Andy Churchill,  phd, mba

Hone Communications

I work with individuals and organizations to help researchers present better. I start with helping them find their story and then coach them to deliver it in the most effective way.  Since Covid, my work has focused around helping people navigate the shifts to presenting online: 
👉 your voice (tone, pace, volume, pausing) remains your most important tool, and embracing the attitudes and feeling you want to convey is your most critical skill.
👉 stories still rule: tech interaction tricks are useful, but don't get sucked too far down that rabbit hole because stories are still the most effective driver of deep engagement, learning and memory.
👉 understand the impact of body language: while it has become less impactful on the audience, it still influences your own confidence and energy.
👉 the movement of visuals in person competes with your ability to engage your audience, but online, that same movement helps capture and retain attention: adjust accordingly.

A short selection of past companies & organizations with whom I've worked:
MY01
Engineva
McGill DeSautels School of Business
Research Institute of McGill University Health Care
Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec
Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress
MUHC Foundation
Bio-Sync
Integrated Program in Neuroscience

Co-Founder

Sounds of Science live

Co-Host

McGill University - Teaching and Learning Services

PROGRAMS INCLUDE:
3MT Training Developer & Director (100+ student competition)
Pitch Coach: McGill Hakim Family Prize (2x$50,000 winning grants)
Training Director, Lister Family Engaged Science Initiative (500 students/year)
Pitch Coach: Surgical Innovation Program (2-3 successful start-ups emerge each year)
Presentation Coach: TISED Changemakers (annual conference keynote speakers)
Pitch Coach: MI4 / McGill Advancement Collaboration (prepare professors for donor meetings)
Video Training (prepare professors for the recording studio)

Presentation Skills Training Manager

The McGill Writing Centre

COURSES INCLUDE: Fundamentals of Academic Presentations, Communication in Engineering, Cornerstones of Academic Writing, Communication in Management
👉These undergraduate, graduate and professional level courses all share communicating more effectively as their common thread.  Spanning from traditional academic writing (e.g., research papers and dissertations) to professional writing (e.g., cover letters & project proposals) to start-up needs (pitches & business plans) this work bridges the academic and professional spheres in ways that have come to define my career.

For this work, I have received the prestigious McGill Distinguished Teaching Award.

Sessional Instructor

Engineva

I work with clients to write the technical documentation needed for Science Research and Experimental Design (SR&ED) funding from federal and provincial governments. This work involves transforming technical texts to accessible, engaging narrative.

Technical Advisor

turn your audience into your champions: ignite curiosity 🔥 scaffold understanding ✔ maximize impact 🚀. The PresentBetter Program for lab research groups & academic institutes -now over 7,000 researchers served.

Every piece of research, when effectively communicated, can spark change. 

In academia. In careers. In society.

But too often, important findings remain hidden, their potential unrealized. 
The importance/impact of research gets:
●	Buried under layers of complexity
●	Communicated without connecting
●	Overwhelmed by scientific terms and processes

This is why I created PresentBetter: 
To transform how your researchers share their ideas with the world. 
Together we distill years of complex study into clear, compelling narratives that resonate with and inspire audiences.
By amplifying researcher’s voices, we elevate the ability to communicate research in ways that:
●	Moves people
●	Propels careers forward
●	Bridges the gap between academia and society

Through PresentBetter.org, I offer tailored solutions to meet diverse needs:
1.	Individual Coaching: One-on-one sessions crafted for your specific presentation challenges.
2.	Lab and Department Workshops: Small group training to elevate your entire team's communication skills.
3.	Institutional Programs: Comprehensive, scalable solutions for universities and research institutions.
4.	Conference and Event Preparation: Targeted coaching for high-stakes presentations that can define careers.
5.	Online Courses: Self-paced learning for researchers seeking flexibility.

We aim to create a future where every researcher's voice resonates with clarity and impact.



