Latest / Presentation Thinking / #216. Story Camp ‘26 is almost here. Join the mountain magic.

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#216. Story Camp ‘26 is almost here. Join the mountain magic. · Presentation Thinking

• 0:21
  Welcome back to Presentation Thinking, AKA the Storyteller
• 0:24
  Study Club, the podcast for people who think about slides
• 0:27
  more than is probably healthy, but we wouldn't have it any
• 0:30
  other way. This is Mikey Meduski.
• 0:32
  I'm joined by Molly Gagan somewhere out West.
• 0:37
  Molly, how you doing? Are you ready to to interview me
• 0:40
  today? Yeah.
• 0:41
  Yeah, what's up Mikey? Present, What's up?
• 0:43
  Presentation Nation and welcome back Mikey from Story Camp 2026,
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  the internal version. But today I'm very excited to
• 0:55
  talk to you as kind of a launch a little promo about story Camp
• 0:59
  2026 the the public facing version.
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  This is our second annual ever story camp and we have talked
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  potentially not quite ad nauseam talking about slides more than
• 1:13
  his selfie, but story Camp is still at a healthy level.
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  And I think, I think the people need to know.
• 1:19
  We've been plugging it in the last like couple dozen episodes.
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  What is story camp about if they don't know?
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  And it's like who, like what career, whether, what career
• 1:29
  track they're in, how would it be useful for them?
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  So we've got a couple of fun announcements of like speakers
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  and who's going to be there. You got to scope out the Boulder
• 1:37
  location where it's going to take place.
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  Boulder, Co, November 3rd through 6.
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  And yeah, Presentation Nation, please keep listening on if you
• 1:46
  are interested in like a like the most non corporate creative
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  kooky leveling up you could you could imagine for your
• 1:56
  storytelling presenting skills. Mikey.
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  Thanks Molly, the founder of Story Camp welcome.
• 2:02
  Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Molly.
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  Yeah, like a little like what to expect because what the hell is
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  this story camp thing? So yeah, let's let's paint it
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  out there. As you said, November 3rd
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  through six, we say that there's really like 2 core days of
• 2:17
  programming. So if you're intimidated or
• 2:19
  you're some executive and you're like, I can't get get away that
• 2:22
  long, it's really the 4th and the 5th.
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  We were just trying to do you solid and say most people travel
• 2:27
  in on the third because we start early on the 4th and then we go
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  late on the 5th. We have a a closing party and
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  stuff. So you might want to sleep it
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  off. Our all inclusive tickets come
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  with three nights at the beautiful Chautauqua.
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  Molly, you've been there, you've stayed there, I've been there.
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  You had a wedding there, your brothers.
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  Yeah, my brother had his wedding there and so I got to stay like
• 2:47
  a little camper. And I have to say it's one of
• 2:50
  those things if you loved Boy Scout, Girl Scout theatre, camp,
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  theatre camp when you were little and you were like have
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  yet to kind of recreate the that special magic when you're like,
• 3:01
  what cabin are you staying in? And you like run a few a few
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  doors down to like go trade crafts or like little badges.
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  You know, this can really, this can really capture that magic.
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  It's beautifully updated and maintained cabins from like, I
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  think they're built in the late 1800s or early 1900s, but
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  they're like really stunning, full of character.
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  This is not just like a boring hotel room, no offense, but it's
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  very comfortable, extremely comfortable.
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  Right. Yeah.
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  And so we scooped up every single studio and one bedroom
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  cottage, which each have their own kitchenette, their own
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  private bath, like they're on screened in porch.
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  And they're so cute. Like they they have numbers,
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  like you said. And so, so we just got back,
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  Molly, as you alluded, we did a little shakedown trip.
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  Ghost Ranch, you know, our our presentation design agency
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  hosted our annual summer retreat at the Chautauqua so that we
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  could kind of like see how it feels to host an event there.
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  And it was like, it was so beautiful.
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  And like, so yeah, everyone got their own little cabin or they
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  also have this lodge called the Columbine Lodge.
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  It's more like an apartment style stay.
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  So if you, if you don't like the idea of sleeping in your own
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  cottage, you know, you like having neighbors all under one
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  roof, that's pretty cool too. And I stayed in one of those.
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  I've stayed in a single cabin. They're both incredibly awesome.
