How to be a Presentation God: Build, Design, and Deliver Presentations that Dominate!

8.1. Seek Deeply, Seek Widely

8.1.1. Seek Deeply, Seek Widely

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. If you've ever heard a great musician interviewed, you know that this is true. Inevitably, they nod their heads to the musicians they admired growing up and, most of the time, you can hear faint traces of those influences in the music they make.

Humans are expert parrots. Our brains ingest a profound amount of data during almost every moment of every day. As we walk around living our lives, we're passing influence after influence that is fair game for use in our presentations; yet we oftentimes discount these influences for any number of reasons—too easy, too edgy, "it's not me," and yes, "I'm not creative like that." Presenting is an out-of-body experience, a notion we touched upon earlier. To that end, the simple act of stepping on stage predisposes the audience to think of you as an authority figure. Embrace this fact for the freedom it awards you! You get the chance to become completely dissociated from all of your preconceived notions of yourself when you give a presentation. It's an opportunity to be different, bolder, and more enlivened than the "you" in your daily life. You can take risks for a simple reason: You're on stage, and they are not. Regardless of content, design, or delivery, the worst presentations are the safe ones. They are boring. And they stink.

So open your horizons. Seek both deeply and widely, to discover new and effective ways of reaching ...