About a year ago my training partner and I were speaking with a client who told us that another trainer they worked with was frustrated because her RFP’s were consistently being rejected. She felt she was being treated unfairly and had filed a formal complaint; this was exacerbated when she found out we were being offered repeat work, without having to go through the RFP process at all. What she did not know (nor was she told, which is a whole other blog post), was that her trainings were deeply ineffective,
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago a speaker asked for my feedback on a speech she was working on with another coach, for a large event. We scheduled a phone session, and she had her coach on the line so we’d all be on the same page. When she was done with the read-through of her speech, it was pretty clear that she was way off the mark. Her speech lacked a clear purpose
Read More“It quickly became apparent that while this class was technically about writing essays, in reality it needed to be about learning how to think critically…”
Read MoreThat’s where I came in: using strategies I’d employed as an educator, I was able to teach the clients about their project. It lead to higher success rates in signing new clients, and clients that were happier with the work because they understood what we were doing. Since then I’ve mostly transitioned into my own work as a coach and trainer, but every so often I still attend meetings with my husband to help him educate his clients about their projects.
Read MoreThis past spring my husband started working with a coach – a poker coach. That’s right, he’s working with someone to improve his poker-playing skills. At first I was skeptical; after all, I come from a world where you only hire a coach for high-level professional development like public speaking and leadership.
Read MoreI spend quite a bit of time working with people on how to communicate: what words to choose and when, delivery, preparation, etc. But one of the most important aspects of communication happens when we aren’t saying anything at all.
Read MoreIn only 15 minutes she would need to both educate the audience about the problematic nature of the current American bail system, as well as detail her solution and why we should support it. Steinberg had to manage what every speaker navigates while planning a presentation: How much information does your audience need in order for them to understand what you’re speaking about?
Read MoreA friend of mine recently worked with a new speaker coach to get her ready for a big work presentation in front of a room of over 500 people. She was disappointed after the first session because she didn’t feel like she’d gotten what she needed. She noticed her coach struggled to translate his skills as a wonderful speaker into helping her with her presentation. “He didn’t seem to understand I was giving a corporate presentation, not a motivational speech.” She lamented. “And he’s such a great speaker, so I thought he’d be a great coach!”
Read MorePop quiz: What’s the best way to lose your place during your presentation?
Answer: Look down at your notes.
Read MoreThe only problem? No one had read the book. In fact, they didn’t even know they were supposed to have read it; furthermore, many had only received their book the day before!
Our entire plan hinged on the participants having read the book.
So there we were, in front of a room of complete strangers at 8:00am, with no viable plan to fill the next 4 hours.
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