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  And like you said, they, they, these are older cabins,
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  cottages, if you will, but they're super updated, really
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  modern amenities, air conditioning, heat, you know,
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  running water. They're really nice.
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  Molly, One thing that stood out to me, no televisions in these
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  things. So like then you will get to
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  unplug when you come to story camp or or if you can't do that,
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  there is Internet hit or miss. Maybe mostly a hit.
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  If you gotta stream Netflix, bring an iPad or something too.
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  Yeah, bring your laptop. You can stream your little show
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  at the end of the day. But that's no, but it's great.
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  And I mean, Needless to say, if you look outside your window,
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  the television is the Chautauqua Boulder flat irons, the rocked
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  formations that are right in the right in the heart of Boulder.
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  Really. So you can just walk out your
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  door, have a nice little morning jaunt.
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  Yeah, it's, it'll be beautiful. That was so well taken advantage
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  of by the team is like, hey, we had a little downtime like wait,
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  people were just constantly off on the trail exploring.
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  There's I think 40 miles of trail system right out the back
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  of of that that area, like you're at the top, like you're
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  at the area where bolderites come up to you have a 15 minute
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  head start on them. Like you're right there and
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  Molly, the trail system is awesome.
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  There's like kind of like when you're skiing, there's green
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  runs, blue and black. And so they'll tell you, Hey,
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  this is the beginner trail start here.
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  This is the blue, this is the advanced.
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  You know, the Black Diamond is going all the way to that the
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  grand, which part of our team did and that's a struggle.
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  Like that is a lot of vertical in a three mile hike.
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  It's yeah, you got to. So I was like acclimating as I
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  went. I started with the green one day
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  I did the blue. I never got to the black because
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  because I didn't, but a lot. Of yeah, getting to the arch is
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  a little bit of a suffer fest, but it is really pretty in the
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  end. You get a great view.
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  Yeah. But I mean, regardless of skill
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  set, you'll be able to, even if you just want to wander on the
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  Meadow and look at the rocks, like that's a very accessible
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  too. You get to see some beautiful
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  flowers. I think in November there'll be
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  some really nice. It still won't be too, too cold.
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  So there might be just a little dust the leaves.
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  Probably will have flipped, but it's still going to be.
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  Just it's going to be some good bird watching though too.
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  Bird watching take enough. Like I kept catching myself.
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  How many pictures are you going to take of these flat irons?
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  It's like and they don't. Mine don't look good compared to
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  the real thing, but I just like every second.
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  The guy kept turning around and like taking a picture of the
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  flat irons, like you can't believe you're right there.
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  Very Monet of you to just you know, the the you know, let's
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  look at this one in the morning lights.
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  Let's look at this one in the evening lights.
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  Kind of captured. Very beautiful setting.
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  So it's, it's just one-of-a-kind.
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  That's the where. And it just like, you know, last
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  year we we posted up story camp. One was at a five star hotel
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  mountainside in Salt in Park City.
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  Gorgeous. But what like the, the event
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  feedback was like, hell yeah. the IT was, of course, it was a
• 7:04
  really nice stay, but that's not what matters the most to us.
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  The what mattered the most to our attendees based on feedback
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  was the size. And so a lot of people said,
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  please don't make it bigger. Like last year we had 50 people
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  and we during our conversations, they're like, yeah, maybe like
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  keep it under 100. So we're landing at 75 all in,
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  including speakers, including staff sitting, there's no more
• 7:25
  than 75 people who will be there.
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  And so that keeps ensures that things are intimate more camp
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  like still, you know, like we said, modern amenities, so
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  you're not sleeping in a tent, but it is a wonderful experience
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  for teams, for soloists, you know, people who have to help
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  their companies elevate presentations, communicate and
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  scale a story. That's who this is for.
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  And I know that's kind of wide spanning and we can kind of talk
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  about who came last year, who's already signed up this year.
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  There's like two or three different profiles that we see
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  time and time again who get the most out of story camp.
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  But I mean, it's hard to think of someone in Business Today who
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  couldn't benefit from telling a better story.
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  Yeah, I'm excited to hear a little more about this profile.
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  Someone's listening, Mikey. Who might?
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  Who might they be? The first one that maybe this is
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  just because Ghost Ranch hangs out with a lot of these people,
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  you know, in our day-to-day is product marketing people.
