Six Minutes » Book Reviews

Book Review: The Wealthy Speaker by Jane Atkinson

Andrew Dlugan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:42:03 +0000

If you dream of speaking one hour for $15,000, this book is for you.

If you have absolutely no idea how to get there, this book will show you what is required.

Jane Atkinson’s The Wealthy Speaker: The Proven Formula for Building Your Successful Speaking Business is packed with advice to prepare you to make the jump to $15,000 speaking fees, whether you are six months or six years away.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

What will you learn from The Wealthy Speaker?

The Wealthy Speaker is a comprehensive insider’s view of the speaking industry. Jane Atkinson guides you through all aspects of a keynote speaker’s business, including:

Positioning yourself as an expert first, speaker second
Developing your message
Setting and negotiating fees
Development of marketing materials
Creation of your website and demo video
Building your contact database
Working with speaker’s bureaus and event planners
Growing your business and hiring staff
Selling products

The Wealthy Speaker is written with authority, and Atkinson’s extensive expertise in the speaking industry is apparent. This isn’t a book with theoretical ideas that might work. These are lessons learned from her successes and failures in the trenches.

“A good speaker can talk on a variety of topics, but a Wealthy Speaker focuses on one topic, one expertise, one set of speech materials — or even one speech — under the same umbrella.”

-- Jane Atkinson

Numerous case studies highlight successful speakers and industry insiders. These are fairly short (1-2 pages), but highly enlightening.

Throughout the book, you’ll also find worksheets and personal assessments. These exercises are well-designed to help you apply the lessons to your personal situation.

As a final note, you won’t find much information here at all about honing your speaking skills. And that’s a good thing because that’s not what this book is about. I was happy to see this book kept its focus on the business of speaking, not the mechanics.

What I wish was in The Wealthy Speaker

As much as I learned from The Wealthy Speaker, it’s not perfect. You cannot cover everything in 208 pages. So, what’s missing?

First, as Atkinson states early in the book, the book has a bias towards business models based primarily on keynote speaking. So, you won’t find specific information here to carve out a wealthy career as a trainer, seminar leader, or speaking coach. Perhaps we’ll have to wait for the sequel: The Wealthy Trainer?

“There is no better marketing than a great speech.”

-- Jane Atkinson

Second, a few topics could use more treatment.

For example, the section on website management is thin. To be fair, Atkinson defers to “experts” for this topic. The topics which comprise her core expertise (e.g. positioning, marketing, speaker’s bureaus) are handled much better.
The information on contracts also feels skimpy. I expected to find more samples and a richer resource here. Perhaps the rationale here is that wealthy speakers delegate the contract work to staff?

Third, while the table of contents is detailed, there’s no index or appendices (e.g. a list of all the resource websites mentioned throughout the book). This reduces the usefulness of The Wealthy Speaker as a reference tool. Maybe this will be added in the second edition?

The Bottom Line

The Wealthy Speaker is excellent value, and easily worth the purchase price. An investment of $11.53 is a small, small price for gaining so much knowledge.

About the Author – Jane Atkinson

Jane Atkinson has 15 years of experience helping speakers secure more bookings at higher fees. She is a business coach for speakers, specializing in positioning and marketing. You can read more about her on her website: Speaker Launcher.

Jane previously shared her expertise as a guest author on Six Minutes with 6 Key Steps to Dip Your Toe into the Professional Speaking Pool.

Have a Question?

Contact me anytime,
or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Book Review: Better Beginnings by Carmen Taran

Andrew Dlugan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:27:52 +0000

You know that the start of your presentation is critical to grab attention. [You did read Peter Jeff's recent article with 5 ways to start your speech, right?]

But do you know how to develop a mindset that will enable you to devise effective speech openings?

Carmen Taran’s Better Beginnings: How to capture your audience in 30 seconds is a one-of-a-kind book entirely dedicated to helping you master this critical speaking skill.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

What’s the best thing about Better Beginnings?

Most speech opening advice begins by telling you the types of openings you can try. For example, you might open with a personal story, a startling statistic, or a quotation. However, none of these types of openings are inherently focused on your audience. (A story or statistic can be focused on the audience, but it might not be.)

I really like the approach taken in Better Beginnings because it is organized not around types of openings, but according to the emotional or cognitive response you would like to trigger in your audience. Audience-focused!

Better Beginnings guides you to spark the desired response in your audience, with the following chapters:

“A good speaker with bad beginnings is like a fitness trainer who smokes.”

-- Carmen Taran

Anticipation
Specificity
Inquiry
Incongruity
Novelty
Uncertainty
Complexity
Ease of Comprehension
Indulgence
Staging

Each chapter includes numerous examples to illustrate how you can generate the desired response in your audience. This includes not only what to say, but how to say it and stage it. Consider these examples:

Incongruity (conflict between what your audience expects and what is actually said)

Like many of the great blues and jazz artists of our time, I found myself onstage at Carnegie Hall high on drugs.”

Novelty (new ideas competing with existing norms)

Our customers have been used to square tea bags. What if we made them round?

Who should read Better Beginnings?

