Available Content

If your message is not clear enough for the listener to repeat it and report on it, it will have ZERO impact.

You are an Expert on Your Content

You are an expert on your message, and that makes it tempting to skip the black and white cards and move on to the color. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.

By skipping this step, the greatest experts actually give worse presentations than lesser experts. The more "expert" the message, the more it must be clarified for a verbal medium.

The content cards in your SpeechDeck Starter Deck will help you organize your message for maximum clarity. Lets walk through the skills described on the Content Principle Card C shown above.

Clarify Content for the Reporter

Every listener is a reporter who must explain your message to him- or herself, and to others. That report will only generate understanding if it has three simplified components:

Headline

Like the headline at the top of a blog or news article, your presentation needs a single unifying theme. Writing a clear headline is the single most important step to delivering a clear message, and yet it is the most often overlooked step.

A clear headline incorporates your objective and your content into a single, simple, concise, memorable statement. Click here for Headline Tutorial C10

Story

Organize all of your sub-points into a storyline so that the reporter can follow along logically and easily see the relationship between your points. The storyline includes simple assertions or plot points that each link back to the headline theme. Click here for Storyline Tutorial C20

Illustrations

Every point in your storyline must be proven with supporting illustrations. Like the photo, quotations, and research in a news article, your illustrations prove the assertions that you are trying to make. We say "illustrations" because these details should be visual. They should clearly "illustrate" the storyline. Click here for Illustrations Tutorial C30

Clarity is Simplicity

Each content (B&W) skill card will each ask you to write a one sentence summary of your main point or sub-point.

You don't have to script your enitre presentation word for word, but you should be able to summarize each point you make and each illustration that you use.

The content cards ask you to write out the bare minimum--one sentence for each point. If you cannot summarize the gist of your message in one sentence, then neither can the listener/reporter.

Read on for more detailed turorials on each content card.