Presentation Training Skills
for Professionals
A two-day immersive presentation skills workshop for professionals who have something important to say—and want to make sure people actually listen and act upon their recommendations.
You know your stuff.
You have experience.
You have ideas, insights, and solutions worth sharing.
But knowing your stuff and communicating it with clarity, confidence, and impact are two very different skills.
Let's be clear.
Expertise isn't just information.
Expertise is knowing what matters.
It's understanding what the information means, why it matters, and what should happen next.
And the more expertise and responsibility you gain, the more important your ability to communicate that expertise becomes.
The problem is . . .
Too many smart people bury their best thinking under overloaded PowerPoint slides, too much information, weak openings, and unclear messages.
And now there's a new temptation:
Artificial Intelligence.
AI can help you work faster.
But when you ask it to do the thinking for you, you risk losing the very things that make your presentation valuable:
your expertise, judgment, point of view, and authentic voice.
Add nervous energy to the mix, and even experienced professionals can struggle to connect.
The result?
People stop listening.
Great ideas get lost.
Messages start to sound like everyone else's.
Decisions get delayed.
And expertise never has the chance to make the impact it could.
We can and must do better.
Who Is This For?
The Fearless Presenter Workshop is designed for technical and business professionals who have expertise worth sharing—and aspire to become great communicators.
Our participants come from a wide range of industries, business functions, and disciplines, including:
Engineering. Finance. Sales. Operations. Customer Service. Project Management.
Business Development.
They may be subject matter experts, emerging leaders, high-potential professionals, or seasoned executives.
What they have in common is this:
Their expertise matters. And so does their ability to communicate it.
Some participants come to us because they—or their managers—have identified presentation and communication skills as an important area for professional growth.
Others have a high-stakes presentation ahead—a technical summit, senior leadership recommendation, important customer meeting, or new business pitch—and know it's time to raise their game.
The Fearless Presenter is for professionals who want their communication skills to match the value of their expertise.
Does that sound like you?
You just need to have something important to say—and the desire to say it better, with more confidence and less struggle.
Need Some Proof?
As a participant you will begin the workshop by delivering a short baseline presentation on video.
Then you and your colleagues learn. Practice. Experiment. Get coached. Watch their game film. Try something different. And present again.
The workshop culminates with a final presentation and Before & After Proof—giving you and the other participants the opportunity to see and hear for themselves what changed over two days.
The goal isn't perfection.
It's progress you can see, hear, and feel.
It's the kind of impact that can last for years after the workshop.
How Do We Know?
Here's what participants have told us:
Could your people benefit from becoming more fearless presenters?
Presentations Aren't About PowerPoint
Presentations are about leadership.
Any time your ideas need to inform, influence, or inspire others to take action—
you're presenting.
And sometimes you're doing something else at the same time:
You're demonstrating your readiness to lead.
People aren't only evaluating your ideas. They're evaluating your credibility, confidence, judgment, communication skills—and sometimes, your promotion readiness.
Every presentation counts. Not just the big formal ones.
You're probably presenting more often than you think.
- A team meeting is a presentation.
- A project update is a presentation.
- A customer conversation is a presentation.
- A budget request is a presentation.
- Asking for a promotion or a raise is a presentation.
- A recommendation to senior leadership is a presentation.
- A sales pitch is a presentation.
- A town hall is a presentation.
L ost Opportunity
We've become numb to boring meetings and presentations.
Smart, overworked people spend hours building PowerPoint decks—often making changes right up until the meeting starts. Then the deck becomes everything: the agenda, the visual aid, the script, and eventually the handout.
Are we asking too much of PowerPoint?
We think so.
As we say in Stop Global Boring:
It's time to reduce our PowerPoint emissions.
If all you need to do is distribute information, send the report. Share the spreadsheet. Email the deck.
But don't waste people's time with a boring presentation.
We bring people together because we want something more to happen
We want:
- Ideas to be understood.
- Questions to be asked.
- Assumptions to be challenged.
- Recommendations to be considered.
- Decisions to be made.
- Teams to get aligned.
- People to be inspired.
- Action to be taken.
A live presentation has the potential to create something slides and documents cannot:
A shared experience.
But not if it's a read-a-thon.
