Interviews Articles

ToolsToo 12.1: Conversation with Gil Segal

Geetesh Bajaj — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 04:30:59 +0000

Gil Segal is the creator of ToolsToo Pro for PowerPoint and an expert technologist with a deep understanding of a wide range of architectures, tools, and technologies and their impact. Gil is always on the lookout for ways to automate manual tasks in any software he uses and has been a PowerPoint power-user since the mid 90’s.

In this conversation, Gil discusses the new version 12.1 of ToolsToo Pro for PowerPoint.

Geetesh: Gil, ToolsToo 12.1.0 introduces smaller but very practical tools such as the new Chain tool for Select All, and the Flip Shape Direction and Flip Slide Direction options. Can you explain these options?

Gil: The new tools in ToolsToo Pro for PowerPoint V12.1.0 are primarily intended to tackle flipping shapes and slides from left-to-right orientation to right-to-left orientation or vice versa. There are a lot of adjustments needed when performing these flips, so we’ll delve into the details of what the tools do.

Flip Shape Direction: This tool does the following for each selected shape:

Changes text direction from left-to-right to right-to-left or vice versa
If the shape is a chart:

Changes plot order of x-axis
Changes series order
Changes text direction
Changes legend location

If the shape is SmartArt, reverses direction
If the shape is a table:

Changes column order
Changes cell text direction

Changes animation wipe direction
Flips gradient direction

Flip Slide Direction: This tool flips slides by calling the Flip Shape Direction tool for each shape on each selected slide. However, instead of changing gradient direction, the Flip Slide Direction tool mirrors the position of each shape on the slide, adjusting motion paths for the new location, and then flips the shapes themselves.

Before Flip Slide Direction

After Flip Slide Direction

Select All: This tool selects all the shapes on the current slide. It can only be used a part of a tool chain – a series of tools invoked with a single click. You can easily build chains by selecting tools in a simple dialog – no programming required – and can run the chain at any time with your current shape selection or iteratively on all selected slides. The Select All chain tool works particularly well with Flip Shape Direction tool, essentially adding a tool that can flip shape direction for all shapes on all selected slides.

Geetesh: Were these additions driven by specific user requests or by patterns you noticed in how people build diagrams and templates in PowerPoint?

Gil: These additions were driven primarily by nearly identical requests from multiple users and the observation that a sizable portion of the ToolsToo Pro for PowerPoint customer base is in countries with right-to-left languages.

Geetesh: ToolsToo has steadily evolved over many versions, with each release addressing small but meaningful PowerPoint workflow challenges. As you continue to refine the add-in beyond version 12.1.0, are there particular areas of the PowerPoint experience where you still see significant opportunities for ToolsToo to improve productivity?

Gil: There are many significant opportunities for ToolsToo to further improve PowerPoint productivity. For example, two areas that could use significant improvement are slide reusability and ease of changing designs.

Everybody is talking about AI these days. It is yet unclear what impact AI will have on the kinds of things ToolsToo does but I can imagine a “fix my slide” feature that will just automatically do alignments, resizing, spacing, make lines horizontal/vertical, make same rounded corners, etc. to just make a slide look good with a single click. As to how much of that Microsoft does vs what is left to tools like ToolsToo Pro for PowerPoint, that is yet to be seen.

Another expansion area for ToolsToo would be a Mac version. ToolsToo has always run on Windows-based PCs only, but I do get a large number of requests for a Mac version.

Lastly but perhaps most importantly, there’s always customer requests. Keep them coming!

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.

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DeckFinder: Conversation with Andreja Zujkovic

Geetesh Bajaj — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 04:00:21 +0000

Andreja Zujkovic is the founder of IceFyre, a company specializing exclusively in automating PowerPoint and Microsoft 365. He earned a degree in Computer Science in Belgrade in 2007 and, after more than a decade in the IT industry, founded IceFyre. Today, the company brings together a team of engineers working within the Microsoft Office 365 ecosystem with over 10 years of experience in the slide creation industry. Specializing in the creative sector, Andreja focuses on improving PowerPoint productivity by streamlining processes and integrating innovative tools that enhance presentation workflows. Outside of work, he is passionate about leadership, public speaking, kickboxing, and staying up to date with the latest technology trends.

In this conversation, Andreja explores his DeckFinder solution for searching PowerPoint slides.

Geetesh: Andreja, tell us a little about DeckFinder. Also, was DeckFinder born from a client request, or did it emerge from patterns you kept seeing across organizations?

