Maybe the numbers simply went up over time. Or down.

Other times, it’s more complicated.

Here’s how to explain multiple takeaway messages in presentations: with multiple slides, one per takeaway message.

Before: Everything Smushed on One Slide

Here’s what I typically see: lots of possible takeaway messages shoved into a single graph on a single slide.

The presenter says something like this:

“Next, let’s talk about gonorrhea diagnoses in our state. We’re looking at the number of diagnoses per 100,000 people. We’re also looking at age ranges. This is the person’s age when they were diagnosed with gonorrhea. We’ve got five years’ worth of data: from 2018 through 2022. Let’s look at a few key findings. Gonorrhea diagnoses were highest for people in their early twenties. In 2020, for example, there were 735 gonorrhea diagnoses per 100,000 people ages 20-24 in our state. Gonorrhea was lowest for ages 40-49. In 2022, for example, there were 88 diagnoses per 100,000 people ages 40-49 in our state. Here’s another pattern we found: Gonorrhea diagnoses generally went up from 2018 through 2020. For the three younger age groups, at least. And, gonorrhea diagnoses went down from 2021 to 2022 for all age groups.”

And while you’re talking through allllllll those numbers and age ranges and timeframes, the audience only sees this:

You see the problem, right??

The presenter is talking about one thing… but the audience is probably looking at something else.

That’s the very definition of Death by PowerPoint.

After: Describing One Takeaway Message at a Time with Multiple Slides

Instead, let’s use multiple slides!

We’re aiming for a single takeaway message per slide.

That way, what we say = what the audience sees.

There should be a perfect cohesion between sight and sound.

The presentation would look and sound like this:

“Next, let’s talk about gonorrhea diagnoses in our state. We’re looking at the number of diagnoses per 100,000 people.”

“We’re also looking at age ranges. This is the person’s age when they were diagnosed with gonorrhea.”

“We’ve got five years’ worth of data: from 2018 through 2022.”

“Here are the patterns at a glance. Next, let’s look at a few key findings.”

“Gonorrhea diagnoses were highest for people in their early twenties. In 2020, for example, there were 735 gonorrhea diagnoses per 100,000 people ages 20-24 in our state.”

“Gonorrhea was lowest for ages 40-49. In 2022, for example, there were 88 diagnoses per 100,000 people ages 40-49 in our state.”

“Here’s another pattern we found: Gonorrhea diagnoses generally went up from 2018 through 2020. For the three younger age groups, at least.”

“And, gonorrhea diagnoses went down from 2021 to 2022 for all age groups.”

Finally, you’d show the “full” graph again, pausing for questions and a discussion.

The Bottom Line: Use More Slides!!!

We’re not making the presentation longer. We’re speaking for the same amount of time as before.

We’re not rushing or slurring our words. We’re speaking at the same pace as before.

We’re not wasting paper or ink. These are the slides shown on screen during a presentation. If you want to print something, just print the “full” graph (which is slide 462 in the screenshot below).

We’re syncing our words and visuals.

We’re keeping our audience’s attention.

Because if they’re not even paying attention… How will they possibly understand, remember, and use the findings for decision making?!

Want to make sure your audience is engaged?

No, those 10-minute Q&As at the end of a presentation don’t count as adequate engagement. Let’s notch up our engagement!

In this blog post, you’ll learn about the “Choose Your Own Adventure” method for engaging our audiences during presentations.

In March 2021, I was speaking at the Nonprofit Technology Network’s conference, 21NTC, and I used this technique.

I started to write a blog post with screenshots, but I really want to show you how this works.

In this video, you’ll see:

1. A brief demo of the Choose Your Own Adventure method
2. A behind-the-scenes tour of my slides
3. A discussion of the caveats so you can decide when to use this method

Watch the Video

The Choose Your Own Adventure Method

As you saw in the video, the Choose Your Own Adventure technique puts our audience in the driver’s seat.

Here’s what the presentation looks and feels like for our audience members.

Step 1: Show the Table of Contents Slide

First, we show them a Table of Contents slide, which has an overview of all the topics we might cover.

