The Campfire Method^® requires presenters to examine four elements before selling an idea: audience, story, environment and self. All of these elements matter, but in reality, the last element – self – might be the most important, and also hardest to tackle, since it’s likely you’re not used to doing it, particularly in a business setting.

However, knowing yourself is essential to being a great persuasive storyteller, and therefore, if you want to make presentations that move audiences and change minds, you’re going to need to focus on who you are: your strengths and weaknesses, your past experiences and your special skills. Join us on a journey of self-reflection, so you can improve your persuasive storytelling ability, and watch your ideas take hold.

You Are the Vehicle for Your Ideas

When you give a presentation, your idea is the attraction. It is at the center of what you’re trying to communicate to your audience. And, though it might surprise some of you who are used to giving presentations, your slides aren’t really the vehicle you need to deliver your ideas to your audience during a presentation. You are.

If you make presentations to people using slides, you’re not alone. There are currently more than half a billion PowerPoint users create 30 million presentations every day. It might be second nature to you to turn to your deck design program every time you’re going to present new ideas. In reality, however, your decks are simply holding you back when it comes to presenting. They help make presentations that are boring, rote, routine and, when it comes down to it, not effective at persuading.

Put Down the Decks

If the goal for your presentation is to persuade people to adopt your ideas, the first step you should take when preparing is crafting a story to tell using your data, not getting that data down onto slides. Think of yourself as a storyteller who is trying to tell an entertaining tale to an audience. What kind of narrative will grip them? What kinds of stories move them? Do you have any personal anecdotes they will relate to and empathize with? If so, choose a tale to work into your presentation, then figure out how to include your convincing data into that story. Data is not convincing when it’s simply perceived by visitors on a big screen — what that data means or can do is what makes it convincing, and that is something you can easily convey by telling a story with it.

When you choose to craft a presentation without slides (or add slides on after your presentation is written, to provide a visual element), you can free yourself from having to deliver rote, uninteresting facts. Instead, you can focus on your storytelling skills, ability to craft a narrative and desire to make a connection with the audience so you can move them. By freeing yourself to be yourself, you provide yourself with the strongest possible vehicle with which to deliver the thing people came to hear: your brilliant ideas.

If you’re convinced you’re ready to kick the deck addiction and deliver more persuasive presentations, stay tuned by signing up for our newsletter. We frequently share helpful articles that can guide you toward becoming your most persuasive self.