Presentation Thinking™

If you were part of the debate club in school, chances are you might be more confident or have stronger leadership skills than the average person.  Corporate leadership training and workshops have long gone stale. Managers are wondering what motivates and increases both confidence and leadership skills?   A group of researchers from MIT conducted a study in 2025 that measured the effectiveness of...

We’re on a mission to watch every Steve Jobs keynote ever and we’re deep down the rabbit hole now.  To understand the context of this talk at MacWorld in 1997, Steve Jobs had recently returned to Apple after some drama (you can listen to our episode on the “Steve Jobs” film to learn more - linked below) and was working to get Apple back on track.  This particular keynote was one in which some “dam...

It’s clear why Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 TED Talk is THE most popular TED Talk of all time.  The author, researcher and coach posits an ultimate question, “Do schools kill creativity?”, that still circulates the TED stage in new ways today.  With no slides or props, Robinson provides a masterclass in keeping an audience engaged, utilizing humor and strategic pacing.  Robinson’s storytelling skills a...

Cameron Magee, Founder of the avad3 event production company, returns for the final installment of our “Some Guy from the Crew” trilogy peeling the curtain back on everything you need to know about planning events.  For this episode? We’re talking openly about money: what you can get for your budget, general allocations for event sizes Small, Medium and Large and what unanticipated costs people of...

During the first week of December 2025, GhostRanch Communications hosted its 10 year anniversary offsite retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico!  In honor of turning a decade old, founder and CEO of GhostRanch Mikey Mioduski has some wisdom to share about how to plan, host and present at an offsite retreat.  While this particular case study is for a company with a relatively small number of employees, Mi...

End of the year means a look back at the 12 months and many more episodes that made up the Presentation Thinking pod in 2025.  Mikey and Molly peel back the curtain on their Spotify Creator Wrapped with analytics and analysis on how we’ve grown in three years and where we’re headed.  Of course, we recap the top five episodes of the year, best resources for you to carry on into 2026 and our walkout...

The 2015 film Steve Jobs is the perfect overlap of three key areas of interest for Presentation Thinking: Steve Jobs’ life and presentation skills Aaron Sorkin’s writing and storytelling (he wrote the script) Aristotle In our quest to watch every keynote Steve Jobs ever gave, we realized the 2015 Danny Boyle-directed film centers around 3 important product launches in Jobs’ life. A 3 act structure...

Gerard Clarke is going to be your next favorite filmmaker.  As a director and creator based in Atlanta, Gerard has been involved in a countless variety of projects both creative, commercial and a blend of both.   He joins the ‘cast to discuss his experience in pitching (and selling) creative work, building out a visual story and the process that went into his latest short film, 500 Seconds to Tell...

PMM, Navy vet and overall cool guy Langley Barth joins the pod after Mikey and him connected at a Product Marketing Alliance summit in San Francisco (shoutout PMA!).  Langley is full of GREAT PMM advice—from becoming a subject matter expert on your product to getting to know the customer journey, he’s an expert at guiding conversations that “unlock the unknown unknowns.” Langley also shares how hi...

Our third annual installment of “PrezThanking” brings you a Spice Cabinet brimming with presentation resources, tech tips, people to follow and highlights from this year in recording. Dig in with your pie and ice cream to this short n spicy episode. What’s in the Spice Cabinet? Presentation TOOLS n TIPS we’re thankful for  Riverside technology! NOT AN AD but we’re loving it Audacity - forever free...

Our previous episode (#186) with Cameron Magee covered the importance of rehearsals and the lead-up to an event or conference. This time, we’re talking about what’s going on AT the live event.  Continuing our “Some Guy From the Crew” series, Cameron Magee joins the podcast again to discuss live events, the layout of the room, stage, event trends and more!  As the Owner of avad3 , a rad AV and even...

Mikey and Molly might be the first-ever students of storytelling to embark on a curious journey of studying every talk and keynote that Steve Jobs has ever done.  When discussing the greatest speakers of all time, the general B2B world typically includes Steve Jobs somewhere in the list and we nod our heads in agreeance. But aside from a few highlights of his talks (and what’s portrayed in various...

