What GhostRanch learned from Presentation Summit

 

Mikey: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Presentation Thinking, aka the Storyteller Study Club, aka the podcast that very closely covers Presentation Summit. And we're just back from a fresh Presentation Summit. Molly and I did not attend, but we have four guests today. Who were there and we're going to talk about it. So Molly, who do we have today with us?

Molly: We have so many friends of the cast. Good to see so many faces all the one at a time, friends of the ranch who attended presentation summit some for the first time. Some are veterans of the conference. And yeah, as you said, Mikey, we've been really talking about Rick Altman's presentation summit. If you're not [00:01:00] familiar, presentation thinkers, amazing conference around all things, presenting and storytelling.

And it was the last of its kind in this format, Rick, where it's not ours. We'll see how true that becomes. We know he loves it. Allie Wilson, you've been there before. Tell us who you are and friend of the pod. Welcome back. Hi.

Allie: Yep. Friend of the pod, Allie Wilson here. I'm the executive creative director here at Ghost Ranch.

Um, a presentation summit that third time we went there for the first, oh no, oh my gosh. Okay. Well, you help me math, but the years, but first year was 2017 since then I have only missed one presentation summit and it is because I had a newborn baby. The only thing that can keep me from the summit is a baby.

That's it. That's great. Very loyal.

Molly: What a testimony. Very in love with the summit. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Jeff Carter [00:02:00] also has been on the podcast and been to PreSum. Welcome. Welcome back.

Jeff: Thanks for having me. Yeah. Similar to Allie. First one was in 2017. And I think I've been before, I believe, so not, not quite the diehard that Allie has been.

Is it? But definitely been around a time or two and experienced the glory that is Presentation Summit.

Molly: And what do you do at The Ranch?

Jeff: Oh yeah, I'm a creative director here.

Molly: Okay, amazing. And, uh, Presentation Nation, if this is your first time tuning in, The Ranch is Ghost Ranch Communications. A creative agency specializing in presentation design.

We'll remind you of that later as well. Steve Sheets, welcome back to the pod. You, you've been here a time or two. Yeah. What do you do at the Ridge and how many pre sums have you been to?

Steve: Hey, thanks, Molly. Happy to be back. I'm the technical director at Ghost Ranch here to help solve issues when they pop up.

Uh, but then I also spend a ton of time designing as well. Gosh, was this my fifth

Mikey: presentation summit? Maybe fourth or fifth. [00:03:00] So yeah, really, really happy to get to do it again. And Steve, you freaking spoke at this one. And I think the last one too, right? It was two years ago was the last time I presented there.

And then, yeah, I got to present at this one as well. So that is a honor and a privilege. It's. You know, I, I'm such a fan of so many of the presenters there and so excited to see what they're going to share every year. So yeah, you have to share a stage with someone who's pretty wild for me. Dude, you're like on the Mount Rushmore of that stuff.

That's awesome. And last but not least, straight out of Philly, Laura Waskiewicz. Welcome to the show for your first time.

Laura: Yeah.

Mikey: And it was your first presentation summit, yeah?

Laura: Yeah, first podcast, first presentation summit. It's been a lot of fun.

Molly: Laura, aka Wasco, I saved you for last but not least, because yeah, this was your first presentation summit.

So I'm really excited to hear your perspective after like hearing some of the hype around it and then your own experience as well. Oh, so much

Laura: hype around it. These [00:04:00] guys talked it up so much and it lived up to the hype in every way. It was great.

Molly: Incredible. Okay, well, let's kind of get into it, I guess.

Give us a little bit about, yeah, let's go start with you, like your expectations coming into, like, truly it's a presentation, the summit around presentations, like what, did you even think something like that could exist before working here at Ghost Ranch?

Laura: Definitely not, because what we do is such a niche industry.

No one sets out on this path. We all sort of seem to have fallen into it. So I had no idea something like this existed and it's such a small community, but it turns out it's really tight knit community and it's really awesome.

Mikey: Can you tell us about the format Lascaux for the, for the conference as a whole?

Laura: It was, I think Rick said it was the longest, Monday was the longest day of sessions in like conference history. They went till, I think the last one was nine o'clock at night. Oh my gosh. They did feed us. It was, we got to take breaks, but

Music: yeah,

Laura: [00:05:00] it was breakfast sessions,

Molly: lunch sections. Do you think going till 9 PM was a symptom of this conference being like the last one in this particular format?

And there's probably a lot of people excited to speak and they just wanted to keep the thing going. Was it? I think so. Yeah. It ended up with a 9 PM slot.

Allie: Yeah. Wasco was the 9 PM slot. Was that when we all held hands around the fire and through? Our was it? What were we throwing into the fire? Bullshit bonfire are the bullshit bonfire.

Was that the 9 p. m. Session? Yeah, I can get it. Yeah.

