Creating Pitch Decks to Pitch your Startup | Canva Webinar

So I’d like to say a very, very  warm welcome to everybody today. Thank you so much for joining  us live in this session. My name is Jess. I am from Design School  and I'll be manning the Q&A panel and chat. Now, we're very, very lucky today to have Andrew  Peacock take us through some presentation tips so that you can create and present  presentations to wow investors. So I'll let him introduce  himself. Over to you, Andrew. Well, hi, everyone! I’m really  excited to be sharing with you today a

few things that I’ve picked up and  learned along the way around presenting, and, you know, how to deliver  a really knockout presentation. I thought I would first start by just sharing a  little bit about my journey and where I come from. So I really started out my career at  Ogilvy which is an advertising agency. And we did a ton of pitching for new business. We didn't win a whole lot of them, which  is probably why we did so many of them. In 2013, I moved to the States  and was working at Mi

crosoft and really discovered the importance  of presenting and pitching internally and presenting to management and getting  executive buy-in and sponsorship on work. And saw just how important it is to  build strong presentation skills there. In 2019, I went to Google. Worked  on the Google Cloud platform. 2020 saw me return home to Australia working  in a role with Atlassian on the Growth team. And earlier this year, I joined Canva  as the Design Lead for Presentations. And really, we're tryi

ng to build  out some really fantastic skills to be able to help you be able to  deliver really great presentations. So let's get into it. My question to you is Have you ever felt like this during a meeting? Or maybe you've even felt a little  bit like this delivering content? Maybe you know the things that you  are delivering are a bit of a snooze and they're potentially going  to send people to sleep? A question for you and I’d love to  hear what you say in the chat is What leads you to feelin

g like this  in a meeting or in a presentation? I’d be really interested to hear  what are the kinds of things that disconnect us from from what's going on. I think for me often when there's a lot  of people in a meeting and there's-- Yeah, no interaction. I’m hearing irrelevant  content. Yeah, I feel exactly the same. I feel tuned out when it's just a  straight lecture with little interaction. Yeah. Absolutely. I’m glad you  brought those things up because I feel the same way and I will be talk

ing  about that in the presentation today. Really what we want our audience  to be like is like this. We want them to be, you know,  full of life and engaged. You can see from their body language that they're connected and that they're  interested in what's going on. You can really see that they're there.  They're not looking at their phones. They're not looking at anything else. They are right there and that's really what  we want when we're presenting to people. So today, I’m going to give you

some  tips and some strategies to be able to improve your presentation and hopefully  build that really strong connection. We're going to cover the importance  of knowing your audience, nailing the structure and the  content of your presentation. We'll then look at how we can refine  your message and make it more visual. And then finally, we'll look at the  importance of practicing over and over again in order to deliver that  real knockout presentation. So let's start with knowing your audienc

e. And really I think this is one  of the most important tips. You need to build that empathy for the  people that you're going to be speaking to. And really, if there's nothing  else that you know about them, it's fairly safe to assume that the people  that you present to are probably really busy. They might have a packed calendar like this. Sometimes when I try and get a meeting with  people, you have to book weeks in advance so it's safe to say their days are pretty  full and then that is jus

t their work life. Consider your--imagine this scenario: Maybe you're making a pitch to a venture  capitalist or this could be anyone. But we're saying a venture capitalist and her  name is Sam. So she's got a really busy calendar. But she's also just had a  baby. Her mum is getting older. And you need to organize the picnic for her.  You're also looking to maybe buy a house. Maybe she's got a dentist appointment  because she's got a toothache. And then maybe it's the tax season so she has to pu

t together a tax return  and do all this paperwork. And then on top of all that, she has  a son as well and so she needs to feed the kid and keep him alive and do all the  things that you do when you're a mother. And so she's got a lot on her  plate and her mind is spread thin. So given all of that, some practical tips when we're presenting to and  meeting with busy people is start with a short meeting. Try  just scheduling shorter meetings. 30 minutes is usually more than  enough time to to con

vey a message. Also shorter meetings are more likely to be  accepted as well especially by busier people. Then have a clear agenda. So have a really clear schedule of the  things that you want to go through. How long you're going to be  spending on each of those points. And if possible, send that out beforehand. So it's super clear what you're  going to be going through. And also, maybe send through a goal as well. What's your goal for that  meeting or that presentation. And then cut to the chas

