Featured Member: Michael Mioduski

zWORKS member finds niche as “PowerPoint guy”

It’s all about finding your niche. And being the best at it.

That was one zWORKS member’s goal after realizing the huge demand for presentation design.

Michael “Mikey” Mioduski started his company GhostRanch Communications in 2015 which specializes in just that. They design custom sales presentations whether that be customizing specific slides or creating brand new templates.

“We see it as an underdog medium,” Mioduski said. “And we’ve been on a mission to make business-to-business slide decks bigger and better.”

Mioduski first started in the creative world when he was working as an intern with Activision (think the company that makes Call of Duty). An ad agency came to pitch commercials for a video game and Mioduski knew that’s what he wanted to do. However, after he got his Master of Fine Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design, he did not know he would end up where he is now.

After about 5 years at marketing and advertising agencies, he started contracting for Oracle Marketing Cloud when he saw in an email thread, someone refer to him as the “PowerPoint guy.”

“It was maybe not the most glamorous gig, but it’s one of the most underrated platforms,” Mioduski said. “The medium itself of presentations is like creating an ad campaign print series but you can do it with transitions and animations.”

While he had done everything from front-end web development to traditional banner ads to app UI and UX, he decided to specialize in presentations – from PowerPoint to Google Slides to Keynote.

“I realized the B2B world needs just as much creativity as the consumer-facing side of things,” he said. “There was a lot of opportunity in that space.”

Mioduski and his team of five full-time employees mainly work with tech companies, public speakers (think TED talks) and some startup companies.

“We’re constantly learning with each presenter we work with,” he said. “They have their own style and there’s no one way to do it. It’s fun to see how people work and learn from them along the way.”

A few examples of people he has worked with are one of zWORKS own, 120WaterAudit. GhostRanch helped elevate CEO Megan Glover’s presentation slides when she pitched at Rise of the Rest in 2017. ClusterTruck – a delivery-only restaurant in downtown Indianapolis – is another example.

Here are some tips from Mioduski:

  1. Stay focused. Stick to one idea per slide and one overall idea for the presentation.
  2. Don’t be afraid to repeat. People usually remember about 1% of your presentation and repetition is key to making it into that 1%, so use it.
  3. Make the presentation about the audience. People think about themselves so hook them with something they need.

Mioduski and his wife and two daughters live in Zionsville. To contact him, email mikey@ghostranch.com or call 970-829-8860.

 

Getting to know Mikey…

Factoid

He lived in Denver for 5 years and San Diego for 1 year before settling down with his family in Zionsville.

Hidden Hobby

Mikey collects surfing movies. It’s a side-project he likes to call Swellflix.