How do you make a presentation relatable? Follow any abstract point with two words, for example, and then tell a story, case study, or short anecdote that shows the idea in real life. That phrase pulls facts down from the abstract to ground level, where an audience can actually picture and feel them. The idea is not the hard part. Landing it is.
I call it the magic phrase, and it is almost embarrassingly simple. You are presenting, giving facts and ideas, and the audience is nodding along without really absorbing anything. Then you pause and say, for example. Those two words are a trapdoor. They drop you out of theory and into a concrete moment, and the whole room comes with you. This is one of the tactics inside what I teach as Story-Driven Data™, the method for making evidence actually move people.
Why this matters (and what most executives get wrong)
Before we go further, one myth to kill: there is no such thing as a formal or informal presentation. A presentation is either good or bad, that is it. The instinct to be formal is usually the instinct to stay abstract, to list facts and ideas at a safe altitude and never come down to earth. That altitude is exactly where audiences tune out.
Here is what most executives get wrong. They believe that if the facts are strong enough, the audience will connect the dots on their own. So they stack point on point, idea on idea, and never stop to ground a single one. The facts are true and the logic is sound, but nothing lands, because abstract information asks the listener to do all the work of imagining what it means. Most listeners will not do that work. They will simply drift.
The relatable presenter does the grounding for them. Every time an idea threatens to float off into theory, they reach for a specific example, and the abstract becomes something the audience can see. That is the difference between a talk people respect and a talk people remember.
An idea stated is an idea the audience has to imagine for themselves. An idea shown through an example is one they get to watch happen. Say for example, and do the imagining for them.
The 4-step way to use the magic phrase
The phrase itself is two words, but using it well is a small skill. Here is how to wield for example so it lands every time instead of trailing off into a vague aside.
Step 1: Make your abstract point first
State the idea, principle, or data point cleanly on its own. Do not water it down in anticipation of the example, say it with conviction. The claim is the setup, and the example is the payoff. You need a clear claim on the table before you bring it to ground level, or the story that follows will feel like it belongs to nothing.
Step 2: Pause, then say the magic phrase
Let a beat of silence sit after your point. Then say it: for example. That pause and that phrase together act as a signal to the whole room, lean in, something concrete is coming. It tells the audience to stop processing theory and start watching a picture. Do not rush past it, the pause is what gives the phrase its pull.
Step 3: Drop into a specific story or case study
Now go concrete and stay concrete. Name a real situation, a person, a moment, a number that happened. Little anecdotes and case studies are what bring everything down to ground level and make it relatable. The more specific the detail, the more the audience can see it, and the more they can see it, the more they believe it and remember it.
Step 4: Tie the example back to the point
Close the loop. After the story, connect it back to the claim it illustrated, so the audience feels the idea click into place. Without that return, a good story is just a pleasant detour. The example exists to prove the point, so make the proof explicit before you move on to the next idea.
The mistake most executives make
The mistake is presenting entirely in the abstract and calling it professional. They deliver a clean sequence of facts and conclusions, never once dropping to ground level, and mistake the audience's polite silence for understanding. It is not understanding. It is drift. Abstract-only presenting is the most common way smart people lose a room.
The other mistake is reaching for for example and then delivering a vague, general non-example, in most cases, people tend to, and so on. That is not grounding, it is more abstraction wearing a story's clothes. The power of the phrase comes entirely from what follows it. If what follows is not specific, concrete, and picturable, the magic evaporates.
Scan your next set of slides. For every abstract claim, ask: where is my for example? If a point has no concrete story, case study, or number attached, it is floating. Attach one, or expect the audience to drift right past it.
Case study: the executive whose facts were perfect and forgettable
A division head at a large organization asked me to help before a high-stakes internal presentation. His draft was airtight, well-structured, accurate, thorough, and completely abstract. Every slide made a sound claim and immediately moved to the next one. When he rehearsed it for me, I found my attention sliding off the content within two minutes, and I already knew the material.
We did not add a single new fact. We just went through the deck and, after each major claim, inserted the magic phrase and a real example, a specific team, a specific week, a specific outcome. Where he had said efficiency improved, he now said, for example, and told the story of one team's actual before and after. The content was identical. The experience was not. In the room, people leaned in during the examples, and afterward they quoted his stories back to him, not his statistics. Same facts, brought to ground level, finally relatable.
Abstract presenting versus relatable presenting
| Element | Abstract presenting | Relatable presenting |
|---|---|---|
| What you deliver | Facts and ideas, stacked | Facts, each grounded with an example |
| The audience's job | Imagine what it all means | Watch it happen, then get the point |
| The key phrase | Missing | For example, said with a pause |
| What they remember | A vague sense you were thorough | The specific stories and their point |
Look at the last row. The abstract presenter is remembered as thorough and nothing else. The relatable presenter is remembered for the exact stories that carried each idea. Two words, said at the right moments, are most of that gap.
What to do next
Before your next presentation, go through your material and find every abstract claim. After each one, write for example, and attach a specific story, case study, or number. Then practice the small pause before you say it. That one habit will make you more relatable than any redesign of your slides.
If you want your evidence to move people instead of just informing them, that is the heart of the work I do with executives. You can get a quick quote for working with me directly, and to go deeper, here is how to use storytelling in presentations and how to start a speech so you are grounded from the first line.
Your ideas are probably strong enough already. They are just waiting for you to bring them down to earth.