Our feeds are drowning in AI-generated frameworks, charts, and visuals. They look polished. But many say nothing new. A "finely crafted" presentation that says nothing important is the same thing. Delivering Is Deceptively Easy Now. AI can generate the framework, the chart, the slide in seconds. Anyone can hand it a prompt and walk away with something that looks like insight. There's a difference between earning the right to make a presentation and simply delivering one. Earn

"My name is Brandon and I'm going to talk about performance strategy." Didn't matter that he was sharp. Didn't matter that his clients loved him. Didn't matter that the strategy was clever and smart. The room had already checked out. What to Know Before You Open Your Mouth There are four questions to answer to drastically improve your opening: 1. What's the REAL challenge? Find the unspoken driver behind the brief and lead with it — the finance, marketing, category, cultural,

Recently, I sat through a presentation from a junior technology sales manager with polished slides, and I was struck by how mechanical it was. Detached. Unfun. Unconvincing. This is a whole new set of symptoms showing up in presenters. Because AI is being widely used to create decks — without the best-in-class techniques it takes to deliver a winning presentation. So before AI works on your deck, you need to do the real work first. Here are four basics steps. Know your audien

New CEO. Final meeting. Six months of work on the table. One question took the whole room down. He didn't ask about strategy. He asked: "What is the staffing allocation for each presenter, as submitted in your commercial proposal?" Not who was smart. Rather, wondering who was actually going to work on his business. They were a hospitality company — people and presence were the whole point — and we'd shown up with a team that didn't match the one we'd pitched. We should have k

We had 45 minutes until the next run-through of a $300MM+ media pitch. The specialist on stage that day knew her stuff. Data, insights, strategy, execution plan, outcomes — all mapped out. But somewhere between the slide and the room, it fell apart. She'd start a section, run out of breath halfway through. Then the MMMs crept in, one before every other thought. The CEO and the pitch lead started picking apart her content, and the more they picked, the more she unraveled. She

I learned that lesson from my father, a grand storyteller in the Irish tradition who never met a bit of wit, an incident, or a well-placed observation he couldn't turn into pure magic. He didn't have PowerPoint. He had a sense of narrative that connected everything together and made you lean in. He was the one they called for toasts. For eulogies. For those important pledge drive appeals where real money was on the line. Not because he was the smartest guy in the room — becau

Over the years, I've worked with hundreds of mid-level professionals who are confident, competent, and completely unbothered standing in front of a room. And almost none of them get credit for being good. Here's what nobody is telling you: You're "fine" — so nobody flags you for Improvement. Solid Is boring. Audiences remember the disasters before they remember you. Your skills blend into your peers'. Only the exceptional and the terrible stand out. Clients see you as reliab

Over 15 years of coaching, I've learned that almost everyone falls into one of five mindsets — and knowing yours is the fastest way to level up. Review these mindsets, and determine which Is yours: Never Rehearsers Convinced they'll shine no matter what. They can talk through their content in shorthand, but they never map the full narrative — and skip rehearsal, insisting it would ruin their authenticity. Then they stumble, every time. Common in successful mid-level executiv

For many of us, to be efficient we start creating a presentation by beginning with the end: We create slides. But that Is completely the wrong path to a great presentation. There are 5 Fundamental Rules to creating a winning presentation deck. Rule 1: Determine The Purpose. There are three different reasons for the Presentation. Persuasion: Objective Is to get the audience to "buy" your proposition. Use high Impact Images, simple, focused language and flow. Reporting: Design

Five social science hacks to make your presentations more effective.

Now, listen closely, because they don’t always teach you this in the lecture hall. Our success in any field usually hinges on a tripod of skills: your technical "hard" knowledge, your ability to play well with others, and that somewhat mysterious quality we call personal charisma. My colleagues over at the London School of Economics actually crunched the numbers on this; their research found that individuals who master high-charisma attributes are roughly 68% more likely to s

I always work hard to create an environment where teams building presentations collaborate seamlessly, do innovative work, and form lasting professional and personal friendships. But this is not always the reality. I have had Chief Strategy Officers who dismissively drop a strategy on the team without discussion; Chief Client Officers who don’t support their clients leads and make them feel exposed. And Specialist teams who resist participation and discreetly undermine the

Four smart ways to use a Pause in your presentations to be incredibly more effective.

Really intelligent people are completely capable of creating dysfunctional presentation decks. But you can do better by following the Six Golden Rules for Great Presentation Decks. Give your content room to breathe: Allocate about 25% of the total scheduled time to open discussion/client questions, and about 2 minutes per page for the remaining 75%. So A 90-minute presentation splits into 23 minutes for questions/discussions, and the other 67 minutes allows for 34-pages. This

I once saw a friend (who is an outstanding presenter) deliver a strong presentation that did NOT go over well. But he had done everything right: prepared a strong narrative script, rehearsed appropriately, and presented flawlessly. Why wasn’t the audience convinced? I realized my friend had focused on what he wanted to convey, not what would be compelling to his audience. But we know through sociology and behavioral psychology that different audiences require specific strate

Every single person who does a presentation to an audience feels some level of fear. For some people, it is overwhelming. But seasoned presenters learn how to overcome this factor and be really engaging and compelling. How do they do that? These three critical steps are guaranteed to help you overcome your fear. 1. Have Faith in Your Point of View: You need to step back for a moment and release your Imposter Syndrome tendencies. Chances are, you’re pretty darn good at your jo

If you want to really increase your professional presenting skillset, become both an expert and friendly. Expertise obviously brings specialized knowledge, experience, and vision to the table that people respect. But combining expertise with warmth and approachability makes you someone they remember. So it is critical that you be both. But how do you do that at the same time? For starters, create the context of your expertise when you speak to your audience. Shape your perspe

It can be intimidating to watch someone with strong presentation skills doing their thing… flawlessly moving from point to point, seamlessly moving from slide to slide, and naturally performing in front of an audience. It’s like the ultimate skill that we all wish we had: To be the perfect presenter. But that is NOT what the game is all about, my friends. I have worked with really experienced communicators. They create a great script, they hit all their points, and they use t

With over 90% of advertising agencies currently using or exploring generative AI, there are significant gains in performance, operational efficiency, and content creation/scaling. To truly capture the full value, you must closely pair AI activities with human delivery – through emotional intelligence, critical thinking and engagement - which is almost like connecting two opposing forces. Very few agencies are actively mentoring and training teams to present AI-assisted work i

I have been in MAJOR pitches where everyone felt like everything was on the line - and one poor individual was literally hitting the wall. It is painful to witness. When that happens, you should know there are five things you can do immediately to help. 1. Get Them Calmed with Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR): Get them alone and help them take a deep breath. Have them squeeze their core muscles tight, then release. It allows the body to stop shaking. Reassure them that eve