I think every speaker will benefit from this book, whether you speak with visuals or off the cuff, to investors or children.

It is the most thorough treatment I’ve ever seen for starting your speech.

A Coffee Table Book about Speaking?

“Good intros make listeners hold their heads still and focus, with widened eyes and parted or pouted lips. These body cues should be your measurement for delivering great beginnings.”

-- Carmen Taran

The format of the book is also unique — it’s a coffee table book! On every other page, you will find a full-page photograph to complement the writing and further spark your creativity.

Because of all the images, Better Beginnings is a quick read. Most books that I review take me two weeks to read through. I finished Better Beginnings in just two relaxing evenings before bed.

Visually, this book will stand out from every other one on your bookshelf, your coffee table, or your bedside table.

About the Author – Carmen Taran

Carmen Taran has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design, a Master’s degree in Multimedia Design, and a Doctorate in Instructional Technology. She is a co-founder of Rexi Media, a presentation skills consulting firm.

In the brief video below (click here if you don’t see it), she pitches the key strengths of Better Beginnings.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Book Review: Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer

Andrew Dlugan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:34:35 +0000

Garr Reynolds, Nancy Duarte, and Cliff Atkinson are the authors of three hugely popular books on presentation design in the last five years.

What else do all three have in common? They all point to Richard E Mayer’s Multimedia Learning as recommended reading for presentation design.

And I agree.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

How does Multimedia Learning compare to other books?

Let’s set the context:

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds (previously reviewed here)
Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte (previously reviewed here)
Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson

All three of these are:

More popular than Mayer’s work. [In fact, these are three of the 9 most popular books on PowerPoint, according to amazon.com.]
More applied in nature.
More directly tied to public speaking.

Yet, all three offer advice which is, in part, based upon research explained by Mayer in Multimedia Design.

So, who should read Multimedia Learning?

Given that Richard Mayer is a professor of psychology, it is not surprising that Multimedia Learning is written in an academic style. I believe it is this style which hinders its mainstream appeal. (And the pedestrian cover design.)

However, the content is fascinating and provides scientific explanations which leads to deep understanding of much of the contemporary approach to slide design.

For this reason, I think the primary audience for Multimedia Learning is:

Professors, teachers, and trainers who create, design, and deliver instructional courses
Professionals who are frequently involved with slide design
Public speaking instructors and coaches

12 Principles You Learn from Multimedia Learning

“Multimedia Learning is fascinating and provides scientific explanations which leads to deep understanding of much of the contemporary approach to slide design.”

Mayer’s work is organized around 12 key principles. Each chapter introduces the principle, describes the methodology used to study it, and summarizes research results.

Coherence Principle
People learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included.
Signaling Principle
People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added.
Redundancy Principle
People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text.
Spatial Contiguity Principle
People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen.
Temporal Contiguity Principle
People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.
Segmenting Principle
People learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.
Pre-training Principle
People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts.
Modality Principle
People learn better from graphics and narration than from animation and on-screen text.
Multimedia Principle
People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.
Personalization Principle
People learn better from multimedia lessons when words are in conversational style rather than formal style.
Voice Principle
People learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice.
Image Principle
People do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speaker’s image is added to the screen.

About Richard E. Mayer

Richard E. Mayer is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

From his home page:

His current research involves the related disciplines of cognition, instruction, and technology with a special focus on multimedia learning and computer-supported learning. [...]

He was ranked #1 as the most productive educational psychologist in the world for 1991-2001. [...]

He is the author of more than 390 publications including 23 books, such as Multimedia Learning: Second Edition (2009), Learning and Instruction: Second Edition (2008), E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Second Edition (with R. Clark, 2008), and the Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (editor, 2005).

Get Your Copy or Read Other Reviews

Title: Multimedia Learning
Author: Richard E. Mayer
ISBN: 0521735351
Get a copy from your local bookstore, or from these online sources (also with additional reviews):
- amazon.com
- amazon.ca
- amazon.co.uk
- amazon.de

Book Review: You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard (Bert Decker)

Andrew Dlugan — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:07:27 +0000

Bert Decker’s revised edition of You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard was one of many books recommended by Six Minutes readers last year.

Now I know why.

Decker’s public speaking classic is a comprehensive book which deserves to be on your public speaking bookshelf.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

There is much to like in Decker’s book. To keep this review shorter than the book itself, I’ll focus on the three parts of the book that stand out the most for me.

1. Emotion and the First Brain

The first half of the book establishes the case that effective communicators (Decker describes these as New Communicators) understand the importance of emotion in the communications process. That is, communication is more than logical arguments. More than facts and figures. More than metaphors and triads.

“It’s the listener’s First Brain that makes the decision whether or not to trust and believe the speaker.”

-- Bert Decker

Decker explains the importance of emotion by reasoning that our brains are composed of two parts:

The New Brain – the intellectual part of the human brain which reasons and processes at a conscious level, and
The First Brain – the nonreasoning, nonrational, subconscious, primitive part of the brain.

