Your Cyber Path: How to Get Your Dream Cybersecurity Job · Kip Boyle

EP 104: Confidently Presenting with Meredith Grundei

September 1, 2023·50 min·3 clips

Meredith describes a client who used a child's staircase habit and a hammer to explain a technical AI product.

1. Your Cyber Path EP 104: Confidently Presenting with Meredith Grundei centers on presentation skills for cybersecurity and tech audiences. 2. Jason Dion hosts, and Meredith Grundei is a public speaking coach and owner of Grundy Coaching who specializes in presentation skills for tech leaders. 3. The episode asks how technical professionals can present complex ideas in a non-technical way so stakeholders understand them. 4. Meredith says her work grew from a master's degree in performance, years of dancing and acting, and improv study in Chicago. 5. She says she taught at the Second City for four years and later moved into corporate America, including work with manufacturing companies. 6. Meredith explains that clients from HR and the C-suite started asking her for help with presentations and conferences. 7. She says the pandemic pushed her to go all in on Grundy Coaching. 8. Meredith argues that presenters should start by asking who the audience is before building slides or choosing visuals. 9. She says the next question is the objective, including what the audience should do, think, or feel by the end. 10. She says people can usually retain three to five key takeaways, and those need to be chosen before the visuals. 11. Meredith says compliance slides may be fixed by legal or HR, so the presenter has to guide attention and keep the audience oriented. 12. Jason describes a briefing format he used in military and government contracting work: state the topic, the desired outcome, and whether a decision is needed. 13. Meredith says presenters should use a story, an open-ended question, or a hook instead of leading with themselves. 14. She says most audiences are silently asking, 'Who is this person? Why should I care? And how are they going to solve my problem?' 15. Meredith gives a client example from AI and ad agencies that used a child walking upstairs with a hammer as the story hook. 16. The client closed that story with 'we are your hammer,' turning a technical product into a memorable analogy. 17. Meredith says vague stories are weaker than specific ones, and she contrasts 'I went to the store for milk' with a detailed scene in Washington Heights near the George Washington Bridge. 18. She says open-ended questions in virtual presentations can surface audience pain points in the chat and give the speaker material to reflect back. 19. The conversation is practical and instructional, with Jason adding cyber, military, and course-design examples throughout. 20. People who present technical ideas to executives, clients, or interview panels will get the most from it, while listeners wanting technical tooling details may skip it.

As heard by us

Practical presentation coaching for cybersecurity listeners who need to sound clear.

This episode treats presentation skills as a practical part of landing a cybersecurity role and doing the job well. Jason Dion hosts Meredith Grundy, a public speaking coach and owner of Grundy Coaching, and the discussion stays focused on making complex technical ideas easier…

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Get sharper at presenting complex security ideas when the room is full of nontechnical people.

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