08/31/2026
Over the past 6.5 years running my agency, I’ve done 100+ workshops and speaking gigs on social media, web design, and getting the most out of Claude.
Here are the less obvious things I’ve learned about giving a great presentation. Part 1:
- Talk to five people before you speak. Now you have friendly faces instead of a crowd of strangers.
- Ask the organizer what happened right before your session. Match that energy.
- Find out what the audience already knows. Teaching beginners like experts loses them. Teaching experts like beginners does too.
- Build one slide specifically for the person who will photograph it.
- Give people something worth writing down in the first five minutes.
- Put your best idea earlier than feels comfortable. People check out.
- Create a phrase people can repeat to someone who was not there.
- Give your audience language for a problem they already feel.
- Teach one thing they can use before they get back to their car.
- Include something you disagree with your industry about.
- Show a mistake you made and what it taught you.
- Tell people what you actually do in real life, including the weird shortcuts that never make it into a textbook.
- Use screenshots from your real workflow instead of polished stock examples.
- Demonstrate something live when the risk is reasonable. People remember watching it happen.
- Build a “steal this” moment into the presentation.
- Give away the template, prompt, or checklist instead of teasing it.
- Ask for a show of hands early. Participation shrinks the room.
- Ask questions people can answer without being embarrassed.
- Walk into the audience when you can. Physical distance creates mental distance.
- Find the person nodding the most and use them as your energy anchor.
- Watch for confused faces. Better feedback than your slides.
- If everyone is photographing one slide, stop talking and let them.
- Keep a few optional sections you can cut when time gets short.
- Know what you will skip before somebody says you have five minutes left.
- Put less on your slides than you think you need.
Part 2 covers the room, the questions, tech failures, and the part after you walk off. Stay tuned!