The First Brain, he argues, acts as a powerful filter. Before your message can even get to the New Brain, it must first pass by the First Brain. For that to happen, you must connect emotionally.

2. Communication = Leadership ?

“When people have confidence in someone as a communicator, they have confidence in that person, period.”

-- Bert Decker

Decker asserts that communication and leadership are intimately linked. He clearly reasons that to effectively communicate is to be a leader; to be a leader is to effectively communicate.

Decker is not unique here. I, too, hold the belief that communication and leadership are joined at the hip. However, Decker is so persuasive on this point that, as I was reading, I began to wonder whether leadership and communication are actually the same thing. Are they really separate concepts at all?

3. Speechwriting and Delivery Tips Abound!

While the first half of the book is somewhat theoretical, the second half is packed with practical tips for speechwriting and delivery.

Here are just a few of the public speaking issues addressed by Decker in You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard:

Eye contact,
Posture and movement,
Dress and appearance,
Gestures,
Vocal variety,
Word selection,
Pauses,
Fear of speaking,
SHARPs (Stories and examples, Humor, Analogies, References and quotations, Pictures and visual aids), and
A comprehensive speech organization method he names The Decker Grid System.

These tips can be found in other books or blogs, in one form or another. The great value here is descriptions offered by Decker, and the relationships he makes between them and the concepts introduced earlier in the book. For example, Decker offers insights into public speaking fear drawn from the First Brain concepts.

What Could be Improved?

I loved this book, but it’s not perfect.

“The profound role of the First Brain in the communications process has been virtually ignored by communications experts and theorists until now.”

-- Bert Decker

Is emotion ignored in traditional communications training?
Decker claims that the role of the First Brain (that is, the importance of emotion in communication) has been “virtually ignored by communications experts”. While I concede that many traditional public speaking books underestimate the importance of emotion, I think “virtually ignored” is overstating it. For example, one of the oldest books on the topic of public speaking — Aristotle’s On Rhetoric – recognizes emotional appeals as one of the three primary forms of persuasion. Aristotle’s lessons have may have been skewed a bit, but they are not ignored.
Slow start
When I read a book for review, I mark the page whenever there’s a key insight or a golden quote. In the first 75 pages of this book, I only marked two pages. By contrast, I marked 15 in the final 150 pages. Those first 75 pages ran through a large number of politicians, business leaders, and celebrities, and labelled them as either old (bad) or new (good) communicators. The analysis isn’t superficial, but I still would have liked to see deeper analysis here to demonstrate the positive and negative communication traits. It’s difficult to do this, however, in print… perhaps this book needs a companion DVD?

About the Author – Bert Decker

Bert Decker is the CEO of Decker Communications, a communications training company that has worked with hundreds of thousands of executives, managers, and salespeople in the past 30 years.

Bert is the author of several books, including Creating Messages that Motivate and You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard.

And he writes a public speaking blog too.

What Others are Saying about You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard

Nancy Duarte:

This updated version of Bert’s book is fantastic.

Mark Sanborn:

This book is a classic bestseller that has been revised and updated … I recommend it.

Trent Hamm:

You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard is brilliant at helping you to become a better speaker mechanically by breaking down speaking into lots of little, practicable pieces.

If you’re involved with public speaking – or would like to be – You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard is a very worthwhile read.

Chris Spagnuolo:

The book concludes with a section on organizing your content to create a focused message… Bert’s proven Decker Grid System. … It’s a simple method, but one that I find to be extremely powerful in helping deliver targeted messages to the needs and wants of your audience. I’ve been using it for about three months now and I am amazed at the results.

Jeff Bailey:

This is THE book on presentation that you have been looking for: If you learn the contents it will literally improve your life. I don’t say that lightly and I am not exaggerating — I mean it!

Book Review: Advanced Presentations by Design by Andrew Abela

Andrew Dlugan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:06:30 +0000

I wish all my colleagues would read this business communications book.

Advanced Presentations by Design: Creating Communication that Drives Action offers a comprehensive approach to planning and designing presentations focused on selling ideas and persuading your audience.

This article reviews the recently authored book from presentations expert Andrew Abela. It is the latest in a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

There is much to love about Advanced Presentations by Design. Here are a few of my favorite things about this book.

I Love… the Comprehensive Speech Preparation Framework

This book is quite broad in scope. It covers all aspects of presentation design, from audience analysis all the way through the creation of visuals.

It is well-structured, and follows a 10-step method which you can follow to prepare your presentation. In each step, the author guides you to answer the following questions.

Audience — Who is your (most important) audience?
Objectives — What is your objective for this presentation?
Problem / Solution — What business problem are you helping to provide a solution for?
Evidence — What evidence are you offering to support your solution?
Anecdotes — Which anecdotes illustrate your message?
Sequencing — In what sequence will you present your evidence?
Charts — Which charts will best convey your data?
Layouts — What layout will you use for each slide?
Stakeholders — Have you addressed the concerns of each stakeholder?
Measurement — How will you measure the success of your presentation?

The first six topics offer compelling arguments for devoting adequate time to clearly structuring your ideas and arguments before diving into the mechanics of slide design.

