This isn’t about PowerPoint! This is about building your inner confidence, your personal presence and your authentic voice so whenever you need to stand up and speak you do it with authority and credibility — even impromptu off-the-cuff!
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If public speaking – even giving a presentation to colleagues – sends you into a cold sweat with a pounding heart you’re not alone! Your insides turn to water when you think of everything that might go wrong: what if they don’t listen? What if you make a mistake? What if the slides don’t work? What if you get into a panic and freeze and can’t think of what to say next? What if they think you’re an idiot? What if they don’t agree with you? What if they’re hostile? What if they know more than you do? What if they see you’re nervous? What if your voice is too quiet? What if you say ‘um’ too often and people start counting?
Bad news is that any and all (and more) of these nightmares might come true (believe me – I know from experience!).
Good news is that you can learn how to deal with them and be confidently prepared. Even just knowing that means things are much more likely to go smoothly.
You’ll be positively excited when you get the opportunity to be up on your hind legs speaking to a group. You’ll know how to prepare yourself and your material so you can be confident you’ll deliver it well and your message will land. You’ll still get a frisson of excitement when you stand up to speak, but just a frisson – just enough to give that spark that makes you so engaging as a speaker. You’ll feel sure you have the skills and strategies to deal elegantly with whatever real-life throws at you in the moment.
In short, you’ll feel in your element. Like you belong there.
Public Speaking and Presenting — Why It Matters
There’s no getting away from it: the art of presenting and public speaking is an essential skill if you’re a business professional seeking to make a name and a career for yourself.
The more senior you get the less life becomes about your technical specialism and the more you are expected to contribute to the business in a more varied and influential way. That could mean presentations to your team, or presentations to the board. It might mean speaking on stage at conferences to hundreds of people. Leading management meetings. Presenting to existing customers. Going out with the sales team and presenting to a new prospect. It might mean running training courses.
It might be delivering good news. Or bad news.
Your audience might be friendly and supportive. Or hostile and challenging. Awkward individuals. Awkward groups. Noisy rooms. The half-closed eyes of the dreaded after-lunch slot.
The possible demands – and opportunities – are endless!
Which means that your professional future is heavily influenced by your willingness to learn and develop the skills of the public speaker in the context of growing as a professional presenter.
That is quite different to becoming an after-dinner speaker, or a TEDx speaker, or an actor, so put your mind at rest on that score!
And it’s not just about personal presence and confidence and delivering your content well. It’s just as much about knowing what to do when things do go wrong. Which they will. Sorry. But they will.
So, it’s crucial to also have a toolkit that will get you out of trouble. Keep you safe. Most speaking and presenting trainings leave this bit out, sadly, but it’s so fundamental that it’s right at the heart of what we do.
If you want to grow in your career, you need to get on your feet. And if you’re going to do that you need to do it well and be able to handle whatever comes at you.
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Scroll down to see what you get in your Power Networking workshop…
I’ve always loved being on stage. One of my earliest memories is walking out from the wings onto the stage in a nursery school play in our local church hall.
So when I left Corporate life, I knew I wanted to run my own training and coaching business. The challenge was, I found, that when I was on my feet for a day I would lose my voice! Which is how my interest in the voice and voice coaching started, which took me to a leading Lindon theatre school. I also knew that storytelling was the underlying vehicle for any successful communication, which took me to the International School of Storytelling.
I also realised that there’s a lot of psychology involved in engaging people, navigating the variety of responses an audience can give, and knowing how to deal with that elegantly is a real must-have. That took me to the NLP University in Santa Cruz, California to become a Certified NLP Trainer and Consultant, as well as ben an NLP Master Practitioner and Certified NLP Coach. And it led me to study accelerated learning.
All that really helped me to create and deliver high-energy trainings all over the world to clients including PwC, Ofcom, Linklaters, KPMG, Inmarsat and more.
This workshop is a distillation of everything I’ve learned along the way.
These are the exact skills and strategies I’ve used in front of some of the most challenging and demanding professional audiences in the world.
Many of them you won’t find anywhere else.
You certainly won’t find them gathered together in one place!
They work for me.
Whether you’re a nervous newbie or you’ve had some experience, they’ll work for you.
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We’ll address all those head-on and you’ll leave with the certainty you can deal with anything that happens, keep your head and give your best.
Here’s what you’ll learn during the day:
As you can see, it’s going to be a busy day! Fun, too.
I’ve taught this material to hundreds of business professionals, some of whom speak regularly to challenging and sometimes hostile audiences. One woman was, at the start of the day, genuinely in tears at the thought of standing up in front of the group, yet by the end of the day was quite comfortable and confident.
And one person who came on this course as a complete and rather anxious beginner has gone on to become a well-known keynote speaker in her field.
This is not your average presentation skills workshop. This is all about finding your confidence and your own personal presence. Everything else follows naturally and effortlessly from that.
So don’t wait: book your place now…
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Scroll down to see how it works and what to do next…
“Excellent introduction for new presenters – especially nervous types (ie. all of us!), and great for experienced presenters too.”
David O
Consultant
“Inspiring, helpful, easy (once you did it!), challenging (to start with) and useable. Best aspects were learning about body language, how to sound authoritative and how to work with your audience. Really enjoyable!”
Jos B
Consultant
“Stimulating, confidence-building, comfortable, positive. Want to know more! Best part was my change of attitude, feeling at ease on the stage – atta girl! This is a chance to work with someone who really knows what he is talking about.”
Mary C
Keynote speaker
How It Works
Confidence, Presence and Purpose is a highly interactive one-day workshop!
I’ll be drawing on two decades of personal speaking experience that has seen me standing up in front of audiences from some of the biggest professional services firms in the world as well as local businesses and individuals. Speaking has been the core skill in delivering workshops that have taken me all over the world.
There will be plenty of discussion, sharing of experiences and role-play exercises: this workshop is designed to give you the experience of trying out the skills and strategies for yourself. It is most definitely not about hosing you down with PowerPoint and wishing you luck!
And there will be plenty of opportunity to network with your fellow participants.
And of course you’ll leave with a handbook you can refer back to, and a handy pocket-sized checklist you can take with you next time you head off to an event, so even if your mind goes blank, you’ll have a discreet prompt to help you get proactive and get visible!
What To Do Next
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Option 2: Let’s talk about running this workshop in-house for your company…
Let us know your enquiry and we’ll be in touch shortly by phone or email — usually the same day, sometimes right away:
If you prefer, you can phone, email, or schedule a specific time for a call.
Business Training in London, Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent and Hampshire.
We provide business skills training supported by coaching and mentoring, in our specialist areas:
7 Bell Yard, Holborn, London WC4A 2JR
020 3397 4407
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