The Worst Mistake People Make When Creating Slides
A client asked me earlier this week: 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝘀?
And it got me thinking... I approach slide creation from the perspectives of design, communication, and marketing because I broke out of a template-mindset early on and built my expertise from there.
What I see people struggle with the most is this: 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺.
Each presentation software (𝘐'𝘮 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯' 𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘗𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘗𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵, 𝘒𝘦𝘺𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘷𝘢) has their own templates that they offer you. They're trying to guide you toward a certain style or layout that their software excels at.
Again, I get it.
They're trying to make your life easier. But what happens is you feel pressured to 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 into these boxes, into these bullet points, into these photo placeholders, because that's what the template says to do.
The issue is that your content might not call for it to be laid out just that way. Those template slides that "make your life easier" might actually be over-complicating your message and confusing your audience.
Or worse: it might be 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁. Yikes...
So what's the solution here? Well, the most important step is letting go of the idea that templates drive your slides. Because they don't. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝘀.
Having the vision to step back from a template and ask yourself "Does this really work or am I just attached to this template slide?" is going to change so much for you!
After that, focus on 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲. It's like eating one bite at a time, right?
As long as what's on the slide serves your message, go for it my friend. Lean into your creativity and 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲! I'll be over here cheering you on every step of the way!