Time to pull out Five Stars by Carmine Gallo

Whenever I have a presentation coming up (and I do next week), I pull out Five Stars: The communication secrets to get from good to great. Without fail, referencing the book’s message forces me again to focus, find a narrative thread and streamline my message. 

To summarize: Great presentations have one theme. Everything else supports that one message. Gallo advises we think of the presentation as the log line to a Hollywood movie (a tip that is even better made in Donald Miller’s Building a Story Brand). 

Quotable:

“If a story is too complicated it doesn’t stick. The simpler the story is, the easier it is for us to join the narrative.“ -Geoff Ralston at Y Combinator. He also says of startups pitching his firm: “you have five seconds to grab my attention.“