I’m sure you’ve seen the funny videos circulating where Gen Z writes the marketing script, and then gets someone very definitely not Gen Z (like me) to read it. (If not, please search in TikTok, there are gazillions of them as none of the below will make any sense without having seen it!). Anyway, I wondered how that would translate into the world of IR, so I asked my Gen Z colleague to draft an article about effective investor presentations. Unedited. Definitive. Slay!

How to make investor presentations slay their hardest

Why should people care about engagement (the real tea)?

Investor presentations are a rare chance to showcase your main character energy. Keeping an audience engaged ensures you live rent-free in shareholders heads. This kind of engagement helps foster long-lasting and positive relationships which is crucial to business success no cap! Coming through with confident, creative and immaculate vibes is far superior to a lowkey PowerPoint with no personality. Trust, trust is the foundation for good relationships. When you deliver an engaging presentation, you connect with an audience, when you serve up data or wordy information with engaging visuals and clear explanations; people actually listen. Crazy, right? At the end of the day the real tea is that you should follow my five steps to presenting as you will create real connection with an audience faster than a Tiktok micro-trend comes and goes.

Five steps that nobody asked for but everyone needs; 

1. Main character energy

Your presence needs to give confidence, queen. I am talking clear voice, eye contact, and open body language. Everyone in the room’s eyes should be on you while you slay your presentation. Rather than “I watch too much Dragons’ Den”, you need to give “competent investor relations professional”. 

2. Not just reading off the slides challenge

Be creative! Respectfully, the last thing anyone wants to watch is a presentation entirely read off the slides—serious yawn. Add pictures, short sentences, and even a professional colour scheme, but no reading off those slides unless you want to be a serious flop. 

3. Flex

Do not forget to show off all your Ws; a bit of flexing never hurt anyone. Add to your presentation all those receipts of your main character energy, such as graphs, figures, and customer reviews. Show that you are literally that girl. Of course, don’t flex too hard. Keep it a little bit demure and mindful. 

4. We’re all in this together moment

Everyone knows the more interactive a presentation is, the more engagement it generates. No one wants to sit in silence listening to someone’s monologue. Instead of just asking, “Any questions?” (*sigh*), try specific discussion points or questions that will get people interested in what you have to say. Your audience 🤝 actually being involved.

5. Storytime

Don’t be cringe; those cringey cliché motivational stories do not work. The overly perfect success stories are just not relatable. Instead, share something real where things went wrong and did not magically fix themselves. Everyone makes mistakes, and that is what people find relatable. So don’t be basic next time you present.