Tailored Training Programs
Helping your people to become confident, engaging and influential communicators in every situation
Good business is about great communication. When your people speak effectively, they leverage your products, services and ideas. But if they lack confidence or skills it can cost you opportunities, time, effort and money.
Speaking to influence and motivate team members, having 1:1 meetings with clients, or persuading stakeholders – the ability of your people to speak well, with presence, conviction and energy in any situation, is a vital part of your organisation’s success.
When you work with me, you’ll get interactive, practical, enjoyable training and/or coaching programs, using the latest adult learning principles.
All programs are research-based and proven, helping over 4,500 clients in the past 12 years.
You can access workshops, training series, personal coaching and personal intensives using my Accelerated Speaking Results System (see below).
The ASR System reflects the stages of development speakers move through as they gain skills, experience, confidence and presence, and addresses both content and delivery at increasingly impactful levels.
The Accelerated Speaking Results System:
Delivered in your choice of format
Choose between more teaching through presenter-driven content and light interaction in the
Masterclass / Keynote option OR teaching followed by participant practice in the Workshops.
1. Masterclass / Keynote
Presenter-driven, light interaction, Q&A.
1 – 1.5 hour
In this practical and engaging session, participants will learn techniques and tools to increase their confidence, engagement or influencing skills. Session content can be focused on one, two or all three of these areas. Presenter-driven teaching, light interaction plus Q and A.
2. Workshop(s)
Teaching and discussion with participant practice.
Create your own ideal training fit using A and B
Choose 1, 2 or all 3 workshops below.
(2 or 3 sessions recommended for the greatest embedded improvement.)
Techniques and tools for:
1. Confidence and presence (workshop 1).
2. Engagement (workshop 2).
3. Influence and persuasion (workshop 3).
Each workshop duration: two hours.
Choose participant amount of real practice.
1. Approximately 8 people can present for 3 minutes in each 2-hour session
OR
2. ‘Hot-seat’ format where some speak and are coached. Others learn by watching
OR
3. Every participant does an approximately 1-minute talk (numbers dependent)
on a work/personal topic chosen in advance
OR
4. Every participant does an impromptu “think on your feet” talk topic.
Some specifics of what can be covered
Speaking habits
These are crucial, because any habit that isn’t conscious will potentially make the speaker look
either not self-aware, or nervous. Neither builds credibility and authority in audience eyes.
There may be unconscious or unhelpful habits or biases around elements such as:
- Gestures, mannerisms and body positioning
- Vocal style
- Energy levels
- Discomfort about speaking
- Selling with influence
- Small word choices that can diminish the message
Learn evidence-based, tested tools for these habits – what to add, tweak or drop.
Engagement and connection tools and pitfalls such as:
- The top filters that kill listener engagement
- Ensuring ways to ‘Connect then Carry’
- Story-telling or case-studies that work
- My ‘Circles of Speaking Disconnection’ and what to do about them
- How to read the room, and adjust style if required
And everything learned will still allow ‘realness’ and authenticity.
Learning Outcomes — examples
- Delivery and preparation skills to demonstrate confidence and presence.
- Being able to think clearly and coherently.
- Flexible, effective structures and frameworks for clarity, impact and influence.
- Sharp, succinct and refined language and key messages
- Specific techniques to build trust and authority fast
- Managing questions, difficult topics or audiences
- Audience engagement and ability to retain information
And everything learned will still allow ‘realness’ and authenticity.
In-house training:
Over 4,500 participants have completed training, coaching and workshop programs with Improve Your Public Speaking since 2011.
I’m based in Melbourne, and deliver programs across both regional areas and capital cities across Australia. I’m also happy to travel to locations not always serviced by other training organisations, which is often welcome!
Online, hybrid or face-to-face: your choice
Every program we offer can be delivered to you online, a mixture of online and live in room, or fully face-to-face, depending on your location and preference.
Recent examples:
- Three Training series delivered for a building facades global company. Delivered 100% online, allowing participants to attend from all over Australia and N.Z.
- Three Training series delivered for an IT global company. Delivered 100% online, allowing business analysts to attend from Melbourne, Bangkok and the Philippines
- Three Training series delivered for a Victorian Shire Council. Delivered 1st two sessions online, 3rd session in person
- Workshop delivered 100% online for an organisation whose participants had physical or intellectual disabilities.
