In remote communications, Presence is the only currency that matters. Your brilliant ideas, your expertise, and your career progression all die when you lose attention.

We all believe we’re engaging, but the camera is a ruthless mirror. It exposes the nervous habits, the monotone delivery, and the lack of connection that turns your online comms into a yawn-fest, tediumsville, dulldrums.

End the Amateur Hour. Demand the Feedback You Fear.

We put you, the Presenter, in front of a dedicated panel of communication experts and coaches. You deliver your content. They deliver the raw, objective, and detailed feedback you can’t get from colleagues or clients.

Are you ready?

We invite ambitious presenters to put themselves in front of an experienced panel; get assessed; and discuss the results immediately.

SWISSUES Presence is a free service to help the our community improve

Email Bill or Yuanyuan to find out more and secure your spot in the trial.

SWISSUES Where Experience becomes Expression

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What podcasting taught us about being heard

When we launched the SWISSUES PodCast, we were not shocked to find that audio-quality dominates everything. Content, intelligence, preparation, even charisma are all filtered through the microphone. A good voice recorded badly sounds unprofessional; an average voice recorded well sounds credible.

What did shock us was how little attention people pay to this in everyday professional communication, particularly in video calls.

Podcasting teaches one lesson very fast: distance is the enemy. The single most important factor in speech quality is how close the microphone is to the speaker’s mouth. A microphone a few centimetres away captures mostly voice. A microphone half a metre away captures the room, reflections, keyboards, fans, traffic, and every algorithmic attempt to “fix” those problems after the fact.

This is why laptop microphones are usually a poor choice. Their inherent quality may be acceptable, but their position is fundamentally wrong. They sit far from the mouth, increasing room resonance and reducing clarity before any software processing begins. To compensate, laptops apply aggressive noise suppression and echo cancellation, which often introduces flutter, pumping, and distortion.

In podcasting, no one would dream of recording a conversation with a laptop mic. Yet this happens in professional video calls every day. Like to hear the difference between a properly positioned microphone and one built into a laptop?

The same lesson applies to most in-ear microphones and consumer earbuds. When the microphone is in a dangling cable or embedded in a tiny wireless unit, its distance and orientation constantly change. Clothing noise, inconsistent levels, and limited wireless bandwidth all take their toll.

By contrast, an on-ear headset with a simple boom microphone solves nearly all of these problems at once. The microphone stays close to the mouth. Levels are stable. Room sound is suppressed naturally, not algorithmically. The result is clearer, calmer, and easier to listen to — which matters more than people realise.

From podcasting, we also learned something else: listeners judge you by your audio. Poor sound is tiring. It subtly undermines authority and credibility. People may not be able to explain why a call feels hard work, but they feel it all the same.

The good news is that this is one of the cheapest professional upgrades available. You do not need studio equipment. A €50 on-ear, wired, USB headset is enough to move from “unacceptable” to “effortlessly clear”. It’s the best investment you can make in your image.

For more on improving your online image go to SWISSUES Presence.

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In the theater of human persuasion, there’s a stark divide between those who speak to the spreadsheet and those who speak to the soul. Watch any populist politician command a crowd, and you’ll witness something that most business communications conspicuously lack: a unifying narrative that transforms disparate facts into an irresistible story of purpose.

The Leitmotiv Advantage

Like Wagner’s recurring musical themes that give coherence to his epic operas, successful leaders deploy a central narrative thread—a leitmotiv—that weaves through everything they do. When Donald Trump proclaimed “Make America Great Again,” he wasn’t just offering a policy platform; he was providing a lens through which every subsequent message, decision, and tweet could be understood. The border wall, trade wars, and regulatory rollbacks all became chapters in the same story of restoration and strength.

This isn’t about politics—it’s about the fundamental architecture of persuasion. The narrative provides what logic alone cannot: emotional continuity, tribal identity, and a sense of destiny. Where reasoned arguments demand that audiences work to connect the dots, narrative presents a pre-connected constellation of meaning.

The Business World’s Fatal Flaw

Corporate communications, by contrast, typically read like the output of a committee tasked with checking boxes. Consider the last company presentation you attended. Chances are it began with market analysis, proceeded through product features, touched on competitive advantages, and concluded with financial projections. Logical? Absolutely. Memorable? Hardly.

This approach treats audiences like calculators when they’re actually storytelling creatures who’ve evolved over millennia to understand their world through narrative. We don’t remember the quarterly earnings; we remember the hero’s journey. We don’t rally around efficiency metrics; we rally around missions that make us feel part of something larger than ourselves.

Take Apple under Steve Jobs versus most technology companies today. Jobs didn’t sell computers; he sold a rebellion against conformity, a tool for “the crazy ones” who would “think different.” Every product launch, every advertisement, every design decision reinforced this central narrative of creative insurgency against bland corporate mediocrity. Meanwhile, competitors focused on processor speeds and feature comparisons, wondering why their superior specifications didn’t translate to superior sales.

The Cost of Narrative Poverty

Without a unifying story, business communications suffer from what we might call narrative fragmentation syndrome. Each initiative appears disconnected from the last. The diversity program exists in one silo, the cost-cutting measures in another, the innovation strategy in a third. To external observers—customers, investors, employees—the organization appears rudderless, reactive rather than purposeful.

