I wrote a book.
I wrote a book!
I. Wrote. A. Book.

Ahem. Sorry.

The path from idea to manuscript to book can be a winding one. I first had the idea that became Centered Presentation on an airplane several year ago.  The idea would roll around in my mind then move to the front, like a wayward cough drop, and I'd savor it for a minute then stick back between my teeth and cheek for a while. 

About a year ago, I thought it might make a good ebook and actually sat down and wrote a short 40 page PDF.  I thought it could be good marketing for the consulting work I do.  

I shared it with a friend and trusted adviser, Tom Searcy, who suggested it deserved a longer treatment. I wrote in my journal "could be a "real" book - we'll see."

Funny how the physical book is still much more real to me.  Maybe the Millennials don't feel this way.  I do have a Kindle, and I enjoy reading eBooks - but still.... the feel and smell of an actual book.  Nothing like it. This project became much more REAL when I held the physical proof in my hand. 

I used Amazon's CreateSpace to publish the book. This is an amazing site.  It would have been called a "vanity press" 20 years ago.  But the rules of publishing are changing so fast, I think the choice of self-publishing has a completely different flavor in 2013.  

I don't expect this book to make me rich or a household name.  
But I am richer for having written it. 
(I wrote a book.)

More than a decade ago, I had a boss named Don who like to use "the squint test" on any advertisement or collateral we created.  He would ask you to hold it up and he would squint at it from ten to twenty feet away.  

At the time, I thought he was a little nuts.  But over the years I have come to understand the wisdom of this approach to a first level of creative review, and I have shared it with many other people.  (So a tip-of-the-hat to all the boss wisdom we don't appreciate at the time.  Perhaps it's like the wisdom of our moms and dads, which we don't fully recognize it until we are out on our own.)

Now, Don was old school and the desktop revolution had not yet invaded his office.  In other words, he had no computer.  So the squint test was conducted with literal printouts and a big office.  Today you can get the same result by zooming out on your sales asset on-screen.

Physical or electronic, the squint test tells you a number of things very quickly:

1. Is piece visually pleasing? Is there a good balance of copy and negative space? Are the margins sufficient?  Does the piece feel crowded or unfinished?

2. Are the colors balanced?  Does one color shout while the others whisper? Is there harmony in the palette  Are the saturation levels too similar so that the colors appear muddy?

3. Where does your eye land first? Is that the most important point?  Are there two seemingly equal areas of interest? Is that desirable for this piece? 

4. If the piece is for a projected presentation, how will it look from the very back of a large room? If the piece is for a billboard, what shapes will drivers see before content clicks into focus? 

If you are deciding among several layout options, print out tiny "squint" version (where you can grasp the layout but not read the words) and as a few coworkers to comment on them.  The strongest layout will become apparent.

After you're happy with the squint test, of course you'll need get into the nitty-gritty of the copy and design.  But Don's point, and now my point, is that if the squint test fails, it doesn't matter how tight the copy is or how creative the graphics.  If your don't make it  past the squint, neither will your audience. 

Thanks Don.

When you were a kid, did you ever make flip-book movies?  You draw a stick figure on the corner of each page, make the tiniest changes on each successive page, and then you flip the pages and - voila! - your own mini-cartoon.  Whether it's a flip book or an movie playing at your local theater, the static images seem to move because of how our brains interpret them. 

Sadly, this same phenomenon can be incredibly distracting in a presentation.  Have you seen it?  The company logo nestled safely in the lower corner for 20 slides suddenly does a little dance on slide 21.  The table that has been supporting a content build over several slides sudden shifts dramatically to the left.  The headlines have a disorienting tendency to drift toward the top of the slide.

You might be thinking, "Oh, who cares about such a minor thing."  But like so many small details in life - a dirty fork at a restaurant, a spot on your favorite shirt, a ding on your brand new car - once we notice them we don't forget them.  

The good new is: Most of these slide twitches can be eliminated if you use PowerPoint as it was meant to be used.  The basic slide layouts anchor your content consistently across your slides.  I will occasionally see a slide deck that has been built entirely from text boxes floating on blank layouts, and I am dumfounded by the extra effort that was wasted creating each slide from scratch.  It's like using a screwdriver to try to pound a nail -- yes, it might work, but why not grab a hammer!?! When you work with the basic layouts, your margins and headlines will not shift around from slide to slide. 

That's not to say you have to use the "of-the-shelf" layout for size, color, placement etc.  Edit the SLIDE MASTER and you can customize the look and feel, without sacrificing consistency.  Place a logo on the SLIDE MASTER and not only will it automatically appear in exactly the same place on every slide - it will no longer be editable on each slide.  That means you won't accidentally delete, stretch, or move it.  Think of the graphic elements on the SLIDE MASTER as existing under a pane of glass.  You can see them, but you can't touch them, unless you go back to the SLIDE MASTER.

