One idea a week to help you teach and present with more clarity, confidence, and calm. No fluff. No scripts. Just practical tools that land.
I’ll just talk through this slide…”
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“I’ll just talk through this slide…” Harmless phrase, right? Except it usually means: 👉 I haven’t crafted a message - just collected some slides. 💡 ONE IDEA WELLThis is one of the most common traps for early presenters: Thinking the slide is the presentation. But here’s the truth: Slides support your message. They shouldn’t be your message. If your audience can get everything they need from the slide, they don’t need you. And if they can’t make sense of the slide without you, they’re probably lost anyway. Slides aren’t scripts. They’re scaffolding. You still have to build the bridge. 🧰 LESS MESS, MORE MESSAGETry this instead: 🎯 Before designing a single slide, ask: “What’s the one thing I want them to remember?” 🎤 Then structure your talk around that message. Only after that— build slides that reinforce, clarify, or illustrate. 👉 Bonus trick: Say it out loud like a voiceover. If the slide can’t survive without narration, you’re on the right track. 🧭 ASK YOURSELF THISIf the projector died…
would I still know what to say?
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TEACHING ISN’T A SCRIPT. NEITHER IS THIS.
One idea a week to help you teach and present with more clarity, confidence, and calm. No fluff. No scripts. Just practical tools that land.
✈️ Airport Thoughts Right now, I’m at the airport waiting to board a flight to Adelaide. Tomorrow, I’ll be stepping onto the stage at Compassion Revolution to do something I’ve never done before. No slides.No clicker.Just me, the audience, and the words I’ve chosen. 🎤 A Talk, or a Performance? Most of the time, I tell people not to memorise every word. Instead: Know your beats.Know where the story turns.Know the feeling behind each section. But this talk… is different. This one’s more like a...
Ever sit through a talk that starts with a mystery — and ends without solving it? It’s like watching a movie that opens on a gun resting on a desk. You notice it. You wait for it. But the payoff never comes. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL Chekhov’s Gun is a simple rule of storytelling: If you show the audience a gun in Act I, you’d better fire it by Act III. In your talk, the “gun” might be a provocative question, a compelling stat, or a case that promises a twist. And if you don’t circle back? You leave...
A few weeks ago, I was invited to run a workshop on public speaking. Along with the invitation came a slide template - the official university-branded deck. You know the kind: big logos, gradient backgrounds, clip-art flair. This was the opening slide they asked me to use: I get it. It's well-intentioned. There’s an event logo. There's my name. There's even a helpful purple mist. But I didn’t use it. Here’s what I used instead: Why? Because your first slide isn’t just a title card. It’s a...