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In today’s episode, we talk about how to create a webinar presentation. I want to share my standard operating procedure (SOP) for creating a webinar. This could be for an in-person presentation, webinar, or anything else that you want to present.
Why Should You Have A System?
Why is it important to have a system? The biggest advantage is that it saves time. At one time, I would spend hours putting a presentation together, only to have to cut half of it out in order to make it fit the time slot I was given. After five to 10 years of doing that, I realized that there’s got to be a better way.
With a standard operating procedure, you’re not wasting a lot of time and you have a system you can use every time to come up with a presentation. Instead of spending two weeks creating your slides and only having an hour to practice before you give your presentation, you can create your presentation in a day or two and then spend the rest of those two weeks either relaxing or practicing.
What Are The Main Steps For Creating A Webinar?
With my process, there are four steps.
Step One: Create Your Research Document
I do this in a Google sheet because I like to create a mind map and it’s easy to cut and paste the ideas and concepts and things from the different cells and organize them this way.
One of the first things I do is write at the top of the document: who is my audience? Who’s going to be in that room or watching that presentation?
Then I write: what outcome do I want to create for them? Do I want them to know how to do X or to believe that Y is a problem, or to see and learn about something? What is the outcome that I want for this presentation?
The information that goes into the research document consists of the following.
- Slip Box Information: I got this term from a book called [Affiliate] How to Take Smart Notes. The slip box is where you put every written idea you have about that presentation. I believe I’ve heard stories about Steven Spielberg doing this. If he woke up in the middle of the night with an idea, he would write it down on a piece of paper and throw it in his bedside drawer. Then, when he wanted to make a movie, he’d pull out the drawer with all his ideas, dump it upside down and have everything there.
- Stories: Stories are important. I try to collect about five different story ideas. You usually can only tell one or two within a smaller presentation, but it’s important to have those personal stories that you can pull and use.
Step Two: Create Your Outline
The second step to create the presentation is to create your outline. Here is how I do it.
Create A Mind Map
I like to do this inside my research document. I make a duplicate of the tab that has all my slip box information, organize them into categories, and stick labels on them. At the end of the day, I have this nice mind map that describes the different things I could talk about in this presentation.
Create A Bullet Point Outline
I like to start with a framework. There are two types that I regularly use.
- Format: That’s the why, what, how, and what if format. I use these for these podcasts. Why is it important to have a system? What are the main steps involved?
- Case Studies: I also case study frameworks with DustSafetyScience. I give some background on it, analyze the case study, and give the conclusion.
Plan for five minutes per bullet. If you’re running a 20-minute presentation, you’re only going to have four main points that you can get across. Why, what, how and what if are the four bullet points, and then you wrap up and ask for questions. For each main bullet point, have one to three sub-bullet points, and these will eventually be the slides for this presentation.
Step Three: Create Your Slide Deck
First, get your template together. Pick your theme, format, and colours and go with it.
At the top of step three for my standard operating procedures, I write: don’t muck around with the title slide. I would sometimes spend an hour or two hours trying to get the title slide to look right before diving into creating the presentation. That’s a huge waste of time. Finalize the title slide as the last step before you finish up your presentation.
I like to use a presentation quote on my title slide. I think about my topic and my audience and see if I can pull up a quote that gets to the heart of that topic. A quote that I use a lot for my industrial safety company, DustSafetyScience, is “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
Now you have an idea of what your presentation looks like. Take a couple of minutes to look at it and say, “Does this make sense? Is it guiding the audience to the outcome that I want them to have?” Make any adjustments that you need.
The last step is to fill in the outline with content. Use images, bullet points, words, quotes, facts, numbers, whatever you need to fill in that presentation. I try to cut this down so it doesn’t take very long. Three one-hour sessions would be on the high end to fill in the content for a 20- or 25-minute presentation.
Step Four: Go Through Pre-Presentation
Now that your slide deck is done, you need to practice. I like to practice until I can deliver the presentation in the time allowed. So if it’s a 25-minute time slot, I practice until I can deliver that slide deck in 25 minutes.
I also like to practice how I’m going to be giving the presentation. If it’s on stage, I’ll clear my office, walk back and forth, and get used to the movements I’m going to be making. Get used to making eye contact with an audience at a given time. I’ve gone as far as to print out faces of people who are going to be in the audience and putting them on my wall!.
There are two other things I’ll mention in the pre-presentation prep.
- Brainstorm five to 10 questions or objections and come up with the answers to them. This is a strategy that’s often overlooked, but it will make you come off as well-polished and prepared if you’re able to deliver good answers.
- Create any supplemental material that you need. I’ll typically include a link back to a website page where people can download the slides or get more information about the presentation.
Bonus Tips
Here are three bonus tips for creating and delivering your presentation.
Tip #1: Never have more than one slide per minute of presentation
It’s very rare that you’re going to be able to move faster than one minute per slide if you’re giving a good presentation. I’ve done 25-minute presentations where I’ve had only 10 slides because I’m telling stories along the way that take four or five minutes each to get through.
Tip #2: Never give a presentation that you have not practiced using the given time limit
If you have a 25-minute time limit, don’t give a presentation unless you’ve practiced giving it in 25 minutes. You will be much better received, and you can spend more time interacting with the audience. You’ll also be better able to equipped to deal with the speaker’s biggest nightmare, which is when the organizer comes up and says, “Oh, can you do this a half an hour presentation in 15 minutes?” You already know your material well enough to adjust it.
Tip #3: Expect to present 10 to 20 times faster than you practice
I don’t know why, but I always talk faster when I’m giving the presentation than when I’m practicing- usually around one to two minutes faster for every 10 minutes of the presentation. If it’s a half-hour presentation, I will generally be three to four minutes faster than when I’m practicing.
That’s why I practice. If it’s a 30-minute presentation, I’ll practice till I get inside that 30-minute mark. Then I’ll have a couple more minutes to add to the question period.
If you have any questions about this process, leave a comment below. I look forward to continuing to bring you content that can help you build an online business, build up your blog, build up your podcast, build up your video creation experts, and yes, build up your presentations as well so you can build an online business and create change you want to see in the world.
