Why not Wow! was a presentation I gave at our CONNECT 2012 users' conference and discusses how to give a presentation using PowerPoint as the primary delivery vehicle. A complete pdf copy of these PowerPoint note pages can be found at http://hrhiring.wordpress.com/

1. Please note, if you are reading these notes, and/or you attended my presentation. I travel light.
That’s to say give me enough warning and purchase a plane ticket, decent hotel room and a steak
dinner—expenses, and I’d be happy to travel about anywhere for about any size audience, so
contact me in the new amazing Tyler Community, or via email rex.castle@tylertech.com. I’m on a
quest to make a difference in this thing we call presentation, so I’d be happy to try and quest your
direction. Too, “Why Not WOW!” is one presentation we do in the non‐software realm. My
coworker Bryan Thompson has some exceptional stuff, I do a deal on hiring and a deal on
motivation, and other stuff related to Human Resources, management and leadership. So, if Bryan
or I can help…holler (that’s West Texan for contact us). Contact our President, Brett Cate, if you
want to avoid us having to “ask permission.” Request us and tell him “we’ll pay expenses.” I bet
we’ll be there shortly.
Also please note, the following notes will not be exact. They’re notes I wrote and then I did the
presentation. Sometimes the notes and the presentation don’t exactly mesh, but I didn’t go back
and mesh them.
The Notes
Today is going to be a lot about science.
Tell the story of Randy and our science experiment and almost burning down the house
I opted to conduct the following simple experiment. And for those who like to scribble notes
furiously, you can do this, but my notes are available at my personal blog site next week.
Watch
[Do the experiment]
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2. I am fascinated by that experiment. I know a lot of you probably think it’s sort of stupid, sort of a “duh moment.” “Well,
geez, Rex,” you’re saying to yourselves, or making a telling observation and sharing it quietly with your neighbor, “if you
try to put too much water into too small a funnel, what do you expect?” Okay, I get that. I get this is sort of a duh
experiment, but I’m going to ask in the next little bit why it is if this is such a duh concept do we not get it when it comes
to presentation. Why do we violate this principle about every time we do a presentation.
Before I do that, however, I’m going to start with an assumption. There are more people signed up for this section than
signed up for any other section at CONNECT. Add to that this is the last time slot on the last day when most people are
heading to the airport or heading to their cars or heading to the golf course one last time and understanding the fact there
are more of you signed up for this than anything else and that is very humbling and slightly terrifying, especially if you have
the audacity to title your presentation “Why not Wow?” But it also is gratifying that there seems to be a whole bunch of
folks willing to roll the dice with their time and come investigate this mystery: “What is this Wow thing about?” It also tells
me there’s a desire to improve in this arena we refer to as presentation. So, right off the bat I want to give you some very
powerful yet simple tools we can use to improve.
Finally, I’m going to give your proof positive that anyone can improve, and improve dramatically in this presentation stuff.
So there are three things we’re going to accomplish today:
First, I’m going to talk with you about the experiment you just saw and the science of presentation.
Second, I’m going to demonstrate proof positive that anyone can improve, and I’ll say “dramatically improve” at this
presentation stuff.
Third, I’m going to dissect the preceding two things and give you a host of tools you can use to get better at presentation.
As we get started I’d like to ask you a favor. Without referencing your notes, Next to the light bulbs on the sheet in front of
you, I’d like you to take 5 minutes and list the three slides you’ve seen over the course of the last couple of days at
CONNECT 2012 that you remember.
OK, flip the paper over and next to the artists I want you to draw the concepts or ideas you remember.
Now I’d like you to flip the paper over again and next to the bullets I want you to write down, as close to verbatim as
possible, all the bullet points you’ve seen from the time you were a baby until right now.
The science of presentation is very clear. The following discussion comes primarily from Cliff Atkinson’s exceptional book,
Beyond Bullet Points.
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3. We have three memories we’re dealing with when conveying information. The first is sensory; the second is
working (short‐term) and the third is the holy grail, long‐term. Get stuff into long‐term and we’ve
accomplished the ultimate in communication.
But we have all this stuff out here in sensory memory trying to get into long‐term and trying to get in not by
opening some floodgate, but by slipping through the eye‐of‐a‐needle.