Mikey: All right. Tell us about that. What's the bullshit bonfire? Would you like to

Allie: know about the bullshit bonfire?

Jeff: Yeah, it was a therapy session for all attendees. Essentially, um, The drinks in hand, Rick's daughter's manning the BYOB brigade were posted up around the bonfire and we Stood around it and would go around in a circle and say something about you that [00:06:00] maybe you struggle with Something that has been a challenge or something that you feel about yourself and throw that bullshit into the bonfire and burn it up and everyone Hypes you up and says how amazing you are.

Yeah, it was very cathartic.

Molly: Yeah,

Mikey: dude. That's so cool.

Molly: That's beautiful. Was

Mikey: that, uh, whose,

Jeff: whose idea was that one? I believe that was Sally. I believe Sally was the, the head of that one.

Mikey: What's up? Sally. I mean,

Molly: this speaks to the uniqueness of. The stories we hear about pre sum and kind of the communal quality because this is such a niche industry.

How is that different than like your average, you know, conference at a hotel or whatever? Like this is, this seems to be very communal kumbaya vibes. What's, what's the difference there for some of you pre sum veterans?

Mikey: The, the difference is that there was no outcome of this event where you're going to be closing sales or making a business relationship at that session.

It was more like you're here with other people who are [00:07:00] possibly dealing with similar issues in their work, their career, their personal life, and they're there to support and not just like. Get that linked in connection connection with like,

Molly: is the goal of presum

Allie: community think it depends on where you're at.

There's such a great range of people who come to presentation summit, and that's what makes it so interesting. You've got people who are maybe. Just dipping their toes in the water and they just discovered presentation design as a medium. They're like, Hey, this is interesting. I'm, you know, they're really coming to learn the ins and outs, the differences between, you know, what's the difference between, you know, presentation design and, and your typical design process.

And there's really something for everyone there. So I think if Early stage in your career. There's a lot of stuff for you there. And then for folks who have been to it seven times or whatever, 20 times, 25 times, I think they really keep coming back. And that's the reason it's been around for so long. I think [00:08:00] Rick posted something.

Was that earlier today, Steve, that you just sent something about an average conference only lasts like four and a half or five years, something like that. And. Presentation from it lasted for so long and I think it is that like the community part of it is why so many people have gone to a year over year over year because it is a unique industry and I think having this yearly gathering of people to learn from each other and just those casual conversations are just as meaningful and important and you get so much out of it like maybe even more sometimes than the sessions for those people who have gone so many times

Molly: And going so many times, Allie, like how has your takeaways from it shifted in that way?

You know, going from just meeting people to learning stuff.

Allie: Yeah, I guess that's where maybe in 2017, I went there to be like, give me everything I can possibly learn about what we do. PowerPoint as a medium, Google Slides, you know, how are people approaching or some tips and tricks to make, make me more [00:09:00] efficient.

I think that was my intention when I went the first time I went probably for all of us. And then definitely this last one, the last hurrah, I was wanting to hold everyone as closely as possible. You know, we'll talk in a little bit, I think about what the future holds for presentation summit or what it sounds like, but it was really, it was, you know, a few of us just didn't even feel like we could miss out on it because it was like, how do we, you know, not wanting to let this sense of community go just because it's become so meaningful and the relationships have been so special because.

What's great about it, even though technically many of us at this conference could be competing with each other, it doesn't feel competitive in any way. It feels very transparent, like a very sharing environment. Everyone is willing to, you know, talk about their successes, how they got there. Everyone really wants to lift each other up.

So being able to have those types of conversations were, were awesome.

Mikey: That's sharing is a good word. Yeah. There [00:10:00] is like camaraderie, some commiseration, you know, like kind of people get to share their gripes about whether it's certain projects or things that clients keep doing and that they're like, ah, or the program keeps doing something, but like the sharing component too.

And what's crazy, like people, I'm looking at you four and Steve, you in particular as our technical director, someone who knows more about PowerPoint than just about anybody I know, I'm willing to bet, like, you still showed up at this conference and probably learned a new trick that maybe you didn't, didn't, like, am I wrong?

No, you're, you're totally right. I mean, that's a big part of the appeal to going for me is like. At a certain point, you don't know what you don't know, and you can't Google things that you never even imagined could be possible. So there is this weird wall that you hit in your own learning where without hanging out in a community of, of experts, you'll just never find anything [00:11:00] new because you wouldn't know what to ask.

So giving these people a platform where they can talk for 45 minutes or longer. You know, the, you stumble into all kinds of stuff and it might even not be what they're talking about. You might just notice something in what they're sharing that you've never seen before and then yeah, you've got time to talk to him later, too.

So, that's the coolest part, right? Yeah, you hang out and pick each other's brains and ask Jamie

Steve: Garrick to BrightSlide. Right? Yeah, it's, it's a lot of fun. So

Molly: I think that's a cool testament to like, if you feel like you're reaching a ceiling or a cap in your space, so where you're learning something, putting yourself in the space.