Andreja: That’s actually one of my favorite questions, because DeckFinder was born from a very real problem we kept seeing while working with clients. At IceFyre, we work with teams that produce a large volume of PowerPoint presentations. Our focus has been on optimizing and automating PowerPoint workflows to help designers improve their productivity. During that work, we identified a pattern across two distinct customer groups.

The first group consists of companies that generate thousands of slides every year, whether they are consulting teams, marketing departments, sales teams, or creative agencies. The second group includes presentation consumers – corporate users, usually from HR, sales, or finance people who communicate internally or externally through PowerPoint.

For both groups, slide content or specific assets from past presentations are often difficult to find. As a result, users waste a surprising amount of time searching through network drives, Slack or Teams conversations, emails, and other sources just to locate a slide they need information from. But the real value is not only in finding the slide itself. Often there are valuable elements inside, a widget, a chart, or even an idea captured in comments or speaker notes that can be reused, adapted, or rediscovered when someone is working on a new project.

In the case of design teams, up to 20% of a designer’s time is spent simply searching for existing resources instead of building on top of work that has already been done. What made this particularly interesting for us was how frequently this issue kept appearing across different industries. That’s exactly what led to the creation of DeckFinder.

DeckFinder is a web application that allows users to search directly across all of their existing presentations and instantly find the exact slide, visual element, or asset they need.

One of the key advantages of DeckFinder is that it can connect to multiple file management systems. You simply connect it to your company’s file storage, and the tool automatically scans all PowerPoint content. There is no need to manually tag slides or reorganize existing folders. DeckFinder analyzes the content and effectively transforms a company’s presentations into a searchable, reusable knowledge base.

Your best slides already exist. Our job is to find them for you.

Geetesh: Where do you see slide search and presentation asset management evolving over the next five years? And what role would DeckFinder play in this evolution?

Andreja: Today, presentations are still viewed as posters used to convey a one-off message to an audience. What is often overlooked is the fact that a large amount of valuable information remains on those slides. Unfortunately, most of that knowledge stays locked inside presentations and quickly gets forgotten once a project is finished.

This will have to change, and I believe we will see a transition from simple file storage toward intelligent content retrieval.

This transition will be propelled by AI, which will play a significant role in making slide assets more accessible. It will start with ordinary semantic search and smarter content discovery and eventually will evolve into fully automated systems capable of self-management and quality control across the entire company.

I like to think that DeckFinder is the first step toward that future. Its mission is to help organizations unlock the value of the presentation content they already have. By making slides searchable across multiple departments in the company, DeckFinder uncovers a valuable source of information that has often been overlooked.

In the long term, we see DeckFinder evolving into an intelligent layer that connects presentation content with anyone in the organization who needs to read, modify, or share the information and data stored on slides.

Geetesh: Can someone try DeckFinder before buying it? What’s included in the trial experience?

Andreja: Yes, absolutely.

For every new client, we organize an introduction session where we walk users through the main features and settings of DeckFinder. This gives prospective users a clear understanding of what they can expect from the tool.

After the introduction, we usually offer a free 30-day trial. During the trial period, all features of the DeckFinder Pro package are available with no restrictions.

The purpose of the trial is to allow clients to test-drive the tool using their own content and see the impact DeckFinder can have on their daily work.

There is one important detail I am obligated to mention. We know that presentations often contain confidential information, and we care deeply about our clients’ data. Therefore, I want to emphasize that DeckFinder does not copy, store, or redistribute original presentation files when connected to external systems.

The only exception to this rule is the option to upload files manually to internal DeckFinder storage. This feature is intended for individual users who choose the free package and don’t have cloud storage of their own.

Find and reuse any slide or slide element your company ever created – in seconds.
DeckFinder Demo | Your slide search engine

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The Mogul Mind of Michael Jackson: Conversation with Rodney Saulsberry

Geetesh Bajaj — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 04:00:46 +0000

Rodney Saulsberry is an author, voice actor, singer, and creative strategist with decades of experience across entertainment and media. He is known for his work in animation, film, television, and music, as well as for coaching creatives on career longevity and professional growth. He is also the author of The Mogul Mind of Michael Jackson: How the King of Pop Created His Music and Publishing Empire, part of The Mogul Mind series, which examines how iconic creators turned talent into ownership and long-term influence.

In this conversation, Rodney explains why the principles behind Michael Jackson’s success can resonate far beyond the music industry—even for professionals who create and present ideas.

Geetesh: Rodney, your Mogul Mind series explores how iconic figures moved beyond success to build influence and ownership. What is the central idea behind this series, and why did you choose Michael Jackson as one of the individuals to examine in depth?

