Presentation Thinking

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 memorable dance, schtick or cultural moment, it makes the message that much stickier.

To tackle this episode, Molly brings in a few friends of the pod: filmmaker Asha Alaji-Sharif and Account Coordinator, Bridget Welch. From Madonna to Michael Jackson to Miley Cyrus—we dive into the most popular, most controversial and most memorable music videos of all time. 

Music videos do indeed carry their own kinds of story archetypes that we can learn from in the B2B world. 

This is an episode for: product marketers who like pop culture, music fans and anyone dealing with their nostalgia for MTV of the 80s & 90s.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet?

The “Best Of” lists we reference:

• Rolling Stone: The 100 Greatest Music Videos

• Business Insider: 60 of the Most Iconic Music Videos of All Time

A handful of the heavy-hitter music videos we get into detail 

• Michael Jackson - Thriller

• Madonna - Vogue

• a-ha - Take on Me

• Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball

• Kendrick Lamar - Alright

• OK Go - Here It Goes Again

• Britney Spears - …Baby One More Time

• Her iconic VMAs performance (2001)

• Beyonce - Formation

Where to study the “shapes” of story:

• Christopher Booker’s 7 Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories

Our personal picks for fave music video

• Asha: Beyoncé, Shakira - Beautiful Liar

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 the best and most memorable presenters don’t necessarily follow traditional public speaking advice.

From leveraging basic conversational networking skills to zero-ing in on how to keep audiences engaged in virtual webinars, Ivan emphasizes a much more natural approach to the ways we present and how we absorb information.

This is an episode for: keynoters, people that have to give presentations (but don’t want to) and anyone growing bored of virtual webinars. 

What's in the Spice Cabinet?

Find more of Ivan:

• On LinkedIn

• At Public Speaking Lab

• Get his BOOK, End Boring: A Tactical Approach to Public Speaking and Communication

Our episode featuring Dr. Steven Franconeri:

• #176 - Dr. Steven Franconeri tells data stories—and you can too

Ivan’s YouTube recommendations for what we can learn from Gen Z content creators:

• Jenny Hoyos

Fave wrestler? 

• Macho Man

All-time favorite speaker?

• Watch Sugata Mitra’s TED Talks

Ivan’s walkout song? 

• Method Man - Bring the Pain
  

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 maintains that visual thinking has been a core piece of the way she’s been able to process and understand the world around her. After realizing how live sketching could contribute to corporate communications, she founded her own company, Thoughts Drawn Out.

Hayley joins the ‘cast to discuss storytelling and memory, what she provides for clients, her TED Talk experience, AI and more.

This is an episode for: visual thinkers, NON visual thinkers and anyone that doodles in meetings.

What's in the Spice Cabinet??

Watch Hayley’s 2019 TED Talk: 

• Visual Storytelling: Drawing out our collective intelligence

• Mikey and Molly talk about it in Episode #171

Find and follow more of Hayley’s work:

• Thoughts Drawn Out

• Find Hayley on YouTube for behind the scenes information and visual storytelling tips 

• LinkedIn

Favorite speakers & creators?

• Beau Miles

• Business of Story podcast with Park Howell

• Podcaster? Rich Roll

Building a deck: PPT or Google Slides?

• “PowerPoint gets a bad rep but it’s still quite universal…I find PowerPoint to be the most accessible way to build stuff that people can continue to play with and manipulate and use and craft.” 

Favorite childhood story? 

• Oh the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss

• “I was also a big Roald Dahl fan”

Walkout song?

• Thunderstruck by AC/DC
  

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 child camp joy. 

With the help of some stellar keynote speakers—Social Psychologist Amy Cuddy, Data Expert Steven Franconeri and former speechwriter for President Obama, Terry Szuplat—Story Camp achieved that rare event magic where everyone felt like friends by closing time. 

The architects behind this, of course, were Founder and CEO Mikey Mioduski and Executive Creative Director Allie Wilson. They both join this episode to talk about what went into the planning process, building the “Story, Screen and Stage” conference structure and how it felt hiking with our keynoters in beautiful Park City. 

This is an episode for: the team planning a big event, professionals looking for their next conference and anyone with summer camp nostalgia.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet?? 

