It’s blank. It’s black. It’s a slide. The Black Slide.
When you support your speeches with slide presentations – unfortunately, it’s the norm – Black Slides are a great way to repeatedly recapture full audience attention.
I don’t say that slides cannot add power to your point. They do. By visualizing content, slides can help your audience to understand an issue better and remember it more lastingly.
Especially, metaphorical images like the first slide of the following sequence, make your point more memorable. When I show the crystal-clear water of the Caribbean I talk about the importance of emotional transparency as a cornerstone of charisma. After talking about transparency I click and move on to the next slide, the Black Slide. I show the Black Slide during my introductory comments on the next charisma driver – optimism.
No distraction, no disturbance, no interference. Full audience attention guaranteed.
Once I’m done with my introductory lines, I click and move on to the black hole/white hole theory – an appealing approach to become more optimistic in life.
On most of today’s wireless slide changers there’s a button to blank out the active slide. The effect is the same.
But – it’s an extra mental step for you to take in a moment of mental stress. When you speak in public you don’t want to take extra mental steps. You want to make it as simple for you as possible. Therefore, I always include Black Slides in my flow upfront.
Use Black Slides in your presentations; your audience will love them.