A Whiteboard Animation in PowerPoint to Describe the Benefits of Being an Effective Presenter

This is the blog post version of the above YouTube video. I highly encourage you to check out the video because it actually serves two purposes: one is to share this content, but the other is to show you an example of a whiteboard animation/explainer video that was made in PowerPoint!

In my last post/video, I showed you how to use the Draw tab and Ink Replay Animation in PowerPoint to draw on your slides. This is a follow up post to show you an example of how to use those features to share information.

So, again, watch the video to see the whiteboard animation style in PowerPoint. Keep reading for the content about how being an effective presenter benefits you and your audience.

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“I’m busy, why should I spend time creating visually engaging presentations?”

That’s a question that a lot of people ask me (or, I imagine, want to ask me). In a previous post, I answered that question by explaining how being an effective presenter is good for your career in academia, science, research, or evaluation.

But what are other reasons besides it being good for your career? How is being an effective presenter good for both your audience and for you?

1. You see more “lightbulbs” in the audience (and less confused or frustrated faces)

When you present in standard academic ways (walls of text, bad visuals, tables of data instead of data visualizations) you probably see a lot of bored, confused, or frustrated faces. Or, maybe your audience asks you questions where it becomes obvious that they weren't really following you at all or understanding what you said in the presentation.

In other words, when you present ineffectively, it is obvious to you that your audience had a hard time understanding the material you shared. This happens to every presenter from time to time, but if you find that it happens every time you present certain material, or it seems to happen a lot overall, then the problem is probably not your audience. It’s more likely that the problem is the way the information is being presented.

Once you start creating effective and engaging presentations, you start to see your audience’s expressions change for the better. You have an audience that is now nodding, smiling, and following along with you! They're paying attention and you can almost see the light bulbs lighting up over their heads while you're talking.

That is the power of creating presentations that are effective and engaging.

I'm guessing you've experienced both of these at some point. So, take a moment to think about how each of them makes you feel. The one on the left probably makes you feel kinda crappy or frustrated and the one on the right probably leaves you feeling empowered or invigorated, like your effort was worth it!

And, ultimately, isn’t that what we want? The question posed started with “I’m busy.” EXACTLY. What’s something busy people HATE? Feeling like their effort wasn’t worth their time. What’s something busy people LOVE? Feeling like their effort was worth the time.

When you present effectively, you will rarely see these confused or bored or frustrated faces. And, when you do, you’ll know how to improve and fix it so it doesn’t happen again. Ultimately, seeing those lightbulbs becomes more of the norm.

2. Your audience will be more likely to get excited about the topic

Have you ever been frustrated because your field or research topic (or whatever you're teaching them in class that day) is actually really cool or important, but you just can't seem to instill that same passion and excitement in your audience?

Well, before blaming your audience for “not meeting you halfway” or “just not getting it” take a look at how you're presenting this information. I see so many people on Twitter every August talking about how no one's paying attention to them, so they’re going to ban laptops.

But I'm over here like, “Hmm, how are you sharing your information?” Is that on slides that look like this maybe?

Because if so, I’m sorry to say…that’s the bigger problem. Let’s think about this together and be honest: Why would someone get excited about a field or a topic when it's shared in a boring, standard, bullet pointed, wall of text slideshow?

Those walls of text, that's not meeting your audience halfway. And it’s definitely not letting any of your passion or excitement to come through. The way you design your slides should at least match your own level of excitement about the topic.

Meeting your audience halfway means you have effective and engaging presentations. You engage people and get them excited about your topic only when you add narratives, storytelling, metaphors, analogies, great visuals, and other engaging presentation elements.

When you create slides that match your excitement and passion for the field (and that are well-designed) then your audience is going to pick up on that passion, excitement, and importance. They’ll pick up on the subtle clue that you spent your time putting together an engaging presentation, which means they will be more likely to pay attention to that. In other words, when you care, your audience cares.

Now sometimes people just really aren't interested in the topic and no amount of slide design can help. But, when have you really well designed slides, getting people excited about your topic is definitely going to be more likely.

3. You’ll be able to share difficult information more effectively (rather than in ways that turn people away)

A big challenge a lot of us face is that we need to share information that is scary, heartbreaking, or devastating. Maybe we have to talk about climate change and how we're losing tons of species every single year. Or, maybe we have to talk about police brutality and racism. My research background is in domestic violence and child abuse, so I have definitely struggled with this.

It’s really hard to share this information in ways that don’t let people just put their “blinders” on. Where they block themselves from hearing the information because it's so horrible or it destroys their worldview (e.g., it destroys their belief in a just world).

Another risk is that your audience will feel it so much that they become a hot mess and can't process or regulate their emotions (or it's done in a way that retraumatizes people).