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  So senior level product marketers are busy.
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  They're incredible with strategy positioning.
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  They spend a lot of time in slides and, you know, creating
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  decks for both for, for events, for executives and largely for
• 8:36
  sales enablement purposes. So when there's a field of many,
• 8:39
  many sellers, product marketing is always often the one who
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  translates what's going on with the product into human speak,
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  into buyer speak. And they're telling sales, hey,
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  here's how you should speak to this and here's a deck that's
• 8:51
  going to enable you to go do that.
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  So the better they can get at clarifying the stories,
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  developing assets on the slide, and then telling the sellers how
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  to speak to it, you suddenly become so much better off than
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  peers who are not investing in those skills.
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  So we see a lot of heads of product marketing who want to
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  send their team, you know, maybe the exec of the team can't go or
• 9:13
  they, they kind of know that stuff.
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  They're sending their team to go level up because they see this
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  as a huge advantage. So PMMS, the leaders of product
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  marketing and, and the tomorrow leaders are, are investing in,
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  in this skill. And then we also see what I call
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  the accidental speaker coaches. So if you think about like a
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  head of corporate comms or like a chief of staff type character,
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  someone who works in the C-Suite or is, and is constantly at
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  these events trying to make sure that their CFO sounds not like a
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  robot or that their CEO isn't all over the place.
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  And so these people who work in corporate comms and corporate
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  marketing, they're the, the storytellers behind the
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  storytellers. They're, you know, often times
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  not the one under the spotlight, but they're just, just just
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  behind the stage. And they've, and so maybe
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  they're not a professional speaker coach, but they live and
• 10:08
  breathe. They know exactly what the CEO
• 10:10
  should be saying. And so for them to come and
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  invest in these, in these skills means they can go back to their
• 10:16
  company. Hey, I learned this new
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  framework. Hey, I, I picked this up in
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  this, this workshop that I took, they can elevate and raise the
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  plane for their entire company. And so organizationally, if you
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  have influence on how your company tells the story, it's
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  good for you. So heads of corporate comps,
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  heads of corporate marketing and brand, people who who sort of
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  have like a magnifying effect or multiplier effect on the story,
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  they come and then they they teach.
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  And we've been, we talked to past alumni and it's really cool
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  how many went back to their companies and gave a
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  presentation. Here's what I learned at story
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  camp. So we that's there's immediate
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  ROI when it's kind of that multiplier effect like that.
• 10:55
  Yeah, and we'll have the BuzzFeed esque pop quiz incoming
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  to identify are you an accidental speaker coach, if
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  your team constantly is asking you to to Polish up these slides
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  for the one that you're going to present because you've done it
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  before. So yeah, you might be an
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  excellent. Speaker Molly, those are sort of
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  the the presenters behind the presenters.
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  And truly for someone like that to get up on a stage and
• 11:20
  practice, they have a better frame of reference for when
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  they're telling someone else. Here's how here's how I would do
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  it. Because they they're freshening
• 11:27
  up those skills. And a lot of times they'll go
• 11:29
  give a breakout talk at a conference or something like
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  that, But they're usually not the ones doing it.
• 11:34
  The ones who the third category, it's sort of miscellaneous, but
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  it's I would, I would consider like executives and sales
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  leaders. So these might be the ones who
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  are often giving the the presentations.
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  Maybe they're really product focused, individual contributor
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  or they do a lot of customer facing sales presentations.
• 11:52
  We saw a few of these come last year and become probably the
• 11:55
  biggest advocates of of anyone is like one person just like
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  this was career changing, you know, like the everyone who is a
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  sales leader should come to story Cam was what they're
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  saying. So yeah, beautiful.
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  And then the coalesce you like what's the word the cross
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  functional. Like it's not just PMMS, it's
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  not just sellers. It's like everyone coming
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  together and seeing other points of view.
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  There's a lot of time to to round table and to chitchat.
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  So I think that broader perspective was actually a
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  benefit rather than a hindrance too.
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  Definitely, definitely. Yeah.
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  And you're bringing, I mean, yeah, when you get to be people
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  that you wouldn't normally meet in your day-to-day and having
• 12:32
  those different industry exposures, different, different
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  pathways, different backgrounds, for sure.
• 12:37
  It's just like they can bring a lot to your work and you're not
• 12:40
  just in your industry facing or niche.
