I don’t want to be a good speaker. I want to be a great one. Somebody probably already said it, and if they didn’t I will, the biggest enemy of great is good. Too many people are satisfied with good enough.

Not me.

I want to do great.

I spoke at a conference in Phoenix a while back and a guy came up to me and used an already overused word.

“That was awesome. There were 3 reasons why I think so. Your points were so simple even I can remember them. You have charisma. And you had kick ass (his words not mine) slides.”

Related: 8 Highly Effective Habits of Cruise Ship Speakers

I immediately (well maybe not immediately but not long after at any rate) started to think how I could do even better.

Another guy came out and said, “That, that, presentation was a perfect 10.” I would have given myself a 6 because I forgot some things that would have made it more impactful. And I had some technical problems at the beginning.

My point, I enjoy compliments as much as the next guy. But, I am not easily satisfied, I want to do even better. And then do better.

The man who paid me a compliment touched on 2 layers to a talk.

1. Delivering solid content on the assigned topic.

2. The slides that support the content.

I want to deliver on my assignment. I want the audience to go home learning what they were expecting to learn.

In addition to supporting my content my slides also told a story. And even some of the slides had their own individual storyline.

I can think of 3 more layers.

3. If I am good I will deliver my content in the context of an overarching message. In other words the way the content is delivered will also have something to say. (I will go into this more deeply in future posts.)

4. And there are stories within my presentation that deliver points that resonate individually with my audience. (I will give an example of this in a future post as well.)

5. Sometimes your slides can tell a story/have a message, too.

Layer your presentations and your audience will have much more to remember you for.

That’s good, wait, that’s great stuff.

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