PS Wondering if too good to be true? Here's a link to the talk I coached that was voted the best 3 minute research presentation in North America last year. Scroll through the flipbook for the talk, key lessons, minute by minute breakdown, and a description of the program that I used to train the speaker: https://www.presentbetter.org/post/international-award-winning-talk

If you're a PhD and feeling stuck,  
this image image will help you reset.  


Here's an exercise to help you feel this truth:

At the end of each month, write down:
3 things I got better at this month.
3 things I accomplished this month.  


𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗹𝗹 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲:

❌ you're not running in circles, 

✔️you're in the middle of the greatest upward spiral of growth you'll likely ever experience.

Andy Churchill, PhD

Great research presentations are rare because most researchers are never taught how to do them. 
My mission is to change that.  

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁:
Your anxiety goes down and your confidence goes up.
You can relax into and enjoy being on center stage.
Your message is clear, concise and understood.
Your delivery is professional and engaging. 
Your presentations lead to conversations. 
Conversations lead to opportunities: 
•	recognition of impacts & increased funding
•	tenure track positions in academia
•	industry jobs in desired field 
•	dream post-doc positions

Great 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹:
✨ engaging & professional   
✨accessible & rigorous   
✨ re-tellable

Here’s how to make them happen more often:
𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗯, 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗲, 𝗼𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺: talk with me and we’ll figure out how to integrate this training seamlessly into your students’ experience. 
𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀: talk with me and we’ll figure out how to create a bespoke training program targeted to your needs and the needs of your presenters.   
𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱: talk with me and we’ll figure out if your best path is joining a cohort, working 1on1, or becoming an advocate so that your lab, institute, or university will hire me so you don’t have to.  

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲, 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲. 
I book free appointments with anyone interested in helping more researchers present more effectively.  There’s nothing I’d rather do.  
https://calendly.com/andrewhchurchill/20min

Great research presentations are possible
let's make your next one, a great one!


PS Wondering if too good to be true? here's a link to the talk I coached that was voted the best 3 minute research presentation in North America last year. Scroll through the flipbook for the talk, key lessons, part by part breakdown, and a description of the program that I used to train the speaker: https://www.presentbetter.org/post/international-award-winning-talk

Amplifying the voice of researchers | Founder of PresentBetter | 10+ years & 10,000+ researchers trained | Currently booking with universities for winter/spring ’26

If you are a PhD candidate wanting to improve your presentations,
here's 1 shift that will transform them. 

𝗢𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂: 
You think there is a way we want you to sound.  
So you try to learn to do that:   
knowledgeable, rigorous, confident.  

Nothing wrong with those things.  
In fact, those are good goals.   

But they don't come from trying to sound that way.  
They come from realizing you are that way.  

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂: 
Fake it 'til you make it, doesn't work anymore. 
Because you have made it, and realizing that is infinitely more effective.  

Embrace the transition:
from student who studies to knowledge creator, 
from test taker to research sharer,  
from apprentice to colleague.  

𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂:
Make that mindset shift, audiences will listen, doors will open, your career will take its next step forward.  You got this.

The 1st grad class I taught was like a slow motion car crash.
Except it was 3.5 hours a day for 2 weeks, ouch!

I was stuck wondering: "But I have taught successfully before, what went so wrong this time?"  And I was stuck with feedback like: "Andrew Churchill should never teach at McGill again."

But with the help of a faculty director who believed people should be measured not by their first effort but by the progress of each iteration, I figured it out. 

Five years later I won an outstanding teacher award, that I keep close as reminder:
• you're not born with skills you learn them.  
• positive iteration is the path to success.  
• failing forward really does happen.

If you're a PhD out there feeling the sting of failure, remember it's a natural part of the process.  You got this, your future can be whatever you choose to make it.  

 
P.S. If you know someone struggling, give this a like or re-post to help this message find them.  Might be just the thing they need heading into the weekend.

Very excited to be part of another fantastic collaboration.

