The Mindset for Speaking Success

For many people, when they find out they need to give a presentation, host an online meeting or pitch to clients they feel nervous, worried or slightly sick. When the time comes to present, their face goes red, their mouth goes dry and their mind goes blank.

These internal worries and external physical symptoms are commonly caused by a negative, unhelpful state of mind. In our multi-award-winning system and book we refer to this state of mind as ‘Public Speaking Monkeys.’

Enable your team to adopt a positive, fear-free attitude.

We are passionate about helping people to bring out their best. For all sorts of reasons, they can’t do that when the monkeys are in control. We will work with your team to tame and train their public speaking monkeys, and adopt a new mindset for success meaning they can genuinely communicate and present with confidence.

Watch our video testimonials to see and hear how delegates feel so confident after ‘taming their monkeys.’

How can participants learn?

Working with a highly experienced trainer (either in person face to face or virtually), in this tailored public speaking course your team will be coached into developing a confident, constructive and positive attitude.

Where can your teams apply their new skills?

Business presentations online and off e.g. boardroom presentations, pitching internal ideas, webinars, technical presentations, conference presentations, customer proposals and sales presentations, internal meetings, investment pitches, keynote speeches and more… Plus they will also see and feel the benefits when networking, making ‘small talk’ and building good working relationships.

How does the programme work?

You can choose whether participants meet their trainer in person, or the training is done virtually for between 2-6 delegates. (For larger delegate numbers we can provide multiple trainers).

Face to face in person:

• 1 x 60-minute virtual coaching session per participant (covering parts 1 & 2)
• 1 x full day training at a convenient venue (covering parts 3, 4 & 5)
• 1 x post training video review per participant with feedback from trainer
• Workbooks, exercises, and materials to support and embed learning
• Delegates will receive the book Taming Your Public Speaking Monkeys by Dee Clayton, which will enable them to learn our multi-award-winning approach more quickly, plus more on the themes.

OR

Virtual training:

• 1 x 60-minute virtual coaching session per participant (covering parts 1 & 2)
• 4 x 90-minute virtual training sessions – live and interactive webinars (covering parts 3, 4 & 5)
• 1 x post training video review per participant with feedback from trainer
• Workbooks, exercises, practise and self-study materials to support and embed learning
• Delegates will receive the book Taming Your Public Speaking Monkeys by Dee Clayton, which will enable them to learn our multi-award-winning approach more quickly, plus more on the themes.

Optional extra: Ideal for face to face and virtual learners (Part 6): 1 x 60-minute live post-training review with each individual participant via web call.

Prerequisites: Before doing this course, delegates must have committed to Stage 1 Present With Confidence and Stage 2 Present Like a Pro.

By the end of the course, your team will be able to:

• Adopt new mindsets for speaking success so they think and feel differently about presenting and public speaking
• Uncover why, at the thought of presenting, they feel like a quivering wreck
• Prevent presentation stress, worry and nerves so they can sleep at night
• Understand the root cause of their fear and concerns then apply lasting techniques to become calm and confident speakers
• Feel natural when presenting meaning they display calm and confident body language essential for securing audience rapport and trust
• Speak without fear meaning their voice sounds clearer and louder making their message more influential
• Apply their new-found confidence to other areas of their life and work– not just to presenting, for example when networking and building relationships

Here’s the course breakdown:

Part 1 – Where could fear or concerns have originated from?

Delegates will be invited to complete the ‘A Bit About You’ pre-session workbook (hard copy or e-version available). This means that in part 2 we’ll be more easily able to identify what the root cause of problems could be and how to tailor the session to the team. The actual cause of their fear is not important, other than to understand why it developed and therefore how to let it go.

Part 2 – Catching your Public Speaking Monkeys

Delegates will discuss the findings in their workbooks and through their trainer’s experience and skilled questioning techniques they will discover even more about their issues around public speaking. By the end of this session, each team member and their coach will have a more in depth understanding of their individual situation, i.e. – what physical symptoms they show, such as shaking, going red or shortness of breath. Delegates will discover when these symptoms do and do not appear (because they usually don’t happen in every situation).

Delegates will receive the book ‘Taming Your Public Speaking Monkeys’ by Dee Clayton. The coach will guide them to the most relevant sections to help them get ahead of the game with their preparatory reading.

Part 3 – Connecting with your Monkeys

By piecing together all the information gathered so far – and by tapping into the trainer’s experience with other clients – delegates will be able to pinpoint when, where and why their monkeys began. We call this ‘connecting’ with your monkey, and it is a vital stage on the path to success.

Part 4 – Challenging Your Monkeys

After understanding the situation fully and identifying the negative feelings they have about their presentation skills and abilities, delegates will work with the guidance of their trainer to unpick these negatives. They will discover which are totally untrue, which are partly true/exaggerated and which are genuine missing skills that would be useful to learn. (They may have tried and failed at something similar before, but this time it works because they’ve followed the system in parts 1-3 and are guided by their expert trainer).

Part 5 – Creating new Helpful Monkeys that work for all situations

Now delegates no longer entertain those negative monkeys that were destroying their confidence, we need to replace those nagging doubts with more constructive self-talk. We’ll go through every scenario that would have worried them in the past, and test that their New Helpful Monkey is working to support them. Delegates will create an action plan to develop any missing skills identified previously. At this point, delegates will prepare to begin the next stage in their programme.

Whether delegates are doing the virtual or face to face training, they will be invited to show what they’ve learnt throughout the programme in a short finale review video. The trainer will provide constructive feedback and highlight next steps.

Part 6 – Embedding the change

This session is an optional extra, but highly recommended. For most delegates, once they have tamed their monkeys, they will be gone for good. But for some, because they have had the monkey for so long, they not only need to change their mindset, but they need a little extra help to change their habits. In this session we will help delegates to unstick those bad habits (which include never preparing, rushing through their presentation, focusing on the negatives of a situation, not volunteering to speak, among others). And we’ll develop a detailed plan of how to continue to improve on your habits long after the course has finished. If your team is doing the virtual training, they will embed their new habits by creating a short video and the coach will provide constructive feedback.

Feedback from previous delegates

“What I liked most about the training was the activities to go back to the root cause to find the answer. I no longer believe what the old monkey says! I will now proactively seek opportunities to present. Definitely recommend this training to others.”
Bhavya – Operations Manager

“I have improved my confidence. My understanding of my monkeys has improved. I will apply this knowledge to all my presentations definitely recommend this training to others”
Alfie – Senior Bid Development Manager

I feel more confident in presenting – I understand the monkey concept and I know it affected my presentations. I [now] believe my new helpful monkey and can see how this will help in other areas too.
[What did you like most about the training?] Changing age old beliefs.
Jeff – Sustainability leader

I was so, so looking forward to today, I got a few laughs and got my point across – I had some amazing feedback. I can’t believe how far I’ve come and if it weren’t for banishing the monkeys I would still be shying away! Thank you a million times to the moon and back! I have achieved things beyond my wildest dreams! Do not hesitate if you need help – fear can be conquered.
Claire Hartnell – Director ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