Follow Story Camp to stay in the loop for next year’s retreat! 

• StoryCamp.com

• LinkedIn

Get inspired by the Story Camp 2025 Keynoters

• Amy Cuddy

• Terry Szuplat

• Dr. Steven Franconeri

• Montana von Fliss

Need an amazing AV crew for your next event? 

• AVAD3

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 complex concepts in sometimes scary times? How do you act swiftly while information is rapidly changing? Many of Chris’ answers share core concepts with the B2B world.

After watching Chris’s 2017 TED Talk, The Dark Magic of Communication (and talking about it in our subsequent episode #167), Mikey and Molly knew they had to get Chris on the ‘cast to confirm what they already suspected—Chris is the most interesting man in communications.

Together, we dig into Chris’s unique journey, navigating international comms on emergency vaccine research, presentation skills, his TED Talk experience, mold spores and more.

This is an episode for: speakers with high stakes presentations, anyone interested in social science and everyone still processing their pandemic lockdown.

What's in the Spice Cabinet?

Tune into Chris’s 2017 TED Talk:

• The Dark Magic of Communication: How we manipulate others

• Mikey and Molly talk about this pre COVID prophetic TED Talk in Episode #167 of Presentation Thinking

Favorite speakers you’ve admired that led you to your communications journey? 

“ When I was a young child like 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, my parents had gotten me a set of audio cassettes. And I would fall asleep every night listening on my little boombox, you know, in the late 80s to the classic golden age of radio.

And so these were pre television comedy shows. Jack Betty, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Amos ‘n’ Andy, Abbott and Costello.  So they had incredible uses of voice because they had to, right? It’s radio. 

And so, you know, they, brought in props and made sounds that emulated like they were on a street corner in New York, yet they're in, you know, a phone booth sized, you know, recording studio. And I fell in love with language and communication at that age.” 

Other comedy shoutouts

• Rodney Dangerfield

• Richard Pryor

In the science world

• David Attenborough 

In the political world

• Former President Obama

Book reccos? 

• Persuasion, Social influence and Compliance gaining - John Seiter, Robert Gass

• Influence: Science and Practice - Robert Cialdini

• Nudge - Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

• Rumors: Uses, Interpretations and Images - Jean-Noel Kapferer

Dream presentation venue?

• Maybe a major American monument like the Lincoln Memorial

Walkout song? 

• MGMT - Electric Feel

• Jack Johnson - Inaudible Melodies

Where to find and follow Dr. Christopher?

• LinkedIn!

PowerPoint? Google Slides? Canva?

• “To me, they’re all poison.”

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 year.) 

Steven joins the pod to discuss why we should take PowerPoint more seriously, his consulting experience, how decks differ dependent on audiences and how to avoid the curse of expertise in data storytelling. 

With his professorial experience and research, Steven has seen validation after validation wherein data and debate presented with stories always resonate better than those without. 

This is an episode for: data viz nerds, the family “debater” and storytellers of all kinds.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet? 

Where to find Steven and his work: 

• LinkedIn

• Follow Becise

• Check out his newest creation, Point Taken Game—A writing-based conversation game that turns heated topics into moments of reflection, connection, and clarity

Steven’s walkout song? 

• “Something electronic and melodic like house or funk”

Parting shots for Presentation Nation?

• “Beware the ‘curse of expertise.’ …We're all overconfident, we're all seeing the world through a certain perspective, and if you haven't gotten that perspective sharpened by having other people argue with you. And if you haven't had your presentation vetted by others to make sure that it makes sense to them—be uncomfortable.”

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 Script framework was born. 

Molly and Jimi sit down to discuss his journey through magic, marketing, brand storytelling, preparing and presenting a TEDx talk and how to be a more confident speaker. 

And of course, there is a magic trick!! (Tune in at minute 13:45). 

This is an episode for: marketers of all kinds, anyone in brand comms and magic enthusiasts (or skeptics).

Fave speakers, marketers or magicians that Jimi is inspired by?

• Kevin Brown 

• “Apple Pancakes” (talk)

• Unleashing Your Hero (book)

• David Copperfield

Books and resources for presenting and storytelling?

