Latest / Presentation Thinking / #214. How to speak and stand out at a conference—no matter the environment

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#214. How to speak and stand out at a conference—no matter the environment · Presentation Thinking

0:21
Welcome back to Presentation Thinking, AKA the Storyteller
0:24
Study Club, the podcast where presentation science meets real
0:28
world storytelling. Molly Gagan, how's it going?
0:33
I'm pretty pumped for our guest today.
0:35
Woo Hoo, Presentation Nation, if you're just tuning in, we are on
0:39
a journey to learn and improve upon our presentation and
0:43
storytelling skills. And what better way to, you
0:46
know, kind of like do that is to, you know, debrief after one
0:51
happens IRL in real life. And just recently, you and our
0:56
very special guest, Allie Wilson, friend of the Pod, never
1:02
done that before. Wally, CEO.
1:05
Of ghost training. Communication.
1:07
Yeah, that was crazy. You've you know her name.
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If you know her name, she's very popular and like Den, just an
1:15
overall amazing designer. Ali, welcome back to the pod.
1:21
Thanks, Molly. I don't know if I'm popular.
1:24
But that I'm I'm hamming up the the intro you.
1:27
Hammed me today. Well, no, it's, it's great to be
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here and definitely if you know me at all as a human being, you
1:35
know that I actually I'm pretty scared of public speaking.
1:39
It makes me I took a beta blocker for the first time by
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the way. OK, we can talk about that too.
1:45
We can talk about how that felt. But yeah, so, so it is really,
1:50
really great. It's it's, you know, gets a
1:53
little easier every time. But it is good to debrief a
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little bit, especially for people who find themselves in
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positions where, yes, you need to talk in front of people and
2:01
you need to do a great job. But it makes your insides feel
2:05
weird and you get really, really torn up about it for a few days
2:09
in advance and you can't sleep. Why?
2:12
Why? I'm not sure why, you know
2:14
nobody wants to see you fail, but it is a thing and I know
2:17
other people feel the same way. Yeah, totally.
2:19
And yes, thank you for being vulnerable with us, Ally.
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This is not the first time we've had Ally and to talk about her
2:25
experience of that. You're not the only one
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Presentation Nation, if you're listening, you're not alone.
2:30
Everyone is scared of presenting.
2:32
But yeah, let's let's get into like what?
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Where were you guys? This is a cool conference that
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maybe the second or third time we've been there annually.
2:39
Who's there? What is it?
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Yeah, Gardner Marketing Symposium, it was kind of like
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the place we had to check out. You know, it's like all of our
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executive level marketing leaders, clients in our circle
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seems to be like the one that they really want to go to every
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single year. Shout out to Gardner for making
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making that such a draw to gosh Elliot.
3:00
I think they said 2500 people, are they even playing for 2500
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and like oversold to like 3000? Well attended sign of good
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times. You know, I was like not a cheap
3:11
ticket. So it was, it was out at the the
3:14
Gaylord Rockies out there by the Denver International Airport,
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which is like in Kansas, pretty much.
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Yeah, we were out there. It was sweet.
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And so, yeah, we Ghost Ranch were sponsors.
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So we had a little exhibit booth.
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It was our second year. They're doing that because it,
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it really is just a good place to go catch some of our, our
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favorite clients who are already there, spend some good time and
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then like pop around to session, see what's going on.
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And this year we decided to take them up on having a session of
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our own, an alley that was not in like the general session
3:49
keynote area. It was not in a side breakout
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room. Tell Molly and friends what kind
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of what kind of session we gave. I don't know why I didn't expect
4:02
it to be set up the way that it was.
4:04
I think maybe because I've never done anything like that before.
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But so, you know, a picture of the big Expo floor and again,
4:10
this is like there is what, 60 sponsors?
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Mikey, it was like 60. I mean, it was, you know, a big
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area of booth. And so, you know, lot like like
4:19
a couple of like rows and in the corner in that same space is
4:24
like this little stage that's like in the middle of it all,
4:28
like you. So you're like, you've got like
4:30
traffic. There's a cafe next to it where
4:33
people are getting snacks and food and then, you know, like,
4:37
you know, there's like the. Bathroom.
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Behind it, there's a bathroom. Important thing.
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Very important. When you're really nervous.
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To to really get you to like understand the how in the middle
4:50
of just like the mix of things happening, it was they had
4:54
headphones for people. So like like silent rave smile.
4:58
Where you put? These headphones on tune.
5:01
In. Actually, you're the person who
5:03
was speaking who had a microphone.
5:05
Right, right. That's interesting.
