Yvonne Heimann [00:00:01]:
Welcome to She Is A Leader, and in this episode I had the pleasure of sitting down with Emily Schneider, a PowerPoint design wizard with nearly 2 decades of experience, who's mastered the art of visual storytelling in business. And trust me, this conversation is just packed with information that will transform how you communicate your ideas. What fascinates me about Emily most is her approach of how she takes those complex thoughts and ideas and all the things that are happening in our head. Hello female entrepreneurs, right? It's just our brain. And Emily distills all of that vast collection of information into clear, captivating visuals that make your audience go "'AHA', now I get it!", and that's our goal, right? So there's one powerful moment in our conversation where Emily drops a mind-blowing stat. Our brains are 65% more likely to retain information when it's visually designed rather than just using words. 65%, no wonder my system-loving heart gets so excited about visual storytelling. But my favorite part? When Emily called out the number 1 presentation mistake most entrepreneurs make, overcommunicating. What a concept. See kind of like a pattern here and yes I totally felt called out in that moment and there was definitely some self-reflection going on there too, so if you've ever struggled to communicate your vision clearly, felt overwhelmed trying to create presentations that don't pull in people, and put them to sleep rather than engage them. Or you simply just want to learn how to transform your complex ideas into engaging visual stories, this episode is your masterclass. Ready to unlock the secret to presentations that captivate, connect and convert? Let's dive in.
Yvonne Heimann [00:02:48]:
And with that, I would like you to welcome Emily Schneider, which I was really excited that this C is still in there. There's some German heritage in you somewhere. So I'm always, always excited when I see names. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's a German name. And with that, welcome, ladies. I'm already going on to my first rant. You know, we always have fun in these episodes of she is a leader. And today, as I mentioned, I got Emily here, who is a seasoned PowerPoint design expert with nearly two decades of experience.
Yvonne Heimann [00:03:29]:
And Emily is known for seamlessly blending visual storytelling with strategic design. You have a knack for transforming complex concepts, which, let's be honest, female brain is always complex. The ideas that I have and what I want to deliver, oh, my God. Making that visually appealing. That is your magic that you help your clients and your community do. And it's like, whether it's translating the stories that we have in our heads or bringing life into ideas, you excel at crafting visually stunning presentation that not only captivate but also delight audiences, turning messages into engaging experiences. And, girl, my hat is off to you because there is so much that goes into visual storytelling. First of all, it's like, I always tell people, put a camera in my face, and I will never shut up again.
But trying to put a presentation together and really visually tell a story. I'm lost. I'm lost. It's like, it doesn't matter if it's a presentation, if it's video or anything. I don't. So I'm curious. How. How did you find out? How did you discover that's your magic?
Emily Schneider [00:05:05]:
So I guess that's an awesome question. And thank you for having me, and thank you for the amazing introduction. I do want to go back. Just have to say you threw out the ch. I have. My full name is Emily Schnurman Schneider. So I'm super, super, super, super. Sure, whatever.
You said it. You say it way better than I do. But. So, yeah, I've got it all in there. Anyway, sorry, I couldn't. I couldn't leave that on the table.
Yvonne Heimann [00:05:30]:
I love that. I'm like. It's so interesting because I also ran into people that have my last name, but it was Englishified. They took the second N off and. And things like that. So I'm. Yeah, I always love seeing German names that haven't been changed.
Emily Schneider [00:05:50]:
Yeah, no, neither. Neither of these have been. Anyway, so back to your question about, like, how I figured out this was my magical knack, really. I will say I through the path of entrepreneurship. Right. You get really curious about your story and where it all started. And to be honest, it started when I was a little girl, and I wanted to see how things came together. I wanted to understand how parts worked.
My mom used to joke that I would touch something and break it. So I was forced to figure out how things worked because I had to fix them. But really, I just needed to simplify, to understand. And that's part of my creative curiosity, my empathetic design approach, my strategic thinking. Again, all these words that I can say now at 42 that I couldn't articulate younger or earlier in my career or even as a child. But there was something about building something simple and when people responded well. And it's just the way my brain works. Yes, there's complex information, but if I don't simplify it, I get lost in the swirl or it becomes, I'm so good at explaining things to my husband and him always being like, "great story", because he didn't get it right.
