Hanging Rock

Brag Like a Boss: Nail Your One-Liner

Dell

Google

American Express

Cisco

Microsoft

Coach D G McCullough

Trusted communications coach for military and business leaders

Learn journalistic and coaching tips to distill your life’s work into a memorable line that invites curiosity for more.

Learn to brag in a line that sounds clear, bold—and like you

See before and after intros as fodder to craft your own.

Cut out the fluff. Add in the substance.

Start to think differently on that vital introduction moment, and become more audience centered.

Brag more briefly. Land stronger.

Learn storytelling systems proven for any occasion. 🪜 Identify your strengths to create, deliver and refine your first story 🎬 Start building a portfolio of stories to draw upon. 📚

Engage your audience and gain their buy-in consistently!

Course syllabus

11AM-1PM EST<ul><li>Session 1: Storytelling &amp; You - good &amp; bad storytelling in real life</li><li>Session 2: The Science of Stories - concepts and why they work</li><li>Session 3: Scripting &amp; Toolbox - applying what you've learnt</li><li>Session 4: Delivering</li></ul>

Weekly Workshop 

You will work on one primary storytelling project throughout the class. You'll begin with an introductory storytelling exercise. Subsequently each week you'll work on the identified talk/presentation/story continuously refining towards a final presentation.

Personal Project

Each week, we'll have one discussion board to review takeaways from pre-readings and learnings from previous session. Separately you will also provide peer feedback on others' work during live meetings and in-between classes.

Weekly Discussion

Optional office hours follow the 1st and 3rd workshops.<ul><li>AMA with Sri &amp; Bikash</li><li>Peer networking session in week 1</li></ul>

2 Bonus Session (optional)

Course schedule

You are a Product Manager who would like to consistently get buy-in from your teams for your winning ideas.

You are a Marketer who is tired of trying to persuade leadership about your strategy and inspire consumers about your product.

You are an Engineering Manager who finds it a challenge to persuade non-technical execs and project stakeholders.

Who is this course for

After taking this course you'll...

You’ll learn to overcome anxiety whether addressing small work groups, or large professional or social audiences, through practice and feedback in small groups. You’ll learn and practice techniques to build on your strengths.

Become a confident presenter

You’ll learn to make audience-specific cases through structured storytelling. You'll practice a simple 3-step framework to identify your audience, intent and message, to build a compelling script and delivery. Hone this with feedback from your peers and me.

Advocate your cause effectively

Collect and curate a library of personal stories to draw upon at will. You’ll unearth the stories you already tell and identify more that you can tell. Practice repurposing and retelling the same stories for different audiences and outcomes.

Build a flywheel

You'll learn to recognize how persuasive speakers utilize stories. Apply them to your own vignettes and stories. Continuously learn from everyone around you, business leaders, politicians, actors, stand up comics, sportsmen and anyone you encounter.

Sharpen the saw

If you want to communicate your ideas effectively, get buy-in and drive decisions, this 4-week course is for you!

Sri Srikrishna

Entrepreneur, author, professor

Bikash Chowdhury

Entrepreneur, marketing leader

Spring 25-AML-Cohort-2

Summer 25 Cohort 1

Crafting the Perfect Pitch is about more than just sharing your idea — it’s about shaping a clear, compelling narrative that captures attention and drives action. In this two-week class, you’ll learn how to structure your pitch so it resonates with your audience, stands out in a crowded market, and gives you a lasting competitive edge.

Learn How To Craft the Perfect Pitch

We'll have a live discussion every other day (Monday, Wednesday and Fridays) to cover the Chapter concepts and answer questions.

Class Sessions

There will be projects associated with each class session that will follow up on and reinforce the concepts we review. These are optional.

Class projects

CEOs and Founders of early stage startups who need to raise venture funding.

Executives at growth stage startups who need to improve sales and hiring.

Team leads at all companies, who want to learn how to see their ideas succeed.

Key outcomes

If you want to raise Venture funding, you need to stand out from the thousands of other people pitching VCs. Storytelling is the key to getting their attention and closing your round.

Improve your fundraising skills

Customers are busy, and you need to convey your story quickly and clearly. It's not enough to have a great product, you need to tell them why it matters to them. Storytelling helps you craft a better pitch to get attention from customers.

Close more customers

The best people have a wealth of job opportunities. If you want them to join your team, you need to tell a compelling story about your opportunity and how it stands apart.

Hire a better team

People are overwhelmed by marketing messages everyday, why will they notice yours? Storytelling is the key to crafting an effective marketing message, and having it stick.

Improve your marketing

Learn how to improve your fundraising, sales, and hiring through better communication.

