JLD: What's shaking, Fire Nation? JLD here with an Audio Master Class on how to create a TED Talk caliber presentation that delivers the goods. To drop these value bombs, I have brought Whit McCullough on the mic. He is a PowerPoint ninja, and founder of Sharpslide. He's on a mission to help others share their ideas more effectively, and with greater confidence through better presentations. And, today, Fire Nation, we'll be talking about why the way we present matters, some essential elements of an effective PowerPoint presentation, and if high quality design is an essential element or not, and so much more – when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

Whit, say, "What's up?" to Fire Nation, and share something interesting about yourself that most people don't know.

Whit: Awesome. Well, as a long-time listener of the podcast, and a proud member of Fire Nation, it is a true privilege, and honor to be able to say, "What's up, Fire Nation?" So, something a lot of people don't know about myself are – maybe just my wife knows this about myself – and, I'm gonna get real here. What most people don't know is that I got invited to be on this podcast four years ago, but I was too scared to come on. I actually purchased the invitation to your Kickstarter campaign for the Freedom Journal, and the reward level I purchased included, like, five signed copies of the Freedom Journal, and an invitation to be on the podcast.

Quick side note: The Freedom Journal was absolutely instrumental in helping me achieve my goal of launching Sharpslide 1.0, which I'll talk about later. But, I just highly recommend the Freedom Journal to anyone out there who has a big goal they're trying to achieve. And, actually, I recently started using the Mastery Journal to help me reach my goal of launching Sharpslide 2.0. So, that has been awesome.

JLD: I'm loving this story for a lot of reasons because, I mean, No. 1, that was 2016, Fire Nation, when I launched the Freedom Journal campaign. And, we're actually talking January of 2016, so four and a half years ago, Whit purchased the level in my Freedom Journal Kickstarter Campaign that gave him those five signed Freedom Journals, plus a spot on Entrepreneurs on Fire. I don't remember exactly how many I had, but it was maybe five, or something.

So, he snagged one of those five spots, and it has literally taken him until now to claim that spot. And, I can say everybody else who purchased it has since been on the show, long, long ago. So, it's pretty cool that we were able to go back in time, and think about that Freedom Journal Kickstarter campaign. I'm really honored that, Whit, that, No. 1. you use the Freedom Journal in the manner it was meant to, and accomplished a major goal in 100 days, and that, No. 2 that you moved on to the Mastery Journal, which, by the way – and, I tell this to everybody who will listen – that is my best work ever.

Like, the Mastery Journal, to me, is it. Like, if you have the Mastery Journal, and you actually use it for 100 days, it is literally impossible not to be blown away with the results you have at the end of those 100 days. It's just impossible not to. I've never heard a single person who hasn't. But, you know, frankly, less than 1 percent of 1 percent of people will actually do that, so it is what it is. But, Whit, before we move on, is there anything you want to add to this part before we dive into the main topic of our conversation today?

Whit: I just wanted to say that what inspired me to reach out and finally get on the podcast was one of your LinkedIn posts. And, you talked about imposter syndrome. And, you talked about who imposter syndrome is this voice in your head that says, "Who am I to share my thoughts with the world?" Or, "Who would want to listen to me?" And, you said that the best step you can take to get past these thoughts is to accept that they exist, and that they always will. And, that just gave me such great comfort to know that it was something that you struggled with, that you continue to struggle with –

JLD: Big time.

Whit: – And, you overcome it by pressing record. And, so, I guess we've pressed record.

JLD: We have pressed record, brother. There's no going back now. And, one thing I'll say, Fire Nation, is something I always talk about around that topic – the imposter syndrome – is, guess what? You are a flipping human being. That is why you're having those thoughts, and those fears. So, if you want to be like 99 percent of human beings who never achieve the lifestyle freedom, the financial freedom that they want, then just go ahead, and let those fears, and doubts beat you down.

But, if you want to be in the one percent of people who actually have that lifestyle location freedom, then give those imposter thoughts, and that imposter syndrome, a big old bear hug, rise above it, and say, "You know what? It's there. It's always gonna be there. I can do this." And, Fire Nation, as I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, today we're talking about how to create a TED Talk caliber presentation that delivers the goods. And, Whit, you're a great person to talk to about this. You've created an entire company called Sharpslide around this. So, tell us why. Why does the way we present matter?