I tell the audience that there’s tons to learn about this topic, but we’ll only have time to cover a few techniques during our short time together.

My 21NTC presentation was 60 minutes long, so we had time for 3 techniques.

Step 2: Ask Attendees to Vote for their Preferred Topics

Then, the audience members vote and help us prioritize which topic(s) we’ll cover.

For example, in my 21NTC presentation in March, I simply asked the attendees to type their votes into the chat window.

You’ll need to make some small talk while audience members are typing in their votes.

Sometimes, there might be a 15- to 30-second delay between us and the audience members. I’ve given virtual talks on a bunch of different conference platforms (Whova, etc.), and most of them have a slight delay. We’ll need to factor that in, too. More small talk.

In the video, you’ll see what I did for my 21NTC presentation. While the audience members were voting, I simply let them know that they could download an ebook to learn all 10 techniques.

Step 3: Click on their Preferred Topics on the Table of Contents Slide

Finally, the links propel us to the correct place in the presentation.

If attendees want to learn about Color Blindness, for instance, then I would click on the Color Blindness section of this slide. The links fast-forward us to that segment of slides.

For example, our Table of Contents slide might be on slide 5, and we can use the links to fast-forward to slide 50.

Step 4: Discuss that Topic & Show the Table of Contents Slide Again

At the end of the Color Blindness section, we see the Table of Contents slide again.

The presenter clicks on the second topic that the audience members wanted to talk about, and the links propel us to that segment of the presentation.

And on and on.

I often conclude with a case study. We’ll discuss the case studies and their links in a moment.

A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of My PowerPoint Slides

In the video, you’ll see exactly which buttons to click on to create a Choose Your Own Adventure presentation.

Links on the Table of Contents Slide

Here’s how you can add links to your PowerPoint slides:

1. Click on the icon or text box where you want to create a link.
2. Go to the Insert tab at the top of the screen.
3. Go to the Link button.
4. Click the down-arrow.
5. Insert a link.
6. In the pop-up window, choose Place in this Document.
7. You can scroll through your list of numbered slides and choose one.
8. Click ok.

That’s it!

When you click the icon or text box during your live presentation, the links will take you and your audience to the appropriate segment of your presentation.

Invisible Links to the Case Studies

Sometimes I end my presentations with case studies. These case studies give the attendees a chance to put their new knowledge into use.

For example, at the 21NTC conference, I prepared three case studies in advance. I had a beginner, intermediate, and advanced case study. I knew we’d only have time to cover one of the case studies.

As shown in the video, I simply added links to the case studies to the Table of Contents slide.

There are invisible rectangles on my Table of Contents slide. The top rectangle is a link to the beginner case study, the middle rectangle is a link to the intermediate case study, and the bottom rectangle is a link to the advanced case study.

Caveats

Wondering whether this technique is right for you?

Should you continue giving a “regular” linear presentation? Or should you try a “Choose Your Own Adventure” non-linear presentation??

Here are two factors to consider:

• This is an advanced technique. You need to be an expert in your topic area and have tons of presentation experience. You have to be nimble enough to speak about any of your topics in any order, and to adjust the time spent on each topic on the fly.
• This technique only works when the topics can be presented in any order. In my accessibility presentation, I could discuss topic 1, 2, and 3. Or, I could discuss 1, 3, and 2. The techniques aren’t sequential; they can truly be taught in any order. Make sure your topics can be delivered in any order, too.

Your Turn

After you try this, get in touch! Share tips of your own so we can learn from each other.

In March 2021, I was speaking with GEDIs about dataviz tricks for presentations. (The GEDI program is the Graduate Education Diversity Internship within the American Evaluation Association.)

I was scrolling through my slides, and someone asked how I created these “sections” to organize my content.

Adding sections to PowerPoint has been a gamechanger for me personally. They help me stay organized behind the scenes, which helps my audience, too. An organized presenter = an organized presentation = a happy audience that can learn from us headache-free.

Watch the 7-Minute Tutorial on Sections

I started to write a blog post with screenshots about sections… but that felt impossible. I wanted to show you how sections work, so I recorded you a tutorial.

