Speechworks

08/27/2024

"Role-playing, videotaping (even though I hated it), and the camaraderie that developed between participants was empowering. I would recommend this workshop to anyone who is in a leadership position and feels their skills need polishing."

- Leslie Gordon, Executive Director at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum

🙌🌟👏🎉🔥

Thank you, Leslie! We loved working with you, and so appreciate the valuable insights you brought to the group from your experience!! 🙏💡

Join us for one of our upcoming Executive Speaker for Women Workshops:

- November 13 & 14, 2024 (8:30am – 4:00pm EST)
- February 26 & 27, 2025 (8:30am – 4:00pm EST)

Learn more:

https://speechworks.net/workshops/executive-speaker-workshop-for-women/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=Zoho+Social

08/16/2024

To be an effective speaker, you first have to be a good listener. 👂

It's a cardinal rule. 🔑

Without listening, you may get lucky with a Hail Mary 🏈 , but...

It's much more likely that you'll miss the mark ❌ and leave your audience with unanswered questions. 😕

So, while preparing for your next presentation or discussion, take the time to listen and consider the listeners' goals and challenges -- 💡
...and THEN frame your approach to address your objective from your listeners' perspective.

🌟 In homage to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice 31 years last weekend, I wanted to share a quote from this wise and effective communicator:

"I'm a very strong believer in listening and learning from others."

- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

08/13/2024

In our workshops, we have the privilege of seeing our clients move from:

😫 discomfort and dread....

to a place of awareness and confidence 😁...

Developing communication skills can seem like a daunting task --

but much less so when you have a safe space to try uncomfortable things in a fun (dare I say...) way.

It's all about The Speechworks Difference.

✅ 1:5 coach to participant ratio -- enabling our coaches to do what they do best -- and spend time with each participant to give individualized feedback;

✅ We listen to our clients to tailor our workshops to further their goals and ensure our content is relevant to our audience; and

✅ Communications skill development. After 40 years, we know our lane.

08/08/2024

“That’s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they’re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”

― Rebecca F. Kuang

👂 Listen.

😊 Be yourself.

🤔 Consider the perspective/goals and objectives of our listeners.

I agree, EXCEPT -- we can do more then "hope" someone else understands. In fact, we must.

It's SOLELY the speaker's responsibility to:

👉 connect with listeners, and
👉 make it as easy as possible for listeners to understand intended take-aways.

💥💥 Considering the perspective/goals/objectives of our listeners proactively in preparing for a discussion is 🔑 to persuasion -- in seeking buy-in or in helping others connect-the-dots to understand our perspectives.

08/06/2024

“To tell an honest story, it is not enough for numbers to be correct. They need to be placed in an appropriate context so that a reader or listener can properly interpret them.”

― Carl T. Bergstrom, Calling Bu****it: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

Data without a story is data in a vacuum,

and
.. an obstacle 🚧 to informed decision making. 🤔

- even with data 📊 - is our specialty 🏅

08/05/2024

Feedback lessons from a design consultant -- and evidently a "back pocket trick" in the industry to:

✅ Help orient each party to consider the perspective of the other; and
✅ Guide a constructive discussion to shine light on the INTENDED message (without the distraction of reactive defensiveness).

I like... 👍
I wish...🌟
I wonder... 🤔

💥💥 This is NOT the misguided approach💥💥

Having a "go-to" approach to for delivering a message is 🔑 to helping you articulate your ideas - and intent - clearly.

Enjoy! (7 min listen)

"When you leap to the negative it doesn't help anybody."

08/01/2024

Negotiation lessons from a kid.... 🥁

👉 Challenge the opposing party's assumptions -- without giving away your power with an emotional reaction; ✅

👉 Ask for more than what you want -- you don't get what you don't ask for.... and every negotiation, by definition, requires both sides to concede; 😎

👉 Eye contact. Look your audience in the eye -- especially when asking for something. 👀

Enjoy!

Danny (Adam Sandler) is a successful plastic surgeon who pretends to be unhappily married to get women. When he finally meets a girl (Brooklyn Decker) he bel...

07/30/2024

Ever felt like your passion gets lost in the formality of a business presentation?

We get it. We've all received the memo that to be taken seriously in business, we should be a more serious, muted version of ourselves.

But, we disagree.

When we cloak our personalities with "serious" (AKA - "boring") -- we mask the wonderful qualities that SHOW that we care... and that we are invested...in the conversation and outcome....

If we fail to convey to our listeners that we care and that we are invested -- how can we expect our audience to buy in?

Here's the secret: Bring the intensity of a heart-to-heart chat to your next pitch or talk.

Imagine you're at dinner with your closest friend, chatting fervently about something you love.

That's the vibe we're after!

So, how do you bridge the gap between friend-mode and business-mode?

