[Image adapted from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's photo at flickr.]

Leslie Belknap is the Marketing Director for Ethos3, an award-winning agency that provides professional presentation design and presentation training for national and international clients, ranging from Fortune 100 companies to branded individuals like Guy Kawasaki.

Leslie Belknap and I connected online. I discovered some of the content published by Ethos3 (check out their posts on the SlideShare blog) and Leslie had come across some of the content produced by the Marketing Team at DNN.

Since Leslie (and the team at Ethos3) are experts in designing presentations, I thought I’d send some questions her way. I hope you enjoy this Q&A with Leslie. You can find Ethos3 and Leslie on Twitter: @Ethos3 | @LeslieBelknap

When clients ask you to create a presentation, what’s the first question you ask them?

At Ethos3, we create custom presentations for all of our clients. 

Therefore, to kick-off every presentation we ask specific questions to help us thoroughly understand our client’s needs and preferences. Our kick-off questions generally include:

1. How will this presentation be used?
2. Who is your audience?
3. Who is delivering the presentation?
4. What are the 3 things you want the audience to remember?
5. What concerns keep your audience up at night?

Tell us about Ethos3’s methodology for creating presentations?

To develop unique, creative presentations for our clients, we utilize a carefully crafted process, which includes mood boards, feedback discussions, and rounds of revisions. Because we intentionally design presentations with minimal content and high-impact visuals, storyboarding is one of the most critical steps in our presentation development process.

Name some secret sources that you team uses to find captivating images?

For Ethos3 clients, we purchase images from a variety of photography sources.

For presenters who need free images for their personal presentation designs, we suggest reading our blog post, Gorgeous (And Free) Stock Photos For Your Presentations. The site re:splashed is one of my favorite sources for high-quality, free stock photos.

Do you design differently for an in-person presentation vs. a SlideShare?

Yes, when designing presentations for SlideShare, the slide content should tell a complete story that does not require any additional explanation. In contrast, presentations that will be delivered in-person require less slide content because the speaker can use their words to connect the dots of the presentation materials.

Name a few sites that inspire your own Marketing?

I take inspiration from many diverse sources, but a few of my favorites include:

1. The Buffer Blog
2. The KISSmetrics Blog
3. The SlideShare Blog
4. Inc. Magazine

SlideShare Makeover from Ethos3

Last year, I presented a DNN webinar on content marketing. The team at Ethos3 was kind enough to take my original deck and create a makeover from it. You can see their work below. Thanks, Ethos3!

10 Quick Tips for More Effective Content Marketing from DNN