A DIFFERENT KIND OF SPEAKER COACH
I’m a different kind of speaker coach. More like a 1-on-1 consultant. I blend together the best of my experience and expertise from being a consultant, professional speaker, trainer, and adjunct professor.
I am an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, where I earned my MBA. My course, Enterprise Communications, teaches public speaking, communication, and business storytelling to about 70 honors students. The student final is a five-minute, TED-Style Talk. Each student picks his/her own topic, develops engaging presentation visuals, crafts a compelling narrative told through the eyes of a personal story, and teaches us something new, as all good TED and TEDx speakers do.
YOUR PERSONAL TRAINER FOR SUCCESS
Depending upon what we are working on, sometimes I act like a coach, sometimes like a consultant, and sometimes like a professional trainer. The professional trainer comes into play when you need to build, hone, or maintain various communication skills. I draw from over 100 written and verbal Smart Exercises developed by The Chief Storyteller ® team.
FLEXIBLE & CUSTOMIZED COACHING
Since starting The Chief Storyteller ® in 2002, I continually develop and refine our exercises, tools, and frameworks. And I continually refine speaker coach engagement. Consistently, I have found co-creating your engagement structure for our meetings works best. The structure will be a blend of your goals, milestones, timetable, and availability.
Sometimes we will practice, sometimes we will collaborate, brainstorm and strategize, sometimes we will revise, sometimes you’ll do some exercises, sometimes you’ll share your activities and the results. I use a combination of in-person meetings, Zoom video, telephone calls, and email during your coaching engagement.
Whatever we do, my approach to your coaching, is to ensure you achieve your personal and professional goals, in your own authentic way.
Why Us? Key Differentiators
When it comes to differentiating factors, these are the ones that make us really stand out.
- First and foremost, we emphasize storytelling, the oldest and most effective form of communication
- I’m an active practitioner of what I coach. To date, I have delivered more than 540 keynotes and workshops, inspiring more than 38,000 people in a dozen countries
- I’m an adjunct professor of public speaking, data storytelling, and storytelling at the University of Maryland Business School for nearly a decade
- Coaching is hands-on (“coaching consultant”)
- Receive practical and proven learning materials such as frameworks, tools, worksheets, and tip guides — all designed to be immediately applicable and easy-to-use
- Benefit from more than 50 learning modules
- Benefit from more than 150 Smart Exercises™
- We use improvisational humor like television’s Whose Line Is It Anyway? in our coaching to improve information retention, participant enjoyment, and impact. I performed in over 1,000 shows with ComedySportz
- We “get you.” I am a techie at heart, having started the computer club in high school. I won a science fair. I was a CIO of an Army hospital. I worked for three managed web hosting companies
- I nudge and push you to be better, helping you achieve your personal and professional goals
