I want to pay you the highest compliment. I didn’t look at my watch even once until I realized that your presentation was over!
— Hop Davies, Director, Navigant Consulting, VA
As a non-native English speaker, I had been nervous about public presentations. Thank you for all your help. I was prepared, in control, natural, and funny. I had my best presentation in my “American” Life! I was able to setup first meetings for 99% of the attendees. LOVE you for turning me into a PRO!
— Eszter Koch Senior Financial Advisor
In all the years as executive director, I cannot remember watching a keynote from start to finish. I’m typically handling any number of conference-related questions or issues. For Ira’s keynote, I stayed the entire time. His warmth, humor, and passion engaged the audience members from the first few words. Ira energized the audience with a variety of insightful approaches to being stronger communicators and better business storytellers. Six months later, our members are still talking about him.
— Torryn Brazell, CAE, CMP, Executive Director, National Grants Management Association
I have had a lot of “sales” training in my career. There is something very powerful about storytelling and networking that has helped me take relationship building to a whole new level. As an example, I invited one of my favorite clients to be my guest at a notable event. I made a number of warm intro’s on his behalf. At the end of the evening, he said “Lisa, you weren’t just my ad rep tonight—you were my business matchmaker. Thank you for taking care of me.” These are words that I feel very proud of. They are a real reflection of some of the key ideas and theories that I have picked up from The Chief Storyteller®.
— Lisa Feldner, Senior Account Manager, SmartCEO Magazine
“The Boot Camp to Master Business Storytelling” is a terrific learning experience that focuses and sharpens how you tell your business story and how to communicate it based on the reaction you are getting. It’s the best communications training I’ve experienced.
— Bob Rossi, Vice President, Transwestern Commercial Services
I’m not saying this to butter you up. I must commend you on your presentation at our annual conference. I have an awful attention span and you kept me actively engaged for the entire session. I felt quite inspired upon walking out the door! It was an excellent note to end the conference on.
— Vance Jones, Senior Planner, EIP Associates
Learning and applying The Chief Storyteller® techniques greatly improved our message content and our visual design. The key messaging exercises and charting ideas were easy to follow and implement. Our new presentation enabled us to reach partners faster and demonstrated greater credibility. We are using our new skills with every presentation.
— David Gilbert, Office of The President, Director of Life Sciences Project, University of California at Berkeley
Ira did a fantastic job with this public speaking and story telling workshop the Atlas Corps Fellows. He engaged a diverse and professional audience of nearly 70 leaders from over 50 different countries and after a four-day training on Marketing and Communication skills, Ira was the favorite presenter for the majority of the Fellows. He is fantastic!
— Scott Beale, Founder & CEO, Atlas Corps
The investor presentation went very well. We were chosen for the Demo Day. The whole week was worth every second we attended. The training was interesting, inspiring, and important for our growth. We are launching this month. გმადლობთ! (Thank you!)
— Nino Darakhvelidze, Tbilisi, Georgia
Ira is one of the few people I know who can effectively educate an audience in a highly entertaining manner, all while working to break down complex problems into easily understandable concepts. He is very skilled at working with the audience, involving them in exercises that drive his advice and lessons home. I highly recommend Ira, especially when it comes to making a presentation about Sales and Networking.
— Peter Moran, Editor, Think Business Magazine
The Chief Storyteller® is a valued communications partner. They guided us through a detailed storyboarding process to hone our messages, and then crafted powerful visual graphics to elegantly communicate those ideas. The final product was a branded presentation that really spoke our mission and values. We were very impressed.
— Victoria Hale, Ph.D., CEO, Institute for One World Health
Ira’s workshop at AGI was everything he promised it would be! I invited Ira to help us develop AGI’s brand story. It was lively, interactive, and engaging. Following his program, our entire staff was eager and excited to begin the discovery process. Our executive team was especially impressed with Ira’s insightful ideas to find the right words we could all get behind. I highly recommend Ira for communication, leadership and capacity building workshops.
— Andrey Gidaspov, American Geosciences Institute
During the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Entrepreneur Center Media Training event, Ira Koretsky helped me immeasurably with my pitch for Athena’s Workshop to make it sharper and more relevant. I later incorporated the changes into my LinkedIn profile and used the pitch the next week at an event where I was presenting. It worked great. I could not have made the improvements to my pitch and online presence without his advice and suggestions.
