Presentation Thinking

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 make it work are all part of Elliott’s talk which he now gives at marketing conferences (and even wrote an eBook on!).

Elliott walks us through his favorite frameworks, how he prepares for a talk and his admiration of one of the Greek greats—you guessed it, Aristotle.
This is an episode for: speakers, marketers, story scientists and Aristotle nerds.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet??

Where to find Elliott?

• On LinkedIn—DM him for his eBook! 

• Check out Elliott’s work at OWOW

Elliott’s recommended reading?

• Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari (he wrote Sapiens!)

What does Presentation Thinking mean to Elliott?

•  ”Presentation Thinking the way when I read it is like a type of mindset that a person has where you're thinking about how it's going to end up at the end.

  So, if you're thinking of building a product, the way I always think about things is like, ‘How am I going to talk about this on stage?’ Or ‘How is this going to look as the final campaign?’ And so I've always got what I would call my Presentation Thinking hat is that when we're building a feature roadmap, I'm like, move that feature up because that's the one I want to present.

  So that's the kind of way I thought about it.”

What’s Elliott’s walkout song? 

• Borders by Sam Fender
  

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 examples of personal storytelling framed against a bigger story of queer history and climate change. Through finding her joy in drag, she found her niche in the climate movement. How can we apply that to our own lives and work? 

As a drag queen, she’s a pro at keeping the audience involved and making them an active participant of the talk. It’s a joyful and inspiring 9 minutes for both climate action and presentation skills. 

This is an episode for: climate activists, folks in a creative rut and anyone that has a hard time slowing down while speaking.

What's in the Spice Cabinet?

Watch Pattie’s talk for yourself

• Here on TED - Why Joy is a Serious Way to Take Action

Follow Pattie online and catch her singing on tour! 

• Pattie Gonia website - there’s merch too! 

Are you free July 23-24 and want to improve your own Story, Stage and Screen skills? Come join us for Story Camp!

• Find out more about the Park City retreat here

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 centered around celebrating Delta’s 100 years in business and a myriad of tech product/partnership announcements. 

GhostRanch Creative Director Allie Wilson joins Mikey and Molly to analyze the stage, screen and story elements of this ambitious talk. From the epic visuals to the 4D components, we can’t help but wonder if Delta’s Sphere appearance is raising the bar for product presentations everywhere. 

This is an episode for: product/tech launch nerds, presenters and anyone racking up those Delta SkyMiles.

What's in the Spice Cabinet??

See the Delta CES keynote for yourself:

• Here

• People are talking about this online. Learn more about people’s first-hand experiences here & here!

What do we think Ed should walk out to? (That is, if Lenny Kravitz isn’t there next time)  

• Creed - Higher

• Frank Sinatra - Fly Me To The Moon

• The “UP” theme song - “Married Life”

Interested in practicing presentations with incredible and inspiring people?

• Check out StoryCamp, July 23-24, 2025

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 track and eventually product marketing as the career itself was being developed. 

Collette shares her perspective on the unique pressures that PMMs face, how to get buy-in with the sales teams and why you might (but shouldn’t!) feel Imposter Syndrome as a PMM. 

Oh, and of course the importance of storytelling in the product marketing and presentation world. 

This is an episode for: product marketers, coaches/teachers or anyone who might need a bit of career advice.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet? 

Where to find Collette:

• LinkedIn!

Collette’s recommended resources?

I listen to a lot of behavioral psychology and consumer psychology because I’m very much competitive in sales enablement so I want to understand how to play to people and I want to think about that. 

• Harvard Business Review

• Check out their leadership series!

• Anything byClayton E. Christensen on HBR

• Coach the Person, Not the Problem - Marcia Reynolds

• The Coaching Habit -Michael Bungay Stanier

Wildcard advice

• Collette signed up for a screenwriting class! -I did a small one years ago and that was very transformational. 

Favorite speaking inspo

• Marcus Andrews

• Any TED Talk! 

Collette’s walkout song? 

• 
  Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger (she’s obsessed with Rocky)

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 Punchyserves as a humorous workbook with frameworks to employ and clear case studies to learn from. Mikey and Molly go through some of our favorites with Emma such as “Value-Benefits-Feature” (VBF) that is dang-near-guaranteed to make both marketing and sales teams happy. 

