It’s not the content, it’s the context

I once had someone cancel their flight to watch me speak live.

Okay, it was my dad.

But still. The commitment was real.

Over the years, I’ve done enough presentations to fill a small Google Drive. And every single time, I’ve heard the same sentence after: “Bro, your presentations are so engaging.”

Now, part of me wants to attribute it to raw genius. But the honest answer?

It’s the vibe.

Let me explain. A few months ago, I gave two back-to-back talks at DNA School.

One on newsletters.

One on ROI.

Same face. Same fonts. Same amount of last-minute panic. But both talks killed — people stayed late, asked questions, laughed at all the right places.

So naturally, I thought: “Damn, this deck is gold. I’m gonna reuse this content elsewhere.”

So I did.

Tried using the same jokes, same frameworks, same rhythm — at a different event. Same niche. Different crowd.

You know what happened?

You guessed it right, absolute silence.

Not one chuckle. Not even a polite fake laugh. It felt like I was delivering memes at a funeral. At first, I thought maybe they’re just not my people.

But the deeper I looked, the clearer it got: It wasn’t them. It was the context.

Because what made those talks work wasn’t just the slides. It was how they fit the room. The energy. The inside jokes. The shared understanding of pain points.

Everything was built for that crowd, that moment.

That’s when I realized the mistake I’d made:

I believed good content speaks for itself.

But it doesn’t.

Good content needs the right costume. It needs a setting, a scene, a reason to exist. Otherwise, it’s like putting Rajinikanth in a Marvel movie and asking him to behave.

Doesn’t work.

And this is true not just for presentations. But for your brand. You can have the best offer. The slickest pitch. The most beautiful design.

But if your vibe doesn’t match the moment, nobody cares. Because branding isn’t just about what you say. It’s how you make people feel while you say it.

Here’s the real lesson:

Clarity gets you understood.
But vibe gets you remembered.

If you’re trying to build a brand or run a business — you can’t copy-paste presence. You have to design the delivery to match the room.

The tone. The timing. The texture.

Because people don’t just buy products.

They buy alignment.
They buy energy.
They buy a vibe they want to be part of.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to find and package your vibe — even if you feel “too boring” or “too new.”

But for now, here’s what I’d love from you: Have you ever felt like your pitch/content should’ve worked but didn’t?

Hit reply and tell me what happened. Let’s dissect the vibe gap.

Till tomorrow,

— shashank

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