how it works
These are the building blocks of a strong speaker. I’ve spent a decade and a half 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. This helped a founder raise $10M seed round in the US and a CTO support his startup with raising £12M series A in the UK this spring.
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.
• Sabotage Judo: We train to turn an unexpected detrimental event on it’s head.
Questions and reservations
- I give the No-Questions-Asked Money Back Guarantee. At any point of coaching.
- If you are in the UK, we train in person: in your office; your personal space or in a private room in a co-working that I will rent close to where you are.
- If you prefer training online, or you are outside of UK, we do it online.
- This spring alone I helped a second-time founder raise a $10M seed round in Silicon Valley, and a CTO raise a £12M Series A round in London.
- I’ve spent a decade at IKEA training staff in public speaking, sales and new workflows.
- Coventry University London and the University of Greenwich trust me to train their business students.
- I’m a former founder of two businesses myself: one - successful, and the other - an embarrasing failure.
- To put my money where my mouth is, I give a No-Questions-Asked Money Back Guarantee. At any point of coaching. So you risk nothing.