We also dive into how Emma feels about presentations, how she preps and creates them!  

Emma is now the founder of Punchy—a consulting and training firm for positioning—and speaks all the time on the subject. Check out where to follow her work below.

This is an episode for: brand strategists, B2B copywriters and all strategic messaging folks.

What's in the Spice Cabinet??

Buy Emma’s book! 

• Make it Punchy: How to write simple tech messaging that wins hearts, minds and markets

Check out more of Emma’s work: 

• Punchy—Emma’s consulting and training firm - podcast coming soon! 

• OnLinkedIn

Emma’s recommended reading?

• On Writing Well by William Zinsser

• AnythingApril Dunford

• You Are A Badass At Making Money by Jen Sincero

Emma’s walkout song? 

• Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield
  

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 and share her experiences, her perspectives and some hot takes she’s been posting on LinkedIn for the last year. She views product marketing as “the best way of solving a jigsaw puzzle within tech and software.” 

Hattie is kicking off a community for product marketers and the founders members launch closes SOON be sure to sign up and follow along for support in your own journey.

This is an episode for: product marketers, folks in need of an online community and anyone starting their own business.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet? 

Find Hattie (and all of her genius insights)

On LinkedIn

On YouTube

Join her Product Marketers community—founders members launch closes SOON so sign-up ASAP!

ProductMarketers.com!

A few of Hattie’s favorite PMM things (and people):

A book on creating more compassion…for yourself. Good for you and soft skills! Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff

We’re Not Marketers podcast

Eric, Zach and Gab from this podcast are great PMM inspo!

Tamara Grominsky

Emma Stratton

Jason Oakley

Hope Chauland

Hattie’s walkout song? 

(the song from Karate Kid!)

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 products. 

And dang—from Jensen’s lowkey delivery to the high-end visuals, we were impressed. Jensen’s visuals help convey the processes of densely technical products while his goofiness makes everything that is typically slick and futuristic—very approachable. 

GhostRanch Technical Director, Steve Sheets, joins Mikey and Molly to ogle at the sheer screen size and how they might’ve made the magic happen.

This is an episode for: tech nerds, AI enthusiasts and anyone that has to present on complicated subjects. 

What’s in the Spice Cabinet? 

Watch Jensen’s CES Keynote for yourself

Explore Nvidia’s fancy new offerings 

Jensen joins the guys at Acquired

Steve’s favorite use of AI so far?

What do we think Jensen’s walkout song?

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 experience of “selling” messaging buy-in first-hand. 

He shares 3 vital tips if you have also found yourself in these shoes, wondering how best to walk: 1) Think like a sales person 2) Communicate like it’s a high-stakes presentation (it is) and 3) Act like a shepherd. 

You are the wise messaging wizard and it’s up to you to bring stakeholders along the journey. 

This is an episode for: product marketers, stakeholders and anyone that’s had to create or sell messaging.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet? 

Tune into Steve’s other appearances on the ‘cast:

Advice for dialing in messaging?

We mention Emma Stratton a few times

Steve is a fan of behavioral science + marketing

Steve’s walkout song?

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 keep you going.

Firstly, you have to identify the right goals, then you strip out the ego and be ready with a buddy or a “balanced goal” to help achieve what you want. Setting up an environment for success is what can keep you motivated, rather than trudging through sheer will. 

Ayelet is a skilled presenter and there’s a lot to learn from both her content and delivery in this TED Talk.
This is an episode for: anyone interested in goals, resolutions or who is wanting to get motivated going into the New Year!

What's in the Spice Cabinet?

Watch Ayelet Fishbach’s TED Talk: 

Learn more about Ayelet’s work, including her books:

Come join GhostRanch for STORYCAMP this July 30-31, 2025

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:

Our diversity of guests presented new insights into age-old truths about storytelling—presentations can still be found everywhere and they’re not going anywhere. 

This is an episode for: presenters, speakers and anyone just starting out with the PrezThinking pod! 

What’s in the Spice Cabinet? 

Our most-listened to episode this year:

Our top episode EVER:

2024 Episodes to revisit for VC/STARTUP:

2024 Episodes to revisit for DELIVERY:

2024 Episodes to revisit for PERSONAL NARRATIVE:

Walkout song of 2024?