What's Your Presentation Style?

In my more formative years, I was very interested in design and visual presentation. In fact, my first business was actually selling nicely designed sheets of paper with people’s name’s on them in the 5th grade. I sold them for $5 a piece to all the kids after they saw mine. Needless to say, it was a profitable venture ;)

Beyond that, I’ve been quite obsessed with making myself a better communicator. The pursuit of this lead me to study more about psychology, sociology, writing and grammar, and once again visual design. I got A’s on my papers in college, but making the covers was the most rewarding part for me.

Yesterday we had a planning meeting for the pitching phase of our venture. We’re gearing up to start pitching several strategic investors, angels, and VCs - in that order. I’ve prepared many slides already and, while they are quite telling, I’m still not happy with them. I’m not happy with them because I know what a good presentation is and I’m not there. How could I not know, I’ve been influenced by some of the best.

I recently was delighted to find the Presentation Zen Blog. I don’t care what you think you know about selling anything, you should be reading this. The blog has been discussing the different styles of many of the best presenters - some of them with blow-by-blow precision.

So here’s the styles that are outlined so far (and my personal attachment to them).

The Kawasaki Method

I first was exposed to Guy Kawasaki's methods by way of a crash course I took one weekend several years ago. Ironically enough, I was researching the Real Estate business and attended a Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco. Guy was the keynote at that conference. A few days later, I was at the Garage.com Bootcamp and, again, Guy was the main speaker throughout the day. I took the first chance I had to compliment him and tell him I was inadvertently stalking him.

More recently, I picked up Guy’s new book, The Art of the Start. I read the book quickly and was really impressed that Guy detailed quite succinctly what he thinks makes the best presentation. Literally, it breaks things down slide-by-slide.

I topped off this experience in April when I produced our first Sparkcast for the conference. It was more than awesome to be a part of the Art of the Start Conference and to see it live on the big screen.

You can find out more about the Kawasaki Method here.

The Godin Method

I've been reading Seth Godin books for what seems like ages now. At the same time, I have been an advocate of his writings and have passed along many copies in my time. Ironically, however, I never did get to see him present.

All of that changed in June of this year. Seth does a summer internship. This internship was interesting because he was planning on launching a new service (his biggest idea ever). Naturally, I couldn’t resist the temptation so I applied for the internship. I was quite excited to become a member of the team.

My first Seth Godin presentation was delivered in the most ironic of places. It was only 30 minutes after picking up the rest of the team from the airport that we were seated in a small Thai restaurant in Queens. Seth pulled several posterboards from a black bag and began to tell us the story of Squidoo. The project is not live yet, and this is the first time I’ve mentioned my involvement, but it will definitely be something to marvel at.

You can find out more about the Godin Method here.

I’m certainly not a master presenter, yet. I’ve got very little problem talking to large groups of strangers, but making sure your illustrations, both verbal and visual, are concise and meaningful is an art worth of mastery.

What’s your presentation style? Do you have slides to share?