How to know if you have a good story in your hands?

If your message can’t be retold, sorry – it isn’t ready.

There’s a simple question that reveals whether your story truly works:
How does it sound when someone else tells it?

It’s easy to fall in love with your own deck. The visuals are gorgeous. The animation is a spectacle. The data is solid. The narrative feels sharp and compelling – to you. After all, you’ve lived inside this story for weeks. You know every slide, every transition, every rationale behind the choices you made.

But here’s the hard truth: if your story only makes sense in your own head, it’s not ready.

A strong story has to survive outside the room. It has to travel – from speaker to listener, and from listener to listener after that. If it doesn’t, no amount of flashy slide transitions will save it.

Instead of asking whether people liked your deck, we suggest a different approach:

First, run it in front of an audience that isn’t limited to leadership. Bring in people from different functions, levels, and perspectives. They’re closer to your real audience than you think.

Then, ask one question only: What did you hear?
Not what they would fix or what they enjoyed. Simply – what story stayed with them once the presentation was over?

Finally, look for patterns.
Which messages came back again and again? Which disappeared completely? Where did the story break, and where did it land effortlessly?

That’s your real feedback loop.

A great deck isn’t judged by how beautiful it looks. It’s judged by how clearly the story travels, and effortlessly jumps from your mouth, to their mind, and stays there.

When people can retell your story in their own words, that’s when you know it’s working, and that you’ve left a mark.