THE SPEAK-A-LICIOUS PROGRAM

Speak-a-licious is our workshop program.

It is designed to help groups of people in companies become more bad-ass and persuasive by levelling up their talent as spoken communicators.

We often run it as part of a company’s training program, team offsites, groups who are preparing for conferences and speaking engagements, that sort of thing.

The program exists in three acts that build on each other. Some peeps do Act 1, others, all three.

The entire program is built with one goal… MAKING BETTER SPEAKERS, STORYTELLERS AND INFLUENCERS…

ACT 1: be the sumo ninja monkey

This is the fundamentals day.

It all starts from each individual getting a deeper understanding of who they are as a communicator. This is one of our core outcomes.

What makes you unique and how do you express it? We help find everyone’s core style and use that as the foundation for everything we do.

Ohh, and do, we do. The day is fun and super engaged. It is mostly spent up in front of others, showing what you’ve learned.

In act one, we also get very practical and scientific about what makes messages stick, the ingredients and models that make for great stories,  the power of  self editing, falling in love with nerves and a bucket load of tools and habits that great communicators use to persuade those around them.

ACT 2: stand up and deliver

If Act 1 is the tree that holds the branches, Act 2 is the leaves that do the dances. We established core skills and tools. Now, we go full nerd and aim our new skills with precision.

We take your newfound confidence and toolkit and go deeper and execute on them with intensity (ohh, sounds so serious). We’ll go through the entire process of Creating original content. Going from idea to a final talk. The day ends with everyone creating and presenting an entirely new and original talk.

We will get deep into what creative processes really looks like. Creativity, as Stephen King puts it “is like archaeology, where your job is to excavate what you know”. We will explore the tools used to harness your creativity in finding new ideas or novel ways to express your viewpoints.

Finally, we’ll learn the art of the pitch, the techniques to get interest and action in an idea with the added constraint of limited time.

A common stretch goal of Act 2 is an event where the team delivers their talks on front of others. Ain’t nothin’ like real stakes.

ACT 3: the co-creators

Now that you’re well versed in how to persuade and make magic in front of others. It’s time to lead.

In life, and in business, shared experiences are what forges deeper connection. Whether you’re selling, building new product, or starting a new initiative, your ability to co-create ideas will start things off collaboratively and give you the best chance at the commitment and by-in of others.

People are most impactful when they are passionate. It’s easy to be passionate about something that you’ve ideated and created with others.

Act 3 is about helping you take your ability to communicate and lead a shared journey with your stakeholders, customers or team.

The major outcome here is your ability to co-create with others… run workshops, lead ideation sessions, facilitate off sites… that sort of thing.

Having a large group focus their attention comes with its rewards and risks. Be a bad-ass by helping your customers and team do their best work. Kinda feels like a real leadership skill, doesn’t it?

SUPERPOWERS

So, what will you and your team get out of the program? Or, in fancy corporate speak, what are the outcomes?

• Attendees will have a deeper understanding of what makes them individually better as spoken communicators. This is a skill that is useful for all kinds of speaking, not just getting in front of crowds.
• The ability to be persuasive and sell ideas in large audiences and in smaller team environments.
• The ability to more clearly articulate and create original ideas. Inside everyone are great ideas. We want to help those ideas come out, be understood and heard.
• Improved storytelling skills. The ability to tell and find a story is critical to more engaging talks.
• Improved stage presence for those who speak to larger groups of people.
• Tools for building deeper relationships with customers and colleagues.
• Better listeners. Probably the most useful skill required for any great leader and communicator.
• The ability to get from idea to a constructed and meaningful talk.
• The ability to co-create inside and outside of your org and elevate yourself to a recognised thought leader and collaborator.
• Ability to lead a group in generating original ideas and have lasting commitment.

Our guiding philosophy…

… and these are the principles that have informed the workshops.

That’s it really!

PEOPLE

We prefer to run the workshops with around 10-15 people. This is the ideal group number for everyone to get the most out of our time together. We can be flexible either side of that number.

As well as being super educational and useful, the workshops are active, fun and casual. We ask for people to rock up with a positive attitude. Also dress comfortable.

THE ROOM

All we need is space where we can move around.

We prefer not to run our workshops in a boardroom. We work best in more of a THEATRICAL STYLE situation. This means, basically a room where we can move a little and a bunch of chairs (or whatever hip new fan dangled bean bag situation you may be into).

Our AV requirements are pretty simple; a projector and some sound is all we’ll need.

PREPARATION

We’ll chat about your specific outcomes before we rock up.

Act 1 is about fundamentals and is run without a prep requirement from attendees.

Acts 2 and 3 can be run with or without specific preparation. We can accommodate for specific outcomes… an up and coming event, company values, a  strategic objective that you want better communicated… that sort of thing.

Again, we’ll talk and work out what outcomes are needed and that will drive any pre-work from attendees.

DURATION

The length of our program is pretty dependant needs and budget. We can mix and match events from each act if required.

We can run it as a full day workshop.

However, as they are jam packed with activities and intellectual goodness, we often run them spaced out over weeks as a program.

New things need time to gestate so we run them with time apart to help the new found bad-ass skills settle in. Like a good gin, it takes time for the botanicals to infuse.

MATERIALS

Legit long-term skill acquisition comes from exercising your new-found skills.

So that the learning continues, we will leave behind reference cards both physical and online.

Here’s what they look like.

MORE, PLEASE

Thought we’d let you know, the Speak-a-licious program is one part of what we do.

Many super keen clients take us on for 1:1 coaching instead of (or as well as) the program.

This is particularly useful when there is specific need for an up and coming event, people who have a desire to up their game as leaders, those who want to supercharge their careers or for those with specific needs (eg increasing confidence)

Learn more… Leadership and coaching

SUMO NINJA WHO NOW?

Our mission is to help make better speakers, storytellers and influencers. We are big believers that inside every individual are great ideas. And that the ability to communicate and inspire around those ideas is a KILLER SKILL THAT SHOULD BE HELD BY EVERYONE, not just those noisy and confident extrovert types.

Sumo Ninja Monkey is founded and run by Michael Kordahi. He has a long and super fancy history as a public speaker and communicator.

Having spent most of his career in the spotlight, over the past decade, he has turned his focus to helping others be successful, more bad-ass, spoken communicators.

More deets over at… SUMONINJAMONKEY.COM