“Show me your work, Illiya.”
That’s what one of my teachers used to say. Every title had to be double underlined, every page neat and tidy. My work had to look professional. It had to be perfect.
I don’t think I’m alone in this. Most of us learned early that presenting meant proving ourselves: showing our working, getting it right, leaving no room for mess.
Then we carried that lesson straight into our careers.
Life isn’t neat and tidy
Real life comes with peaks and troughs, challenges and contradictions. Every one of us will face loss, heartbreak and grief at some point. It’s part of being human, and so is the wish to be heard, felt and understood.
Connection is why we’re here. It’s how we share the experience of being alive.
Yet, in our professional lives, we still present as if we’re handing in homework. We reach for data, evidence and statistics to prove our ideas are worth listening to. Sometimes that comes from imposter syndrome. Sometimes it comes from feeling we have to justify our expertise.
Data can be powerful. But on its own, it only tells half the story.
Informed isn’t the same as moved
When a presentation is all information, the logical brain takes over. The audience receives the facts, but they don’t feel them. Those are two very different experiences.
Think of a talk that stayed with you long after it ended, one that made you want to act before the speaker had even finished. Those moments feel rare, but they shouldn’t be.
In 2010, Brené Brown gave a talk about vulnerability on a small TEDx stage in Houston. It wasn’t polished. She admitted she was a researcher who liked to be in control, and that studying vulnerability had led to her own breakdown.
The talk went on to reach millions. Not because it was the most informative talk of the year, but because it made people feel seen. As she put it: “Stories are just data with a soul.”
What great stories do
My favourite film is The Matrix. The script is well crafted, but that’s not why it stuck with me. When it came out, it made you question what reality really was. It left you feeling something you couldn’t quite shake.
That’s what great storytelling does. It doesn’t just inform us. It changes how we see things.
Your next presentation can do the same, even if it’s a quarterly update or an investor pitch. Business decisions affect real people: employees, customers, communities. Those decisions are felt, so why do we only ever explain them?
Where AI falls short
AI can now write content in seconds, you don’t even need to be a good writer anymore.
But AI can’t see the way we do, and it cannot feel what your audience feels. Not yet, anyway. Perhaps never in the same way that matters. Sure, it can help you organise information, but the human part is still up to you.
Closing the gap
That gap between how your expertise comes across and how your audience actually experiences it is exactly why I created the HEART Method™. It helps subject matter experts turn what they know into something people feel.
To be informed is useful. To be moved is unforgettable.
A quick word of caution, vulnerability used purely for effect is manipulation, and there’s far too much of that on social media. That’s not what I’m suggesting. I’m asking you to think more deeply about the people in front of you, and to speak to what makes us all human.
Before your next presentation, ask yourself:
- Am I trying to prove my expertise, or am I trying to reach people?
- What do I want my audience to feel when I finish?
Not sure if your presentation is connecting? Take my free 3-minute quiz to find out whether your message is landing, and where to focus first.
