Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Slide decks are a powerful way to back up any type of presentation from team meetings and sales pitches to conference keynotes and workshops. We've all seen presentations with poor design that takes away from talks, and at worse, completely distracts the intended audience. However, most presenters aren't graphic designers. Slide decks can be frustrating to build, and great slide decks help communicate what an audience needs to hear.

At Moz, I've had the pleasure of working with many speakers on their decks, whether for a  biweekly webinar or for MozCon. And while you aren't going to turn into a god of slide decks overnight, there are some easy ways to go from terrible to decent. Decent won't get you heaps of praise for a deck, but it also won't leave a sour taste in someone's mind about your slide skills and will allow them to focus on what you actually have to say.

Let’s begin with a caveat: You can’t fake trust.“Words not backed by action are meaningless,” says Darlene Price, president of Well Said, Inc. and author of “Well Said! Presentations and Conversations That Get Results.”

“You can use the right words and phrases to sound ‘trusting,’ but language is no replacement for being a trustworthy person. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ‘Who you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you’re saying.’"

Price says the word “trust” comes the Old Norse word treysta, meaning “to rely on or have confidence in.”

“The basis for a healthy, productive relationship is trust,” she explains. “As a professional, it’s critical to earn the trust of those with whom you work.”...

“When people trust you, they’re much more likely to believe in you, bond with you, and buy from you.”

Here are 18 phrases professionals use to get others to trust them....