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- Delete one slide today.
Delete one slide today.
You can do it. I believe in you.
Eric Harris
June 20, 2025
You already know the one.
🙏🏻 Maybe it’s the one that says "THANKS."
When did we start treating gratitude as an afterthought in presentations? It’s an alarming and ubiquitous trend to slap a “thank you” slide at the end of decks. Why would we wait until the end to thank our audiences? If they haven’t felt your gratitude by then, you've already lost.
🦄 Maybe it’s the one titled "About Us."
Another common trend in decks: Before getting to the main idea, many presenters subject their audiences to slides intended to “credentialize” (not a real word) the work. But audiences don’t need to know about you. They need to know you care about them.
📊 Maybe it’s the one with all the charts.
We’ve heard this advice for years, yet so many presenters struggle with this. Stories are 6–12x more memorable than statistics alone (Chip & Dan Heath, 2007). Your audience wants the story in the data, not the numbers themselves. If the deck you’re working on today has an aggressively chart-heavy slide, try trashing that one and see if you can make the point without the eyesores.
—
Now pause.
Notice how you feel after dragging that slide to the trash.
Relief?
Satisfaction?
Even joy?
Imagine what your audience will feel.
Research has proven emotional connection is established at 60% eye contact. If you’re making your audience look at slides, they’re not looking at you. Give them a break. Give them relief. Satisfaction.
Give them some joy.
Start today.
“Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.”
Libby Magliolo recommends curating over collecting.
Of the many soldiers out there promoting better presentations, Libby stood out this week as she offered a perspective shift on how to use A/V: Act like a museum curator, not a collector.
Watch Libby’s video here: Curate, don’t collect.
Eva Rose Daniel with the mic-drop checklist for speakers.
Notably, none of these best practices include anything about a deck.
🔥 Hi, I’m Eric, and every week, I share insights, observations and tools so you can ditch decks and light a fire in your high-stakes presentations. If you like what you see here, follow me on LinkedIn.