Hidden Gems: Meet Cindy Skalicky of On Point Communications, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cindy Skalicky.

Hi Cindy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Starting On Point Communications has been the biggest surprise of my life – and I really do mean that. Growing up in Illinois, my Dad worked for the Chicago Tribune and my mom stayed home with my brothers and me. I never even heard the word “entrepreneur” until I was in my 20s. My plan was to be a stay at home mom like my mom was. Being a business owner was never even a consideration. When I got married, fulfilled my dream of calling Colorado “home”, and became a mom of 4, life was going according to plan. And then it all changed.

Before I got married, I earned 2 degrees in Rhetoric – “the science and art of persuasion. This is a subset of Speech Communications. It means I have a knack for decoding and analyzing messages to evaluate if they are adequately persuasive, and if so, how they accomplish that. For example, I used to strip down – line by line, story by story – State of the Union addresses, Commencement Addresses, and Oscar Acceptance Speeches in order to determine whether or not the speaker met the demands of the audience In other words, did they do a good job? Did they meet the needs of the occasion? If so, how … exactly what did they say and do? If they did not, where was the miss?

I had no idea what to do with this skill for the first 35 years of life. I put it to work in several arenas initially. I worked at a global 5 ad agency in Chicago on Michigan Avenue, now called Energy BBDO. I went back to graduate school, thinking I should become an academic. I taught public speaking classes at UGA, which I loved to my core. Abandoning the PhD route due to what I sensed as a rather insular existence for the next 20 years, I left academia.

I soon worked in public relations on K Street in Washington D.C. for a unique health-care only PR firm. This proved a key move, because I learned the basics of scientific storytelling, which is what On Point is now known for – it’s who we specialize in advancing: Scientists, engineers, and technologists. At Spectrum Communications, I learned how to quickly distill and ‘sell’ complex pharma and medical stories to trade publications and national media. I stopped everything work related when our oldest daughter was born, and for the next 12 years, I stayed home with our 4 children and ran a busy house while my husband built a neuropsychology practice in town – starting from absolutely nothing and soon being known as a leading provider in the Western region.

When my kids went off to elementary school I went to find a part time job. I started knocking on doors, resume in hand, and I got quizzical looks. “Cindy, you have a master’s degree. Why are you applying for a part time job at our fitness gym?” The reason was so I could be home with my kids after school, but employers turned me down. They told me that as amazing as my interview was, they just knew I wouldn’t be happy there. And thank God for them – because they were right. What a gift those “no’s” were.

My husband introduced me to Tanis Roeder, a presentation skills coach. I did not know presentation skills coaches existed, but I thought it sounded amazing. Tanis and I had lunch. We talked for an hour and a half, and by the end of the conversation, she said to me, “Cindy, based on the things you’ve just said to me, you really like content development. You’re good at storytelling. There aren’t a lot of people out there who are good at that. I am a presentation skills coach, but I am not above getting one, and I have a TEDx talk next month that I really want to nail. Will you coach me?”

And there it was. That’s where it all began. I said, “Yes, yes I will.” I thought to myself, “I don’t know how I’m going to do that, but I’m going to do that.” With nowhere to write a check, with no brand name behind me, with nothing but my own ideas, a paper and a pen, On Point was born.

Tanis and I went to the TEDx arena in September of 2015. She totally nailed it, Afterwards, we stood on the balcony watching the other speakers and I remember she sort of tugged my sleeve and said, “Cindy, you should quit looking for part time jobs. And you should do this. Because you have a gift.”

The next day, I called my husband from the front porch of our home and said, “Tanis said I should start a business and do this. Should I start a business? I don’t know how.” My husband didn’t skip a beat. He said, “You’d be great at that – and yes. Yes you should start a business.” And so I did. On a wing and a prayer, and on September 28, 2015, On Point Communications, LLC was born.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In some ways yes, and in other ways, not at all.

The hardest bump of course, was in 2020 when everything public stopped – including “public speaking.” All my client work had dried up, and just 2 weeks before – on 1/20/20 – I had launched a new online course, in hopes it would sell by the boatload. For a variety of reasons, it did not. I went back out looking for full time jobs. I interviewed for marketing director roles at Wiland, at Otter Box, and sent my updated resume far and wide. Again – doors closed, or just wouldn’t budge.

Eventually, work dribbled back in, and I had to make a big decision. At this point in my business, I’d grown a healthy network – I was good at building relationships and being unafraid to reach out to most any level of leaders in an organization. Leaders I trusted began to encourage me to go bigger, to reach higher. They said I did something really unique and could really make a go for more if I wanted to. I did not now what “it” was, but I did feel a desire to keep the On Point light burning.

So I stretched myself big time and signed a 12 month contract to hire my own executive coach. I knew I needed help to scale On Point, and that I did not have the skills to do that on my own. I still work with that coach, and he has helped me 4x my business and reach heights I never knew were possible. It’s been transformational, to say the least. It has truly changed my family tree – to build this business has opened doors for me and my family that would not have otherwise been opened.

Other challenges have included how to balance being a good and present mom to our kids, how to balance working in our home, and how to balance mindshare. It’s hard to turn off the work when you’re in the house, and I’m constantly in need of setting and re-setting my boundaries. It’s a work in progress, and I am glad I’m aware of where my shortcomings fall (at least most of the time!).