Rodney: The central idea behind The Mogul Mind series is to shine a light on personalities in entertainment, business, sports, and social media who moved beyond success and built real influence through ownership. Many of these individuals reached extraordinary financial heights — in some cases hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars — and I wanted to explore the strategies and mindset that helped them get there.

I believe that understanding how these individuals think about business, ownership, and long-term leverage can benefit readers from many different professions. Whether you are a boss or an employee, the concepts used by these successful people can help you become more successful in your own field.

Michael Jackson was actually the first person I thought of when I conceived this series. At one time he owned half of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Think about that. In 1985 he purchased ATV Music Publishing for $40 million, and about a decade later he merged it with Sony’s catalog to form Sony/ATV Music Publishing. At that point Michael Jackson was receiving a share of the revenue from one of the most powerful music publishing companies in the world. Who does that? Very few people in entertainment history have ever accomplished something like that.

Geetesh: In The Mogul Mind of Michael Jackson, you show how his understanding of authorship, publishing, and long-term ownership transformed his career. What lessons can presenters and consultants apply from Michael Jackson’s business mindset, when creating and delivering their own ideas and content?

Rodney: I think the biggest takeaway from Michael Jackson’s success was his early understanding that content is king — but ownership of that content is even more important.

If you are a presenter, you should own the content you are presenting. If you are a trainer, you should use content that you own to train others. And if you are a consultant, you should advise the people you consult with to maintain ownership of their intellectual property as well.

For many years — and even after his death — Michael Jackson’s ownership of some of the biggest songs in music history not only cemented his mogul legacy, but it also continues to allow his estate to generate billions for his surviving heirs. That is the power of ownership.

Geetesh: After readers finish this book, what shift in thinking do you hope they experience about success, ownership, and the way they approach their creative or professional work?

Rodney: I hope readers begin thinking like a boss — someone who takes control of their own destiny.

When creators produce work, they should pay very close attention to the contracts they sign. Writers who collaborate with other writers should make sure that the splits are fair. And creators should try as much as possible to maintain ownership of their publishing and intellectual property.

When you look at the two superstars that have been featured so far in my Mogul Mind Series, the common denominator is ownership. Michael Jackson set the precedent decades ago when he acquired half of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. And Taylor Swift later demonstrated that same mogul mindset when she re-recorded her masters, to regain control of her catalog.

These are the attributes of a true mogul mindset, and I look forward to bringing readers more stories of moguls in future books in the series.

Stay tuned.

“The Mogul Mind of Michael Jackson” Available Now on Amazon!.
“The Mogul Mind of Michael Jackson” Available Now on Amazon!

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Slide Generation with TeamSlide: Conversation with Kartik Sundar

Geetesh Bajaj — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 04:00:02 +0000

Kartik Sundar is the co-founder of Aploris GmbH, the company behind TeamSlide, a PowerPoint-native slide generation and presentation management solution. A former corporate strategy and management consultant, he brings firsthand insight into how high-stakes business presentations are developed and refined within consulting, sales, and executive teams. Today, TeamSlide supports some of the world’s most renowned consulting firms, helping them produce consulting-grade presentations with greater speed and consistency.

In this conversation, Kartik discusses slide generation options within TeamSlide.

Geetesh: What inspired the shift from TeamSlide’s original slide library/search product to building an AI-powered slide generator?

Kartik: We wouldn’t describe it as a shift. It’s an addition.

We started with a simple observation: consultants were wasting enormous amounts of time searching for the right slides, checking versions, and reformatting existing material. Our slide library and search capabilities solved the discovery and reuse problem.

Reusing approved assets is still the most efficient use of time. But often new slides need to be created. LLMs gave us an opportunity to generate new slides very efficiently.

The slide generator was built to extend our mission. The library helps you reuse what exists, generation helps you create what doesn’t, while still staying aligned with the way your organization communicates.

Geetesh: How does slide generation in TeamSlide differ from other AI slide tools in terms of quality, structure, and real-world usability inside PowerPoint?

Kartik: TeamSlide is built for the way consulting and advisory teams actually work in PowerPoint: structured, iterative, and brand-driven.

Dynamic slide structure (AI + deterministic logic)

We can intelligently modify the structure of slides to best tell your story. If you need to convey four key facts instead of three, we automatically extend your approved three-column layout to support four, maintaining alignment, spacing, and hierarchy.

We achieve this by combining AI with deterministic layout and geometry rules. The AI determines what should be said; our layout engine determines how it should be structured on the slide. The result is flexibility without breaking design standards.