e. I’d be interested to hear if  anyone here has watched Shark Tank. Just maybe jot it down in the channel or  in the chat if you've seen Shark Tank. But it's a show where people are pitching their  ideas to these really big, rich investors. And they'll always come to these investors  and say "I want a $100,000 for 10% equity." So they're so upfront. They just front load  that ask that they have for their audience. The final thing I would say is be concise. And so you know I would think of  it l

ike when you're thinking about the messages you're trying to send and convey. Think of them like tweets. So really  just try and condense your messages down. Really try and sort of make it as simple  and as clear and as focused as you can because that's going to be more consumable especially for these busy people  that we might be meeting with. Okay, so we understand that  people's time is precious. Now, we want to think a little bit more  deeply about who we are presenting to. And when things a

re important to us or when we want to achieve something, we generally have goals, right? They might be mini goals and we might  not even know that we have a goal. So if we think about like you really want to think about what is the goal of the  people that you're presenting to. And maybe it might be to design,  maybe they want to learn something, and you're pitching a new  design tool to a designer, or maybe they want to improve their bottom line, maybe this person would be interested  in achiev

ing operational efficiencies, or maybe like you've got a cheaper  product that you can offer them, and maybe this is potentially  you in the audience today, you have a goal to be a better presenter and  you want to walk away with a few key takeaways. So for the person presenting, to understand  and know what the goal is of their audience is going to mean that they're going to be able  to tailor the message better to the audience. So once we've figured that out, we also need to  think a little bi

t more about their background. So their familiarity to the  domain or the product space or whatever you might be introducing them to. So that's going to dictate how much  time you spend setting up the context or you know whether if you go into too much  detail, maybe that might be condescending or just sort of too much  or just wasting their time. So we really want to think about what is their level of understanding  in the space that we're talking about. And finally, culture is something  that

you should also consider. And so maybe it's language or  maybe it's cultural customs. But depending on who you're speaking to, you might have to change or alter  your presentation or your content because you know especially if you're  trying to pitch to someone and get them to invest in you or hire you or whatever it might be, you definitely don't want to be  offending them with like silly, little jokes or something that  you know could be misconstrued. So just be mindful of the content  that yo

u're doing and make sure it's appropriate for the audience that you have. So a few little takeaway tips. Try these things. So become a LinkedIn sleuth. I’m on  it quite a lot. And it's really great. You can learn so much about people you work  with, people that you're presenting to. Capitalize on the fact that  people over share things. Like me, for me, I for instance,  I put so much stuff on LinkedIn. It's all there to read so you can kind of just dive in and learn a lot about  people from plac

es like this. Then put your research hat on. So you really want to research the  space inside and out and be an expert. You want to know your facts,  understand the environment, and research the competition. Be all across it. And then the final step, switching  from being that sort of investigator or detective to being almost a method  actor and stepping into their shoes. And so really just sort of thinking about thinking  the way that your audience would be thinking and using that as a way of b

eing able to  fine-tune your content for the audience. If you do or even just those things, this  could well be actual footage of your audience. They will be wowed because  you're really delivering something that is perfectly pitched  for them and relevant for them. Awesome. Okay. So now we know our  audience. We know them super well. Now it's time to nail the structure. So I’ve got a question to you.  This might be a tricky one. But does anyone know what this is an image of? And bonus points wh

at year it was taken? It's a bit tricky but I’d be interested to hear if anyone has any even the foggiest  of ideas of what this could be. A kind of--yes that's a very good guess.  It definitely looks like it could be that. It's not kind of like, yeah, yes getting very  close. Olympics. Olympics opening, Superbowl opening ceremony. You're very, very close.  Sydney Olympics. Yes, Charlie. You nailed it. This is from the Sydney Olympics, which was when? Anyone know what year that  was? It was a wh

ile ago. Yes, could be representative of  lotus. That's probably could be true. So this is the Sydney 2000  Olympics opening ceremony and when you watch an opening ceremony, sometimes the cameras, they'll zoom in  right in on little details like this. So it might be the performers, might  be the the outfits and the dance. Sometimes you can even see  their facial expressions. And it's beautiful and intricate. We can see these colors and these shapes performing and doing amazing  things and weird

