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Familiarity > Originality
Familiar Feels Fresh When it’s Done Right What do Led Zeppelin, Queen, and AC/DC have to do with Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, and Billie Eilish? More than you’d think. Listen closely and you’ll hear it. Zeppelin’s blues riffs echo through the clean pop minimalism of “As It Was.” There’s swagger beneath the polish. The same…
Read MoreDon’t Cook Dinner in the Dark
Don’t Cook Dinner in the Dark. Ever tried it? You could do it. Probably. But would you like the results? Probably not. That’s what it’s like when leaders accept the responsibility to present, but don’t rehearse. They waste their audience’s time and risk losing their trust. Most leaders don’t have a rehearsal playbook. They click…
Read MoreDemystifying Executive Presence
Executive presence starts with knowing what you stand for. “Did you love your father?” “Yes.” “Prove it.” That scene from Contact still hits. It reminds us how difficult it is to defend (even define) an abstract noun. Love. Trust. Hope. Executive presence falls into the same category. Everyone talks about it, but few can define…
Read MoreStop Pitching. Start Quantifying.
No one buys an idea unless they see what’s in it for them. It’s why so many great ideas die in conference rooms, buried under polite nods and parking-lot comments like “Let’s revisit this next quarter.” It’s not that your idea wasn’t good. It’s that you didn’t make the value visible. When leaders quantify the…
Read MoreAre You DeckPendent?
We all know the signs. The leader who can’t seem to think except through slides. The team that measures progress in deck length. The meeting that dies by bullet point. But what if (gasp) you’re part of the problem? Give yourself some grace. DeckPendency isn’t a character flaw. It’s a corporate reflex. The habits we…
Read MoreMake the Environment Your Ally
The Setting Sets the Tone Some presenters obsess over slides. Others over scripts. But before your first word reaches the audience, something else already has their attention: the environment. This is the story of one intrepid leader who un-stuck a stalled deal, not by changing her message, but by changing the medium that delivered it.…
Read MoreOrchestrate Your Next Presentation
*Taps stand. Raises wand. Inhales… The sonata is one of the most dramatic and influential song patterns in history. Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and so many others composed sonatas that remain instantly recognizable and timelessly relevant. At its core, the sonata is a three-part form designed not just to display technical skill, but to move the…
Read MoreMost Presentations Don’t Need Slides.
The Issue? It’s in Tense. The “present” (noun) is another word for “now.” To be “present” (adjective) is to exist in that very same now. To “present” (verb) is to make something exist to others. To give someone a “present” (noun) is a gift. The problem with most presentations? Thanks to decks, people giving them…
Read MoreBreaking Free from Deck Addiction
Why Are We Addicted to Decks? The lights dim. The projector hums. A leader stands at the front of the room, advancing slide after slide. Each is dense with words, charts, and bullets. She reads them dutifully, her eyes on the screen instead of the people in front of her. The audience follows for a…
Read MorePeer Pressure? Just say no to slides.
It happens to the best of us. Friday morning. Coffee in hand. You’re finally catching up on real work. Then a coworker sends a Teams message: “Hey, you know how the investors are coming Monday? Could you throw together a few slides about [that thing you worked on last month]?” And just like that, you’re…
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