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

"You know you weren't sharing any slides?"
"No, I thought you could see them"
 An hour later the judges returned with their verdict.
The professor had won the McGill Clinical Innovation Pitch Competition.

Simple lesson: The presentation is better when it's not about your slides.

Don't get me wrong, I like slides, I work hard helping people improve their slides. I even have a slick "7 rules for better slides."

But before I do that I teach people to change their relationship with their slides. That's the root of most visuals problems, and fixing the root of problems is the way to help people actually improve.

And when you're no longer slide dependent, you make better slides and you give better presentations.


My newsletter this week shares 3 tips to fix the relationship problem most researchers have with your slides. If you're not signed up, join over 1,000 of your research colleagues here: https://lnkd.in/eb9kYBmx 

PS: you might have noticed: there's no visual here. Sometimes we're just better off without it.

I was screwing up my dissertation defense:
answering a question with certainty I didn't have . . . 

The video tells the rest of the story,
and shares the mindset you need to ace yours. 



This is a clip from the presentation course I'm building. Check below to learn more . . .

51 talks in 3 days:
Ready, set, go . . . 



TISED at McGill University: 
SEDTalks -3 minute research sharing, slides allowed 
-final paired coaching sessions with 14 finalists 

RI-MUHC | Research Institute of the MUHC | #rimuhc#rimuhc#rimuhc#rimuhc#rimuhc#rimuhc
Own Your Story -how do talk about your research in order to network
-individual coaching with 4 participants. At next week's professional development workshop we will kick off our time with a bigger group (125 or so) by having them share <90 second networking stories.  I'll then teach the big group to build their own.  

McGill Innovation Fund
Annual Pitch Competition 
Speed round of pitching and feedback--15 minutes per group, 3 groups per hour, 22 pitches total.  

Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Institute of Genomic Medicine
-The Resonance Talks: Teach me something I don't know, in <5 minutes 
11 speakers coaching is done I get to sit back and enjoy 


Some people might call me crazy, 
but it really is so damn much fun.  

Grateful to have the trust of these organizations 
and grateful to help really smart people doing really important share it in ways that makes people want to know more.  


PS By Friday, I'll be grateful for a quiet dinner and then a soft pillow.

In my work with PhDs and postdocs, here's 1 thing I've noticed you often miss about your next presentation. 

It's not really like what you've mostly seen and often done before: in-class oral tests and classroom lectures. 

Neither of those are good models for the ones you now have to do:
 1. conference presentation
 2. dissertation defense
 3. job talk
 4. presentation beyond academia
And each of these is uniquely different from each other.  

That's the reason my digital course will start with the choice of 4 videos from the list above, each a deep dive into that particular genre.

Curious: if you could ask a question about just one, what would it be?  



video here is a cell phone recording of the intro to the 4 videos mentioned above.  Thought would be fun to share this behind the scenes look at the McGill University Telestudio when I've been recording the program.

Andrew Churchill, PhD

5 tips from 50+ talks in 5 days: 
(my takeaways for your next research talk)


5. Clarity comes from consistency 
--the seemingly most insignificant framing or language shifts undermine comprehension. I describe talks that avoid this mistake as having high levels of internal validity. In simple terms: they are tight. It's harder to do than it sounds, but doing it has exponential clarity gains. 

4. Clear visuals are better visuals. 
--The best research-based talks have clear visuals. Don't mistake this to mean minimal or simple. Fast processing speed and clarity are 2 true keys for effective visuals.   

3. The speaker's story matters
--Even in the most scientific talks, when we learn a little about the speakers relationship to the research being shared the talk is more powerful, every time. 

2. Less is more 
--Most of the talks I coached this week were 5 minutes. The talks that were less than 700 words were better than the ones more than 800. The more complicated the talk, the more processing time your audience needs, the less the word count/minute. Get this wrong and your talk will fail. 

1. Mastery is charisma 
--Effective presence is often described in terms of body language or voice, but its origin comes from mastery of your content. Researchers who know their material and are comfortable with their presentation of it emote a charisma that audiences immediately recognize.  


Nothing better than hanging out with and helping amazing people doing important things.  A big thank you to all the speakers who allowed me to be part of your world this week. Your dedication to your work is inspiring. 


For a deeper dive on the feedback process, sign up for my newsletter.  Next  week's topic is about the power of small group coaching.

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.

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.

Last time I was here it was a for a McGill project 
This time it's for you, well those of you who are PhDs or postdocs wanting to learn to present better.  

Tomorrow is the first day of filming.  
I can't wait.  

PS If you want updates, check in the comments. I'm starting a sign-up for people who want to be in the know for early releases.

“Let’s pause there” I said.
 “But this is where it get’s interesting” she objected.
 “So let’s talk about that” I replied.
 and we did:
 
 You’re on slide 8 right?
 Yes
 Show me the next 3
 She did
 The first 2 are results, is that the interesting bit?
 Yes, especially the 2nd one.
 
 Ok, so take those and make them first,
 then go to method--show us the science is solid
 then background to help us understand more
 then come back to the analysis for the close. 

 She tried the new path
 “WOW” she said.
 
 That’s what I call deck shuffling. 
It's not the way research journals are written,
but it is the way they are read. 

Presenting the way people would read is better presenting. 


Want more stories and deeper insights? Sign up for my newsletter (next to profile pic) and be the first to get alerts about the online program I'm building.

Season 3 of my newsletter brings you stories of putting the research behind presenting better into practice.

Tomorrow's talks about my work with Dr. Jen Ronholm and her graduate students in the One Health Against Pathogens (OHAP) program supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). I explain how Jen and I integrated presentation training into lessons and assignments the students were already doing rather than as external workshops.

How'd we do it?
What was the result?
I’ll let you read for yourself tomorrow. 

Newsletter sign-up next to profile pic.

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.

Excited to be doing another event with Emily Bell for RI-MUHC | Research Institute of the MUHC | #rimuhc. I've been doing work for her groups for close to a decade and they are always great. 

This one is going to be especially fun as we are working with a new model. We are pre-coaching 4 students and we'll begin this workshop with them sharing a freshly minted networking story about themselves.  Then we'll teach the larger group the process so they can use it to build their own.  

Thanks Emily, looking forward to next week!

Associate Director, Desjardins Centre for Advanced Training at RI-MUHC | Higher Education and Professional Skills Specialist

Trainees - Fuel Your Story & Grow Your Network – Career Spark Workshop + Networking Lunch
MSc students, PhD students, and postdocs — this event is built for you!
Join us on December 3, 2025 for an engaging workshop with Andrew Churchill, PhD Own Your Story: Communicating Who You Are and Where You’re Going, followed by a networking lunch with 22 professionals from across the life sciences and health research sectors.
✨ Why attend?
Learn practical strategies to tell your personal and professional story with clarity.
Connect with professionals working in diverse roles across health research and innovation.
Enjoy a relaxed, round-table format designed to spark meaningful conversations.
🎟 Trainee tickets are limited — register early!
 They go quickly every year.
 And if you end up on the waitlist: don’t worry. We consistently open additional spots, and even day-of walk-ins can often be accommodated.
📌 Who is this for?
 Primarily RI-MUHC | Research Institute of the MUHC | #rimuhc trainees, and then McGill trainees (MSc, PhD, postdoc).
Questions? Contact dcat@muhc.mcgill.ca

https://lnkd.in/erEfUEe2

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