You know, Presum's unique, of course, but there's lots of places for, like, idea sharing and, like, to get inspiration and obviously doing that in person, it just brings it to a whole new level and so it's, you know, a good incontestment to, like, put yourself into those spaces and learn from people, or in [00:12:00] the, in the spaces, like, even adjacent to yours, Mikey and I talk all the time about how good, the best storytellers learn from people that aren't even in their space, you know.

Mikey: I'm curious, cause the, the content is always rich. There's a ton of speakers and tracks would love to go around the horn and hear what some of your favorite sessions and speakers were. Wasco, can we start with you?

Laura: Yeah. I had a few of them. They, there were some really, really great sessions. It's definitely cool to see our very own Steve present.

I've seen his webinars, but it was cool to see him present in person. That was fun. Yeah. Karajawasaki amazing. What did he talk about? He well, he was supposed to be there in person.

Music: Ah,

Laura: and He couldn't his very first grandchild had just been born and he threw a presentation together Last minute like recorded it And it was still totally incredible.

And then did a live, like Zoom Q and A with all of us. And it's cool. Yeah. He was great. Bright carbon folks. Always amazing. [00:13:00] Richard did a great session on animation. Ingrid did one on a slide with a ton of content and how three different ways to set it up. That was very cool. I'd miss Jamie's cause it was the same time as Ingrid's, but his was fantastic on.

See if it was on like different plugins and separate different apps and yeah, so they're great Steffi Hogan Did a whole session on using chat GBT for presentations, but it was Very audience driven. So she let us pick all the topics so it wound up Being a whole session on building a presentation for engineers on how uniborn farts can be used as clean energy.

And it was, you know, do we want it more technically driven? Who is our audience? We had to make a logo, so it was very informative, but also just hilarious. Bit of Mad Libs for us. Yeah, totally. A lot of fun. [00:14:00]

Mikey: Alright, those sound fun. Okay, Hefei, what about you?

Jeff: Yeah, Richard Goring's animation one, like, I sat next to Allie during that and multiple times we were just like slapping one another and making like head explosion,

Mikey: you know, reactions and lots of furious scribbling and underlining of Things because it was just stuff I'd never thought about doing or knew how to do with the with bright slides and it was just.

Super informative. And I feel like, you know, we've been doing this for a long time and I still just learned a ton from that.

Jeff: The other top one, not a session, but PowerPoint trivia, always a good time and always very enjoyable. So,

Mikey: and maybe for listeners who don't actually haven't used it or don't know what Brightslides is, does anyone want to, want to tell us like.

What the hell is Brightslides? Take it away, Steve. So Brightslide is a plugin that enables us to do a whole lot of things in PowerPoint that we couldn't usually do, or just be able to do things a whole lot faster than what we'd be able to do without it. And, [00:15:00] uh, on top of that, it works on Mac and PC. Ooh, so that is a absolute game changer.

And yes, Jamie Garak from Brightcarbon. Brian behind a lot of it, where at least it's beginnings, they, they sort of took a plugin that he had that was PC only and made it even better and brought it to, to people on Mac as well. So yeah, getting to rub elbows with him and hang out is always super cool. And then, yeah, having him do a session on what other plugins he uses.

I miss that. You all definitely can't miss that. And yeah, there's just so many amazing people there that have been doing it for so long. Right. You get to learn from, like, Troy and Lori Collar, and like, Nolan Haynes, and Julie Terber, you know, a bunch of people that have just been in it forever, so. Yeah.

Molly: And if you're hearing some of these names for the first time, Do not fear, do not need to write them down if you're in your car driving or [00:16:00] something.

I'll add them to the show notes as a super juicy, like, list of resources and some fresh presentation design inspiration to follow. Few of these folks have even been on the cast. Bright Carbon is an amazing presentation design agency as well. So just lots of, from being in the community, there's lots of these, these people that are willing to answer a LinkedIn message at any time.

Mikey: Shout out. Yeah. It's always so much fun to see some other couples that present there, you know, uh, Camille Holden and Taylor Kurdquist are, are awesome and certainly look up to them as well. And Taylor's just got such a deep bag of tricks that, you know, he's somebody where there's always an opportunity to learn something new every, every time he speaks for sure.

So yeah. That's a lot of fun to see him again as well. And Steve, he's like the speed dude, like nuts and bolts. Um, I think is the name of some of his tutorials or his school online. Does he come from like, was it like a managerial consulting background where you just have to like crank through, you know, 200 [00:17:00] slide decks and you got like two hours to do it, whatever, but all about the speed, right?

I, I think so. That's kind of his Gary. He's like, you know, get it, get it done so you can make it to happy hour.