What’s inside:

1. A demo of what sections are
2. How to add them
3. How I use them to hide topics
4. How I use them to re-order topics

What Are PowerPoint Sections?

Sections help us organize our slides into meaningful groups, categories, chunks, buckets, or chapters of a presentation.

In the video, you’ll see what they look like.

Can you spot the words above some of the slides?

Our audience won’t see the sections. They’re for us, the presenters.

How to Add Sections

It’s easy to add new sections to a presentation.

Here’s how:

• I like to be in Slide Sorter view first. (The birds-eye-view of the presentation where you can view all the miniature slides.)
• Decide which slide is going to start the new section. Click on that slide to activate it.
• Right-click and Add Section.
• In the pop-up window, give your section a name. I use names like Introduction, Case Study, Conclusion, etc.

That’s it!!!

How to Use Sections to Hide Topics

I like to keep all my slides for a given workshop within a single file.

While prepping for upcoming talks, I go through the full file – all 900+ slides! – and choose which sections I’ll talk about.

I might cover Sections A, B, and C for one group.

I might cover Sections A, D, and E for another group.

I might add Sections F, G, and H as brand new topics for another group.

(For private trainings, I review the group’s materials ahead of time and hold some planning calls to figure out which sections are going to be the best use of our time together.)

As I’m deciding which sections to include, I simply hide and unhide the slides. In the video, you’ll learn how to hide and unhide slides.

(Yes, you can hide and unhide slides without having any sections. I personally like using sections so I can think about an entire category of slides that should be shown or hidden.)

How to Use Sections to Re-Order Topics

I definitely recommend outlining your presentation in a document or spreadsheet before making all your slides.

Our outlines don’t need to be 100% finished before we make our slides. I almost always make changes along the way.

One common change is re-ordering topics. I might envision covering topics A, B, and C, in that order. But later, as I’m designing the slides, I might decide to cover topics A, C, and B.

In the video, you’ll learn how to drag and drop entire sections to re-order them.

Your Turn

Let me know how you’ve used sections to keep your content organized!

I interviewed Dave about his current work, what it’s like to be a Microsoft MVP, and his presentation tips.

What’s Inside: Dave’s Career Trajectory

• Dave says, “I deliver customized training sessions both in person and virtual and in those sessions I focus on 1) creating effective Excel charts and 2) effective PowerPoint presentations. It’s very corporate, business focused.”
• How long Dave has been training others.
• How he uses his own mistakes to train others. Dave told me, “I’ve been doing this for 21 years so I have made most of the mistakes in both a workshop as well as in running a business. That’s what I hope to share with my audiences, because when they say ‘What do you do when this happens?’ chances are I’ve made that mistake before.”
• How Dave got his start in mutual funds and ended up giving a presentation series that changed his career trajectory.
• How Dave and Ann connected. Dave said, “I’d noticed you first on Twitter and seen some of the stuff you were doing earlier on. And when you decided to go out on your own, I’d reached out and said ‘Hey Ann, would you like to have a conversation? I can share some of the stuff I messed up on and hopefully you won’t have to.’ One of the things I really appreciated when I got started was to learn from those who’d gone before. To learn the real-world information about what you should or should not do and should consider and I try to pay it forward.”
• How Dave pays it forward to those younger or starting out. Dave said, “What mistakes have you made in an area of your life that you could pass on to somebody who is younger or starting out in the area? Help them, because it helps all of us.”

Dave’s Experience as a Microsoft MVP

I also asked Dave about his experience as a Microsoft MVP.

“We get to interface with the development team,” Dave explained.

“We just had a summit where we get to hear about what they’re working on, they get our advice, our input, things that they like and things they should change. I can’t tell you what they’re working on, but I can tell you that they’re constantly working on great, new features in Excel and PowerPoint.”

You can learn more about Microsoft’s MVP program here: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/

Dave’s Presentation Advice

“The advice I want to give is not actually from me. I survey audiences about what they think the presentation should be so I want to share what they’ve told me,” Dave said.

