Rule 1: Story First

This is a continuation of The Rules: Create & Deliver Effective Presentations Every Time providing detail and depth on the first rule – Story is Everything (and it comes before visuals)

What Does that Even Mean?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a sales professional say, “Just send me a standard deck and I’ll figure out how to fit what I want to tell my client into the slides.” Um, no.

Without a compelling story, all you have is cool wall paper.

There were times we were forced to accommodate this type of request and it never ended well.

The aftermath resulted in two scenarios. Either a panicked call from the sales team one day before the presentation because they realized during the group practice session that they didn’t actually know what they were supposed to be saying. Or, in the final week leading up to the client meeting, the team would begin making extensive edits to the “standard deck” as they tried to manipulate the content into something that would appeal to their client. By the time they were up to version 15, the slide deck was a mess, and they still didn't know what they were supposed to say.

Both scenarios involved a lot of stress, last minute scrambling, blame and recrimination. So, bad things leading to bad presentations.



After the client meeting would come the inevitable calls from each presenter to vent about their fellow presenters, or to implicate the Presentation Specialist who had tried to help them with the design and build.

Say What? 

The story comes first.

It bears repeating – story development, speaking points, messaging, whatever you call it, always comes first. Always.

The slide deck should illustrate the story you’re telling, not guide it. If you find yourself shoehorning your speaking points into existing slides or graphics, something has gone wrong – you need to back up and figure out your story, themes and speaking points first.


A presentation slide deck provides graphic cues and adds punch to your message with memorable, funny, dramatic and appropriate visuals. The presentation should never, ever be the speaker’s guide or crib notes.

A presenter who reads off slides is one who is using the deck to guide the message, instead of telling the story and backing it with effective illustrations. This is also why some presentations have way too much text (see Rule 3), and exposes an under-prepared presenter (see Rule 5).

How Standard is Standard?

I’m not saying you can’t have a standard slide deck for your business or organization, or a slide library to shop in. Frankly, a lot of organizations have standard topics on which they present, and not having standard decks and slides would be inefficient.

What I’m saying is, every presenter should work out their messaging and story for the client or audience before they pull up a standard deck or go searching in a slide library. At a minimum, you should have an outline with key points, themes that match the client problem, and basic speaking points before ever looking at a single visual or graphic.

If you’re always starting from the standard deck, you’re not doing enough to ensure your message is appropriate for, and applicable to, your audience (see Rule 2).

Once you have a solid outline, run through it out loud and get feedback on tone and effectiveness. Then, check your decks and library for visual content to illustrate the story.


Even if you think your presentation will fall into the “standard” message, practice and experiment with telling that story with this particular audience in mind to see if it really fits. Tweak as necessary and then, yep, you got it, add in the visuals to ensure they work.

Always staring with the story first is how you ensure that even a standard deck and messaging will seem authentic, fresh and customized; instead of the rote, flipping-through-slides-while-repeating-tired-bullets kind of presentation (we’ve all seen it, and some of us are guilty of doing it).

Customized, effective story first, cool wallpaper last.

Who am I to tell you how to present? After almost a decade, thousands of client-facing presentations, and hundreds of strategy meetings and coaching sessions, I bring a whole lot more to the table than just another pretty slide deck. I help clients with presentation strategy, provide devil’s advocate input (even if it’s challenging), coach on delivery and execution, and create visuals for technical, creative, data-based, sales and educational presentations.

Do you agree with what I have here? If not, leave me a comment – I’m always open to new perspectives and alternative opinions.