Consider how many companies pivot from “customer-centric” to “efficiency-focused” to “innovation-driven” messaging as market conditions change. Each pivot might be individually logical, but collectively they suggest an organization that doesn’t know what it stands for. The audience stops listening not because the arguments lack merit, but because they lack a consistent character making them.

This fragmentation creates a peculiar paradox: businesses simultaneously appear both boringly predictable and chaotically inconsistent. Predictable because their communications follow the same tired formulas of bullet points and metrics. Inconsistent because without a narrative spine, each message exists in isolation, subject to the whims of quarterly pressures and management changes.

The Narrative Imperative

The most successful organizations understand that narrative isn’t decoration—it’s infrastructure. Amazon’s relentless focus on “customer obsession” provides a decision-making framework that guides everything from warehouse automation to cloud services. Netflix’s evolution from “defeating Blockbuster” to “entertainment everywhere” shows how narratives can evolve while maintaining coherence.

These narratives don’t eliminate the need for data and logic; they provide the context that makes data meaningful. When a leader discusses technical innovations within their sustainability mission, they’re not just sharing specifications—they’re describing tools that serve a larger purpose. The technical details become compelling because they serve a story that audiences want to believe in.

Beyond Reason

The uncomfortable truth that many business leaders resist is that humans aren’t primarily rational actors. We’re rationalizing actors who use logic to justify decisions made on emotional and narrative grounds. The most persuasive communications acknowledge this reality by leading with story and supporting with facts, rather than hoping that facts alone will generate the emotional commitment necessary for action.

In a world saturated with information, the scarcest resource isn’t data—it’s meaning. Narrative provides that meaning, transforming isolated facts into coherent purpose, scattered initiatives into unified campaigns, and corporate entities into protagonists worth following.

The choice facing business communicators is clear: continue speaking to calculators, or start speaking to the storytelling creatures that humans actually are. Only one approach builds the kind of lasting connection that survives the next quarterly pivot.

Sounding Good on a Podcast or Video Call Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

Want to sound better in podcasts, interviews, or virtual meetings? Good audio makes a big difference—and no, you don’t need a studio or a radio voice to get there.

Here’s a quick guide to sounding clear and confident, without overthinking it.

1. Use an external mic (even a modest one).
Your laptop’s built-in microphone just isn’t up to the job. A small, affordable USB microphone with a cardioid pickup pattern will already sound significantly better. If you’re using a headset, choose one with a decent mic.

2. Always wear earphones.
   Any earphones are better than speakers. Why? Because speakers leak sound back into the mic, creating echoes, feedback, and that dreaded “tin can” vibe.

3. Place the mic close—but not too close.
   Around 10 to 20 centimeters (4 to 8 inches) from your mouth is ideal. Slightly off to the side helps reduce breath noise and plosives (“p” and “b” sounds). This tip alone can make you sound far more professional.

4. Pick a soft-sounding room.
Hard, empty rooms are the enemy of good audio. Carpets, curtains, bookshelves, and soft furniture help absorb reflections that cause reverb. Your voice should sound direct and intimate—not like you’re calling from a tiled bathroom.

5. Speak like yourself.
Seriously, don’t try to change your voice unless you’ve practised. Forced changes in pitch, volume, or accent tend to backfire. Your natural voice, clearly delivered, is your best bet.

6. Do a quick test recording.
Before you go live, hit “record” and play it back. You’ll hear things you wouldn’t notice otherwise—like background hum, mic crackle, or awkward room echo. A two-minute test can save an hour of embarrassment.

Bottom line?
Sounding good isn’t about gear—it’s about thoughtful setup and a little practice. Whether you’re podcasting, pitching, or just attending a team meeting, good audio helps people connect with what you’re saying.

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Why Digressions Can Win Hearts and Minds

At a recent Gresham College lecture, human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith opened with an apology: he was tired, jet-lagged, and low on energy. Then he began speaking—in a flat, almost plodding tone that rarely lifted. And yet, by the end, I was captivated. What made this talk work wasn’t the performance. It was the structure of the storytelling—and the way he used digressions to change how we listen. [Links to lecture: Gresham College, YouTube]

His delivery reminded me of the late comedian Ronnie Corbett, known for long-winded monologues that seemed to ramble off course before finally circling back to a punchline. In Corbett’s case, the diversions were often more entertaining than the final joke. In Stafford Smith’s case, they served a subtler purpose: they built empathy and credibility, quietly drawing the audience along until—almost without realising it—we were ready to hear something that, had he led with it, we might have rejected.

This style works because it creates space. Space for reflection. Space for doubt. Space for nuance. The speaker doesn’t hammer a message home; they walk you through the scenery that shaped it. Personal stories become waypoints. Each one is a small act of trust—an offering from the speaker’s own life or experience. By the time the argument lands, it feels like something shared, not imposed.

It’s a deeply humane way to communicate. And it’s particularly useful when your message is provocative, complex, or emotionally loaded. Rather than confronting disagreement head-on, it leads the listener down a different path—one paved with stories, insights, even a bit of humour. Resistance fades. Sympathy grows.

That’s why I think it’s valuable for anyone—especially those in leadership, advocacy, or teaching—to have an arsenal of personal stories. Not to decorate a speech, but to structure it. The digressions aren’t distractions. They’re what make the destination reachable.

In a time when attention is short and tempers are quick, the meandering storyteller has an underrated power: the ability to change minds by taking the long way round.

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