A Blog with Tips & Tricks for Enlightened Presenters
The Room is Never Neutral
The Room is Never Neutral You design it, or you inherit it. Eric Harris July 17, 2026 Say Yes to the Duress So many pitches die before anyone speaks. The death occurs weeks earlier, in a two-line email, when somebody agrees to the wrong room at the wrong time because that’s what was available. I…
Ban the Deck. Examine the Habit.
Ban the Deck. Examine the Habit. Jack Dorsey, the U.S. Army, and Jeff Bezos agree on one thing. Eric Harris July 10, 2026 The Room That Learned to Shut Up In 2004, Jeff Bezos famously banned PowerPoint from Amazon’s leadership meetings. In its place, he required a six-page narrative memo. Meetings started in total silence…
You Always Could
You Always Could And when you realize it, it's liberating. Eric Harris July 03, 2026 You Inherited This Somewhere along the way, you learned presentation = deck. It’s unlikely someone sat you down and taught you. You watched. You absorbed. You inherited. The deck became the work. Or so it seemed. And every high-stakes presentation…
I Want You to Feel Something
I Want You to Feel Something Not know. Feel. Eric Harris June 26, 2026 God Only Knows What’s the obsession with wanting you to know? Pull up your favorite album. Any decade. Any genre. Odds are, somewhere in the lyrics, somebody sings the line, “I want you to know.” Selena Gomez belted it over a…
The Pronoun Problem
The Pronoun Problem Why the story that worked in room one is tanking in room four. Eric Harris June 19, 2026 The Idea Was Good. The Campaign Wasn't. Getting a great idea across an organization is rarely a single conversation. It's a budget meeting with your VP. Then a working session with the team leads…
Going Places
Going Places Five voices. Five surprises. One fire spreading on its own. Eric Harris June 12, 2026
A Field Guide to Life After Decks
A Field Guide to Life After Decks What recovery from DeckPendency looks like in the wild Eric Harris June 05, 2026 The clicker. The question. Daniel is forty-two seconds into a question he didn't expect. His thumb is on the clicker, poised to advance. Slide nine is loaded. Slide nine is good. Slide nine features…
Putting the Deck in its Place
Putting the Deck in its Place What changed when The Beck Group reordered the operation Eric Harris May 29, 2026 How The Beck Group Rebuilt Their Pitch Storytelling Last year, Chad Schieber called me. He's the CMO at The Beck Group, one of the most respected design-build firms in the country, with architects and engineers…
Projections of People
Projections of People The audience you think you're addressing might exist only in your head. Eric Harris May 22, 2026 You Decided Who They Were Here’s a hard pill to swallow on a Friday: the audience you prepared for almost never shows up. Some other audience does. They sit in the same chairs, eat the…
“Done.” The Most Expensive Feeling.
"Done." The Most Expensive Feeling. It's the invoice for the win you didn't get. Eric Harris May 15, 2026 Finished Is a Feeling. Landed Is a Result. Here's a question too many leaders never ask after a high-stakes presentation: Did anything actually move? You walked in. You hit your marks. You answered the questions. You…