Whit: I think there's a logical reason, and then there's an emotion reason for why presentations matter. The logical reason is this – and, this is especially true if you're an entrepreneur: Presentations make you money. Period. Plain, and simple. Whether you're trying to raise VC capital, or you're trying to sell a product, or a service, whether or not someone decides to invest in you, or by what you're selling, depends on the way you present. And, now, there's also an emotional reason, and I actually think this is the most important, and the real reason why presentations matter: As human beings, we just want to impress others. And, we want to be viewed as leaders.

It may sound vain, but it's true. And, there's actually nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with wanting to influence, and lead other to be – and, to be viewed as a leader. So, I'd like to share a great analogy that I stole from one of my mentors, Greg Denning. Imagine that you can make the most amazing chocolate cake. It's this recipe that you've perfected over the years, and it's delicious. And, there's somebody that you want to try this cake. And, so, to give them some, you sink your fingers into the cake, grab a handful, and just hold it out to them in your hand. Are they gonna want to try your cake?

No. It doesn't matter how great your cake is, they're not gonna want to eat that cake out of your hand. Most of us are confident in our content, but we're incompetent in our presentation. So, let's talk specifically about how this relates to PowerPoint, since that's my area of expertise. Now, when I say PowerPoint, I'm talking about all slide presentations. So, it could be Keynote, Google Slides – whatever platform you like to use. I use PowerPoint because it's what most of my clients use. But, a PowerPoint can be the difference between your audience rejecting your message, or gobbling it up.

Now, I know there a lots of people out there probably rolling their ears, and thinking that you don't really need PowerPoint to give an effective presentation, and they're not wrong. There are many great public speakers out there who are super effective without any kind of visuals. But, I'd be willing to bet that the same people who are rolling their eyes, saying, "Oh, you don't need PowerPoint," have probably used PowerPoint to help present their ideas at some point in the recent past, or are going to, at some point, in the near future.

Like it or not, you're going to have to use PowerPoint to present your ideas at some point, and it would a mistake to just dismiss PowerPoint, and it's importance, when it comes to your presentation. Anyway, presenting a bad PowerPoint, that you threw together as a side thought, is the equivalent of grabbing a handful of chocolate cake, and handing it over to your audience.

JLD: I mean, Fire Nation, there's one thing that Whit shared that I just want to reiterate because it's so key: Presentations make you money. And, I want to sit up here, and just confirm, confirm, confirm, that presentations will make you money. We're talking all forms of presentation. We're talking a podcast, or a short 15 second video on Instagram, or your actual talk in front of your audience, or a webinar, or x, or y, or z. Presentations will make you money, period, end of story. So, that's why the way we present matters.

I know you're going to dive into the four essential elements of an effective PowerPoint presentation in second here, Whit, but anything you want to wrap up on this topic before you move on to those four essential elements?

Whit: No, I think I'm ready. Let's just jump right in to the essential elements.

JLD: Let's break it down.

Whit: I'm gonna speak specifically about PowerPoint, there. There are essential elements to a great presentation over all, like opening with a hook, sharing a story, involving your audience – blah, blah, blah. My area of expertise is PowerPoint, so I'm gonna focus on the slides themselves here. So, I think there are four essential elements of a great presentation, and No. 1 is this – and, it's the most obvious: Simplicity. You have to remember that your PowerPoint is the way in which your serving your cake, not the cake itself. If you make the mistake of making it all about the PowerPoint, you'll easily give into the temptation to put all of your content on the slides.

And, the fear is that if you don't put all of your content on the slides, your audience will miss something important. The reality is that if you over-complicate your slides, you risk your audience missing everything. We all want to consume content with minimal effort on our part. So, when you put too much content on your slides, you increase the amount of effort your audience has to exert to consume your content. Because, now, not only do they have to pay attention to what you’re saying, they also have to read these bullet points, and decipher your complex info-graphic.