Like, I didn't simplify it enough. Like, to be honest, the male brain is the simpler one. And so I think I just wanted to figure out how to connect with them or connect with others. And it just morphed into this thing. And I weirdly love the tool PowerPoint as a tool to connect with leaders. And the best part is, is watching somebody's face smile when I share a slide with them, and they're like, oh, my God, you got it. It makes sense now. Like, it's not just in my head.
It's not just up here. I can share it. People will get it and let's go and that. It's just. It's just such a beautiful and happy experience that, yeah, I just kept tapping into it and getting curious and figured it out.
Yvonne Heimann [00:07:48]:
Yeah. I was laughing when you said, oh, yeah, thanks for the story. I'm like, I feel seen. That's me. And the interesting thing is, like, when it comes down to systems and automations, I'm like, simple path, automate the heck out of it. I don't need the details. Just tell me the end goal and I build it for you. And then when I'm actually working on the coaching side of things and consulting side of things, it's like, I see all the bits and pieces connected.
My client is like, I don't care. Just give me. Give me this simple. I don't have to have all of the connection. I'm like, okay, cool. That means you're gonna call me to troubleshoot it. Fine with me. But yeah, I'm like the, this.
Simplifying it down to. And the nice thing with visual storytelling is you can tell so much in one simple image where it's like
Emily Schneider [00:08:51]:
I'm also a data geek and I think the neuroscience behind how we connect and engage with each other and again, in a business sense is like so interesting. So our brains are 65% more likely to retain information when it's visually designed than just when it's words. Right. And then you say you can get up there and you can give me a camera, give me a microphone and you're on. Right. I love that. I'm like that too. Like, I'm a verbal processor so I can tell, I can talk, I can explain.
But when you have slides and a visual story to support what you're saying, you, you become such a hero. In that instance, your audience is engaged. They're now seeing what you're saying, exactly how you want them to be. And to your point, you're leading them directly to that end output without confusion without right, with, with clarity, with confidence, with trust. And in the end, it's so much easier to buy in, to say yes, to know where we're going, and then to say, keep going, do what you need. Like, I know you're the expert in this and so it just moves, it moves conversations to a, to a better level. I don't know.
I, I'm such, like, not a surface person. Like, I don't want to talk about the bs. I don't gossip about other people in my community.
Yeah. Oh God, right? No, like, let's talk about the real things. Let's like get into it. I'm just a heartfelt led person. And so when you can get rid of all that, not trash, but like trash and get to the real meat of things like the engagement, the conversation, the curiosity, the human connection that we all seek is the only thing that's like really left on the table. And like, that's the beautiful part of what I do and how I help people.
Yvonne Heimann [00:10:33]:
Now you have this three step process of how you work with clients, connect, create and complete. What systems have you built behind the scenes to like, build these, these simple frameworks to consistently deliver results to your clients?
Emily Schneider [00:10:56]:
I love that question. I don't think I've ever been asked it, to be honest. What, what is it about? For me, again, it goes to the authenticity and the like, connection. So I am all about connecting. I want to talk to them. I don't I like, the quicker, the quicker I can get somebody on a zoom to meet me face to face. Let me know what your problems are. I don't need you to draft an email again.
I'm a visual, I'm a verbal and visual processor. So, like, to write emails to me is like, so it's so intensive and like, is my tone right? Am I saying right? And then I'm overthinking and I'm like, no, just get me on a call and like, let me hear your voice, let me hear where your struggles are. Let's talk about what you need. And then I can answer you exactly how you meet or I can meet you where you're at. And so my discovery call rate to client conversion is really great. I, I mean, I'm, I evaluate it, right? Like, who else is evaluating? But, like, I have a pretty high percentage of conversion rate because once I can hear somebody and understand their struggles, meet them where they're at, see where, see what they're curious about or what they like. Some people love PowerPoint. They're just stuck on something.
Or some people hate PowerPoint and they never want to touch it and they just want to give me the outline, right? And I can talk them through the process. And then one of my, like, the only way I work with clients, and even now I'm starting to work for clients who have clients, let's say, like, I'm like a consultant with other companies. I'll be like, I'm happy to work with you, but you have to, I have to be directly connected with the client, with the decision maker. I want to be on screen. I, I, There is no, like, it's full transparency, I should say. Like, I don't hold anything back. I show them the slides, I give them the files, I let them see where we're at. I talk through the strategy, right? There's so much thought and intention, especially to make things simpler, that you have to lay out so they know you didn't forget something, but that it's all there.