• 12:43
  Niche space, Yeah. The conference.
• 12:46
  Yeah, that's a different kind of.
• 12:48
  It's not a conference, you know, it's a camp.
• 12:51
  Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
• 12:53
  Yeah, we know it's fun. Yeah, it's it's just a.
• 12:56
  Yeah, exactly What else can people expect?
• 12:59
  Mike here. Should we reveal our some of our
• 13:01
  headliners that are? Going to be.
• 13:03
  So as far as programming goes, this was also another one last
• 13:06
  year where the feedback was like, holy crap, I was in a room
• 13:10
  with Amy Cuddy and Obama's speechwriter and Northwestern
• 13:14
  professor of visual design. And so we knew the caliber meant
• 13:18
  something. And especially not only that,
• 13:21
  because we know we hear about a lot of conferences where those
• 13:23
  people are like peace and they're like in and out of their
• 13:25
  limo. They're there for 45 minutes and
• 13:27
  then they're out. But they a lot of feedback was
• 13:30
  like, I can't believe I got to go then on a hike with Terry
• 13:33
  Zaplat. I got to eat dinner with Amy
• 13:35
  Cuddy, etcetera. And so this year we reached for
• 13:39
  the stars once again for the high caliber and, and really let
• 13:44
  these speakers know they're like, Hey, we want you here the
• 13:46
  whole time. Like we want you to to learn
• 13:48
  with and learn from and teach. And so this is like, we want you
• 13:53
  to mingle. And so we found awesome like a
• 13:56
  trio for our headliners to cover this story screen and stage, you
• 14:01
  know, pillars of presentation thinking.
• 14:04
  And so to start, you know, the book that you and I covered, the
• 14:08
  Ted talk we we watched will store, you know, he wrote the
• 14:11
  science of storytelling. He wrote, he followed up on that
• 14:14
  one with a story is a deal. He's just like such a guru that
• 14:19
  people look up to. He's he's a tremendous author in
• 14:24
  his own right. He writes fiction, he writes
• 14:25
  nonfiction. He writes essays and articles
• 14:28
  and journalists at heart. Yeah, makes sense.
• 14:30
  He has a journalist background coming into his own as like a
• 14:33
  storyteller in various niches and then but like getting into
• 14:36
  the neuroscience and like there's a reasoning behind every
• 14:39
  single decision in a story and your brand.
• 14:42
  And yeah, certainly with his perspective on a story as a deal
• 14:45
  being like storytelling in business, your brands can learn
• 14:48
  so much from that. So important.
• 14:50
  And we've been talking about at story camp about this idea with
• 14:54
  Daniella, who's our, our new director of learning and
• 14:57
  community. And she's got this notion that
• 14:59
  it's like story is like the craft or almost like the
• 15:03
  artifact. It's the, the piece that comes
• 15:06
  out of this. But the discipline is people and
• 15:09
  understanding how people think. And you know, the psychology,
• 15:13
  the neuroscience, like you said. And that's why we love will
• 15:15
  store. And he's, he goes deeper to
• 15:17
  understand why this stuff works the way it does, Right.
• 15:21
  So that's going to tee us up. We also have some people in the
• 15:24
  room who have a title that's like director of storytelling,
• 15:28
  you know, And so we're we'd like to have a little bit of
• 15:30
  conversation amongst ourselves as well about what is this new
• 15:34
  role? Why is it emerging?
• 15:35
  Like how does it work at your company?
• 15:37
  And so there will be like some kind of pseudo panels slash
• 15:40
  round tables in between sessions to keep, to keep things
• 15:43
  interactive. The next headliner screen.
• 15:48
  So what you show in your slides, in your presentations, we
• 15:51
  brought in, we, we wanted to really make sure we're, we don't
• 15:55
  have our heads in the sand on AI.
• 15:57
  And there is one person out there who I think isn't just
• 16:00
  doing it to do it or, and it's taking a very intentional
• 16:04
  approach to AI and creative with AI.
• 16:09
  His name's Benjamin Benicciu and if you look up Masters of AI,
• 16:12
  you'll see that he's got a crazy following on Instagram.
• 16:16
  He was a creative director, works in advertising, but leaned
• 16:20
  in early and has become, yeah, really like someone who doesn't
• 16:24
  just take what he gets from AI and, you know, that's, that's
• 16:27
  it. He wants to make sure things are
• 16:29
  stillwell branded. We're getting something that we
• 16:32
  were actually trying to get. And how do we do that?