Not if the audience is staring at overcrowded slides while the presenter reads every bullet point aloud.
Not if the presenter is so focused on covering the material that they forget about the people in the room.
Covering the material isn't the same thing as communicating.
If you're going to ask people to give you their time and attention, give them something they couldn't have gotten from reading the handout.
Meet the Moment
AI. Virtual meetings. Hybrid audiences. Shorter attention spans. More distractions. More information. Less time.
Presenting has changed, but the fundamentals of great communication haven't.
Today's professionals need to know how to use technology without allowing technology to take over the presentation.
They need to know when and how to use AI smartly.
They need to connect with people whether they're standing in the same room or looking into a camera.
They need to engage audiences who have more ways than ever to tune them out.
The Fearless Presenter helps prepare them meet the moment.
What To Expect
The Fearless Presenter is a highly interactive, two-day presentation skills workshop for professionals who want to turn their expertise into communication impact.
Created by Kathy McAfee, author of
Stop Global Boring, The Fearless Presenter is delivered by certified facilitator and executive presence and somatic coach Kate Bringardner and powered by the proprietary tools in The Control Center digital presentation toolkit.
This isn't presentation training you sit through.
It's presentation training you participate in and co-create.
- You present.
- You practice.
- You experiment.
- You laugh. You have fun.
- You get coached.
- You shed old habits.
- You try something new.
- You become a more fearless presenter.
And because each workshop
is intentionally limited to up to 10 participants, everyone has the opportunity for meaningful practice, personalized feedback, and coaching.
Over two immersive days, participants work on both sides of great presenting:
The Message + The Messenger
Because becoming a better presenter requires working on both.
What Will Be Different After Two Days?
Participants don't simply learn about presentation skills.
They experience themselves becoming better presenters.
By the end of The Fearless Presenter workshop, participants will be better equipped to:
- Get to the point faster and communicate a clear key message
- Build presentations around audience needs rather than PowerPoint
- Translate complex information into understandable, compelling ideas
- Find the story in the data and use short, purposeful stories to make a point
- Use AI smartly as a presentation thinking and development partner—without sacrificing your own expertise, judgment, and authentic voice
- Better manage presentation stress and nervous energy so you can meet the moment
- Present with greater confidence, credibility, and presence
- Engage audiences rather than simply deliver information
- Adapt presentation skills and audience engagement techniques for virtual and hybrid environments
- Make clearer recommendations and calls to action
Our Methodology
THINK FIRST.
BUILD SECOND.
One of the biggest mistakes professionals make is building their presentation before they've figured out what they're trying to accomplish.
They open PowerPoint before asking: Who is my audience? What do they need? What am I trying to accomplish? What do I want them to think, feel, and do? What's my key message? What decision needs to be made?
Figure that out first.
That's the thinking behind Stop Global Boring, The Fearless Presenter Workshop, and The Control Center presentation toolkit.
1. Plan
Get clear before you build anything.
- Create a high-level game plan before opening PowerPoint
- Understand your audience and what they need from you
- Clarify your objectives and desired outcomes
- Determine what you want people to think, feel, and do
- Sharpen your overarching key message
Click and expand below to learn more about our approach to PLANNING:
1. PLAN
Get clear before you build anything.
Before you open PowerPoint, we'll show you how to create the high-level game plan first.
It's a simple discipline:
THINK FIRST. BUILD SECOND.
Participants begin with Clean Sheet Thinking, a simple planning tool designed to help you get focused and get started fast.
In 20 minutes or less, participants can develop a high-level game plan identifying:
- Their audience and its needs
- Objectives and desired outcomes
- Their overarching key message
- What they want people to think, feel, and do
The result? Less wasted time, less unnecessary work, and fewer hours building slides that may never have been needed in the first place.
COOL TOOL: CLEAN SHEET THINKING
A Better Way to Start Your Presentation Planning
WATCH NOW:
Plan for a Winning Presentation with Clean Sheet Thinking
AI: THINKING PARTNER, NOT AUTOPILOT.
Think first. AI second.
Once you've done the essential thinking, AI can become a valuable editor and thinking partner.
Use it to pressure-test your ideas, refine and polish your key message, explore alternative ways to express it, or adapt your message for different audiences and situations—formal, informal, conversational, executive-level, or customer-facing.