movements, but you can't really tell  what the bigger picture is. It's only when you zoom out and  you see this glorious image. You see that those dancers,  they were actually flowers. I know exactly what flower they were.  There's definitely the Waratah here. Some purple one. Anyway, probably  a native Australian flower. But you see that there's these beautiful  flowers and they're moving around and then there's like multiple  flowers. It's this big scene. And you know but if the footage starte

d close up which it does, you don't know  exactly what you're looking at. You need to sort of zoom out  and get that bigger picture. And it's the same as when we're presenting. We often have a bunch of ideas. We have  all these things we want to communicate. And we're super excited, and you  know, might be passionate about it. And we might just be just rushing to blurt all  these things out, but we need to be considered. And we need to start with the bigger picture. So the first thing really  is

starting with a big idea. So you want to have a big idea and  one key takeaway that you want your audience to take away from that presentation. And I recommend writing that  down in your presentation. Then once you've set that and you kind of  know what the big thing you want to deliver is then you can start to move  in to more of the details and really paint those more detailed pictures. And the way I like to think about it when you're structuring your content it's a  little bit like navigatin

g a map. So first, you really want to clearly  define where we presently are. So talk to your audience with  facts and with irrefutable truths. Things that they will instantly be  able to connect with and relate to. And this will get your audience to be  with you and trust in your messaging because what you're telling  them is things they already know and you're really demonstrating the  fact that you understand where they are and what the current situation is. It's going to establish you as an

expert and  really give you the authority to be able to define, you know, for the  rest of the presentation. Your audience is going to be like  this guy gets it or this girl gets it. You know that this person gets it. Then you want to paint for  them a really compelling and evocative picture of what the future could be. And this needs to be exciting.  If you're not excited about it, you can't expect your  audience to be excited by it. So you need to be excited by  it. You need to believe in it.

And you need to tell them how amazing it will be. So describe the impact it will have  and how it will make people feel. And yes, you can also potentially  talk about how profitable it could be. But in my experience, I think there are more  impacts and other benefits that you could focus on that are more moving and more impactful than merely just talking about the  financial returns of something. So once you've got, you've set  your present, you've defined or you've painted this  great picture o

f the future, then it's time to mount a  course for how the audience is going to go from where they  are to where they could be. So a few key takeaways. Remember have a big idea. And think of it like a tweet. So  just like every time you're like thinking about things or planning  things, always be really concise. And then speak to the present reality. Define that current reality and make  it realistic, truthful, and relatable. Super important for your audience. Then it's time for you to sell the

dream. It's not just the product or  it's not just that you know it's the impact that product has. Talk to that. So now we're gonna give it a shot. So you probably know about Canva. We're gonna go in and see how we can  actually build a pitch deck inside Canva. And so for those that don't know, Canva is a  platform that allows you, that enables you to build and design lots of things almost  anything. Not quite anything just yet. One of the things you can create is presentations. So I’m just goi

ng to go to canva.com. You don't need an account or  it's totally free as well. So have it you can play  along at home if you'd like. I’m going to click on Presentations and we get  all the types of presentations you can make. I’m just going to create this standard  one right here and create a blank one. We are now landed in the editor. And this is just like, you know,  an app. Think of this as an app. So similar to, you know,  what a PowerPoint would be. And the great thing about Canva  is ther

e's so many templates and they have really great  structure right there for you. So since I’m making a pitch deck. I’m just  going to search for "pitch" right up here. I’m going to see all these  examples of different pitch decks. So I’m going to take a look at this one and  this one looks pretty good. Looking nice. So I’m going to click on this. I get a  preview of all the slides and the the format. And I am going to apply that and add this. And so now this format is added for me. And I can jus

t go in there and start editing it. The colors aren't really my colors. I'm  more of a blue guy than a green guy. So I’m just going to click on styles over here and I can find some colors and some font  styles that match my sort of brand a bit more. And what it is is this one right  here and so that's looking good. So I’m going to apply this  to all pages. There we go. And now like the things that  we talked about with basically setting the problem space and that  feature space that's all here f

