As a Principal at York Howell & Guymon, David York spends his days helping people manage their estates and financial assets.
When he decided to give a talk on wealth and inheritance at TEDxSaltLakeCity, he knew that he would have his work cut out for him. David had a very specific goal in mind for taking the stage: he wanted to change people’s understanding of what it means to be wealthy.
David knew that he was going to have to develop a presentation that helped him connect emotionally with his audience and tell a compelling story if he was going to change their minds on wealth.
“TED talks tend to be very technology-, education-, and science-driven, so when I initially came to the TEDx organizers wanting to talk about wealth, there were some people on the committee who were reluctant to let me speak,” says David. “I was able to win them over because I told a story—and used Prezi to visualize that story in a way that really captured the essence of what I was trying to communicate.”
David knew that he was going to have to develop a presentation that helped him connect emotionally with his audience and tell a compelling story if he was going to change their minds on wealth. And so, he turned to Luke Goetting of Puffingston, a presentation consultancy and official Prezi Expert, to help him develop a dynamic visual aid for his talk. Together, David and Luke developed a prezi that not only got David’s message across but also took his audience on a memorable and engaging visual journey.
We used Prezi to help David tell the story visually “in a way that really captured the essence of what [he] was trying to communicate.” Luke Goetting, lead designer for the project, said “David and I agreed from the beginning that we wanted to create an emotional connection with the audience.” So we set out to do just that.
I had people give me feedback afterwards that they had never considered themselves rich, because they weren’t left any inheritance, but that now they see that their families provided them with so much more wealth than they had ever imagined. That was very gratifying.
I also had several people ask, “What program was that and how did you do that?” Several people told me that they want to start using it, because it was night-and-day different from anything they’d ever seen before.
Our book is much more readily received because of the TEDx talk and the prezi—they’re a great introduction into the deeper discussion.