To complicate things we only have two channels running through the eye‐of‐a‐needle. Visual and Verbal.
When they’re full, the message gets garbled. If we have a complicated slide with bullets and text and maybe a
graph or two and we’re reading the slide or talking about it, the wonder is not that people can remember so
little, but that they can remember so much.
We simply must begin to understand that our brains, as big and powerful as they are, cannot absorb the
volume of information we ask them to absorb.
Cut out anything that is NOT absolutely essential and fails to contribute to the message.
Become the presentation. PowerPoint is a tool, but we are the presentation. Don’t be a tool.
Folks should be listening to us, watching us and learning from us.
And, now, I take you back to my duh experiment. Because if I pour the right amount of water, sensory
memory, through the tiny funnel, working memory, and it flows effortlessly from one bottle, my sensory
memory, through the funnel, my working memory and into another bottle my long‐term memory.
That’s the science of presentation. It’s the science we violate almost every time we get up to do this
presentation thing. I made you three promises a few minutes ago. I promised to show you the science. The
second thing I promised was to show you how anyone can get dramatically better at this presentation stuff.
I’ll need your help again to accomplish that second part.
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4. I want to take you back with me in time. So come back with me
• Rather shockingly, Grateful Dead bass player, Phil Lesh, is busted for drugs in Calif.
• George Steinbrenner buys the Yankees from CBS for $12 million.
• "Live & Let Die" premieres in US.
• Trial of Watergate burglars begins in Wash DC.
• John Cleese's final episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus," airs on BBC.
• George Foreman TKOs Joe Frazier in 2 for heavyweight boxing title.
• Equally as shocking as the earlier drug‐related bust, Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead is stopped for speeding & LSD possession.
The year is 1973.
But little of these things mattered to me. In fact I only have one vivid memory from 1973.
I gave a presentation.
Let’s look into my science class of 1973 with Coach Collins.
I was a junior in high school and we had to give a report on something scientific. I chose the book Psycho‐cybernetics largely because my
dad was a physician and he liked this psycho stuff and he always envisioned me to be this marvelous basketball player and this psycho‐
cybernetics stuff was about improving through visualization. I read a few pages of the book. It was way boring—I was a junior in high
school. I thought “I’ll wing it.” The day of my presentation came and I was hoping perhaps the teacher would forget, but he didn’t. He
called my name, “Rex, you’re up!” I got up and said “Psycho‐cybernetics is about visualization.” And sat down. Then, I heard rather
impatiently, in a raised voice “Castle, you’re up!” I realized at that moment that coach was screwing around in the back with Mike McK.
and Ed McC. and he’d missed it and worse I was going to have to do it again. Then, an angel spoke from across the room and said “he
already did.”
“Seriously?” Coach Collins responded.
And another angel from the other side of the room sang out, “Yeah he said psycho something was about visualizing junk.”
I had two thoughts:
(1) I vowed at that moment to never, ever, never give another presentation, but
(2) (2) in the back of my head a little voice was saying “you can do better.”
Okay, the second promise I made was I would show you how anyone could do better, and I believe I said “dramatically better” at
presentation. Hopefully, I’ve fulfilled that promise. Let’s move on to tools.
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5. Why did I start this presentation with an experiment?
For a number of different reasons. We have a minute to maybe two minutes to grab the
attention of our audience.
So I didn’t get up behind the podium and say “Hi, I’m Rex Castle and I work with blah, de
blah, de blah, de blah.
Instead I sort of freaked a few people out and started in my lab doing a duh experiment.
But critically important is I had to connect my opening to my presentation. Otherwise it’s
simply goofy.
Then, I tried to engage you by asking you to remember slides and bullets and we had some
laughs.
I’d like to move on to some other techniques, some other tools.
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6. Ted.com is a spectacular tool.
18 minute videos.
TED talks are free, amazing and are a great way to learn through watching.
I would commend the thousands of presentations at TED, to your enjoyment.