or me. So I can just go in there and start editing that. But I forgot to actually introduce  to you what I’m going to pitch. So I’m just going to share with you  the thing that I’m going to pitch. This is actually true story. A  couple of years ago, there was this beautiful bed and breakfast in  Seattle that was on the market. And I just thought that would be the  coolest thing to run a bed and breakfast. And it was for sale for $2.8 million, which  when you look at the place that does that look

s like kind of a bargain, you know,  coming from an expensive place like Sydney. And so I was looking at that and like  thinking, "Wow, that would be kind of cool, but I don't have $2.8 million." So I’m going to need investors. And so I thought well, you know,  maybe I can use this as an example of how you would put together a pitch deck, you know, to get money for something like this. And so we're going to go back now to my pitch deck and that's the sort of  pitch that I’m building for. And so

what I was saying earlier on  is I find it helpful to just put in my big idea on the very first slide. What it does is it helps me get a really clear vision of what I want to  share in that presentation. And I looked at this. I kind  of came up with this earlier. But basically, "Join me in reinventing this  gorgeous piece of Seattle history into an innovative new destination  for the modern traveller." So this is what I am trying  to convey with my pitch deck. Okay. So let's just touch on this p

roblem slide. So we talked about this as  sort of that present reality that we want to sort of share with our audience. And so I also thought of a couple of different things that are kind of insights into the world  right now that I thought we could include here. You know more people these days are living alone. That's something that I’ve  I’ve read. It's bit of a trend. And so that's something that  I’m touching on with my pitch. Also, I identified the world as a chaotic place. You know we've j

ust been through COVID. Everything is crazy all over the world.  So that's kind of an insight trueism. And then the other thing  is that hotels are generic. You know when we do want that escapism,  hotels are often super sort of generic. So I’m going to put that down as some  of the things that I’ve identified as our present reality. Cool. So that's us. We've gotten started. Our pitch deck is coming along.  And these are the things we did. So we started with the template we  put our big idea on

the first slide. We identified a problem or our present reality. And we're going to start  painting a vision for the future. Okay. So we're nailing the structure. Maybe we haven't nailed it entirely  yet, but we're getting there. Now, it's time to refine the message. We are visual creatures. We know that visual  communication is more memorable and impactful. And in fact, it's actually been proven to be 40x more likely to be shared and  remembered than merely words alone. For our slide, when we w

ere talking about  that present state, present reality, I could have had a slide like this  that just said it's been a tough year. And that would be fine like that's a nice slide. It's very punchy. It's very clear.  You can kind of talk to it and use that as a launching  point to talking about that. Or I could use an image like this that really  clearly conveys just like the chaos and the uncertainty, the social  upheaval that we went through, oh and then we're still going through with COVID. An

d so you know visuals can just be  more impactful. And so a few tips. Show don't tell. A picture really  does tell a thousand words. Your type. So when you're thinking about your text  and the copy that you're putting into your slides, use large text and use simple fonts. Simple fonts are easier to read. And large  text, it's sort of a forcing function for you putting less on your slides which is going to be  easier for your audience to be able to consume. And it means that you won't be  tempted

to read from your slides. And then brand it. Keep it consistent. And this isn't just aesthetics. This is going easier on your audience, you  know, if the colors are more consistent. Your audience doesn't have to spend that  cognitive energy trying to understand, oh what's this, you know, is this  a headline, is this a title slide? It's more cognitive energy to really  pass through and really consume it. So keeping it consistent  makes it easier to follow. A really good tip is for each page  hav

ing one point on that page. You know, this is all new information  that you're conveying to your audience. You may have read it through it a million times, but they're just hearing it for the  first time and it's quite a lot. And you know when we think about these  busy people that we're presenting to they've also got a lot of their minds. So go easy on them. You know,  just one page per point. It's going to be a lot more  punchy and a lot more focused. And less is more especially  you know cont

ent on slides something like this three words with  like a little bit of a subtle animation, it's quite impactful. It's very clear. And you know your audience won't spend all  that time having to read different things. They can focus on your message. So graphs are a great way of  presenting and communicating data. They convey a lot of information.  They look really nice. And this is a good looking  graph. I created this on Canva. It's clear and it works well. There's nothing really wrong with it

,  but when you're in a presentation, there's still a lot of cognitive energy  that your audience will need to use in order to understand this and make sense of it. So, you know, if you actually just  focus on one part of that graph or just highlight one part or dim out the rest or just like simplify it and just give  you know single numbers that sort of thing and provide that analysis and do that  analysis on behalf of your audience, then that's less things that  your audience will need to do.