Eventually, your audience will reach a threshold where they will just mentally check out, and that's typically around slide 2, or slide 3. You want your audience to be able to take in the content on your slide as quickly as possible, ideally within the first few seconds of seeing it. And, this will actually enhance what you have to say, rather that distracting from it. So, back to the cake analogy: If you go to an expensive Michelin Star restaurant, and you order cake, I guarantee you that the plating of that cake is going to be incredibly minimal, and elegant, drawing your attention to the cake.

Simplicity in your slides will enhance your content. Complexity will distract from it. And, there's actually someone I know who is a master at this, and that's you JLD.

JLD: Awe.

Whit: A while back – I don't know if you – This was a while ago, but I designed a keynote presentation for you –

JLD: Oh, yeah.

Whit: – And, you should have seen how excited I was when I got your draft slides. Usually, it's a struggle for me to get my clients to reduce their content. And, your draft deck, nearly every slide in your keynote had just one word, or one beautiful image, or one simple visual. And, everything was so easy to take in. It's still, to this day, one of the best presentations I think I've ever worked on.

JLD: That means a lot. And, I can tell you honestly, because I remember it so clearly, the, "Oohs," and "Awes," that I got from the crowd as your awesome presentations were unfolding throughout each time I would go through that process, was super cool. I wish you could have been in the audience to hear that.

Whit: Awesome, man. That's great to hear. I appreciate that. Fire Nation, learn from JLD, be disciplined, and keep your slides simple. So, the No. 2 essential element of a great presentation is this: Slides that are essential. And, now, you might be thinking, "Well, no duh," but hear me out. I've seen too many presentations that are packed with slides that aren't essential. Pointless slides. They don't enhance the presentation. We feel like if we're going to have slides, we need to have a slide to back up every point in our presentation, and this just isn't true. There are plenty of scenarios where specific messages are actually better presented without slides at all.

So, an example of this would be if you're sharing a personal story. Sometimes, it's much more powerful to just leave it on the slide that was up there before, and go into your story, or just go to a black screen. Or, if you’re on a Zoom call, cut the feed to the PowerPoint. There's nothing wrong with the audience taking their attention off of the slides, and focusing on you. And, when you do that, your audience will connect with your story, and fill in the visuals with their own imagination.

So, if you ever catch yourself searching the internet for an icon, or a photo that you can just throw on the screen that somewhat relates to what you're talking about, maybe it's better to just cut the slide, or find another creative way to enhance that part of your presentations. Slides that just relate to something you're saying are pointless. You only want slides that enhance what you're saying. So, make sure all of your slides are essential. And, also, one more thing about that, don't worry about the slide count. People ask me all the time, "How many slides should be in my presentation?" The answer I say is, "However many slides that you need, that are essential to your presentation."

No. 3, essential element of great presentations are visuals that inspire. So, we just talked about slides that enhance what you're saying. Well, your slides will always enhance what you're saying if you use visuals that inspire. What do I mean by visuals? We're talking about photos, illustrations, charts, info-graphics. It could even be one word, like in JLD's presentation I mentioned. You want to make sure that these visuals inspire. So, let me give two examples to illustrate this.

Let's say you want to show a photo of a stairwell. Don't go to Google Images, and search, "stairwell," and plop the first image you see on a slide. I guarantee you that image will be a depressing image of a sad, sad stairwell. And, ultimately distracting to your audience. You'd be surprised how many times I've seen a questionable image in a draft slide deck, and I'll go to Google Images, search whatever is in that image, and, boom, there it is, on the front page.

JLD: I mean, I've seen those type of images take the energy out of an entire room before because people are like, "Really? You're using that image?" It's for real. So, yeah, keep rocking.

Whit: Totally. Instead, put a little bit of effort into finding a beautiful image of a stairwell that has interesting architecture, or lighting, or a shot from a unique perspective. And, one of my favorite resources for this type of inspiring imagery is unsplash.com. All of the photos on Unsplash have been donated by creatives all over the world, so it's totally free to use for commercial, and personal use. It's awesome. But, go to Google Images, search, "stairwell," and then go to unsplash.com, and search, "stairwell," and, you'll see such a big difference between the results you get.