One of the keys to success in the #MIF is the ability to pitch. But despite years of experience presenting their research, amny acadmeics struggle with the altered rules of business presentations. This year, the MIF is taking a new approach: mandatory pitch training for all applicants. And to help us accomplish this, we are proud to partner with the incredible Andrew Churchill, PhD.

A recognized leader in the field of presentation training, Andrew has been working with researchers and scientists to help them present more effectively for almost 15 years. In that time he has led workshops for over 10,000 researchers and coached over 1,000 individual talks. He has been the lead coach for the Clinical Innovation Platform (CLIP), worked with MI4 prepping professors for their Dragon’s Den evenings and worked with many successful start-ups to prep them for investor pitches.

He is regularly invited to speak at events and on podcasts and has an active LinkedIn presence with nearly 50,000 followers where his posts have been viewed more than 4,000,000 times. We are excited to welcome Andrew to the MIF community and we are looking forward to seeing the impact of his work on the next round of applications!

My 1st year teaching student presentations were terrible.  
Like a caricature of over-performed TEDx. 
The pic captures how I felt.

Voices weren't monotone, but shifts were scripted and sounded that way: louder here, quieter there, but not with any real meaning attached.  

Gestures weren't much better: there was a lot of one☝️, two✌️ or okay👌,all of which you could tell had been planned, and none of it felt the least bit natural.  

That was over 10 years ago.  I've now taught that class close to 25 times. I've learned a lot.  My students benefit and now you can too.

𝗜𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 (https://lnkd.in/e4jEhnRc), I shared the rest of this story, with the teaching approach that created it, and the approach to ensure you don't make the same one.

So if you are a PhD wanting to get better at presenting, 
or a supervisor wanting get better at helping early career researchers improve, go give it a read: might as well learn from my mistakes rather than making them yourself.

Most of the time this tree hardly gets noticed. 
But at this time of year people talk about it as "the tree."  
What if your next presentation was "the talk"?

It's possible you know:
Unlike this tree that won the gene pool lottery,
there is no presenting gene.  
It's a learned skill, 
you can learn it. 

Cheering you on . . . 
and here to be helpful when you're ready.

Rode home last night in the cold, dark, rain, 
smiling about this post an attendee had already written.   

It was about the opening workshop I delivered for Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute's upcoming speech competition for their PhD and postdoc researchers. As you can see from Elnathan Tiokou's comments, it was well received.  Thank you Julien Besset for having me back again this year.  

Funny he remarks about not going home as a half dozen of us stayed for another 45 minutes after this pic and kept chatting.  

We covered over that white board 2 more times talking about other mindset shifts early career researchers need to make to present more effectively.  

I missed dinner, and it was worth it.

The McGill Writing Centre Peer Tutoring Program starts again next week. 

One of the most important shifts presenters can make is to be more conversational while still remaining professional.  

Talking with a peer who has successfully made this shift is way more powerful than hearing about it from me.  

The service is offered for free to McGill students. Give it a try!

https://lnkd.in/eTmn6qpN

Here's 1 thing good academic presenters often get wrong.
Rethinking it will help you become even better. 

I drew this in class yesterday.  Sharing it here as part of my weekly reflections from teaching.  

Here's what you're looking at:
• The normal distribution graph (lower right) represents the way people typically characterize their audience.  The x-axis is how familiar people are with your specific field. NF on left to VF on right.  Good presenters try to use background and teach  to move people right so they can then share the complexity of their research.  

But this isn't what audience distribution looks like.  
• The top graph with the bimodal distribution is. Great presenters realize this and toggle between the 2 types of people in the room: sometimes speaking to the researchers without deep field expertise and then sometimes speaking to their fellow field experts.  

With the first strategy you are constantly compromising and end up satisfying no one.  With the second, everyone gets their turn, everyone ends up learning.

It happened again:
A good pitch that was stuck detracting from itself. 
The great ones aren't afraid to stand alone.  


𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘀𝗸?  

I was working in a mastermind group at Robb Gilbear's conference retreat, and someone shared a pitch about a company they are starting. 

• It started with an absolute stunning 1-liner. I was immediately curious to learn more.   
  
• Then a few lines into the explanation, there was another.  
  
• And then another --what a talented writer I thought.  

And with each new great line, the message got more and more muddled. By the end, I no longer knew what I thought I had in those first few moments.  

And as we then talked about it, she knew exactly what to do. It wasn't going to be easy to decide which one to keep, but winning the pitch was going to be easy once that decision had been made.  

- - - - - - - 

In the writing world the expression is "kill your darlings", and it's part of the editing process to eliminate characters that we love but end up being a distraction. 

When pitch coaching, I simply explain it as "less is more".
  
And in the research presentation space, I refer to this sort of thing as "false focal points."  They attract attention and promote curiosity, but not on the things we want to focus on or want people to remember.  

- - - - - 

Use whichever frame best helps you, just remember deleting something that is hard for you to delete is always part of the path from good to great.

Last week an institute director asked me how much research is behind my presentation coaching:
here's some of it:

It's a compilation of the Season 2 PresentBetter Newsletters. Each features a topic with the associated research behind my thinking and coaching and teaching. Topics include the neuroscience behind "aha" moments in the creative process, effectively managing speaking nerves, and the surprising reason "tell them what you'll say, say it, tell them what you said" isn't actually a very good idea.   

If you enjoy learning about the reasons behind the coaching (besides that it works better), give it a look through: 
https://lnkd.in/e4U-Jpsk.  

And while you're there, sign up for season 3. The first issue is going to over 1,100 of your colleagues inboxes next week.  Don't miss out.

"time for more stage time"
I could feel the panic it would cause, 
but the magic it created was worth it.  

Before we get to the magic, here's what else the note said:
"Wednesday will be a no slides run through. The max time for each person will be 4 minutes so that we can get through everyone in a single day."

2 critical things here: 
• no slides = no crutch:  just you and the audience.  
• 4 minutes is shorter than their final talk: no rambling  

So what happened?
They rocked the stage! No one stood in back and mumbled, instead:
• 3 people used the whiteboard, 
• more than 3 people painted pictures with their hands
• one student who has a cane flipped it back and forth like a prop. He totally owned the room.  

Actually they all totally owned the room. They were conversational. They just shared what they know: the importance of their research, a bit of methodology, some background that they thought was improtant, results here, there and everywhere, and what it all means going forward.    

And they shared it all in a way that we knew they knew it and we knew they cared about it.  

I told you "magic!"

If you're a PhD researcher, remember you rock.  Don't let the stage and the slides and the room make you feel any other way.  You got this.

"Think back to when we started 6 weeks ago. 
Write down 3 ways you have improved." 

This is how I am starting my presenting better class after our week away.  I'll also ask them to write things they still want to do, but the focus is reflectng on successes.  

Presenting well is not an easy skill to develop.  And one reason it's hard is that as we iterate progress we lose sight of where we came from.  And that's too bad:
• When we better remember how far we've come, we have more pride about where we are. 
• And having some pride about where we are is a great mindset to help you present it more effectively.  

So if you're working on developing a new skill (whether its presenting more effectively or anthing else), don't forget to remember where you came from.  
You'll feel better, and you deserve that.

Season 2 newsletters were about research,
Season 3 are stories from taking that research into practice. 

Tomorrow's is the story of Atia Amin's journey. She started as an uncertain 2nd language presenter and progressed all the way to North American 3MT Champion.

For early career researcher looking to improve your presentations
OR
For PIs and university professional programs directors looking to help PhDs and postdocs prepare for successful careers:

These are the stories that have shaped the work I do helping you:
https://lnkd.in/en4hsXjT

We grow strongest when we  grow together.

taplio

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