The Cure for the Summertime Slide Blues

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Whether it’s an upcoming national sales meeting, a new biz pitch, or just revisions to your brand deck, there’s almost always presentation work to be done. And this time of year (or anytime really), even the most important or exciting presentation can start to feel like a drag.?

But it doesn’t have to be this way! With a few simple steps, you can reinvigorate yourself and see your upcoming presentations with a new perspective.

So grab some sunscreen, drink plenty of water, and let’s explore the cure for the summertime slide blues.

Break the cycle of old slides

It’s no surprise that if you do the same thing over and over again, eventually the novelty starts to wear off. With presentations, though, it's considered the norm to repurpose old slides with small updates over and over again.?

While it makes sense to lean on content that works, the problem with this approach is twofold.?

First, if you are assuming that the same content works just fine for every presentation, then chances are you're not adequately assessing your audience each time. You might be able to repurpose an existing slide for a marketing read-out and a sales deck and, but that means you are probably missing some nuances that might better speak to the unique needs and interests of the audience.

Second, it prevents you from thinking critically about your content. When you start slotting-in existing slides, it’s easy to think “oh that slide worked before, let’s add it and save time.” But once you’ve made the decision to use that slide, you may not take the time to look at it both on its own and in the context of your whole presentation. After all, that slide works, right, so why waste the time??

Now, we’re not saying you should never drop in existing slides. There’s a reason it’s essential standard operating procedure for anyone using PowerPoint. But what we are saying is that repurposing old work should be done with care and caution. By taking the time to create new slides, to rewrite and redesign your boilerplate content, or just to tweak what’s on there to be more attuned to the current room, you stay engaged with your presentation, focused on your audience, and in control of your content.?

So before you just drop in that old slide, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Am I doing this just to save time, or because it’s better?
• What audience was this content created for? Who is it being presented to now?
• Is this the right slide, or the “there” slide?
• What other ways might I present this same content? Are there more visual solutions?

These questions aren’t a checklist – rather, they are thought-starters, intended to get you thinking about how you can make the most of the content you have, and not waste either time or opportunities.

Explore your template

Your template is like a foundation for your presentations, but it's not the final floor plan. In our experience, many folks just turn to their template as the one source of truth for all things PowerPoint.?

But the purpose of a template isn’t to make sure everything is exactly the same, it’s to help you to try new things while staying grounded in the brand.

So pop open your template and take a look around. Here are some questions to ask as you assess what you see:

• Are there more slide types you aren’t using??
• Are there any alt designs to common slides?
• Are there particular things the template doesn’t include?

Now, we understand that many people are a little nervous about digging around under the hood of a template. If you aren’t used to working with one, it can be a little overwhelming to even get started with the basics .

But even if it’s a little scary, there’s a lot to be learned from exploring (and tweaking) your template. You’ll get a better understanding of why your slides look the way they do, and of what potential ways you can change them. You might even realize that your template is not so great, and is holding you back from creating better presentations. If so, we can help .

Try something new

It’s easy to start to think that slides just look the way they look, and that’s that. They use certain layouts, text has to be in certain places, images can be used in certain ways, etc.

But conventional wisdom is often heavy on “convention” and light on “wisdom.”?

So if you are getting bored with building bad slides, just try something new! Test a different layout and see how adapting your content might work. Try saying the same thing with 50% fewer words, then try replacing the text altogether with an image.

This is more about experimenting than creating ready-for-primetime slides. Sometimes you will explore some different treatments and decide they aren’t quite right, but maybe you find a new way to share your main point. Or maybe you’ll end up with a new visual that makes you rethink your entire presentation.?

The point isn’t to worry about finding the right alternative, it’s for you to break out of the constrictions of established presentation thinking and let your creativity loose. Test, fail, learn, try again: there’s a reason this iterative process is so established. Because it works.

Conclusion

PowerPoint is an incredibly versatile tool that can create almost anything you imagine, but it’s most commonly used to drop 3-5 bullets on a slide. So it’s no wonder that so many of us find our interest in presentations waning the second the summer skies start to peak out.

The cure for the summertime slide blues isn’t flashy AI or major design overhauls, it’s just a little old fashioned creativity. Breaking out of your slide routine is a great way to re-energize your content, and unleashing your creativity is a great way to rejuvenate your spirit.

Want more tips and advice on better business communication? The presentation experts at VerdanaBold are here to help. We offer presentation design and storytelling services, corporate presentation training, and a huge library of free educational content that’s always being updated. Contact us to learn more about how better presentations can elevate your business communications!