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It was an it was optional, of course, but but yes, so that was
5:11
different. I couldn't decide if it made me
5:15
less afraid or more afraid because it was like, OK, this
5:19
feels less, almost like less focused, like maybe, you know,
5:25
like maybe it's like the last like, like very directed
5:27
attention at you. So maybe that takes a little
5:29
pressure off. But also it's like, hey, like,
5:32
what am I going to have to do to really keep people's attention
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because there's so much going on.
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There's a lot of noise. It's, you know, it's pretty
5:38
distracting. What did what did you think,
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Mikey? Yeah, ye old exhibitor hall
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speaking gig was because I had been tuning into these, you
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know, over the last handful of years, once we started doing
5:53
like the sponsorship pay to play.
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And I think we were always adamant like we're not doing one
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of those just because it felt like maybe you get like 10
6:02
people who show up and they're kind of half tuned in, half look
6:05
in the other direction and it is so distracting.
6:08
So I didn't have a good feeling about it based on what I'd seen
6:12
in the past, like you don't get this dedicated focused attention
6:16
or slide and. It's it's not elevated like
6:18
we're talking, just like on the floor.
6:19
There was a little stage, a minor stage.
6:22
Let's. Call it.
6:23
Yeah, 12 inches. Yeah.
6:25
And it was honestly so. And Molly, we gave you photos,
6:28
so hopefully we can put those in the block.
6:29
I was going. To say, I'll include.
6:31
It so you just get a vision like y'all have seen this before.
6:33
So yeah Ally I was with you. It was like we just had 2020
6:36
minutes. So a couple different factors
6:38
going on. It was a sponsor session.
6:41
So people knew this was given by a, a sponsor.
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And the marketers who show up at Gartner, they're there for
6:47
insights, trends and a lot of like new tech and they, they
6:51
just want to know like, what's the new, new?
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And so you're not supposed to just pitch your crap, you know,
6:56
like you're supposed to tell them like good, better, best.
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Here's what's going on, here's some best practices we're
7:01
observing. And so we, I think we're pretty
7:03
mindful that we wanted to not just give our sales pitch, we
7:06
wanted to be helpful. Well, jeez, we have so much to
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say. Like Ali just gave 1/2 day
7:11
workshop in Seattle. I gave it an hour long keynote
7:14
on this stuff like a month ago too.
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And so I think trying to pack in our decades worth of insights
7:20
and like a favorite things to talk about to people who never
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hear about this stuff at a marketing conference.
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You know, it's all about cool AI stuff you can do and this and
7:29
that. And we're there talking about
7:30
PowerPoint basically, you know, so we, we wanted to be
7:33
compelling and pack it all in. So I think that was probably a
7:37
challenge that I presented to you.
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Allie was like probably on my initial cut trying to say way
7:42
too much. And so that's another factor we
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can talk about too, was like Co presenting.
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So we're Co presenting, we're in exhibition hall and we had to
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cap it at 20 minutes. And I've just pulled this up,
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Mikey, if we cut this clip, we can see the set up here, men's
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and women. 'S.
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And there's us and you can see exactly.
8:01
So it does. Yeah, there is a dedicated stage
8:03
area, but it's extremely, yeah, it's extremely in the mix.
8:07
You can see the bathrooms behind, as you can see.
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But you guys look great. You look good.
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Like the screen looks nice and you look really pro.
8:16
They're Co Co presenting. You've got the student sound
8:19
booth. But yeah, just to put in context
8:22
there. That'll be a good clip.
8:25
Yeah, so, and we have a hard yeah, like hard 20 minutes.
8:29
They set us up. They didn't play our walkout
8:31
music because they weren't doing that.
8:34
But what did we do, Ali? I really love what we did.
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Mikey just played it on his phone.
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No one can. I don't think anyone can hear.
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It stood up there while people were kind of gathering around
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and we just like listened to to Golden from the.
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Demon Hunters and. Hunters and it and it worked, I
8:58
think. I think we got fruit.
9:00
It's like we're going up, up, up.
9:02
That's our moment. Yeah.
9:03
No, it's good. Women fist pumped really hard at
9:07
each other. Like right when yeah, it's good.
9:09
You know when you know when it hits like.
9:11
Imagine getting Gartner on board with that though, because I do
9:13
think people like having that tuned into their headphones
9:15
would be like this is a silent rave like I know most people
9:20
have. I tried, trust me, I tried.
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I even like really befriended our, our AB guy.
9:26
Like we were, we got pretty chummy and I was like, could you
9:29
do me a favor? And he was like, OK, you've
9:31
crossed the line. Nope.
9:35
But yeah, so like Mike, he was saying like totally a challenge
9:39
because we we do, we get so excited.
9:41
We're so passionate about. What we do?
