How to stand out when everyone uses the same playbook

When everyone follows the same "best practices," how do you stand out? We're breaking down the story of the 2025 Public Speaking World Champion and the 3-part toolkit he used to win by intentionally breaking the rules.

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Standards are the bedrock of scalable success. We rely on them for everything from brand guidelines to financial reporting—they create a shared language and ensure consistency.

But in the world of high-stakes communication, that consistency can easily become invisibility. When everyone is operating from the same "best practices" playbook for presentations, how does any single message actually break through and make an impact?

This is the question at the heart of the talk that won Sabyasachi Sengupta the 2025 Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. He tells a story about his time in a corporate job where he was tasked with giving a last-minute presentation.

The instruction was simple: use the existing, data-heavy slides.

He did the opposite. He told a story. AND he wore a bright red suit while doing it.

The result? His colleagues actually laughed. His manager dubbed him the "Chief Entertainment Officer." It's a brilliant story, and it’s packed with actionable wisdom.

Here are 3 things we can add to our toolkit from his "red suit" moment.

1. Swap the currency of the room

Sabyasachi's move was more profound than just deleting slides. He correctly diagnosed that the accepted "currency" in his department was data. It's the language of logic, proof, and rationality.

Instead of trying to win on those established terms, a self-assessed weakness of his, he made a strategic choice to shift the entire interaction to his own area of giftedness. He transacted in a completely different currency: connection.

The takeaway: Every high-stakes room has a default currency it trades in—data, academic rigor, consensus, etc. "Breaking the template" isn't about designing a better slide; it's about honestly assessing if the room's default currency aligns with your unique strengths, and if not, having the courage to introduce your own.

2. Translate information into narrative

The standard "blue suit" presentation is often dense with information, not because the presenter is lazy, but for two reasons: the curse of knowledge (as experts, we forget what it's like to be a novice) and the fact that we often lack evidence of another way. We present all the information to prove the rigor of our work.

Sabyasachi's move was to replace this with a narrative. A story provides context, creates stakes, and makes information emotionally resonant. It's how the human brain is wired to make sense of the world.

The takeaway: Consciously shift your perspective from "What do I need to prove?" to "What is the single most important idea I need them to understand?" Then, find the human-scale story that makes that one idea unforgettable.

3. Find your "red suit"

The red suit is a symbol of his authentic self in a sea of conformity. Your "red suit" is your unique, authentic advantage. It’s the single most effective tool you have to be memorable and build trust. To find it, ask yourself:

• What part of the process gives me the most energy? Is it simplifying a complex problem? Is it brainstorming a bold creative vision? That energy is a clue to your authentic strength.
• What do my colleagues consistently ask for my help with? Do they come to you to "punch up the narrative" or to "make sense of the numbers"? Their answer points to a strength you may be taking for granted.
• What is the core role you've always naturally played, long before you had this job title? This is your "thing." Are you the person who has always been the teacher, the one who loves to make complex ideas clear? Have you always been the builder, who gets energy from creating something from nothing? Are you the detective, obsessed with finding the root cause of a problem? Or are you, like Sabyasachi, the performer, who naturally uses humor and a bit of showmanship to entertain as they inform?

Wrap-up

The "red suit" presentation is fundamentally an act of deep respect for the audience.

Think about it. The standard "blue suit" presentation—the slide with 20 bullet points, the dense chart, the information dump—places the burden of finding the meaning squarely on the audience.

It implicitly says, "Here is all of my work. Your job is to sift through it and figure out what matters."

It respects the information, but it doesn't respect the audience's attention.

The "red suit" approach does the hard work for the audience. By taking the time to find the narrative, to simplify the complex, and to connect on a human level, you are honoring their time and intelligence.

The next time you're building a deck, ask yourself: What's one industry standard I can challenge?

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Until next week,
Meghan
Founder, The Good Deck

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