This is Missing From Your Stories and Presentations
How to develop a presentation or story that lands a takeaway and idea for your audience.
What if toys came to life when humans weren’t around?
Can men and women be friends?
Out of the are 3.7 trillion fish in the ocean, they’re looking for one.
• • •
Do you know how movies get sold?
It isn’t because of the creative or unique storyline.
The reason comes down to a compelling business plan to make money.
Movie pitches describe the idea and target audience so studios can decide if they want to invest in the creation.
Most movie studios don’t want to take a risk on something new or different that may not have the audience or return.
Their decision often comes down to one line in the pitch: the logline.
This is the one or two sentence description or question which sum up the theme of the movie:
Toy Story: What if toys came to life when humans weren’t around?
When Harry Met Sally: Can men and women be friends?
Finding Nemo: There are 3.7 trillion fish in the ocean. They are looking for one.
The Hangover: A comedy, set in Las Vegas, about three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their misadventures then must retrace their steps in order to find him.
Jurassic Park: During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok.
That one line gives you a broad sense of the movie.
It helps you understand what is explored without giving the answer.
It grounds you in the concept and point of the movie immediately.
How often have you sat through a presentation or story and wondered what it was about?
Maybe you were entertained, but you left scratching your head and wondering “What am I supposed to do with this?”
It wasn’t your fault – the story or presentation didn’t stick the landing.
Likely because the speaker wasn’t sure of the takeaway.
That lack of focus and intention resulted in your lack of understanding as the audience.
Have you been guilty of opening PowerPoint and creating slides, but not thinking through the overall structure or what you would say?
Maybe you pulled slides from other presentations and started piecing them together in an online PowerPoint quilt.
Then when you gave the presentation, it fell flatter than you wanted?
The content lacked structure.
It felt like a series of updates and someone talking at slides, rather than connecting people to information and influencing actions?
You were missing the logline of the presentation.
When you are creating a story or a presentation, you need to define a question or a sentence that thematically captures what you want your audience to experience and take away.
You may never say this sentence out loud, but you need to define it.
By defining it, you will get tight on the outcome and takeaway.
It helps you be more purposeful in the telling of the story or presentation.
As you develop the content, this helps validate you are moving the points forward to build the idea.
You can use it to make sure everything earns its place.
• • •
My clients often ask:
“How do I tell an impactful story when I don’t have a lot of time?”
“How do I tell a story in the moment?”
The answer to these questions and more is: the logline.
Any time you are going to create a presentation or tell a story, you should start with this summary or question of what you want to get across.
Don't skip this step. It takes all of two minutes.
Remember how you had to define a hypothesis before you started your scientific experiments in school?
Same idea. You can’t do it after.
Doing it before lets you make sure your messaging reinforces that point.
Next time you are about to prepare a story or work on a presentation ask yourself:
What is a question that this sets out to answer?
If I were to summarize the theme of this into one or two sentences, what are those?
What is a sentence that describes what I want my audience to take away?
What is at stake? What is the higher-level problem or challenge this sets out to address?
Write it out and use that as your guide.
Impactful short stories come from a clear desired outcome.
Same for stories told in the moment.
Having a logline helps when your time to present is cut short.
You can jump to the takeaway and reinforce the idea that you want to leave them with.
Next time you are starting a presentation or creating a story, start with your logline.
Once you understand the takeaway, you can spot and stick your landing.