• Matthew Dicks - won many Moth Grand Slams

• Storyworthy

• TED Talks by Chris Anderson 

Watch Jimi’s TEDx Talk

• You Have Magic Power - Use it for good

Favorite childhood books?

• Dr. Dolittle

• Peter Pan

Ideal venue and walkout song?

• Venue: A classic Vaudeville theater

• Song: Yello - Oh Yeah

Where to find and follow Jimi

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 started mapping quintessential Big Apple experiences like parking tickets, bike accidents and where New Yorkers hail cabs. 

In his TED Talk, Making data mean more through storytelling, Ben interrogated what it was about his data “stories” that caught the attention of publications as well as the Metro Transit Authority. His conclusion? Not unlike his passion for improv—good storytelling. 

Though this TED talk is a decade old, building a good data story takes the same elements today. The tools may look different but relating to people, keeping it simple and making an impact are still part of the data viz picture.

This is an episode for: Data viz nerds, people that hate data but have to work with it and New Yorkers. 

What’s in the Spice Cabinet? 

Watch the TED Talk for yourself

• Making data mean more through storytelling

Create your own NYC data story! 

• NYC open data - there’s even a Central Park squirrel census

Where to find more of Ben’s work

• LinkedIn

• I Quant NY (blog)

Dream Venue? 

• Molly says Times Square (probably not though lol)

Walkout song?

• Empire State of Mind - JAY-Z ft. Alicia Keys

• (Theme from) New York, New York - Frank Sinatra

You’re Invited…to Presentation Party Time! 

Presentation Party Time is a deep-dive type episode dedicated to a specific project so that we can understand the inception, development and execution of the presentation process. 

For this episode, it’s a sales deck GhostRanch worked on with Scott Hull + Associates—an artist agency helping get creatives hired. And in an age of GenAI, this is a super interesting and complex space to tell a story.

Scott joins Mikey, along with copywriter Colin Dullaghan who worked on the story, to discuss the skeleton, the story mining and the creation of the deck’s look and feel (with the help of talented illustrator, Penelope Dullaghan).

AI is here to stay but does generic art kill brand credibility? What’s unique about human storytelling and how we can work with AI as creatives?

This is an episode for: creatives, storytellers and anyone that builds decks with (or without) AI.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet? 

Learn more about Scott’s work on his site

• ScottHull.com

Team PowerPoint or Google Slides?

• Scott - I would say PowerPoint but it’s dependant on who I have supporting me

• Colin - PowerPoint

Walkout songs? 

• • Scott - Blow Wind Blow by Jimmy Rogers or Jump Into the Fire by Harry Nilsson
  • Colin - Minor Swing by Django Reinhardt

Mikey’s Resource Roundup: AI for presentations, Better comms for managers & a Brad Pitt throwback.

In this short n sweet episode, Mikey clues us in to the Presentation Thinking beat with an article he just read, a course he just took and—naturally—one of his favorite movie clips of all time.

This is a Spice Cabinet-esque episode that’s chock-full of goodies on how AI can best help to create powerful presentations, professional education greatness from West Kao and a throwback movie clip on the importance of the process via 1992’s favorite Brad Pitt film, A River Runs Through It. 

“In order to be clear in our communication or clear in our writing, you must be clear in your thinking.” —Wes Kao

This is an episode for: anyone that designs presentations, folks looking to integrate AI, managers looking to improve comms and 90s films fans.   

What’s in the Spice Cabinet?

Article by Nancy Duarte

• What GenAI Tools Can and Can’t Do for Presentations 

• Follow Nancy Duarte for more

Course that I just took

• Wes Kao’s Executive Communication and Influence for Senior ICs and Managers

• Check out more of Wes Kao’s work here 

One of Mikey’s favorite movie clips

• A River Runs Through It (1992)

• You know the scene where Norman gets his paper edited further and further down to a quarter of its original length by his dad? Mikey says: “ To me, it highlights that importance of process and skill and craft and brevity, you know, and clarity. This stuff doesn't just happen.” 

Want to improve your storytelling skills on a holistic level? 

• Join us at Story Camp July 23-24 in Park City, Utah!