2½ reasons why (to me) Seth Godin’s wrong about how many words to put on your slide

Check out this startling quote by author Seth Godin about how many words you should put on a slide:

“No more than six
words on a slide.
Ever.”

(If you’d like to see the quote in context, it’s the 1^st item in the numbered list on page 7 of this PDF.)

Are you wondering where he got the magic number 6 from? I certainly am. (Sadly he doesn’t say. So Seth, if you ever happen to read this, I’d love to know why you chose the number 6.)

Apart from the seemingly arbitrary nature of Seth’s rule (which is the “½” reason mentioned in this post’s title), let’s focus on 2 types of helpful slide content that the rule would severely hamper:

How to FIX the #1 mistake when you present online

Have you read my recent post called Do you make this #1 mistake when you present online? If you have, you’ll know it asserts that the top mistake of online presenters is time-wasting, and it names 3 of the biggest symptoms:

• Spending too long on introductions
• Staying on the same slide too long
• Fixating on interaction instead of value

In that earlier post, you’ll find those 3 problems laid out, but you won’t find any solutions. So that’s where this post comes in.

Below, you’ll find ways to solve each of those 3 problems:

Why present? JFK said it all…

On her excellent public-speaking blog, Dr Michelle Mazur published a post this week called The Most Overlooked Step in Creating Great Presentations. In it, she says (if you’re like most people) you’re likely to start preparing for a talk by making slides, whereas you’d be better served by first working out what type of talk you’ll give:

Do I want my audience to know something,
to do something immediately after my talk,
or to feel something?

I agree about how most speakers prepare, as I wrote here, but I disagree about there being 3 types of presentations:

• Informative (Know something)
• Emotive (Feel something)
• Persuasive (Do something)

Let me explain why I disagree with that 3-part model.

How consistent should you make your slides? (I say “Go for cohesion instead”)

Has anyone ever said you should make your slides more consistent? What was the issue, and how did you respond? (I’d love you to leave a comment at the end of this post with your own thoughts and experiences on consistency.)

Last week, speaking coach Susan Trivers wrote a short post called Avoid uniformity for the sake of uniformity. It resonated so much with me – and consistency is probably a hot topic for you too – so I hope you find both this post and Susan’s helpful.

Susan wrote:

“During a recent discussion …people were pushing for [several slides’] titles to read either Improvements or Innovations, even though what was being proposed [on the slides] were neither all of one or all of the other.”

Here’s my 1^st thought on those slides:

Toastmasters vs. Speaking Circles – what are their strengths?

Odds are, you want to improve your public speaking – no matter what your skill level is. Happily you’ve several options, one of the best-known being Toastmasters. (If it’s new to you, you can watch how Toastmasters meetings work in a professional video.)

A second option is Speaking Circles, first founded in the US by Lee Glickstein. You can read chapter 1 of Lee’s book Be Heard Now! online. I thought the chapter was extremely intriguing and appealing, so in this post I’ll highlight the key differences between the Toastmasters and Speaking Circles approaches.

6 of the world’s best blogs for presenters

If you’re looking for world-class blogs to help you present, here are 6 of the very best…

• Speaking About Presenting

http://speakingaboutpresenting.com/
Blogger: Olivia Mitchell
Posting frequency: Sadly there’ve been no new posts since February 2012 – but the site has years of archives, and Olivia is still publishing readers’ comments.

To me, Speaking About Presenting has some of the world’s best content on the topic, and also includes many useful comments from other top bloggers. Two of the blog’s real strengths are that the content is so concise, and so well thought out.

Make killer PowerPoint presentations in 7 clear steps (Free e-booklet by Olivia Mitchell)

Quick quiz: In a 7-step method for building killer PowerPoint presentations, at which step would you make the slides?

Step 1? …Step 2? …Step 3?

Any advance on step 3?

Well in this tried-and-tested method by presentation expert Olivia Mitchell, you may be staggered to hear you don’t make the slides until…

“Analog” presentation tips #2: Use a prop [Video to watch]

Want to connect more with your audience? And want your talk to stand out and be remembered, too? In this short series of posts, you’ll get many neat tips from expert presenters on using “analog” techniques – that is, without electronics – to help you reach those key goals.

That’s how I introduced the 1^st post in this series.

Make a point far more strongly…

In this post, you’ll see superb use of a prop to make a point far more strongly than a slide alone ever could. The presenter uses a few slides and video clips, certainly, but he doesn’t let them upstage him. That in itself’s a huge takeaway from this talk!

“Analog” presentation tips #1: Use a flipchart [Video to watch]

Want to connect more with your audience?
And want your talk to stand out and be remembered, too?

In this short series of posts, you’ll get many neat tips from expert presenters on using “analog” techniques – that is, without electronics – to help you reach those key goals of connecting, standing out and being remembered.

Giving a sales presentation? Turn the process on its head to win the deal [Video]

Are you selling in a tough environment? This 2½-minute video shows you how to stand out from the crowd, by being the person who uniquely matches your prospect’s reason for buying.