just a little bit in a different direction because I do know you're like me and work with a variety of different clients. And so you kind of see the before and afters and hear some of those conversations and feedback. Feedback. And for those, you know, I've heard some people say, oh, the slide design doesn't matter, which, you know, always makes me clutch my pearls. But in, you know, thinking about those people who may not understand why they need to give the level of this level of effort and attention to how things are laid out and designed, what's the real business impact of when you get this right, whether it's a board presentation or, you know, anything else, versus when you don't make that effort to do the kinds of things that you're talking about.

Emily Schneider [00:26:07]:
Oh, I love that question. I feel like it's twofold. So the first, the first part is you get the decision or the, you can move your business. You can help be, again, the conductor to drive your business where you want it to go, where your vision is, and you can get those people that need to have inputs to follow along to get on the bus with you. Right. You can be the driver. And so you're not kind of thrown out or your plan or your vision. Again, it may evolve, your path might change, but when you can get everybody on board, it allows that unity and that clarity to really be for alignment.

Emily Schneider [00:26:41]:
But the other thing that I think is so powerful and I believe, and this is like part of why I love what I do, is just when you can be a confident presenter, you create credibility, authenticity, trust. You create right. You show your value. You create a brand essence and a feel, and you create and you start to start to spark that emotional and emotive connection with your audience. And I believe that presentations are just the a one on one or one to, like, room, full right conversation. And so when you can start to really talk with somebody and get your story out in a very open conversation way and not at somebody, you're going to drive that success. Not only do you feel more confident, does your, does your point, and do your points come across with more clarity? But again, you get your audience to align with where you need them to be or to make to at that point where they need the decisions that you need help with.

Brandi Starr [00:27:41]:
I absolutely love it, and I agree wholeheartedly there. And so, you know, Emily, talking about our challenges is just the first step, and nothing changes if nothing changes. And so in traditional therapy, the therapist gives the client some homework, but here at revenue rehab, we like to flip that on its head and ask you to give us some homework. So I'd love to hear your one thing. What is, for those that are listening and they realize that they need to get their presentation game together, what's that first step? What would you recommend that they do?

Emily Schneider [00:28:15]:
Plan, get ahead of it, give yourself some time to start, to map it out, to get it going. And I have a minimum of ten days with my clients in terms of normal turnaround from kickoff to final delivery, because that just not only allows me time to digest it, to work through it, to provide feedback, make edits right with them, but also for them to really get to know their. If we do it the night before, we're all over the place and it's chaotic, and it comes off as chaotic. So the more you can plan and get ahead of it and you can be intentional and you can set yourself up for success.

Brandi Starr [00:28:51]:
I really like that because if you think about it based on especially board presentations, you know, they're going to happen. Like, you don't necessarily know the date, and there's kind of a threshold. You got to wait to pull the data after a certain date so that it's fresh and all those sorts of things. But to a certain degree, you kind of know what you're going to be talking about and the story that you're trying to tell. So there are ways that you can plan and start ahead, to start to figure out some of those things and what that beginning, middle and end looks like. So that, you know, when you're in crunch time, because, you know, we're never given enough time to prepare for those sorts of meetings, that you have at least had some of that space to really think about it. And then once you have your actual data, you know, you can look at, what do I want to use? Is this consistent with the story I wanted to tell? So I really love that as an action item to give people that, you know, because I do think we do. As much as I'm a procrastinator and think I work great last minute, I do think we do all work better when we've got space to, you know, let things sit, let our brain digest and process.

Brandi Starr [00:30:04]:
So that's a good opportunity because time is always a challenge. So if we plan ahead, I think we get there. So I love it.

Emily Schneider [00:30:14]:
Yeah. I always say, like, when I'm busy, I'm such. I get so much more done. But I could, but we could, but we could, like, kind of preface that with, like, just because you have more time doesn't mean you have to give yourself endless time. Set some, set 30 minutes to start your. To start drafting out what your outline looks like. Sit down for, again an hour with PowerPoint and start laying it out. It doesn't have to mean that it's endless.

Emily Schneider [00:30:34]:
You could still create those really functional time blocks, I think, in the planning process.

Brandi Starr [00:30:41]:
Yes, I agree. Well, Emily, I have enjoyed our discussion, but that's our time for today. But before we go, tell us how our audience can connect with you and give us the shameless plug, because I'm sure there is someone listening that is like, yes, I need to talk to Emily. So definitely tell people exactly what you do.

Emily Schneider [00:31:04]:
Of course. So again, I am a visual storyteller specializing in PowerPoint design. I have a magical knack of simplifying complex information to make it more impactful and resonate better with your audiences so you can really tell the story that you want. You can find me on my website@iamelieschneider.com dot I'm also super active on LinkedIn and always love networking and connecting with people on there. A little bit of a shameless plug is if you go to my website. Under my blog I do have a one pager that has my tips that breaks down the audience, the story, the visuals and the delivery. So you could print that out or just reference it the next time you are planning your presentation.

Brandi Starr [00:31:43]:
Awesome. Well, we will make sure to link to both your LinkedIn and your website. So wherever you are listening or watching this podcast, definitely check the show notes so that you can connect with Emily. Well again, I have truly, truly enjoyed the discussion. So thanks so much for joining.

Emily Schneider [00:32:01]:
Thank you so much Brandi. It was a pleasure to be here.

Brandi Starr [00:32:03]:
Awesome and thanks everyone for joining us. I hope you have enjoyed my conversation with Emily. I can't believe we're at the end. Until next time.