I Love… the Support Material (Diagrams, References)

Abela achieves a rare feat with this book. He manages to maintain quite a broad scope, while at the same time providing significant depth in exploring key topics.

This is accomplished through a variety of techniques:

Detailed descriptions with numerous examples and anecdotes;
Numerous diagrams to illustrate key concepts; and
Dozens of supplementary notes in the margins, backed by a full 9 pages of references in the appendix. Nearly every claim that Abela makes is supported by a corresponding reference to an authoritative text or academic paper in communications, marketing, or visual design.

“The challenges facing anyone making a presentation today are greater than they have ever been, just at the time when the need to present complex information effectively has become more important than ever.”

-- Andrew Abela

I Love… the Practical and Action-Oriented Style

This is not a boring, theoretical textbook.

This book owes its origins to presentation design workshops given by Abela for many years. The concepts and material evolved through each iteration, and are captured here in book form.

These origins are evident throughout the text. At times, it hardly seems like you are reading this book; instead, it seems you are following along in an interactive workshop. Practical examples are numerous. Worksheets are even provided for you to apply the concepts directly to your own presentation materials.

I’m sure it is no accident that the reader is driven to actively apply the techniques learned. Indeed, this reflects the subtitle of the book: Creating Communication That Drives Action.

I Love… the Innovative Concepts that I Look Forward to Applying

As I read through this book, several meaty concepts really jumped out at me. Three of the most memorable are the S.Co.R.E. method, the Squint Test, and the Ballroom vs Conference Room presentation style distinction.

S.Co.R.E. Method (Situation, Complication, Resolution, Example)
Abela offers this as a universally applicable storytelling structure upon which you can base your entire presentation. It is an iterative method — S.Co.R.E, Co.R.E, Co.R.E., Co.R.E., etc. — with the example from one iteration leading naturally into the next most important complication from your audience viewpoint.
Squint Test
Abela suggests that the best test for effective slide design is whether or not the slide conveys meaning when you squint at it (to blur it). Thus, if the shapes and layout of the slide convey meaning, you have a winning slide. This is an application of the Principal of Compatibility, as described in Kosslyn’s Clear and To the Point.
Ballroom Style vs. Conference Room Style
Abela asserts that presentations fall into one of two contexts, and this context should influence your choice of slide design considerably.
- Ballroom Presentations — colorful, vibrant, photograph-heavy slides, large audiences (e.g. the types of presentations addressed by Duarte’s slide:ology or Reynolds’ Presentation Zen)
- Conference Room Presentations — less flashy, more details, handouts rather than slides, smaller audiences

What Could be Improved?

The last two steps of the framework (Stakeholders and Measurement) receive minimal treatment. I would like to see more attention (and thus more pages) devoted to exploring these concepts, particularly because most speaking books do not address them adequately.
The Rhetoric section (the Anecdotes and Sequencing steps) addresses only macro-content: individual stories, as well as overall speech structure. I think this section could be enhanced by exploring some micro-content techniques such as repetition of key words or phrases, crafting of signature phrases, or the importance of precise words to promote action from the audience.
While the concept is thought-provoking, I don’t completely buy into his clear distinction between Ballroom and Conference Room presentations. Thinking of my own presentations, seminars, and courses, nearly all call for a combination of both methods. (Perhaps that is the key lesson to learn?)
This is nitpicking, but the cover needs a makeover. The simple design doesn’t grab me visually. More significantly, it fails the Squint Test, and the graphic elements seem gratuitous.

About the Author — Andrew Abela

Dr. Andrew Abela is an authority on marketing, persuasion, and presentation methods.

Dr. Abela is an associate professor of marketing at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He was previously a brand manager with Proctor & Gamble and a management consultant with McKinsey and Company.

He authors the Extreme Presentation Method blog, an excellent blog which is often cited in the Six Minutes reviews.

What Others are Saying about Advanced Presentations by Design

Juice Analytics:

If you make presentations for a living or just as a hobby, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book. Abela does an impressive job of teaching his process and keeping it interesting.

ShockMD.com:

Advanced presentation has to my opinion the most appeal to scientist[s] also because the author has based his method on research studies, an evidence based approach to presentations.

Tracy Allison Altman:

But the book is more than a recap of scientific findings: He writes from the perspective of a marketer and business manager, offering practical, evidence-based advice about how to focus on a problem your audience has, and how to show them you can help solve it.

Juan Carlos Mendez-Garcia:

I have attended his seminars, and definitely recommend his method. For anyone interested in improving their presentation skills, and generating action out of their presentations, it is must-read.

Balanced Scorecard: (based on translation)

[...] well worth the investment of time and money [...] well worth reading [...]

Ellen Naylor:

“Advanced Presentations by Design” is a great book you might consider [...] His one-day workshop was one of the best I have attended [...]

Make Money Speaking – Book Review: Rain Making (Ford Harding)

Andrew Dlugan — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:02:43 +0000

Maybe you are (or want to be) a professional speaker seeking to make more money by finding new clients?

Maybe you are a professional who would like to leverage your speaking skills to grow your business?

