The great sculptor Michelangelo said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it,” and this also applies to inspiration. When you finally have all the pieces together for your presentation, you have a solid block. The magic is chiseling away at the plain, dull, and unengaging material. The masterpiece is in there; you just need to dig deep inside and find the inspiration to hammer out the dross. But where do you start? Here is the method I use to find that hidden sculpture in the Prezi presentation.
Sculpting: Chisel, Vision, Precision
You need to guide your hands with the precision and guided intention. Know what you’re cutting away at, and why. People want to hear from people, not be sold by words, numbers, and amazing graphics. You need to hammer off the extras to reveal most spectacular parts of the presentation. There’s already too much stealing from the big picture. You can find this same advice everywhere: Less is More.
So far you may find it hard to take my chaos of inspiration from the last article and add it to this idea of finding the sculpture buried inside the project. This is where they come together. You went looking for that one piece that was gold, and you bring it back to the block of your presentation. Now you take that golden idea and hammer at the presentation. As you chisel at the bulk of information with that piece of inspiration, you will understand what Michelangelo meant. The masterpiece was there all along—you just had to remove the parts that covered it up.
Inspiration Will Fade…. DON’T LET IT
It’s alive… IT’S ALIVE! Well, not quite. There is more to this inspiration thing. Finding it can be tough; you just have to be able to relate to the project. Then comes applying that golden inspiration to the project, but it doesn’t end there. You need to polish up the presentation and find where little pieces can be rounded and removed. So come back for the final article on how I find, use, and keep alive the inspiration in the Prezi presentation building process.
At wOw Prezi, we rebel against PowerPoint’s status quo and are in a mission to save the world from deadly PPTs, helping sales teams to transform stiff, slide-based presentations into fruitful, revenue-generating conversations.
Get in touch with our team of Prezi Experts to find how we can help your salespeople thrive with Conversational Presenting and the Power of Storytelling in Sales.
