 Hi everybody, this is Mandi Shou. She will be delivering today's press conference class. We are having quite fun in the backstage conversation and I will tell you guys in a moment why. So Mandi, it's a pretty expert, a pretty and an excellent professional when it comes to helping companies, professionals and speakers to develop their journey when it comes to their own ability to tell their story. When it comes to the content and design and delivery and providing coaching by actual professional speakers because you don't do that, right? Only based on content and design and my partners are coaching on delivery. Yes. Okay, awesome. Jess. So you all have an idea of the level of commitment by Mandi about about all these. She just told me that she and I have seen they bought an auditorium. Very old building, they transform and modernize. So so the people you work with can actually experiment a real stage when getting coaching and training by you and your team. I mean, that's freaking amazing. What an auditorium. Please tell me the story. Yeah, this is some building that we we used to live. And in this building, it's an auditorium of the 50s. And there was, it was for the board actually, and the board was inviting education. So Institute institutions as well. And they did some college there, some presentations and some lessons. And this is empty for the last 15 years. And yeah, and I fell in love. And I thought how cool would be if a presentation boutique studio is actually situated or located in an auditorium, which brings it all together, because you can have your presentation and your practice and on stage. So we call it the hidden stage, because it's not discovered yet. So this year we will be renovating. And my turn to get this launched by the end of the year. That's, again, freaking amazing. Congratulations, memory. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I'm still trying to to build on the picture of the auditorium. You guys work here now during my mind. So we have a real and we can do the coaching sessions. And also you can practice your presentation on stage. And we can take a look and watch soccer play soccer plays in the weekend. You bought an auditorium. Congratulations. Great, great adventure. Yeah, it will be. So Mandy gently kindly agreed to teach us about metaphor with the masterclass session that we're going to call of course the magic of the metaphor and how to apply visual metaphor in our presentations. And I think this is also valid, not only in presentations, but generally speaking, when we have to tell a story, right? Definitely. Yeah, it's always interesting to get the presentations to their next level. And we try that is how we've been taught is visualizing content in a way that usually what we see in businesses, of course, there are exceptions. But what we see is usually bullet points. And also we have we call it official and a text together. And sometimes they're just not even linked to each other or it's literally the, for example, if we're talking about, I don't know, banana, and there's a banana on the slide. We know what a banana is. So do you really need that slide, for example? So what makes presentation even better is thinking about how can you get this message in a way that's a visual metaphor is always guiding your audience in a way. So this is what I would like to talk about today, because I'm passionate about creating those metaphors. And it's, you have of course, metaphors in words, in sayings, in every language. And you have them in visuals, and you can combine those, which is makes it even more effective. So I just want to get through that. Yeah, please go ahead. So first of all, what is a metaphor? Why should we use it? And how can you use it? Those are some three things. I'm just going and if you don't have any questions or public just interrupt me, if you have a question or certain things, it makes no sense. Thank you. So what is a metaphor? There are different like I just mentioned, metaphors in saying and in visuals, we go into focus, it's a big, big topic to talk about, also in science. So let's focus today on visual metaphors, not on the in language. So metaphors are intuitive pattern of thoughts. So it is really interesting. It is, if you just mentioned in terms of stories, it's really interesting if you're talking about journeys, for example, to visualize a journey. So it's intuitive. And just to give you an example of what I mean by that, it's, it makes complex things easier. So for example, in a lot of languages, future is in front of us, and passes back. This is, you can buy now, for example, visual, and the way of you saying it, which is just give you some examples of what does she mean by visual metaphors? Knowing is bright. And unknowing is dark. Right. Metaphors are also intuitive patterns for design. And that's what I like to teach you a bit more about. For example, a tap with water. If you push it up, the water is coming out strongly. If you put it down, it's closing the water, right? And that's what we see in visuals as well. For example, in graphs, things which are going up, we visualize, of course, a graph going up. So it's already intuitive way. And also applying that in products and in your visuals. The same is the temperature meter going up, going down. So just if you're trying to visualize elements, data, or whatever, think about the already things that are intuitive to you. And that's usually quite logical for the majority of the cultures. Of course, you have to consider because in Arabic, for example, things are written differently, of course, and in Chinese as well. So it could be different because it's left and right and we have left to right. So you have to think about it as well, consider your audience if creating this visual metaphors. A question to the audience is sometimes could be really complicated. What does she mean by visual metaphors? I have some examples here. And just think about it for a minute. If you see those three examples, which of those three are a visual metaphor? Are you asking me? No, because I don't want you to get it wrong. I'm going