Emily Schneider [00:12:55]:
And when I explain it to them, they either, they get it, they love it, and they, they build on it. And that has been huge. Because showing up and being part of a process versus showing up and thinking I had to be perfect changed my business. And now they can be like, okay, I love it, but what if we did this? I'm like, great, let's play around and you start moving things. And now you're also empowering. I'm empowering my clients to be part of that solution and it just gets better and then we're done. And they deliver and like it. It's a win win because they already know what they have, they know how to use it, they see how it's built.
And so it's like the full transparency makes that project so much more connected to the user or to the presenter and to the end result. And again, they're so much more confident when they present it now.
Yvonne Heimann [00:13:45]:
And I think there is something about not just delivering something and be like, here you go, but rather having them involved in the process and giving them the power to take ownership of it. That's pretty much what it is, right? It's, it's. You are taking ownership of the story you are telling. It's not just a, hey, I know how to visually storytell. This is what you want to get across. Here you go. It's, you are not just delivering, quote, a product, you're not just delivering slides. You are teaching them how they can work around it, how they can evolve themselves in visually storytelling and how to.
Emily Schneider [00:14:30]:
Talk about it better, right? Like it helps to elevate what they're going to say about it or how that story connects from slide to slide. For sure. It's such a beautiful. It's so much fun to be part of it again. When I took away the, the, the, the thing on my shoulder that said, oh, I show up and it's perfect. And if they don't have any feedback, I know I'm the best designer and said, actually I'm the better designer when I work with people and when they build on my ideas, that's the brilliance of a strong creative is elevating and building like with each other. It changed. It's just been awesome.
Yvonne Heimann [00:15:05]:
What's been one of your most challenging presentation projects you've tackled and how did that experience transform your approach to design in business?
Emily Schneider [00:15:16]:
That is a really interesting question because I find that there are challenges in every project because my expertise is in the presentation design, not necessarily in the subject matter. So when I get started, the understanding and capturing what the concept is can be intimidating at first, if that makes sense. But again, it's part of my process. They have to walk me through and they have to explain in words, not in writing. This is the point of the slide. This is why this is how I'm gonna talk to it. Even if they have a million words on it, I start to see those big bucket pieces. So I can break it down, but it's probably a lot of those, like cryptocurrency, hedge fund things were like, when you just get really technical into the financial stock market kind of thing like that, that becomes black and white to me.
And I don't think in black and white. And so but when client, the best clients know that they have to simplify it to get their pitch, to get those investors interested, to get their current clients. So I kind of also become a guinea pig to like break it down because if they can't explain it to me, those right it's going to be lost on them. So I think it's like, yeah, so like that's definitely been one. But I'm going to be honest. The part of the reason I, I get on a screen with people so early is so that I can vet them in my own way. I want to make sure our chemistry is right. I want to make sure their energy is right.
Emily Schneider [00:16:50]:
I want to make sure they are going to be collaborative and that they believe and that they're going to trust that I'm an expert in what I do and they're not going to like micromanage me. And if that is where it's at, I end, I end things because exactly like, like, here you go, we're good. We don't need to move on. You don't need to pay me. This is where we're at. I haven't had to do that in a really long time because I've gotten more confident in saying, you're not giving me all I need. I'm not going to be successful. Let's keep talking about this or, you know, I don't think I'm right for this project.
There's somebody else. And sometimes it really comes down. I find a really good marker of that is budgets. When people are trying to nickel and dime my scope of work, it usually means I'm not the right person for them because
Yvonne Heimann [00:17:40]:
They're going to nickel and dime you anywhere and making sure you to the second deliver the same the times you said and yeah, yeah, it's in. I had similar, similar experiences where, okay, if you're already starting to nickel and dime me, you gonna bring me on quote as the expert and then tell me what to do. It's just, exactly, it's no, we are not doing this. We are not doing this and talking about mistakes and talking about who do we work with and who do we not work and specifically with you. Working in business communications, I'm sure you probably have seen some quite brilliant but also really ineffective presentation strategies. What are some of the common mistakes you see leaders making when trying to Communicate their vision.
