Stop Building Your Presentation Around Slides — Start Building It Around Your Message and Story

A speaking request comes in. The date is set. The time is fixed. And immediately most presenters start doing exactly the wrong thing: raiding old slide decks, recycling material, adding new slides, deleting others, obsessing over order, and trying to trim the “beast” into something manageable.

This process feels productive—but it produces a collage, not a message.
It produces slides, not persuasion.

Mini-summary: Slides are tools—not the foundation. Starting with them guarantees a scattered, low-impact talk.

Before thinking about visuals, you must answer one question:

“What do I want my audience to know and believe?”

Not ten things. Not five things. One thing.

A single, sharp, compelling, unavoidable core message.

This is harder than it looks. Many possible messages feel attractive. That’s why the next step is essential: knowing exactly who will be in your audience.

• Who attends this type of event?

• What industries or companies will be there?

• What do they want, fear, value, or misunderstand?

• What message will hit the bullseye for this group?

Mini-summary: Message clarity requires audience clarity.

Data is raw. Facts are inert. Numbers have no emotional weight until they are wrapped in meaning.
A story supplies:

• Context

• Color

• Emotion

• Relevance

• Memorability

A number like “300 hectares” means nothing.
But “the size of 530 football fields” creates an instant visual.
Better yet: tie the number to a real person’s experience, and suddenly the information comes alive.

Mini-summary: Stories translate raw data into something the human brain actually cares about.

With heavy slide use—especially on Zoom—the presenter becomes a tiny thumbnail in the corner while the slides dominate the screen. The more slides you share, the smaller you become.

I recently coached a senior executive preparing for a high-stakes global presentation. Her goal was to elevate her personal brand and position herself for a major leadership role. The worst thing she could do was surrender the screen to dozens of slides.

By reducing or eliminating slides, she could:

• Look directly into the camera

• Command the full screen

• Make her face—not the slides—the visual center

• Build emotional connection with senior leadership

Stories force the audience to visualize in their minds, instead of staring at bullet points. They deepen engagement, credibility, and executive presence.

Mini-summary: Slides shrink the speaker; stories enlarge the speaker.

The secret: build images with words.

• Establish time: “It was three years ago, on a day when New York was covered in heavy snow.”

• Establish place: “I was standing near Rockefeller Center.”

• Introduce familiar characters: “Warren Buffett walked out in a thick coat and long scarf…”

Because the audience already knows these references, their brains instantly construct the movie in their minds. No slide needed.

Mini-summary: If your story is vivid, the audience creates the visuals for you.

Good slides do this:

• Show ONE photograph

• Contain NO text

• Provide a symbolic image you then explain through your story

Bad slides do this:

• Display text blocks

• Overload with data

• Show spreadsheets only readable from 10 cm away

• Compete with you for attention

Slides should accelerate understanding—not hijack the presentation.

Mini-summary: Use images that take one second to process, then return the focus to you.

• Starting with slides leads to chaotic, unfocused presentations.

• Begin with your audience, then craft one powerful, central message.

• Build the talk around storytelling, not data-dumping.

• Stories humanize information and return attention to the speaker.

• When your brand is on display, fewer slides—and more narrative—create more impact.

Request a Free Consultation to Dale Carnegie Tokyo  to learn how to design story-driven presentations that elevate your executive presence and enhance your personal and professional brand.

Founded in the U.S. in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has supported individuals and companies worldwide for over a century in leadership, sales, presentation, executive coaching, and DEI. Our Tokyo office, established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.