The side effects of PowerPoint 🐸

One tool to eliminate them and stand out

Oct 13, 2025

Article voiceover

0:00

-5:51

Read time: 4min

Join 23,027 Good Busy leaders

“Think Different." - Steve Jobs

Hi,

How was your last week?

“Can you prepare a small deck?”

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that in corporate, I could retire earlier than planned.

PowerPoint is a great tool but it’s become an epidemic. We now have decks for everything, even when they’re not needed.

You’re handed a “template” to follow:

Slide for title.

Picture left, bullet points right.

Picture right, bullet points left.

Graph slide. (Sometimes two!)

Every deck ends up looking the same.

The average professional burns 261 hours a year in PowerPoint, that’s roughly 15% of your work time. About 79% of those decks are internal updates for the very people who asked for them.

Five hours crafting slides for an audience that stops paying attention after 9 minutes and 59 seconds (Forbes) or for someone who scrolls through your PDF in under a minute.

Somewhere along the way, the deck became THE goal.

And that’s why meetings feel predictable, unproductive, and painfully boring. And creating a presentation feels like a déjà vu: update bullet points, shift boxes, change the title - no creativity, no meaning, no fun.

Why share this?

Because if we want to be good busy (busy producing value), we have to focus on the real goal of those decks: the message.

Start a conversation, spark ideas, inspire, motivate, influence, collaborate, make people laugh, make them care, move them to act.

the why

During my 15 years in corporate, I created over 1,000 presentations - strategy decks, training decks, pitch decks, you name it.

I’ve seen every kind of presentation imaginable… mostly boring. No one dared to go beyond the template, except the CEOs.

Maybe because no one asked them to “prepare a small deck.” Or, maybe because they understood the real goal.

When I worked for Gucci, I remember watching the CEO present. It was different. No endless bullet points, no cluttered graphs, just storytelling. I didn’t need to read, I could feel the message.

The person and the slides were one.

Maybe that’s why I became a PowerPoint “rebel” (sometimes quietly, sometimes not, and sometimes I was “not allowed”… $#&!)

My goal wasn’t to make slides look complex to prove how long I worked on them. My goal was to use them to start a conversation or to inspire action.

My decks often didn’t have my name on them, but people still knew they were mine. Not because I was a PowerPoint expert, but because they were different.

I was inspired by Steve Jobs’ mantra: Think Different. Being “the best” is relative and exhausting. Being different is easier and memorable.

That’s why today, I’ve completely replaced PowerPoint in my work with Parta.io. It’s the tool that lets me bring out the storytelling, create engagement, and saves me hours of formatting “just another deck.”

the how

A friend introduced me to Parta.io when I started TheGoodBusy.com. I’ve used it since for my online programs, workshops, and custom projects.

Almost every time, someone asks: “What tool did you use to build this?”

Because it feels different. It looks fresh and grabs attention.

Here’s why I love it (and wish I had it back in corporate):

Shareable links

As someone who once shared guidelines and trainings across 17 markets, this feature alone would’ve saved me hours of work and headaches.

No more PDFs or worrying about access to shared folders. One link works for everyone - your team, management, clients. Once updated, everyone sees it instantly. Mobile friendly too (just like an app).

Interactive elements

Flip cards, quizzes, interactive maps, voice notes, embedded videos - they not only elevate your presentation and storytelling, but also turn passive PDF scrolling into an immersive experience.

Interactive map, flip cards, embedded video

Built-in, customizable templates

At one company I worked for, design teams built every exec presentation. It pulled them away from their actual work creating a massive backlog for everyone.

I’m no a designer, I’m generally bad with tech. But in Parta.io, I feel like a pro - super creative and fast. It’s plug & play, easy to build my story.

Other features you’d love:

Team collaboration: real-time co-creation, comments, task management, and version history (no more panic or “who deleted this?”)
Instant rebranding: update colors, logos, or styles across all presentations in one click (imagine doing that in PowerPoint…)
AI translation: instantly translate content into 100+ languages (it’s a dream come true for any global team.)

I call Parta.io my presentation revolution. And yes, I discovered it before cool companies like Miro, Notion, Okta joined in.

Not sponsored - I’m just a fan. (Though, to be fair, they did gift me a lifetime subscription. Thank you, Parta.io team).

your play of the week

Think different 🐸

This week, experiment. If you’re tired of lifeless decks and meetings:

Try Parta.io (there’s a free trial)
Or reach out to Andrew Matsiavin (the co-founder) for a quick demo
Or join my next free workshop where I use it live. You’ll also leave with a goal to stop trading your personal time for another “small deck.”