I love my Mac, and when I need help with it, I call IvanExpert — a New York tech firm that specializes in home and small business users, and makes house calls!
So I was thrilled when IvanExpert co-owners Ivan Drucker and Caroline Green asked me to help them with a presentation they were making at a tech conference on how to grow your IT business through marketing and organization.
Let’s See: Picture, or Words? Pictures, or Words?
Several years ago, internet marketer and all-around genius Seth Godin wrote a classic piece on Really Bad PowerPoint, in which he pleaded with people to put fewer words on their slides.
But Caroline and Ivan didn’t need convincing. They showed up for their consult with a Keynote presentation that was already lean, mean and colorful. (Keynote is PowerPoint’s Mac cousin, and it’s super easy to use.)
As you can see from this slide, though, they hadn’t used pictures to illustrate Ivan’s charming opening story about why he decided to create his own consulting business:
Even though that slide is vastly better than 99% of what you see in business, Caroline and Ivan knew that it’s best to illustrate a story with pictures, so they suggested this one.
I probably would have stopped there (pictures that do the job are often hard to find), but they pushed harder and netted out with Ivan using the lightbulb to illustrate his Big Idea of starting a new business:
Make Your Pictures Personal
With almost no extra effort — this shot was taken at their office during our session — they illustrated not just IvanExpert’s birth, but Ivan’s wry sense of humor.
And while the image wouldn’t be right for a sophisticated or conservative audience, it was a big hit with owners of small tech businesses. These were people who didn’t just want to learn from Ivan, but also wanted to be like Ivan, and they appreciated this glimpse of his personality.
Best of all, the fact that Ivan was able to laugh at himself made it easier for this audience to enjoy (and adopt!) his and Caroline’s suggestions for growing their own businesses.
See how it’s all about connecting to your audience? And that’s why pictures are truly worth 1000 words!
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