Other resource: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐wmSHbDkHJ8&feature=related (“Life
After Death by Powerpoint 2010” by Comedian Don McMillan)
Or
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB7S‐KOJIfE (“How NOT To Use Powerpoint” by Comedian
Don McMillan)
Now, if you go back to my class in 1973. I was using a mnemonic from a book by Garr
Reynolds titled Presentation Zen. The mnemonic is “PUNCH.”
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7. Garr Reynolds wrote a trilogy of excellent books on presentation including Presentation Zen
where PUNCH comes from.
NOTE: You do not have to use all the letters in PUNCH with every slide or even every
presentation. If you use two or three, you can accomplish great things. I tried to use all 5
simply as a demonstration for “Why Not WOW!” They also do not necessarily have to be
used in order. “PUNCH” is in this order because it is a lot easier to remember than
“NHUPC.”
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8. Each letter in PUNCH stands for something, of course. Hence the term “mnemonic.”
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9. The “P” in Punch stands for “Personal.”
My presentation was all about me and very personal.
I like a room a bit cockeyed, so this room is my personal preference.
Maybe the experiment is personal.
My stories are obviously personal.
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10. The “U” stands for “Unexpected.”
I tried to do a couple of things that were maybe a bit unexpected.
Having you be part of my 1973 high school class.
Starting with an experiment was maybe unexpected.
My presentation style is maybe a bit unexpected.
Tying my experiment back to my primary thesis is perhaps unexpected.
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11. The “N” in PUNCH stands for “Novel.”
And, no, I’m not going to pass out a bunch of books and have everyone start reading. I
mean “Unique.”
Maybe not standing behind the podium is a little unique, or perhaps everyone else living
there is a little tragic.
Room setup.
My stories.
My style (or lack thereof).
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12. The “C” is for “Challenge.”
Almost everything I’m doing today is about challenging us to not only do better, but to do
things differently.
To change.
I’m going to dissect this slide here in a little bit and show you how even with these slides
there’s a challenge.
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13. The “H” stands for “Humor,” but humor is a double‐edged sword because many of you are
thinking “this slide’s not funny
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14. Well how about this one?
We have to be very careful with humor because a lot of it is less funny and more offensive;
we shouldn’t demean or offend our audience;
we should use ourselves as the negative example (Teller and our policy at State National
Bank that “forbids” theft here).
Pausing after each of these slides allows the audience to read the slide and not be trying to
receive a garbled message of me talking while they’re reading.
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15. Let’s dissect this slide we just saw and then I’d like to go back to my science slide and
dissect it.
What’s unique about this slide?
Does anyone wonder why it is in black and white?
Why does it cover the entire screen.
But why is the graphic off center?
Why is the guy’s left arm partially off the screen?
Nancy Duarte’s slide‐ology, Garr Reynolds’ triology, Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points,
Alexi Kapterev’s, Presentation Secrets all talk about creating effective, engaging, rich slides.
I have used ideas in this slide deck from all these sources and more.
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16. How many of you know what City you’re in right now?
How many of you know the conference you’re attending?
Without looking at my shirt, how many of you know the company I work with?
Why is all this stuff on every single slide, with a few exceptions, you’ve seen at CONNECT?
If I take into consideration my slide real estate and the fact this frame around the slide reduces that
valuable space;
And I take into consideration my slide real estate is further dramatically reduced by the header on
every single slide;
And I take into consideration my slide real estate is further reduced by the Tyler logo on every
page,
I’m losing almost 23% of my available, and incredibly valuable, slide real estate. I have to reduce my
primary image by 31% on this slide to accommodate this reduction in real estate.
The bigger issue is the graphics, the header the logo, the border are simply in Nancy Duarte’s slide‐
ology terms (and others’), “clutter.” They add nothing to the meaning of my message and simply
take space. They do not belong. Look critically at every slide you ever produce going forward and
don’t allow your message to be jeopardized by clutter.
In addition I want to interact with this slide. I cannot do that successfully with a white background.
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17. To interact effectively and still be able to see my audience, rather than stars, after walking
in front of the projector I went with a black background. It’s a great way if you’re crossing
the screen, or needing to emphasize portions of a slide by walking up to a graphic to
accomplish this.
Black blots out the projector light and allows us to negotiate a room; to be the
presentation not interrupted by the glare of the spotlight as we walk in front of our slides.
