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Michelle Bowden - Public Speaking Courses
Michelle Bowden - Public Speaking Courses

Pre-work & Training Information

Hello! My name is Marivic.

I’m Michelle Bowden’s Business Manager. It’s nice to meet you!

Thank you for registering on Michelle’s Presentation Skills training. I am sure you would like to achieve a number of outcomes in this training. Getting to know a little about you will help Michelle to incorporate your needs into the program. Please take a minute to think about and fill in the following questions.

    KEEP READING…

    The details and advice on what you should prepare in advance and bring to the program are on the following sections for your information.

    Everything you need to know

    Program name:

    Persuasive Presentation Skills Masterclass

    Facilitator:

    Michelle Bowden

    Times:

    2-day presentation training

    Day 1: 8.45am for 9.00am start – 5.00pm

    Day 2: 9.00am – 5.00pm


    1-day presentation training

    8.45am for 9.00am start – 5.00pm

    All participants are expected to be present for the entire program. Please don’t organise appointments during training
    or early flights home, as this reduces the effectiveness of the customised activities that have been designed assuming everyone will be in attendance for the duration.

    Please Note – you can’t be late!

    This is a group learning experience and the activities have been designed with full numbers to help everyone perform at their best.

     

    We ask that you please arrange to be present for the entire program to ensure maximum effectiveness for everyone.

     

    Michelle Bowden’s role is to ensure everyone achieves the outcomes promised. She has run the 2-day version of this masterclass over 1000 times (over two decades) and unfortunately due to frequent late arrivals over the years we have been forced to make some decisions that may seem very tough or rigid to you.

     

    Because late arrivals mean we cannot start on time, and due to a packed agenda each day and the fact that past participants have expressed a strong need for Michelle to finish by 5pm, we must advise you that participants who are more than 15 minutes late are not admitted to the masterclass regardless of the reason.

     

    We greatly respect that you have other commitments that may prevent you from arriving on time. Please contact Michelle immediately via SMS if our scheduled start time poses a problem for you.

    It gets chilly in the training room

    An effective learning space is set at a cooler temperature. Please remember to wear layers. Dress for this training is smart casual.

    If you are unwell, please stay home

    An effective learning space is set at a cooler temperature. Please remember to wear layers. Dress for this training is smart casual.

    Full catering is provided

    Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea are all provided! Everyone loves our delicious and healthy catering that has been refined over decades!

    Please Note – you can’t be late!

    There are 3 phases to a persuasive presentation in business. The phases are:

    1. Analysis
    2. Design and
    3. Delivery

    In this 2-day masterclass you’ll cover as much as possible about all three phases. By the end of this masterclass, you’ll be able to:

    • Understand your stakeholder’s pain points and needs.
    • Plan an effective presentation in a minimum of time with excellent results.
    • Design a presentation that meets the needs of all personality styles.
    • Adapt to the ‘virtual’ world and fascinate on camera.
    • Influence your audience to think, feel and respond in a way the presenter chooses.
    • Present without the use of notes or visual aids as a ‘crutch’.
    • ‘Hook’ the attention of the audience.
    • Motivate the audience to listen when you speak.
    • Use your body, posture and positioning to emphasise points and build rapport.
    • Manage your environment.
    • Facilitate interaction and appropriate adult participation.
    • Use visual aids: PowerPoint, white-boards, props and handouts as true aids.
    • Use story, metaphor, analogy, humour, and linguistics to engage.
    • Manage objections and dysfunctional behaviour in your meetings and presentations.
    • Ask and answer questions effectively.
    • Tell stories that captivate and can be easily remembered and re-told by your clients/stakeholders to others.
    • Understand how to take action to remove distracting habits.
    • Feel confident, charismatic, and persuasive as a presenter.
    • Self-evaluate your presentations using the 4-Step Feedback Model.
    • Design a skill development agenda to ensure skills are developed long term.

    And the good news

    We are committed to your long-term development. Michelle will stay with you long after the training to make sure you love your new skills and use them to achieve the best possible results

    Phones and laptops

    You may wish to ensure you have your laptop with you for the 2-day training. You will need to update what you are going to say, and you may also wish to amend your slides after you learn some of the winning formulas on day 1.

    As you probably know, phone calls can disrupt proceedings and impact negatively on everyone’s learning outcomes. For your own comfort and the comfort of your colleagues, we would be grateful if you could please switch your phone to silent and leave your phone and laptop in your bag away from your training space. There will be time for you to take important calls in the scheduled breaks.

    You’ll receive pleanty of awesome gifts!

    • Participant Workbook
    • Laminated learning guide
    • Mouse mat with key models
    • Video follow-up program for designing a presentation
    • Audio Vocal Warm-ups program
    • Subscription to How to Present monthly e-zine
    • 18 months: How to Present TV refresher program
    • Unlimited script-checks for future presentations
    • Design Templates
    • 5 tips for Virtual presenting
    • Weekly social media updates
    • How to Present: the ultimate guide to presenting live and online (Wiley)

    What is meant by ‘presenting’?

    Presenting any form of communication one to one, one to few, or one to many, (live, online and in writing) where your objective is to cement the thinking and/or behaviour of your audience. This includes meetings, emails, conversations, updates, conferences, seminars, training courses. Seriously, any form of communication. In short, if we work with others, we present all day! And presenting is not just about your slides. It’s about the way you structure your message, design your visual aids and even how you speak and move your body.

    Pre-work to sort out before you arrive:

    • Please ensure you have filled in page 1 of this document and sent it back to us.
    • Prepare a work-related presentation that you have coming up in the next 6-8 weeks.
    • The presentation can be any length.
    • Pick something important to you – we are going to make it awesome!
    • You won’t actually present the whole presentation, but you’ll work on it throughout the training. 
    • Ideally, we recommend you select something that is ‘technical’ or potentially a bit ‘dry’ in nature. (This is so you can work on delivering dry or complicated content in a fascinating way!)
    • Prepare at least two slides to accompany what you will say to your audience when you present.
    • There is a laptop and data projector in the training room. Please bring own laptop to connect to the venue’s data projector.
      The venue has most of the usb/usbc and standard data cables. If you think you might need a special adaptor, please bring it.
    • We will be working on your chosen work-related presentation all day (both days), so make sure you pick something important to work on.

    There is homework on the middle night of this masterclass!
    Please don’t plan a night out and about!

    This program is described as ‘challenging’ by everyone who attends! When you try to master new skills whilst also performing your usual job tasks it causes what’s called cognitive overload and this is both comfortable and completely avoidable!

    There is a lot of content to understand and then demonstrate, and we really want you to achieve your best! There’s quite some homework on the middle night of this masterclass. You will need to allocate between 20 minutes and an hour to your homework to perform at your best on day 2.

    Don’t plan to party on the middle night!!!

    We further recommend you do not plan client meetings/dinners on the night before the program or on the night of day 1 to ensure you have enough energy to learn at your best and complete your homework to your satisfaction after you’ve completed day 1.

    We are so excited about the amazing transformation you will achieve. We know you can be an amazing business presenter!

    Any questions?

    Michelle prides herself on her generosity and her ability to achieve results through learning and laughter. We want your experience with us to be joyful. If you are concerned about anything at all before you attend training with us, please email Michelle at michelle@michellebowden.com.au or send a text message to Michelle on 0412 391170 and she will be delighted to help you.

    P.S. if you’re feeling a bit nervous about attending you might enjoy to watch this great TED talk by Amy Cuddy