“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 WELL This 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...
9 days ago • 1 min read
My first talk in English class was about bats. I was 14.I brought in a desiccated pipistrelle to show everyone.Instead of an acetate, I held up a wallpaper scroll I'd drawn with outlines of bat species. Another student read a piece on VW Combi vans. No images. No props. Just words. I had figured out you could do it the same way it had always been done.Or you could do something different.More memorable. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL We often treat presentations like assignments.Say the thing. Prove you know...
16 days ago • 1 min read
You make a Star Trek reference.“Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a…”Nothing. Blank faces. Then it hits you - they weren’t born when The Next Generation ended, let alone the original series. The cultural shorthand you’ve used for years? It’s become static. "The audience do not know who Dr McCoy is. I find that… troubling." 💡 ONE IDEA WELL Know your references. Know your audience. Every speaker carries assumptions.But the most dangerous?That your cultural references are shared. That Matrix slide?...
23 days ago • 1 min read
“I must not fear.Fear is the mind-killer.Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.I will face my fear.I will permit it to pass over me and through me.And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing.Only I will remain.” — The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, Dune (Frank Herbert) Most of us will never battle sandworms or sit on the throne of Arrakis.But we do know fear.Not fear of death, but of public...
30 days ago • 1 min read
IKEA knows something most presenters don’t:People value what they’ve helped build. And it’s not just flatpacks. Ideas stick better when we’ve worked for them. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL The IKEA Effect describes how people place higher value on things they’ve built themselves, even when the finished product is flawed. That cheap bookshelf?Feels priceless when you assembled it. In communication, the same rule applies: When your audience has to make meaning, they don’t resent the effort.They own the...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Ever tried reading a dense slide while someone talks over it?You remember neither.That’s the split attention effect in action. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL When text and narration compete, everyone loses.Cognitive load increases. Retention disappears.And your message gets buried in the noise. This is the split attention effect - when visuals and speech demand attention at the same time, but don’t align. And yet, most of us still do this without realising… They show complete sentences and talk through...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
“I saw a study that said speaking in front of a crowd is the number one fear of the average person. Number two was death. That means if you’re at a funeral, you’d rather be in the casket… than doing the eulogy.” - Jerry Seinfeld 🎥 Watch the bit (30 sec)(It’s classic Seinfeld, and honestly, not far from the truth.) 💡 ONE IDEA WELL The fear is real.But the stat is misleading. We’re not afraid of speaking.We do it every day. What we fear is being judged while speaking - Being watched.Making a...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
“I’m sorry about this busy slide.” We’ve all heard it. Some of us have even said it. But here’s the thing: If your audience can’t read it, it isn’t helping them. And if it isn’t helping them, it’s not doing its job. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL Clarity isn’t about dumbing things down.It’s about making your message land. Busy slides don’t make you look clever.They make it harder to follow your story. Even the most complex ideas can be delivered with clarity - if you design with your audience in mind. One...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
We spend so much time making things look polished - obsessing over slides, animations, transitions. But sometimes, clarity comes from stripping things away. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL When the projector failed, everything worked better. I was mid-way through an ALS course, ready to deliver the “Cardiac Arrest in Special Circumstances” lecture. I’d done it many times. The generic slide deck was burned into my brain - blue background, yellow Comic Sans, and all. But then the slide projector failed. No...
2 months ago • 1 min read