How many of you have ever seen a presentation where the presentation is displayed on the
speaker’s forehead or clothes?
I’m not sure if that’s a particularly great way to demonstrate credibility and competence,
although it’s a reasonably good way to get laughs even if they’re just quiet chuckles.
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18. Chip and Dan Heath wrote a book titled Made to Stick.
In this book they talked about the science behind making an idea “sticky.” That is
transferring an idea from short‐term or working memory into long‐term, the Holy Grail,
memory. What better outcome could a presenter hope for?
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19. I made an idea sticky a little bit ago with this “science” slide I used.
I used the mnemonic that Dan and Chip Heath came up with SUCCES.
• The “S” stands for Simple; my slides are very simple, very graphic and very
memorable.
• The “U” we’ve already covered in PUNCY. Does anyone remember what the “U”
stands for? “Unexpected.” Right. I interacted with this slide. That was maybe a bit
unexpected.
• The first “C” in SUCCESS stands for “Concrete.” Abstract theories of communication
are much harder to remember than the concreteness of my presentation.
• The other “C” stands for “Credible.” If you remember I said this theory comes from
Cliff Atkinson’s exceptional work Beyond Bullet Points, thus establishing credibility by
citing an expert.
• The “E” in SUCCES is for “Emotion.” A presentation with emotion, even simple voice
intonation, will be much, much, MUCH more memorable than one that doesn’t offer
this engagement. HR person at Texas Tech story ()never raising his voice or head for
an hour‐and‐forty‐five‐minutes”).
• The final “S” in SUCCESS is probably the most powerful word you’ll hear today,
“Story.” Stories are one of the most powerful teaching tools we have, but I guess
because we’re being all “professional,” or whatever, many of us don’t use them.
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20. I point you back to the exercise I gave you earlier.
The slides you remember are what stuck.
The ideas you were able to draw are the ideas you will remember not simply until
tomorrow, but for years to come.
The bullet points. Some of you have great memories for this sort of thing; for the vast
majority of us we don’t remember a single bullet. That’s the last outcome I want as a
presenter.
Here’s my guarantee: I will guarantee you that when you come back to CONNECT 2013 and
I’m here you will remember this slide because I followed SUCCES to make the idea of the 3
memories, the idea of the eye‐of‐the‐needle, the idea of controlling the flow sticky.
Remember that voice in the back of my brain, that boy in high school in 1973 who gave
that awful, pitiful presentation. Remember the voice saying “You can do better.”
That’s my last challenge to all of you today. You have the science, you’ve seen that anyone
can get dramatically better at this presentation stuff, and you have the tools.
My last challenge is “we can do better,” “we can do better,” “we can do better.” Let’s make
a commitment, from today forward, to do just that.
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21. Thanks for coming to my presentation at CONNECT 2012; see you next year.
Starting the Adventure: Some Suggestions for Your Library.
(NOTE: I’ve only put books I’ve actually read on the following list and only listed those I’d consider worth
reading. Too, I’ve tried to put them in some semblance of order in terms of which I would pick first as
someone starting out to seek improvement in this presentation stuff. With this in mind Nancy Duarte’s stuff
[5 & 7 in the following list] is awesome, but I probably wouldn’t start with it, and I could read Garr Reynolds
all day, but I didn’t list him 1, 2, and 3; in other words my top 11 are pretty closely packed together.)
1. Presentationzen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentation by Garr
Reynolds.
2. Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to create presentations that inform, motivate, and
inspire by Cliff Atkinson.
3. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath.
4. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine
Gallo.
5. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences by Nancy Duarte.
6. Presentation Secrets: Do What You Never Thought Possible with Your Presentations by Alexi Kapterev.
7. Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte.
8. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink.
9. The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion Through the Art of Storytelling by Annette
Simmons.
10. The Naked Presenter: Delivering Powerful Presentations With or Without Slides by Garr Reynolds.
11. Presentationzen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds.
12. Own the Room: Business Presentations That Persuade, Engage & Get Results by David Booth, Deborah
Shames & Peter Desberg. (I’d probably start with Chapter 4; the first three seem to be sort of fluff.)
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