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There's so much to talk about, but the challenge for me even
9:47
like looking at the stuff that we we love to talk about and
9:49
trying to pare that down. I'm like, dude, everyone,
9:54
everyone is so wound up about AI.
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And so, you know, we had a like, all right, sorry, quick tangent.
10:00
We had every, we had so many people come up to our booth and
10:04
be like, Hey, I want to talk to you because you were the only
10:07
booth that doesn't say agentic on it.
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And I was like, sure I was. Like, is that a compliment?
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I'm not. Sure, but.
10:16
Me either way, it felt like something that needed like we
10:19
were like, all right, you know, we, we want to be part of that
10:22
story. We have a we have our
10:23
perspective, you know, we have a perspective and we have some
10:26
things that we can share that would be helpful in that
10:29
context. So that was a nice layer that I
10:30
really like that we added into what we were speaking about was
10:34
what are some good ways, What are some really great ways to
10:37
use it in our space And that, you know, presentation
10:39
ecosystem, you know, across story screen and stage.
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And where is it going to bite you in the butt?
10:46
Like where are you going to, you know, really experience some
10:49
like failure and, you know, maybe like, you know, unleash
10:53
brand hell, things like that. So I think we, I like that we
10:56
added that in just because it, it felt like, it felt a little
11:00
bit more like we were listening to what they, you know, are
11:03
paying more, paying closer attention to like something that
11:06
would really help them out. And you're addressing the
11:08
current moment both like on the wider scale and also in that
11:12
room. And, you know, with like all the
11:14
booths talking about AI, you're like, well, we better talk about
11:16
it too, even though, yeah, we we're not agentic.
11:19
There's no yeah. Molly, that also served as our
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like often that was our transition from one speaker to
11:25
the next. And I think we tried to make it
11:27
feel more conversational. So a trend we're seeing a lot at
11:30
shows is people want panels and just like fireside chats more
11:35
than just a a straight 30 minute one way presentation.
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So we I think it felt like a better spot where we could
11:43
almost do a hybrid session where it was like talk for a little
11:46
bit. And then like, Ali, what do you
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think about AI and like storytelling or whatever?
11:51
And I think that we did kind of just riff there like we knew our
11:54
talking points were, but I hope that kind of changed the format,
11:58
you know, a little bit to make it feel like in that setting in
12:01
particular, it felt right to do more conversational style.
12:05
Even break the 4th wall is probably what I would do more
12:08
of. Like I think I've seen sessions
12:10
where people are just like walk around into the audience, be
12:12
like, what do you think? And, you know, I think that's
12:14
the venue where you can actually really break it and just like,
12:17
give high fives, go out there, talk to people.
12:20
Yeah, yeah, that I could see that being very, yeah, like kind
12:23
of levels the state, like literally levels the stage to a
12:26
much more casual degree. You're like, you're in the
12:29
living room with people, kind of.
12:30
Thing Yeah, yeah, you're. In the bathroom, you're in the
12:32
bathroom because. It felt so easy to pull off in
12:36
those moments, but then a little bit harder to pull off in like
12:40
the moments where we were like had like designated sections to
12:43
talk about, you know, could that be a result of us making final
12:48
decisions about things the night before for absolutely.
12:52
Like, you know, maybe, perhaps perhaps that had something to do
12:56
with it. But but I almost went, I'm with
12:58
you, Mikey. I almost like wanted more of
13:00
that where it was just like, you know, we talk about this stuff
13:03
all the time. Like how do we, how do we find a
13:04
way to have it be like, you know, where we are, you know,
13:09
still able to show visuals that are reflecting what our
13:12
conversation is about and helps and, you know, helps reinforce
13:15
it, but it is a little bit more like a conversation rather than
13:18
a hand off each. Time.
13:20
Yeah, OK. And that is what I'm curious
13:22
about kind of moving from the story elements that you
13:25
presented to some screen. What did you choose to showcase
13:29
in like, yeah, you got one screen, no side screens, not
13:34
totally huge. So like what was helpful to
13:36
include for people, whether it was like examples, case studies,
13:40
etcetera. Do you remember any phones
13:41
coming up moments, Ally? That's always our our.
13:44
Goal. Yeah, on our it was.
13:45
It was on our story was. It the framework, yeah, yeah,
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Ally called it out too. She's like, we know you people
13:51
love a framework, you know, so that's really like, and that's
13:56
what we hear afterward, too, is like, I've never heard it put so
13:59
simply. You know, I think that it's,
14:01
it's like something easy for them to latch on to is story
14:04
screen stage. And that's what we just wanted
14:07
to equip them with is like, look, you know, on your next
14:09
one, don't just go in thinking about better words.
