What I Learned Watching Big Tech Executives Bomb Their Presentations

Why smart people give terrible presentations and the approach that changes everything

I recently spoke at a corporate event hosted by one of the FAANG companies, where I was one of the few external guests invited to speak. Every time I’m at events like these, I’m struck by how little time most people spend preparing, and how often the results fall flat.

Communication isn't some optional add-on to human existence, not merely something we must endure to climb the corporate ladder or win others over. Instead, it represents a fundamental characteristic that sets us apart from all other creatures. This ability comes naturally to us; it's built into who we are.

And it’s everywhere.

Think about how many conversations you have each day, from the trivial to the important. Most of them involve saying something to try to make something happen.

Every act of speaking comes down to two core elements: what you say (the content), and how you say it (the delivery).

Most people focus almost entirely on the content. But delivery often has even more impact. It’s also where clarity, creativity, and memorability live.

Speaking is a skill. You can get better at it.

The concept of "public speaking" itself is misleading. There’s no special category for it. There’s just speaking.

And unless you’re talking to yourself, it’s always public. It’s something you’ll likely have to do every day, in all kinds of situations, for the rest of your life. Your ability to make progress, persuade others, or move ideas forward will often depend on how well you do it.

What Feels Natural Isn't Always Helpful

How can something that feels so natural be so difficult?

We move through our days constantly speaking to others, in meetings, casual chats, emails, interviews, and most of the time, we don’t even think about it. Communication feels effortless. But put us in a high-stakes moment, and suddenly, the simple act of speaking can feel overwhelming. What was once automatic now feels intimidating, awkward, or even impossible.

Almost everyone knows this feeling. Whether you're giving a presentation, pitching an idea, interviewing for a role, or negotiating your salary, the things that usually come easily can start to fall apart the moment pressure enters the picture.

If I encouraged you to try speaking with more volume or at a slower pace, or to stand with better posture or move with greater freedom, you response might be predictable:

This feels unnatural.

However, this reaction has little connection to what genuinely comes naturally to humans and everything to do with what has become routine for that person.

Many of the behaviors we label as “authentic” or “natural” are just habits we’ve built over time. Improving your communication means being willing to expand your idea of how you can show up. It requires stepping just a little outside your well-worn patterns.

Consider your own two-year-old and twenty-year-old selves. Which version felt more "authentic"? Which possessed a broader communication repertoire? Which was more engaging to observe? Which held more appeal?

At two, you probably had a much wider range of expression. You were more open, more animated, more willing to try things. Over time, we accumulate patterns as we restrict ourselves, add layers of pretense, construct protective barriers, minimize our vulnerability, and adopt countless other adjustments during our challenging transition into adulthood.

However, your capacity to become an effective, influential, and adaptable communicator connects directly to your willingness to expand rather than contract. Therefore, I'm asking you to relax slightly your definition of what feels natural and authentic.

If you want to grow as a speaker, you’ll need to let go, just a little, of what you think is “natural”.

Think about it this way.

If you were trying to get better at tennis, would you only look at diagrams of a perfect swing? If you were learning to run more efficiently, would you only write down your stride length? If you were practicing violin, would you just study the notes on the page without ever playing a sound?

Of course not.

But when it comes to speaking, people make that mistake all the time. I presented on stages with smart, driven professionals who prepare by rewriting their slides or scripting their talk over and over, yet never say a word out loud until the moment they step onstage.

They expect to speak with impact after spending all their time writing and none of it speaking. But spoken communication is physical. It is not just an intellectual exercise. It is a full-body performance. If you want to get better at it, you have to train like it.

What is Great Communication

Before we can improve our communication, we need to define what we’re aiming for. What exactly makes communication great?

Here’s the counterintuitive truth: your communication is usually strongest when you’re not thinking about it. In fact, it’s at its best when you’re not thinking about yourself at all. Instead, you’re entirely focused on someone else — listening, helping, connecting.

Try this: imagine your dearest friend comes to you in a moment of crisis.

Picture someone specific.

Picture the scene in detail. See yourself in that conversation. Think about how you sit, how you speak, how you listen. Then ask yourself these questions:

• Is your eye contact steady and intentional?

• Does your voice rise and fall with emotion and clarity?

• Are your gestures natural, specific, and expressive?

• Are you breathing fully enough to support your voice?

• Are you speaking slowly enough to choose your words carefully?

• Are you pronouncing your words clearly enough to be understood?