You can read the results of the 2019 Annoying PowerPoint Survey here: https://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/free-resources/latest-annoying-powerpoint-survey-results/

“[The] survey says that people are creating and watching more presentations than before. In fact, 72 percent of the people said that they see two or more presentations every single week.”

“It’s not about you, it’s not about your data, it’s not about how much work you did. It’s about what does this audience need to know for them to make the decisions they need to make?”

Dave’s Top PowerPoint Mistakes to Avoid

“I asked the audience members, ‘Tell me what you want us as presenters to do differently.’ The one thing they want us to know more than anything else is they’re asking us, ‘Please, make it about us, the audience.”

Here are some of the key findings from Dave’s 2019 Annoying PowerPoint survey:

They want the presentation to be focused on them, this audience.

They don’t want information overload.

They want our visuals to be clear. A headline that summarizes the message, a visual that illustrates that message and don’t put your speaker notes on your slide. Use the Speaker Notes area in PowerPoint.

Audiences do not like it when presenters stumble through the presentation. They want us to rehearse and not read the slides.

Connect with Dave Paradi

Connect with Dave:

• Dave’s website: http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com
• Dave’s presentation survey: https://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/free-resources/
• YouTube: youtube.com/user/thinkoutsidetheslide
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/DaveParadi

Our latest conversation was part of the Urban Institute’s Data@Urban Digital Discussions series. The intention of these talks are to connect with each other while we’re all social distancing. Check out the full line.

You can also watch our full discussion below Jon asked me some specific questions as well as opened up to the attendees for their questions and I’ll go over those below.

Want to skim the highlights from our discussion? Keep reading!

Which Data Visualization Trends Are Here to Stay?

Jon asked, what is one technique or trend that you’ve seen that you think is going to continue? What’s a challenge that you’ve seen that keeps popping up for the folks you’re working with?

Being a good writer is important, but being a great speaker just became more important than ever.

We have to connect with other people (over phone calls and video calls) while quarantined.

We have to stay in touch with fellow humans.

But we also have to get people to know, like, and trust us… so that they trust and use our data.

We can’t just write reports and make pretty slides. Reports and slides aren’t enough anymore… and have never been enough. Speaking skills matter more than ever.

What Do You Help Clients With?

When you’re working with clients, what are your main things that you’re trying to help them think about? How do you help them move past just creating the report?

Let me share an example from a recent client meeting.

A few weeks ago, I was in California to deliver a keynote speech at the U.C. Davis campus. After the keynote, I also met with a small group for a few hours to work on one of their data projects.

During that meeting, we focused on not putting all our eggs in one basket.
The group had put significant effort into developing a (really good) interactive dashboard for their website.

Dashboards are great for specific audiences. But they’re not enough on their own. Dashboards can reach some, but not all, of our intended audiences.

We pulled up the Urban Institute’s pyramid and talked about which dissemination formats are the best fit for certain audiences. As a group, we reached consensus that we needed more than just a report, or more than just a dashboard.

So while I do a lot of consulting on the specifics of reports, dashboards, presentations, and infographics, I also do a lot of consulting related to communication strategies more broadly. I want to make sure that organizations have selected the right mix or reports and/or dashboards and/or presentations and/or infographics before we spend our precious time, money, and mental bandwidth actually making or improving on those designs.

Tips for Presenting Data Over Video Calls

What are your top tips for setting up a good home office, especially for webinars and video calls?

I’ve been working from home for six years, and I’ve traveled full-time for the past year. I’ve got my “home” office set up really nicely! I can speak on podcasts, video calls, and record online courses from anywhere with minimal tech equipment.

Why Video Calls Matter

During this COVID-19 quarantine, we need quality human connection more than ever. We need to be able to see and hear each other on video calls (over Zoom, GoToMeeting Skype, etc.).

My public speaking coach taught me that only 40 percent of communication is the actual words that you use. The remaining 60 percent of communication is related to facial expressions, tone, pitch, using your hands to reiterate your main points, and so on.

You must look and sound professional during those video calls in order to get your point across. Sixty percent of your communication depends on it!

I suggest you focus on three areas:

1. Audio
2. Lighting
3. Speaking skills

Audio Quality

Want to sound professional and be an effective communicator? We all need to invest in separate microphones.

