Sarah Sytema is the Team Leader of Recreation Strategy at Wyndham City, one of Australia’s fastest growing municipalities. Sarah leads a team who plan for sport and recreation infrastructure and services for the city so that the Wyndham community can lead healthy and engaged lives. Recently Sarah delivered the Sports Strategy for Wyndham which guides infrastructure planning for the next 5 years with an outlook of 27 years across public, private and commercial settings.
What did Sarah say after attending Michelle’s Persuasive Presentation Skills Masterclass?
“I loved the clear explanations, staged processes and Michelle’s energy. Thank you for helping me understand why people say no! On to more pacing and influence!”
What kind of presenting do you do at work?
I present to community groups with two stakeholders, large external and internal stakeholder meetings. I speak at conferences, run workshops and I also speak at community engagement opportunities.
What prompted you to study with Michelle?
I wanted to find great strategies to deliver important project messages within presentations in an effective and concise way.
How did Michelle’s teaching change your attitude to presenting in business?
I now have the formula that can be applied in multiple different settings with a relatively similar, yet flexible structure. It’s helped me in all the forms of communication I find myself engaging in from written to spoken, small groups to large.
In general, what positive outcomes have you achieved from improving your presentation skills?
- I spoke at a conference presenting on Wyndham’s Sport’s Strategy which identifies Wyndham’s sports infrastructure estimated to be $1 billion over the next 27 years.
- I have been a facilitator of an industry think tank called Vicsports ‘Forward Thinking Series’.
- I will be presenting at a Vicsport workshop on Community consultation and engagement.
- And I continue to engage with the community and conduct workshops to develop the Wyndham community’s sport and recreation opportunities.
In what specific ways have your presentation skills improved since learning with Michelle?
- I am now able to construct my presentations in an effective and concise way.
- I use part or all of the framework Michelle taught me each time, and I find it an extremely efficient and useful way to develop and organise the clutter of information required in delivering ideas and key messages to many different audiences.
What were your top three take aways from Michelle’s teachings?
- There is a structure which can be applied to presentations.
- That you can increase and decrease how many times you pace your audience based on you existing level of rapport.
- That you do not finish the presentation with questions, rather embedded them in the final stages of the presentation and control the close – you are the presenter, so you should always have the final word!