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Develop Core Messages

Step 3: Organize Content Into Mini-Presentations

The next step is to consider the organization of the content. Highly compartmentalized organization of your content is critical for re-purposing. Here’s where strong organization is critical.

In general, I always suggest breaking up presentations of any length into mini-presentations. I like to think of presentations like a babushka doll (a Russian nesting doll); one complete presentation inside of another complete presentation inside of another, inside of another, etc.

Like chapters in a book, each main segment needs to have an entertaining opening, and organized middle, and a creative close. Each segment should deliver one main idea which is supported by a variety of sub-points and evidence. Think of the main idea as the title of the chapter and each of the sub-points as paragraphs within the chapter.

Just like written paragraphs, the sub-points within digital content should be structured following my PEP (Point, Evidence, Point) model.  That is make a point, support it with evidence of some sort (you need to support it with sub-points.   a practical level,  try to create the content so that the smallest unit is about 1-3 minutes of material (200-400) words).

In a book chapter the paragraph and a sentence are the smallest units.  Each paragraph makes a point, gives an example or provides support, and then makes the point again in a slightly different way.  The same goes for your digital content, the smallest units about 1-3 minutes of material, should be strong enough that they could stand alone.  I suggest following the my PEP (Point, Evidence, Point) model for each of you smallest units.  Think about how you’ll vary the evidence to satisfy both the heart and the mind.

We chose to organize the content around decades of life.

This way you can pick and chose short modules of content to include or exclude when creating new expressions of your content.