• 16:34
  And and so we are asking him to come and say, how do we apply
• 16:37
  that as as practitioners of presentation craft, as these,
• 16:42
  you know, professional storytellers and story enablers.
• 16:45
  So we're really excited to see. And it was funny, like when we
• 16:48
  were talking to Benjamin, he like 6 months ago when we booked
• 16:51
  him, he's like, hey, we should just touch base closer to the
• 16:54
  event because like it's changing so fast.
• 16:56
  You know, he's like, so he doesn't have this canned spiel.
• 17:00
  It's constantly evolving and he's going to be fresh.
• 17:02
  Yeah, exactly. Totally.
• 17:04
  Yeah. That's really special to kind of
• 17:05
  have someone so invested. And he's like, yeah, really
• 17:09
  intentional with his. I've looked at some of his work,
• 17:11
  so interesting use of AI and and yeah, infusing like really good
• 17:16
  storytelling with it, how it can help you tell good stories and
• 17:20
  not just take over your stories for you.
• 17:22
  So very cool. To be again in a room of only 75
• 17:26
  people with access to Benny. He's, he's so cool.
• 17:29
  Also like on the Get to Know You call, he had just gotten back
• 17:32
  from Galapagos Island and he was talking to me about these
• 17:34
  turtles. And, and then I just saw him on
• 17:36
  Instagram the other day. He was in China and like took a
• 17:39
  bite out of one of those scorpions on a stick and his
• 17:41
  stuff. He's just like a funny, really
• 17:43
  sweet guy. So I'm excited.
• 17:44
  Interesting there. Yeah.
• 17:45
  Cool. Yeah, really.
• 17:47
  Cool. And again, you're going to be
• 17:48
  able to like, rub elbows with some of these people, which is
• 17:51
  so special. So like, you're going to be down
• 17:52
  at the Met Hall, if you will. Raising the flag.
• 17:57
  Yeah. Raising the flag every morning.
• 17:58
  Yeah. OK so story in screen what you
• 18:01
  say how do you show it? We know that can fall flat if
• 18:05
  you don't have a strong authentic present delivery.
• 18:08
  Right, Molly? So we love Montana von Fleiss.
• 18:12
  She, she came last minute last year and did this really cool,
• 18:16
  like stage coaching, we call that, whereas it's kind of
• 18:19
  improvy. She like got some people up on
• 18:21
  the stage just to and talking through the dynamics of a better
• 18:26
  stage presence. And so she's back this year for
• 18:28
  a headline slot. And but you know, she's, she's
• 18:31
  still the type who's like, I don't want to make a monologue
• 18:33
  for, for a, you know, 60 minutes.
• 18:36
  So that'll surely be interactive.
• 18:39
  We want people to show up with energy and bravery to try some
• 18:43
  things. And Montana is as cool as they
• 18:45
  get. So we are we're incredibly
• 18:48
  grateful that that she's she's back and again, do a little
• 18:53
  homework ahead of time. Watch her How to Be Confident
• 18:55
  Even when You're Not Ted X from 2025.
• 18:58
  Such a good Ted talk. It's so fun.
• 19:00
  Mikey and I leave this to say I will be spice cabinet cabineting
• 19:04
  these people in the spice cabinet and where to learn more
• 19:07
  about their work. And Mikey and I have already
• 19:09
  covered Montana von Felices Ted talk, one of the like it like
• 19:13
  she it's fairly something new and she got so many views on it
• 19:16
  within just a couple of years. So it's pretty it's pretty
• 19:18
  incredible. She's awesome and just so fun to
• 19:20
  talk to you. I.
• 19:21
  Joked with it like every time I I check her her Ted talk on
• 19:24
  YouTube, it's got another like 1,000,000 views on it.
• 19:26
  It is it's going viral. It's it's pretty well.
• 19:29
  She's cool. All right.
• 19:30
  So I mean, we've got the plate, we've got the where we've got
• 19:32
  The Who it's for and who will be there and a little bit of like
• 19:37
  what to expect. Mikey, what else should we talk
• 19:40
  about? Like why, why do you start this?
