How to Give a Talk People Remember
Why the best presentations offer perspective, not just information
At some point, almost everyone has to give a presentation at work. Some more frequently than others. Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to have delivered a lot of them. But lest you imagine glamorous speeches in grand auditoriums, let me paint a truer picture. I’m talking about church basements where the ceiling began dripping on the audience midway through my talk, and restaurant dining rooms so cramped I had to hold the door open for waitresses the entire time to avoid being knocked flat. In retrospect, it is amusing, but it was also the best training I could have asked for. I learned how to stay focused despite distractions and how to fight for my audience’s attention.
Now that my son is of the age where he too needs to learn how to give presentations at school, I’ve been reflecting on those experiences. There is so much I wish I could help him understand about how to deliver ideas effectively.
Ideas as Gifts
Over the years I have been lucky to receive media training from some of the best in the industry. I will always be grateful for the lessons I learned from Terri Goudie, a former ABC News journalist and brilliant strategist. One of the most important things she taught me is that every presentation, whether it is a two-minute elevator pitch or a one-hour lecture, follows the same format. At the heart of it is this: a presentation should be thought of as a gift.
A few years ago I sat down with podcaster Sam Hazledine to talk about this if you’re interested in hearing more, but the general idea is that every presentation should be thought of as an incredible opportunity to gift your audience a new idea. This might be a brand-new concept, but more often it is a familiar idea reframed in a new light. In business, that could mean showing colleagues that a budget is not just numbers but a story about priorities and values. In everyday life, it might be helping my son see a school project not as boxes to check but as an opportunity to teach classmates something new. In leadership, it could mean shifting a team’s perspective of failure to an opportunity to embrace a growth mindset. Even in casual conversation, gifting an idea might be as simple as telling a friend that the traffic jam they endured was also a rare chance to slow down and listen to music they love. The content may not be entirely new, but the frame is, and that is what makes it feel like a gift.
The Rule of Threes
Some aspects of presenting feel formulaic, but they endure because they work. You have probably heard the adage: tell people what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. People can remember three points. That is about the limit of working memory, and it is why everything from jokes to sermons to great speeches so often comes in threes. Summarizing before and after is not repetition. It is building guideposts your audience can follow and remember.
Researchers have long shown that working memory typically holds just three or four chunks at once. Attention is highest at the beginning, drifts in the middle, and spikes again at the end. That is why we instinctively latch on to phrases like “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” “Veni, vidi, vici,” or even “Beginning, Middle, End.” Political slogans like Churchill’s “blood, sweat, and tears” and marketing mantras like “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” endure because they are simple, rhythmic, and complete.
End with a Story
And finally, close with a story. Cognitive science shows our brains are wired to remember narratives more than facts alone. Psychologists call this the narrative bias: people recall up to 22 times more information when it is embedded in a story. Stories fire up multiple parts of the brain, not just language centers but also areas tied to empathy and imagery. They provide context and meaning, and most importantly, they provide closure. Just as a good novel ties up loose threads, a story at the end of a presentation signals to your audience that the journey has come full circle.
One study found that audiences retain about 26 percent more information when it is delivered as a story rather than as bullet points. Ending with a story does not replace your data. It makes sure your data is remembered.
The Upshot
A few weeks ago I was brainstorming with a colleague about developing new presentations, which remain one of the key markers of success in academics. They worried they had nothing unique to offer compared with others in the field who were better known or had longer publication lists. I encouraged them not to compete on the same well-worn topics but to think instead about areas where they had true expertise. These might not be the usual headline subjects, but they were important, relevant, and underrepresented. By taking a different path from everyone else, they could create something authentic and establish a niche where few others were contributing. As we talked, they began to imagine the possibilities, and I found myself equally excited. That, in the end, is what a presentation should do: generate energy and leave people more engaged walking out than when they walked in.
A strong presentation does not overwhelm with information. It offers perspective as a gift, builds around three clear ideas, and closes with a story that lingers. If you can paint a mental picture and give your audience an emotional hook to draw them in, your presentation will not just be effective. It will be memorable.