Build a talk around one problem and one named solution

1. Two things every talk needs

The view here is that one elegant idea is able to change the world, and that a great idea is worth nothing if nobody can pass it on. A great idea earns great packaging. The talks people remember often do exactly that: one idea, packaged well.

There are two non-negotiables for a great presentation: a problem, and a solution. A presentation, in this view, is agreeing that a problem is real and then offering an answer to it.

Opening with "ten ways to grow your business" fails that test. It works by assuming there is a problem without ever stating it. State the problem first.

2. Find the problem: keep a list of complaints

The problem can be either of these:

• A widely accepted problem. One your audience already feels and already talks about.
• A manufactured problem. One you build for them at the start of the talk. A talk on presenting can open by setting up the need to package great ideas, then spend the rest solving it.

Keep a problems list. One practice here: write down all the complaining you hear in your market, every gripe, in one running list. Take screenshots of the problems people post. Then, whenever you build a talk, build it around one problem from the list, rather than asking yourself what talk to make. In one example, a line someone posted (that selling on webinars feels sleazy) became a whole talk, because it was a problem the audience had at some point felt.

The idea worksheet (optional). To work one problem through, a second worksheet helps; it serves a video as well as a talk. Its boxes, in this order:

• The topic
• The real problem
• The symptoms: the frustrations and complaints people voice
• What the problem actually is
• The pattern noticed
• The fear
• The reframe: the mental flip
• The system or framework, and its parts
• How to apply it, with an example
• The obstacles that block doing it
• The emotional cost: what staying stuck means
• The next step, as a prescription

Fill in the boxes with your own answers, then build the talk from them.

3. Name the solution so people remember it

A problem without a branded, memorable solution does not work either. The solution needs a name people can repeat: think of a famous speech remembered by one short line, or a car maker's short promise. Each one names the answer to a problem in a few words.

State the problem and the named solution early. Naming offers and programs slot by slot is SOP 10.

4. Settle the room before you teach

At the start of a talk you cannot know what state your listeners are in. One may have just left children at the school gate, come off a hard call with a client, dealt with a staff problem, or had blood drawn. Their attention is scattered in every direction. If you do not settle it, nothing you teach will land, however good the talk is. Once it is settled, the rest gets easy.

In a one-to-many setting, the way recommended here is to start with media: something everyone looks at and feels together. It refocuses attention on one shared thing. Any of these works:

• A short video or clip, or a short piece of audio or a post.
• A popular animated image, set up with a line about yourself that gets a laugh.
• Or it could be a short, plain story that leaves everyone feeling good.
• A picture that carries the feeling you want.

5. Order the talk in four frames

The order is a framework from education, credited to a kindergarten teacher. It has four frames, and each answers one question the audience has:

Frame	The question it answers
Why	Why does this matter, why now, and why should they hear it from you?
What	What, precisely, is the subject?
How	How are they meant to carry it out?
Now, or next	What should they do once you finish?

The same four frames work even if someone puts a question to you without warning: give the why, then the what, then the how, then the next step. In a made-up example on climate, with invented facts, the why runs: there is one planet; forests are being lost and ice is melting; and the person giving the talk has studied it for years. That last part, why you, is where credibility comes in.

The talk worksheet. One practice here is to plan every talk on a worksheet before building it. Its rows:

Row	What goes in it
Title	The title, and a line explaining it
Why	The promise; three frustrations; three wants; a fear; an aspiration
What	A case study or story; a model or structured solution; three to five key points
How	A worksheet or process; a case study of someone transformed
Now / next	The assignment

Writing it out first organizes your thoughts. The same sheet serves a video as well as a stage talk, and your team can turn it into written posts.

6. The opening, in one worked talk

The why of one worked talk (on selling from a webinar without a pitch) runs like this:

1. An "imagine if" promise. In that talk: imagine if you could take all the pressure out of every presentation, feel connected to the room, and sell without a pitch.
2. Three problems, one per slide.
3. The false fix they have already tried: in that talk, spending all their time on tricks to convince the room that the pitch is not a pitch.
4. The opportunity: what becomes possible once the problem is gone.
5. A pause, to ask the room: what resonated so far?

That pause is called a frame change. By then the audience knows what the problem is and what kind of answer is coming, and the best part of a presentation, in this view, is the curiosity about exactly what comes next. Answers such as feeling understood, or feeling relief, show that the why has landed.

The what then comes as three big ideas, each one a container for part of the answer. How that talk sells without a pitch, by a short survey after the teaching, is SOP 218, section 4; the no-pitch talk itself sits with SOP 65.

7. Put ideas in shapes, not bullets

Stop with the bullets. Put the points in shapes: numbered blocks, a triangle, a three-part diagram. Shapes let the brain take a snapshot and make the points much easier to remember. You are generally covering three to five points, so a shape with that many parts may be enough.