And, the second example I mention was a chart. Let's say you want to show a chart that shows the increase of your net promoter score over the course of several years, or something like that. Most people would just plug in their data into a PowerPoint bar chart, or a line chart, and just call it a day. Well, sure, it visualizes the information you want to present, but is it inspiring? Is it really vital that your audience sees every data point in that chart? Maybe, but remember, we want our audience to be able to take in the information within seconds. So, what if you simplified that chart down to just two bars, with big numbers, and a simple build?

"In 2015, our NPS was 50." Click. "Today, we're up to 75." It's more dramatic, and inspiring. So, No. 3 visuals that inspire. No. 4 – and this is the most important – is confidence. I don't care if you create the world's most beautiful PowerPoint that incorporates all the elements we just discussed, if you don't have confidence in your presentation, you're audience won't have confidence in you. Have you ever been to a meeting where someone else is presenting a PowerPoint, and they start the meeting by apologizing for the terrible slides they're about to present?

JLD: Oh, man. It's like the worst.

Whit: I've done that before. But, right out of the gate, that audience is gearing up for a terrible presentation, and are probably already starting to tune you out. They say something like, "I'm sorry about the slides, guys, but I just didn't have enough time to prepare." Go back to that cake illustration. Even if you're at a fine restaurant, if the server brings you your cake, and apologizes for it before you even put it in your mouth, and says something like, "Oh, sorry. Our chef is having an off day," you're already starting to look for what's wrong with that cake. Always, always, always present with confidence, and your audience will be more receptive to what you have to say.

JLD: Fire Nation, let's break this down. No. 1: Simplicity. Keep things simple. No. 2: Only use slides that are essential. Don't just be a slide-stuffer. You can take that one, by the way – a slide-stuffer. No. 3: Visuals that inspire. Only use visuals that are truly inspiring. And, that's why I got those, "Oohs," and "Awes," on my presentation because these visuals inspired, and I love that great url that you gave, unsplash.com. So, check that out, for sure, Fire Nation. And, then No. 4: Confidence. Be confident up there because, hello, people are sitting in those seats, or they are sitting down in their home office, watching you on Zoom, or wherever it might be. They want you to be confident. They're rooting for you to be confident. Be confident.

And, Fire Nation, we're gonna be talking about a lot more around presentations to take your regular talk – just, your regular presentation – and, create a TED Talk caliber preso, and, of course, deliver the goods – as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors.

So, we're back, and I want to talk now about professional design. You, as you've shared a couple times now, and you've had this inspiration to create Sharpslide as a result – are a PowerPoint designer. A professional PowerPoint designer. So, let's talk about the importance of a high quality design as an essential element on Fire Nation's presentations.

Whit: Absolutely. So, over the past 15 years designing PowerPoints for a living, I found that nothing inspires confidence like a sharp, polished, professionally designed PowerPoint presentation. When you have an amazing PowerPoint, you stand a little taller, and present with more authority, and your confidence increases. This is why my clients are willing to pay me thousands of dollars to design one PowerPoint deck. They know that a professionally designed deck will inspire confidence both in them, and in their audience, which will give them a much better chance of achieving their goals for that presentation.

So, imagine you're trying to raise capital for your start-up, and you're pitching your idea to a bunch of venture capitalists, and all you have to sell them on is your idea, which is often the case with start-ups. A professionally designed PowerPoint will go a long way in inspiring confidence in those VCs. I saw this happen with my own brother. He wasn't starting a business, but he was planning a church – which is sort of like a startup. Part of the process of planning the church was raising support from other established churches in the area.

And, so, he had to put together this little brochure called a prospectus. Typically, people can't afford to spend a lot of money on these things, so they don't usually look great from a design standpoint. But, I help my brother out putting together this beautiful, professionally designed prospectus, and he raised all of the money he needed in almost record time. And, he told me that after looking at the prospectus, these other pastors that he would show it to would often say something along the lines of, "Oh, wow. It's looks like you guys really know what you're doing." And, he could tell it was just because of how well-designed the prospectus was.

