If I Can See It, I Can Understand It

Garr Reynold's post on simple posters is ingenious. For me looking through the examples, I had two reactions. One was to be in awe of the way the messages were powerfully, yet simply, transmitted and the other was that the posters made me laugh. I don't think that was what was intended, but that's what happened for me. I am still thinking about those images, even though I have physically moved away from the blog. I can still see them in my mind's eye. Go to his post to link to others.

Visuals are an important part of every presentation. I must admit that I have a challenge in being creative when I'm using visuals. But for those who are asking their referral partners to find speaking engagements for them, this is important information.

Thinking back to other visuals a speaker used, I still remember one vividly. The speaker, Gayle, was a personal trainer. She held up a white piece of paper with two parallel lines drawn on it. Between the lines were lots of black dots. She explained that that was the way bones looked that are not strong, with the black dots being weaknesses in the bone structure. She then held up a second simple white sheet of paper, with the same parallel lines. Only this version had many fewer black dots. She explained that it showed the very same bone after several months of weight-baring exercise. Wow! Gayle got her message delivered with a punch. She had several people talk with her about using her services. The visual was also easy to talk about with others, maybe even with a quick scribble of the pen to help the description.

What's this have to do with networking. Well, we all network, to in the end, gain more business. If the message that others hear from you is easy to pass on, obviously they will pass it on. If it is more complex, and not so simple, nothing will happen. Simple!

Did you have the same reaction to the Japanses smoking "manners" posters?