I’d like to say the glazed looks were from the convention center BBQ chicken they’d just had for lunch. But I was the 4th presentation they’d sat through that day and even I got bored explaining my own slides.

I was early in my career, a few months into a new role, when I had to present to the entire sales team. A senior colleague presenting with me crammed in all the data. Charts. Tables. We had them all. I spoke to great numbers and nobody cared.

Afterward I watched the presenters the sales team actually responded to. They didn’t unload data. They spoke to what the sales team really cared about: how to make more money. The data supported the story. It wasn’t the main event.

I stopped looking at presentations as a way to unload information and started looking at them as a way to intrigue my audience. The data is always available — it just shouldn’t fog up the main idea.

It’s how I think about every update, every report, every ask I bring to leadership.

I use AI to help me find the story before I build the slides. Here’s a quick prompt you can customize to get you started:

I’m preparing an update / report / presentation for [audience: CEO / sales team / board / etc.]. 
Here’s the data I have: [paste your numbers, metrics, or raw results]. 
Here’s the context: [What’s the initiative? Is this new or ongoing? What decision or reaction are you hoping to drive?] 
Your job is not to help me present all of this. Your job is to help me find the one story this data tells that my audience actually cares about — then use the data to support that story, not replace it. 
Do the following: 
(1) Identify the single most important thing my audience needs to walk away with. Not a summary. One thing. 
(2) Build the narrative arc — what’s the setup, what’s the turn, what’s the ask or implication. 
(3) Place the data where it supports the story. Flag anything that clouds the main idea and suggest cutting it or moving it to an appendix. 
(4) Tell me what a skeptical person in that room will push back on — and whether my data can defend it. Don’t reassure me the data is strong if it isn’t. I’d rather walk in with a tight, honest story than an impressive-looking slide deck that loses the room.

What’s the presentation moment that taught you how a room listens?