How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint and Deliver Engaging Presentations
Liam Sandford
Liam Sandford is a public speaking coach, marketing leader, and 2x best-selling author, including the book Effortless Public Speaking. He helps introverted professionals and leaders take control of public speaking anxiety and use speaking to market themselves, build influence, and communicate with impact.
In today’s world, your audience’s attention is one of the hardest things to win. A presentation can either engage people or lose them within seconds. The difference often comes down to how you use your slides. PowerPoint is a brilliant tool when used correctly, but it can also become your downfall. When you rely too heavily on your slides, they stop supporting your talk and start controlling it, and that’s when you risk death by PowerPoint.
Most people, when faced with an upcoming presentation, open PowerPoint before they even know what they want to say. They start with an agenda slide, fill in bullet points, maybe add some stock images or animations, and call it preparation. But this approach skips the most important part: understanding your audience and planning what they need from you.
The result is a presentation that looks polished but lacks purpose. To avoid “death by PowerPoint,” you need to take control of your message, structure, and delivery so that your slides enhance your speaking rather than replace it.
Why Most Presentations Fail to Engage
The biggest mistake most presenters make is using slides as their memory prompt. They rely on them to remember what to say next, which leads to reading directly from the screen. The problem? People can read faster than you can speak, so your audience tunes out.
Slides were never meant to be your cue cards. They are there to serve your audience, not you. Every slide you create should have one purpose, to help your audience understand, remember, or act on your message. This will help make your audience resonate with you.
When your slides exist purely for your benefit, you lose the connection that makes a presentation work. The goal of any presentation is to create understanding and movement. You can only do that if your slides are designed for the people in front of you.
Design Slides for the Audience, Not for You
Before you open PowerPoint, pause and think about the people you are speaking to. Ask yourself these key questions:
What does my audience really want or need from me?
What are the two or three key messages they must take away?
How can I make the information clear, visual, and relevant?
What simple action can they take as a result of this talk?
If your slides don’t directly answer those questions, they are not serving your audience. Remember, clarity beats complexity. The best slides simplify your message so your audience can connect and retain what matters most.
You should be able to deliver the entire presentation even if the projector fails. If you can’t, it’s a sign that you are too dependent on your slides.
A Better Presentation Structure: Capture Attention and Keep It
Whether your presentation is ten minutes or half an hour, your structure determines how well people engage. The traditional 10/10/10 model, 10 minutes to introduce, 10 minutes to deliver, and 10 minutes to summarise, is one of the main causes of boredom in presentations.
By the time you get to the point, half the room has already mentally checked out.
The Nano Speech Framework
A more effective structure is what I call the Nano Speech Framework, a simple but powerful approach that keeps your audience engaged from start to finish.
Open with something that captures attention. Use a short story, question, or analogy that relates to your topic. This helps the audience connect emotionally and pay attention early on.
Deliver your main points clearly. Focus on the messages that matter most to your audience, not the ones that are easiest for you to explain. Keep it short, structured, and relevant.
End with a clear call to action. Tell people exactly what to do next. Give them one actionable step they can take immediately after listening to you.
This structure works because it mirrors how people naturally pay attention, short bursts of focus, clarity, and motivation to act.
Avoid agenda slides altogether. They drain energy before your message even begins. Instead, use your opening moments to build anticipation and curiosity.
The 3 Principles to Avoid Death by PowerPoint
Once you’ve planned your structure and message, it’s time to refine your slides. Use these three principles to ensure every presentation is focused, engaging, and memorable.
Principle 1: Balance Words and Visuals
A common trap is filling slides with paragraphs of text or long bullet lists. When people read, they stop listening, and when they stop listening, they stop connecting.
Follow one simple rule: no more than nine words per slide. Your visuals should amplify your message, not compete with it. Use clear, high-quality images, icons, or graphics to illustrate your ideas.
When you reduce text, you force yourself to speak more naturally, and your audience focuses on you instead of the screen.
Principle 2: One Message per Slide
Each slide should contain one clear message. When you cram too many points into one visual, your audience doesn’t know what to focus on. Having ten simple slides with ten clear ideas is far more powerful than one cluttered slide.
Each slide transition acts as a reset point; a moment for your audience to refocus. By introducing one idea per slide, you build rhythm and anticipation, keeping your audience actively engaged throughout.
Principle 3: Direct the Audience’s Focus
Every slide should tell the audience where to look. Three design elements stand out naturally during a presentation:
Contrasting colors — guide attention to key words or figures.
Numbers and data — use them sparingly, but make them clear and readable.
Images and icons — visual cues stick in memory far longer than text.
Use these elements intentionally. Highlight what matters most, and eliminate anything that distracts from your main point. Be deliberate about what you want your audience to remember long after your talk ends.
Reducing PowerPoint Dependence
If you find yourself relying too heavily on slides, start reducing your dependence gradually. Here’s how to do it effectively:
Replace full paragraphs on your slides with short bullet points.
Practice presenting sections without slides at all.
Record your talk and review where you rely on visuals too much.
Replace text-heavy sections with personal stories or audience examples.
By shifting focus away from your slides and toward your delivery, you’ll naturally become a more confident and engaging speaker. Over time, your slides will evolve from a safety net into a support tool that amplifies your message. Discover how to make every slide count in the Ultimate Guide to Public Speaking.
Actionable Takeaways for Every Speaker
In all types of communication it is not about you, it is about your audience. Start designing your slides for your audience, not for you.
If you find yourself reliant on PowerPoint, start scaling it back slide at a time. Begin your transition from ‘death by PowerPoint’ to ‘engaging speaker’.
Use the 3 principles to avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’ to start crafting more engaging presentations.
TL;DR
Creating presentations that truly engage your audience requires focusing on clarity, structure, and delivery rather than relying on slides.
Design each slide with one clear message, using visuals to support understanding and retention.
Open with a hook to capture attention, deliver concise main points, and end with a clear call to action.
Limit text on slides, use short phrases, high quality images, and data sparingly to guide focus.
Reduce dependence on slides by practicing delivery without visuals and incorporating stories or examples.
Structure your presentation using frameworks like the Nano Speech Framework to maintain engagement from start to finish.
More from Liam Sandford
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