What if you could prep a session that any group would love on a coffee-stained napkin at the hotel bar in under 10 minutes? No budget. No PowerPoint. In this post, I’ll show you how.
I haven’t used a slide in the last 10 years. And yet I’ve professionally traveled around the world, presenting to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people. At this point, it doesn’t matter who the group is. I feel really confident that I could prep for that session on a napkin and the group would love the experience.
That’s not bravado. After a recent opening session, people came up and said things like “best keynote we ever had,” “best opening session we ever had,” and “the most fun I’ve had in an opening session.” None of it came from a slide deck.
The Philosophical Shift: Flip Your 98%
Naturally, if you were to make a really detailed PowerPoint presentation and focus on all the things you’re going to say, script everything out, and create a big outline, that would take a lot of prep. I couldn’t do that on a hotel napkin.
So the first requirement is a philosophical shift.
Most facilitators, presenters, and speakers focus 98% of their energy and attention on what they are going to say. I want you to shift that. Focus 2% on what you’re going to say. Turn the podium around. Focus 98% of your attention on what you’re going to invite the group to do, and what you’re going to invite them to say to each other.
It doesn’t matter what group size you’re in. If there are three or more people there, chances are they have more life experience than you. Unless you’re 200 years old and they’re each 70. The wisdom in a group is always very heavily distributed on the other side of the stage.
The Hotel Napkin Method
So on my hotel napkin, I’m grabbing whatever pen the bartender gives me, and I’m writing one thing on that piece of paper. Ready?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
It’s not five things I’m going to say. It is five locations or opportunities where I can invite the group to contribute, from the beginning of a gathering to the end. From the unofficial start, as Mark Collard might call it, to the closing of how we’re going to wrap up.
I wanted this video to be short because the philosophical shift is the biggest thing that helps you redesign.
Orient your planning around this mantra:
Stop presenting. Start inviting.
What’s probably going to be more practical for you is knowing what you write after each number, so that your group goes really well.
That’s why I’ve spent a mountain of time putting together a free field guide on what I call The Contribution Method. It’s not competitive with anything you’ve learned in the past, even if you’re a seasoned facilitator. And the promise, and you can write me an angry email if it doesn’t deliver, is that it will actually cut your prep in half and double your impact.
Why Your Delivery Is Your Best Marketing
Especially if you’re a solo or independent facilitator, practicing The Contribution Method over the last 10 years is the main reason that nearly every single engagement I’ve ever led has turned into two more. Your delivery is your best form of marketing.
If you go up and present a slideshow like everybody else, you’re competing with everybody else. When an event organizer or a client asks me for my slides and I say I don’t have any, their eyes go big and they say, “Ah, awesome!” Their AV needs are cut in half.
The field guide has a checklist of whether your session will land or not. It has the five ingredients mapped out with definitions and examples you can plug right in, plus what shifts and changes in your group afterward. You can print it out, sit with it, look at the group you actually want to lead, and design something that truly stands out.
That matters more than ever in this age of AI and instantly accessible information, where book sales of some of the most famous authors have plummeted 60% to 80%. Why would someone go through all that effort to get information when they can just get the one sentence they need? To stand out, you cannot compete anymore in the land of consumption. You’ve got to compete in the land of contribution.
Start With One Invitation
If you’re thinking, “Field guide, blah, blah, blah, Chad, I don’t want to give my email,” no problem. You can also watch my video on how to make a presentation interactive, where I share a snapshot of examples for free.
I also lead an epic experiential crash course in this method at the Connectors Summit in December.
Have a nice day.
