One sure way to lose audience members is if they can read your slides and know entirely what you’re saying.

They can read faster than you speak. If they can read it, they don’t need you. They’ll check email until you change slides. Or they’ll ask for a copy of the slides. Or all of the above.

As my friends Janine and Lee at The Presentation Company teach, one way to combat this is to ‘think visually when presenting virtually.’

Your goal is to represent concepts visually. You don’t have to be a great artist or Jedi PowerPoint Warrior. And I’ll be the first to say that this doesn’t mean you’ll never have a slide that has bullet points.

Just be continually asking yourself, “Could a diagram, a few boxes and an arrow, or (fill in the blank) illustrate this point?”

Think visually when presenting virtually.