3 things I’ve learned from watching Paul Hickey present

Paul speaking to his hand drawn presentation at BH Unplugged 2010.
Very appropriate and engaging.

Paul Hickey is a partner and President of BrandHealth. He has played an important role in establishing a voice for the company through his blogging and presentations. His presentations – whether it’s a staff presentation or client presentation – are particularly impactful and unforgettable. If you have ever been to one of Paul’s presentation, you know what I’m talking about. Let me take a second to share three things about Paul’s presentation delivery that I’ve learned over time.

Paul’s presentation visuals are simple.
Step away from the security blanket of a badly-designed, word-riddled PowerPoint slide. Paul keeps his visual aids to a minimum, and when he does use visuals, he keeps them stripped down and unadorned. I love working on Paul’s PowerPoint presentations. It’s a designer’s dream because they are often a series of slides using a simple visual. No templates, no logos, no bullet points. He uses his visual slides as support so that his audience focuses on him and what he is saying. The result is always impactful and memorable.

Paul delivers stories that are transparent and authentic. 
Paul wins his audience over by communicating with transparency and authenticity. He doesn’t use any corporate mumbo jumbo, or extensive lists of bullets or boring charts and data. He makes his point and gains your trust by speaking with honesty and sincerity. I clearly remember about a year ago preparing for a pitch presentation. I had been working on the content for a few weeks and I knew the information inside and out but it was a couple days away and I was still feeling pretty nervous and unprepared. I asked Paul for some advice. His response to me was, find the emotional core of my presentation. Once I found the emotional connection to the presentation working out from there would come naturally. Great advice.

Paul will hand draw his presentations.
Paul discovered that one way to come across as sincere and authentic is to present slides or sketches that he drew. I don’t think there is ever a meeting that Paul isn’t scribbling something on a flip chart or piece of paper. Last year at our BH Unplugged Day Paul sat in front of us with eight flip chart pages of his hand drawings. Trust me, Paul is not an artist (sorry Paul - lol) but his presentation had everyone riveted for a solid hour and a half and we all could have probably listened for another hour and a half more. Combined with great stories and sincerity it was an effective way to communicate. Brilliant.

So that’s some of what I’ve learned.