You don’t need to spend a fortune. There are plenty of microphones in the USD $50 – $100 range.

I use this USB microphone and love it. It’s small so it even fits in my backpack while traveling for work, which means I can record online courses or speak on podcasts from anywhere in the world.

If you don’t have a separate microphone, then at the very least, you’ll need to use the ear buds that came with your cell phone. Those ear buds will have a built-in microphone. They won’t give you perfect audio quality, but they’ll be better for your audience than using your laptop’s built-in mic.

Lighting

Lighting is critical!

People can’t connect with you if they can’t see your face.

The number one thing to remember is: You don’t want to be backlit. Make sure your light source isn’t behind you.  

The best option is to have a natural light source (i.e., your window) in front of you. But, you also have to consider what’s behind you. For example, my current background is a spare bedroom in the Airbnb rental we’re in. Not my top choice. But we’re all making-do right now.

I’m a huge fan of separate LED lights. It doesn’t matter how amazing and life changing our dashboard, graph or presentation is, if people don’t know, like, and trust you as the presenter of that dashboard. Trust is huge with data, and that’s why I use separate LED panels. So people can see my face! I’ve used these LED panels for years and love them.

When buying a LED light panel, you want to make sure that it has:

1. Knobs that allow you to adjust low-high brightness level. If the light is too bright, you’ll look sweaty and shiny. You’ll need to adjust the brightness level and you’ll need to adjust your distance from the lights. I make sure to stand at least an arm’s length away from my lights.
2. Knobs that allow you to adjust the cool-warmth balance.  You need to be able to adjust it based on your skin tone and what suits you best.

Speaking into the Camera

You have to look into the camera!!! Not at yourself on your laptop screen!!!

If you can only see my eyelids, because I’m busy looking down at my own face on my laptop, then you can’t connect with me as a human being.

It’s much easier for your audience to connect with you when they can actually see your eyes:

Is it weird to look into your webcam? Of course. It takes practice. But it’s worth the effort. Small sacrifice for you. Big payoff for your audience.

My preferred setup is a tripod with this webcam and LED panel mounted onto it.

Prop Up Your Webcam

Your webcam should be slightly above eye level. Mine usually hits me in the forehead.

If you’re using your laptop’s built-in webcam, then your webcam will be waaaaay too low, and you’ll get the dreaded double chin.

You’ll need to prop up your laptop with cardboard boxes, a stack of textboxes, or even by standing in front of a makeshift “desk” like a tall dresser.

You need 100% of your mental bandwidth to be focused on discussing your data on camera. You can’t waste a moment by being self-conscious, and you’ll definitely be self-conscious on camera if you’ve got a double chin!

When you know that you look your best on camera, then you don’t have to worry about how you look.

Zoom Out & Show Your Hands

Zoom your camera out and include your hands in the shot.

Or, stand far enough away from your webcam so that your hands are included in the shot.

There’s lots of promising research about how your audience rates you as being more trustworthy when they can see your hands.

You don’t want to wave your hands around wildly, but you can use your hands to:

• Count things off (idea 1, idea 2, etc.)
• Indicate sizes (large, small, etc.)
• Use your hands near your heart to express empathy
• Show chronology (point down for ‘happening now’ or point behind you for ‘in the past’)

Pregnant? Show Your Beautiful Belly! (Or Not…)

If you look back at some of my older videos, they are purposefully only showing my head and shoulders. I was trying to block out my pregnant belly.

I didn’t want clients to know I was pregnant. Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace is real. I didn’t want to lose paying clients because they knew I was pregnant.

During both of my pregnancies, I got several emails from prospective clients along the lines of, “We were going to have you come speak but, heard your great news! We know you’re expecting, so we found another speaker instead.”

What a frustrating experience. To be fired before you even got the job.

If you choose to hide your belly while on camera, I get it. I’ve been there too.

My Makeshift Home Office

Here’s my latest set-up, from the Airbnb outside of Orlando that we’re calling home for a few weeks (or months?).