We have to pay attention to that and our presentations need to be designed in a certain way to prevent that as much as possible. Certain visuals should be used and some should be avoided. The pacing and the framing matter a lot here. Preparing people helps a lot (YES, content warnings are helpful)!

If we can do that effectively, we actually have a chance for people to hear us instead of shutting people down or making them overwhelmed. We can do this in a way where people understand it and see how serious it is, but also feel a sense that something needs to be done and maybe they're actually part of that positive social change.

Now, please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all you need is to have better slides and you'll convince people of whatever you want.

It doesn't work that way. I wish it did but it doesn't. But you have no chance to do that with slides that look like this. I’m also not saying that you can’t let anyone feel any negative emotions at all, ever. I’m saying that properly designed presentations allow you to balance all of that while still increasing your chances of getting people to hear you.

If you share difficult information, you've probably experienced both of these already. Or, maybe not. Maybe you’re still struggling with how to share difficult information with people. Honestly, that would make sense because we aren’t really trained on how to communicate with people using slides, let alone how to do it well when you’re sharing information that is difficult!

The good news is that this is something you can learn to do through professional development. When you present effectively, shutting people down and overwhelming them with negative emotions becomes less likely. Getting people to hear you and not turn away becomes easier.

Alright, so those are 3 ways that being an effective presenter is good for your audience. It helps your audience understand the information, get excited about the topic, and better able to process difficult information.

But what about you? How does it help you beyond your career, because I've already made a post about that.

4. You become more excited to deliver your presentation!

How often are you bored with your own presentation before you even open your slide deck and start to present?

I hear that from members of my online course a lot: that before learning how to create engaging presentations, they were bored of their slides before they even clicked on “Presentation Mode.”

Or maybe you're not bored with your slides, but you're embarrassed by them and you've been tempted to apologize for your slides before you begin. That's not good for you, that just destroys your confidence! It makes you feel bad about yourself. It's imposter syndrome fuel!

When you take control and create slides you know will impress your audience and have that wow factor, you become excited about your presentation. Before you even begin, you're going to walk up to that podium or start that webinar with confidence and that's going to help you deliver an effective presentation.

Again, I'm guessing that you've experienced both already, but which one do you tend to experience more often?

Once you start making engaging presentations, you will rarely be bored with your own presentation. If it's a well-designed presentation, you're going to be excited to share it with others. That translates directly to working on your presentation, too. When people hear my suggested timeline for working on their slides, at first they feel a sense of dread. But, that’s usually because they hate working on their presentations so 8 weeks sounds like torture. The good news is that when you start to enjoy creating and delivering your presentations, starting early will not feel like a chore—it will feel like a welcome break from your other difficult tasks.

5. You’ll feel like a BOSS when you’re done!

How did you feel after your last presentation? How do you normally feel after your presentations?

A lot of academics, scientists, evaluators, and researchers who haven’t had training in presentation design usually just feel relief. Relief that it’s over. Relief that it’s done. Relief they can move on with their life. That’s the best-case scenario for a lot of folks.

Worst case scenario is you felt like total crap. That was a disaster and you could tell everyone was bored, disengaged, or not caring or understanding. The only word I have to describe that is soul crushing. It’s so hard to recover from that, especially if you aren’t completely sure what went wrong. Or, maybe you (think you) know what went wrong, but don’t know how to fix it.

Again, the good news is that it does not have to be that way. When you are an effective presenter, the overwhelming majority of time, you will end that presentation feeling like a total BOSS.

Maybe not 100% of the time. Bad presentations still happen. Every now and then, I even have them. But it's not the norm, not even close—it’s rare. Plus you usually don’t completely bomb a presentation. It’s more of a feeling that you could’ve done better. The overwhelming majority of the time, you’ll be proud of the presentations, webinars, lectures, or workshops that you give.

Even if you’re terrified of public speaking, that does not mean you’re doomed to bomb every presentation. I’m very open about how I used to have a serious fear of public speaking. That is not a permanent personality trait. Learning how to deliver engaging presentations and personally experiencing everything on this list, I eventually grew to love giving presentations!

Hopefully, this post inspires you to think about your presentations and PowerPoint differently than you have before and it makes you excited about the idea of making better presentations. Why PowerPoint? Because that’s what I used to create the whiteboard animation video version of this post. You absolutely can use PowerPoint to create engaging presentations that WOW your audience.

Want to make better professional presentations? Check out my signature course called Blast Off to Stellar Slides.

BOSS is my online program made specifically for academics, scientists, researchers, evaluators, and similar professionals. Basically people who use slides for lectures, conference presentations, final project presentations, keynotes, job talks, teaching demos, workshops, etc.

Thanks for reading!

Hopefully, you enjoyed this blog post. If so, you’ll love my FREE training!

with joy,

Echo Rivera, PhD