Yeah, this is not the place to ramble about the boring specs.  Hook them first, then gradually disperse the resume type of accomplishments throughout the presentation if you want to, embedded within it, and relevantly attached to actual points you're expressing and demonstrating and illustrating.  Your background can be an asset to reinforce a point you're making, so you're seen as having experience with the concept...

So true.  I'm a musician, and whenever I play a show, I stack the songs in a way that will build momentum and allow the audience to ride the music in a way that they'll want more of us when we're gone.  It's strategic, and it's also totally about reading the vibe of the audience and scrapping any plans I had for a setlist if it doesn't feel right as gauged against the crowd.  

Totally, if not less, even!  This way, you can allow for bumps that arise or opportunities for conversation should that arise, too.

I strive to make eye contact with everyone, move my body throughout the room, weaving, getting close in proximity to everybody.  My voice then travels with me, providing a different dynamic, and memory is triggered with association of spatial relationships.  So, if I'm talking about a certain topic while over here, the audience will take in that whole spatial/audio/visual relationship and it will stand out from when I made this other point while standing over there, with other spatial/audio/visual relationships at play.  It's the way our brains work, so we just capitalize on our natural proclivities.  

There is a chemical called phenylethylalamine, and it is released during eye contact.  It's partically responsible for humans falling in love, among other cool things like helping digestion and improving motor skill dexterity...all of this while under the spell of phenylethylalamine.   I definitely want my audience to fall in love with me.  ;)

This is amazing.  If we expect there may be kickback, it won't be so painful or disorienting to pull order back in.   I just read an article and the author said - the more great things you do, the more people you will touch, and so the more people will know you and love you.  When you increase the number of people who know about you, you increase the number of people there will be who hate you.  Wow!

This is sort of like the concessions at the beginning of a persuasive essay...admit there are other sides, there is controversy, there is resistance.  Name it, throw out possibilities, and then invite the audience to let go, free their minds of distractions and judgment and assume there just might be something they could take away and learn from this presentation.  Since learning has to have an emotional attachment, it's important to address that admit it, and encourage the audience to tap into that part of themselves that is open to making the time worth their while by finding a way, even forcing a way, for their engagement, which means not assuming they know everything and to have a beginner's mind.   After some shared vulnerability and expressed passion for my subject, I have audiences to somatic exercises and breathwork before I begin fully. It breaks the ice.  ;)  Makes them feel less foolish if they want to ask questions.  It softens them to me, and unites the group as a whole with a sense of camaraderie, because they all just went a bit outside of their comfort zone together.  

They just want to be heard, want to feel seen.  They have a real response and it's triggered by a zillion things in their past and programming that I as presenter couldn't have foreseen, and I don't have the same trigger points as they do.   It's about being gentle on myself and the audience.  ANYTHING they express is valid.  Acknowledge their real feelings, embrace their right to express it, courageous is what they need to feel from it.   Resistance is a sublime opportunity to learn, as a 'teachable moment', a growing pains moment, an illuminator for new consciousness on all parts.  It definitely will help me grow and resculpt my approaches to my work.  Awareness is good. 

Important not about disarming the audience.  We want openness so the message can hook them in their hearts.   Imagining each one of them is a dear friend or family member, or beloved client ALREADY, helps me frame the audience in love and wrap them in understanding and compassion.  

This can feel daunting and intimidating!  Solution?  Speaking with conviction about a topic I'm passionate about and believe in as something to help the audience, for their highest good...this is the remedy for worry about whether or not the audience will love me and my work.  

Brilliant!  This suggest to basically build in the alternate viewpoints while planning.  It sort of happens naturally while I prepare - playing my own devil's advocate.  I'll not trust that those thoughts are worth using to make myself more prepared, instead of dismissing them.  Love this.

Internalizing content is complementary to finding a way to emotionally connect and feel passionate about the topic in the first place!  These two concepts seem to feed each other.

I do not underestimate the power of visuals, and color is huge - Saturation, combinations, tone, contrast...it can make or break the staying power of your message!

I agree.  Sans-serif feels more inviting, casual, playful, yet clear and less cluttered because the tails and frills are gone.  I've never read of anything suggesting fonts for certain types of written communication, so, this is great guidance for me!

I've never thought of this effect.  I'm going to try it.  

Great metaphor for this.  The GLANCE test.  We all can relate.  This reminds me of, when reading the first few lines of a book or essay or article, will the audience feel 'hooked'?  In other words, why should they bother reading/viewing/listening to me?!  Give them something to rile their curiosities, stir their emotions, connect with such human universal resonance to a problem or concern they have that it urges them to go deeper...

I have thought, in the past, that the audience needed ALL the information I could give.  Yet, now I can reframe that idea as it actually harms the audience.  It's counter-intuitive.  This reframe for me is priceless, because I want to be liked and considered the expert.  Yet, when I give too much, knowing it does the OPPOSITE of what I want really helps me commit to slimming and trimming down to the core essence, to make it easy and, in fact, MORE IMPACTFUL to and REMEMBERED by my audience.  

