Services

• Incorporating the 12 most persuasive words in the English language
• Avoiding the useless modifier/The importance of living language
• Proven phrasing for increasing listener buy-in from 60 to 94%
• The formula for an effective introduction (also, toasts & eulogies)

• Understanding/optimizing your tonal quality (with particular attention to how vocal fry and up-speak undermine credibility)
• Conveying authority: speaking from the diaphragm and the power of the pause
• The “happy/sorry” minefield
• How to use tone to move along an unwanted conversation or unwelcome interruption

• Setting up the physical space to support your message
• Introducing yourself to maximize authority
• Sitting to maximize others’ trust
• Pumpkin/Raisin: You have 42 muscles in your face—how to wake them up to ensure you hold the viewer’s attention.
• Face Time: How’s your listening face?
• Techniques for managing presentation and social anxiety

• Researching your audience/client’s agenda/Decoding unspoken agendas
• Ally or observer? Quarterback or Closer? The importance of defining the team’s roles
• Preparing the answers to the worst 3 questions you’ll be asked
• The importance of a team “safe word”

• Beyond ‘active listening’ to ‘looping’: how to ensure your listener feels heard and understood
• Rephrasing a question to maximize your advantage
• Techniques for ensuring you respond, rather than react
• Handling overtly hostile questions

• Setting up the physical space to support your message
• Incorporating the 10/20/30 Rule to structure your presentation
• The power of the “Rule of 3” for maximum information retention
• Creating speaking notes that enhance your visuals

• Formulating/providing the questions you wish to be asked.
• “Can you hear me now?” The importance of having another set of ears on the call.
• Write them up: Why you’ll be taking notes.
• Mirror/mirror: Why these interviews should take place in front of a mirror
• When/why/how to ask for additional time to respond to a question
• Un-break my response: the trick to—and beauty of—an unbreakable response
• On the record/ON the record: You are never off the record.
• What to do if you are ‘pounced on.’

• Pre-producer Prep: What to ask for—and why.
• Beware the All-Seductive Monitor: Don’t allow it to make you look shifty.
• Index it and Forget It: Notes are not a no-no.
• Put It On Mute: Checking to ensure your physicality matches your message
• “Happy Expectant Face”: Never assume you’re off camera.
• Get the lighting right: you don’t want to look like you’re in the witness protection program or have been growing mushrooms in the basement
• Blue. Period: Blue is the color we trust the most and it photographs best. (But what to do if blue’s not your color?)
• Teeing up the Rule of 3 – How to make your answers memorable—and ensure your listener hangs in until you’ve finished speaking.
• Know Your Softball Swing: The importance of being able to respond to “Tell me about you/your company/proposal/idea….”
• Land the Plane: Keeping answers tight.

This session begins with the information listed above. The second hour is used for team break out work during which team members talk through the structure of their current presentations, and decide how these might be modified based on the information learned during the first hour. This approach allows for immediate, hands-on application of the new information to your existing materials—and subsequent, immediate change, driven and implemented by your team. It also provides a forum for team-wide discussion of frequently faced hurdles and challenges, and allows for group consensus with regard to how these might be best handled going forward.