In either case, this book is for you.

This is a book review of Ford Harding’s book – Rain Making: Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field — which offers abundant advice for marketing your skills through speaking, writing, and other pursuits.

What’s in Rain Making?

Rainmaking is divided into four main parts:

Marketing
Covers basic strategies for building your reputation and generating leads.
Networking
Describes the myriad ways to build your professional network and maintain it.
Sales Tactics
Uncovers selling and pricing fundamentals.
Strategy
Bringing it all together.

Rain Making is full of practical advice that you can apply immediately to improve your marketing efforts.

I particularly liked the numerous real-life stories and anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book, often to lead off chapters.

My only disappointment was the single chapter on web marketing which I felt could use a significant rewrite and more pages. (Perhaps a decade of experience in this field leaves me wondering how just 5 pages can cover such an important topic.)

Successful Marketing Is…

A core theme of Rain Making is that successful marketing and sales comes down to three variables:

Increasing your network size
Increasing the percentage of buyers (people in your network who hire you)
Increasing the revenue per client

The author points out that your strong communication skills are a key advantage to improving all three variables.

How Does Rainmaking relate to Public Speaking?

This book aims at two audiences among Six Minutes readers. Which group do you fall into?

Group 1 – You are (or want to be) a Professional Speaker…

Rain Making teaches you the fundamentals for many of the business aspects of public speaking such as:

How to use print or online media to market your speaking skills
Creating publicity for yourself
Building a network of people who might hire you, or recommend you
Landing that coveted (and lucrative) keynote gig
Pricing yourself
Knowing when to turn down low-paying speaking opportunities

Group 2 – You use (or want to use) your Speaking Skills to Complement Your Growing Career…

Rain Making is littered with tips and techniques that show you how to leverage your strong communication skills to give you an advantage over your competitors:

How to generate public speaking opportunities
How to organize seminars and conferences which allow you to network and build your credibility
How to use your one-on-one communication skills wisely
How to deliver presentations that impress your potential client

What Other Reviewers Have Said

Bob Potemski:

The ideas, concepts, and tactics are applicable to all training professionals who have to market their training functions, especially you independent training consultants whose livelihood depends on your marketing abilities to sell yourself to a new customer.

Emily Grandstaff-Rice:

Rain Making is a superb guide to obtaining work, and frankly, an easy how-to book on becoming a true professional.

Reg Nordman:

Buy it, read it, and keep it close.

Suzanne Lowe:

So, fear not, you potential readers who feel like you can’t clear the decks to read one more business book. I’ll bet this one can actually make an immediate improvement in your revenue results.

Aspiring Solo:

The author, Ford Harding, speaks with authority (the book cover points out that his books are required reading for certification with the Society for Marketing Professionals).

Many people shy away, even run, from the tasks entailed in selling one’s services. Harding walks his readers through the practical, logistical and psychological. He addresses the shyness factor and how to overcome it using reason and common sense. Introverts can do it, too, argues Harding.

Tim Klabunde:

Rain Making is a book for professionals who are interested in learning how to develop their career. Its easy to understand focus on marketing tactics and strategies makes it an excellent tool for developing successful marketing strategies for an individual or company.

Presentation Skills Book Review – slide:ology by Nancy Duarte

Andrew Dlugan — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:10:21 +0000

If you want to master visual communication, this book is for you.

If you want to impress your audience with eye-popping slides, this book is for you.

If you want to break free from the Death By PowerPoint pandemic, this book is for you.

Nancy Duarte has written slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. (Learn more about Nancy Duarte in a Six Minutes interview!)

Ever since my copy arrived, I can’t put it down. I’ve carried it to and from work every day so that I can read a few pages on breaks. It’s that good.

I highly recommend slide:ology. It is destined to become a classic reference text for presentation skills.

What’s In slide:ology?

slide:ology covers the whole visual presentation process, from concept generation to delivery. Examples and case studies abound throughout. The twelve chapters are:

Creating a new slide ideology.
Creating ideas, not slides.
Creating Diagrams.
Displaying Data.
Thinking like a designer.
Arranging elements.
Using visual elements: background, color, and text.
Using visual images.
Creating movement.
Governing with templates.
Interacting with slides.
Manifesto: The five theses of the power of a presentation.

7 Things I Love About slide:ology

There’s a lot to love about this book, and even more to learn. On top of the many presentation design lessons, slide:ology teaches many lessons that apply to all speeches and presentations.

1. Stories

I counted 20 case studies spritzed through the book, joining countless other anecdotes taken from Duarte’s personal or professional experiences.

Key Lesson: Tell a story. Make a point. Tell another story. Make another point…

2. Humbleness

slide:ology is written in a humble, respectful tone throughout. This makes it seem like the lessons are coming from a wise village elder rather than a stodgy industry expert.

Consider the case study of Al Gore in slide:ology. Although Duarte Design worked intimately with Gore on An Inconvenient Truth, Nancy takes no credit for this in the book. Instead, she hands all the praise to the former U.S. Vice President.

Al Gore has done more than any other individual to legitimize multimedia presentations as one of the most compelling communication vehicles on the planet.