The answer to all of those is probably yes. Why? Because your focus in that moment is simple: you want to understand, and you want to be understood.

That’s the core of communication. It’s not random or mechanical. We don’t use things like vocal tone, movement, and eye contact because they make us seem “polished.” We use them because we’re wired for social connection. These are built-in tools.

You are already a strong communicator when your full attention is on someone else.

We all understand this instinctively. Whether it’s a sale, a negotiation, or a first date, your success depends on how well you connect with the other person. The question is: do you act on that understanding when it counts?

If I asked you who matters most in any communication — you or the client, you or the audience, you or your team — you already know the right answer. It’s the other person.

But when you start speaking, years of habit and conditioning can shift your focus back to yourself.

The irony is, the more you focus on others, the more naturally expressive you become. You use more of your voice, more of your breath, more of your body. You become clearer, more dynamic, more persuasive — not because you’re performing, but because you’re trying to reach someone.

Great communicators don’t stick to one style. They speak in low tones and high ones. They speak quickly and slowly, quietly and with volume. They do what it takes to get their message across. They use all of themselves in service of the connection.

Delivery Beats Content Every Single Time

Earlier, I introduced the two main components of communication: content and delivery.

Content is what you say, the words you choose. Delivery is how you say it. It includes everything else: your tone of voice, eye contact, gestures, posture, breath, and energy.

So, which matters more?

Nearly every study comparing these two aspects comes to the same conclusion: delivery has more impact than content.

At that FAANG event I mentioned earlier, I listened to several unprepared talks — some of them read directly from notes. I couldn’t help but think: if these speakers focused even slightly more on how they delivered their message, not only would the words land better, but they would likely come up with sharper ideas in real time.

Here’s a simple example. A speaker pauses and takes a breath. That breath supports a stronger, steadier voice. The pause also creates space to think of a clearer, more compelling next line. Feeling confident with what you're saying makes it easier to hold eye contact. Eye contact, in turn, gives you real-time feedback from your audience. Based on what you see, you shape your message more deliberately. That gives you more clarity on what words resonate most, so you begin to emphasize them. To emphasize effectively, you need breath, so you inhale again — and the cycle continues.

When you try to start with content alone, several problems pop up, and one is especially frustrating. If content must always come first, then you can only speak effectively after weeks, months, or even years of subject matter mastery.

But in real life, you’ll often have to speak before you feel ready. You’ll be asked to present, explain, persuade, or lead with less prep and less expertise than you’d like.

That’s the discouraging trap built into the content-first mindset: it suggests you’ll never be qualified enough to speak well.

But this idea is misleading. You can speak powerfully, even if you’re not the world’s top expert — but only if you’ve built strong delivery skills.

And let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you are a true subject matter expert. Let’s say you know your topic inside and out. Would that automatically make you a better speaker?

Here's my honest answer: You'd probably speak about the same as you do right now.

People assume that smart thinking leads to smart speaking. In reality, subject matter expertise doesn’t always translate to effective communication. Brilliant researchers, scientists, and analysts struggle on stage all the time. Even people who wrote the very study they’re presenting often lose their audience.

So ask yourself and be honest…

The last time you felt disappointed with how you spoke, was it really because you didn’t know enough? Or was it something else? Did you speak too fast? Did your voice waver? Did you mumble, ramble, or forget to breathe?

Most of the time, it isn’t the content that lets us down. It’s how we deliver it.

All the brilliant ideas in the world won’t help if they don’t come out clearly, confidently, and with impact.

So if content-first has its limits, the next question is obvious: how do you improve your delivery and unlock the cycle that brings it all together?

It’s Time to Get Physical

Ralph Zito, a renowned voice and speech teacher at the Juilliard School, once said:

Your voice is your body.

How you move, breathe, and carry yourself, in other words, how you shape your body, directly affects the sounds you produce. Your voice is not separate from your body. It is part of it.

Over many years of teaching and presenting, I’ve collected and developed a set of physical tools to help people communicate more effectively. These are simple, actionable techniques designed to help you sound clearer, feel more grounded, and connect with your audience more powerfully.

Now that we’ve explored the foundational idea behind great communication, I’ll be sharing those tools with you, one at a time, in the posts that follow.

Great communication lives in the body. So if you want to change how you sound, how you connect, and how you’re received, that’s where we’ll start.

I hope you are excited to get to work.

-Rinaldo