If you have never explored to the SLIDE MASTER, it is very much worth your time.  Not only will you better understand why slides behave the way they do and have more control, you will also save significant time because you can edit once and have it impact 50 slides.  This is a skill worth pursuing.

After you've aligned the SLIDE MASTER to your will, you might still want to drop a graphic or other element onto several slides. A good example of this is a flowchart that you want to build in several stages, and you don't want to use animation on a single slide because you want the handouts to print individual steps on separate pages.

If you try to eyeball the placement of individual slide elements, you might get lucky.  But there is way to create the look of seamless animation over several slides. (And if you started using PowerPoint, as I did, in the early 90's, you will remember this is how we did it before there was an option for "animation").  

Create the FINAL slide in the series first.  In the example of the flowchart, capture every step in the process.  Be sure you're happy with it, before you move on to the next step.  If you need to get buy-off from others on your team, get their OK before you move on to the next step (trust me, you'll thank me).

Copy your FINAL slide and place it before the final slide in slide sorter view.  Edit the new copy to remove elements for the next-to-last slide. Then copy that slide, and strip off more elements.  Continue until you have the desired steps in your series.  Watch your series in SLIDESHOW and the slides appear to build.  

The secret is that you locked in the placement for the last slide FIRST.  Sometimes, you will realize you forgot something or need to make a modification that impacts all the slides in the series.  The risk of "twitchy" slides is highest when we think we can make exactly the same edit in multiple places.   If you need to adjust every slide in a series, I strongly urge you to modify the final slide and then repeat the copy-remove process.  

I knew a sales person who was completely focused on how to open.  Whether she was planning a presentation, a meeting, or an email, she wanted to grab her audiences attention.  She want to make sure they were on the edge of their seat.  She believed that people only respond to flamboyant, extravagant claims ("Company XYZ earned $2million in one week and you can too").  She like loud - volume, colors, ideas, anything.  

The trouble was, she was trying to sell a service based on expertise and trust. She was trying to show corporate prospects that her firm would add value, but she was behaving like a huckster. 

After a few conversations, I learned she had only recently been moved into a sales role. Further, I realized her entire frame of reference for "marketing" was infomercials and email blasts. In her mind, that's what worked, and that's what marketing was.  

The funny (or sad) thing was that when she was actually working with her clients, she was entirely different.  She conveyed authority and expertise; she challenged their thinking respectfully and profoundly.  She was the elusive "trusted adviser."  

She was greatly valued by her clients, so her company wanted to put her in front of potential clients.  And to everyone's chagrin, she morphed into a frenetic combination of  Ron Popeil, Billy Mays, and Jerry Lewis.  Well, perhaps I exaggerate.  

But her focus on how to OPEN made it unnecessary to consider how to CLOSE.  She never got that far.  She did grab their attention - in the worst possible way.  

What about you? Do you try to grab the audience by the throat or take them by the hand?  Do you get a better response when you shout or when you whisper?  What is the right balance of sizzle and steak? 

I am in awe of the game called Yahtzee Free for All (by Hasbro). It's a fresh take and successful line extension of a decades-old brand, and it's perhaps the best example of consumer packaging I have ever seen.

Yahtzee has always been a fun game...but let's face it, it was not interactive. All of the strategy and luck took place in your little scorecard. So you were doing something that you could do alone, but doing it in the presence of others...hmmmm.

BUT! Yahtzee Free For All has a great spin: you roll your dice (3 rolls as in the original) to earn cards based on the traditional combinations, but when you are successful you put the card in your "home" slot for one full round of turns. The other plays can steal your card by bettering your combination (e.g., if you had three 3's on a 3 card, they could roll four 3's; if you had a full house of three 1's and two fives (13 dice points) they could beat it with three 4's and two 3's (18 dice points).) When play makes it back to your turn, you get to "bank" the card, if it's not been stolen, and try for more.There's more to it, of course....but the bottom-line is it's an interactive and slightly cutthroat way to enliven Yahtzee -- and it's faster pace than the traditional game. 

So, as an avid gamester, I like it!As a MARKETER, I was blown away by how carefully the packaging was thought out. It's hard to explain how cleverly this game is designed.

First of all, the box bottom turns into the board (folding out in to a 6 player shape (sort of like a flower unfolding). Each players petal (if you will) has a place to display their final roll of dice and their home card. The chips (used to increase point value of cards if player has an unsuccessful turn) have a clever ripple design that makes them very easy to stack and less likely to scatter. The instruction booklet is shaped like a 2D die (which makes it 6 sided), and that also opens like a flower. The box cover is felted on the inside to use as a rolling surface...everything you touch is thoughtful and streamlined.

Even if you don't like games, check this out as an excellent example of taking even the simplest element to a clean, logic, and compelling execution. An inspirational idea for any marketing campaign or deliverable. : )