Coaching by

Sergei Firsov

PUBLIC
SPEAKING
for professionals

Speak in the way that makes people queue up to work with you.

trusted by

who the coaching is for:

I coach professionals and executives in Public Speaking & Business Presentations. It’s running meetings, persuading colleagues and customers, and presenting at conferences so that people queue up to meet with you afterwards.

I train my clients from the ground up, or help prepare for a specific event.

We use the Signature Foolproof Silly Exercise Method I’ve pulled together over the last 13 years. We train face-to-face in London, or online from anywhere in the world.

FEEDBACK

1. Don’t sacrifice your goals to fear

Prepare your presentation and deck so nothing is left to chance. Don’t let fear derail your goals – be competent.

2. hit your goals speaking publicly

Present so well, colleagues and clients will feel stupid saying no.

3. use your voice to build your brand

The way you speak shapes how people view the whole business. Speak so they’ll queue up to work with you – and spread the word.

how it works

These are the building blocks of a strong speaker. I’ve spent 15 years learning, practicing and figuring out how to teach them (in a way that works). I use them like Lego pieces to build an approach for every unique client I work with.

P.S. Yes, I drew the pictures. You can learn to make these for your talks too.

Component 1

learning about you

Above all, I want to understand you:

• Your Goals and Reservations: So I can make the sessions relevant specifically to you. Your product, your company stage, your objectives. No “universal course for all” bullshit.

• Your Charisma: I want to understand your way of speaking to enhance it, and use your strengths to the fullest. We’re not actors pretending — we’re professionals being authentic.

• Your Timeline: If it’s urgent, I’ll travel anywhere in the UK and we train several days in a row so you crush the presentation. If not urgent – we train 2 to 4 times a month when and where it suits you.

Component 2

How to capture and maintain attention

In this section, we use my Signature Foolproof Silly Exercise Suite to learn to stand out without feeling like an idiot.

• Eye Contact Magic: No ideas can be transferred without it on stage. We learn to do it in a way that no one in the room feels forgotten.

• Contrast Stimuli Arsenal: We train to engage the audience, so they leave discussing your presentation, and thinking “man, we did a great job together!”. Mastering this aspect makes a remarkable speaker!

Component 3

how to prepare a talk and handle fear

This element of our coaching covers how to build a presentation that delivers results.

• 3 Question Prep Guide: We learn to build a presentation in three steps: understanding an audience; setting the right goal; using relevant resources. Now prep will take hours, not weeks.

• Composition Mastery: We train to structure a talk so that it seduces the room into making the right decision.

• Decreasing the Unpredictability Index: We dive into 3 ways of mitigating anxiety: prior to, right before and during a talk. Because sacrificing your goals to fear sucks!

Component 4

how to carry yourself and what to show the audience

What an audience sees is 60% of success. In this section, we learn to use the visuals: body language, slides and the secret ingredient of the worlds greatest orators – toys (what?!).

• Posture and Gestures of an Orator: We train to be confident just standing there. Also, how to illustrate your thought even when there’s nothing to show.

• The 7 Slide Principles: We learn how not to ruin a presentation with slides.

• Going Beyond Slides: I suck at drawing, but I made these illustrations myself on an iPad. They don’t make this page perfect — but they make it mine. Together, we work on making your presentations visually unique to you.

Component 5

How to answer questions and handle sabotage

This endgame skillset shoots your presentation into a stratosphere (and the lack of it dooms an unprepared speaker). In this section we train to handle the two most intense parts of a talk – Q&A and things going wrong.

• Answer-Any-Question Algorithm: We learn to anticipate questions; to turn a sceptic into an ally; to deal with ambiguous and intentionally tricky objections. This is when investors get to marvel at you under pressure.

• Sabotage Judo: We train to turn an unexpected detrimental event on it’s head.