You can just basically tell them  the insight rather than having them to try and figure it out for themselves. This will be more compelling for you. Also we love an interesting pyramid. Look at this. Look how interesting it is.  It's upside down. It's weird. Use abstract shapes and diagrams  and then project meaning onto them. I mean, okay, they do a few things. They can  make you look super smart and sophisticated and make you look like an expert and like you're like this groundbreaking like  y

ou come up with this theory. And the other thing that you  can do is what this means and communicating that to users, to your audience. They will learn about it as you go. So you know something like this  it could be a funnel analysis. It could be some sort of drop off of  or you know retention of customers. It could be some kind of hierarchy of needs. But you give that meaning to it and when  the audience discovers it and learns it, they'll remember it and it'll  be a visual marker for them. So

another thing that is is good to  use the slides is just giant figures. So big old, big fat numbers right in  the middle of the slide. Super clear. Now can anyone tell me what  this number represents? It's quite current. It's a current sort  of something happening in the world today. It represents something going on. I mean probably 45% of the  world is coffee drinkers. Yeah. That's probably true as well. Probably  45% of people are working really. Jules nailed it. Caroline  is almost. But it's

single-- It's worldwide single dose COVID vaccines of  the worldwide population that's what 45% is. Yeah so anyway just a little, little  thing I just dropped in there. Okay. So yeah, use big numbers. And remember when you're presenting,  you're the main attraction. Think of your slides as scenery. And you know you are much more likely to be far more interesting and engaging and compelling than anything that you'll have on your slides. Think of yourself as sort of like a guide and you're kind o

f pointing out  things and bringing me into things. But really the focus and the  attention should be on you. And really, when someone is talking with  conviction and something that they believe in and clearly, it's really arresting.  You know, it's really captivating. And so, you know, be that person. When you're presenting, it's often  this sort of three-way relationship between you, the audience, and the slides. But you should be like you're the important  one here or one of the key ones here

. The slides really are the sideshow. They should be  backing you up and supporting what you're saying. But don't use your slides as a  teleprompter. That's not what they're for. And if you're just reading what is on the slides,  it means that the audience is reading the slides. And also hearing you say it and that  kind of thing. That's kind of crazy and it's hard to follow. So use your slides as little prompters for you,  but not, you know, writing out long sentences. Put those things in your

speaker notes. And connect eye-to-eye even  over the Zoom. It's good. So here's a little, fun little  question for you. Are you still there? Is anyone still there? Can I get a little-- Yes. G'day. Yes. There we go. So I mean that was just a little joke. But as quite a few people said at the beginning, interactivity and engagement is,  you know, when that's lacking, it is very easy to feel bored and disconnected  from what's going on in a presentation. And so just being able to engage  in little

ways asking questions, not sort of necessarily putting people on the spot but just, you know, whatever, however they  feel comfortable, getting them to sort of be involved is really a great way of  keeping the interest of your audience. So a few things to remember. Show don't tell. Use images  and visuals where you can. One page, one point. So try  and be super-focused with that. It's not a hard and fast rule,  but it's a good rule of thumb. Keep it consistent. So try and  keep the colors sort o

f consistent. Maybe you could use a wild color  just to draw attention to things. And don't forget that you are the main event. You're the thing that people are  here to see. So don't forget that. Okay. Let's go back to our our pitch for  our big, big bed and breakfast project. So we're gonna do a couple of things. So a lot of these templates will have  charts already on there pre-canned. So this one looks good. I’m just going to delete  the background to make it a bit more clear. And then what

all you have to  do is click on these charts. You can change it into different types of bar, into different types of charts,  donut. I love a donut. Stack is good. We can sort of--this could be maybe competitors. I’m going to update here and  then you can just basically update the data table over here in the left pane. Hotel... Hotel... Holiday Inn blah blah blah. So yeah. Very easy to  update, makes it super clear. And finally, adding some  personality to your presentations. I love using little