Your layouts. Your voice. Not a generic theme.

TeamSlide works directly with your firm’s specific layouts and slide library. That means the output looks like it came from your firm (and not from an AI tool).

Text is guided to match advisory writing standards:

Clear, action-oriented headlines
“So-what” framing
Consistent terminology
Appropriate level of specificity and data density

Built for iteration inside PowerPoint

Advisory work is iterative. You generate a slide, review it with a partner, adjust the story, refine the language, swap a layout, and repeat.

TeamSlide supports that real-world workflow:

Prompt-based editing to refine content or restructure the slide
The ability to switch layouts while preserving the message
Seamless manual edits directly in PowerPoint
Integration with your existing slide library for reuse + generation in one system

We optimize for the generate → refine → align → present cycle that consulting teams live in.

In short, most AI slide tools optimize for a one-shot draft. TeamSlide optimizes for consulting teams, combining AI with deterministic structure, firm-specific layouts, and iterative editing inside PowerPoint, so slides are not just generated, but usable in high-stakes client work.

Geetesh: Can you walk us through the typical workflow you envision for a consultant using the slide generator?

Kartik: The workflow is designed to mirror how consultants already think and work in PowerPoint: structured, hypothesis-driven, and iterative.

1. Start with raw thinking

A consultant begins by pasting rough notes, research snippets, meeting takeaways, or early hypotheses.

These inputs are usually unstructured: fragments of arguments, data points, key facts, or partial storylines.

2. Generate a structured first draft

From there, TeamSlide interprets the intent and organizes the material into a coherent slide. It:

Selects an appropriate firm-approved layout
Restructures the slide as needed (adding steps, columns, rows, or sections)
Rewrites content into consulting-style language with clear, action-oriented headlines

This is where AI and deterministic layout logic work together, ensuring the output is both well-written and structurally sound.

But generation is just the beginning.

3. Iterate like you would with a team

Consulting work is inherently iterative. You rarely get it perfect in one pass.

After the initial slide is created, users can:

Tighten or sharpen the headline
Reframe the message for a different audience
Increase specificity or add data
Change the hierarchy
Modify structure (e.g., expand a 3-column table to 4, simplify a process from 6 steps to 4)

Think of it as collaborating with an assistant that understands both storytelling principles and formatting constraints inside PowerPoint.

Geetesh: How does someone access the AI-powered slide generator? Is there a trial?

Kartik: Individual users can get free access here.

For firms that want to use their own layouts and their specific voice, please reach out via this link. We offer a proof-of-concept for free. Pricing depends on the number of layouts and the number of users.

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This Is How You Love Her: Conversation with Traci Saulsberry

Geetesh Bajaj — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 04:00:42 +0000

Traci Saulsberry is a senior communications executive, leadership coach, and writer. At twenty-seven, she became one of the youngest Black executives at NBC, where she spent fourteen years shaping narratives at the highest levels of entertainment. She later built and led the communications team at Peacock during its launch. She is currently a host and narrator for Calm, guiding original series that help audiences navigate life with clarity and care. As a leadership coach and speaker, Saulsberry helps professionals find and own their voice. She is an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, teaching entertainment publicity.

In this conversation, Traci discusses her new book, This Is How You Love Her: A Journey to Radical Self-Love.

Geetesh: Traci, your upcoming book, This Is How You Love Her: A Journey to Radical Self-Love, is deeply personal and reflective. What compelled you to write this book at this point in your life and career? Was there a defining moment that made you feel this story needed to be told?

Traci: I have always been a writer at heart. As a little girl, I had notebooks filled with short stories and doodles. I was always trying to make sense of the world through words. But I did not see a clear path to making that a career. Eventually, I found publicity. It gave me writing, storytelling, the chance to shape narratives and build worlds. I thought I had found my way.

But life has a funny way of returning you to your truest self.

After years in corporate America, building teams, launching major platforms, curating what looked from the outside like a very successful life, everything imploded. The career. The relationship. The identity I had carefully constructed. I found myself faced with a question that had been chasing me my entire life: Who am I? Without the titles, without the structure, without the version of myself I had learned to perform.

In trying to answer that question, I started writing again. At first it was just for me. A way to process, to excavate, to understand what I actually believed and wanted and needed. But it quickly began to feel bigger than that. I realized the questions I was grappling with around identity, perfectionism, control, boundaries, worthiness were not unique to me. Every day people quietly carry questions like who I am, why am I here, what do I actually want, while still trying to show up and perform in their lives.