14:12
Don't just go and think about slap on some lipstick on the
14:15
pig, make it make the slides pretty and don't just try to
14:19
wing it. And so I think, I think they,
14:21
they get that. And these are a lot of times the
14:22
people who are the people behind the presentations.
14:25
Like if you're the chief of staff to the CMO or you're the
14:28
head of product marketing, you're enabling the whole field
14:32
on how to present. So there's also that like meta
14:36
level and layer. So I think that the what when we
14:38
did try to show work, we think they take really well to like
14:42
before and afters this, not that's.
14:44
And for instance, like when we're talking about one of the
14:48
biggest pitfalls we see in presentations is a full, a full
14:52
lack of any semblance of emotion.
14:55
And yet we know emotion is what is contagious and what people
14:58
remember. And yet, you know, we see those
15:00
stark slides, the problem looks just like the solution.
15:03
And, and so I think we we try to ramp it up to show really good
15:07
uses of juxtaposition or visual storytelling, illustration, more
15:13
evocative photography, that kind of stuff.
15:15
Yeah. And with those AI kind of like
15:18
watch outs, I guess, did you have any like kind of goofy
15:21
examples? What do you have for to show for
15:23
the AI stuff? I don't remember what what
15:26
exactly the content is for. If I know you found this, this
15:29
montage of like AI imagery, you know, from the same sort of
15:34
prompt where it all just ends up looking exactly the same.
15:37
Sometimes, you know, unless you are just you know, you are have
15:40
a background in design. You know what good looks like.
15:43
You know how to prompt really well.
15:45
You have like really great brand standards that you're helping
15:49
inform with across the board. You end up getting this like
15:53
sort of mucky, same, same appearance look to like to, you
15:59
know, to images as you as you prompt them and try and grab
16:01
them. And it can be pretty obvious.
16:03
And so like he had this visual that he pulled where it was like
16:05
the same thing, kind of like slightly different over and over
16:08
and over. You know, it's so it's, you
16:11
know, what we talked about at that point, I think it's just
16:14
like unleashing brand hell. I know I mentioned that earlier.
16:17
And we know we're seeing this plenty here at Ghost Ranch
16:20
where, yeah, like, woo Hoo. Like, you know, everybody can,
16:24
everybody can prompt and like make some images and it's very
16:27
empowering and it's really, really great for brainstorming.
16:30
But. But without having a, a really
16:33
deep understanding of how to do it right, how to work within a
16:37
brand, like what, what is, you know, you've, you've got the
16:40
tools in the hands of so many people and not a lot of control
16:43
over it. So it can really start to make
16:45
things muddy. And it can also start to, you
16:48
know, make everything look the same, you know, which that's a,
16:51
a huge Ding for differentiation too.
16:53
And you know, if you want to have a really strong brand
16:57
presence and your brand looks just like everyone else's brand
17:00
and everyone's kind of making the same stuff, that can be that
17:04
can be a bummer. And Ali's like the.
17:06
Strategy behind it. And we learned so much too, just
17:09
from the conversations at the booth.
17:11
And I don't know how many people I asked, like, how are y'all
17:15
distributing your sales decks to this, to the field?
17:18
How are you monitoring, you know, how it's being used?
17:21
And nobody, I mean like mature marketers, mature groups or
17:26
like, yeah, no, we just kind of send it to them and or at best
17:30
they can see if it got downloaded, how many times
17:33
they're still, you know, there's and there's stuff out there like
17:36
seismic high spot, like I just don't see.
17:39
We didn't, I didn't have many conversations with people who
17:41
are they're like thinking about it.
17:43
And, and that's why I kept coming up about like I would
17:46
plug like troop dot AI and, and things that were like, well,
17:49
the, the, this the exciting part about AI and presentations.
17:54
It isn't that you can build them in seconds.
17:55
I think it's like what's around the corner is going to be
17:57
insights and like monitoring and visibility because like Ali
18:01
said, like cool, everyone can create their own and guess what?
18:04
They, they're doing that and God knows what they look like and
18:07
what they're saying. So yeah, we thought Frank and
18:09
Dex were a thing a couple years ago and and now it's just
18:12
exploding with with noise that your brand would keep your brand
18:17
managers up at night. You know 'cause, right?
18:19
Right, it's lost. So you gotta wrangle it back in
18:22
somehow. Yeah, totally.
18:23
I've seen a couple examples checking in with the creative
18:25
directors over at Ghost Ranch and where they'll show me what
18:29
the clients have like like kind of the rough draft as it comes
18:32
to them in AI form. And you know, the use of red,
18:36
like simple things like color theory, right where it's like,
18:38
oh, like these, all three of these boxes are red.
18:41
So it seems like these are the problem slides or something.