Giphys  and GIFs in presentations. I just think it kind of adds a  bit of fun to what you're doing and allows people to kind of relate and  have a bit of comic relief, bit of levity. So I’m going to search for "bland hotel". Here's  one with Borat in a pretty boring looking hotel. And, you know, I like just sort  of making it super big and clear. So you know that can be a fun,  little moment in your presentation. People can have a bit of a smile too. The final thing. We've made it to the final

thing. And it's the importance of practicing. And practicing, practicing, practicing, before nailing that final presentation. So do a dress rehearsal. I  did a bunch for this one. I did that with my roommate. I even did it to  myself. I did a Zoom call by myself to myself. It was really sad and lonely, but you know, it's  really important to understand all the things and to be super familiar with all  the setup before you do these things because when I hit share screen, I get a bit of anxiety be

cause there's  just so much going on. It's a bit crazy. And when you're in the moment and you're  presenting, it can be quite overwhelming. So try and control all the things that you do. Try and be as familiar with  the things you can be. Control as you can. Another thing that you can do with the  help of Canva is you can actually record. You can do what's called a Present and Record. And basically, it's recording yourself  going through the presentation. And so what it will do is you'll click t

hrough the  slides as you normally would and it will record you narrating or talking to  the slides in this little, this little bubble in the bottom left corner. And you can use this to share it. So instead  of doing a live presentation, you can just record something yourself and share it out  and so people can look at it asynchronously. Or you can use it as a tool to  just to practice and to sort of, you know, make some improvements and tweaks  and see where you kind of lost yourself. I did tha

t for this one and it  looks a little bit like this. Hi, my name is Andy and I’m inviting you to  become an investor in an exciting boutique bed and breakfast experience that is going  to reinvent the golden age of travel. It's the year 2021 and we know  that the world is a pretty-- Okay. So you get the idea. Basically,  yeah, it's a really good way of just basically kind of going through and seeing  what you look like as an audience member like kind of like that empathy point  of sitting in the

audience's shoes. And then my final, my final tip is  really just fake it till you make it. There's there's lots of different  things that you can try. It really depends on your style. Some people  like to write out the entire presentation. Some like your entire script and speech.  You know some people just prefer to have like little dot points on your speaker  notes. Some people just can wing it. I mean I think that's quite challenging,  but however you do it, you know, just do whatever it tak

es to kind  of be more comfortable with it and really it is just a lot of practice. It's totally very, very normal for you  to feel nervous when you're presenting. It's really a hard thing to do and  so it really does take practice. And yeah, the more you do it,  the better you'll get at it. S So and the other great, the other  thing that I did in the lead up to this was just being quite analytical  about the meetings that I was in and the people that were presenting to me and I was thinking abo

ut, you know, when am I  switching off and when am I feeling disconnected and what does make a compelling presentation and sort of being really  analytical and taking some tips from that. So a few little takeaway tips. Do address rehearsal. Utilize tools  like Present and Record in Canva. There's other tools as well like  Loom that you can do it as well. And then one final thing  that I didn't touch on today, but this is a really great thing to  engage your audiences, Canva Live where you can ac

tually do a live session  and you can get questions, get your audience to submit questions and also  they can react with emojis. So it's just sort of like that interactivity  element that we've sort of touched on before. So what did we cover today? So we learned the importance of  building empathy for your audience and respecting people's busy schedules. Nailing the structure and really  sort of defining what we should say. Refining that message. Making it  super visual and fun and clear. And th

en the importance of practicing  over and over in different ways before presenting that  final, polished presentation. So good luck. I know you guys  will do great. It's practice. I’m happy to answer any  questions if people have some. I saw there was one earlier and I kind of-- Yes, we do have a couple. So we had one  from Charlie who said depending on who you listen to pitch decks shouldn't  or in some cases must not exceed X number of slides. So what are your thoughts on  that and do you thin

k the templates in Canva kind of support a philosophy one way or the other  or do they allow really for personal preference? So Canva supports it. However, if you  want to do a long one or if you want to do a short one, you know, it's totally fine. I think the pitch deck templates  that we have are generally, I don't know, 18 pages or something like that. So sometimes, I mean, I guess,  like depends on what it is you might be a constraint around how  much, how many slides you can have. But I wou