It's all about 1️⃣ eye contact 👀 and 2️⃣ making the decision 🤔 to bring great energy!

👀 Eye contact is your lifeline to the audience. That's where connection sparks. 💥 Without it, your message falls flat. 💤

🏺 Then, amp up your facial expressions, gestures, and voice. 😁 🙌 🎶

By cranking up the energy, you're not faking it.... You're reclaiming your authentic self! 🎭

We call it the "authenticity paradox."

By temporarily ramping up your energy, you tap into the genuine intensity you bring to personal conversations.

It's not about being someone else. It's about magnifying the best parts of you. So, next time you step into that conference room, dare to bring more of your real personality — more of YOU — to the conversation.

It's the key 🔑 to unlocking your true, electrifying self. ⚡

07/29/2024

"Debating a half-baked idea is likely to kill it."
- Kim Scott

It's WAY EASIER to explain an idea to someone who shares our perspective and expertise than to explain that same idea to someone with a different perspective/expertise.

But, people buy in for their own reasons -- not ours... 💡

So, to get buy in and move ideas forward to action, our odds of success increase dramatically 📈 if we:

👉 Consider the goals, challenges, concerns and objections of those we hope to persuade;
and

👉 Approach the discussion from the direction of how our ideas will impact those goals, challenges, concerns and objections.

Without this strategic consideration, an idea is half-baked.... at least from the perspective of the audience whose questions remain unanswered.

This episode is a great discussion about strategies to ensure your ideas are fully baked before serving. 🍰

05/22/2024

We had such a fun day today with this FUN group of ladies from Pineapple Public Relations! They came in wearing their "boots and spurs", and definitely brought the F-U-N to the learning party! Thank you for such a great day! We enjoyed working with each one of you! 🍍 ⁣🎓

05/22/2024

To drive the change needed to turn Barnes & Nobels, Inc. around, 🚜
Daniel Roth leaned into the mindset of reviving the personal customer-focused
experience that keeps book store lovers coming back....in other words

👉 ... an audience-focused approach.

"Book stores are inherently nice places..and lots and lots of people like being in good book stores. The independent book store has that nailed [....] and the only problem with Barnes & Nobles was that it lost sight of that and tried to become a retailer... and that's sort of antithetical to good book selling. Good book stores are different, they have personalities. They reflect the communities in which they sit."
- Daniel Roth, CEO Barnes & Nobel, Inc.

By allowing his teams to curate stores by considering the actual customers and communities of each store independently, B&N has successfully righted the ship. 📈 👏

Audience-focused messaging is effective. 🔑

Here's an interesting interview where Daniel Roth discusses exactly how he did it.

Enjoy! 😁

05/20/2024

“A speaker should approach his preparation not by what he wants to say, but by what he wants to learn.”

― Todd Stocker, Author

I see 👀 several points of wisdom in between the lines here..... 🤔

💡 Presentations are about the listeners and what they want to know -- NOT about me and what I want to say...

💡 Focusing on what I want to learn is an intentional shift in the power dynamic of the presentation - with me giving away a lot of power and control to my audience (scary!!!!!😬)

I used to do it the "natural" way, you know.... "I'm here today to talk to you about...."
..which usually led to the same yawns 😴, glazed eyes 😵 and the eventual tap tap tap of people moving on to their emails 💻....

Meaning, I lost them. They checked out.

After changing to the listener-focused approach, I can attest that it's more effective. I don't have the numbers, but the proof was in the pudding 😀. I built a successful practice with decades-long client relationships, and my clients became my best referral sources by far. 💪

Why? I build trust with them.

How?

✅ By getting to the bottom of their real concern or problem. I ask a lot of questions. Clients often came in with a plan in mind or an idea of what they think the problem is.... but, something is often off. The plans are half-baked, based on incomplete or inaccurate information.
Digging in here is crucial. By understanding my listeners' frame of reference, where they are coming from, their ultimate goals, their fears, and where/how they got the information driving their position -- I would be on a much more solid ground for re-educating and making proposals to address the REAL concerns.

✅ Embrace Pushback. Pushback is a gift. 🎁 To overcome the barriers and objections my listeners have based on their own filters and biases, I have to listen. Pushback is a window into my listeners' points of view, priorities, fears, objections and barriers. It's this deep understanding of my listeners that enable me to frame (and tailor) our services as solutions.

Regardless of the industry, clients want their problems solved quickly, efficiently and effectively. And, to make good on our promises, we need to understand our clients -- and learn as much about them as we can.

At
, Inc., we specialize in helping our clients reach their communication goals. We listen to you, tailor our coaching to meet your goals and needs and we do it in a safe and fun environment for growth.

We can proudly say that we are GREAT at what we do -- and very effective with our development workshops. We would LOVE to help you and your teams, and ask that you each out to see how we can help you increase momentum in reaching your professional and business goals.


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