Emily Schneider [00:18:43]:
The biggest mistake is over communication.
Yvonne Heimann [00:18:46]:
So I should shut up and just listen? Okay.
Emily Schneider [00:18:48]:
No, we're like, they think they have to say everything that they know about this topic or every part of the research or give every data point upon the project, the process, or the product development. No, over communication causes confusion, not clarity. When you show up and you're more confident and you have just the right story, people hear what they need to hear and they listen and engage. Am I challenging what you do?
Yvonne Heimann [00:19:22]:
You're not challenging at all. So for everybody listening, pop over to the YouTube channel and just watch my face that I just made when Emily was talking about this, because interestingly enough, I had reached out. I do public speaking, right? And I had reached out to a past event that didn't invite me back. And I know they are not doing the we don't invite guests back from last year. They do invite year after year after year. And I reached out and I'm like, hey, okay, what happened? Where's the disconnect here? And I know from that event manager that I get, she's like, you know me, I'm giving it to you straight. And she did. And she is like, you gave way too much information.
You be. It's how my brain works. I see all of the connections and everything and all the things. And I want you to walk out knowing every eventuality. And that's what hurt me because too many in that session left overwhelmed rather than I want them to leave empowered with knowledge. I didn't let them leave empowered with knowledge. They left overwhelmed, not knowing what to do next and what to take action on. But rather like, screw this, it's way too much.
I'm not touching it.
Emily Schneider [00:20:46]:
Interesting, right?
Yvonne Heimann [00:20:47]:
That's why I was sitting here. And I'm like, I felt called out. I'm working on it. Working on it.
Emily Schneider [00:20:51]:
No. And it's so hard. And it's. It's something that we naturally do because again, like, I used to do it when I want to showed up, show up, tell my reviews with a perfectly buttoned up presentation and no feedback. Right? It's the same thing. It's the same concept. We put this expectation on ourselves and we believe that if we over share, we're giving it all. And one of my, one of my best examples of this is I love my parents, but they're older, they're.
And my dad's stories get really like, okay, dad, get to the point. Like, I don't need to know what time you picked up the phone or like, how what road you took and when you took a right turn. I just need to know that like you had an appointment, you know, like. And I think it's like a similar concept, like all the details to check me out, my brain moves on, I tell a story, I'm disconnected, I'm not engaged. When you share the right information, then if they have follow up questions, amazing. Because I bet you're amazing on the spot. So if somebody has a question, you can build on it or now you have a sequence, you have three parts. I mean I'm building my second masterclass and talking more actually about presentation design because I didn't talk about it in the first time because that's too much.
And so you leave people wanting a little bit more or letting them ask questions that are relevant and not again that are relevant to the. To what you need them to think, feel or do at the end versus can you explain that to me again? I lost it and there's. It's a fine line and sometimes it's take getting out of your presentation and writing your outline out and sometimes it's breaking it down into chapters. Sometimes it's having more slides and then being like, okay, I can't have this many slides. I don't need to cram slides in. I need to remove, you know, like they only need two things, not 17 things about this topic. It's hard. You get excited.
Yvonne Heimann [00:22:55]:
And we want to make sure everybody leaves with the knowledge. What. After I had gotten that feedback, what has helped me is similar to you, where you just gave a couple of tips is I practiced and did over and over YouTube videos because I did the same thing in YouTube videos, but it's like 8 to 12 minutes. That's where you want to be. And interestingly enough, and maybe anybody listening can take this a little bit as a practice realm and thinking of it differently too. We want engagement. So visual video is just as. As you do with slides and being on stage and pitching YouTube videos is, is visual storytelling.
However, there's the other layer where we literally being told by YouTube and the algorithm we want people in the comment section. So first of all, if I overwhelm them and they run, they're not going to pop into the comment section. If I give them every single answer, they are not going to be in the comment section. I want them to pop in and ask questions. So getting that feedback of you are overwhelming people. It hurt. Don't get me wrong. There was, there was a initially and then I'm like, okay, we're taking YouTube as a testing ground and one problem solved.