Music: Uh,

Mikey: yeah. Oh yeah. How to do a whole lot of things as efficiently as possible. So yeah, it's always really neat to see what he's got up his sleeve. All right. Allie, what about you? Deep sheep.

Allie: Oh, number one session.

Music: Yes.

Allie: That's awesome. Right. Um, no, but for real, Steve, you're, you're always so great. You always have such a nice balance of like strategy and reasoning and like why this matters. You know, I think you could come to the table and probably just whip through. Yeah. 100 tricks to make people more efficient because you're, you're also extremely good at that.

But I think you do a really great job of explaining why, um, why some of these approaches and why you're doing things the way that you do. I do remember, gosh, was it Richard Goring? He was like, dang, I never thought of that. You showed a trick. With using a headline to set up like a [00:18:00] different way to, to place text, a different type of stack text on the slide.

And he never thought of it before. So I was like, dude, I'm dude. And like pat yourself on the back. If you showed Richard Goring, something new, that's pretty

Molly: sweet.

Music: It's

Molly: the founder of bright carbon. Oh my God, Steve. That's awesome. And it's been cool to see you. We've talked to you on the cast multiple times, but you, you giving presentations, not only at pre sum, but at.

Three, five, six labs like their, their conference and stuff. So it's really cool to see your growth as a presenter. How, yeah. How has that felt like multiple presentations on head conferences? Has it getting any easier?

Mikey: Speaking in front of people has certainly gotten easier. Sometimes maybe finding content is a little bit harder.

It depends what's going on with us. I worry too sometimes that, you know, I'm so deep in it now that maybe the things that I get wrapped up in or excited about probably don't apply to most people. So where, where it gets really handy. For me is maybe what I'm hoping to train people on our [00:19:00] staff or engaging with comments on tutorials and things that we've already had to say, Oh, okay.

Like, this is really cool to see how many views certain things are getting. We're just see what people are engaging with. And then it's a nice reminder of like, okay, here are the things that matter. And I'm super happy to nerd out about any of them. So sort of where the content comes from has changed a little bit now that we've put so much out.

It's kind of like looking back to see what those golden nuggets are. But yeah, it's gotten easier over time for sure. And doing it in person is so much more fun than online. You know, they're both great and there's huge advantages to, to both. Yeah. I love the access that you can have with online where it's just like, yeah, anybody can hop in over a lunch break or, or, you know, make the time without traveling, but yeah, in person, it's just a totally different level of engagement.

It's really enjoyable. So

Molly: yeah,

Mikey: you're good. It's awesome

Molly: to hear.

Mikey: I was curious, like what themes people are talking about, like [00:20:00] anyone want to go, like, what's new, what should we be looking for in the presentation game?

Allie: I feel like I was nodding. I do feel like AI is coming up a lot. Carmen Simon brought it up and I really liked her perspective on it because I think, especially in the presentation design space, well, I don't want to say especially because I think, I think there's a lot of industries and a lot of people that are feeling this, that, you know, Having a better understanding of how to use AI and to implement it into your practices and have it actually be a great resource for you rather than fearing it or shying away from it, or having this doomsday perspective of, you know, what it will do to our jobs, to our industry.

So I think, you know, and especially hearing Wasquad in a 10 step session, but for, you know, using chat GPT, I feel like especially in years past, this is kind of a new trend that we're seeing. Coming up, you know, in a, in a positive way, which is really nice. It's nice to see that folks in our industry are finding ways to leverage [00:21:00] it rather than to try and push it down and, and run away from it.

Molly: Been kind of like a big, scary thing for a little while. Looming. Mike used, Mike Yalove used a joke, your approach was like, ostrich head in the sand, or whatever bird does that.

Mikey: But we have

Molly: to embrace it, yeah. Actively

Mikey: trying to not pay attention to it, but it's

Molly: here. I

Mikey: have Chad GPT on my home screen right now.

I don't even have to slide over for it, I ask his stuff. And I think it's all kind of bullshit, but, uh, It's maybe getting smarter. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

Molly: Yeah. What else? Yeah. What else were people talking about or feeling in the design world? Presentation design or,

Mikey: or storyboard bonfires.

Maybe we

Molly: can come back to this too.

Mikey: To be expected in a conference today. Yeah. There's a lot of focus around AI and just the concern around how it's impacting the industry and careers, but also how you can use it to [00:22:00] benefit things. To piggyback on Ali's thing, Carmen Simon had a great presentation about it, really getting to the neuroscience of like how we as humans perceive content when it's created by an AI versus human as well as visuals.

And then when you don't know if it was a created by a human or AI, kind of how your brain processes things and you know, we can pick up on subtle cues and visual design when it's an AI, but not so much when it's like a. Program giving feedback to a seller necessarily. Like you, you don't know necessarily if it's a human giving you that feedback or a computer, but there are some things that.