That is when I knew the story needed to be told. The details are mine, but the journey belongs to anyone who has ever had to start over from the inside out.

Geetesh: You describe the book as a “vulnerable narrative guide” that blends memoir, poetry, and reflection prompts. What do you hope readers will walk away with after finishing the book? Are there specific shifts in mindset, confidence, or self-awareness that you hope it sparks?

Traci: I have never been someone who thrives on rigid frameworks or filling out charts. Growth isn’t systematic. It’s not one size fits all. I’ve always learned just by hearing people share their stories and seeing where their truth shows me more of my own.

When I began my own journey toward self-discovery and ultimately self-love, I tried to follow the pop culture version of it, which often involves escaping your life and running off to a faraway land. Because of my circumstances, I couldn’t run. Most people cannot. I was frustrated. I thought maybe self-discovery just was not meant for me.

So, I decided to create my own domestic exploration. I thought, I will find myself right where I am, at home.

The book reflects that. It is a mix of memoir, short stories, cheeky guides, poems, journal prompts. I even include pages from my actual journal, which still feels incredibly vulnerable, but necessary. I want readers to see that growth is messy and circular. It is not linear. It does not move in tidy steps. It unfolds in small, ordinary moments.

I hope readers walk away with permission. Permission to not have it all figured out. Permission to question the roles they have been performing. Permission to slow down long enough to ask who they really are and what they actually want.

More than anything, I hope people walk away with a deeper sense of self-trust and self-love. That they see they do not need to run to find themselves. And even if they do, they still have to come home to themselves.

Geetesh: Much of your career has centered on communications and leadership presence. In your book, you explore the idea of identity beyond the roles we perform. Do you believe that authentic communication begins long before someone opens PowerPoint? How does a deeper understanding of identity change the way a leader shows up when presenting ideas, leading meetings, or speaking from a stage?

Traci: I love that you ask this because in much of the book, I double down on the fact that I don’t claim to have all of the answers. I don’t think anyone does, and I am wary of those who claim they do. The self-help world has historically been hyper-focused on experts laying out frameworks and theories. What I do have is my story.

And I do know this: showing up in any corporate space and not knowing who you are is detrimental to yourself. You are susceptible to living your life through someone else’s story, someone else’s expectations and barometer of success. When you walk into a boardroom or onto a stage without a clear sense of yourself, you’re merely performing a role you didn’t create. That’s exhausting and even more than that, it’s keeping you from your true purpose. You can’t achieve your life’s purpose when you’re pretending.

Anyone showing up in a full understanding of who they are is going to live a fuller life. That much I know for certain. And I have learned that is far more important than how you perform in a meeting or present an idea.

Knowing who you are equates to a better life.

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Viral Voices: Conversation with Carmine Gallo

Geetesh Bajaj — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 04:00:44 +0000

Carmine Gallo is a three-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author, internationally popular keynote speaker, Harvard instructor, and leadership advisor for the world’s most admired brands. A “communications guru,” according to Publishers Weekly, Gallo’s books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He delivers highly customized, engaging, inspiring, and actionable multimedia keynotes based on his international bestsellers: Talk Like TED, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, The Storyteller’s Secret, Five Stars, and The Bezos Blueprint.

In this conversation, Carmine discusses his new audiobook-only release, Viral Voices.

Geetesh: Carmine, your new title, Viral Voices, arrives as an audio original. What led you down that path, and how does the audio format help you deliver the book’s ideas more effectively?

Carmine: As your readers might know, the audiobook category is growing faster than printed books. So, it’s understandable that publishers are experimenting with a sub-genre of “audio originals.” These are limited-series audio programs on a specific topic, like Viral Voices, which covers persuasion and communication in the digital world. The format gave me the opportunity to interview a wide range of experts (like a podcast) and deliver the narration in my own voice (like an audiobook).

We get to do some cool things, like interview an expert such as Barack Obama’s speechwriter, and then cut to a line from an actual speech where the listener hears why the speechwriter did what he did. It’s all a lot of fun and super insightful.

Although I know a lot about persuasive communication because I’ve written about it and taught it for two decades, I learned new ideas from this process that really impressed me. I’m excited to share these fresh ideas with people who want to learn and improve.

Geetesh: You’ve written extensively about structured storytelling in books like Talk Like TED. What has fundamentally changed about persuasion in the age of TikTok, Reels, and Shorts? Also, what remains the same?

