Just about every client presentation I ever worked on (and most of my own) was simply awful when it was first born. It is a phenomenon termed “Ugly Babies” by Ed Catmull, President of Pixar, in his wonderful best seller, Creativity, Inc.
“They are truly ugly: awkward and unformed, vulnerable and incomplete. They need nurturing — in the form of time and patience — in order to grow.”
Often our early presentations are bloated with too much information, they are unfocused and they wander around their content with no understanding of what the audience can connect with.
The process to turn them into a first-class presentation requires a number of things:
- Confidence in your message — the understanding that with the right care and feeding this will become a worthwhile presentation
- Willingness to edit. There is only so much an audience can absorb. If you want to tell them everything, write a book. Otherwise distill your ideas down to simple nuggets of truth and deliver them powerfully.
- Persistence. Creating a presentation worthy of your audience and your message is a process. Keep plugging away. Edit, edit and then edit some more. Get some first class feedback and then edit again. It will get better, slowly.
Realize that good presentations take work. Your newly born “ugly baby” might actually be quite beautiful when you look ahead to what it can someday become. You must be willing to be patient and keep working to make it spectacular.