Additional written materials and post-training follow-up:
Post-training, participants receive:
- Videos: Access to my online learning hub with short, easily-digestible videos covering key learnings.
- Emails: 21 days of a morning email to remind and embed the learning further.
- Handouts: in-depth reminder PDFs.
When
In-house training sessions are anything from 2 hours to 6 hours, depending on training needs and whether online or live on-site.
Numbers
Workshops and Training Series: Participant numbers are a minimum of 4, maximum flexible (up to 100). Your investment depends on the number of participants.
Personal Coaching: participant numbers are 1 – 3 people.
Each in-house presentation skills training and/or coaching program is a unique and dynamic blend of research and lived experience including:
- Communication skills
- Behavioural science of learning, engagement and influence
- Education
- Resilience
- Psychology
- Emotional and social intelligence
- Leadership
- Performing arts
Our consultants found it a delight and a pleasure working with Sarah. Her modules were constructed with content that were grounded in psychology and human behavior. Her practical tips and approaches were well received too. During her workshops, Sarah was able to draw out the most reluctant of our consultants and make them participate enthusiastically.
The sessions were thoroughly enjoyable while being educational and practical. Thank you, Sarah. We have no hesitation in recommending Sarah’s course to others who are looking for such programs.
Sarah provided my team with practical, useful tools to overcome nerves, improve their speaking skills and engage their audience. She created a warm, dynamic atmosphere which encouraged sharing of ideas and goals. Sarah provided specific, useful feedback for each participant, and was flexible in tailoring her training to the needs of the group as they progressed.
I would highly recommend Sarah, and would use her services again without hesitation. She gets great results, is personable, and expert at what she does.
My Team had certified Project Managers and we were delivering projects successfully, but I realized quickly that good public speaking and presentation skills are integral part of project delivery.
I did google search on public speaking and found Sarah’s website. The website and client results and Sarah herself looked so real that I couldn’t help contacting her. We immediately engaged her and the three workshops she did for us with over ten participants from my Team was a huge success.
In fact, a Team member who dreaded public speaking, did the best presentation during the third workshop! The workshops were fun, we learned from each other, we encouraged each other and more importantly the learnings are lifelong!
Personally, for me, I kept taking guidance from Sarah even after her official engagement was over with us. She was very supportive, and I have no hesitation in saying that Sarah – you have been an integral part of my journey from Manager to Director. I am sure you will form many more careers and help many more professionals achieve their goals.
Sarah provided training in public speaking to the LiverWELL team last week and we were able to see an improvement in our skills within one day! Sarah managed the diverse requirements of our staff and lived experience speakers with sensitivity and warmth. A combination of experience, expert advice, science and a little humour made it a highly valuable and enjoyable day. I would highly recommend Sarah.
Sarah Denholm is a great teacher. She is kind and gentle and works in a very positive way with people. She has a knack of building confidence and giving people the skills they need.
Last year I was overseeing the management of a group of 20 projects for a large Melbourne-based company. Sarah was engaged to improve the presentation skills of Project Managers who were expected to present their progress to the CEO and senior board members regularly, and felt unprepared for the task ahead of them. She came into the group, quickly established rapport with all the staff and was able to assist them in a very short timeframe. There was noticeable improvement in the way the staff presented themselves and their confidence grew rapidly.
We felt very privileged to have been able to work with Sarah and I believe that the skills each person gained will stand them in good stead in many roles throughout their careers.
Sarah ran an internal workshop for a group of our Year 11 and 12 student leaders. Sarah was a very engaging and personable presenter. She created a wonderful atmosphere- one in which the students felt extremely comfortable. Unlike many public-speaking workshops, which tend to be very theory-heavy and lecture-based, this workshop was both practical and motivating. The students were given personal, constructive feedback on their presentation skills, and provided with an effective ‘toolkit’ to enhance their public speaking. Thank-you Sarah!” -Elana Ieremidis, Gladstone Park Secondary College, Senior School Student Leadership Coordinator
“In a three-hour session, we learnt that there is much more to public speaking than simply speaking; it is about preparation, mind-set and body language. The Public Speaking Workshop with Sarah was not only tailored to our individual needs, it was also extremely engaging and provided us with an excellent opportunity to develop and enhance our public speaking skills.