ld still say be  really thoughtful about just-- you don't want to overload  and jam all this content in like we've all seen slides that  are just full of things that you know tiny little text and stuff that I mean that was never what slides were  designed for or designed to be like. Like if you need a lot of information  that you need to pass on to your audience, have supporting documentation or  send it out beforehand in a PDF as a pre-read so they can read it beforehand. So don't overload your

slides  even if you are constrained. I mean but I would say if you don't have  that constraint and you can use more slides, more slides is better than just cramming stuff in. Like, you know, doing that one point  per page, one point per slide idea. It also means you can kind of have  more but you're just following along. And it sort of paces your presentation  and sort of augments it with like slides. So I wouldn't feel too bad even if you've  just got a slide with like three words on it. So I

think more slides is  better than overloading. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you. Stella has a question and I hope  Stella that you've picked up lots of tips for this one because you asked  us quite early on in the presentation. But she says what's the balance between  being business-centric and customer-centric? How do you bring you into the presentation while still being super professional  and blending those business goals. So I know you've given us lots  of ideas today on that, Andy, but is there

like one top tip that helps  you bring you into your presentations? Yeah. It is a bit of a balancing act especially  if you're like probably, I would imagine, if you're like a sales person or something  and you're really representing the brand. But I just think generally speaking, there's a  lot of ways of just injecting some personality. I mean maybe the GIFs and stuff is not appropriate for your particular work or that's  not sort of what you would do, but I just tried different things, you 

know, I mean there's no harm in it. I mean just dropping an emoji on there,  you know, like to communicate things. It's just a bit more playful. It  kind of connects to the human side. And I don't know, sometimes, like  if things are a bit different, it's sort of a bit disruptive, and  you're like oh, like that's different. Like but it actually captivates  their attention as well. It's actually a business sort of like need or  business value in being a bit more personable and bringing that human

connection. But yeah, I totally understand.  Like if you're working for a bank or the government or something like that, you know, throwing emojis all over your slides  and GIFs here and there maybe isn't appropriate. Maybe if it's like a legal defense,  maybe GIFs isn't the thing. But just being more human and being more  personable, the language you use also counts. I mean even if you're not using images, maybe just being a bit more friendly and  being a bit more conversational in the style.

I mean I think a lot of the  times people are sort of overly professional when they  don't necessarily need to be. So just be mindful again of  that like of that your audience. That that first point, knowing your  audience and doing what's appropriate. But yeah don't feel yeah, I think that like  a lot of times people are formal and rigid and that that is what  professionalism is when really, I think professionalism is more just like,  you know, being sensitive to other people's needs and their

audience, and that sort of thing. So in some cases, maybe some people can loosen up  a little bit with their style and tone of voice. Yeah, I think it's always more engaging, isn't it? People relate to that better. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Stella agrees 1000%. Great! We do have another question from Marvin. So in the context of a pitch, do you think  it's advisable to have an introduction page about the background of the speaker or just  like more dive straight into the pitch? Should you have a b

ackground slide for the-- Yeah, talking about your background as a person, your work context, maybe in a  longer presentation, it suits. But in like a pitch, would you still do that? Yeah. I’m not sure I mean, so I mean, for  this presentation today, we did it like I included one for myself just as some way  of sort of demonstrating some familiarity. I mean, I think it can help establish some  experience or you know like where you're coming from and what authority, you know, not authority,  but,

you know what you're kind of like, yeah. I guess it establishes you a  little bit. So it might help. Yeah. I guess yeah, well I guess it depends on  whether you feel the need to really establish that authenticity at the beginning of  that presentation, doesn't it? Yeah. Yes. Exactly. Maybe you don't need to. Maybe  they know you or something and you don't need to. But yeah I mean I think that in  certain situations that can help. But I think the one thing that it does do  and even with this pre

sentation, I think it can almost steal your thunder a little bit  from that first slide in that very beginning. Like I couldn't just start with that GIF, like  I kind of wanted to potentially just start with that GIF of the guy falling asleep, you  know, and I thought that I could just start with a really big question  and sort of like that a big pow, but, you know, we did decide to start with  this just to share a bit of my experience, but yeah, so it's a bit of a trial. I  think that it depend

s on the situation. Fantastic. It's just been a fantastic session. So I really really appreciate your time  and thank you everyone for joining us. Thanks everyone. Thanks so much. Have a great evening or a great  day wherever you are. Bye!