Lessons Learned from Teaching Online Courses

My question is about your lessons learned from your online training courses. There are lot of platforms out there, I’m curious about your experience and what’s worked for you.

This is a day-long conversation. 😊

I have learned so much about developing online data visualization training.

I’ve been speaking forever (well, since I started giving conference presentations about ten years ago). Then, I started working for myself six years ago. Two years ago, I finally listened to my friend Chris Lysy and started developing online courses.

Over the past two years, I’ve developed:

• Simple Spreadsheets, my data analysis course;
• Great Graphs: Design Principles, my software-agnostic course about data visualization best practices;
• Great Graphs: Excel How-Tos, my behind-the-scenes course about advanced Excel charting tricks;
• Dashboard Design, my course on making static one-pagers in spreadsheet programs like Excel;
• Powerful Presentations, my deep dive on presenting visualizations in slideshows, staff meetings, and webinars;
• Report Redesign, my deep dive on reporting best practices;
• Soar Beyond the Dusty Shelf Report, my complimentary mini course about getting started with dataviz; and
• Look Professional on Camera, our latest complimentary mini course, with behind-the-scenes tech tips for speaking on podcasts, recording online courses, and being interviewed on camera.

There are currently 540 lessons (!) inside these courses. So, it’s safe to say that I’ve learned a thing or two about what works—and what doesn’t—when it comes to teaching online.

Online Course Platform: Teachable

I use Teachable as my online course platform.

I use Teachable because I asked about 10 of my friends who make their living teaching online—meaning they make a full salary from their online course revenue alone, not just a couple hundred bucks her and there—and they all used Teachable.

That was a good enough endorsement for me!

I’m not an affiliate, just a very happy customer.

Their founder, Ankur Nagpal, also gives me a lot of confidence in their product. Ankur and his team are constantly improving. They interview instructors like me and they listen to our feedback. I love that. Sure, there are technical glitches once in a while, just like any software platform would have. But the Teachable team is constantly improving and iterating for their creators.

I also like Teachable because it’s user-friendly for students. Students log in, see the syllabus listed along the left, and see the video in the main screen. Underneath the video, you can add descriptions, images, quizzes, discussion boards, and attachments.

Video Player: Wistia

Teachable also uses a video player called Wistia, which is a bit cleaner than YouTube. It just has a play button and a couple of settings. I’m always aiming to make the students learning experience as easy and simple as possible.

Wistia also adjusts the resolution based on your internet speed for students and will play the best version for what your internet is like that day. I have students located in offices all over the world—I’m thinking of my international development and public health professionals in rural villages in Bangladesh—and I know they can participate even with slower internet speeds.

How to Create Content

Moving online was fairly seamless for me because I’d already been doing in-person trainings.

I see people creating courses from scratch and that’s really difficult.

But if you already have a 30- to 60-minute conference presentation that you’ve given, you can absolutely record that and turn it into a mini course.

Recording Tools: Screencast-O-Matic and Camtasia

For recording, I used to use Screencast-O-Matic . I liked it because you just hit record. It’s affordable and there’s only a little bit of minor editing to do.

A few months back I switched to using Camtasia to have more control over the editing. I’m not a master editor. I still mostly record my screen with my webcam in the corner. But now I can add text boxes, animations, and sounds.

Video Length: Varies on Purpose

Video length varies.

I used to think having a bunch of 2-minute videos was better than having a single 10-minute video. And honestly I’m still torn over this.

I’m monitoring the data behind the scenes to see what my students like the best. Right now, I purposely have a mix of anywhere from 2 minutes to 45 minutes.

Starting NOW with Online Training

I wish I started teaching online even earlier.

I started YouTubing way back in 2012, but it wasn’t until 2018 that I finally figured out that online courses were a “thing.”

Online learning doesn’t replace in-person learning. They’re apples and oranges; different formats with different strengths.

If you’re thinking about starting, then start today! You’re not behind. Now’s the time. 

Using Icons Within Reports

I noticed one of the key features of your reports is to use icons to make things a little bit more intuitive. I used the nounproject.com to get icons to use in my reports. Are there any other resources you’d suggest for icons?