You're still gonna catch me in videos where it's like, oh, there is a whole rat's tail to this. Let me know in the comment section if you want to learn more about it. Let's get back onto task. So where I kind of weave into that, there is pieces you need to pay attention to, but I don't go down the rabbit hole of the next hour of explaining that, but rather, hey, pop into the comment section. Here it is. Or meet me afterwards after my presentation. I can dive deeper, deeper into this or however you want to do that. And really being able to.
One problem solved. Being in that focus of why am I here? Rather than doing the whole big piece. How is everything connected?
Emily Schneider [00:25:05]:
Yes. I mean, we live in an attention seeking economy, right? So if we're not engaged, if we are overwhelmed, we tune out, we scroll up, we swipe. And so in a meeting. And this is where, like I geek out. I love learning about our brain and how we. And how stories create that connection of our mind and our heart and our body. And they're not just all these overwhelming data facts, Right. You have to create this empathetic connection and that's with telling the story in the right way.
And another tip, I don't know if you're open to it, but another one of my tips is when you craft your nerd, right, just like a traditional story, you have your beginning, your middle, and your end. Your end. You know what you want that, what you want your audience to think, feel and do. You're going to have a call to action, you're going to have a summary. But what if at the beginning of your presentation, you tell them those things, what the goal is of today, why they're there, what they're going to learn? Because now you're giving them tips and insights so that they can stay along. You're kind of giving them a little bit of a preview. And when our minds know where we're going, it's easy, easier for us to stay connected or to hear those keywords and be like, okay, this is something she said she was going to talk about. I'm gonna, I'm gonna tune back in.
And when you're crafting your narrative, don't do it on a computer, don't do it online. Shut your computer down. Get post it notes because they're small and a Sharpie because you can't erase them. And put one topic per post it note and you'll start to see your story evolve or you'll start to see. See this is makes sense here or this makes sense, you know, and you'll start to see what your titles are. I don't know if it's Bernee Brown or Glennon Doyle who, that's how they crafted their outlines of their books was just by putting it on postcards and so that they could start to see what their sections and their themes were. And so if you can take that concept and apply it to your storytelling or your presentation and then not only now you have your ideas, you know what is left over or what's going to be in the index or what's going to be that rat's tail that people can come for. Now I have poster notes and I can start moving them around.
And now I have my full story. I have start with the end in mind. Okay, now I'm going to repeat those post it notes here. I know at the beginning I'm going to give, I'm going to set the groundwork of like what are the key updates Again, we're going to remind them of why we're here, what our goal is. I'm going to give them the heart, the middle part of that presentation. Just like a traditional story, you capture somebody in, you give them character development, you get them to want more, you share with them everything and then you wrap it up or you tell them the conclusion.
Yvonne Heimann [00:27:49]:
And we do the same in, in a learning environment, building out courses or training materials, webinars, all those, I build them the same way using that post it note process.
Emily Schneider [00:28:01]:
Oh, I love that.
Yvonne Heimann [00:28:02]:
Now, looking ahead on how, how do you see kind of like that intersection of technology and presentation design evolving, that, that human and technology working together and how do you see that evolving and how are you positioning you and your business to stay ahead of changes and that, that evolution of. Yeah, just visual storytelling and technology and human working together.
Emily Schneider [00:28:38]:
Well, I think, I think there's two parts. One, we're always going to need human connection. Like nothing's going to ever replace it. They might. But technology as a tool to simplify some of what we do, to elevate what we do, or to help us think outside the box and be a tool or a partner is amazing. So I'm going to be honest. One in every four presentation can afford or has the time to invest in somebody like me. So having AI tools to help people who aren't as skilled in any presentation platform is amazing.
Having templates that are already preset is amazing. But no AI or tool technology is going to be able to hit on your strategy. Exactly the cadence of how you want things to build the connection. Right.
This just the strategic thinking that goes into being a human. When you tell stories and you engage or you respond to your audience. However, I love AI. I'm not a writer. I said that. So AI helps me synthesize headlines to be headlines. It helps me get bullets to be brief. It helps me say, I have this data.