We as humans do the AI can't with our emotions and connotations and stuff, which I thought was interesting.

Molly: Yeah, that's really cool. And like, kind of on that note, as far as like how we take in information, Wasco, I wanted to ask you with your first time having gone took pre sum this year, how did it like change?

If [00:23:00] it's, if it changed your understanding of like how PowerPoint works as a tool for like information delivery and storytelling. I think it can be

Laura: a really powerful tool if you understand how to harness it correctly. I mean, storytelling is so powerful and PowerPoint is just a tool that we can use to get across really great stories.

And, you know, circling back to the whole AI theme, that was, you know, a big part of Steffi's presentation, right? You can use AI, but part of what made the session so hilarious was some of the stuff that chat GB2 was spitting out was just razy. So it was like, okay, here's how we can be smart about this and use it to our advantage.

But if you are just blindly using AI or blindly using anything, you know, it's just not going to work. You know, it's how to be smart about it. So it was a lot of, you know, bigger pictured stuff, but then also a lot of good tips and tricks to be more efficient in what we do. Yeah. a really, really powerful mix of stuff.

Molly: Who [00:24:00] would, like, for any of you, yeah, who would benefit, you both have, you all have various roles at the ranch, who would benefit going to something like this, if not pre sum exactly, which we'll talk about in a minute how it's evolving, right?

Mikey: Everyone,

Molly: I

Mikey: mean, really anyone who does presentations, like there are people that go to presentation summit who they're like the secretary at a law firm and they're just always the one being tasked with putting together tons of bullet points in a presentation for their clients or for their boss or whatever.

And they just want to learn how to do it more efficiently. All the way up to people like us who are taking other people's PowerPoints and Google slides and trying to make them beautiful and, you know, thoughtful and creative. So if anyone who does a presentation or presents at all would benefit from Presentation Summit.

Molly: Any industry. I love that. Just even the person that's like, well, I always get dumped with the PowerPoint.

Laura: Yeah, I feel like there were definitely a bunch of people there who were not designers at all that came away with a lot of good design. Tips and tricks [00:25:00] from Steve and from other people like, Hey, you can make this stuff look good, even though you're not a designer and don't be scared of it, you know, lean into it.

Allie: Yeah. And I'll, I'll hammer home the community and networking aspect again, because I just think that's such an important part of it. It's such, you know, especially ghost ranch is totally remote. I think a lot of agencies out there are at least fairly remote these days. And. You know, LinkedIn is awesome.

Things like this are awesome where we can all chat with each other for a period of time, but meeting people in person, I feel like you can lean on them a little bit more, you know, because you've met in person, like it makes you feel a little bit more willing to actually reach out on LinkedIn in the future and ask a question or be like, Hey, have you been seeing this trend?

It's just great for your network, especially in this, this pandemic. Very small niche industry to have true genuine connections with people outside of your own agency, just to have a better understanding of how we know where things are shifting, you know, what [00:26:00] other people are learning so that you can really work together to keep making what we do pretty cool.

Molly: I mean, to your point, too, with people from all different kinds of industries and stuff, it gives us ideas. As a presentation agency more specifically of like where to even get business, you know, it's like networking that way. It's like expanding your mind a bit and there really wasn't

Laura: any gatekeeping very much that, you know, if we support each other, we can all be better together.

Which was really great to see

Mikey: that sweet and we were worried I mean like it was announced that this was gonna going in that this would be the very last presentation summit Maybe you got some word of a different approach like sort of the unconference from here But like without presentation summit, what would y'all think?

Have you found anything like it or? Any alternatives you're hoping could kind of like give us some of the same, you know, kind of like benefits. There's nothing like presentation. So

Steve: presentation summit is a league of its [00:27:00] own. I did really enjoy the year. I went to creative for a week.

Music: Yeah.

Mikey: He had a, I believe it was two days that they called click.

And it was a shin offerings that was focused on presentation design. And I know the creative for a network still has presentation design is like a big part of what it does, but I don't think click exists anymore. I think that stopped kind of two years ago, even during their live creative for a week, they still pepper in some PowerPoint, but it, it is a lot more like for the Adobe user professional designer sort of atmosphere.

So it's not as accessible to as large of an audience. Although I do see that it draws in. Some of the same people yeah from our industry, but yeah, we're it's probably not gonna have You know, as Jeff mentioned, like the, the law firm secretary that's trying to help people at the firm. Right, right. I was curious too, like, [00:28:00] because PreSum is so, had been historically PowerPoint centric very much.

We saw Google Slides over the last five years really heat up market share. And over the last 12 months, like a proliferation of other slide wares, like we saw Pitch, Figma Slides, Canva, Enterprise, Beautiful AI, you name it, like they keep coming, right? Did anyone, was that at all talked about or are we still kind of looking at PowerPoint primarily at PreSum?

