Presentation Thinking™

The one where Mikey and Molly embody their role as “students of storytelling” by taking Aaron Sorkin’s Masterclass on screenwriting.   Aaron’s writing is literally award-winning—think A Few Good Men, The Social Network, The West Wing —so this online class seemed like a more affordable option than film school. We dig into Aaron’s teaching style, his reverence for Aristotle and what can be gleaned i...

COMING THIS SUMMER to Park City, Utah—GhostRanch’s Story Camp retreat is now open to the public!!  What is it? Story Camp is a small but mighty micro retreat this July 22-24th, 2025. No huge hotel crowds, we’re talking 40-50 people. Who is it for? It’s for anyone that wants to level up their presentation, storytelling and soft skills.  In fact, soft skills pay bills is part of the hypothesis that...

Elliott Rayner is a story nerd, just like us. Elliott’s “Hero’s Journey” begins in sports marketing, pivots into product marketing and lands himself as the current CMO for OWOW , a creative marketing agency. Along the way, he’s accrued a variety of storytelling skills and honed in on the science behind why storytelling clicks so well in our human brains. This science and the elements required to m...

Drag queen Pattie Gonia hits the TED stage to let us know that joy is a useful and tangible way to take action against climate change.  Mikey and Molly analyze the stage, screen and story elements of Pattie’s TED Talk and are thoroughly impressed with the sparse but strategic visuals (her dress is enough to look at!) and the measured pace with which Pattie delivers.  Pattie walks through perfect e...

This episode was recorded before the Delta crash in Toronto on February 17th, 2025. We are extremely grateful that everyone is okay. Delta made a surprising appearance at CES 2025 (Consumer Technology Show)—a tradeshow typically showcasing explicitly tech brands and the latest consumer innovation. With The Sphere in Las Vegas as its setting, Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian delivered a memorable pep rally c...

Collette Ramage is a PMM expert and career coach with some seasoned presentation chops. Molly met Collette as her teacher for a Product Marketing Alliance certification course and knew we had to ask her aboard the ‘cast.  Every Product Marketer’s journey is different but not many begin in biomedical science! Interested in the technical aspects of business, Collette found her way to a marketing tra...

Messaging expert Emma Stratton joins the ‘cast to discuss her book, Make it Punchy , her POV on strategic messaging and how you can stop dreading writing it.  As an English major that started in editing and later B2C copywriting, Emma arrived in the B2B tech space wondering where all the creativity had gone. (And how all this jargon showed up!) Make it Punchy serves as a humorous workbook with fra...

Hattie the PMM took tech layoffs seriously and then made herself irreplaceable. Now, she’s on a mission to support other product marketers to do the same thing. Helping demystify and prove massive value to the often misunderstood “product marketing” space, Hattie has successfully branded herself on LinkedIn as “Hattie the PMM”—talk about a genius use of keywords!  Hattie was kind enough to join us...

Nvidia has long since been an inspirer of innovation with software and hardware that serves as a starting point for tech and gaming communities around the world.  Of course, they’ve been pioneers in AI as well.  CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote address at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) was called to our attention as an outstanding presentation and start-of-the-year launch for various new Nvidia product...

Throughout 2025, we’ll be exploring the path towards Presentation Excellence. One of the first steps to achieving such rare air is getting messaging buy-in. Without it, messaging adaption can never happen and it will have a huge impact on presentations throughout your organization.  Steve Earl, Executive Director of GhostRanch, has a rich enterprise tech background which afforded him the experienc...

Motivation researcher Ayelet Fishbach’s TED Talk, How to set the right goals and stay motivated, is the perfect TED Talk to kickoff your 2025 and hold fast to your resolutions.  With over a decade of experience in the “motivational psychology” space, Fishbach makes a compelling case for motivation not being a muscle you can exercise, but rather a series of factors that can be customized to help ke...

Like any good end-of-year episode, this is our 2024 “Wrapped”.  Mikey and Molly share the common themes that emerged this year in their journey with Presentation Thinking and what’s in store for 2025.  Some foot-notes: Pitchin’ Ain’t Easy: We took a deep dive into the, ahem, “Shark Tank” of the startup/venture capital world and learned about pitching.  Delivery Matters! We talked to a vocal coach...