You bring the expertise, experience, judgment, point of view, and authentic voice. AI helps you sharpen how you communicate them.
Got the plan? Great. Close this box and open BUILD to strengthen your ideas and bring them to life.
2. Build
Strengthen your ideas and bring them to life.
- Build the presentation around your message—not your slides
- Find the story in the data and tell short stories that make a point
- Use PowerPoint for what it does best: visual support
- Incorporate quotes, photos, videos, props, and demonstrations
- Engage people with questions, activities, and breakout conversations
- Give your audience opportunities to “try on” your ideas
Don't simply tell people about your ideas. Help them experience your ideas.
Click and expand below to learn more about BUILDING a winning presentation:
2. BUILD
Strengthen your ideas and bring them to life.
Once you know what you're trying to accomplish, you can decide how to create an experience that helps your audience understand and engage with your ideas.
This is where creativity matters.
PowerPoint can be useful—but at its best, it's a visual aid. Use it to show something your words alone can't communicate as effectively: a compelling photograph, meaningful chart, diagram, or short video.
Find the story in the data.
Facts and data matter. But your audience also needs help understanding what the information means and why it matters.
Look for the story behind the numbers. What changed? What's surprising? What's at stake? Who is affected? What does the data tell us—and what should we do about it?
And use storytelling strategically.
Tell short stories that make a point.
Stories can illuminate an idea, make complex information easier to understand, and help people remember what matters.
Short. Relevant. Purposeful.
Because a long, boring story that doesn't make a point is just another way to lose your audience.
Then think beyond the slides.
Share a quote. Bring a prop. Demonstrate something. Show a short video. Ask a provocative question. Create an activity. Use breakout groups.
Get people talking, thinking, moving, and experimenting.
When people actively participate, they have an opportunity to “try on” your ideas—to connect them to their own experience and consider how they might work.
That's when a presentation stops being something you deliver to an audience and becomes something you create with them.
Built the experience? Close this box and open DELIVER. It's time to bring YOU to the presentation.
3. Deliver
Bring yourself to the presentation.
- Strengthen your voice, body language, and eye contact
- Communicate with confidence, credibility, and authority
- Move with purpose and connect authentically with your audience
- Better manage nervous energy and presentation stress
- Stay present instead of retreating to your slides
- Adapt your presence and engagement for virtual and hybrid presentations
- Practice, experiment, get coached—and shed old habits
Your PowerPoint deck is not your presentation. YOU ARE THE PRESENTATION.
Click and expand below to learn more about DELIVERING with greater presence and confidence:
3. DELIVER
Bring yourself to the presentation.
You've thought it through. You've built the experience. Now it's time to bring you to the presentation.
The message matters. So does the messenger.
That's where our approach to somatic coaching differentiates The Fearless Presenter.
Somatic coaching works with the connection between mind and body—using physical awareness, breathing, movement, and practice to help presenters manage nervous energy, shed old habits, and develop greater confidence and presence.
How do you use your voice? What are you communicating with your body? Are you making meaningful eye contact? Do you move with purpose? Can people hear confidence and authority in your voice? What happens physically when stress shows up?
And finally...
What the heck do you do with your hands?
Through somatic coaching, practice, video feedback, and experimentation, participants don't simply learn what effective presentation delivery looks like.
They experience what better presenting feels like in their own body.
And that's important because the goal isn't simply to improve this presentation.
It's to improve the presenter.
When the presenter improves—their thinking, presence, voice, body language, confidence, and ability to meet the moment—those improvements travel with them into the next presentation, the next meeting, the next customer conversation, and the next leadership opportunity.
Different room. Different rules.
Presenting virtually creates its own challenges.
How do you make eye contact through a camera? How do you use your voice and body when people can only see part of you? How do you maintain energy when you're talking to a screen? How do you keep people engaged when email, chat, phones, and a dozen other distractions are one click away?
Participants learn how to adapt the same Fearless Presenter principles to in-person, virtual, and hybrid environments—because connection still matters, even when you're not in the same room.
Your slides aren't the presentation.
YOU ARE THE PRESENTATION.
Improve the message. Improve the messenger.
