What’s the Story?

How to Create and Deliver Winning Business Presentations

Tim Calkins

A simple, practical approach to creating and delivering presentations—skills every business leader needs.

Many people, even senior business leaders, don’t know how to create persuasive and engaging presentations, even though it’s critical for business success. Clinical professor of marketing Tim Calkins has been creating and delivering business presentations for more than thirty years, and in What’s the Story? he gives you the insights, tools, and tips you need to enhance your presentation skills.

Delivering an effective presentation is not just about showing up and stating all your facts. By the time your audience is in the room, you should be so well prepared that the most junior member of your team can give the presentation successfully.

Calkins reveals the key steps to making an outstanding business presentation:

Creating a brief
Finding the story
Crafting effective slides
Pre-selling the presentation
Setting the stage
Delivering with confidence
Following up

Few things are as important as your ability to communicate information and make recommendations, and an outstanding business presentation is one of the best examples of this. If you have ever struggled with a presentation, What’s the Story? is the reference you’ve been waiting for—the long-awaited guide many have urged Tim Calkins to write and your key to business success.

Reviews

The ability to connect with your audience through a clear, compelling story is one of the most critical leadership skills you can develop. Tim Calkins gives you the framework to do exactly that. Read it and reference back to it as a tool kit for important moments in your career.

Steve Cahillane CEO of The Kraft Heinz Company

Whether you’re presenting to a boardroom, a team, or a franchisee network, this book will help you tell a clearer story and achieve credibility for your personal brand. What’s the Story? belongs on every business leader’s bookshelf.

Sana Mohammed national director of US field marketing at Dairy Queen

A smart, applied, and effective solution to the thousands of hours we all waste on bad presentations. Tim Calkins does for the business presentation what Vince Lombardi did for football. He knows his stuff and he presents beautifully.

Mark Ritson founder of MiniMBA

Tim Calkins is an award-winning marketing professor, consultant, speaker, and author. He works with top corporations around the world, including Medtronic, AbbVie, Novo Nordisk, Abbott, and Gore. He is widely quoted in the media, such as NBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times, where he provides insights on marketing and strategy stories. He founded and leads the Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review, an annual event that has generated more than five billion media impressions. His previous books include How to Wash a Chicken: Mastering the Business Presentation, Breakthrough Marketing Plans, and Defending Your Brand. Calkins is clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois, where he teaches marketing strategy, biomedical marketing, and influencer marketing.

ISBN 9781774587171
$31.95 CAD • $23.95 USD
Published FEBRUARY 16TH, 2027

8.5 x 7.5 • 224 Pages
PAPERBACK, EBOOK, AUDIOBOOK