Mikey and Molly return from visiting London for the Product Marketing Alliance ( PMA ) Summit and discuss the MYRIAD of amazing presentation formats they encountered.  From an all day training course to breakout sessions to a reel for the GhostRanch booth, presentations were everywhere and it’s clear this preferred B2B medium isn’t going anywhere. As presentation creators, it’s helpful to keep tab...

When we last spoke to Andrea Pacini in Episode #77 , he had just published his book, Confident Presenter (which you can get a free copy of through the link in the Spice Cabinet!).  Now, Andrea has been awarded “Best Virtual Speaker” from the Speaker Awards 2024 and “Best Presentation Skills Training Specialist in the UK”—to name just a few of the accolades.  Andrea returns to the ‘cast to dig deep...

Tom Fishburne has never stopped drawing. From doodling as a kid to creating comics throughout Harvard Business School, Tom knows the power of visual communication and humor.  Now, with years of marketing experience and as the creator of Marketoonist , Tom’s entire company vision is to help businesses communicate better through visual storytelling and a bit of comedic relief.  Mikey and Molly chat...

It’s that time of year again (Thanksgiving in the United States) where Mikey and Molly gather the most epic Spice Cabinet and stuff it full of things they’re thankful for in the presentation community. And we’re not just talking about nutmeg or pumpkin spice!  From inspirational people to PowerPoint tools to our trusty editor, Will Kommor , this is a short episode with a tall list of resources. Tu...

We’ve all heard the idea that being a “left brain” person means you’re logical and a “right brain” person means you’re creative—but did you know that’s a bit of a myth?  Like most myths, it’s based in some truth:  The left side of our brain processes more analytical information while the right side tends to hold emotions and nuance. However, a study in 2017 at Duke University confirmed that the nu...

Malcom Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, was a bestseller—a popular book that discussed the elements of virality well before things “went viral” online. The sub-title reads “How little things can make a big difference” and explores how and why trends in fashion, culture and life come and go. With Gladwell’s new book on the horizon, Revenge of the Tipping Point , he revisits topics from his origi...

It’s no secret that we’re fans of Presentation Summit—the first conference in the world dedicated to presentations, storytelling and PowerPoint. We’ve chatted with its founder, Rick Altman, previously in episodes 139 & 71 .  2024 is the final year of “PreSum”, as it’s lovingly called, and several folks from GhostRanch attended for its Last Hurrah. Creative Directors Jeff Carter, Allie Wilson,...

Senior Presentation Designer Collin Herko AKA “Herk” joins the ‘cast to discuss his recent onsite event experience in Nashville for one of our favorite clients.  This included everything from live site edits to how a big conference process goes down with AV design, teleprompters and more.  With the event being in Nashville and Collin being a former Nashvillian, we also talked about the history and...

DK is a creative director and presentation coach and is on the TED stage to give us the lesson in public speaking that none of us ever received.  We love a simple framework and accessible advice to enhance presentation skills and DK really delivers. Sharing his journey growing up with speech impediment to becoming a speaker coach builds a brilliant rapport with the audience as he leads up to his “...

You ever wonder about the origin story of TED talks?  As TED turned 40 this year, TED founder Richard Saul Wurman and current head of TED Chris Anderson sat down together to commemorate and reflect on the iconic event that promotes very simply: ideas change everything. It was no surprise that Richard is a fascinating fellow with countless “TED moments” to share (did you ever hear about the time wh...

Whenever we talk to a product marketer, we know they’re going to relate to the “Presentation Thinking” project.  Product Marketers tend to be “Big Picture” people, excellent communicators and always end up creating slides on slides on slides.  Steve Earl joins Mikey and Molly to break down their “playlist” of the Best of Product Marketing (so far) on the ‘cast. As we each revisited a handful of th...

Nick Lafferty says early on in our conversation he was a “terrible student” in school but he’s taught and challenged himself with so many skills, it’s hard to believe. Founder of Early Exit Club —a network and newsletter for people that want to work for themselves—Nick’s experience in product marketing to paid ads has provided a unique perspective on the importance of soft skills, go-to-market str...

Rick Altman has been hosting the Presentation Summit for 22 years and this October will be his last— “at least in THIS format!” , he emphasizes.  It’s a party—eh, I mean conference—for PowerPoint enthusiasts and presentation nerds like the conference veterans Dr. Carmen Simon ( Corporate Visions ) and Mike Parkinson ( Billion Dollar Graphics ), who join us for this episode. All presentation expert...