POWER PLAY #8

Share Three Big Concepts in the Body of Your Presentation

You’ve got your audience focused, and you’ve introduced your topic with a sexy headline. Now you’re ready to serve up the meat of your presentation. It’s time for the key ideas or concepts you’ll be imparting to your audience. How many of your concepts do you think people will actually remember after you leave? I
guarantee you it’s not twenty-three! If you do your job well, they’ll remember at least one. If you’re outstanding, they’ll remember as many as three, but don’t expect much more than that.

The temptation is to give them more, but that’s founded on the misconception that telling them more results in them getting more. I’ve seen so many presentations with fifteen key ideas, and ten strategies, and five tips, and, and, and…but the reality is that most of it won’t be retained. With this in mind, I recommend you structure your presentation around three main ideas or concepts. When I teach our two-day presentation training class, FIRE-UP Your Presentations, the entire two days are based on three key concepts. And you’ve probably already noticed that this book follows the same approach: it may have fifty-two specific Power Plays, but they’re presented in the form of three key concepts.

Having three key concepts doesn’t limit us, though; it focuses us and makes the content more powerful. Within your one to three key concepts, you can include plenty of tips, anecdotes, and other supporting points, but be sure the biggest chunk of your message supports your one to three key concepts.
So the strategy I recommend and have been using for many years is to focus on the top few. Ask yourself: What are the three most important concepts I need to share with this audience to achieve my desired outcome from this presentation? Then develop and enrich those key concepts into the body of your presentation.