Presentation Thinking

It’s time to practice what we preach—with Mikey’s first keynote speaker experience! 

We were so excited when Product Marketing Alliance asked Mikey to give a keynote talk at their recent Product Marketing Summit in NYC. 

But what topics to fit into a 30 minute pre-lunch slot?? Demo vignettes, of course! 

As part of Mikey’s Road to the TED Talk journey, this episode dives into the content, deck creation, preparation, nerves and all—featuring some pre-talk and post-talk clips. 
This is an episode for: speakers, wannabe speakers & people that have to give demos regularly.

Having worn an abundance of hats, Jen Jones leads with true empathy for her teams as the CMO for CommerceTools.

As part of our collaborative series with the Product Marketing Alliance, Mikey got to interview Jen on Product Marketing Life—check it out here!

For this episode, we pull out her super quotable highlights on networking, capitalizing on storytelling opportunities and her journey to the role of CMO.

With better empathy and understanding of what our sales, marketing and surrounding teams experience on the day-to-day, we can quickly find solutions and lead more efficiently.

This is an episode for: Product Marketers, Marketing Leaders, Sales Enablers & Aspiring CMOs.

We were lucky enough to collaborate with the Product Marketing Life Podcast where Mikey interviewed personal hero and incredible Product Marketing Manager, Esther Yoon from RingCentral.

(If you like this episode, tune into the full ‘sode over there and give Product Marketing Alliance a follow!)

We really dig into the amazing takeaways with quotable highlights from that conversation and—you guessed it—paint a hero’s journey with Esther’s story.

This is an episode for: Product Marketers, Visual Storytellers & anyone who’s a leader in their work.

Jonathan Pitts knows how to collaborate with an audience.

An improv performer, expert and teacher for over 15 years, working in various environments, giving workshops and speaking to different audiences has kinda been his job.

If you know improv, you know the “Yes, and…” approach can be applied to many aspects of work and life—that’s especially true for presenters.

With an upcoming workshop called “Improv and Storytelling”, Jonathan helps us explore the intersection of improv and storytelling and how he interacts with the audience to achieve his story or purpose onstage.

This is an episode for: presenters, people that have to do public speaking and fans of Second City.

Full show notes here.

Rukma Sen is always looking to find a good story.

Whether she’s being the rockstar Product Marketing Manager for Google that she is or working through her “Five Why” framework, Rukma is passionate about creating “human to human” messaging.

Having studied English Literature in college, our conversation circled around finding the story in every project, product marketing insights and tips for public speaking and presentations. (Spoiler: she’s a pro!)

This is an episode for: product marketers, public speakers and fellow bookworms.

Advertisers have been vying for your attention (and paying big bucks for airtime) ever since the Super Bowl began.

So what sticks out in 2023 and how can a brand tell its story in a memorable way? What’s cringe and what’s catchy?

This is an episode for: Creative ad enthusiasts, brand storytellers & people that watch the Super Bowl for the ads

What’s the forecast say for presentations in 2023? Rainy with a sprinkle of G Slides?

GhostRanch Creative Director Allie Wilson and Kelsey Jones, Director of Account Management, join Presentation Thinking to get their presentation meteorology skills on!

They’re experts in what they highlight as the “Three C’s” to look out for: Cohesion, Composability & Continued Learning.

Tune in for some fresh ideas to bring to your team and how to keep up in the rapidly evolving presentation and visual storytelling space.

This is an episode for: team leaders, presentation experts and folks that get pumped about brand storytelling.

Boris Hristov was destined to improve the world of presentations.

Following his exposure to presentations with the all-too-common “Death by PowerPoint” phenomenon, he would later found his presentation agency called 356 Labs. With the arrival of the pandemic, they created the Present to Succeed conference, the world’s largest gathering for presentation skills.

We’ve been longtime fans of 356 Labs, we’ve attended the conference and NOW—Boris joins us to chat presentations, catering to your audience & what it means to produce such a massively awesome event.

This is an episode for: presentation skills nerds, public speakers and (hybrid!) event producers.

Ever wonder if there’s ONE thing you need to be doing to improve your presentations? The Rancheros have answers.

When GhostRanch retreated to Palm Springs for a “Winter Workation” last week, we did hot-seat style interviews!

From art director to designer to technical director, we got advice that people (like you!) can easily implement to level-up their presentations. And for good measure, we asked a bunch of silly random stuff too.

Similar to our “What GhostRanch Learned at StoryCamp” (#32) episode, this is an episode for: Presentation designers, aspiring or current speakers and friends of the Ranch.

Tony Fadell might not be a name you know, but it’s attached to products used around the world.

Starting his career at Apple with Steve Jobs and designing the early iPod, Fadell later went on to invent the Google Nest smart thermostat.

His TED Talk, The First Secret of Great Design, illustrates how breaking habituation is the first step in observing everyday problems around us that innovators can solve. What aren’t you noticing? And how can its design serve us better?

Mikey and Molly analyze this TED Talk and what we can learn from its content, Tony’s execution and, of course, the slides.

This is an episode for: TED Talk enthusiasts, engineers, product designers and tech nerds.