Alexei Kapterev's "Presentation Secrets": Chapter 2, The Story's Focus

Set a goal

Kapterev is adamant about this part: a presentation should have a single guiding idea or focus. Sure, it's not a fairy tale, he says, but it still needs a moral to the story. Setting the goal may be the most important thing. Kapterev always asks his consultants the question, "What is your goal?"

The answer I typically get is "I want to tell them that..." or "I want to inform them about..." Beep! Wrong answer!

Even experienced executives fall into this trap...The correct answer should sound something like "I want them to give me their business card or "I want them to believe that my plan is going to work." A good goal is phrased as an answer to "What do I want them to do?" or sometimes "What do I want them to remember?"

So to set a manageable goal, ask yourself, "What do you want from your audience?"

Vision and values

If the goal is what you want from the audience, you need to convince them why they should do it. And Kapterev doesn't just mean logic here; he wants values and vision. Appeal to people's vision or idealism, and they will be much more willing to act accordingly. Have a grand vision that guides your presentation, and people may actually respond.

Don't give the audience merely what it wants

The audience isn't always right, according to Kapterev, and sometimes it's best to be controversial. Controversy is inherently interesting, and telling people something they don't already agree with makes them perk up and listen. They will then want to know why their own beliefs are wrong. You don't want to entertain the audience; you want to make them better.

So go for it with a hierarchy of goals:

1. Hear your message
2. Remember your message
3. Do something based on the message
4. Improve themselves--the ultimate goal. Change the audience. Make them better. 

Wait to make your slides

Don't go straight to PowerPoint, though. Go for the outline. Go for sticky notes. Go for anything but slide software. What you want to do now is map out your story. Do some mind-mapping and brain-dumping first. Get all of your concepts out on the table where you can see them. Write down your examples. Write down every point. Only then can you even begin to make them into a coherent story.

Divide. Subdivide. Make a hierarchy. Break them into topics and subtopics.

At the end of this process, you should have two things:

• Your goal.
• A huge amount of points to make.

And that's when you can start to actually craft your story.