Can we talk about that moment your content plan just falls apart live?

I was running a webinar for a client last Tuesday and my slide deck decided to freeze mid-presentation. My whole strategy of planned bullet points and pre-written scripts went out the window. I had to pivot fast and just talk from memory about their customer journey map. Turns out people actually preferred the raw version over my polished slides. Has anyone else had a live content piece blow up and work out better than you planned?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace_white1mo agoMost Upvoted

Hate to disagree but that sounds like a mess. Planned stuff exists for a reason. Your client paid for a webinar, not a ramble session. When my deck crashed I lost half the audience. People left. Raw and unprepared just sounds like you didn't do your job. Polished slides show you care about the details.

taylor_young1mo ago

Its kind of like how everyone expects everything to be perfectly curated now, even conversations with friends. If you stumble or pause people think somethings wrong, but real life is messy and thats okay.

troyreed1mo ago

You know what, I used to be ALL about the polish. Thought if a talk or video wasn't perfectly edited it was a waste of time. But a buddy of mine did this raw, unscripted podcast episode the other day and it was WAY more engaging than any of his slick ones. The stumbles and pauses made it feel like he was actually talking to ME, not a camera. Changed my whole view on it. Planning is good but being TOO perfect just feels like a robot. There's a middle ground where you prep the big points but let the messy stuff in.