— Helen Levy-Myers, Founder & CEO, Athena’s Workshop
Ira truly knows how to bring the best in people and organizations. He asked probing questions that got us thinking about our target audience, message and value proposition, and how to position ourselves to attract the right clients and partners for us. He’s fun to work with and is always thinking about ways to help us. We’ve recommended him to our clients and continue to seek out his help year after year. He’s the best!
— Lisa Claydon, CEO, CK Marketing Solutions
Thank you for the wonderful presentation at the MITEF event. It was an eye opener and a tremendous learning experience. You really encouraged us to think differently about how to message. As a result, I have changed my elevator pitch considerably, putting the focus more now the audience and less on the technology. In just a few days after your program, I am now finding it much, much easier to communicate with business partners and potential investors.
— Protik Sandell, CISSP, CCSP, PMP, Intel Corporation
Having participated on a panel on professional networking for law students, I was left feeling I should have said less so that he could have said more. Terrific communicator, immediate, relevant, and left the audience feeling more confident and smiling.
— Kenneth Goldsmith, Senior Legislative Counsel, American Bar Association
We were literally “thrown together.” Four experts with different experiences were brought together for two weeks to help be catalysts for entrepreneurial growth in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Participants included scientists, physicists, doctors, and engineers. Ira’s role was to teach the participants how to craft compelling elevator speeches and develop presentations to be given to prospective investors. He quickly traversed the language and culture barriers, making everyone feel good about their ideas and potential. And his hands-on approach and easy-to-follow process made a big impact when it came to hearing their newly revised presentations.
— Marco Rubin, Chairman Advisory Board, Exoventure Associates
I have known Ira for years and he is one of the most creative and professional people I know. He has a unique ability to zero in on your story, and then initiate the best method to “get your story out”. I’ve seen some of his visual presentations and they’re fantastic. Call Ira if you’ve got a story you “think” is interesting or relevant — he’ll make it better.
— Dave Blum, CEO, Dr. Clue
Ira did a phenomenal job for us as speaker and moderator at our Innovation Conference in Berlin. Ira truly understands the value of business storytelling in communicating value to the marketplace and evangelizing new ideas internally. IT Executives from around the world were very impressed with his content and takeaways.
— Andres Jordan, Vice President, North America, Deutsche Telekom, Berlin, Germany
When I heard the term “storyteller” I was not quite sure what to make of it. But all this changed when I first heard Ira’s speech at our company’s annual strategic planning meeting. Story telling is much more than having an elevator speech, it’s about knowing how to position what you do and who you are in such a strong compelling way that you gain immediate attention from your audience; while not boring them to death. Ira was instrumental in helping apply many of his principals into crafting a client presentation which ultimately became the standard on how we presented all client pitches.
— Oscar Padilla, Senior VP of Marketing, Digital Media & Insights
I went to Ira’s seminar Tell Your Story in 30 Seconds or Less – 3 Steps to a Perfect Elevator Speech. Boy, isn’t that good. I had struggled with how to answer “What do you do?” for as long as I am in the business. On the one hand, I don’t want to sound like a salesman; On the other hand, I do want people to know the uniqueness of my service. Ira taught me the key ingredients of elevator speech. Not only that, he really got my creative juice running – I came up with an elevator speech much better than I ever had before right in his seminar.
— Michael Zhuang, Personal CFO and Author
Ira has worked wonders with presentation strategies and creating my PowerPoint presentations. As an advisor I regularly present to high net worth clientele and Ira makes me shine!
— Madison Kilpatrick, Morgan Stanley
Ira helped bring out the very best in us. We learned insightful and invaluable approaches to presenting centered around delivering a compelling and sales-focused message. He helped us hone our story and graphics along with creating a powerful sales script. He molded his process to our individual and corporate requirements, ensuring that we had the utmost confidence in ourselves and our presentation. The Chief Storyteller® Program helped us form new partnerships and open new doors.
— Hope K., President, New Media Communications Firm
We knew after the first week that this would be the best investment we ever made. We have been in business 10 years and The Chief Storyteller® did more in terms of sales and marketing than any previous firm. Ira listened and tailored his Power Story Process to our business and our personality. Our new proposal design, sales process, and updated web site content are winning more business. Ira has shown us the tremendous value in telling OUR story.
