I have built my professional reputation (and my personal brand) around one simple statement. “I make boring subjects interesting.” You give me a boring topic of your choosing and I will find a way to make it interesting, understandable, and hopefully entertaining. Whether it’s an article, a whitepaper, or a presentation, what I offer is a transformation.  

Which brings me to last week or actually a few months before that, when I agreed to present a topic at Sage Summit in Atlanta. The topic they wanted me to give was “Stimulating Compliance”. It would be delivered to customers who used one of Sage’s products (Peachtree, MAS90,Accpac, MIP, or ACT! to name just  a few). The moment I sent off my e-mail agreeing to the topic, I began to sweat. It wasn’t a hot flash. This was pure fear. 

This session was to cover all of the regulatory compliance issues that are faced by businesses today plus a few tidbits from the Stimulus Package.  I was going to be talking about tax law and government regulation for a solid hour. How exciting. 
 
I spent days researching the laws that would impact a business owner, and let me tell you there a ton of them, but I had one heck of a time finding anything that had a speck of fun, interest, or excitement in it. And what’s more, people really needed to hear about some of this stuff as it could have serious implications for their business. I was absolutely stumped. I needed to provide some useful information but how could I make it interesting for them? 

I decided  to explain the rules and regulations and then identify ways that technology would help a business owner comply. I would attend the trade show at the conference ( the day before my session) and interview solution providers to find a compliance-related angle for their product. Needless to say, the vendors were just thrilled to talk about their product in a boring regulatory compliance light. But I trudged on with my mission and after a couple of hours of going booth by booth, I had enough technology to cut through almost all of the red-tape on my list. 

I structured my presentation this way : area, problem, automated solution; area, problem, automated solution; repeat until I had worked through every area from Income tax to CANSPAM rules. But hey, you’re thinking. Where’s the interesting part? 

I knew all of this automation could free up a lot of time for a business owner. So I made it my mission in the presentation to offer alternative uses for their newfound time. 

All I can say is thank goodness for the Internet.  I searched on “weird sports” – and found “Extreme Ironing.”  Who doesn’t want to earn a gold medal in that? So I changed my structure to include area, problem, automated solution, thing to do in your spare time. The weirder the diversion, the funnier it was when I flashed a picture of the activity on my screen. I suggested activities ranging from “take up a new sport”, to “learn a new skill (fork bending)” to “start a collection”.

You can see a PDF of the presentation here if you want to see for yourself if I delivered on my promise.  

This is a trick you can apply in almost every presentation. Use a diversionary tactic to add some sizzle/fun to your presentation. 

For now, I’m just happy that I don’t need to change my tagline to : “I make almost any boring subject interesting.“
 
 
Picture
I was fascinated by this work of outdoor art in National Harbor, Maryland. I clearly wasn't the only one who was fascinated - I saw many people climbing on the giant hand or standing by a giant foot.And while I was enjoying the sculpture, it also occurred to me how much of the art was created in our own minds. When you looked at this, you immediately filled in the missing pieces. You didn't see a head and a hand, instead you saw a complete person, with the missing parts buried in the sand.

I have to admit, this was a bit problematic when I tried to take the photo from the opposite end of the giant figure, with my camera pointing from his feet up to his head. I suddenly realized exactly what portion of the body lay in the "space between." That's when I decided to relocate to the upper portion of the body. 

I wonder how we could apply this principle (the space between one, not the one about the missing body part) to presentations. What could we omit to give our audience a chance to fill in the missing pieces?  I use questions in my presentations but maybe there are some answers that should be left unresolved in order to make a point. Maybe I can craft slides that take advantage of more white space and leave more to the imagination. 

On my way to this conference in National Harbor, I was reading "Leaders Make the Future" by Bob Johansen and he made reference to the idea of the "space between" several times. My favorite quote is this one "The space between judging too soon (the classic mistake of problem solvers) and deciding too late (the classic mistake of academics) is a space leaders of the future must love -- without staying there too long."

Just imagine what we can do if we make the most of "the space between."
 
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