Training & workshops

I help leaders, speakers and the teams who support them learn to connect and communicate more powerfully.

Trainings for presenters

These workshops combine intensive instruction with hands-on practical experience. Choose a workshop geared to your team’s exact needs:

  • Speaking Foundations: Develop the skills — and, more importantly, the mindset — you need to bring a speech to life and connect with your audience.
  • Advanced Speaking: Take your speaking to the next level with tools to engage your audience and deepen your connection.
  • Skill-Builder: We’ll work together to tailor a session that focuses on the specific skills you want to develop.

Training for speechwriters

Give your team the skills they need to craft  powerful speeches that deliver a strong message, connect with the audience and reflect the presenter’s voice.

  •  Speechwriting Fundamentals: Get a solid grounding in writing for the spoken word, from creating a clear, compelling story to using classic tools and techniques for keeping your audience engaged.
  • Presentation Professionals: For communicators who already know the basics, learn advanced skills including how to gauge an audience long before the event, integrating visuals and taking an existing draft to the next level.
  • Skill-Builder: Together, we’ll design a session that zeroes in on the skills you want your team to develop.

One-on-one coaching

For speakers

Whether you want to build your speaking skills in general, or you have a high-stakes presentation coming up, I can help you deliver your very best performance.

In a series of coaching sessions or a single high-intensity day, we’ll take your presentation from paper to performance: finding the narrative thread, breaking down the emotional beats and finding those memorable moments where you can shine.

 

For speechwriters

Turn your next speech into a chance to level up. Together, we’ll analyze your goals and audience and walk step by step through defining an audience journey, designing a narrative arc, creating an outline and refining your drafts. Between each session I’ll review your work and provide feedback.

The final result: a great final text reflecting your best work, and the kind of skills you can only learn through practical experience alongside a seasoned teacher.

Your energy, honesty, humility, humour and insights into the complex dance of facilitation were a perfect combination for what we were needing at this event.

Kelly Angelius

BC Ministry of Children and Family Development

Additional workshops:

Chart your leadership communications strategy

You put so much time and energy into every speech. I’ll show you how to make it keep working for you long after the applause dies down… by making it part of a strategy integrating your spoken, written, online and organizational presence.

Finding your authentic leadership voice: in person and online

Your message only has power if the people it reaches can see and hear the genuine person behind it. I’ll show you how leaders can speak with the kind of conviction and honesty that reaps long-run personal and professional rewards — and how to be the best version of yourself in every context, from the stage to social media.

Connecting online: Social media with a purpose

Feel like you’re spinning your wheels on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? Learn how to turn your online social presence into an engine for building your platform — and extending your leadership impact.

Connecting with your audience through your origin story

Take a page from the comics, and harness the power of your own origin story. Knowing where your superpower comes from can be a big step toward earning your audience’s trust.

I’ve delivered trainings and workshops to…

  • Professional Employees’ Association of BC
  • Manitoba Government Employees’ Union
  • Federation of Post-Secondary Educators
  • Canadian Union of Public Employees
  • Great Lakes Protection Fund
  • British Columbia Ministry of Child and Family Development
  • Health Sciences Association
  • BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions
  • Financial Executives International Canada
  • Royal Roads University
  • Burnaby Citizens Association
  • Government Caucus of the Alberta Legislature
  • British Columbia NDP Caucus
  • Vancity

Let’s talk.

Rob Cottingham

Mastodon