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about On Point Communications, LLC?
More than anything else, when I ask our longest standing clients what they gain from our work together, it’s the same thing: “Cindy, you helped me see the value in consistently putting myself in the shoes of my audience while crafting the message. I never did that enough before. It makes all the difference. You showed me the value in doing that, and also HOW to do it well.”

I am not a software engineer, or a chemical engineer, or a mechanical engineer – but I work with them, and they are notoriously challenged and thinking like their audiences. As such, I am their “message engineer.” What surprised even me early on, is that I actually love to go head to head with crazy smart scientists, PhDs, and other deep tech professionals … precisely because they are crazy-smart. This means two things: One, they are way too in the weeds on their own expertise when trying to communicate their idea, and two, they know this is their achilles heel. Because they are aware, they know they are in their own way, and they know they need help to simplify their complex idea.

I have been told I am The Great Distiller. I help leaders crystallize. I help them take their awesome, complex idea and make it simple, understandable, fun to listen to and exciting to the stakeholder. I’m enormously proud of the work we did with a presenting team of C-suite leaders in a F250 company who addressed the Corporate Board of directors over a 2-day period. We worked for 8 weeks to pull out analogies and a core storyline that had pull through to get the audience behind the idea faster. Presenters learned our “Rehearsal Trifecta” so they could become true storytellers, slowing their pace, owning their moment in the room, and varying their cadence. The board said afterward it was the best presentations they’d seen in recent memory.

In another instance, We coached 3 of the 8 leaders in an annual 5-year strategy review to the corporate CEO. Similar feedback returned to me, “Cindy I’ve been part of this team for 5 years, and hands down the 3 leaders you coached were the best in the room. We clapped. Cindy, we’ve never clapped before – ever. And we clapped for them. It was fantastic,”

This is what sets us apart. I’ve heard consistently that once people have the deep level of training and storytelling skills development we provide at such a molecular level – this shows up noticeably. There is a “Cindy stamp” in an organization sometimes – meaning people can tell when some leaders have worked with us, compared to others who have not yet.

I’m proud of this. We are not run of the mill. We are not off the shelf. We train deeply so as to change behavior. What’s more, we explain to leaders WHY what they are doing will work – that’s where my training in rhetoric comes in. That is a clear differentiator for us in the market. Being a rhetorician sets me apart in a way I never expected. Turns out, crazy-smart scientists love theory. They love knowing how and why things work – and as a result, the love learning the inner workings of Aristotelean Rhetoric. Who knew?

In 2025, I published a bestselling book that outlines a model I created, trademarked and developed, called The HOW-TO Model. It was born out of watching leaders fail at parts of the persuasive engine, so in the book, they learn all its parts.

In it, leaders learn to command high-stakes moments: board meetings, investor decks, product storylines, scientific presentations, major internal strategy rollouts. The HOW-TO Model gives leaders a clear, five-step structure for crafting messages that earn buy-in. In our on site trainings, webinars and private coaching, I pair that with coaching on executive presence and delivery so leaders sound as confident as the ideas they’re presenting.

At coffee today, someone told me one of my differentiators is that I care — as in, I really, really care. And I do. I care a lot about the hearts and minds of the leaders we work with, because I know what it’s like to feel behind the 8-ball and doubt whilst having a deep desire to be noticed and shine with a bright light.

I’m known for being the person teams call when something has to land and a story needs to rise out of the clutter. I’m the one who sits with them, pulls apart the jumble, and helps build a storyline that feels crisp, human, and compelling.

I’m also very proud of the depth of trust I have built over the years with my clients. I take my work with them very seriously. I hold things in confidence and create a space for them to be truly them, warts, fears and all, They do not have that in their work circles in the same way, but they have it with me. Many have worked with me for years. They invite me into their strategy sessions, their board rehearsals, their innovation labs—not as a vendor, but as a true thought partner. Since 2015, I’ve helped teams secure hundreds of millions in deal flow, launch new divisions, simplify scientific breakthroughs, and communicate with clarity in some of the most consequential rooms in their careers. I love my work and my clients fiercely, and I am not done yet. There is more work to do!

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
There’s nowhere in the world I love more than being at Wrigley Field, in Chicago, IL, cheering on my Chicago Cubs. I have been a die hard fan since age 13, and whenever I am at Wrigley Field, I am in my happy place.

This 3 min video shares more, including some footage:

I also have a deep love of road trips from Chicago to Colorado, when my dad would wake me and my brothers at 3am, my mom would grab the thermos of coffee and her overnight bag, and we’d climb into our station wagon to start the 1000 mile drive across the US on I-80 to come to Loveland to visit my grandparents, aunts and uncles. We did that many years in a row, and I cherish those memories and all that it entailed, from. stops at McDonalds in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to counting license plates, to hearing for the same country and music mix tape from the 70s play from the front seats and Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again.”

Pricing:

• Private Coaching: starting at 3k / mo
• On Site Trainings: Customized
• Keynote: Customized

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.onpoint-communications.com
• Instagram: onpoint_communications
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onpointcommunicationscindy/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-skalicky/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@onpointcommunicationsllc3908/videos
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/116vzIk2w13v2LzwPoTcix
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1966168268

Image Credits
These are all owned by me