Difficult to strive for but so extremely critical for people to buy into my professionalism and expertise.  And it's simply more visually easy to digest.  If the audience is jarred, they're less likely to care about what I say.  Even these overlooked, small considerations are actually cornerstone to overall impact, I'm learning.  They're like the subconscious, responsible for 90-95% of what choices we make, and we don't even realize it!  It's the stuff that speaks to our instinctual and intuitive nature, to out 'subtle' bodies.  

I talk about this in my art classes, the principle of design called Movement.  I relate it to how your eyes travel or follow a path from one point to another, like connecting the dots.  

I love silhouettes. White over black or another dark color is my favorite with silhouettes.  

Yes, just because space is there doesn't mean we must fill it.  Spaciousness allows the audience to feel spacious.  Period.  Breatheability.  

Unity also helps to bring cohesiveness to the look of a brand. It all lends to the audience feeling you're competent, an expert, clear, and easy to work with.  

To remember that it's important for consistency THROUGHOUT THE SLIDE DECK, entirely.  This is why Slide Sorter view is so good.  Placement and composition is important here, too.  

Ahhhh!  Love this!  It's a new quotable for me.  :)

Ultimately, this is what we want.  Simplicity, relevant support of images to illustrate the INTENTION, spaciousness to make people feel free, easy, and cementing the info for recall and memory permanence...

Overwhelm can be remedied by remembering - Just because we CAN doesn't mean we should...

Like in teaching, it's advisable to become the student before you introduce a subject.  

I need to remember the very basics - don't I want my audience to actually ENJOY my presentation?!  Of course I do!  But I forget to lead with this, and I can't afford not to lead with this.  After all, they could be doing a million other things with their time but if they're with me, and I'm up front, I sure need to overdeliver with high value in a way that makes them feeling 1) they're better for having been with me, 2) that they grew or learned in a way that they can apply easily into their lives, and that it 3)was not only not a waste of time, but was an EXPERIENCE...and they'd even come again!

Brilliant!  Like visual bullet points instead.  Like cues or clues.  :)

This reminds me of the idea behind - "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  ― Maya Angelou   ....Stories evoke FEELings, that's why we love them so much; we resonate, we see ourselves in the storyline, connecting to it.  The point here that we illustrate the points we're making through story means the story provides not only the support of our point, it also is the PROOF!

Great point.  In addition, confidence is the natural byproduct, natural consequence of doing the act, of doing, of doing what you fear.  We tend to think it's the other way around - that we must first find/create/elicit confidence within us and THEN do the doing.  Nope.

This is a cure and remedy for the problem of audience - of having an audience that you anticipate to be difficult, or having an audience that you don't know anything about, don't know their background of knowledge of your topic, if any (or an audience of all mixed awareness).  The remedy, as I have found, is to strive for communicating to human universals.  If I can propose any point I'm making as having a root anchored to a purposeful and meaningful WHY, then I'll elicit feelings that will hook the audience, and this strong, empathic connection may even lead to their forgiveness of me if I screw up in content, or it may lead to their overlooking something I lack technically.  

Also, it's like more proof - if we can illustrate how this idea we're presenting is a natural part of the resiliency process, people will buy in.  We're always looking for solutions that work, and we want to hear them first hand. 

I fight my natural inclination often, as if my meager story, my own personal experience, isn't worthy enough.  Yuck.  Truth is, I deal with very difficult subject matter in my talks, and people want a way out of these predicaments I address.  I'm grateful to Garr and Robert McKee for, in a sense, making me feel like I can give myself permission to trust my own journey and share it like a beacon of inspiration and hope.  

Eye contact.  Bam.  So simple!  I try to engage in every person's eyes.  I know that when I'm at a concert or a lecture, whatever, when the speaker/artist looks in my eyes amongst all eyes in the group...I'm spellbound.  I feel special.  I'll recall that experience, that moment, that person with warm regard and impactful, resonant significance.  

HUMAN voice, not formal.  This is relieving to hear.  Even when it's a formal presentation, I can be human first.  I need this.

I need to hear these real life stories of how people gracefully handle presentation glitches.  

100%.  Truth.  

I love these sort of anecdotal, formula claims.  Helps cement the concept with clarity.  

This exercise is great because of this: It 'forces' you.  ;)  Yes.  

I really have mixed feelings about this.  I know too many words on a slide is ineffective and actually hurts learning.  However, I benefit from reading the text, too.  Seeing the words in a format (I really pay attention to design elements, composition, hierarchy of text in size and font variation, margin alignment, compartmentalization, etc. when I do include words on a slide) helps burn that idea into my brain, and when I recall that information, I can see it again in my mind (if it's done in an artful and design-conscious way).  I'm incredibly visual.  And I learn equally as well by audio. When I recall information in the future, the sound of the initial arrator's voice will continue to accompany the words I've read if I'm, say, following along in a book while listening to the audio version.  

Also, as an English (and art) teacher at an alternative school where we don't have grades and students are mixed with all kinds of academic skills and experiences (I could have a 14 year old and a 21 year old in my class at once), so reading books in class while following along (active listening, lots of discussion and supplemental activities during) to the audio has been incredibly successful for all students.