Key Lesson: Making yourself the hero of your stories rarely works.

3. Generosity

Some books written by industry rock stars are filled with empty pages which ultimately amounts to “If you want to do X, hire an industry rock star.” This is not the case with slide:ology. Duarte reveals plenty of insider information in this book. And the giving doesn’t end there. Throughout the book, [www] icons refer the reader to extended multimedia content available online.

Key Lesson: Understand that every member of your audience wants to know what’s in it for them. It’s not about you.

4. Honesty

Walk the aisles in the technical books section of your local bookstore, and you’ll find dozens of titles making outrageous claims such as Teach Yourself X in 24 Hours.

Duarte is honest in pointing out the effort required for superior presentations. (36-90 hours to create a 30-slide one-hour presentation) There’s no smoke and mirrors here.

Key Lesson: Be authentic with your audience first, and tell them what they need to know.

5. Personal Connection

I’ve haven’t met Nancy Duarte yet (unless you count email), but reading this book makes me feel like I have. She shares intimate stories about her family and her psyche.

The foreword is written by her husband, and features a mock presentation from her daughter.
Page 44 tells the story of a day spent on her office floor categorizing diagrams, complete with a photograph from her youth which illustrates this personality trait.
Page 84 discusses how she sought out her life mission.

Key Lesson: The best presentations (and books) make a personal connection.

6. Beauty

Every two-page spread in the entire book except the first (Introduction) and the last (A Call to Relate) has a visual element complementing the text. Whether a photograph, a drawing, a table, or an example slide, every design element in the book must have been labored over for hours or days. The design quality reflects the expertise of the entire Duarte Design team, but the decision to pour this quality effort into the book is key.

Key Lesson: Pay attention to the details. They matter.

7. Fun

What else can you say about a book which features:

A quote comparing Tolstoy’s War and Peace to Dr. Seuss’ One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Pie graphs made with real slices of pie!
A photo of Salvador Dali sketching in his bathtub

Key Lesson: People learn better when they are having fun. Make them smile.

How could it be better?

There are three things I’d like to see done differently in slide:ology.

1. Follow a Single Example Presentation from Concept to Completion

From chapter to chapter, Duarte covers the full lifecycle of a presentation from concept generation, through sketches on Post-It notes, to slide design, and on to delivery. Examples abound for each of these individual steps.

I’d like to see one example to which the entire slide:ology methodology would be applied. Start by setting the context, and then show the steps to the final presentation. This might add significant length, so perhaps that explains the absence. Maybe the platform for this extended case study could be a companion e-book downloadable on demand. Whatever the format, I’d like to see it.

2. More Flexibility in the Two-page Spread Format

Earlier in this review, I praised the visual elements present on nearly every two-page spread, and I was sincere. I love this style. It reminds me of the STOP method for document creation which is common for proposals and reports.

However, the challenge with this format is that every concept you want to cover needs to be massaged into two-page spreads. Continuity can suffer. I would like to see a little more in the way of chapter introductions and summaries, even if they spill onto three or four pages. Metaphorically, I’d like to zoom out once in a while and reset the big picture. (Something that’s good to do in a long presentation too.)

3. More Comprehensive Table of Contents

With only chapter titles given, it isn’t as easy as I’d like to jump back to a specific topic. Sure, the index is there, but that doesn’t help me if I’m looking for a case study, but don’t remember the organization profiled. This is a pretty minor thing, but I plan to reference slide:ology often; better navigation would help me find the topic I need sooner.

What Nancy Says About slide:ology

Author Nancy Duarte introduces her book in this YouTube video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What Other Presentation Experts are Saying About slide:ology

Andrew Abela — The Extreme Presentation Method:

It’s a beautiful and useful book. I recommend it highly.

Richard Bretschneider — Presentations Roundtable:

I know I’ve said this before, but this is a book you need.

Garr Reynolds — Presentation Zen:

My favorite presentation book of all time.

This is high praise, considering that Garr authored his own bestseller earlier this year. [Garr's Presentation Zen is reviewed here.]

PowerPoint Book Review – Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations

Andrew Dlugan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:52:35 +0000

Stephen Kosslyn has written a wonderful book for all presenters: Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations.

The subtitle for the book promises to illuminate the psychology of PowerPoint. Does it deliver?

In a way, yes. The 8 principles, dozens of examples, and hundreds of tips reveal much that would improve your PowerPoint skills.

However, this book delivers so much more. The 8 psychological principles can be applied to many aspects of public speaking beyond PowerPoint design.

For example, consider Principle 7 (The Principle of Information Changes: People expect changes in properties to carry information). A wise presenter might apply this to variations in voice. A shift from a strong, quick voice to a softer and slower voice should mirror a change in the content. Indeed, such a transition must mirror a change in content. Otherwise, your audience will be confused.

8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations

This book revolves around 8 psychological principles which are introduced early in the book, and then explained in greater detail in the Appendix. (The Appendix explanations are not required reading, but I do recommend it.)

