Updates · Presence

Presence Story

Since launch

Presence Story is a hosted AI coach: bring a rough draft of an interview story, and it critiques it against the structure your room actually scores, asks the questions that fill the real gaps, and hands you back a revision in your own words. It updates continuously, like the free web app below.

July 30, 2026

Your stories

The one sentence you carry in

A finished story is longer than anything you'll say out loud. So when you finish one now, Presence Story pulls out the single sentence worth carrying, and tells you which beat it came from and why that beat is the one. It isn't always the line you'd have picked yourself, and that's the point: an execution story anchors on what verifiably changed, a senior answer on the position you took, a manager's on what it changed in how you operate. The anchor then travels with the story, onto the card in Your stories and into the file you download, so you can see what a story amounts to without opening it.

AddedThe anchor sentence. "Generate anchor" now finishes a story: one sentence lifted from your final draft, with a short note on which beat it came from and why. It costs nothing and doesn't spend a credit.
AddedRebuild. Say the story aloud from the anchor alone, with the page hidden, then bring it back and see what you left out. It's the check that tells you whether the story is actually yours yet.
AddedThe anchor travels. It appears on the story's card in Your stories, and at the top of the file when you export.
Changed"Generate anchor" replaces "Mark finished." It locks the story the same way. Reopen still works, and your anchor stays put, marked as belonging to an earlier draft. Finish again and you can keep the old one, take the new one, or write your own.
ChangedThe gaps the coach flags now say what they refer to. A missing beat has no place to sit beside, so its marker used to read only "Missing." Each one now names its subject and opens to a line explaining it, on a touch screen as well as a mouse.
ChangedYou can see the coach working. While a reply is being written, the workspace shows it's underway rather than sitting still.

July 30, 2026

Starting a story

Start with what you have

The screen where a story begins now opens on the draft itself. Before, the optional question came first and the walkthrough, the one thing that helps if you're staring at a blank box, sat folded away below the fold where you'd never find it. Both ways in are now visible without scrolling: paste what you have, or work through it a beat at a time. And if you type in the walkthrough, you can watch your draft fill in as you go, rather than pressing a button and hoping.

ChangedThe draft comes first. It sits directly under the heading and has room to write in. The question moves below it, marked optional, because it is.
ChangedThe walkthrough is a tab, not a drawer. "Paste what you have" and the beat-by-beat walkthrough sit side by side, so you can see both without opening anything.
ChangedThe walkthrough writes straight into your draft. What you type appears in the draft as you type it, and anything you'd already pasted stays ahead of it. Switching between the two loses nothing.
ChangedThe button says what happens next. "Start the coach," and it waits until there's a draft to start on, instead of letting you into an empty workspace where nothing happens.
Removed"Add this to my draft." The draft now keeps up on its own.

July 30, 2026

The coach

What the free story covers, plainly

Your first story is free, and it's worth saying exactly how far that goes rather than letting you find the edge mid-sentence. A free story runs five exchanges with the coach: enough to get a critique, answer the questions it asks, and take back a revision. A paid story keeps what it always had, unlimited iteration on that story, for as long as you want to keep working it. One other boundary is now enforced rather than assumed: a credit buys one experience. If you finish a story and then start describing a different situation, the coach will say so and hold where it is, instead of quietly starting over on a story you haven't paid for.

AddedA stated length for the free story. Five exchanges with the coach. Paid stories are unchanged and still iterate without limit.
ChangedOne story means one experience. Rewriting your draft, at any length, is the work and always has been. Swapping in a different experience partway through is a new story, and the coach now says so rather than re-critiquing it.
ChangedA cap on a single message. Around 4,000 characters, which is a generous account of an experience and short of a pasted resume or transcript.

July 25, 2026

Launch

Presence Story is live

A minute of setup assigns your target structure, STAR, STAR+, or four-beat, based on the level of the role and whether the process is competency-scored. Paste a draft, notes, or fragments, and the coach takes it from there: critique, clarifying questions, a revision in your own words, and as many iterations as you need. Nothing is invented, no fact and no number. Your first story is free, with no account required until you're ready to run the coach. After that, credits start at $39 for four and never expire.

AddedPresence Story. A hosted coach that turns a rough draft into an interview story built for the structure your room scores, with unlimited iteration and export on every story.
ChangedThe old free app moved to presence-advisory.com/tools. Same method, same local-browser storage, no account, frozen in place. Every link that pointed at the old address still works.