Cameron Magee knows the ins and outs of an event’s backstage area.  Having led his production and AV company, avad3 , for almost 15 years, they’ve produced over a thousand events all over the country. Trusted by Walmart, The White House and many more—Cameron is passionate about serving these events for their varying needs as an “event production partner.”  Cameron joins the ‘cast for the first of...

Sugata Mitra is one of the few people to have five TED Talks. Why?  He’s a perfect combination of scientific, challenging norms and soft-spoken charm.  As a theoretical researcher with an interest in education and the role of the internet, Sugata’s “Hole in the Wall” experiment has become a famed example in how kids can self-organize and essentially teach themselves anything with access to the int...

Ivan Wanis Ruiz is ready for us to never be bored during presentations again.  Returning to the podcast for a Book Club style episode we dive into his book, End Boring: A Tactical Approach to Public Speaking and Communication. For his research, Ivan speaks with buskers, professional wrestlers and police interrogators to study the neuroscience of why people absorb information the way they do. This...

Founder of Hello World Studio and Professor of Graphic Design at Mt. San Antonio College in California, Krislam runs their graphic design program, inspiring new waves of creators stepping into our visual storytelling world.  Krislam joins Presentation Thinking to discuss her favorite parts about teaching such a creative craft, how students transition their concepts into presentations and the value...

Listen up! Julian Treasure is a communication expert and sound researcher, interested in harnessing the power of voice and sound for speakers, listeners and learners.  His TED Talk, How to speak so that people will want to listen , from 2013 is one of the most-viewed TED Talks of all time (a measly 47 million views and counting on YouTube).  Upon first listen you might think “huh” —he gave me a fe...

Stories and messages are best remembered with visuals. We’ve used countless examples of iconic movies to demonstrate this concept.  But what about music videos?  After the VMAs (Video Music Awards) were held a few weeks ago, it got us thinking about classic arcs, story shapes and how they might show up in our favorite music videos. Songs already tell stories themselves but when paired with a memor...

Ivan Wanis Ruiz thinks bios are boring—but we’ll do our best to introduce this founder of Public Speaking Lab and the guy challenging all the presentation advice you’ve ever been taught. Ivan’s background brings a little bit of everything. Event MCing, acting, marketing, finance and presently a founder and coach have all contributed to his adaptable presentation skillset—and he’s determined that t...

Visual thinker, founder and “Chief Doodler” Hayley Langsdorf can capture more with a sharpie than any bulleted list of meeting notes.  If you’ve never heard of a “live scribe”, neither had Hayley a few years ago. This is someone that sketches out important ideas from board meetings or keynotes at a conference in real-time.  Having studied English literature and worked in communications, Hayley mai...

Originally built as the GhostRanch company retreat, Story Camp has been brewing for a few years. It’s a concentrated three day series where the company gets to focus, relax and level up on presentation skills.  This summer was different - we set our sights to invite clients and the public to join in on what we feel is a secret formula for blending professional presentation development and inner ch...

Dr. Christopher Cummings may have started his career in the classroom but he would eventually find himself in the “COVID-19 war room” during the global pandemic in 2020. A high stakes job you may never have considered, Chris is a behavioral theorist and Research Social Scientist.  He’s in the business of understanding—scientifically and psychologically—how we perceive risk. How do you convey compl...

Dr. Steven Franconeri is a leading speaker and teacher on data storytelling, a professor at Northwestern University and the Founder of Becise - a platform helping people transform their data into compelling narratives.  (Steven ALSO just so happens to be one of our guest speakers of our first-ever Story Camp —an annual presentation thinking skills summit that you should definitely check out next y...

Jimi Gibson is the VP of brand communication at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, TEDx speaker and also, a magician (amazing combo, right?). After starting a career in magic as a young kid receiving Merlin’s Mail-Order Magic, Jimi was introduced to marketing through an advertising agency. He realized the structure of a magic trick is not unlike a successful marketing message and Voila—his Magic Sc...

If you’ve ever had to stare at a data set and wonder how to make meaning of it, this is for you.  Ben Wellington is a teacher, researcher and the creator of a little blog called “I Quant NY”.  With the release of NYC Open Data, there were hundreds of data sets newly available to the public for anyone to view and use. To learn data mapping tools and combine his interest in urban planning, Ben start...