This week on ‘In-the-Wild’, I’ve been seeing a lot of public speaking coach Vincent Pierri’s visuals in my feed.

(Probably because I’m squarely in his ICP of execs/consultants who give talks.)

His visuals are classic infographics, a subset of Intellectual Headshots I think of as “lots of info, better seen than read”.

And hey, everybody loves an infographic, right?

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In this visual in particular, he’s providing 3 different formats for a 25-minute talk.

Overall, I think it’s quite well-done.

Welcoming color palette, professional polish, clean display of a lot of information.

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The question I keep asking on this one though is:

What am I supposed to do with it?

Or better yet:

What am I supposed to do with this right now?

Unless this is reaching me while I’m actively procrastinating writing an upcoming talk, it’s not immediately useful.

It may prompt a self-evaluation of a past talk thinking, “how did I structure my last one?” but you’re really not too likely to retrace your steps like that during a casual scroll.

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Most likely, the intent of this infographic is to demonstrate Vincent’s authority in the space.

And the intended action is to Save it for another day when you’re actually getting into prep for your next talk.

At which point, you’d pull it out, perhaps get started on your own, then maybe reach out to Vincent for 1:1 help.

(Vincent also gets the immediate benefit of your ‘Save’ which signals to the algorithm to boost the post. And perhaps you start following him.)

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This example highlights the long-tail nature of infographics vs. simpler visual formats.

While a simpler framework (like last week’s from David A. Fields) can be instantly digested and applied by your audience, infographics serve an entirely different purpose.

These are brand-building, authority-boosting assets.

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Next week, I’ll share my broader framework on the spectrum of different visual formats and their respective uses.

Infographics fall on the most detailed end, which can limit their immediate utility.

💡

-Wes