The web app

A running changelog

The free web app updates continuously, so this is a running record rather than something you need to act on. Each entry is tagged by the part of the app it touches. Read it whenever you like. Your stories and notes stay in your browser, and nothing here asks anything of you.

July 30, 2026

Across the app

No wall at the second search

The free tools used to be built around one complete preparation. Starting a second one, for a different role, a different company, the next search a year later, met a page explaining that free stopped here. That page is gone, and so is the plan behind it. There is no longer a paid tier of the web app to hold anything back for: what's at presence-advisory.com/tools is the whole method, free, as many preparations as your search takes. The paid work now lives in products built for one job, and Presence Story is the first of those.

RemovedThe gate on a second preparation. Begin as many as you need. Nothing you've already built is touched, and everything still stays in this browser.
RemovedPro, and everything pointing at it. The upgrade cards, the locked controls, the "opens later in 2026" notes throughout the app. Nothing has been taken away from the free tools to make room for it, and nothing in them is now behind a price.
AddedA place to say what's wrong. A short feedback page, linked from the bottom of every page. It asks nothing that identifies you, and it's read.
ChangedWho the writing speaks to. The method was written for people already in a senior seat, and read that way. It's the same method for anyone reaching for one, so the language now says so instead of quietly sorting you out at the door.
ChangedThe Privacy Policy and Terms. Rewritten to cover Presence Story, which has accounts and payment and does send your story to a model. Nothing about the free tools changed: still this browser, still no account, still nothing sent anywhere.

June 30, 2026

Across the app

Two ways to begin, and a first read before either

The home page now opens on a single, quiet choice: one method, two ways to begin. The full method by hand in your browser, or the same method as a single file you run inside the AI you already use. And before you pick either, you can take a first read on the spot. Name one decision you're proud of in a sentence, and see it returned in the four-beat frame senior interviews listen for. No account, nothing saved, about three minutes.

AddedA first read, right on the home page. Write one sentence about a decision you're proud of and watch it reflected in the four beats, Frame, Risks, Approach, Story. It shows you your own words in the shape; it never grades them, and nothing you type is saved or sent.
ChangedThe home page leads with the choice. "One method. Two ways to begin." Worked by hand in your browser, or run as a single file inside ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. The same method either way.

June 30, 2026

Your material

Reframe, on your own words

The "Not this, but this" contrast from the philosophy page now works on your own material. Presence supplies the frame, the paired contrast and the four-beat shape, and your words fill it, so you can see the same answer told two ways and feel which one leads with the point. It's structural, not generated: nothing is written for you, and nothing leaves your browser. It appears at the close of an Express preparation, and as a quiet disclosure in Compose.

AddedReframe in Compose and Express. For the question in front of you, the contrast and the four beats, Frame, Risks, Approach, Story, are laid out for your own words to fill.
ChangedNothing is generated. The product supplies the shape; the words stay yours, and everything renders from what you've already written.

June 30, 2026

The starter file

Tell us what you noticed

The starter file is new, and the only signal we get is what you tell us, since we never see your conversation. There's now a short place to say what landed and what fell flat, linked from inside the file itself. It takes a minute, asks nothing that identifies you, and shapes where the method goes next.

AddedA feedback page for the starter. A few short prompts on what worked and what didn't, reachable straight from the file you're running.
ChangedThe starter file now carries the link. "Share what you noticed" sits near the top, so the invitation travels with the method.

June 25, 2026

Across the app

Take the method with you

Until now, Presence ran in one place: this browser. There is now a second way to run the same method, a single file you drop into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and work through there. The free starter puts the whole method on one question, end to end, and a new page shows you the entire file, every word of it, before you copy or download a thing, so you can read exactly what you'd be taking first. The home page now offers both plainly: one method, run privately in your browser or inside the AI you already use.

AddedThe free starter file. The Presence method on a single question, from orienting yourself to the card you carry in, as one file you run inside your own AI. Free, and yours to keep.
AddedA page that shows the whole file first. Before you download or copy the starter, you can read it in full on the page, exactly as it will arrive. Nothing is held back to see it.
ChangedThe home page now offers two ways to run the method. The same method either way: in your browser, or in your own AI. The earlier free-versus-paid framing is gone, replaced by a plainer choice of how you want to work.