The Principle of Relevance
Communication is most effective when neither too much nor too little information is presented.
The Principle of Appropriate Knowledge
Communication requires prior knowledge of pertinent concepts, jargon, and symbols.
The Principle of Salience
Attention is drawn to large perceptible differences.
The Principle of Discriminability
Two properties must differ by a large enough proportion or they will not be distinguished.
The Principle of Perceptual Organization
People automatically group elements into units, which they then attend to and remember.
The Principle of Compatibility
A message is easiest to understand if its form is compatible with its meaning.
The Principle of Information Changes
People expect changes in properties to carry information.
The Principle of Capacity Limitations
People have a limited capacity to retain and to process information, and so will not understand a message if too much information must be retained or processed.

Practical Application of the 8 Principles

The majority of book is devoted to 4 chapters, each of which:

Addresses a topical area of slide design,
Includes dozens of tips which describe how the 8 principles can be applied to maximize the effectiveness of the slides, and
Conclude with a summary of tips organized by the matching principle.

The format is easy to read from start to finish, or as reference material.

1. Legible Text

This chapter covers font selection, formatting choices, the use of bullet points, labels, titles, tables, and legends.

An excerpt which illustrates the Principle of Information Changes:

Use the same terminology in labels, as well as in the surrounding text and spoken words. Using different terms in a display, in text, and in what you say aloud may lead the audience to wonder if you mean different things. Attempting to distinguish these differences will definitely tax the cognitive capacities of your audience.

2. Color, Texture, Animation, and Sound

Here’s an excerpt illustrating the Principle of Perceptual Organization:

Use color to group elements. Regions of the same color will be seen as a group. Use the same color for all titles and another color for all text entries, which will clearly group the material into these two categories. And use color to pair corresponding elements.

3. Quantitative Information: Graphs

This chapter covers pie graphs, visual tables, line graphs, bar graphs, step graphs, and scatterplots.

Here’s an excerpt illustrating the Principle of Salience:

Construct an exploded pie graph by displacing the important slice or slices, as if a wedge of pizza had been pulled out from the pie. [...] If you decide to use an exploded pie, you must decide which part or parts to emphasize. If too many wedges are exploded, the viewers won’t know where to look.

4. Qualitative Information: Charts, Diagrams, Maps, Photographs, and Clipart

Here’s an excerpt illustrating the Principle of Capacity Limitations:

Use photos and clipart to give the audience time to “come up for air.” [...] useful as a break in the steady flow of information, allowing the audience a moment to reflect and digest. This is especially the case if the photo or clipart is humorous.

Three Primary Goals for Every Presentation

As stated above, the advice in Clear and to the Point applies to more than just PowerPoint design — it applies to presentations as a whole. This broad context is established early in the book, and referenced throughout.

The 8 principles are mapped to three primary goals of any presentation, even those which do not utilize PowerPoint at all.

Goal 1: Connect with your audience.
Your message should connect with the goals and interests of your audience. [Principles 1, 2]

Goal 2: Direct and hold attention.
You should lead the audience to pay attention to what’s important. [Principles 3, 4, 5]

Goal 3: Promote understanding and memory.
Your presentation should be easy to follow, digest, and remember. [Principles 6, 7, 8]

In Summary

Clear and to the Point is a very welcome addition to my public speaking bookshelf. I highly recommend that you read it too.

About the Author: Stephen M. Kosslyn

Stephen Kosslyn is Chair of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He is a leading authority on the nature of visual mental imagery and visual communication.

Update: Isn’t This Just “Common Sense”?

Upon reading this review, Michael Hyatt (President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers) commented:

Much of this looks like common sense; nevertheless, I am a sucker for books on making better presentations. It’s a HUGE part of what I do.

Michael’s comment struck a chord with me. I felt the same way as I browsed through and then read the book. None of the individual guidelines was earth-shattering, and most of them were not even new to me. While I was already designing slides in agreement with Kosslyn’s advice, Clear and to the Point helped me understand why I was doing things that way and it underlines the benefits for the audience.

Further, as I asked myself whether this was just common sense, my eventual conclusion was simply: “If it was common sense, why do we still suffer through so many poorly-designed presentations?”

Like Michael, I am a sucker for books on making better presentations. I hope you are too.

Free E-book – Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design

Andrew Dlugan — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:01:23 +0000

Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design teaches you how to visually communicate your ideas.

This free ebook was created by John Emerson as a tool to help advocacy groups:

Tell their story more effectively;
Make their message more compelling; and
Use information design techniques to do it.

You may not speak on behalf of an advocacy group, but every time you speak, you are attempting to deliver a message. Your message will be more compelling if you understand and apply the visualization principles in this guide.

Visualizing Information for Advocacy is full of rich content and nearly every page contains visual examples demonstrating design principles such as:

Color
Typography
Structure
Elements
Technology
Clarity

Hans Rosling (previously featured in a speech critique) is one of many experts profiled. Here is another example demonstrating effective use of contrast in presentation design. One can imagine toggling between two PowerPoint slides to illustrate the contrast.

Most of the examples are too complex to go on a PowerPoint slide, but the principles scale well to simpler media as well.