18:44
And then the next slide connects to them in the color color
18:46
scheme, even though there's nothing.
18:48
The next slide is completely different topic And so different
18:51
things like that where it's like, and you know, it might be
18:53
using some of the brand, brand colors and then having this
18:56
differentiated one that draws people's attention.
18:58
So it's like you can't, those are some strategic things that
19:01
you still really need to parse through.
19:03
And I thought that was a a really market example, you know
19:07
where that fails. So, Ali, preparation wise, what
19:12
how did it differ do you think like you've done a lot of your
19:15
own presentations like solo? Yeah.
19:17
What do you what do you think we learned from like trying to
19:20
trying to do the Co, the Co. Presenting on stage.
19:23
Sharon's stage. Any recommendations?
19:25
Any big egos you had to deal with?
19:26
I also think, I think we're lucky because we talk about
19:31
similar things and we've kind of presented on similar stuff and
19:35
we've known each other for a long time.
19:37
And but I'd say if you were Co presenting with someone that you
19:42
didn't have like a strong background with, you'd, I think
19:45
you'd want to get pretty lined up really, really early on, you
19:50
know, especially if you're both contributing content just to
19:52
make sure that the story's cohesive across the board or,
19:56
you know, I think it was helpful.
19:57
And thank you Mikey, for taking taking the lead to have someone
20:01
really be the lead of putting putting the content together and
20:05
then you know whoever is Co presenting.
20:08
Maybe adding color, providing feedback, helping make decisions
20:12
about, you know, cadence who's speaking to what.
20:14
But really having one true owner of the content, I think makes a
20:17
really big difference because if you're both coming at it, it's
20:20
going to feel disjointed even if you're very aligned.
20:23
I do think no, maybe that's just maybe I was just grateful.
20:27
I don't know, but I was very grateful because I felt like you
20:30
getting a pass through it and then US modifying from there.
20:34
It helped it feel like it was like two different perspectives
20:38
just popping in and out. It felt a little bit smoother
20:40
that way. I like that too.
20:41
And I think working on the transitions is a really big one
20:45
for, I think like we know a lot of like, yeah, again, like chief
20:49
of staff for head of corporate comms, they're really good at
20:52
that. And so like you said, like
20:53
establish the through line. Here's our core theme.
20:56
Let's both make sure we're getting to that.
20:58
And then, yeah, those transition moments I think of like, again,
21:02
like we just read Will stores science of storytelling.
21:05
He was really good at like setting up the next chapter at
21:08
the end of the of the current chapter.
21:10
And it's like almost like foreshadowing.
21:12
And and so, yeah, thinking through those like beautiful
21:14
handoffs, I, I think that can really take one from like good
21:17
to great. And I think we, we tried to work
21:20
through that pretty well. And I do think these exchanges,
21:22
as we handed off at the end of each chapter for us was helpful.
21:26
Yeah, I just like softened it. It didn't feel abrupt because it
21:30
was like one person's talking and then it's like you have a
21:33
mini of like a little break, almost like break where you're
21:37
batting and then it when the next person picks up, it doesn't
21:39
really feel like it was a direct hand off.
21:41
It was just like almost like you're starting over again.
21:44
It's. Like one of those relay runs,
21:45
you know, like what are those things where you, yeah, give it
21:48
your all and then you chill for a while?
21:50
You want relay run, not like A2 legged race, 3 legged race.
21:54
That's the vibe you have to go. For too much energy.
21:57
Yeah, I have a question. Maybe 'cause you've you've seen
21:59
a lot of these too. What is the non speaker supposed
22:03
to do while the other person's speaking?
22:05
Yeah, that's literally. Something I was going to say,
22:07
yeah, well, something I think actually adds to the fire chat
22:11
side chat vibes. And again, because you guys have
22:13
a like good rapport, this is probably much easier for you.
22:16
But I think inevitably when I'm presenting, even to like when
22:20
I've presented on mostly webinars, right, Like on a Zoom
22:24
or something, I tend to just pretend that the audience is my,
22:29
like, you guys know, like I kind of use this kind of back and
22:32
forth like casualness where I'm like you, as you probably have
22:35
heard or like, you know, And so when you have that kind of
22:38
person actually next to you on stage, you can eat, you can
22:41
really lean into that. So I feel like that's a good
22:43
thing for the person that's sitting there waiting where you
22:46
can be like, I'm still part of this conversation.
22:48
Like you're essentially almost in a way presenting to each
22:51
other as you're presenting to the audience or something.
22:53
So I don't know if that's something that you you could
22:56
lean into with like the person being like, you know, the emoji
23:00
that's just like someone standing there.