Still primarily PowerPoint.

Jeff: You know, I, I asked Nolan Haynes a question

Mikey: about PowerPoint. Icons and shapes and vector shapes on Google slides. And it was essentially just like, it's as good as it's going to get on Google slides. Unfortunately, you know, there, there wasn't a whole lot of workarounds and tricks and hacking that you can do with PowerPoint.

And I don't know if there is with some of those other programs, but it seems like PowerPoint is still the. The gold standard that everyone's striving to be. Yeah. And there just wasn't a whole lot of talk around the, the other things.

Molly: Any like talk about [00:29:00] for, yeah, people. Lastly, you mentioned that it's super accessible for all skill levels.

So for anyone that's like, I'm intimidated by PowerPoint, is there a track for, for them as well? Oh yeah. There were a

Laura: lot of sessions with tips and tricks. Or, you know, beginner level, like, not professional creative people. Yeah, I was sitting next to a woman, I think it was in Richard Goring's animation session, and she said, Oh my God, I have to redo every presentation I've ever done now.

Music: So, yeah,

Laura: there was definitely something for everyone. And I think everyone walked away with a

Molly: lot of new, new knowledge. I know we're kind of doing this, like, post mortem after the last hurrah, quote unquote, of pre sum has happened, but what was hinted at or explicitly stated that might be next for people looking to join this community?

What is Rick up to? I

Allie: mean, somewhat mysterious, too. But he, yeah, he [00:30:00] calls it the un conference. Rick, if you're listening, I badgered him a little bit about making it more conference y than what he was talking about. But really, I think his goal is to maintain the community without Having to do the structure, planning the sessions, the negotiating with hotels, all of that kind of stuff, but knowing that there is a group of people who has been getting together for 20 plus years, like, and it feels weird for it to just end abruptly.

So something that's a little bit more group, like everyone kind of pitches in and helps to plan to figure things out. less structure, but a community gathering of sorts to have the same sorts of conversations, but maybe without the tech side of things with screens, you know, with, you know, all the planning, maybe it's more people being gathered around a laptop and sharing something that they've learned.

I don't know if he didn't say anything like that specifically. It's just what I'm picturing in my [00:31:00] head. So we'll have to talk to him a little bit more about how he sees that playing out, but I think it's still going to be pretty cool. Maybe we can, I don't know. I feel like you said it's over for the past three years, so I still don't really believe it.

Right, right. Yeah, I don't know.

Molly: Maybe enough people twist his arm. We'll see. Not to misquote you, Rick, if you're listening, but we want things to keep going. I'm picturing, like, what I see online. Have you seen those trends of, like, PowerPoint nights where friends just come over to each other's house and there's one prompt where everybody gives a presentation and it's, Kind of like how we did the lightning talks in story camp, honestly.

So I could see something more informal. And I mean, that's the uniqueness of this conference anyway. It's probably been moving this direction for a while where it's more collaborative. It's really as formal as. A conference where you go to a hotel, there's like explicit breakout sessions, etc. Maybe there is just a lot more informality to it.

A presentation, a true presentation party, if it wasn't already been dubbed that.

Mikey: Yeah. Speaking of party time, [00:32:00] editor, will bring us into the spice cabinet. Okay. I was very jealous of this one for all the reasons y'all mentioned, but also it was in near Ventura, Oxnard, California on a dope looking resort.

Can you tell us about this? Steve. Did you go surfing? Absolutely. They had, the resort had free surfboards that you could check out for, it was, it was two

Steve: or three hours. You just tell them what room you're in and grab a surfboard and a wetsuit and go for it.

Molly: Oh, that's awesome.

Steve: It was really cool. We made it, made a new friend there, Paul.

Mikey: Thank you, Paul. Paul Wilcox. He saw me early, and it was the funniest thing. He just kind of looked at me, he's like, you surf. I was like, I have surfed. He's like, cool, we're going surfing. He's like, well, I'm not going to say no. Identified. Yeah, when the time, when the time came, he's like, perfect time to go surfing.

I was like, yep, let's do it. So that was, that was really fun. Really glad I was able to do that. Allie, you told me, you told me you got home. Why didn't you [00:33:00] ask

Allie: me if I went surfing? Well, I was going to see if Steve

Mikey: mentioned your, your thwacking in the water. I need to hear about this. What happened? Steve

Allie: is a gentle, Steve is a gentleman, so he would never, no, I just got housed by the ocean and I've went, I've attempted to surf two times in my life and yeah, Paul also looked at me and was like, do you want to surf?

And I was like, yeah, absolutely. I'm seasoned. I know exactly how to surf and what to do

Molly: with

Allie: my hands

Molly: and my,

Allie: I know how to do that. No problem. No. No, I. Just got, can I just say I got my ass handed to me. Is that allowed? Yeah. You're right. I mean, it was, it was, it was humbling. Surfing's hard. Yeah. Yep. I, and apparently the conditions were especially hard.

