Lessons
Class Introduction
04:44 2Course Walkthrough and Philosophy
03:59 3Preparing Logistics
14:49 4Preparing Content
15:11 5Ready, Set, Go! (Green, Yellow, & Red Scenarios)
07:00 6The Outline
16:45 7The Deck
22:01 8Presenter Notes
05:15Lesson Info
Presenter Notes
First thing I wanna talk about in the notes section is what notes work best for you? I don't have any hard and fast rules about presenter notes, because I find that every situation that I work in is a little bit different. So let's talk about some of the examples of notes. And I've actually color coded these a little bit, so we have green, kind of an orange, a red and a yellow here. So the first thing I wanna talk about is a script. Scripts can be extremely useful if you are not used to presenting in front of a live audience. It gives presenters comfort, they know that everything's written out, and it works really well in a green presentation level. And the reason why it works well in green presentations is because you'll wanna make sure that your script is pretty well matched up to your visual content if you're using any. One of the downfalls of using a script, which is why it also works well in a green presentation, is because as you're working in, as you're making revisions to your ...
script, you need to be making those exact same revisions to your deck. So if you change the order of something, you gotta change the order of the deck. Which is why the notes and the deck are often created in conjunction with each other. And this, by the way, is a full script. It's a little bit different than the cards, which I'll talk about in a second. So as you're developing your script, you're gonna wanna make sure that you make notes as to where the slide changes are going to be. Again, even though I don't prefer using a script myself, I am not opposed to it. I think some people find it very comfortable to use it. And you're gonna wanna think about using a script a little bit differently if you do those other levels of deck or if you have a little bit higher pressure. And the next item I wanna talk about are cards. Cards are a very short version of a script. A nice way to look at something very quickly. Again, you have it in your hand. There's something about it that's very comforting to do. I personally don't use cards. I try to use my design or my deck as my cards. And that's actually something to note. If you've designed a deck well, or your visuals to your presentation well, then they should be able to act as your prompt and your cards throughout the entire presentation. If you need to say something on a card, ask yourself why you're saying it and you're not showing it. Now that could be because you just don't have the time to find a visual to go along with the point, which is totally fine, or the point has come a little bit later and you're kinda past that new content creation deadline that you've set for yourself. Again, that's totally fine. Then it's really important to write that stuff down to make sure you mention it, because you're not gonna be showing it. But if you're in a yellow level presentation, you may still have a little bit of time to take that note that you made in your card and add it to your deck somewhere. Even if it's just as a single slide, a single image, or a single word. Or maybe adding it in to a same slide, but just getting that note in to the deck in addition to on a card. Cards are also great because you can reorder them, again, that's why it's great for a yellow presentation. Because you're gonna have to reorder your deck as well. And you wanna make sure that they're all in sync. The next item that I have is a little bit between the red and the yellow levels, so it's a little bit more efficient than cards, but it's in-app notes. Some programs, like Keynote or PowerPoint, come naturally with in-app notes, presenter notes, that can be either presented on a different screen or on a different monitor. And those are really helpful. They're the exact same as cards, but you don't look like you're actually holding something. In-app notes are also great because it reminds you that as you're changing a slide, you're also changing the corresponding notes. And if you're moving a slide from one section to another, you're moving those notes. So that's why it's a little bit more efficient than cards, which is really helpful. But it's still not something that we wanna rely on when you do a red level deck. And that's the one that I wanna talk about next. So, like I mentioned before, if you design your deck efficiently and well, and it's truly visual and impactful, then you should not have to have any other notes than the deck itself. That's what I'm doing here, that's what I usually like to do, because like I said, the things that I talk about should always be visual, and the things that I'm showing should be the things that I'm talking about. It also is really efficient to just create one thing and have that thing be the anchor of your entire presentation. So that means that I'm not doing anything else but creating one deck. That deck is my visuals, it was also my outline, so it evolved from my outline in to my visuals, and it's also my notes. Because it was created properly. There's nothing about it that is superfluous, or there's nothing about it that I need to talk about but it's not on the deck. So that's why the deck is the most important part of your notes when you're using a red level presentation.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Jude Temianka
Great course with lots of handy tips. I often find myself having to prepare and give presentations at short notice, and a lot of the preparatory advice that Matt gives falls by the wayside as I frantically jump straight into production mode. I often have the feeling to overwhelm my audience with too much information because I don't take the time to step back and determine what content matters most. Super tangible advice that I will be implementing!
Tomas Verver
As a presentator designer I think Matt has an interesting approach on how to create and deliver impactful presentations. Presentations are important part of you career. Presentations can change the company's future, your own future and the world. Making them impactful is very important. At the moment we have still many presentations but many can improve big time. And we have more presentations online (at) the moment.
Rebecca
Found this course concise and informative. Would recommend to all who have to do presentations.