Event: Public Speaking | Adequate to Excellent In 30 Days
LOCATION: Zoom, plus a secure online private group on Signal
EVENT DATES: Fridays, 10 Jan to 31 Jan 2025 at 12.00 pm UK
This course is open to individuals.
For corporate enquiries please get in touch directly.
***
How would you like to be a confident public speaker?
I asked the people who came on my last course
“This sounds interesting and also quite scary (I can’t think when I last did anything in a group as my default setting is to be alone preferably hiding beneath the duvet); that said, I think it would be a good thing to do. . . My tendency is to be fairly scripted and funny(ish), so I think your challenge to try the untried is very valuable.”
“I’m delighted you’d like me to come, and despite all the experience am strangely quite nervous.”
“I’m really grateful to have a group as I need to get back on the horse. I’m completely out of practice. I don’t even know what I know. I never have a script, I always riff and my favourite bit is the q & a. If I had a bit of a practice when it’s my turn I’m hoping I’ll get my confidence back.”
“I want to be free to bring myself to any engagement without fear getting in the way. So to allow my self – or rather the public self – to be front and centre, rather than a cowed version of that self… I want to connect with audiences. I want to be confident enough to be spontaneous. . .”
***
First time this took place was 2020.
It was shortly before the launch of A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech (author: me).
The course was a lot of fun, and not only for me, apparently.
👆That’s a specimen of British understatement, in case you were wondering.
The title of my book is British understatement too, according to the New York Times bestselling author Jay Heinrichs. Where he comes from (America), he said, where modesty is a sin, my book would be called “The Indispensable Guide to Giving An Unforgettable Speech”.
But hey, we’re all different.
And that’s the case with our public speaking. Some people are very bouncy and loud, others are quieter. My intention on this course is to let you find your own style, and really be super-duper at that.
This course is online, and spread out over time, to meet the needs of people who may not be able to attend one of my in-person courses in London.
The other thing to say about it is that there’s a BIG discount if you book during November, and a NICE but LESS BIG discount if you book during December.
After that, the only option is the full price, which Jay Heinrichs (bless him) would probably say is a TERRIFIC BARGAIN.
***
Classical What?
“Adequate To Excellent” public speaking combines insights from classical rhetoric with improvisational theatre exercises.
If classical rhetoric sounds like a yawn – it really isn’t. It’s terrific. Here’s a drawing of Me In Specs On A Greek Vase, just to give a sense of how much it amuses and pleases me:
I like teaching classical rhetoric because it seems so deeply unfashionable – and it connects me to the great traditions of Ancient Greece, Rome, the Bible, Shakespeare – you name it.
If you want to make classical rhetoric even more fun, try doing it “all wrong”.
You’ll soon see that if you DON’T follow the basic principles of classical rhetoric your speaking will be – well, less than ideal.
Improvise? You?
The fifth part of classical rhetoric is the bit that comes after all your planning: Delivery.
My aim is to make you confident either
- delivering your prepared talk
- chucking it aside and improvising because – let’s face it – sometimes the prepared material is not appropriate any more.
Crumbs! How can you possibly do that?
Well, I’ll teach you with exercises I did myself when I trained in Impro with the late great Keith Johnstone, author of The Book:
Till You Are Blasé
Finally… I’ll encourage you to record videos, with help from others, into your own phone.
I want you to do it again and again and again, so that you become blasé (Dictionary: unimpressed with or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before.)
You’ll be able to use the video subsequently for, eg, social media.
***
What Happened?
One of the most recent iterations of this course was in person, in London. It went well. I was happy, and it seemed participants were happy too.
Three participants were kind enough to post about the session online.
One, Isabel Berwick of The Financial Times, posted this on LinkedIn:
Then came this, from another author who was there:
And later still came this, from Philippa Perry, who has tons of experience as a speaker (she’s also presented TV shows). She joined my speaking course as a kind of refresher before embarking on a HUGE book tour.
I’d messaged on Instagram, where she uses the alias KevinKittyCat, to ask how it was going. She replied:
By the way, if you’re thinking, “Gosh, those look like rather high-powered and intimidatingly brilliant people, I couldn’t possibly go on a course with the likes of them,” I say PISH.
Some of the anxious quotes at the top of this page were from some of these high-powered and intimidatingly brilliant people, but I’m not saying which.
We all deserve to speak, and be heard.
The Price
What’s it worth to be a confident speaker?
In 2023, when I had little time to prepare, I sought advice and decided to charge £1000, all inclusive.
One would-be attendee instantly agreed to pay that amount and did so immediately (out of her own pocket, incidentally, and not on work expenses).
But the next person baulked, and countered with a lower sum. So I went back to the first person and asked: would she mind if others paid less, so long as I told them the full price?
She said, that’s fine.
So with the remaining members of the group I stated the full price, and stated that one person HAD paid that amount but another had paid less.
I said, “Pay me what you can afford.”
They did, and the average payment on the day worked out OK for me.
Pay Early and Save
Full Price is £697, all inclusive.
Save £200 if you pay in November 2024 (total price £497)
Save £100 if you pay in December 2024 (total price £597)
Members of my Special Projects can pay £597 any time.