Presentation delivered? You're not done yet. Close this box and open FOLLOW UP to turn communication into action.
4. FOLLOW UP
How communication becomes action.
- Capture decisions, questions, and commitments
- Clarify next steps and who owns them
- Provide additional information when needed
- Follow through on promises made during the presentation
- Keep the conversation—and momentum—moving
A presentation shouldn't end when the meeting does.
Click and expand below to learn more about FOLLOW UP:
4. FOLLOW UP
DON'T FORGET WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.
What decisions were made?
What questions remain?
Who needs additional information?
What commitments were made?
What's the next step—and who owns it?
Follow up is how communication becomes action.
Great presenting isn't just about what happens in the room.
It's about what happens because of it.
The Control Center toolkit carries the learning beyond delivery with follow-up planning, an Agreement of Action, accountability, and continued practice.
Close this window to learn more about bringing The Fearless Presenter to your organization.
Want to explore what The Fearless Presenter could look like for your team?
The Control Center
Great presenters don't wing it. They have tools. They plan. They practice.
Every participant in The Fearless Presenter Workshop receives access to The Control Center, the proprietary digital presentation toolkit developed by Kathy McAfee and based on the methodology in Stop Global Boring.
The toolkit includes 13 practical tools
for planning, building, delivering, and following up on high-engagement presentations—including Clean Sheet Thinking, SWAMPUM key-message development, Hierarchy of Messaging, 4Mat, The Full Nelson, storytelling tools, timed agendas, presentation feedback, video self-assessment, and action planning.
These aren't worksheets you complete once during a workshop and forget.
These tools are designed to become part of the way you think about, prepare for, practice, and deliver presentations throughout your career.
WANT THE TOOLS WITHOUT THE WORKSHOP?
The Control Center digital presentation toolkit is also available for individual purchase for $19.99.
Meet The Team
Kathy McAfee
Creator | Author | Motivator | Mentor
Kathy McAfee
is the creator of The Fearless Presenter Workshop, author of
Stop Global Boring, and developer of The Control Center presentation methodology and digital toolkit.
For more than two decades, Kathy has helped professionals communicate and lead with greater clarity, confidence, and impact. Her methodology helps subject matter experts turn complex information into clear, compelling messages that engage audiences and inspire action.
She is also the creator of
The Fearless Leader program — an accelerated group mentoring leadership development experience designed to equip and advance more women and minorities into leadership positions.
Kate Bringardner
Executive Presence & Somatic Coach
Certified Trainer and Facilitator | Keynote Speaker
Kate Bringardner
is a certified facilitator of The Fearless Presenter and an executive presence and somatic coach.
Drawing on her extensive background in performance, movement, embodiment, and communication coaching, Kate works with both the message and the messenger.
Her body-and-mind approach helps presenters use physical awareness, breathing, movement, voice, and practice to manage nervous energy, shed old habits, and build greater confidence, authentic presence, and credibility.
Her goal isn't simply to help participants deliver a better presentation during the workshop. It's to help them become better presenters and leaders long after the workshop is over.
Learn more about Kate.
Together, Kathy and Kate continue to develop and evolve The Fearless Presenter experience—combining proven methodology with practical, highly interactive coaching.
Expertise
Only Matters
When You Can Communicate It
Your organization invests years developing the expertise of its people.
It needs more than experts with specialized information. Your organization needs these experts to be great communicators and strong, fearless presenters.
Help them communicate that expertise in ways others can understand, trust, and act upon.
Because a great idea has limited value if you can't get other people to understand it, believe in it, and do something with it.
Your expertise deserves better than a boring presentation.
READY TO STOP GLOBAL BORING?
Let's talk about your presentation challenges.
Every organization is different.
Let's start with a conversation about your people, the presentations they're giving, where they're getting stuck, and the communication impact you'd like them to make.
We'll help you determine whether The Fearless Presenter Workshop is the right fit—and what the experience could look like for your team.
Two immersive days. Up to 10 participants. One mission: turn expertise into communication impact.
Not quite ready to talk? Need to get some buy-in first?
Download our Fearless Presenter Workshop brochure with Sample Agenda.
It's an easy way to share the idea with a colleague, your manager, HR/Learning & Development, or others who might benefit from bringing the program to your organization.