Last week I presented our AI strategy to a room full of investors. People sometimes ask if I get nervous before talks like that.

Yes. Every time.

My background: competitive debate in high school and competitive improv in college. That means I bombed in front of audiences hundreds of times before I ever had a job title. Those experiences taught me more about speaking than anything I’ve done since.

I give a “speaking tips” talk to my PM team every year. The title slide has a typo in it. The subtitle is “bar supes low.” That’s the whole point — set expectations low, focus on what actually helps.

Here are the things I keep coming back to.

Start in the middle

Nobody needs the preamble. Don’t tell people what meeting they’re in or what email they opened. Just start with the interesting part.

The hardest version of this: skip your own introduction. If you’re presenting to a group that already knows you, don’t waste thirty seconds on your title and team. Open with the thing you want them to remember.

Answer first, then explain

When talking to senior leaders, give them the destination before the journey. Most people build toward their conclusion. Execs want the answer up front. If they nod before you’re done explaining, stop talking.

This is counterintuitive if you come from an academic background, where you’re trained to show your work. In a business context, lead with the recommendation. The supporting evidence is there if they ask for it.

Use pauses

If you catch yourself stuck in one tone or racing through a section, just stop for a second. Silence is more interesting than filler words, and it buys you time to think.

The best speakers I know aren’t fast talkers. They’re comfortable with silence. A two-second pause after a key point does more work than repeating the point three times.

Bookend it

If you open with something, bring it back at the end. It makes the whole thing feel intentional, even when it wasn’t.

Every good talk has some version of conflict, development, and resolution. You don’t need a formal story arc framework — just make sure the ending connects to the beginning. It’s the simplest structural trick that works every time.

Don’t try to be someone you’re not

This is the real rule underneath all of the others. Learn from other speakers, absolutely. Study what works. But don’t force yourself into a model that isn’t genuine.

I’ve watched PMs try to adopt someone else’s presentation style and it always falls flat. The audience can tell. The things that make you distinctive as a communicator — your pace, your humor, your way of framing problems — those are features, not bugs.

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Fall in love with being bad at public speaking. It’s the only path to getting good.