23:02
But yeah, I was wondering about that because if you pass it back
23:06
and forth, there's obviously inevitably these dead moments
23:09
for that person to be like standing there waiting for their
23:12
next turn. But like, how can it still be
23:15
part of how can they still be part of the conversation?
23:17
And I think maybe some of that breaking of the wall could be
23:20
helpful. But that's again, adding to the
23:22
fireside chat vibes. If it was a really formal
23:24
keynote, like, I don't, I don't know if that'd be appropriate.
23:27
Maybe, but I'm not sure. Yeah, like.
23:30
You Were you looking at me or were you looking at the
23:33
audience? I did both and one when I, when
23:36
we first passed the baton, I, I put, I took out my phone and
23:40
took a picture of you speaking and I looked at the picture and
23:43
there's like 3 people behind you who are like smiling at me
23:46
because they're. Like, yeah, because that.
23:48
Helps this guy do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:50
But other times, no. I would try to, like, read the
23:51
audience, try to find my anchor person.
23:54
You know, I was like, yeah, who's paying attention to Ally?
23:55
I'm going to, like, stare at them.
23:57
I think like active listening, yeah, kind of like looking at,
23:59
you know, nodding and looking around in a like appropriate
24:03
way. Be like kind of like yeah,
24:04
essentially being like yeah, we're yeah.
24:06
Adding some sound effects would be good.
24:09
I was going to ask if you guys had.
24:10
T-shirt Cannon. Did you have a phrase you said
24:12
in unison? Because you have anything you
24:15
say, Keep on pitching. We sing happy birthday really
24:20
slow. Perfect.
24:25
A missed opportunity to have like ultra matchy outfits too.
24:29
So Mikey wore this like all green outfit the first day and I
24:34
wore an all green outfit the second mix of your.
24:37
Job suit, yeah. We really we really missed.
24:39
Yeah. Oh, so funny.
24:41
Yeah, that was a fail. We didn't even talk about our
24:44
droves. We droves.
24:46
We I. You know, I right when we made
24:48
the decision to Co present, you know what I suggested and it was
24:52
the dumb and Dumber blue and orange tuxedos and everybody got
24:57
a chuckle out of it. Yeah.
24:58
And I think that'd. Be great, I think we have to
25:01
add. Seriously.
25:03
I mean, story screen, stage droves.
25:06
I think we got to add a fourth category.
25:08
What do you wear? What are we wearing on stage?
25:10
Yeah. If anyone's listening and has Co
25:12
presented or Co present regularly, we'd love to talk to
25:15
you. So send me an e-mail
25:17
molly@ghoststrange.com. That's really, it's just a yeah.
25:20
I think it's tricky. I think it can be really
25:22
helpful. And yeah, if it's not the right,
25:23
if you, yeah, maybe if you aren't aligned, it could be.
25:27
It adds different elements of awkwardness, Yeah.
25:29
Yeah, and in the exhibitor hall thing, my take now looking back
25:33
is like an advice to anyone doing it is it's like it's not
25:36
that bad. It's it was actually really fun.
25:39
I think it, it presents an opportunity to ramp to, to dial
25:42
up the fun like you, you probably want to bring a little
25:44
more energy and to it doesn't have to be super formal.
25:47
In fact, I think if you were really formal, it would actually
25:51
just be a weird read and trust that they can hear you because
25:56
I, I think that was my biggest thing is like, I can't, I have
25:58
no idea if they can hear me. But afterward I, I went on and I
26:01
watched a couple with the headphones on.
26:02
It's like you can get it as loud as you want.
26:05
It's just like when you're up there.
26:07
And so Sally and I faced the decision of, you know, like the,
26:10
the AV people in back rec strongly recommended a handheld
26:13
mic versus a lavalier because they said if it's like a lunch
26:17
rush or coffee and people are buzzing all nearby, you can use.
26:21
Yeah, you, you can't adjust the level of your lava as easily,
26:24
but you can put the mic closer to your mouse.
26:26
So I didn't I, I want to get more practice with a handheld
26:29
mic because I don't feel like I always have it right.
26:33
And it sounds like they're really good speakers and AV
26:36
teams tend to think that's a better set up.
26:39
But I, I don't know, I feel like it takes up your hands.
26:42
I don't. Know yeah, that's true.
26:44
And also I have, I know this just from doing tech rehearsal
26:47
for the choir. A mic is best like used at the
26:51
top of it, you know, so a lot of people just hold it like this.
26:54
Yeah, because the side and it's it's going to get some of the
26:56
sound, but like the best mic sound is going to come from the
27:00
top of your mic. And so yeah, yeah.
