Presentation Thinking

Paul Graham’s blog post, “Do things that don’t scale”, has largely been heralded as the best advice given for startups—maybe ever? But what can we takeaway from it as presenters? As the founder of renowned accelerator Y Combinator, people trust Paul and are still talking about this post over ten years later. (A big deal for today’s Age of Information). Mikey and Molly dive into the many conversations around doing things that don’t scale, what that means, and how presentation people might be able to implement it into their day-to-day as well. This is an episode for: Presenters, founders, anyone running their own business and startup enthusiasts. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Catch up on Paul’s famous blog post “Do things that don’t scale” here Learn more about Paul Graham Learn more about Y Combinator We love all these conversations about it (Podcast) Tropical MBA’s “#749 Do things that don’t scale” (Video) This YouTube video from Academy of Project Management (Podcast) Startups for the Rest of Us Episode #687 Need custom illustration Our very own NoNo Flores that does our podcast episode artwork is amazingly talented Paul’s walkout song (according to Molly and Mikey) Zero to Hero - Hercules Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac All brought to you by GhostRanch Communications. Send us an email! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Guy Kawasaki is an amazing marketer, creator and thinker. (If you don’t follow him already, do it here!) His 2005 blog post, The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint, provided advice for startups on how to pitch to VCs—but it blew up because it resonated with presenters of all kinds. As presentation enthusiasts, it’s about time we checked it out and see what still holds up. This is a shorter, “micro” episode where Molly goes through Guy’s advice and examines how the 10/20/30 PowerPoint rule is still useful today. This is an episode for: People that have to pitch, VCs & anyone that creates PowerPoint presentations. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

If you couldn’t already tell from some of our Shark Tank episodes, we love the startup and Venture Capital world. There’s truly no passion that matches that of a founder on a mission. Alicia Syrett—a VC herself, author and business leader—knows this and wants YOUR passion to come to fruition. Her short n sweet TED talk at TEDx Fulton Street from 2018 is a perfect guide with simple Do’s and Don’ts to get a ‘yes’ at your next pitch. With a clean presentation style and confident stage presence, Alicia guides us through the top 5 reasons investors say ‘no’—and how to avoid them. This is an episode for: Founders, people that pitch & anyone that is a fan of the startup world. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? WATCH Alicia’s TED Talk for yourself Why VCs and Angel Investors say no to entrepreneurs Check out more from Alicia Syrett: Read her book, MentHER: Guide for Women Entrepreneurs She’s the CEO of Pantegrion Capital, a pre-seed and early stage startup investment firm Alicia is a regular on CNBC’s “Power Pitch” and MSNBC’s “Your Business” power pitch segment Mikey and Molly’s take on Alicia’s Walkout song? Don’t Stop Me Now - Queen Nobody But Me - Isley Brothers --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

What we’ll hear about: “Write your purpose in pen, but your path in pencil.”Oli GardnerOutline“I just practice until I feel I can give the talk.” Tamara’s reads: Fourth Wing — Tamara’s fiction obsession. “my dragon book”— a masterclass in storytelling April Dunford’s positioning book Obviously Awesome Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice by Clayton M. Christensen Check out PMM camp! A community built for (and by) product marketing leaders. Join the newsletter for camper connections! Must eats in Vancouver: Savio Volpe Nightingale Walkout song: Walking on Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves Tamara’s closing quote: “As much time and effort as you put into thinking about your company and your product and how you’ll position and sell that, I would say, try to put an equal amount into thinking of yourself as the product, and I think you’ll be pretty surprised by the outcome of that.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

We know that presentations are used across all kinds of industries but did you know they’re important in the medical world as well?? General surgery resident physician TJ Schaid joins the ‘cast to discuss his experience presenting research at various conferences around the world throughout his residency. Turns out, these medical presentations can play a big part of any surgeon’s journey! From presenting dense data within a handful of slides (or clicks) to challenging existing practices, TJ offers so much insight in how to present to a niche group of experts—as an expert himself, of course. This is an episode for: presentation designers, aspiring speakers and startups in the science and medical field. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Fave movie?? Good Will Hunting—how do you like them apples? TJ’s operating Pandora station? ODESZA radio Walkout song?? Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train Any advice to fellow and future presenters? One thing I didn't mention that was really helpful for me during during my talks is to frequently reorient the audience when you're presenting pretty dense stuff. So when you throw up a slide, and you've got a bunch of data on a slide, yeah, they might understand the graph, they might understand the data. But the WHY it matters if you can, throughout the presentation, just a statement here and there, after these data. And multiple times, maybe four or five times, you say, “Okay, and now remember, we talked about this problem, you know, in the background earlier on, this is why this matters.” Keeping them reoriented, even these people that see data and numbers and science and experiments and know medicine, helping reorient them to the point of the data throughout the presentation, not just waiting to the conclusion, I find very helpful. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Marisa Renee Lee is a speaker, an entrepreneur, an author and “grief advocate.” Having lost her mom to breast cancer and struggled with infertility, Lee has alchemized her experiences into a NYT Bestselling book, Grief is Love: Living with Loss. Marisa joins us to share how she presents and speaks on such vulnerable topics, how grief can show up at work and how you can support colleagues experiencing grief. In sharing her personal stories and experiences, Marisa is helping to break the stigma around these heavy subjects and offers new ways to approach grief in both work and life. This is an episode for: aspiring speakers, writers and anyone that is dealing with grief. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Want more of Marisa’s work? (Or hire her as a speaker?) Check out her site, here. Follow Marisa on LinkedIn & Instagram—she’s got something in the works with Al Roker… Gift a loved one (or yourself) going through grief her book: Grief is Love: Living with Loss One of Marisa’s favorite speakers? Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone and writer of Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence (among other books) Other inspiration? Poetry! Specifically the Sufi poet, Hafiz. Read their collection of poems, The Gift Maggie Smith’s writing—no, not Dame Maggie Smith Marisa’s walkout song? She’ll get back to you ;) Parting words of advice for Presentation Nation? “My biggest piece of advice is to keep at it and just do the thing. You know, don't get distracted by imposter syndrome or feeling like it's too late or comparison. You know, don't get lost on social media looking at all of these people who've accomplished things that you haven't done yet that you want to do. Instead just focus on doing the damn thing. Like just ignore the noise.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Marcus Andrews knows how to craft a good narrative. In fact, we’d argue he heavily contributed to developing the concept of Narrative Design when working in product marketing at HubSpot. Now as a Narrative Designer at Pendo, he joins us for a conversation around crafting a memorable narrative, what frameworks to use (or not) and how to create your own category. We exchange presentation experience stories and offer insight into what separates a good speaker from a great one. Having recently completed PMA’s Narrative Design course led by Marcus, Mikey and I were excited to meet the teacher and bring our learnings to life in this conversation. This is an episode for: Product marketers, aspiring speakers, narrative designers and storytellers of all backgrounds. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Book reccos? Words Like Loaded Pistols - Sam Leith Get certified—Take the PMA Narrative Design course for yourself! Speakers to get inspired by? MLK—GhostRanch wrote a lil blog on that in January Tune into the pod that Marcus started (but no longer hosts) Product Marketing Experts Join this year’s user conference from Pendo, Pendomonium Marcus’s Walkout Song?? Intergalactic - Beastie Boys Follow Marcus on LinkedIn! Final thoughts for the PrezThinkers? I hope if you're listening to this you know, you take this stuff seriously and invest in it and have fun with it because I think it's worth it. And it's cool that you know— the world needs more people making good sides, building good presentations. Most of them are still real bad. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Presentation Nation, by our 110th episode, you may well be aware that we worship at the stage of presentations. And as Mikey Mioduski, co-host of the pod and founder of GhostRanch Communications, has started to speak at more and more events, we feel it only right to dissect the ins and outs of his preparation, execution and how many laughs he got while speaking. His latest speaker appearance was at the Product Marketing Alliance Summit in Austin, TX and it was all about embracing the power of presentations! Mikey and Molly discuss this recent experience, how the nerves change with new content to present and how to craft a good hook. Have YOU spoken at an event (or are going to soon) and would like to talk to us about your presentation preparation, nerves and, of course, walkout song?? Let us know at molly@ghostranch.com. This is an episode for: aspiring speakers, presenters or anyone that has to do public speaking against their will. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Mikey’s walkout song for this event (if he had gotten one)? We Found Love - Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris Are you working on putting together a talk? Women Talk Design is coming out with a new book, called Present Yourself, to help with building a speaker presence and story OR join their 8 week collaborative course by the same title—starting in April! You need to know about the upcoming Solar Eclipse this April 8th Join our Lunch n Learn on Breaker Slides March 27th, 12pm EST, LIVE on LinkedIn Mikey’s fave Sportscenter commercials: Steph Curry Abby Wambach Birds --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

If you’re a presenter, you might have noticed that the conference speaker circuit is a male-dominated space. With Women Talk Design, founders Danielle Barnes and Christina Wodtke set about to change that. Originally starting as a directory for women and non-binary presenters to find and learn from one another, Women Talk Design now offers a wide range of resources, workshops and most recently—a book! (You can pre-order Present Yourself: Proven strategies for authentic and impactful public speaking here!) CEO and co-author Danielle Barnes joins the pod to discuss their journey in starting this organization, writing the book, and experience as a speaker. After fan-girling over Women Talk Design’s work for months now, this was such a special episode to finally have a conversation and connect over the impact of creating a presentation community. This is an episode for: entrepreneurs, aspiring speakers and presenters from any walk of life! What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Follow Women Talk Design’s work here Pre-order the book, Present Yourself: Proven strategies for authentic and impactful public speaking, here! Officially out March 11th! Join Women Talk Design’s 2 month “Present Yourself” workshop (starting in April) here. Recommended resources for public speaking? Nancy Duarte’s work Dan Roam’s frameworks for thinking about story and presentation Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering: How we meet and why it matters Danielle’s podcast pick? We Can Do Hard Things Danielle’s Walkout Song?? Neverending Story - Limahl Confident - Demi Lovato (not Selena Gomez, whoops!) Find Danielle on LinkedIn Parting piece of advice for #PresentationNation? “Someone out there needs to hear what you have to say.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Personal experiences can power professional growth. No one may know this better than Harvey Lee, a product marketer, speaker, former Rock n Roll roadie and now author of Backstage Pass: A Business Book that’s Far From Conventional. We had the pleasure of chatting with Harvey about his book and how his background in the music industry helped later propel him into the world of product marketing. From wild stories on the road to how Harvey likes to prepare for a new presentation, our conversation was full of professional and personal nuggets of advice, wisdom and hilarity. This is an episode for: Product marketers, speakers, writers and music fans of any kind. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Get ahold of Harvey’s book, Backstage Pass, here Don’t forget to save the playlist companion for a proper soundtrack to the story Sign up for Harvey’s newsletter here Follow Harvey on LinkedIn Read “How do you write a powerful personal story (Even when you don’t have a story to tell)?” (blog post by Harvey) Who to follow, according to Harvey? Category Pirates Read their book, Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create a Category of One Marketers to follow on LinkedIn: Scott Galloway & Mark Ritson Harvey’s book pile: Music related Lives of Brian - Brian Johnson Loud - Tana Douglas Biz Books Anything by Ann Handley Anything April Dunford! Presentation/PowerPoint tips? Keep animations, media and video to a minimum so you don’t risk tech-gone-wrong stories Save everything offline PowerPoint pet-peeve? Fonts. What’s Harvey’s walkout song? Back in Black - AC/DC --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Many Coloradans are familiar with the New Belgium Brewery founding story—where Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan return from a life-changing bike trip across Belgium inspired to create their own Belgian style beers for the masses. In addition to their famous “Fat Tire” ale, New Belgium also created new categories and precedents among brewery business. They have been innovating in sustainable brewing practices since the 90s and upholding an exceptional company culture well before it was trendy. Mikey and Molly are joined by local beer enthusiast and GhostRanch Creative Director Jeff Carter AKA @Brew_Kid_on_the_Block, to discuss the Ft. Collins brewery’s impact on brews, on business and an amazing interview with Founder Kim Jordan on Guy Raz’s How I Built This. This is an episode for: Founders, Innovators and anyone in business creating their own category. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Check out the How I Built This interview with New Belgium founder Kim Jordan here. If you’re a brew enthusiast like our Jeff, give him a follow @Brew_Kid_on_the_Block. Jeff’s fave local breweries? Halfway Crooks - Atlanta, GA Cohesion Brewing - Denver, CO Mliko shots available! WeldWerks Brewing - Greeley, CO Beers Jeff can’t live without: Montucky Westvleteren Brewery - A monk’s brewery in Belgium that brews the #1 beer in the world. Ranchero Allie does the graphic design for Lincoln + South Brewing in SC! Want more New Belgium? Check out this TED Talk from New Belgium Environmental and Sustainability Officer, “The Power of Culture in Driving Sustainability” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Many Coloradans are familiar with the New Belgium Brewery founding story—where Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan return from a life-changing bike trip across Belgium inspired to create their own Belgian style beers for the masses. In addition to their famous “Fat Tire” ale, New Belgium also created new categories and precedents among brewery business. They have been innovating in sustainable brewing practices since the 90s and upholding an exceptional company culture well before it was trendy. Mikey and Molly are joined by local beer enthusiast and GhostRanch Creative Director Jeff Carter AKA @Brew_Kid_on_the_Block, to discuss the Ft. Collins brewery’s impact on brews, on business and an amazing interview with Founder Kim Jordan on Guy Raz’s How I Built This. This is an episode for: Founders, Innovators and anyone in business creating their own category. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Check out the How I Built This interview with New Belgium founder Kim Jordan here. If you’re a brew enthusiast like our Jeff, give him a follow @Brew_Kid_on_the_Block. Jeff’s fave local breweries? Halfway Crooks - Atlanta, GA Cohesion Brewing - Denver, CO Mliko shots available! WeldWerks Brewing - Greeley, CO Beers Jeff can’t live without: Montucky Westvleteren Brewery - A monk’s brewery in Belgium that brews the #1 beer in the world. Ranchero Allie does the graphic design for Lincoln + South Brewing in SC! Want more New Belgium? Check out this TED Talk from New Belgium Environmental and Sustainability Officer, “The Power of Culture in Driving Sustainability” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Micah Kohne has some of the most well-rounded marketing skills around. A web designer extraordinaire with a graphic design background, Micah has also dabbled in marketing, sales and co-founded his own business, Hype Legal, for “solutions-driven legal marketing.” Their speciality is building websites for lawyers, so Micah has also presented at various legal conferences—where a little graphic design would go a long way. In this episode, we talk (web design) shop, finding a niche and differentiating yourself. Ahem, we may be biased because Micah designed the GhostRanch website, but if you’re in need of some web design—look no further. This is an episode for: graphic designers, web designers, founders and anyone that’s worked in the legal world. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Micah Kohne has some of the most well-rounded marketing skills around. A web designer extraordinaire with a graphic design background, Micah has also dabbled in marketing, sales and co-founded his own business, Hype Legal, for “solutions-driven legal marketing.” Their speciality is building websites for lawyers, so Micah has also presented at various legal conferences—where a little graphic design would go a long way. In this episode, we talk (web design) shop, finding a niche and differentiating yourself. Ahem, we may be biased because Micah designed the GhostRanch website, but if you’re in need of some web design—look no further. This is an episode for: graphic designers, web designers, founders and anyone that’s worked in the legal world. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Check out Micah’s work and get in touch if you need web design at Hype Legal Micah’s advice on getting inspo? Keep an “Inspiration folder” for anytime you see art, design, websites, etc. that you like. One of his favorite sites at the moment? Grain & Mortar, a web & branding agency in Nebraska Fave podcast? Hardcore History—the stuff they DON’T teach you in school Fave film? (He’s a film buff) Memento by Christopher Nolan Least favorite design trend? DROP SHADOWS—knock em off! Follow Micah on LinkedIn! Micah’s walkout song? Anything Radiohead. Something off OK Computer. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Actor, producer and Harvard grad Yara Shahidi presents a familiar story in a new way with her 2023 TED Talk, “Let Curiosity Lead”. We’ve all heard about the importance of re-discovering our child-like curiosity and wonder. Shahidi puts a fresh spin on that story with her personal journey of juggling both her Harvard education and acting career (she’s the star of Black-ish and Grown-ish) as equally important catalysts for learning about herself. Shahidi illustrates that “honoring our distractions” can help create rupture, change and discovery—for both ourselves and the world. Although Yara may only be 23 years old at the time of this talk, there’s a lot to learn from her presentation, her story and her “commitment to curiosity.” This is an episode for: Creativity gurus, presenters and Yara Shahidi fans. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? WATCHHere’s an awesome article READ‘gram --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Actor, producer and Harvard grad Yara Shahidi presents a familiar story in a new way with her 2023 TED Talk, “Let Curiosity Lead”. We’ve all heard about the importance of re-discovering our child-like curiosity and wonder. Shahidi puts a fresh spin on that story with her personal journey of juggling both her Harvard education and acting career (she’s the star of Black-ish and Grown-ish) as equally important catalysts for learning about herself. Shahidi illustrates that “honoring our distractions” can help create rupture, change and discovery—for both ourselves and the world. Although Yara may only be 23 years old at the time of this talk, there’s a lot to learn from her presentation, her story and her “commitment to curiosity.” This is an episode for: Creativity gurus, presenters and Yara Shahidi fans. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? WATCHHere’s an awesome article READ‘gram --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Mikey and I read April Dunford’s latest book, Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win, and to no surprise to anyone familiar with her work—it was hilarious, accessible and whip-smart insightful. Dunford offers a fresh perspective on applying narrative to sales and flips the current advice on its head emphasizing that buying can actually be harder than selling. One of the biggest takeaways? Shift the focus from your features to your “Differentiated Value”. She all but guarantees that you’ll sell more. What book should we read next? This is an episode for: Startups, sales folks or anyone who’s had to work on positioning. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Get your own copy of April’s latest book, Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win Want more of April? She’s got a newsletter, a podcast—she’s got it all! April’s walkout song? Mikey’s guess: ”Limelight” by Rush Molly’s guess: “That Don’t Impress Me Much” by Shania Twain --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

Mikey and I read April Dunford’s latest book, Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win, and to no surprise to anyone familiar with her work—it was hilarious, accessible and whip-smart insightful. Dunford offers a fresh perspective on applying narrative to sales and flips the current advice on its head emphasizing that buying can actually be harder than selling. One of the biggest takeaways? Shift the focus from your features to your “Differentiated Value”. She all but guarantees that you’ll sell more. What book should we read next? This is an episode for: Startups, sales folks or anyone who’s had to work on positioning. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? Get your own copy of April’s latest book, Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win Want more of April? She’s got a newsletter, a podcast—she’s got it all! April’s walkout song? Mikey’s guess: ”Limelight” by Rush Molly’s guess: “That Don’t Impress Me Much” by Shania Twain --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

When Narrative Strategist and film nerd Asha Alaji-Sharif started to think about the Best and Worst films of 2023, she noticed a pattern. What common factors make for a memorable movie? And can those factors be applied to brand storytelling as well? That’s what we explore in this episode with “The Good Story Checklist”. How does The Little Mermaid remake create the perfect character development combined with mise-en-scene (visuals) while Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey painfully misses every mark? This is an episode for: storytelling enthusiasts, copywriters, brand messagers and movie lovers. What's in the Spice Cabinet?? @AshaTalksBESTWORSTEverything Everywhere All At OnceMolly@ghostranch.com@MollyPresents --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message

In September of 2013, Diana Nyad became the first person to swim unassisted in open water across the Florida Straits from Cuba to Florida. It was an epic feat, and one she returned to at age sixty after a failed attempt in her 20s. A few months later, she gives an aptly titled TED Talk called “Never, ever give up”. Her story is one on never giving up, facing the odds and beating the ego. Nyad’s experience fits perfectly into a 3-act hero’s journey and we break down how she really leverages that to her benefit. With no visual aids, Nyad’s storytelling skills really shine through. Presenters everywhere can learn from her pacing, tone and delivery. This is an episode for: presenters, motivational speakers and swimming enthusiasts. What’s in the Spice Cabinet?? Watch Diana Nyad’s 2013 TED Talk, “Never, ever give up.” Want Nyad’s story in movie-form? Nyad on Netflix Our interpretation of Nyad’s walkout song?? Chan Chan - Buena Vista Social ClubThe Impossible Dream - Frank Sinatra Follow us on Instagram! @MollyPresents --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/presentationthinking/message