• 19:42
  Why do you why do you feel like you needed to start a story camp
• 19:44
  in the first place? No, man, I mean, like there's so
• 19:48
  many reasons a so many reasons. OK, you, you know, I've been
• 19:53
  working remote since 2012 and the highlight of my year is
• 19:57
  always when we get together in person, right?
• 19:59
  And so for our ghost ranch agency retreat, we would do it
• 20:03
  once, maybe sometimes twice a year.
• 20:05
  I would just come back glowing. You know, it's like just like I
• 20:08
  that over the shoulder. Hey what are you working on
• 20:12
  like? Get to know you beyond work type
• 20:15
  stuff. Like there's always such a high
• 20:17
  coming back from that. And then we started to sprinkle
• 20:19
  in learning on top of that where we'd bring in a speaker who
• 20:22
  would give us a workshop and suddenly it's different than
• 20:26
  like reading a book by yourself, right Molly?
• 20:27
  You're like, hey, I watched this master class.
• 20:30
  When you do it with a group, you, you have this suddenly
• 20:35
  collective base that you can all grow from and bounce off of with
• 20:39
  each other. And so there's something about
• 20:41
  joint learning, collective learning with peers who take
• 20:45
  this crap as seriously as you do.
• 20:47
  And then our clients kept saying, like, what is this thing
• 20:51
  you're doing every year is for Ghost Ranch Story Camp?
• 20:53
  And that's when we're like light bulb, our clients would get as
• 20:57
  much out of this, if not more than we do.
• 21:00
  And so, yeah, we just thought like, it needs to happen.
• 21:03
  And there truly are really good presentation conferences out
• 21:06
  there, but they are that they're like a little bigger.
• 21:09
  They're they're conferences and summits and, you know, couple
• 21:12
  100 people. And we just wanted to do
• 21:15
  something that might have felt a little more like us, you know,
• 21:18
  that is a little more, I guess, accessible, small, small scale,
• 21:23
  but big results and big reaching for the stars in terms of these
• 21:26
  speakers and the programming and stuff too.
• 21:28
  Yeah, definitely. I think when clients were
• 21:31
  becoming interested in a kind of asking questions, I realized how
• 21:34
  different that type of gathering was that we were having as a
• 21:38
  group with Ghost Ranch. And because people have do have
• 21:41
  such big, big organizations, big like industry specific niche
• 21:46
  conferences with like hundreds and hundreds of people at the
• 21:48
  hotel hallway. And that does have value.
• 21:51
  But this is something very unique.
• 21:52
  And I think something especially in this now working remote post
• 21:56
  COVID time where people who are like kind of yes, starved for
• 22:00
  some inverse interaction. It's like a little less over
• 22:03
  stimulating to be in a group of like recognizing that person's
• 22:06
  face. I'm actually remembering their
• 22:07
  name. Yeah.
• 22:09
  Like we, we might connect because, you know, I've, we, we
• 22:13
  went to the same, I don't know, college or something.
• 22:15
  And but even if I'm focused on like, you know, the product
• 22:19
  marketing elements of something, but I'm like constantly being
• 22:21
  put in a presentation space and I could use a little help with
• 22:25
  the stage presence or I feel good about my stage presence,
• 22:27
  but I've never been good at developing my slides.
• 22:30
  Like I think there's something for everyone to kind of work on
• 22:33
  to bring that balance of storytelling, which is more
• 22:36
  important than ever, you know, in the age of AI and tech to in
• 22:40
  person gatherings, so. Nice, so true.
• 22:43
  And and that's a great point on that different tracks, right?
• 22:46
  Like where do you want to where do you want to like dive deeper,
• 22:49
  lean into your strengths or feel in any any places you're not
• 22:52
  feeling as strong on? And our day 2 is going to have a
• 22:55
  lot more of that. You know, if day one is more
• 22:57
  theory, cutting edge discussion, day 2, we're designing to be
• 23:01
  more practice, more interactive workshops.
• 23:04
  If you want to go a little deeper on how to build a, a
• 23:06
  better sales deck, you know, we're going to have a, one of
• 23:09
  our favorite CM OS leading a, a workshop on that and, and stage
• 23:14
  coaching. And you can show up with or
• 23:16
  without content, Molly, like if you say like, hey, there's this
• 23:20
  5 minute talk or, or the 1st 5 minutes that I've, I need to
• 23:24
  practice because I can't, I can't find a stage and I need
• 23:27
  some practice somehow in front of real people.