Carmine: This is where the fun begins—and the real insight. First, very little has changed over the past 2,300 years. A story still follows Aristotle’s structure of beginning, middle, and end. A good story still follows the Hero’s Journey, which is a structure of epic stories that can be traced back to some of the earliest oral traditions. What’s changed are the tools of communication. Our storytelling ancestors didn’t have social media or digital tools to create slides, but the fundamentals still apply.

I was surprised and fascinated to speak with social media influencers who explained the structure they follow to create viral videos. In many cases, they didn’t know they were following a Hero’s Journey template, but that’s exactly what they’re doing.

For example, one creator who has built a following by dispensing financial advice told me the best videos follow this structure: set-up/problem/resolution. Think about how easy it is to follow these stages. A financial advisor would start by setting up a person’s current situation (they’re not saving money). Then they describe the problem that the person will encounter if they do not do so. And, finally, help the viewer resolve the problem with simple steps to get started. A simplified Hero’s Journey works the same way: setting up the world in which the hero lives/hero encounters problems and obstacles/hero resolves the problem and everyone lives happily ever after.

And that’s why I recommend that people see themselves as storytellers first. Everything else, like PowerPoint or social media videos, enhances the story you tell, but the story must take the spotlight.

Unlock the key secret to persuasion in Carmine Gallo’s audio original, Viral Voices.
The Art and Neuroscience of Persuasion

Geetesh: If listeners take away just one principle from Viral Voices, what should they do differently the very next time they communicate an idea?

Carmine: One of the neuroscientists I interviewed gave me the best piece of advice. Dr. John Medina told me that if this is all you remember, your presentations and communication will be significantly improved: The brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things!

Medina makes so much sense. Think about it:

If you put many words on a PowerPoint slide, it’s boring.

If you take too long to get to your point, it’s boring.

If your presentation is all numbers and no stories, it’s boring.

Yes, there’s a difference between boring and engaging. Best of all, we call it presentation “skill” for a reason—it’s a skill and, like any skill, you can improve. The formula for improvement is the same for public speaking as it is for any other activity: learn something new, practice it, and you’ll get better step by step.

In the age of AI, it’s crucial that you differentiate yourself and stand out. Effective communication skills are no longer ‘soft.’ They’re fundamental to your success.

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pptXTREME Photoshop Import: Conversation with Keith Tromer

Geetesh Bajaj — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 04:00:09 +0000

Keith Tromer has been Founder and President of Corporate Imaging, Inc. since 1989. His strategic vision focuses on three fundamental aspects: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation, and utilizing the latest technologies.

In this interview, Keith discusses pptXTREME and its Photoshop Import feature.

Geetesh: For readers who may be new to pptXTREME and the Photoshop Import feature, how would you describe the product and the problem it was originally designed to solve for PowerPoint users?

Keith: pptXTREME is a professional PowerPoint add-in designed to remove the friction between high-end design workflows and real-world presentation delivery. It was originally built for designers and show producers who rely on PowerPoint for playback but quickly outgrow PowerPoint’s native design tools.

The Photoshop Import feature specifically solves a long-standing problem: PowerPoint is excellent at presenting and animating content, but far more limited as a design environment. With Photoshop Import, users can design complex slides—or entire sections—in Photoshop, then bring individual layers into PowerPoint as perfectly sized, editable objects that are immediately ready for animation. This preserves creative freedom without sacrificing PowerPoint’s strengths as a presentation and playback platform.

Geetesh: Photoshop and PowerPoint have coexisted in presentation workflows for years, yet the handoff between them has remained challenging. What originally motivated you to develop the Photoshop Import feature in pptXTREME?

Keith: The motivation came directly from production reality. Designers were already using Photoshop to create layouts, typography, and visual effects that PowerPoint simply couldn’t handle well—but the handoff was painful. Layers had to be flattened, animations recreated manually, and any late design changes meant starting over.

Photoshop Import was built to eliminate that break in the workflow. Instead of treating Photoshop as a dead-end design step, pptXTREME treats it as an active, connected part of the process. Layers come into PowerPoint as trimmed, correctly scaled elements, and—critically—the link back to the original Photoshop file is retained. That means designers can revise artwork in Photoshop and update it in PowerPoint without losing positioning, timing, or animation. It turns what used to be a one-way export into a true round-trip workflow.

Geetesh: How is pptXTREME priced, and do you offer a trial for users who want to explore it before purchasing?

Keith: Yes—pptXTREME is available with a fully functional 30-day free trial, and no payment information is required to start. This is intentional, as many users want to test the tools on real client work before committing.