to give the answer, which is three. So why is that? So the first one is just a soccer field with literally circles on it. The second one is a graph and the background is a world. Not really linked. But the last one is also is the top of a picture of the soccer field where you have a goal, where you have rules, where you have players. So you can use this metaphor to talk about your team strategy, for example, because their goals, their players, and you can use that metaphor to elaborate on a certain topic and take your audience with you on this trip. This is usually a metaphor that most people know, because they're a management, for example, there are a lot of models which are using the tip of the iceberg and below the surface. So by using images in your presentations like this, and you take them on a journey and using those physical metaphors, you help your audience to remember your content better. And that's the whole goal of giving a presentation is making sure that people know what you have been talking about or influence people, for example, or they get the message. Sorry, they get the message. I mean, you're preparing your presentation takes already a long time. So then you have to make sure that it sticks, of course. And metaphors can be used in your presentation to help them remember better. And also, of course, visuals, that's quite cliche, but everybody knows visualization helps to remember better. And to get complex matters in a more easier way. So metaphors could be used as well to make sure that maybe complex elements in terms of could be a strategy or change or whatever. Use a metaphor to make it lighter, easier to follow and to make it memorable. So just again, a presentation. So what you see is the tip of the iceberg, which is the presentation performance. But what you don't see is something which is below the surface, which is dedication in ours, practicing presentation design, of course, trying to understand your audience, but also positive things like excitement, could be also disappointment, and also being afraid. I mean, a lot of people are afraid to present. We just talked about professional speaking. And I said, no, I'm fine, not being the professional speaker. I'm fine with creating presentation and supporting being the backstage and helping people doesn't mean that I cannot teach and, you know, sharing my knowledge, because that's what I do like. I just don't really like to be professional speaker and being a stage paid for. We are, we are even more grateful to you for doing this. Professional speakers are paid quite largely. It could be I don't know, from 3000 euros and some speakers do get 15,000 euros and even more than that. And people are having a challenge understanding why people charge what they charge. And then you can actually, this is the metaphor, because what you see is not what is created, of course, it is years of training, research on content. Also, practicing, you have so much more to a presentation than what you only see. And that's a really good metaphor to take people. Okay, so below the surface, there's really a lot of going on in presentation world. So another fun thing, just to have a link to my next visual is, you've seen before that we saying futures front passes back, but same as this dangerous are rough. If you're looking to nature, for example, you see things are rough, and safe is smooth, usually. So you can play with intuitive patterns. I just would like to challenge you to think about it, because it's just so much more than creating a slide with bullets, you just really have to think how how can I make sure that smart visuals are integrated in my presentations. Another metaphor is to navigate to stormy waters. And this is of course, the tip of the iceberg, which you just saw, and stormy weather, you see a sailing boat here. So vision like this is triggering the audience to use things. So and fun thing about Prezi is that you can take people with you on a journey. So let's go into this mind of the this man because the most important thing to creating a presentation is make it memorable. So metaphors do help you to make things memorable. Because it's a visual journey that you're taking people with you. So what are the tips and tricks for an effective visual metaphor? Prezi is a great example of a presentation tool that helps you to get your story in a visual way. So if you open Prezi, you can see a visual metaphors that you can use, and actually edit them. So what you see here is the example that I've showed before is also an iceberg with things that are below the surface and up off the surface. The other one is for for the students. I don't know if all these ones that you are going to show. But for our students, those are templates that you can find inside a Prezi tool when you are trying to make a new presentation, you can choose any of those templates. Okay, thank you. Prezi is actually are quite good in providing great templates and you have several metaphors in certain teams, could be marketing, could be strategy, could be education. And you see those visual metaphors in between. I just wanted to make sure that you see the difference between which is a visual with circles, and which is actually a visual metaphor where you can take in people on a journey. So tip of the iceberg is one. The other one is is this one is also a visual metaphor. This is about business review, what you see is also a Prezi template that you can use. And the other one, which is quite obvious is using mountains. And mountains is climbing and goal and effort. Up and on one. Definitely. And this is so it's now it's a goal. So and you can just, you know, if you have this image in front of you, you can just play with it. If you try to communicate a strategy, for example. So this is an example. Just to go into the tips and tricks on what you need to consider if you try to do this. Because sometimes you can have a really bad move using them. And I want to make sure that you use them in the right way. So keep it simple. So metaphors are there to clear up concepts. If it takes you too long, a long time to