June 19, 2026

Across the app

See it before you write a word

Presence now shows you the work before it asks you to do any. You can read a finished Leadership Portrait, built from invented stories, before you write one of your own: three of them, each drawn from a different kind of career, each finding a different thing. And on the page that explains the method, one real question is now answered all the way through, with the four beats marked in the margin, so the shape isn't only described, it's shown. Both are there to read without an account and without entering anything of your own.

AddedA sample Leadership Portrait. Read three finished portraits before you start, each generated by the same reading the app will give your own material. Switch between them and notice that each one finds something different.
AddedA worked answer. On the page about the method, one question, "Tell me about a time you were wrong about something that mattered," is now answered in full, with each of the four beats named beside it.
AddedA way to see the sample from inside the app. Before you've written enough for a portrait of your own, the app now offers the sample so you can see where the work is heading.
ChangedThe home page leads with the work. The first thing it shows is a real portrait being read, not a description of one.

June 19, 2026

This search

A plan for the days before

Tell Presence when the interview is, and it lays out what to do and when, from the durable work that takes time to build to the morning itself. The plan is ordered by how much runway you have left: with two weeks you get the full arc; with two days, it compresses honestly and tells you what it set aside rather than pretend you can do everything. Every step links straight to the part of Presence that does it, and it remembers what you've checked off.

AddedThe Runway Planner. Enter your interview date, or the number of days left, and get an ordered checklist grouped by when each thing belongs: the durable material first, then their world and a first run, then pulling it together, then the morning of.
AddedHonest compression. If you don't have runway for everything, the plan says so plainly and keeps the few things that matter most, instead of pretending. The earliest step you still have time for is marked "Start here."
ChangedIt travels with your saved work. Your date and what you've checked off are kept alongside everything else, so they export, transfer, and clear with the rest. Nothing in your material is touched.

June 19, 2026

Privacy & data

A lighter way to count visits

We removed Google Analytics from Presence completely. The site still counts visits, so we can see which parts are useful, but it now does so with a cookieless, aggregate-only measure that sets nothing on your device and cannot follow you to any other site. As before, everything you write stays in your browser, and you can export or delete all of it from any page.

RemovedGoogle Analytics. Every Google tag and cookie is gone from the site.
ChangedHow visits are counted. Presence now uses a privacy-first, cookieless measure that reports only aggregate numbers and cannot track you across sites.
ChangedNothing about your material. Your stories and notes never leave your browser, exactly as before.

June 13, 2026

Across the app

Your preparation, ready when you are

Presence now knows how far along you are and tells you plainly. The home screen reads your material and, once you have enough to walk in, says so and gets out of the way. At every stopping point before that, it offers something you can carry: a focused view of your strongest stories, an exportable summary for the ten minutes before you're called, or a one-click export of your full packet. The welcome-back screen no longer asks you to plan your own next step. It reads your state, names one move, and says why.

AddedA walk-in signal on the home screen. Once you have a power statement, at least three named stories, and a dreaded question, Presence tells you you're ready to walk in. One line, then a shortcut to your packet.
AddedBest Stories. A focused view of the two or three of your stories that carry the most weight across the four leadership qualities, so you know which ones to reach for first.
AddedExport from Before You Walk In. The short summary for your final ten minutes can now be printed, saved as a PDF, downloaded as Markdown, or copied to your clipboard.
ChangedThe welcome-back band now names one move. It reads your state and suggests the single most useful next step, with a brief note on why. One action at a time.
ChangedStories and sessions now collapse. Saved stories and practice sessions compress to a single line when you're not editing them, so longer preparations stay readable.

June 13, 2026

Your material

More to watch for in the room

The watch-outs in Underneath have grown from five items to nineteen. They cover the in-the-room behaviors leaders most consistently flag after high-stakes conversations: the habits that are easy to miss in the moment. You choose up to three, or add your own in your own words. What you pick now travels into Before You Walk In and your full packet, so it's there when you need it.

AddedFourteen new watch-out items. A wider range of under-pressure behaviors, covering territory the original five didn't reach.
AddedA free-text field. If what you most need to remember isn't in the list, write it in your own words. It counts toward the cap of three.
ChangedChip selection UI. Tap an item to choose it, tap again to release. Your existing selections are unchanged.
ChangedWatch-outs now travel with you. Before You Walk In and your full packet now include what you've flagged, so they're there when you need them.