The reasoning here: you know your material so well that it is all connected in your head. Try to move all of it into the audience's heads and it arrives either as a tangle or as three bullet points, and both are bad. Work out instead how it goes into their heads: turn your thoughts into, maybe, a three-part diagram, so they can recall it easily. If you can manage that, the idea sticks; if not, the talk has failed.

Three things get captured more than anything else on any stage, in this view: frameworks, scripts, and action lists. Frameworks above all: put one up and people capture it at once. Lists, steps and stories that hold attention in content are SOP 23.

8. Give them one thing to look at

The attention ratio is the one thing you want their eyes on, divided by everything on the screen competing for them. Keep it as close to one as you can.

Some examples: a bus-bench ad for a real estate agent carrying his name, his phone number, a web address, an app to download and a road-safety slogan, so nobody can tell what to look at; a slide crowded with design elements because a template had them; a billboard that expects drivers to read a paragraph. Against them, one clever single-image ad where only one thing matters.

So lead the audience to a single clear point, then the next, laying a trail of crumbs. When you show a long list, point to the one item that matters. One idea per slide. How many slides you use is beside the point: 3,200 slides would be fine. The goal is that the audience understands, not a short slide count.

9. Assemble slides from a fixed kit

Do not design each slide from scratch; assemble it. Build these nine types once, as templates:

1. Cover
2. Statement
3. Anti-bullets
4. Section divider
5. Image plus caption
6. Numbered sections
7. Device mockup
8. X versus Y
9. Action list

Then, for each new talk, drop the words into the template you need: a title into the cover, a single line into the statement slide, three big ideas into the section slide. With the kit, a talk goes together very fast; a talk needing 19 hours of work would take all the fun out of it. Design detail beyond the kit is not covered on this page.

10. Pepper the talk with proof: show, flow, demo

Most people treat testimonials as the only proof. But nobody has ever seen a bad testimonial, so a testimonial alone carries limited weight. And nobody reads them: give people 800 and no one reads one. So take a testimonial and mark the single line that counts. If you have a page of testimonial videos, make each thumbnail the objection it answers.

Proof comes in three forms:

1. Show. Show something real. Rough is better: the rougher it looks, the more genuine it feels. A phone snapshot of an old printed photo works well as proof. And show things where they naturally live: a clip placed inside a phone's frame, an email pictured inside the mail app's own window, a post on a phone or tablet, a slide inside a laptop screen.
2. Flow. Trace the order in which things happen to the audience, step by step, to prove you understand their world. In one example, for agents paid by commission: the check arrives; some goes on spending; then marketing that takes time to work; a vacation; a coach who says there is no real business yet; buying leads; then taxes come due in January.
3. Demo. Nothing is worth more than a demonstration. A live demo, if you can manage one, wins big. If not, show a recorded demo: a call-setting service, for instance, can play a real call.

Flag: does more proof help? This section holds that nobody reads testimonials, even 800, so mark the one line that counts. SOP 109, section 3.10, holds that more proof beats less, with a large number of reviews on show, and carries the same flag. This page does not settle which reading is right.

Which kinds of proof rank higher is SOP 109. Describing the buyer's situation as proof, and the live demonstration, are SOP 15, item 10 and section 2.

11. Close with one next step

End with the now frame: the one thing to do next. Close with a short checklist of the takeaways. The closing checklist for this method has five lines:

1. One idea can change the world.
2. Put real effort into how each idea is packaged.
3. Start with why, what, how, now.
4. Put slides together from the kit; do not design each one.
5. Pepper the talk with proof.

If you are not allowed to pitch, the survey close is SOP 218, section 4.

12. What this page does not decide for you

• How long the settling takes. This page gives no figure for it.
• How long each frame should run. In the worked talk, the process is promised within the next three minutes; beyond that example, not established on this page.
• How many slides. None is set; in this view the number does not matter.

13. The checklist

Step	What to do
1	Write down every complaint your market voices, in one running list
2	Build the talk around one problem from it, widely accepted or set up at the start
3	Name the solution so it sticks, and state problem and name early
4	Plan it on the talk worksheet: why, what, how, now
5	Open with media or a short story to settle the room
6	In the why: an "imagine if" promise, three problems, the false fix, the opportunity, then pause for what has resonated
7	Put the what in containers: big ideas, shapes, diagrams
8	Show one idea on each slide, and test every slide's attention ratio
9	Assemble slides from the nine-slide kit
10	Pepper with proof: show, flow, demo
11	End with one next step and a short checklist

14. What this page does not cover

Slide design beyond the kit, filming, lighting and editing are not covered on this page. Selling from the talk is on SOP 65 — Convert a free consumption asset, and on SOP 218 — Work conferences with the speaking fee, survey close and booth. Capturing ads at your own event is SOP 124.