I am not saying that's an excuse. I'm just saying, I mean, I, I couldn't even get like into the ocean. Sweet, sweet, sweet Paul [00:34:00] saw me trying and he came in and was like, I'll push you. And he came out and pushed me in the ocean. And then I was kind of like, I don't know if I want to be in the ocean. So it didn't, it didn't last long.

Didn't last long trying to get in. I got just railed. And then I was just like, yeah, Steve. I was really happy

Steve: when Paul said he was going to help you get in. I was like, thank God, because it's all I can do to get myself in,

Music: around out

Mikey: there. Like he's got a motor on that surfboard. Like, I was blown away by how well he was getting around on that thing.

Molly: I've heard the hardest part is getting out. He's been

Allie: surfing since he was a little kid, so he's like kind of like a pro, he was like pro status. Paul, if you're listening. Very impressive. Thank you for being so kind and patient. But yes, you pushed me into the water and then I didn't want to be in the water anymore.

So that's what happened. Paul looked

Mikey: right at me like, you are not made for surfing. That is a [00:35:00] body not cut out to surf. That was okay. She proved him wrong. Hefe, you know, like, um, there's a social element to presentation summit. And you always bring in athletes kind of energy as well. I've seen you jump over stuff at presentation summit first year in Florida.

You jumped over, like, a beach tennis net, and you made it successfully maybe once, and then, uh, or maybe not quite, another year in San Diego, you jumped over one of those, like, sandwich board signs outside of, um, a bar, and almost made it. Did you jump over anything cool in California this year? I, I did not, unfortunately.

Allie and I

Jeff: discussed me attempting to jump over another beach volleyball net, but The last week, we never actually gave it an attempt. Okay. Okay.

Allie: The target, the target was spotted.

Jeff: It was.

Allie: We thought what, what he needed to jump over, but he did not.

Jeff: The idea was there, but I never had enough liquid encouragement.

[00:36:00] He's a father

Allie: of two. He needed to keep himself safe for his children. It was, it was actually a really. Very proud of your, your restraint

Molly: that you, you know. This is all to say that this isn't like a fun tat, this is a, you want to hang out with presentation people. Laura, you, uh,

Mikey: Southern California a couple of times last year, I think, and then for work and then you got to get back this year.

Do you, do you like it out

Laura: there? I love it out there. I'm trying to convince my family we should move there. That it's too expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, we'll see. Keep working on it.

Mikey: What are some of your favorite things about Southern California from a Philly girl?

Laura: It's so different from the East Coast.

Mikey: Yeah.

Laura: Um, you know, you see that first palm tree and you're like, wow. Yeah, the weather is incredible. The scenery is incredible. I had a secondary goal at this conference because I've been out there a few times and I've never gotten to see the sunset. And I watched the sunset rise over the Atlantic so many times because we go [00:37:00] to the Outer Banks a lot.

So my goal was to see a Pacific Ocean sunset. So I finally met that goal. And the second day there were even dolphins jumping around in the water. No way!

Mikey: Come

Laura: on! Steve and I were like, no way! Sunset dolphins! Yeah, it was crazy. So, magical. It's magical.

Molly: Yeah, well, I know you guys I will try and make sure we throw in all of the amazing people that you've mentioned We always I like to ask about like inspiration people to follow But is there anyone else that you'd recommend to throw into the spice cabinet for people to get in design inspiration or otherwise?

You know coming out of presum feeling

Laura: inspired. I'm gonna say Jeff mentioned the bullshit bonfire Sally Zimney did an incredible talk. It was very motivational very inspirational It was about, you know, how to overcome your fears and come get clarity around what you want in life and be a more authentic version of yourself.

It was very inspiring. She was Sally Zim, Zimmy, [00:38:00] and she also got some of us to do it. Cold plunge. And we will shine.

Jeff: I was going to say it was, I did a cold plunge in the ocean at six in the morning the next day.

Steve: Dang. There's something really clever with her presentation that I liked a lot. Well, that was very manipulative.

You know, a lot of presenters

Mikey: are like, you know, Hey, if this applies to you, raise your hand or whatever, but she took it one step further and she actually like kind of divided the room into buckets. Where it was like, yo, does this apply to you always, sometimes or never? And she would say different things and ask people to move around the room and you had to like go stint in your bucket.

And, uh, yeah, you know, once you're already standing there, I feel like, yeah, so I'm the kind of person that does that. And she's like, cool, we're doing a cold plunge tomorrow. I'm not gonna be standing in that bucket, man, you better shut up.

Molly: Yeah, yeah, totally. That's dope. Didn't know there was a 6 a. m. tag next to it.