June 7, 2026

Your material

Your Leadership Portrait

Once you've written a few of your stories, Presence can now read across them and reflect the pattern in how you lead: what you return to, where your real strength sits, and the quiet gap between how you'd describe yourself and what your examples actually show. It names the pattern and leaves the judgment to you, offering a reading rather than a score, and ending in a question rather than a verdict. The more of your material it has to work from, the more it can say; a few stories earn a sketch, a fuller set a true portrait. It's drawn entirely from what you've written, and nothing leaves your browser.

AddedThe Leadership Portrait. A new reading you reach once you've built a few stories. It shows you the shape of how you lead, drawn only from what you've written.
AddedA moment to describe yourself first. Before your first portrait, Presence asks how you'd put your own leadership into words, so the reading can show you where your sense of yourself and your evidence agree, and where they quietly part.
ChangedA small step when you save a story. You can now mark the one quality a story shows most strongly, chosen from four clear families. It takes a moment, and it's what lets the portrait read your material with any precision. Your existing stories are untouched, and you can add it whenever suits you.
ChangedThe coverage view is now the Portrait. Where Presence once showed which kinds of stories you had and hadn't covered, it now reads them as a portrait rather than a checklist. The same material, read more honestly, and nothing you noted before is lost.

June 2, 2026

Across the app

What's new in Presence

Presence is calmer to start and more useful from beginning to end. The screen you land on after choosing your path is now a single, quiet reading column, grouped the way you actually work. Returning visitors get one "Welcome back" line instead of a wall of cards. And we've added two new places for the moments that matter most: pressure and reflection.

AddedThe Room. Practice under a little pressure. Choose Cold open, one question with no warning and then a playback, or Compose, where you build a story against a four-beat frame at your own pace. A running record shows what you've practiced across your whole search. No scores, no grades.
AddedThe Debrief. Capture the hour after you walk out, while it's still vivid. Four quick prompts turn a fresh memory into notes you'll actually use next time.
ChangedClearer and calmer throughout. Plain-language privacy ("This browser, No account," with one-tap export and delete on every page), a streamlined overview, and a "Before you walk in" surface for the ten minutes before you're called. Nothing you've written changed.
RemovedThe stacked welcome, walk-in, and progress cards. They were consolidated, not lost.

The starter file

Version history

The starter file (presence-starter.md) is a single downloadable document. Once you download it, your copy is frozen at that version. If you are on an older one, here is what changed and where to get the current file.

Version	Date	What changed	Get it
2.5	July 2026	Updated the About section for the Presence Story launch: the web app link now points to /tools/, its permanent home, and a new line points to Presence Story for readers who'd rather work with a live coach. No change to the method or session behavior.	Read and download
2.4	July 2026	Fixed the web app link in the About section (was /starter, now /app/). No change to the method or session behavior. Superseded by 2.5: /app/ now redirects to Presence Story, not the web app.	Superseded
2.3	July 2026	Added ten explicit rules the partner holds throughout, with numbered references in the instructions. Added a recovery prompt for when a model drifts. Clarified session-record guidance and trimmed the banned-words list to its most common failures.	Read and download
2.2	July 2026	Refined the session-record format and carry-forward instructions. The partner now opens every message with a movement tag so the leader always knows where they are.	Read and download
2.1	June 2026	Language and instruction refinements throughout. Tighter boundary language and a cleaner opening orientation.	Read and download
2.0	June 2026	A substantial revision of the partner's instructions. The method is now stated as five movements, Orient, Runway, Material, Pressure, Carry, named aloud as the session moves. The boundaries are firmer: your material is yours, the method is the partner's, and the judgment stays yours, so it never writes your answers or runs ahead of you. Tone and session-handling are refined throughout, and a link to share what you noticed is built in.	Superseded
1.0	June 2026	First public release. The single-file starter runs the Presence method in five steps (orient, runway, material, pressure, carry) inside ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, and produces a one-page walk-in card you copy out at the end.	Read and download

Version 2.5 is the current release. Older versions will keep working as they are; the current file is always at presence-advisory.com/starter. When the next version ships, the change will be listed here.

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