This is the topic. I'm thinking of doing a pie chart and a bar chart and then a line chart. Does that make sense if this is my goal? Or are there other things I should think about? Right. Or going back to the image thing. Sometimes going to chat GPT and saying like, this is what I want to talk about. What are key search terms that I can look for in my stock image search so that I start to hit on. Because again, being a visual person, not a, not a writer, not like I. In fifth grade, I asked to flunk the spelling test.
Like, language was never my thing. That's why art was. It was an expression in its own way. But now I can get better at the images I want to say or the articulation of it because I'm getting help as a tool. And I, I work with chat GPT. I mean, I just read today like somebody's like, how much extra energy is used when we say please and thank you. Well, I'm very grateful for that.
I'm very grateful for it because I do say thank you to chat. Like chat helps me be more articulate. It helps me define exactly what I want to say. Again, I'm long winded too. So I'm learning as I'm teaching in the same process. So I believe it's so good if we use it as a tool, as a partner, as a place to brainstorm, especially as a solopreneur, get in your head and to have a place that I could kind of start to work things out. It's great. It's not the end all, be all.
Yvonne Heimann [00:31:18]:
And it's for somebody like me, that's really practical. I can. And being German, right? Germans don't have emotions, let's be honest. No, we actually do. But they're just, they're just nicely boxed up. I do want to come across in a certain way and I use AI a lot. I now happen to use a tool called Magai because when I do research, I use perplexity. Perplexity, deep research.
It's like, okay, that's. That's me on steroids. What are the frameworks what's behind it? What's the data? Find all the things. But that specific AI is not gonna have any emotions. So bringing in Sonnet, where I'm like, okay, I taught you how I think and how I actually want to sound. There is better reasoning and more. More emotion brought in. Still not a human, don't get me wrong.
But it's. It's not just using AI. You also at this point now need to know how to use AI and which AI to use for what. Because just like us humans, they have specialities where they are better at things and others are not. So love AI. Preferably on my morning walk when all of my ideas pop up and I literally just need somebody to condense it down to. Okay, what of these make actually sense? What should I implement? How is the timeline? And just as my bouncing off, because I'm an external processor, as we always figured out, I can talk for hours. However, I'm here as a host and I'm curious, what's one question that I haven't asked that you wish more people would ask about visual storytelling and presentation design?
Emily Schneider [00:33:11]:
I think the thing. It's like, what is that one thing? If I had to do one thing right, we talked about, like, the, like the challenge or like, what I see most often. Right. But like, what's the one thing? What's the. How do I think differently about this? And I guess it's like more than one thing. I have three principles. Simplicity, consistency, and intentionality. If you can be simple, consistent and intentional with your entire story and each slide as part of that story, you're gonna knock it out of the park.
Less is always more.
Yvonne Heimann [00:33:51]:
Yeah, but it's all connected.
Emily Schneider [00:33:56]:
It is. That's why you got. That's why you gotta use ChatGPT to be like, how do I simplify this? How do I create. Make it shorter, make it shorter. Keep the magic. Make it shorter.
Yvonne Heimann [00:34:05]:
And even. I'm like, again, it's. This is my current lesson of, yes, it's all connected. Yes, I see all of the bits and pieces, but it doesn't start a conversation. If I throw everything at people, it's going to overwhelm them and it's going to stop the conversation. So simplifying it down and leaving the door open. For that communication and for that conversation, that's our goal. So, no, don't throw everything at them.
Keep it nice and simple. And Emily, for everybody that wants to connect with you, that wants to figure out more about you, what you do and how you do, where can they.
Emily Schneider [00:34:46]:
Find you so you can learn more about me, specifically my work, see some examples and even get some freebies on my resource page on my website. iamemilyschneider. However I love connect, connecting and networking on LinkedIn and I am Emily Schnurman Schneider on there. Or you can look for the PowerPoint Queen.
Yvonne Heimann [00:35:05]:
And we'll make it easy. As always, all of the links are in the description for you so you can just simply click on it because even though I can talk for hours, I do try to keep it really simple for you. And if you have not subscribed yet, I have a lot more really amazing women come joining me on the She Is a Leader podcast. Emily, thank you so much for joining me today. It was wow. Wow. That's all I have today. Thank you so much.
Emily Schneider [00:35:36]:
Thanks for having me. It was so much fun to talk to you.
Yvonne Heimann [00:35:38]:
Bye everybody.