When Good Intensions Kill Executive Presence
The 72-hour keynote rescue that changed everything
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When good intensions kill executive presence
Three days before a major keynote, a CMO called me in panic mode.
“Our lead sales guy sounds like a robot in rehearsals. Can you fix this?”
Her new executive’s presentation was going to bomb, and they both knew it. His team had spent weeks “perfecting” a script. Every word vetted by legal. Every claim backed by data. And every personality trait edited out.
The opening line? “We’re excited to leverage our innovative platform to drive digital transformation.”
I wanted to throw something.
The Problem With Corporate Ventriloquism
Here’s what happens in most companies: Brilliant executives get handed scripts written by committee. Marketing writes one version. Legal edits out anything that challenges the audience. Product adds technical jargon. Comms smooths out the edges.
What’s left? A human teleprompter reading words that could have come from any company, anywhere.
Your audience doesn’t connect with smooth sentences. They connect with people.
The 72-Hour Transformation
When I got on the call with this exec, I discovered what his team had buried. He was brilliant. Funny. Real. He told me about leaving a $400K job to join this company.
So I asked him one question that changed everything:
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