I would like

Jeff: to say I wasn't standing [00:39:00] in that bucket, but she found me later that night after happy hour and convinced me to go into the abracadabra.

Mikey: Sally Z. She's got a book. Instant bestseller speaking story. Did she talk about that or had y'all heard of it before?

Steve: She does have that it's going to

Mikey: show up At my house via amazon either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

I think it's perfect timing. So I need to get into that All right, put it on the book list. We'll link

Molly: sally. We'll link her book. That's great. Who else any other? inspirational people or books or podcasts to link

Steve: We had dinner with Troy and Lori and Nolan Haynes. So, you know, their

Mikey: presentation podcast is, you know, similar, similar vein to us and certainly something to listen to.

There was some discussion about doing like a collaborative sort of joint cast here soon. So looking forward to that. Sure. There's lots of other wonderful people to find. So if someone else speaks.

Molly: Now you guys have named so many good ones. I'm gonna definitely link bright carbon resources Richard. We've talked [00:40:00] about dr Carmen Simon multiple times.

We've had Julie Turbert on the cast link her episode. Yeah, it's just like a chock full Such a tight knit community. That's chock full of good stuff and everyone is such a unique POV, which is cool Even though it's so niche

Jeff: say Steve

Mikey: mentioned them earlier, but Taylor cream quests nuts and bolts speed training I feel like is yeah

Jeff: A highlight of the summit and just a great resource to have.

Molly: Yeah. Steve, I know you've mentioned them before on your own spice cabinet.

Mikey: Absolutely. Yo, did anyone insist upon walkout music? Steve? Yeah. Did you, were you like, yo, play my jam?

Music: No.

Mikey: I, I went sans walkout music, you know, but I was in control of the audio, so I could have just played it. I didn't even think to.

And it's

Molly: unique, I mean, it's not a true huge sta is it a big stage? Like, it's just kinda casual rooms, right? There's one general session

Mikey: usually, right? And then a bunch of breakouts? Yeah, so we had the two smaller rooms where a lot of the presenters were presenting, [00:41:00] and Okay. Yeah, no No stage to speak of, but you know, we had our little, little ballroom to hang out in.

Yeah. No, no walkout music this year. All right. Missed opportunity. Well,

Music: you know,

Mikey: let's rewind time. Let's say all four of you are speaking and at the Ochsner Dunes Resort, Zachariah, whatever it's called. Okay. I'm going to start with you, Hefe, and then Steve, and then Allie, and then Wasco. Jeff, what would be your walkout song?

Jeff: I feel like I always switch out my walkout songs, but I'm going back to a true classic here. Is. Miley Cyrus, Wrecking Ball.

You came in like a wrecking ball. What better way to walk out and just drop some

Mikey: knowledge. That's really good. That should be more commonly done. Steve, what about you? Greta Van Fleet, Highway Tune.[00:42:00]

Be a good, good hype, hype music. Very classic rock sound. That's dope.

Molly: Quit listening to it, we're bobbing our heads.

Allie: I hold steady. It's going to be quite some day when I change up from evil woman to yellow.

Molly: Always, always. Yeah. I listened to it yesterday in your honor on Halloween.

Mikey: Yep.

Molly: Aw, yeah. Yep, that's a good Halloween song too. Good one. You know?

Mikey: All right, Wasco finishes strong. I

Laura: would say Del Resto by Travis Scott and Beyonce.

Music: That's cool.

Molly: Such a good variety you guys. Thank you. That'll be fun for, yeah. Will the patch and

Allie: Molly and Mikey, well, where are you at right now? Oh, no, we, it's the flavor at the moment. Meat, that's,

Molly: can you give me a second? See for us, one of my class, well, okay. One of my [00:43:00] classics when I eventually meet. He always does Sultans of Swing.

That's Rick's walkout song, which is fun. I, I've said this one before, but I really love Donna Summer. It's like a fun throwback. And I feel like Rick is such, when we finally meet in person, it'll be a, in a big party setting. And we'll do Donna Summer, Bad Girls.

Mikey: That's one of my faves. I like, um, Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest.

Music: That's,

Mikey: that's my go to karaoke if I had to. Yeah,

Molly: that's a, yeah, it's a good one.

Mikey: We get it almost every night. Nice. All right, gang. Thanks so much for joining you guys. Yeah. Thank you for listening. This far, if you did, we love you.

And, uh, Steve, Laura, Allie, Jeff, thank you so much for joining. Dropping the, the amazingness that you picked up from [00:44:00] PreSum.

Molly: Thanks for taking the time to go to Presentation Summit and talk to us about it. I think if people have been to PreSum, they will definitely resonate with what you've shared about the community.

And if they haven't, or if they're looking for something like that in any realm of the presentation space, or if you ever have to open PowerPoint, it's a useful community for you. So, stay tuned to see where it evolves next. All right, until next

Mikey: time,

Molly: keep on pitching.