My first talk in English class was about bats.

I was 14.
I brought in a desiccated pipistrelle to show everyone.
Instead of an acetate, I held up a wallpaper scroll I'd drawn with outlines of bat species.

Another student read a piece on VW Combi vans. No images. No props. Just words.

I had figured out you could do it the same way it had always been done.
​Or you could do something different.​
​
​More memorable.

💡 ONE IDEA WELL

We often treat presentations like assignments.
Say the thing. Prove you know it. Sit down.

But your audience doesn’t want to be impressed.
They want to be interested.

That lesson clicked for me in a classroom at 14 - with a dead bat and a roll of wallpaper.
Not because I knew more.
But because I showed more. Invited curiosity. Created contrast.

That instinct still matters.
Even now, decades later, the talks I remember - the ones that moved me - didn’t just deliver facts.
They made me feel something.

We forget that sometimes.
We confuse clarity with compliance.
We flatten the human parts that make things land.

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​

🧰 LESS MESS, MORE MESSAGE

If your talk could be a Wikipedia page, you're missing the point.

A great talk doesn’t just transfer information.
It creates connection. Contrast. Curiosity.

That’s why stories matter.
Props matter.
Voice and movement matter.

These aren’t “extras.”
They are the message.
They help people care before they understand.

It’s not about dumbing down.

It’s about lifting up.

Try this:

• Swap one stat for a story.
• Replace one definition with a question.
• Let one prop do the work of a whole slide.
• Pause before you explain - to let curiosity build.

Small shifts. Big impact.

🧭 ASK YOURSELF THIS

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Speak soon,

Andy
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PS
​Ever brought something unexpected to a talk? A prop, a photo, a strange but true fact? I’d love to hear what worked - and what didn’t.