Presentation Skills [A Guide to Mastery]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Nov 20, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
Last month, we were helping Daniel, a senior strategy lead at a European firm, put together a pitch presentation. Midway through the project, he paused and asked us something that’s probably been sitting in the back of every presenter’s mind: “But how do you actually get good at presenting?”
Our Creative Director didn’t miss a beat: “By getting good at everything before you open your mouth.”
That answer made him think deeply. Because it’s true.
As a presentation design agency, we work on dozens of pitch decks, investor presentations, product launches, and internal strategy rollouts each quarter. And whether we’re working with early-stage founders or Fortune 500 teams, we’ve noticed a repeating pattern: The struggle with presentation skills has very little to do with confidence. Or stage presence. Or the number of public speaking webinars someone’s sat through.
The real issue? Most people are trying to deliver a message that isn’t ready to be delivered.
They’re jumping to polish the performance, when the thinking is still muddy. They’re rehearsing tone and timing, when the story hasn’t landed yet. They’re obsessing over body language, while their slides are working against them.
In other words: people are trying to “present” before they’ve built something worth presenting.
That’s where this guide begins. Because real presentation mastery doesn’t start with delivery. It starts with discipline. Design. Decision-making.
And it’s time we rethink what “presentation skills” actually mean.
First, let's talk about what presentation skills actually mean
Let’s get this out of the way first: presentation skills are not just about how you speak. Not about how firm your handshake is before you start. Not about how polished your voice sounds when you click to slide 3.
That’s the final 5%. And most people spend 95% of their prep time stuck there.
What we’ve learned from building presentations across industries, continents, and boardrooms is simple: Presentation skills are thinking skills. Structuring skills. Editing skills. Storytelling skills. Design skills.
If you’ve got those in place, the delivery takes care of itself. If you don’t, no amount of rehearsal will save it.
Need a hand with your presentation? We'd love to help.
So, How Do You Improve These Presentation Skills?
Improving presentation skills isn’t a weekend project. It’s not something you fix with a quick webinar, a YouTube playlist, or by copying someone else's slide style. And it's definitely not solved by "just being more confident."
We’ve worked with enough leadership teams, founders, and brand managers to see the pattern: the people who actually master presentation skills don’t “wing it better.” They work the entire stack, one layer at a time.
Let’s break down how.
1. Start by Learning to Think Like an Editor, Not a Speaker
Most people approach presentations like they’re about to give a speech.
So, they start writing everything they want to say. And before they know it, their deck has 42 slides, 700 words per slide, and a desperate hope that they’ll “explain it better live.”
Wrong approach.
Speakers think in terms of expression. Editors think in terms of clarity.
An editor trims the fat, organizes the logic, and makes the message accessible before it ever meets an audience. They cut what's unnecessary—even if it’s clever. Especially if it’s clever. They constantly ask: If someone only remembers one thing, what should it be?
That’s the mindset shift we push clients toward in every presentation we build.
The highest-performing presentations don’t tell more—they say less, mean more, and stick longer.
2. Obsess Over the Narrative Arc, Not the Slide Count
We often get asked: “How many slides should this deck have?”
We’ve built 12-slide product narratives that feel like movies. We’ve redesigned 60-slide investor decks that move fast and hold attention. Slide count means nothing without story movement.
Improving presentation skills means improving your grasp on narrative structure:
Hook them early (this isn't a warm-up; it’s the audition)
Build a clear tension (show what’s broken, what’s missing, or what’s misunderstood)
Reveal a resolution (your solution, your idea, your vision)
Guide them to belief (data, proof, and simplicity serve this—not fluff)
End with conviction (no long summaries; just one clear next step)
This is the skill that separates the “information sharers” from the “influence makers.” It’s not just about saying what your company does—it’s about making people feel why it matters right now.
3. Master Visual Structure Like It’s a Language (Because It Is)
Most people treat slides like decoration. We treat them like syntax.
When visual hierarchy is done right, your slides speak even before you do. When it’s done wrong, even a great speaker gets lost in their own noise.
Good visual structure is about:
Clear focal points
Predictable alignment
Sharp contrast
Intentional whitespace
Visual cues that guide the eye before the voice ever kicks in
We’ve watched the same message fall flat in one version of a deck and electrify the room in another—just because the design made the difference between noise and meaning.
That’s not “design flair.” That’s presenting fluently in a visual language.
4. Practice the Right Way—With Feedback That Actually Helps
We’ve sat in on hundreds of rehearsals. Here’s what most teams do wrong: they practice alone, they don’t record, and when they ask for feedback, they get answers like “It was good” or “Maybe slow down a bit.”
That’s not practice. That’s validation hunting.
Improving presentation skills means creating feedback loops that sharpen you. Here’s how to do it right:
Rehearse aloud, not in your head (your brain is a liar about timing)
Record yourself (the camera sees what you want to ignore)
Share with people who have context, but aren’t too close to the content (they’ll spot clarity issues faster)
Ask specific questions: “Was the story flow clear?”, “Did I lose you anywhere?”, “If you had to repeat one thing I said, what would it be?”
The goal isn’t to get praise—it’s to get friction that helps shape your message into something tighter, sharper, and more effective.
5. Treat Simplicity as a Discipline, Not a Style
There’s this myth that great presenters just “keep it simple” by nature.
But simplicity isn’t a personality trait. It’s a decision. A brutal, repetitive one.
Every presentation that looks clean, sounds clear, and feels effortless is the result of someone:
Cutting the jargon
Reducing the idea count
Designing for scannability, not decoration
Letting the audience breathe, not rush
Simplicity forces you to make trade-offs. You can’t say everything. You shouldn’t even try.
And yet, the paradox is this: When you say less, people understand more. Simplicity gives your ideas room to land. Room to echo. Room to matter.
6. Develop Point-of-View Confidence (Even If You’re Not a Natural Speaker)
We’ve worked with enough quiet founders, introverted execs, and technical leads to know this for a fact: You don’t need charisma to be a great presenter. You need clarity, confidence in your POV, and a narrative that does the heavy lifting.
The best presentations are not TED-style performances. They are point-of-view statements—ones that position the speaker as someone who’s not just selling something, but standing for something.
When you walk into a room and say: “This is what we believe is broken. This is how it can be fixed. And here’s why it matters now”—you don’t have to force confidence. It shows.
This is why the most powerful presentation skill isn’t about voice modulation. It’s about point of view. And the conviction to lead with it.
7. Learn From the Best—But Build Your Own Voice
There’s value in watching iconic talks. Steve Jobs’ keynotes. Brené Brown’s TED talks. The Netflix investor decks. They’re useful. Until they aren’t.
Because copying someone else’s cadence, tone, or slide style will always come off as imitation. And the one thing audiences can sniff out instantly is a lack of authenticity.
Presentation mastery means:
Learning principles from greats, not mimicking their moves
Finding your own narrative voice—especially in how you structure and simplify
Building visual rhythm that matches your message, not someone else’s template
The teams that consistently nail their presentations don’t all sound the same. But they all sound like themselves—on their best day, with their clearest mind, making the strongest case.
That’s what your audience is hoping for. Not a performance. Not a persona. Just someone who’s done the hard thinking—and is ready to share it.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.