Make your chart’s point CRYSTAL clear – visually & verbally [Video]

When you share a chart, how do you help your audience instantly get your point?

Often, presenters and analysts make people work way too hard to get the point of a chart!

So in this post, you’ll find 3 specific tips to help you get your point across better. They’re inspired by a great 10-minute video by Donabel Santos, which I’ll share in a pair of shorter clips below. (Plus, you’ll find the full-length video at the end of the post.)

 

What do you think of this chart?Scroll to Contents ↓

In this 10-second clip, you’ll see a very busy line chart, which the speaker will later do a makeover on. (She’s using Tableau, but you could do the same makeover in Excel, PowerPoint, or any other charting software.)

The chart shows how market share changed over time – for over 70 phone vendors:

To see more clearly, click the Full screen (⛶) button during playback.
(To exit full-screen mode, click the button again, or press Esc.)

In this post, we’ll step through the makeover shown in the full-length video. Whenever you do a chart makeover, I recommend you follow these 3 steps:Top ↑

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How to give great demos – with Andy Kriebel & Eva Murray [Video]

If you do demos at work or online, check out this fantastic video (below) from Andy Kriebel and Eva Murray.

In it, Eva shares lots of excellent tips for giving better demos, and Andy shows how clear and helpful a good demo can be.

Andy happens to be demoing software. But many of these tips apply to other demo types too. For instance, Eva shares a story (at 5:57) about learning ballroom dancing by seeing someone demonstrate the steps.

In this clip, you’ll find what I think are the best 8 minutes of advice on how you can give great demos. (Or, watch the 1-hour video this clip comes from.)

Eva starts by contrasting slide presentations (which tend to be slow and fairly easy to see) with demos (which are often fast-paced and hard to follow).

If you prefer, you can also scroll down to read a list of the tips…

Here are Eva’s tips, plus some discussion points (in italics). After you go to any of these sections of this post, you can click a time (mm:ss) to watch the relevant bit of the clip:

Teams calls – stop “unruly unmute” (and “vulgar video”)

How often do your Teams calls get disrupted by background noise? You know, like when someone thinks they’re on mute, so talks to a person next to them.

And hands up if you’ve even watched swirling video of the ceiling – or worse – from an attendee who didn’t realise their phone’s camera was on.

The latter’s what you might call “vulgar video” – and it’s so distracting!

Luckily though, you can use little-known features in Teams to take back tech control. (That way, you and your audience get a great experience – as you both deserve.)

What’s more, you can do so either:

• During your meeting
• Or in advance.

And without nagging everyone to put themselves on mute 🙂

 

Here’s how

How to avoid YouTube ads when you play videos during your talk

If you play a YouTube video in your talk, training, or Teams call, you can really engage people.

For example, a video lets you:

• Demo a technique
• Novelly share a quote
• Share an expert’s opinion

For all those reasons, I wanted to play some clips in a couple of talks I gave lately. But I was at first put off by all the ads that tend to show up on YouTube clips.

In this post, you’ll see a quick way around the ads, without violating the terms of service by downloading the video or using an ad-blocker.

To learn more, you can click any of these headings – or, just scroll down:

Banish bullets – prove you’re a pro! [@NolanHaims video]

You’ve probably heard that if you base most slides on bullet points, you’ll bore people. (Making you and your message less effective.)

But what can you do instead?

Well, below is a great 45-second clip of ideas for you:

That’s from design expert and Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Nolan Haims. I love how he uses Morph transitions to walk you through 3 options to improve your bullet points:

Tableau trouble? Recent resources to the rescue! [Videos by @sqlbelle and @TableauTim]

Here’s what you’ll find in this post:

• The case for Tableau

• “Author” and “viewer” explained

The trouble with Tableau

• Give me data – how big is Tableau?
• A newbie’s view

Help’s at hand!

• Tableau authors: 2 short videos for you
• Tableau viewers: A short video for you

Your turn

Also check out…

 

The case for TableauScroll to Contents ↑

If you don’t yet use Tableau (or a similar data visualisation tool, such as Power BI), chances are high that you may well in future. As businesses become more data-driven, I’d say presenters will use tools like Tableau more and more.

 

“Author” and “viewer” explainedScroll to Contents ↑

As a presenter, your role when you use Tableau is likely to be as either:

• an “author” – you build charts and other visualisations, then present them
• a “viewer” – you purely present visualisations built by an author

Either way, Tableau can become a core part of your toolkit:

• As an author, you can even use Tableau as your presentation software
• As a viewer, you can easily export visualisations from Tableau to PowerPoint

 

The trouble with TableauScroll to Contents ↑

But if you use Tableau, I’m betting you’ve had trouble understanding some parts of it. (I certainly have!)

After 10 years (and almost a million views), it’s time for a change

For the last 10 years, I’ve been posting once a month (or more) on this blog.

Now, with 150 posts and almost 1,000,000 views under my belt, it feels like time for a change. That’s why from now on, I’ll post less often than before.

I’m still fascinated by public speaking, data visualisation, and business communication in general. And I believe people’s need for help and inspiration in those fields is just as great as ever. So I’m sure you’ll find new tips and videos shared here from time to time.

You could say:

“It’s not goodbye, it’s just au revoir”

So until the next time, all the best with your presentations. And as this blog’s header-image says:

“Here’s to better presenting!”

 

Also check out

• Thanks a ½ million! (5th birthday news at Remote Possibilities)
• 200,000 views – and counting!
• Who uses this blog most? (1st birthday news at Remote Possibilities)

6 tips to curb your nerves in public speaking, from Alex Lyon [Video]

Because fear of public speaking’s such a huge issue, any useful advice on it’s a great help – to speakers everywhere.

So I was delighted to find a really helpful video on that topic from speaking coach Alex Lyon.

In fact, Alex posted a pair of related videos in recent weeks.

In this post, I’ll focus on the 1^st of those, which looks at ways your mindset can help to reduce your fear of public speaking. The 2^nd video (which you’ll find at the end of this post) looks at ways your behaviour can help to lessen your nerves, too.

In the 1^st video, I love how Alex starts:

“These tips will help you
cut your anxiety in half”
Alex Lyon, at 0:08

What a winning way to open! He doesn’t claim you can crush your nerves completely. And that distinction’s key to managing your fear – yet it’s all too easy to forget.

Here’s Alex’s 6-minute mindset video. (This clip skips his 40-second intro.)

For your easy reference, these are his 6 points:

DON’T tell this story, says @KindraMHall. I’m not so sure. YOU decide [Video]

If you’re like me (and most other people), you’re fascinated by stories.

As a speaker, stories also help you to connect with, to deeply engage, and even to transfix your audience.

But expert storyteller Kindra Hall has a stern warning for you:

“There is one story you should never tell
– the story that makes you cry”
Kindra Hall, at 0:05

She goes on to say:

“Crying in front of an audience
shows a lack of control and
is simply irresponsible
…You can tell I feel
strongly about that!”
Kindra Hall, at 1:35

Build your talk on messages, not topics – Secret #15 of star presenters [Video]

Have you heard of the “assertion-evidence approach” for making slides? It’s a simple, powerful, evidence-based approach to presenting your talk.

It was devised as a more effective way to share scientific findings. But you can also use its direct­ness and clarity in business – to great effect.

And that’s especially so when you present insights from analysing data. You know, like:

• customer touchpoints
• company financials
• employee survey results.

 

What’s in this post?