Ah, the dreaded PowerPoint. It’s the kiss of death for presentations in a dark room, especially after lunch, nearly a signal to take an afternoon nap. Yet many financial experts still rely on them during public-speaking events, often making them the focal point of a presentation. Besides good public speaking skills, visual aids are key to keeping your audience interested. This can include PowerPoint if you make it an accessory instead of a crutch to your speech. Fellow financial advisors share their eye-catching accessories below.

Information cards. Holly Thomas, founder of Independent Insights of Florida in Tampa gives her audiences indexed cards to jot down information about themselves—financial history, monetary goals, hobbies—before and while she speaks so she can find out more about them during the presentation. They’re also a good way to pinpoint and follow up with potential clients.

Handouts. “Putting a handout with relevant information to my presentation immediately makes them interactive,” says Thomas.” I number the pages and refer to them in a mixed way so people have to flip through the pages and stay alert.”

Whiteboard. Present a problem or situation where you have to bring an audience member up front to write solutions or suggestions on the board. John Loyd, a CFP with LPL Financial Services in Fort Worth, Texas, is also not afraid to use it to draw visual descriptions. When he talks about diversification, he draws four lanes of highway traffic and cars portraying investors trying to get into the fastest lane for big returns. “Everybody understands traffic jams, so I compare diversification to traffic by showing how the best returns comes with a steady stream of cars in every lane.”

Visual Similes. Use objects that easily sum up the heavy-duty topic you’re trying to describe verbally, says John Loyd, a CFP with LPL Financial Services in Fort Worth, Texas. He cuts up parchment paper to look like dollar bills and separates them into three stacks. One has 100 bills, the second has 700 bills, the third has 3,000. Each stack has a real dollar bill on top. Loyd uses the stacks to show what $10 grew to over 75 years through just inflation, after-tax bond yields over 75 years, and what the S&P has yielded after taxes in 75 years. “Big stacks get people’s attention,” he says, although when he ‘s traveling though airports he uses various-sized, blow-up balls for convenience.

Zingers. Throw something out there that surprises the audience. Burt Whitehead, president of Cambridge Connection in Franklin, Michigan does that literally. “When I talk about how the human brain reacts to financial planning similar to a snake’s, reacting instantly to danger before it tends to think, I pick up a rubber snake and throw it out at the audience. That certainly wakes them up.”

Puzzlers. To explain how and why people make their financial choices, Whitehead brings in two jars of jellybeans. One is a jar with black jellybeans, nine out of 100 are red, the other has nine black jellybeans and one red. He offers a prize to the person who, when closing their eyes, will grab a red jellybean. They’ll always opt for the 100-bean jat, even though it’s the same percentage,” he says. Afterwards he explains why people focus on the numerator instead of the denominator.

Magic Tricks. Shawndi Hatfield, a CFP with Rosenthal Retirement Planning in Fort Worth, Texas, has incorporated some magic into her corporate presentations about retirement . She buys a special powder and puts a small scoop in a plastic cup. During the point when talking about IRAs, she pours water into the cup as a symbol of the money in the account, and the powder turns into gel. When she talks about specific things that can drain IRAs, she uses a pencil for each drainer (taxes, penalties) and pierces it into the cup. The pencils hold the gel in place. At the end when she describes how there might be no money left, Hatfield turns the cup over and the audience gasps when no water spills out. “They love it, it works every time.”

Prizes. Use incentives to keep interest going. Judy Benbow, a CFP with Comerica Wealth Management in Boca Raton, Florida, asks her audience questions and as rewards she gives out chocolates, Blockbuster coupons and, as a door prize, a book related to the financial topic she’s discussing. “It encourages their participation so they’re not just sitting there.”

And if you must use Power Point….Skip the bullet points and use images, says Whitehead. “They won’t remember listed words, but images will stick.” If you’re talking about clients coming to a fork in the road of their financial future, show a visual of a fork in the road with, say, a financial planner on one side and an asset manager on the other, then explain what happens when you take either route.

Benbow doesn’t use anything but big print on a plain background for her slides. “There have been too times when most audience members are over 40 or are mostly seated in the back row.” And if you use humor, says Benbow, “read it aloud right away so everyone can get the joke at the same time.”

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