SPEAKEASY Mini Blog Series Post 4

Today was the final day of the three day program. Today was focused on application, practice, and assessment of the framework that we’ve developed over the last two days.

We practiced speaking to poems, speeches, and presentations. Furthermore, we were filmed speaking standing up, sitting down, in front of a projector, and sitting at a conference room table.

Emphasis is placed on seeing yourself and the impact you make as a speaker, from the listeners point of view. Once you understand how you appear in their eyes, you can adjust your delivery to achieve the maximum impact.

At the end of the program they give you a DVD which is comprised of all of your recording over the 3 day program. I was astonished when I watched the DVD at how much progress I made in 3 days. I’m already a more confident speaker, know where I’m at, and have the framework to implement into my everyday life to continue to improve as an impactful speaker.

I can truly tell all of you that I will carry the skills I’ve acquired in this program with me for the rest of my career.

This is one of the best development classes that I’ve ever taken. The improvement is night and day. I’d encourage anyone, no matter what skill set or position in an organization you are, to take this course.

I hope that this blog series was an informative read, and I would appreciate any feedback that you have.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions regarding the program.

The SVTB

SPEAKEASY Mini Blog Series - Part 2

Day 1 was quite the experience. I already feel myself becoming a better communicator. We have a class of 8 people with senior-executive level managers from companies like Wells Fargo, Visa, Juniper, Apple, and more.

“Communication is defined as the transfer of a sentence to the mind of another”.

Today was focused on driving the idea into our heads that communication is about making an impact in the mind of another person. The thought process and training is explained in the analogy of a world class tennis player.

World class tennis players take the same swing regardless of if they’re hitting the ball against the wall, against an opponent, or center stage at Wimbledon. World class communicators therefore have the tools and approach to communicate effectively and make an impact, if they’re talking to 1 person, or 10,000.

The approach is broken down at a high level into two steps, thought composure, and thought delivery. After learning the technique, the rest of the day was spent on multiple video assessments, exercises, and implementation.

Danny Slomoff, our instructor, has over 30 years experience as a communication coach and psychologist, and has therefore been an inspiration in his ability to recognize and give feedback to us around becoming an “excellent communicator”.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow, and am off to go complete the homework assignments for day 2.

Stay posted,
The SVTB