For the record, he actually know what he was doing, but the high quality design inspired confidence in the people he wanted to raise money from, and they gave more readily. My brother was also really super proud to hand this thing out to everyone he was trying to raise from. So, great design inspires confidence. Now, if you're like most people, you're probably thinking, "Well, that sounds great, but I suck at PowerPoint. On top of that, I have a fear of public speaking, you know?" Like me, with this podcast, and the imposter syndrome, I have that fear. "So, no matter how hard I try, my PowerPoints look terrible. And, also, I don't have thousands of dollars to pay you to spruce up my presentation."

And, I totally get it. Most entrepreneurs, and small business, can't afford to spend thousands on custom PowerPoint design. And, this is something that I realized several years ago when, time and time again, people would reach out, inquiring about my services, only to realize that I was too expensive. So, I wanted to come up with a way that I could help everyone present something they're proud of. So, that's why I created Sharpslide. And, Sharpslide is a web application that lets anyone, regardless of their design abilities, or PowerPoint skills, create a world class custom PowerPoint that looks like a professional designer did it.

So, really, now with Sharpslide, nobody has an excuse. With Sharpslide, you can create a PowerPoint that you will be proud to present.

JLD: And, I want to jump in here, Fire Nation, because, again, when Whit took the time, and energy, and created this amazing presentation for me, I'm not gonna lie, my confidence level – which, of course, is the fourth essential element to an effective presentation – my confidence level was through the roof. I mean, I would have gone on stage with a fairly decent level of confidence because I just am a fairly confident person, but at the same time, I would have been like, "You know. I just know that this presentation could be better because I've seen other presentations that blew me away," and I was so impressed by them, and I knew mine wasn't that.

But, when I had Whit's presentation right behind my back, it was like I had a whole team behind me that was supporting me, and backing me up. And, I'm telling you, I know 100 percent that I presented better, just as a human being, with a better presentation. Not to mention, it was a better overall presentation experience for the audience because of A.) my confidence, but B.) the better presentation itself. Just the more professional, the more engaging, the more beautiful artistic, and over all creative presentation that I had going on there.

So, Whit, love what you've created. Love that you've solved a real problem out there. If Fire Nation wants to learn more, and take advantage of this great program that you've created, this great company that you've launched into this world, how do we do that?

Whit: One of the primary services I provide to my clients is custom PowerPoint template design. Basically, I design a beautiful PowerPoint template for them that they distribute throughout their organization, or use themselves, to create multiple PowerPoint presentations themselves. Included in this custom design PowerPoint template is styling that compliments that companies brand, their logo, color scheme, font scheme – the works. It also includes a collection of roughly 100 pre-designed slides, including info-graphics, charts, maps, diagrams, and so on.

There's also a built-in library of great photography, as well as an icon library. It's really everything you need to create a professional PowerPoint presentation. And, right now, I charge $6,500.00 for that service, and it's actually a pretty good deal, but still way too expensive for a lot of people. With Sharpslide, you get all of this, and more, for less than $100.00. Like you mentioned, there are tons of other great resources out there, and websites that offer thousands of different PowerPoint templates.

Many of these PowerPoint templates are totally free to download, but the problem with these sites is that they can be overwhelming, and trying to find the perfect template is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It can be stressful. Then, once you pick a template, and download it, you still have to modify that template to fit your brand, and that can be tricky if you're not a PowerPoint pro. When you open the template, all of a sudden you realize that there are no photos in there, but rather there's just a bunch of place holders for photos.

So, you still have to go, and search the internet for photography. And, then, when you try to go, and add your own content to your slides – to that template – you quickly realize that you still suck at PowerPoint, and you can't make the slides look as good as they looked on the website you got it from, right? So, with Sharpslide, you don't have to search for the perfect template. Instead, you go through a simple five step process to create the perfect template that is totally unique to you, and your brand.

You start off by choosing a style. There are only four choices, so it's not overwhelming. You upload a logo. You chose a color scheme. You chose a font scheme. And, then, finally, you get to choose a photo pack, which is this awesome feature. A photo pack is a collection of photos that inspire, like we talked about before. And, these are photos that are centered around a specific theme of your choice. So, for example, nature, education, business, mountains – you name it. We're gonna have dozens to choose from. Sharpslide takes all of this, and generates the perfect PowerPoint template. And, it comes with those – over 100 – pre-designed slides.

