Stop Presenting the History and Start With the Car Chase

Most business presentations are built like a slow moving Victorian novel. They start with a long, dry prologue about the company’s founding, move into a plodding middle section about internal processes, and finally, around the forty minute mark, they reach the actual point.

We do this because we are comfortable with linear time. We think, "If I don't start at the beginning, they won't understand the end."

The reality is much harsher: if you start at the beginning, they won’t be awake for the end.

If you want to maximize audience connection and cut through the data clutter, you have to break the linear narrative habit. You need to stop being a historian and start being a screenwriter.

To do that, you need a structure that prioritizes curiosity over chronology:

Why? What if? Now What?

The Problem With the "About Us" Beginning

Starting a presentation with your company history is the fastest way to signal that the meeting is about you, not the audience. It is a defensive move. We lead with our credentials because we are afraid the audience won’t take us seriously if we do not prove we’ve been around since the late nineties.

But authority is not earned through a timeline of past achievements; it is earned by demonstrating that you understand the audience's current pain. When you lead with "In 1998, we opened our first office," you are essentially asking the audience to sit through your childhood home movies before you tell them why the house is on fire.

Phase 1: The "Why?" (Leading With the Car Chase)

In filmmaking, there is a concept called In Media Res—starting in the middle of the action. Think of any great thriller. It does not start with the hero waking up and brushing their teeth; it starts with the car chase.

In our framework, the car chase is the Why? Instead of starting with a history slide, start with the specific monster your audience is currently fighting. Why are we here? Why does this matter right now?

• "Last quarter, we lost 15% of our subscribers, and we found out it was not because of our price."

• "Three weeks ago, a client called me in tears because our old system crashed during their biggest sale of the year."

This is where you kill the data clutter. You do not need a twenty slide post mortem. You need one sharp, painful statistic or one visceral anecdote that makes the room go quiet. When you start with the car chase, you create immediate tension. You give the audience a reason to care about the data that follows.

Phase 2: The "What if?" (The Pivot)

Once you have established the action, you move into the What if? This is the pivot point of your story. This is the moment you stop looking at the wreckage of the car chase and start looking at the blueprint for a faster vehicle.

The "What if" is the bridge between the pain and the potential. It is where you introduce your solution, but you must resist the urge to show the "how" just yet. Focus on the vision.

• "What if we could automate the reports that currently take Sarah six hours every week?"

• "What if we shifted our strategy to prioritize retention over acquisition?"

In a linear deck, we usually bury this vision under a pile of technical specifications. Here, you use your data sparingly. Only show the numbers that prove the "What if" is actually possible. Your data is no longer a chore; it is the evidence for a better future.

Phase 3: The "Now What?" (The Resolution)

Most linear presentations just sort of fizzle out with a "Questions?" slide or a polite "Thank You" that signals everyone can finally check their phones. If you have followed the arc, you should end with a clear Now What? 

This is where you move from the "Vision" to the "Execution" without falling back into the data trap. You need to provide the immediate next steps that turn a "good idea" into a "shared project."

• "To give Sarah those six hours back, we are not going to overhaul the entire IT department. Instead, we are starting with a three day audit of her team’s manual entries, followed by a pilot of the new dashboard on Monday morning."

• "To fix the 15% subscriber loss, we are pausing the new ad spend today and shifting that budget to a 48 hour email campaign focused specifically on our churn risk accounts."

This replaces the aimless history lesson with a call to action that has actual momentum. You are not asking them to "think about it." You are asking them to "get started." It transforms a "report" into a "mission."

The Wry Reality of the Linear Habit

We cling to chronological order because it is easier to write. It is much simpler to just dump your internal project notes into a slide deck than it is to architect a compelling narrative. Linear thinking is a shortcut for the presenter, but a detour for the audience.

Your job is not to show your work; your job is to make the work matter to the person sitting across from you. If they wanted a history lesson, they would have gone to the library. They are in this meeting because they want a solution. They want to know that you saw the car chase and that you know how to win the race.

The Closer

Structure is the invisible hand that guides your audience’s attention. When you break the linear habit and adopt the Why/What if/Now What flow, you stop being a narrator and start being a leader.

-BZ