Sean Byrnes

March 2023

August 2025

In four 90-minute sessions, we'll explore a range of storytelling frameworks and learn the tools to build influence and create impact in settings of all kinds. Whether in a high-stakes presentation, all-hands meeting, or everyday conversation, you’ll learn how to connect more personally, powerfully, and effectively in a one-on-one conversation or in front of a room full of people. This is not a writing workshop (though we’ll do some writing—and lots of brainstorming). This is not about optimizing AI to tell stories for you (though we’ll dive into how to use AI thoughtfully and effectively). This practical, human-centered course helps you sharpen your storytelling skills and expand your influence and impact across your organization. You'll learn how to more effectively: • Turn high-stakes presentations—from all-hands meetings to campaign pitches—into compelling narratives that capture attention, build credibility, and persuade audiences to stay engaged from start to finish.• Simplify the message you're trying to deliver to drive more understanding and alignment in any situation.• Create a company culture where everyone is aligned on mission, vision, and values. Bonus: The same tools apply far beyond work—toasts, job interviews, first dates, even eulogies. More than anything, this workshop isn’t just about your next speech, deck, or all-hands. It’s about seeing storytelling as a powerful part of leadership—and life. We'll learn tools, yes, but also build the confidence needed to share stories that make people lean in, trust you, and say those three magic words: tell me more.

Great Storytelling Is a Tool for Influence, Shaping Culture, and Team Connection

We'll meet for 90-minutes live sessions for four consecutive Thursday from September 4th — September 25th.

Thursdays

Each student will spend time working on a story or presentation between sessions and get weekly feedback from me and the other students.

Weekly projects

Leaders in start-up and early stage companies who want to nail their story for team alignment and client pitches.

Founders, comms officers, HR directors, and other leaders navigating transitions such as funding rounds, growth, M&amp;A, hybrid workplaces.

People managers (HR, Marketing, Comms) with a mission to create a clear, compelling story for team focus and connection.

Professionals looking to change jobs or in a career transition who want to refine and reframe their story for interviews, etc.

Anyone who has asked this simple, vital question as they navigate their own path or company journey: How do I become a better storyteller?

What you’ll get out of this course

Effective and concise storytelling to enhance team leadership, client interactions, sales calls, pitch presentations, and job interviews.

Confidence in storytelling for diverse settings, from high-stakes presentations to casual interactions like dates and dinner parties.

How to communicate the story of your "Why?”—the underlying purpose of your personal brand or your company's. 

How to use AI to enhance storytelling without losing your authentic voice.

Benefits of storytelling as a meta-skill: it doesn't just make you a better communicator—it elevates how you show up in every part of life.

​How to master the craft of great storytelling that prompts these three magic words: tell me more.

Harness the power of storytelling to make your message clear, powerful, and impactful in all parts of work and life

Larry Smith

Cohort 1

Stop tweaking words and sentences to craft the perfect report or email. 'Better writing' is not the solution. It's better thinking. Learn a repeatable strategy to clarify and convey complex ideas in any setting. Communicating becomes easy once you have extreme clarity about the message you actually need to convey.

Get out of the details to craft communication that cuts through with busy people

I offer a small mount of reading that will help you prepare for the workshop. It is not essential, but will help you get more out of it.

Optional Pre-work

Other time zones ... Thursday June 6 -<ul><li>New York - 6pm to 8pm</li></ul> Friday June 7 -<ul><li>Singapore - 6am to 8am</li><li>Sydney Australia - 8am to 10 am</li><li>Auckland - 10am to noon</li></ul>

Workshop Details

I offer extra tips and tools to help you apply the ideas we go through during the workshop.

Post Workshop Consolidation

Workshop details

Frustrated PMs experiencing slow responses to their emails, convoluted chains in messaging channels and miscommunication in meetings.

Ambitious experts who want to connect with decision makers, even when they don't share your technical expertise.

Professionals wanting to waste less time chasing for responses and fixing problems caused by miscommunication.

Learn how to structure your thinking to find and frame insightful messaging

We have a joke that the big idea is often buried at the bottom of page 47. This typically happens because the author hasn't prioritised what they really need to achieve with that communication.

Master a simple sentence that defines the outcome your communication must deliver.

Many famous people have said that if you can't say it in a sentence, you don't know it. It's true. You are also unlikely to get the response you need from busy leaders if you don't convey what matters in that single sentence.

Clarify and convey your main message so it jumps off the page. 

Visualise your messaging so it literally jumps off the page. Match the hierarchy of your messaging with the hierarchy of the formatting in your communication.

Structure your messaging so any audience can find it in 30 seconds.

Don't just learn about how to structure your messaging. Do it! We will practice and review the results together.

Practice synthesising your main message.

Do you fear losing your audience's attention? Or, worse: They pay no attention?
Communicating with extreme clarity is essential.

Davina Stanley

Clarity First Program

Learn to structure your thinking so your communication resonates with busy people.

Lightning Lessons

Brag Like a Boss: Nail Your One-Liner