And, it comes with that amazing photography, and the icon library. And, it's all on brand, and ready to use right out of the gate. And, we understand that finding the perfect PowerPoint template is only half the battle. When you open the template in PowerPoint, you still have to put your content into the slides, which can be difficult if you're not very PowerPoint savvy. So, we get this, and that's why we're including short tutorial videos that will walk you through the process of how to edit, and modify each, and every slide in your template.

So, the more you use Sharpslide, and watch these tutorial videos, the more you're actually going to improve your own PowerPoint skills. And, before long, you'll be the PowerPoint ninja. It's really awesome.

JLD: Fire Nation, believe me, you want to be a PowerPoint ninja. It's going to improve, basically, every facet of your presentation life. So, Whit, break it down for us. Where does Fire Nation go to get this great offer?

Whit: So, three years ago, we launched Sharpslide 1.0, thanks to the Freedom Journal. It included many of the features I described, and we made it available for free. The goal was to validate the idea, and gather feedback from users. The feedback we got was absolutely incredible, and it was amazing to see the different types of businesses, and individuals that got a lot of value out of it. And, we've taken that feedback, and are now in the process of developing Sharpslide 2.0, which has all those features I just described to you. Now, we didn't make any money with Sharpslide 1.0, and we haven't taken on any investment. So, to help raise the funds that we need to finish Sharpslide 2.0, and bring it to the market, we launched a Kickstarter campaign. And, for those who aren't familiar with Kickstarter, it's a crowd funding platform. It's awesome.

JLD: Fire Nation knows all about Kickstarter.

Whit: Oh, fantastic. Anyway, we are offering incredible rewards for our backers, including early access to Sharpslide 2.0, and 50 percent off single downloads, annual subscriptions, and lifetime subscriptions. I mean, it's really – the value is ridiculous. And, those annual, and lifetime subscriptions include unlimited downloads. So, it's awesome. In addition, anyone who pledges any amount will get access to Sharpslide 1.0, which we will keep live for a limited time until 2.0 launches.

So, if you'd like to support our campaign, please go to Kickstarter, and search Sharpslide. All one word. That's sharp like a knife, and slide like a PowerPoint slide. You can also find us at Sharpslide.com. And, I actually have a special gift for your listeners. I would like to give Fire Nation access to Sharpslide 1.0 right now, for free. We've temporarily locked it down to incentivise people to support our campaign. And, even if somebody does support our campaign, they have to wait until the end of the campaign to get access.

But, for your listeners, we're gonna give it to them for free, right now, and no pledge necessary. So, Sharpslide 1.0, remember, won't have all the same cool features that I described before, and the designs are a little dated, but it will still help you level up your current presentations. So, if you want to take advantage of that, go to Sharpslide.com/fire, enter your email address, and we'll send you a passcode that will give you instant access to Sharpslide 1.0. But, be sure to also check out our Kickstarter page to see what we have in store for you with Sharpslide 2.0. And, when 2.0 launches, 1.0 will go away, so you might want to consider supporting that project, and getting it at 50 percent off.

JLD: What are the dates of the Kickstarter campaign?

Whit: We launched that campaign back on September 1st, and that campaign will last for at least 30 days. So, go check it out.

JLD: Fire Nation, you know this. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and you've been hanging out with WM, and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And, if you head over to Eofire.com, and type, "Whit," WHIT in the search bar, his page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about. Best show notes in the business. Please remember a couple things, Fire Nation. No. 1, go check out Sharpslide.com/fire to get version 1.0 completely for free, but please go check out that Kickstarter campaign. Whit's got a lot of cool stuff going on there. Any donation is very welcome to help him get Sharpslide 2.0 off the ground.

It kicked off back on September 1st, and it's still going right now, potentially, if you're hearing this voice. So, go over and check it out. Search for it. And, I know, with Kickstarter campaigns, even if you're listening to this a couple years in advance from now, you can still go to that page, and Whit will be able to have posted a link to where you can get Sharpslide 2.0. at that current iteration. So, definitely take action on that. And, Whit, I just want to say thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we'll catch you on the flip side.

Whit: Awesome. Thank you so much, JLD.