The following comes from TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience”. Consistently, the worst advice speakers and presenters get, comes from everyone who is NOT your audience. The following gives examples of some of the WORST advice people are often given. It is followed by the advice of your audience. Listen to them. They are your true judge and jury.

How many PowerPoint slides should I use in my entire PowerPoint Presentation?

Corporate Communications Director: “Let’s use no more than 30 slides. We got criticism for the old presentation we did with 50 slides.”

PR Director (who read one book on PowerPoint): “Ten! The magic answer is ten. Thou shalt use no more and no fewer than 10 slides. Ten is the perfect number.”

You: “The more slides I prepare, the smarter and more well-prepared I’ll look. I’ll try to limit the slides to 50, but if I put more in, this way people can use the PowerPoint as a resource in their office for the next year.”

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Your Audience: “What a stupid question!!! The correct number of slides could be one or it could be 100 or it could be zero. If a slide will help us understand and remember your message better, then use it. If not, don’t use any slide. Follow that principle and the number of slides will take care of themselves.”