Tracey is a skilled educator and trainer, who has followed her burning passion for raising awareness about mental health and suicide prevention. Currently she is the Director of Learning and Development at Lifeline Canberra where she brings a huge variety of groups each year through her range of training programs in suicide, mental health, and domestic & family violence.
What did Tracey say after attending Michelle’s Persuasive Presentation Skills Masterclass?
“It was a real challenge. Training is something I have done for a long time yet I have learnt a whole new skill set and found a whole lot of new passion and motivation. I will be better at what I do as a result of this. It means I will be able to prepare people better to save lives – that’s pretty cool!”
What kind of presenting do you do at work?
- I deliver workshops and presentations to internal and external participants where the group size varies from 8 people through to over 100. I do this at least once a week.
- As part of the executive team, I present to my fellow executives weekly on any updates and progress in my department.
- I present to my team weekly in our meetings, and also informally multiple times a day.
- I also do sales and marketing pitches to potential new clients.
What prompted you to study with Michelle?
Working with Michelle is a highly recommended element of being a Domestic Alert Trainer for Lifeline. So, originally I turned up because I had to! Although Michelle’s masterclass was something that I was very glad and privileged to be going to. The fact that nationally Lifeline has made this compulsory for a whole network of trainers, speaks volumes about the quality of Michelle’s workshop.
How did Michelle’s teaching change your attitude to presenting in business?
Lifeline’s work saving lives is critical to society. Running training every day for years on end will exhaust even the most seasoned professional. Thankfully, Michelle’s Masterclass, completely reinvigorated my passion for my profession so I can continue to work to save lives.
Michelle gave me a structure that I can use practically in so many things I do in my every day work duties.
The most significant change is that I now feel as if the training delegates are not doing me a favour by being there! I now realise that masterful educators persuade their audience to use the techniques learned. When I can compel my audiences to action by the end of my training workshops it really does feel like a job well done.
The structure that Michelle taught me enables the persuasion to occur in a natural, organic manner even though I may have been fighting against it for a long time!
In general, what positive outcomes have you achieved from improving your presentation skills?
In a general way, I feel more confident and capable at something I have been doing for a long time.
Specifically though, I think my persuasive skills will innately increase the amount of business I generate through the Learning and Development department of Lifeline Canberra. This alone makes it all so worthwhile.
In what specific ways have your presentation skills improved since learning with Michelle?
- I am now more structured and organised from start to finish.
- I am also very aware of how I’m standing, where I’m standing and why I’m standing in that particular spot. Who would’ve thought that this makes such a difference?
- I am also so much more conscious of connecting with every single person in the audience and I make a deliberate effort to keep them engaged for the entirety of the session.
What were your top three take aways from Michelle’s teachings?
- My job is to persuade above anything else, this was gold for me as I believe this sits so well with my natural default style.
- Pointing out and then solving objections (POO!!!) before they arise. This has made an huge difference to my effectiveness in my presentations.
- I love the icebreakers for hooking the audience’s attention and the pace, pace, pace, lead for building rapport. I feel this is such a show stopper and gets the audience’s attention in a way that I’ve never been able to before.