Dancing with the energy of the room.

Stay dynamic

I love helping professionals step out of their comfort zone onto that stage and not just deliver their content but have the audience eating out of the palm of their hand.  Engaging with an audience is difficult at the best of times. But what about those particularly hostile audiences?  You know, the ones that have come with the intention of disagreeing with you.  The ones that are full of hecklers ready to throw those difficult questions, beckoning you to fail.

I saw this daily while working with my number one client, my husband as he sprinted through a political campaign running for mayor of our local city.  In the final month of the campaign there were hourly meetings, live interviews, and open public forums, some that were friendly and some that were  heated.

Standing out amongst eight other contenders was the challenge.  Finding a new angle to say the same thing a dozen different ways certainly kept me on my toes.  As Stewart gained traction and stood out as the articulate, dynamic and innovative leader of the group, an obvious pattern developed.  I would help put together his 12-minute presentation using a specific formula with the intention of making that deeper connection.  Low and behold in the next presentation, other contenders, impressed or threatened by his ability to speak, had gone away, studied his presentation and then tried to reproduce it at the next presentation.  Which is, of course, the ultimate compliment!  However, each time we would then have to change direction, delivery, or content to stay relevant, keep engaging and lead the pack as the strongest contender.

In the flow

Then one day Stewart hit his stride.  With the refined balance of intention, great content, unwavering passion, vocal technique and nonverbal cues something magical happened, he started to speak from the heart!  He got out of his head and into his body disarming the audience, shifting their thinking, expanding their vision, and touching their heart.  His words: “OMG that was awesome. I was free flowing empowered and 100% myself. I was bouncing off the audience and it felt like I was dancing with the energy of the room!”.

As a vocal coach, this is possibly the greatest compliment I have every received and yes, it is true.  As a classically trained musician I studied for more than 20 years to walk onto that stage and within 4 minutes understand the audience, command their attention, shift their state and get under their skin, leaving them feeling uplifted into a world of endless possibility. That is what we want from a speaker.  Someone who show’s leadership and foresight, imparting their wisdom to inspire us to be the best version of ourselves.

Being a great speaker is a skill that everyone can learn.  My process is not a quick fix.  It is a program that teaches you the steps required to understand why, what, and how of delivering an elite performance.