explain the connection between two concept, use another comparison. Make sure keeps you keep it easy. The other one is be original. A cliche is always a metaphor. But a cliche doesn't always have to be cliche. Nobody wants to hear you tell the metaphor that we heard 100 times. For example, out of the box, that could be a really cliche. So do we really want to have the box and things in it and out? Okay, I'm trying to challenge you not to use the cliches. Try to be more original and try to challenge you and think about it a bit longer. Then I guess, I guess the reason for that is about engaging the mind like those metaphors that we know and again and again and again, we cannot use them to engage, to actively engage an audience, because they're used to that they know that. So either you are not engaging, and they are probably disengaging from you. And sometimes even the rest of it, of the narrative of the message. Yeah, right. The cliches are quite a challenge, because that's something that you come up with quite easily, right? But again, what you're mentioning, engaging the audience is by you being original in the things that you're showing, because you are saying, okay, you know, the metaphor is to use to make things which are complex, easy. So if you're using quite cliches, it's a bit too easy, right? And then it could be patronizing for your audience sometimes. So, right, make sure that be creative, making it more than really creative. Yeah, yeah. And think about, think out of the box. Okay, so be original as one. And relevance, so be relevant. When you use a metaphor in two concepts have to be linked to one other in some ways, it feels like an aha moment. So I just mentioned that, right? It has to be, ah, that's what you meant. Oh, for example, just to come back to the example of the soccer, so we have players, which are people of your team, for example, and playing by the rules. So what are those rules, you know, and what are the lines? And you can play with that using that metaphor to make it more likely sometimes as well. And not mentioning, you know, these are the rules of our new team, for example, or our new culture, for example. Is reaching a conclusion a valid example of a aha moment? Could be, yeah. A aha moment could be also, if you zoom out, for example, if we use Prezi, and you see the whole thing, for example, if you have those tip of the iceberg, and you don't see the big picture yet, and you have all those, I don't know, water elements, I don't know. And then you zoom out, and you see the whole perspective. That's what she actually talks about all time. Yeah, so that could be really effective. And by the end of the presentation, yes. The other one is important. It's not everything you share needs in comparison. Think about it strategically, all about using a metaphor, especially use metaphors, when you want to emphasize on a concept. So the other one is emotions. The emotions are actually not only in terms of metaphors, but it's in general to be memorised, to be memorable for your audience. It's important to consider what do you want them to get away with? So if they if they leaving the room, or they leaving their seats actually nowadays, what do you want them to remember? And usually emotions really help. And metaphors help to get those emotions a bit deeper. So you want your audience to remember your message, you use sensory experience in metaphors such as sight, feeling, sense, taste of hearing, the audience will feel emotions and therefore being concerned with the story and remember it. This one is really important. Consider to what extent the knowledge of your target audience matches with your metaphor you're using. Make sure your metaphor will be not be the complex for your audience. It has to be effective. Just to give you an example, if you're talking to just take the example of the soccer, soccer field. If you're talking to nurses, right, whole group is nurses, for example. Think about it. Are they really know everything about soccer? And is that the right metaphor to use for this audience? So you have to consider your audience. And also just a tip based on my own experience, what I have done wrong in the past. If you have, for example, an industry that you're going to talk to for, make sure you're not using an example from their industry, because you get so much resistance usually. So if you're talking about an hospitality, for example, when you're talking about a journey in a hotel or whatever, just get another metaphor, not using the industry related things. Because if you have a mismatch on things that you're saying, the only thing that they feel is resistance on the things that you want to get across. Just based on my own experience. Because they know more than you. And they don't know the exact. Yeah. Don't try, don't try to do that. Just use something which is really out of their industry. That usually helps. So talking about healthcare, and you have, you talk to surgeons, and you have a surgeon room as a metaphor. Don't do it. Don't do it. It will be wrong. So that's the target audience is the most important to, of course, usually to start with who am I talking to and what message do I want to get across. So those are the biggest tips. And we just talked about the big reveal. And things which are really fun to you is things like this. So this is 2020 in January. And this is now I hope that you guys take this challenge and get your creativity on and try to get those visual metaphors. And take a look at the website of pressie as well, where they can help. And also, we have I think we have a blog on a visual metaphors as well on our website. So just take a look. We are all very grateful for you taking the time to teach us about metaphor, visual metaphor, and all the tips and tricks that you share with us priceless. At least, at least me, at least I will make great use of them. Okay, thank you, Pablo for this invitation. I appreciate it. Mandy, thank you very much for your time. Thank you for for giving us this masterclass. It's really appreciated. Thank you so much. I really like to thank you, Mandy.