From the back page:

You’ve got data, now what do you do with it?
How do you tell your story effectively?
How can you move your audience?

Get your free copy on the downloads page.

Business Communications Book Review: Fire Them Up (Carmine Gallo)

Andrew Dlugan — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:17:20 +0000

Learn to speak the language of motivation with Fire Them Up!, the subject of the latest Six Minutes public speaking book review.

Fire Them Up focuses not on short term steps (things to do), but on seven qualities of inspiring business communicators (things to embrace).

The target audience is broad: CEO, salesperson, manager, merchant, entrepreneur, coach, teacher, pastor, and parent.

Overview: Fire Them Up!

This book has two halves, each with 7 chapters.

The first half of the book dedicates one chapter to each of the 7 Simple Secrets which Gallo advocates:

Ignite Your Enthusiasm: Light a fire in your heart before sparking one in theirs
Navigate the Way: Deliver a specific, consistent, and memorable vision
Sell the Benefit: Put your listeners first
Paint a Picture: Tell powerful, memorable, and actionable stories
Invite Participation: Solicit input, overcome objections, and develop a winning strategy
Reinforce an Optimistic Outlook: Become a beacon of hope
Encourage People to Reach Their Potential: Praise people, invest in them, and unleash their potential

These chapters are brought to life with many short anecdotes taken from successful individuals and companies known for great business communications: Apple, Cranium, Starbucks, 24 Hour Fitness, and many more.

The second half of the book examines seven remarkable individuals in-depth, and shows how they exhibit the 7 Secrets. This includes individuals ranging from Apple founder Steve Jobs to Gymboree CEO Matt McCauley to U.S. Navy IT Manager Robert Labrenz. Inspiring views of inspiring people!

Excerpts From the Book

To give you a flavor of a book’s lessons, here are a set of short excerpts spanning several chapters.

Three Types of Communicators

The Introduction describes the three types of communicators:

The Chief of Blah

The Chief of Mediocrity

The Chief Inspiration Officer

The rest of the book is devoted to helping you become the third type of communicator in your organization.

Learning from Cranium: Are your ideas CHIFF?

Chapter 2 (Navigate the Way) introduces the Cranium mantra, CHIFF: Clever, High quality, Innovative, Friendly, and Fun.

CHIFF has become a common language, a way of communicating the vision of the company. … Everyone measures success [of ideas] by asking “Is it CHIFF?”

Do you want a drill, or do you want a hole?

Chapter 3 (Sell the Benefit) discusses a popular marketing mantra: “sell the benefit, not the feature.” I’ve never seen this principle more concisely conveyed than by the anecdote near the end of the chapter:

There is a saying in the insurance industry that every year, 6 million quarter-inch drills are sold, and yet nobody wants a quarter-inch drill [feature]; they want a quarter-inch hole [benefit].

Praise for Storytelling

Chapter 14 tells the story of inspirational teacher Ron Clark, and includes this praise for the power of storytelling:

Personal stories are motivational because your audience can interpret their current situation through the lens of your experience. Personal stories work in the classroom or in the corporate environment. Tell more of them.

About the Author — Carmine Gallo

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach with a client list that includes Intel, IBM, and Nokia. His resume boasts stints at CNN, FOX, CNET, and CBS.

Gallo credits these authors for inspiration:

Marcus Buckingham: First, Break all the Rules
Jim Collins: Good to Great
Stephen Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Wayne Dyer: Change Your Thoughts — Change Your Life
Chip and Dan Heath: Made to Stick
John Maxwell: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
Tim Sanders: The Likeability Factor

This is very good company. I have read (and thoroughly enjoyed) books by 4 of them, and have seen a fifth speak. All have a fantastic reputation.

Gallo Interviewed about the Book

This interview with Carmine for the Forbes.com video network is a sneak peek into Fire Them Up.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More From Carmine Gallo

After completing Fire Them Up, I find myself craving to read Carmine Gallo’s other book: 10 Simple Secrets of the Worlds Greatest Business Communicators. As the repeat of “simple secrets” seems to imply, I wonder whether these books overlap in content? Do they follow the same approach? How do they differ? Is it worth reading both?

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Presentation Skills Book Review – slide:ology by Nancy Duarte

What’s In slide:ology?

7 Things I Love About slide:ology

1. Stories

2. Humbleness

3. Generosity

4. Honesty

5. Personal Connection

6. Beauty

7. Fun

How could it be better?

1. Follow a Single Example Presentation from Concept to Completion

2. More Flexibility in the Two-page Spread Format

3. More Comprehensive Table of Contents

What Nancy Says About slide:ology

What Other Presentation Experts are Saying About slide:ology

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PowerPoint Book Review – Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations

8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations

Practical Application of the 8 Principles

1. Legible Text

2. Color, Texture, Animation, and Sound

3. Quantitative Information: Graphs

4. Qualitative Information: Charts, Diagrams, Maps, Photographs, and Clipart

Three Primary Goals for Every Presentation

In Summary

About the Author: Stephen M. Kosslyn

Update: Isn’t This Just “Common Sense”?

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