Last week, I had to stop a presenter as he was mid-way through explaining his chart. “Can you back up?” I asked. “I think I first need to understand what the numbers on the side mean.”

It happens a lot. After spending a few days or even weeks synthesizing data, pulling out the meaning and designing a chart to tell the story, we jump right into the details, forgetting that our audience is seeing this chart for the first time. And we lose them. Even the best presenters, with terrific presentation skills, can lose an audience the moment they try to present the data.

What should we do? Be a good movie director! How do you do that?

It’s not complicated. Watch below and easily switch from losing them to captivating them.