The product is offered as a subscription with three editions, each tailored to different levels of use and feature needs—from core productivity tools to advanced animation, Photoshop integration, and show-control features. Full pricing and feature comparisons are available here.

pptXTREME Photoshop Import – Full Tutorial.
pptXTREME Photoshop Import – Full Tutorial

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The Mogul Mind of Taylor Swift: Conversation with Rodney Saulsberry

Geetesh Bajaj — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 09:32:30 +0000

Rodney Saulsberry is an author, voice actor, singer, and creative strategist with decades of experience across entertainment and media. He is known for his work in animation, film, television, and music, as well as for coaching creatives on career longevity and professional growth. Drawing on his background in performance and business, Saulsberry explores how ownership, discipline, and strategic thinking shape lasting success.

The Mogul Mind of Taylor Swift is the first book in his ongoing The Mogul Mind of… series.

Geetesh: Rodney, what prompted you to create The Mogul Mind of… series? Is this series about entertainers specifically, or about leadership principles anyone can apply?

Rodney: The idea for The Mogul Mind of… series came from observing how long-term success is shaped less by talent and more by mindset. After years working in creative industries, I noticed that those who sustained success understood ownership, discipline, and strategic decision-making.

While the series uses entertainers as case studies, it’s really not about celebrity. It focuses on leadership principles that apply to anyone building a career—artists, entrepreneurs, executives, or students. The goal is to show how a mogul mindset is developed through intentional choices over time. A mogul mindset isn’t inherited — it’s built through decisions.

I’ve watched incredibly gifted people struggle because they never learned how to think positive at all times. Discipline is a mindset. Control is a mindset. Ownership of your intellectual properties start with the proper mindset. These are the attributes that make you successful when you apply them to your career. Those who achieve mogul status have reached a pinnacle of success in their perspective fields that is undeniably recognized by the masses.

Geetesh: Why did you choose Taylor Swift as the first figure to explore in the series? What makes her story particularly useful as a blueprint for understanding leverage and control?

Rodney: Taylor Swift was a natural starting point because her career clearly demonstrates how leverage is created, challenged, and ultimately reclaimed. Her decision to re-record her catalog was not reactive; it was strategic, patient, and rooted in a deep understanding of ownership.

That decision reframed how artists think about their work, their contracts, and their futures. Artists young and old are reading their contracts more carefully now because of Taylor Swift.

Her story serves as a blueprint because it shows that control is not demanded in the moment—it is built through preparation, foresight, and consistency. That lesson extends far beyond the music industry.

Geetesh: Who did you picture reading this book, and what mindset shift do you hope readers experience after finishing it?

Rodney: I wrote this book for a broad audience: artists, entrepreneurs, corporate professionals, and students. Anyone thinking seriously about building a sustainable career will find relevance in the lessons.

The key mindset shift I hope readers experience is understanding that success is not just about momentum or visibility—it’s about control. I want readers to think more intentionally about ownership, leverage, and the long game in whatever field they choose.

From The Mogul Mind Of… series. The Mogul Mind of Taylor Swift.
From The Mogul Mind Of… series. The Mogul Mind of Taylor Swift

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KPI Depot: Conversation with David Tang

Geetesh Bajaj — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 04:30:40 +0000

David Tang is the founder of Flevy, the marketplace for business best practices–the same as those produced by top-tier consulting firms and used by Fortune 100 organizations. Flevy is the largest library of best practice documents available online. Prior to Flevy, David worked as a management consultant, where his clients ranged from startups to Fortune 15. David has a MEng and BS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Cornell University.

After Flevy, David created specialized sites such as PPT Depot and KPI Depot. In this conversation, David talks about KPI Depot.

What is a KPI?

A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) in simple terms, is a number that shows how well something is doing.

Think of it like a scoreboard in a game. If you want to win, you look at the score. In school or university, your grades can be KPIs. For a shop or an online store, it might be how many things they sell each day. KPIs help people know if they are on track or if they need to do better.

Geetesh: What led you to create KPI Depot, and what gap were you seeing in how organizations choose KPIs today? Also, how does KPI Depot fit alongside your other platforms like Flevy and PPT Depot?

David: The idea for KPI Depot came directly from our customers at Flevy. As a marketplace for corporate management documents, Flevy consistently sees strong demand for content around KPI selection, benchmarking, and strategic performance management frameworks (e.g. Balanced Scorecard, Objectives & Key Results, OGSM). But we noticed something: executives had the frameworks; they had the dashboards—but they were missing the critical middle piece.

