Presentations
Early in my career, presentations (and PowerPoint specifically) were the projects from my nightmares. But after a few years, I began to understand the power of a good presentation. It didn’t have to be hideous or boring or packed with so many words that they ran off the slide. They could be used to enhance a powerful story and visualize complicated concepts. Thus began my love of slide decks.
Pitch decks
Sometimes the goal of a presentation is to get someone to take a chance on you. Many pitch decks have served as an email attachment to convince a person to take a meeting. Other times they were used as leave-behinds to remind a person of our value. So they often had to work on their own, without a presenter.
Trainings
I enjoyed presentations so much that I began to train colleagues on how to build great decks. Okay, honestly, it was because they were butchering my templates.
Telling my story
I don’t just love building presentations, I love giving them. I’ve given a variety of talks on topics such as surviving your soul crushing day job, entrepreneurship as a hobby, and imposter syndrome.