I’ll list out the options from worst to best:

Google Search

Don’t do a Google search for download free icons. This gets you in copyright jail. There are better options.

Microsoft Office

If you’re using Office365, then you’ve got free icons in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel.  Just go to Insert àIcons. You can customize the color, the size, and so on.

The Noun Project

The Noun Project has both free and paid versions.

The free version…

• Gives you access to thousands of icons
• Only lets you download the icons in black
• Requires that you cite your icon source

The paid version—which is a whopping $40/year, what a steal!!—is such a great resource. The paid version…

• Gives you access to ALL their icons
• Lets you download the icons in the custom color (RGB, Hex, etc.) of your choosing to match your brand guidelines
• Doesn’t require that you cite your icon source (One less thing to remember; One less chance of going to Copyright Jail)

Custom Made Icons

The top tier is to hire a graphic designer to create custom icons for your organization.

I’m starting to see a lot more organizations do this and am always suggesting this to my clients.

A designer can come up with a couple dozen icons that your organization can use over and over again. The designer can also ensure that your icons match—that they all have the same edges (square vs. rounded), the same line thickness, and so on. These are small details that will make a report look as professional as possible.

A professional graphic designer might charge you anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for this, depending on what you need.

Your Turn

How are you coping with presenting data while working remotely? Do you have your own audio, lighting, and speaking tips to share?

We decided to record our conversation so that even more people could benefit from learning about the business behind my business.

This conversation might be especially helpful for early-career data visualization freelancers—or those contemplating the switch from a salaried job into a freelancing job. If that’s you, welcome to the dataviz community! And enjoy this video interview.

What’s Inside

• How I got started six years ago
• Whether I’d planned to work for myself from the beginning
• The critical turning points in my decision-making process
• What type of advice I received from mentors early on
• How the work I’ve done has shifted over the past six years
• All of the correct ways to make a living with data visualization
• How my previous workplaces were so supportive of data visualization
• Whether I think anyone can teach
• What High Schooler Ann thought she’d be when she grew up—and how my career path isn’t that different from what I originally planned
• How I found my earliest clients
• How blogging for several years before going solo unintentionally became a solid portfolio
• How professional volunteering on boards built my network and helped/helps me find projects that are a good fit for me
• Why I always recommend that early-career dataviz enthusiasts start blogging
• Where my income comes from (the percentage from in-person training, online training, consulting, keynotes, and other sources)
• Why I’m trying to do even more online training
• How I manage traveling in the U.S. and internationally with my family
• How I’ve moved mountains for the right work-life balance
• Why you need to niche-down for your own sanity
• How you actually decide what to specialize in
• What my staffing structure has looked like in the past, and what it looks like now
• Why I’ll never, ever hire full-time employees
• How I learned how to run a business
• Why so many people hesitate to run their own business
• How little I understand about my own visibility and presence
• What I’m really aiming for during my training—which is often much different than the workshop objectives written out on paper
• Why it’s critical to give yourself a Dabbling Year(s) when you’re first starting out
• What Jane’s currently working on

Listen to Our Convo

Resources Mentioned

Jane’s article on quitting her salaried job to pursue freelancing.

This book about running a lean, minimalist business.

This book about setting your rates as an independent consultant.

This scheduling tool that keeps me sane.

This Data Vizard t-shirt.

Connect with Jane Zhang

Connect with Jane:

• Jane’s blog: janezhang.ca/
• Jane’s articles on Medium
• Twitter: @janezhgw
• Instagram: @janezhgw
• The project she posted on Instagram and her first-ever client saw it: https://janezhang.ca/posts/designto-2019/
• The travel guide post that helped Jane land her second client: https://janezhang.ca/posts/toronto-summer-guide/

Your Turn

Did anything surprise you about our conversation?

What additional questions do you have for me?

What additional tips do you have for early-career dataviz freelancers?

Comment and let us know!

Bonus: Read the Full Article

Jane’s full article just got published! Read about her interviews with RJ Andrews, Alli Torban, Matt Baker and I: https://medium.com/nightingale/how-self-employed-data-visualization-designers-make-a-living-23dc00ea5264