27:02
And you don't have to do like a full pop star thing, but it but
27:05
kind of but holding it more down here, like chest level so you
27:08
don't block your face or anything and have it kind of,
27:10
you know, that that full hand hang loose distance from your
27:14
from your hand. But the the top of it speaking
27:17
into the top instead of just that sort of like this casual,
27:20
like I'm holding it up like a lollipop kind of thing.
27:23
Avoid the lollipop. I mean, yeah, I feel like you
27:26
need to practice that, though. I was, that was my, that threw
27:30
me off too, just because I'm, I'm also hearing impaired, so I
27:33
really couldn't hear myself. And it's one of those things I,
27:36
I'm, I'm pretty aware. Like while I was speaking, I was
27:39
looking at Mikey because he'd be smiling at me.
27:42
And you know, that always feels good.
27:43
And then it like the audience too.
27:45
And as I turned, I was like, who knows what I was doing with the
27:48
mic? And then I was just like, I have
27:50
no clue if anyone can hear me. Am I like coming in and out?
27:54
I'm not sure. And then I caught myself because
27:58
we're Co presenting usually. You know, if you're prison by
28:00
yourself, you're going to be pretty steady and consistent
28:03
with how you're holding your microphone, I guess, I think.
28:06
But so, Mikey, you know, we'd pass it over and Mikey would be
28:09
talking and I'd catch myself still holding the microphone up
28:13
to my face like this. Yeah, we can give it a rest.
28:17
Oh. Ali, set it down like, I mean,
28:20
where do you put it? Do you like cross your arms
28:21
with? It in your pocket?
28:23
Yeah. And Ali got the podium and I was
28:26
off to the wing and so she could just like she would click the
28:29
arrows when she wanted to advance and I, I had to click
28:32
her over there. So just like having both hands
28:35
occupied. You had both hands occupied by.
28:36
Yeah, that's. Tough I think it gave me like I
28:38
think for a story Cam workshop, you know how we like we like
28:42
theory, but also practice is like different setups might be
28:45
cool like like a downstage monitor, teleprompter, no notes
28:51
handheld live. Like I think it'd be cool to go
28:53
through kind of a gauntlet and be able to try different stuff
28:56
and get coached on like, hey, hold it like this.
28:58
I don't know. So I think it's cool because
29:01
like the more we do this stuff, the more we think of like ways
29:03
that we could bring some of this into programming for Story Cam.
29:07
Yeah, I think there could be a really interesting kind of
29:09
simulation game or practice where someone's ready to produce
29:13
their little presentation spiel and you draw a little like,
29:17
obstacle out of a cup where it's like your mic's not working or
29:20
the mic is different or, you know, yeah, you don't.
29:22
Have your screwed? Up yeah your fronts are screwed
29:24
up like what do you do and and then kind of roll with it like a
29:27
little improv simulation that's great we're.
29:31
Not auto advancing. I know, yeah.
29:34
And that's. Remember Rick Alden at
29:36
presentation some of that's where they were doing the
29:38
presentation karaoke thing and that really does teach you how
29:41
to be on your feet. Do you remember how that how
29:43
that worked? It was like someone else made a
29:46
deck for you Molly, you have no idea what's on it.
29:49
You get 10 seconds per slide or or you know, for like 6 slides
29:54
and it's a competition and it's really a study in improv, right?
29:57
And like and deliverability and thinking on your feet, but it's
30:01
I think it's a really good exercise too for.
30:02
People, that's a great exercise because then it's less stakes
30:04
for you of like, this isn't your expertise anyway, just like, run
30:08
with it and do it as best you can.
30:10
And yeah, I think that's really useful.
30:13
Good team exercise ideas, you guys.
30:15
Yeah, speak to the president. You're doing your own story.
30:18
Camps. In the spice cabinet, guys,
30:20
let's enter, Let's open the door and and I'll plug Gartner.
30:26
Shout out Gartner, of course, we really like this conference.
30:30
Hopefully we see you there. Say hi next time and that's June
30:35
of in Colorado. Anything else like any, as you
30:39
know, relevant. Mikey and I just finished a
30:40
great book called The Science of Storytelling by Will store
30:43
anything that felt kind of relevant to your presentation,
30:46
skill set and resources that you brought here besides K Pop Demon
30:50
Hunters, which we'll also plug. I'll add one we got a new book
30:52
list and a new follow were for us to follow is professor to Lee
30:59
Shirat. She's like a cognitive
31:01
neuroscientist at University College London and MIT.
31:04
So she she wrote a cool book. It's called the influential Mind
31:08
and and a few other ones. But she gave a keynote which I
31:12
got to see. Ali got turned around because of
31:15
her exhibitor pass. Almost got the security called
31:18
on. But I was like, you look, Ali.
31:21
Oh. Truly, truly so.