Let’s think of effective performance management as a 3-phase cycle:

Strategic Analysis: Determining what areas to measure based on frameworks like Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Objectives or Key Results (OKR).
KPI Intelligence: Accessing the right KPIs and competitive benchmark data.
Reporting & Communication: Presenting insights through dashboards and executive reports.

Flevy addresses Phase 1 with the world’s largest collection of performance management frameworks and methodologies.

PPT Depot tackles Phase 3 with professional KPI dashboard templates designed by ex-McKinsey presentation specialists—based on real consulting deliverables, not generic templates.

KPI Depot completes the ecosystem by solving Phase 2. We’ve built the most comprehensive KPI and benchmark database available—over 58,000+ (and growing) data points across industries and functions—giving you both the definitions and the competitive context you need to make informed measurement decisions.

Together, these 3 platforms provide an end-to-end solution that previously required expensive consultants or fragmented, time- and labor- intensive research.

Geetesh: How easy is it to take a KPI from KPI Depot and turn it into a PowerPoint slide or chart?

David: Extremely easy—KPI Depot is designed for this exact workflow.

The KPI Depot platform contains 2 integrated databases:

The KPI database provides everything you need to explain and contextualize each metric to executives. For every KPI, you’ll find comprehensive documentation including business rationale, calculation methodology, formulas, trend analysis, diagnostic guidance, visualization best practices, risk considerations, and implementation tips. This rich content translates directly into polished information slides.

The corporate benchmark database delivers the numbers that bring your KPIs to life. We’ve aggregated quantitative benchmark data from premium sources—industry reports, market research, regulatory filings, academic studies, government data portals, etc.—and mapped them to specific KPIs. This data drops seamlessly into charts and graphs, complete with visualization recommendations for maximum executive impact.

Consequently, you can go from selecting a KPI to presenting it in a board-ready format in minutes, not days. And, because our benchmarks all come with source data, you can review the source information for further context and present with confidence.

Geetesh: Can prospective users explore KPI Depot with a demo, free trial, or sample content before committing to a subscription?

David: Absolutely. We believe you should experience the value before subscribing.

You can freely browse all KPI groups and preview the first 3 KPIs in each KPI group—providing you with a clear sense of the depth and quality of our documentation. You can also download a sample CSV file to see exactly what subscriber downloads look like.

As a subscriber, you gain full access to complete KPI groups (with all KPIs and comprehensive documentation) as downloadable CSV files—making it easy to integrate into your existing workflows, share with your team, or customize for your specific needs.

We encourage you to explore the platform and see firsthand how KPI Depot can accelerate your performance management initiatives.

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Crush Your Next Virtual Presentation: Conversation with Rick Altman

Geetesh Bajaj — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 04:30:05 +0000

Rick Altman is the author of over a dozen books on presentations and graphics and is the host and creative director of the Presentation Summit, the world’s most prominent learning event for virtual presenters. He owes the success of this book to his daughter who allowed him to take over her childhood bedroom and convert it to a Zoom studio.

In this conversation, Rick talks about his new book, Crush Your Next Virtual Presentation.

Geetesh: You’ve spent years watching how people communicate through both screens and rooms. At what point did you realize there was a bigger story worth telling about stepping away from the rooms, and how did that realization turn into Crush Your Next Virtual Presentation?

Rick: It is Covid’s silver lining, because I’m not sure that virtual presenting would have penetrated our customs and habits this much if it were not forced upon us. But now it’s here; it’s here to stay; and those of us who present for a living must up our games.

Geetesh: With more people now presenting through a screen instead of across a table, what’s the smallest change you’ve seen make the biggest difference in how audiences actually pay attention online?

Rick: Paying attention to a virtual presenter might be the most challenging part of being a virtual audience member, and presenters who appreciate that can make a world of difference to the overall experience. It starts with not shaming or guilting audience members for their multitasking. It is far better if virtual presenters respect and accommodate this reality and I offer specific strategies for how to do this.

Geetesh: When someone picks up Crush Your Next Virtual Presentation and flips through a few pages, what kind of presenter do you hope they see themselves as? Also, what’s the one reason you’d give them to keep reading instead of closing the cover?

Rick: I hope they begin to see themselves as authentic presenters. That, of course, is the gold standard for all presenters, but it is particularly challenging to find your most authentic self when you can’t feed off of the faces and the energy of in-person audiences. You must learn to warm to the camera and become comfortable with the notion that staring into a cold piece of glass is how you engage and connect with your audience. That’s not so easy and across 275 pages, I try to keep that thought top of mind.

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