How to Win Federal Oral Presentations | The Orals Gap with Lisa Shea Mundt

In the 1990s, the government decided proposals had become too easy to fake, so it started asking to hear from the people who would actually do the work. That is the oral presentation, and it is now one of the fastest-growing phases in federal source selection.

In this week's episode of GovCon Unscripted, orals coach Lisa Shea Mundt, a 15-year veteran of federal proposals, sits down with Chelsea Reberts to explain why the skill that wins on paper doesn't win in the room. She covers confidence ratings versus adjectival scoring, the solicitation language that quietly grades collaboration, why a corporate representative who cannot survive Q&A is a liability, and how to prepare a reluctant technical expert to carry a live presentation.

Whether you are building your first orals team or tightening a capture plan that treats orals as a formality, this conversation is a practical guide to winning the room.

Chapters:

00:00 Why the government stopped trusting proposals

02:00 What an oral presentation actually is

03:30 The unwritten requirement hiding in “performance risk”

05:30 Why COVID made orals explode

07:30 Confidence ratings vs adjectival scoring

11:00 Writing a script is not reading a proposal aloud

16:00 Logos, pathos, ethos in the room

19:00 “The words need to conform to me”

22:00 Scripts, notes, and teleprompters: what is allowed

27:00 When your best technical mind is your worst presenter

32:00 The Q&A round nobody prepares for

Resources:

Follow Lisa Shea Mundt

Follow Chelsea Roberts

🎧 Listen now on:

🔹 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482

🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy

Like and follow us:

🔹 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS

🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/govconunscriptedpod/

🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govconunscriptedpod/

🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/

🔹 JOIN OUR #govcon #community: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/