The Speaking Gym online edition

For capable professionals when speaking at work starts to feel harder than it should.

Does this sound like you?

  • You’re good at your job, but speaking up in meetings feels harder than it used to
  • You’re fine when prepared, but struggle to think out loud or respond in the moment
  • You hesitate, then think of the right thing to say just after the meeting ends
  • You feel more visible at work now and more pressure to speak well
  • You know you’re capable, but your voice doesn’t always reflect it under pressure

What if instead...

  • You felt more fluent contributing in meetings, even when you hadn’t fully prepared
  • You could respond clearly when put on the spot
  • Speaking felt easier because you’d practised it, not because you forced confidence
  • Your thinking came through more naturally in important conversations
  • The dread went out of the diary

this isn't another communication course

If tips and preparation were the answer, they'd have worked by now. It isn't a skills gap. Your body reads that meeting as a threat and reacts before you've got your first sentence out - a racing heart, going blank, a voice that doesn't sound like yours.

Most communication training goes straight to tips and technique, it works on what you say. The problem is what happens before you say it.

The Speaking Gym starts there instead.

What it is:

  • Body first: you learn what's happening to you when you're asked to speak, and how to settle it in the moment
  • You speak: every week. You don't listen to someone explain how to!
  • Small groups: nine people maximum, all there for the same reason
  • Real situations: updates, project pushback, being asked a question you hadn't prepared for, thinking out loud in front of a senior audience
  • Built by degrees: like a gym. The load goes up as your system can take it, rather than throwing you in and hoping

What it's not:

  • Presentation polish or performance training
  • Advice you've read already and tried already
  • A one-off workshop that fades by the following Tuesday
  • Anything you can half-attend and multitask through