• 23:29
  We call those lightning talks. And so we're going to have
• 23:31
  breakouts on day 2 where you could work with Montana von
• 23:34
  Fleiss and develop that, Hey, I want to try this out.
• 23:37
  You get to work with a professional speaker coach and,
• 23:41
  and give it a shot, right? And give feedback or let's say
• 23:44
  you don't have time to do the homework.
• 23:46
  You can show up and say, hey, I still want to get a chance to
• 23:49
  present something. And so we'll work with you on
• 23:51
  how to develop something based on a, a really easy framework,
• 23:54
  put some content together and do it right there.
• 23:56
  So it's hands on, you know, and. Like, yeah, we're talking one to
• 23:59
  one helping. The first day back, like we're
• 24:03
  hoping everyone comes picks up a framework, picks up a trick and
• 24:07
  the the first Monday they're back.
• 24:09
  It's not only something they use, but they they teach their
• 24:11
  teams as well. Yeah, so easy to implement.
• 24:14
  And do we want to share a little just before we run out of time
• 24:17
  here Mikey, just a little bit of what those one to one
• 24:21
  workshoppers help desk kind of programming might involve?
• 24:25
  So title sponsor of of story camp is Ghost Ranch Balloons.
• 24:30
  Yeah, of course. The I mean, I'm biased.
• 24:33
  Premier. But I I would say one of the top
• 24:37
  presentation design studios agencies in the world for
• 24:42
  enterprise marketers. 7 continents.
• 24:44
  I'm biased. I would call them #1 personally.
• 24:46
  Yeah. I think so, but anyway, like top
• 24:49
  one of the top. So imagine Molly, if you could
• 24:53
  show up to story Cam and they're in the mission House is Ghost
• 24:57
  Ranch professional presentation designers.
• 25:00
  You could roll up with a couple problem slides, some decks
• 25:03
  you've been working on. You're like, I'm just, it's just
• 25:05
  not quite there because you and I know that marketers have to.
• 25:09
  We know you're good at storytelling, but you're going
• 25:12
  to have to be a little bit tricky and capable of
• 25:15
  presentation design too. It's not like you get a white
• 25:18
  glove service on every deck unless you do have a ghost
• 25:21
  ranch. So come bring your your trouble
• 25:23
  slides. There's going to be open hours
• 25:25
  like where you can go do what you want.
• 25:27
  You could go for a hike or you could bring a deck you're
• 25:29
  working on to the Ghost Ranch slide help desk and jam with a
• 25:34
  with a real life presentation designer.
• 25:35
  So yeah, that's huge. Thank you Ghost Ranch for the
• 25:39
  title sponsorship. It really is going to make it.
• 25:42
  It is so cool. In the feedback we heard from
• 25:44
  those who took advantage of the the slide help desk was like
• 25:48
  they couldn't believe they got to sit down with some like
• 25:50
  tomorrow last year and and jam. So yeah, we're bringing that
• 25:53
  back, but even bigger this year. Cool, cool.
• 25:55
  Yeah, expect a help desk spring. It's not just you listening to
• 25:59
  the keynotes, imagining how you might implement it.
• 26:01
  Someone can actually help you do it that day, which is so.
• 26:04
  Cool. And then, you know, like balance
• 26:06
  is also we've we've been to conferences where we just get
• 26:10
  overstuffed like by noon, our brains are fried.
• 26:14
  So we are, we're going past noon, but we are ensuring that
• 26:18
  there's some, some downtime, you know?
• 26:20
  For a couple hours. Where you so that you can go
• 26:24
  take advantage of shopping in Boulder, you could just go, go
• 26:27
  to your cabin, write emails. On our last trip with the Ghost
• 26:30
  Ranch team, there was so many porch sessions.
• 26:33
  You know, like every cute little cottage has a screened in porch
• 26:35
  And more often than not on Slack, people be like, hey,
• 26:38
  we're hanging out at 2:14 and you just walk by and there's a
• 26:42
  bunch of campers hanging out and mingling.
• 26:43
  And it's a it's that was my favorite part that made me feel
• 26:48
  like this really is like like a camp.
• 26:50
  Get to know your campers. Oh, it's so fun.