— Lisa Loper, COO, Database Specialists
You were fantastic. Your keynote created a buzz at the conference for the entire day. Surpassed my expectations. I wanted to attend all of your sessions but had to attend sessions for some of my stakeholders. We all agreed (speakers included) that we would prefer to attend your sessions! Thank you, I look forward to evolving from a nuts and bolts leader to a “Chief Storyteller®!”
— Dawn Hall, CEO, AttainIt
Thanks so much for your keynote at the ASFE annual meeting. You created a huge buzz. And without buzz, no one can do good business.
— John Bachner, Executive Director, Geoprofessional Business Association
Ira Koretsky is an AMAZING speaker and a true master communicator. Although I have always felt that I had strong communication skills, I literally sat on the edge of my seat during his recent presentation – listening to every word and taking detailed notes. It was an invaluable use of my time, and has changed the way that I speak about my myself and my business to prospective customers. You get one chance to make a first impression…getting it right the first time is well worth the investment for any company.
— Rachel Needle, Owner, Endless Coffee LLC
This was the best MTDC event I have attended. In 30 minutes Ira was able to assist 20 firms in the incubator develop and organize the business message; elevator speech; and above all, connect to the emotional core of each business. I am beyond amazement. Ira opened my mind to “think outside the box.” I’ve taken this approach and applied the concept to my sales efforts within hours of the course.
— Beth Tilahun, Manager, fedXccel
I enjoyed your presentation more than any other at our annual conference…and by their response, so did the 400 plus people in attendance!
— Larry D. Armstrong, President, 50 Plus Communities of Colorado
Yes And I hope I have the opportunity to hear you speak again. I truly enjoyed your suggestions, energy and sense of humor. I laughed so much that day, it was great.
— Rebecca Dartez, Senior Business Development Officer, ePlus
The Chief Storyteller®‘s ability to make creative leaps is one of the reasons we have been able to articulate our ‘story’ to lots of new clients. They helped us develop a process, a framework for those discussions that help us explain the benefits of our business to new clients — they helped us tell our story.
— Tom Pencek, CEO, Service for Profit
People have always told me that I am a really good communicator. Improvisational humor business techniques have brought me to a whole new level of communication excellence. ‘Yes And’ is now my #1 tool in my Batman utility belt. The skills I have learned have allowed me to be the center of attention at networking events and taught me how to convert any obstacle into an opportunity to leave a lasting impression. More importantly, these skills have translated into an increase in my sales close rate by 40% in just three months following the workshop. It is a must for technical and sales/marketing professionals alike!
— Omar Nour, Vice President, Computer Frontiers
Before working with The Chief Storyteller®, I didn’t even realize that I had learned and acquired some bad presentation habits. Now, people are seeking me out for advice and for prospective business partnerships. Lack of confidence is a thing of the past. Both internally and externally, audiences are receptive to my ideas. We are now talking to one of the largest international organizations because of the pivotal help The Chief Storyteller® provided in making our presentations stellar.
— August Jackson, Senior Analyst, Evidence Based Research and President, SCIP National Capitol Region
I particularly enjoyed your session. “Yes-and” was fun and informative. I also enjoyed your questioning of the fellow who sells data modeling services—in a few questions you got to the essence of his business and its value to his customers. That was amazing! And, I saw how the light bulb switched on for him as well.
— Kevin Raum, Principal, Coridium
One week after I participated in the What Do You Do? workshop, I attended a 2-day sales and marketing conference. During one of the seminars there was a discussion on elevator speeches. The difference between The Chief Storyteller®’s workshop and this seminar was vast: The Chief Storyteller®’s approach and process was light years ahead of what many of today’s sales seminars teach. I have refined my elevator speech and have had several people comment on it during recent events I have attended. With all the positive feedback I have received, I know that I am on the right track!
— Lisa Rivel, Director of Marketing, Carr Workplaces
This event was superb. It was a thorough and well-structured tutorial on succinctly telling a compelling story of one’s capabilities to a prospective client or customer. I actually had an epiphany. It prompted me to alter my approach on how to position my company. I got wayyyyy more than I expected!
— Dan Vannatter, Vice President of Government Solutions, Accipiter Systems