Tell an Engaging Story in Just 90 Seconds
by Adele Sommers, Ph.D.

Can you tell your story in 90 seconds? Similar to an elevator pitch, I’m talking about a full synopsis of a presentation, hypothesis, proposal, or mission statement.

If you’ve ever had to sell an idea for a project, for example, you know that mustering facts and data entails only part of the process. You’ll also need to add emotional appeal that will lead your audience to assimilate your ideas in their minds, hearts, and souls. This article offers highlights of a potent presentation approach, and suggests how to take it a step further by distilling your thoughts into an interest-building, 90-second synopsis.

The presentation approach I’m referring to comes from renowned speaker and author Cliff Atkinson. He asserts that in order to convey your ideas convincingly, you should apply a movie metaphor to carefully craft a rich visual and auditory narrative instead of relying on an endless stream of bullet-point lists.

His 2005 book, “Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire,” spells out a methodology that one can surely apply to any type of presentation prepared in any medium. (For more details, visit his Web site at SociableMedia.com.)

According to Atkinson, to help people make informed decisions about complex topics, we need to “blend one part storytelling, one part persuasion, and one part Hollywood screenwriting to create a powerful approach” to presentations. But instead of infusing our performances with gratuitous drama, we can use a rigorous methodology to structure our critical thinking into compelling, scalable stories that flow like movies.

Aiming the Spotlights

Atkinson’s formula parallels a three-act play in which the first few statements (Act I) set the stage for the entire problem/resolution discussion. Act I should strive to:

1. Establish the setting
2. Designate the audience members as the main characters (protagonists)
3. Describe a conflict that the audience is experiencing
4. Explain the audience’s desired state (to rebalance the situation)
5. Recommend a solution

Act II then “develops the action” of the presentation by elaborating on three or four main points of a solution. Act III recaps the problem, turning point, and resolution to help the audience fully digest the story.

Letting the Drama Unfold

In a presentation I recently created for a professional group entitled “An Overview of Creating and Marketing Your Own Digital Information Products,” I developed the following high-level outline using Atkinson’s three-act formula:

Act I (Setting the stage)
1. Global competition, cooperation, and consumption are increasing
2. As information professionals, we face shifting occupational trends
3. Many people with similar skills are competing in a crowded marketplace
4. Information products offer novel opportunities to spark attention and add value
5. You can use information products to create new audiences for your skills

Act II (Developing the action on the main issues)
1. What are information products, and how do we ourselves consume them?
2. Why would we want to produce information products?
3. How do you create and market digital information products?

Act III (The turning point and resolution)
1. Don’t risk being overcome by competition, obsolescence, and unfulfilled dreams
2. You can create information products to attract new audiences for your talents
3. The types of products you produce will depend on your goals
4. Using a 7-step process, you’ll lay a solid foundation for success

I expanded the above outline into a presentation that can easily last two hours, depending on the amount of detail I choose to provide. Yet I also wanted to produce a short overview that would require no more than two minutes to explain the program. (Indeed, Atkinson refers to a five-minute version of a presentation that you can derive when pressed for time.) So, that leads us to...

Creating a 90-Second Synopsis

From my original two-hour presentation, I produced an 86-second narrated Flash overview that runs from my Web site. Here’s what I did:

1. Using a copy of the original presentation, I removed all slides except the ones representing the initial outline and a few transitions that helped the presentation flow more smoothly.

2. I recorded a voice-over with PowerPoint’s built-in slideshow narration features using a CD-quality setting.

3. I then used TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio to record the visuals and audio while the completed PowerPoint slideshow was playing. (With Camtasia Studio's PowerPoint Add-in, you could easily combine steps 2 and 3 by using the Camtasia Record button on the PowerPoint toolbar.)

4. To convert the Camtasia recording to Flash, I used Camtasia’s production tools and selected the Flash output options I desired.

5. I published the resulting .swf, XML, and HTML files to my Web site.

To see the resulting 86-second overview, follow this link.

In conclusion, for any type of presentation you have in mind — be it marketing, informational, technical, or instructional — you can use Atkinson’s authoring approach to strengthen your logical and emotional case, which will leave your audience with clearer and more compelling reasons to embrace your ideas. And by producing a 90-second narrated synopsis, you can entice your audiences to consume your story, either in advance of your live presentation or after the fact.

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About the Author

Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is author of “Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance: 12 Ways to Profit from Hidden Potential.” To learn more about her book and sign up for more free tips like these, visit her site at www.LearnShareProsper.com

This article may be distributed freely on your Web site, as long as this entire article, including the links and full “About the Author” section, are unchanged. Please send a copy of, or link to, your “reprint” to Adele@LearnShareProsper.com.

Copyright 2006 Business Performance Inc., Adele Sommers, All Rights Reserved.

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