• 26:53
  It's hard to replicate those, those that feeling of just like
• 26:56
  a little little village, wherever it's.
• 26:58
  Connected Molly I hate to say this like this one's gonna sell
• 27:02
  out like we I'd love to say that, but I.
• 27:05
  Love to say and. I'd love to have a wait list but
• 27:07
  we are we only have like 35% of tickets left.
• 27:11
  Which, yeah, yeah, it's the first week of August, right?
• 27:14
  Yeah. So there's three months to to
• 27:16
  act, but I don't I wouldn't say that in three months.
• 27:19
  Yeah, I'd say like this much. I would, I would probably act,
• 27:22
  especially if you think about sending a team and this is
• 27:24
  really, really good for teams. You're here to hear, folks.
• 27:27
  We are going to get this episode out so that people, the people
• 27:30
  can know Presentation Nation. We want you to know first,
• 27:33
  Mikey, if they want to sign up, learn more, maybe they're like,
• 27:37
  oh, I'm really interested, but I do have a few questions.
• 27:39
  Could could I talk to you? Can I talk to?
• 27:41
  You about this story camp.com head there first check it out.
• 27:46
  There is a contact page. I receive all of that all of
• 27:49
  those inquiries. So hit that up or hit me up on
• 27:51
  LinkedIn. Mikey Meduski.
• 27:53
  MIODUSKI. I'll link it all up.
• 27:55
  And yeah, there's tickets already going.
• 27:57
  You can buy your team tickets right in a group way.
• 28:02
  In a group way, yeah. No ticket tailor makes it easy
• 28:04
  to to buy in bulk for sure. And you can like sign up each
• 28:08
  attendee's name and. Check out the spice cabinet,
• 28:11
  Mikey, if Story Camp 2026 had a walkout song or like a theme
• 28:15
  song, if you will, what is going to be playing over the promo,
• 28:19
  which some of which I've already seen.
• 28:21
  I like the Instagram. It's beautiful, Yeah.
• 28:23
  As you know, let's play 90s music and lithium radio on XM.
• 28:28
  Specifically, I have two favorite DJs Grant Random, he's
• 28:32
  funny, but in the mornings it's Madison and she's really funny.
• 28:36
  But the other day, Madison played this song by Feeder
• 28:40
  called High. Do you remember that song?
• 28:42
  I'm going out for a while. Yes, yes, yeah.
• 28:46
  But she feeder. Hi with my friend and I was
• 28:50
  like, you know what? Yeah.
• 28:52
  Like this. This really is about about like
• 28:54
  you're going to meet friends. It's a high altitude.
• 28:57
  You're right up here in the flat irons that's and you're going to
• 29:01
  get high on presentations. And so I think Feeder High is my
• 29:05
  anthem for this year, unless you can talk me into something
• 29:07
  better. High altitude, high vibes, high
• 29:10
  octane, high velocity. Yeah, if you.
• 29:15
  Don't light anything on fire. This music video is bringing
• 29:17
  back some memories. I'm on YouTube.
• 29:21
  I'm incredible. OK, Mikey well, founder of story
• 29:24
  Camp and Ghost Range communications.
• 29:27
  Thank you for joining. Thank you for giving us The Who,
• 29:30
  what, where and why of story camp, the second annual.
• 29:35
  It's so special. Like you know, that feeling of
• 29:37
  like this is the first ever event, you know, when you like
• 29:40
  get in with something, you're like, this has never happened
• 29:42
  before. This is only our second year.
• 29:44
  It's getting better every year and it's just so cool to be part
• 29:46
  of that. Like magic.
• 29:48
  You can look at some really flattering LinkedIn posts from
• 29:51
  previous years to the All LinkedIn.
• 29:53
  Spice and Molly Chelsea Booker on our team is in really awesome
• 29:57
  photographer so we can put some gallery pics in this post from
• 30:02
  the Chautauqua that she captured just to say if you're having a
• 30:05
  hard time picturing it, you could go to Colorado Chautauqua,
• 30:08
  you know on Google. But yeah, we've got some some
• 30:10
  candids from the event that we. Just had there.
• 30:12
  I'll link it. I'll link a little bit of
• 30:14
  everything, The Who, what, where and the why.
• 30:17
  Well, thank you for joining Presentation Nation.
• 30:20
  Check, go check out story camp and until we meet again, keep
• 30:25
  on.