31:23
That wasn't cool. Security.
31:25
But we got to, we got to follow Professor Sharat really kind of
31:32
like a, a British Carmen Simon, like the the first party
31:35
research she's doing on how how brains work as far as being
31:40
influenced and open to new ideas.
31:42
And what was the book One More Time, Mikey?
31:43
The influential mind. I believe the influential mind
31:46
everyone OK. And just cracking it, it's kind
31:50
of like defeatist in a way where it's like with all the
31:54
information out there, Republicans, Democrats, you have
31:58
a belief, someone has a belief, like you're not going to
32:01
convince each other is the long of the short.
32:04
Like you can find the data points that you want.
32:06
And so we've almost dismissed and dispelled like the meaning
32:09
or the impact of data now. And so like you have to unwind
32:14
that if you really want someone to believe that's where she's
32:17
trying to get get to with that influential mind book.
32:20
So it's kind of interesting. Very cool, influential mind.
32:24
Influential lazy river Alley. The the Gaylord setup is pretty
32:29
sweet. There's a cool pool.
32:32
The river nearly as much as I would have liked, but it was
32:37
outstanding. And we also, we brought
32:40
ourselves, we had these like coconut spicy margaritas that we
32:45
towed along with us to pop in that lazy river.
32:48
It was like just magnificent. It's like I got a whole like
32:51
water park in there. That's so cool.
32:54
And I had like four or five hours after the conference to
32:58
before my flight on that last day and it was hot.
33:01
So I was just posting on. I was doing work, but I was a
33:06
lazy river. Wow, Gaylord Denver Lazy River.
33:10
I'm looking now and also in the spice cabinet.
33:13
I will include the picture a couple pictures so everyone can
33:17
kind of visualize this setup for where Mikey and Ally were
33:21
presenting since that's a key key component.
33:24
We also had a caricature made of the two of us.
33:27
And it is. Yeah, it is.
33:29
Shout out to booth buddies, like the cool part about Kevin.
33:33
A booth for three days. Yeah, your feet hurt.
33:36
But you make cool friends, you know, especially the people who
33:39
go to the same shows, like B to B marketers.
33:41
You start to see the same faces or, or at least you're like, oh,
33:44
hey, we saw, you know, like Mada with the last show and tell him
33:48
I said hi or whatever. It's kind of fun.
33:50
You know, you're all in the same game, so it's kind of cool.
33:54
Yeah, that's like adult camp. Like it is.
33:57
You're like bunking together in a way that's cute very good.
34:02
Well, thank you Ali and Mikey for the Gardner debrief.
34:05
This was really this was really useful for real life IRL
34:10
presentation experience and it's different every time There's
34:13
always new challenges Co presenting very very cool
34:17
talking about AI pros and cons and yeah I think it sounds like
34:21
y'all are getting Ali definitely.
34:23
How do you feel about your journey?
34:24
Like you've you've Every time we talk about this, I feel like you
34:27
get a little more confident. Yeah, but now I've got the beta
34:29
blockers. And now you've got a beta
34:32
blocker, so that really helps. Not medical advice, but.
34:37
Talk to Allie, talk to your doctor, and then talk to yeah,
34:39
and then talk to Allie. No, definitely.
34:42
No, definitely. For goodness sake, we need to
34:45
normalize walk out songs, all right?
34:48
It should be mandatory. It should not be novel or once
34:52
in a while. Every presentation deserves a
34:55
walk out zone. Well, and it should be required.
34:58
And if you don't choose 1, you get 1 chosen for you, yes.
35:01
Yes, I think that's fun and the AV person can have fun with it.
35:04
Imagine me come. On YEAH if you are interested in
35:10
leveling up your skills and are ready to join a series of
35:14
professionals and experts in Boulder Co this November
35:18
November 3rd through six story camp is being hosted by these
35:22
very people will be there Mikey Alley and and some pretty
35:27
incredible keynoters we've got will store himself who wrote the
35:31
science of storytelling Montana von Fliss.
35:36
Incredible. Yeah, incredible.
35:39
One of those she's. On our stage track.
35:40
One of my favorite. Coach maybe the best in the
35:42
game. Yeah, you don't want to miss
35:44
this. If this was useful to you, that
35:46
is only going to be tenfold of the this this podcast 6.
35:50
Tickets are selling, you know, like if you were thinking about
35:53
bringing A-Team you, you might need to pounce because space is
35:56
limited. storycamp.com. Thanks for that plug, Molly.
36:00
Well, this has been another episode of presentation
36:03
thinking, story scream and stage analysis.
36:05
So much fun. Thank you Ally and Mikey for
36:08
joining as a guest. And until we meet again,
36:11
everybody keep on pitching.