Most professionals already present well on a good day. This course makes that your normal. Over two days you work on how you come across, how you prepare and what you say, with short filmed practice runs and individual coaching throughout. You leave with your own pre-speaking routine, a clearer way to plan any talk and a real presentation improved along the way. Most of all, you leave looking forward to the next one.
Presence and body language, preparation and pre-speaking routines, connecting with your audience, content and structure, language, voice and slides, with four filmed practice runs.
You train in a small, boardroom-format group, usually three to six people, so everyone gets plenty of practice and attention. Our method draws on psychology, neuroscience and nervous system self-regulation, the performance psychology of sport and the voice work of theatre, and we teach public speaking as a business skill, in service of your messages and goals. Briefings are short and each idea is put to use straight away. Four filmed practice runs sit across the two days: the first is a friendly baseline, and later runs go where you need them most. Your coach asks how each run felt, replays it, pauses on the useful moments and gives you a clear action for the next run. Feedback is frank, positive and encouraging, and you work on material you will actually use. It is our most popular course, run in more than 20 countries over 25 years. The course runs face to face in London and Dubai and live online.
- Speak with a presence that is natural, confident and your own
- Use body language and voice that help your audience trust and follow you
- Prepare body and mind before you speak, with a routine you build yourself
- Manage nerves with practical tools that keep working long after the course
- Connect with your audience, read the room and adapt as you go
- Decide the change you want and distil your talk into one clear message
- Structure a talk with openings, proof and stories that people remember
- Rehearse efficiently and use slides that support you
- Authentic presence: speaking as yourself, with the slides and notes there to support you
- Body language: what works for an audience and why, and how to get there naturally
- Owning the room: arriving, settling into the space and making it your own
- Connecting with your audience: speaking with the room, reading it and adapting as you go
- Energy and confidence: the energised version of you that already appears in conversation
- Preparation and performance psychology: what athletes and performers do before they go on, and how to settle or energise yourself
- Pre-speaking routines: build your own routine from a menu of tools that work
- Managing nerves: practical, reassuring tools you will use again and again
- Rehearsal and preparation: rehearsal that works when time is short
- Content and messages: the change you want, your audience and the one message they should leave with
- Structure and information architecture: openings, keeping people with you, closes, proof for the mind and the heart, and a short piece on story
- Language and voice: speaking the way you talk, with a voice that carries
- Slides and visual support: principles for visuals that support the speaker
- Four filmed practice runs on your own material, each replayed with individual coaching
- Difficulty that rises gently across the two days, always just inside your comfort zone
For professionals and managers who already present, to boards, clients, teams or conferences, and want to be clearer, more confident and more themselves when they do. Newer speakers are very welcome: the training adapts to each person.
The following are some of the ISOC trainers who regularly lead this course, depending whether you join us in London, Dubai or live online.
No. The course suits people who present regularly and want to be better, and it adapts to each person, so newer speakers do well on it too.
You give four filmed practice runs over the two days, each replayed with individual coaching, and you take part in short exercises throughout.
No. Each run is set just inside your comfort zone, and difficulty rises gently. Feedback is frank, positive and encouraging, and people consistently describe the course as enjoyable.
A talk you will give soon, a presentation you give regularly or one you are preparing. If nothing is coming up, your coach will help you choose a topic.
This is our core course. Advanced Public Speaking adds executive presence, storytelling, handling difficult questions and panel discussions for experienced speakers. Storytelling for Professional Impact is a full day on story.
Yes. We deliver it in-house as one focused day or as the full two days, adapted to your people and the talks they give.