Prepared for: Damien Greathead, Marketing Lead
15 August, 2023
INSIDE OF EVERY PERSON AT INTUIT IS A GENIUS WITH A DIVERSE PERSPECTIVE.
WE ARE ON A MISSION TO HELP BUSINESSES GIVE EVERYONE EQUAL VOLUME AND UNLOCK THEIR GREATEST POTENTIAL AND IDEAS.
Everything of impact in every company started with someone persuading others of an idea and having them motivated enough to come on the journey, commit funds or become an advocate of the mission.
These magical people are not accidentally influential, they have refined and practised language and spoken communication skills. We want to help great ideas and great people get the attention they deserve.
Most of the great ideas inside of a company likely sit in the genius minds of those who may not have the skills to communicate them – unlock those minds and release their (and your) potential!
The speak-a-licious program is our training program that is designed to help people inside of companies become better at communicating ideas both in a public (in front of an audience) and private (one-on-one) speaking context.
Who is the speak-a-licious program for:
Company meetings and offsites
We help companies prepare people to speak at internal company events. We make sure the people you enlist to speak to at them are delivering the best message that they can. Their audience is worth it.
Public event preparation
All people in your company are it’s public voice and face, they are the custodians of your brand and message.
We prepare people who are presenting at external events.
Learning and development training
We often find ourselves in:
- HIPO (High Potential individuals) programs
- Leadership and team offsites
- New hire training
Our sessions are filled with frameworks and tools that our students can apply and gradually turn in to life-long habits.
We believe in an interval learning approach. Our program is structured over 6 separate sessions (usually a week apart). This gives our students time to reflect, consolidate and practice what they’ve learned with our final session being a very awesome and thrilling showcase.
Real stakes + real practice + time = real outcomes and lifelong habits.
The number of attendees is flexible, 12-15 people is a good number for the program to get maximum outcome.
This program is a collaboration – if there is anything you’d like to workshop, let’s discuss.
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn” – Benjamin Franklin
Learn by doing is one of our core principles – you don’t know it unless you do it.
“You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere” – John Coltrane
Week 1: The authentic presence session
Our first session will focus on giving our students confidence in their own unique presence as communicators.
We will learn out to find our own unique styles and be comfortable developing them. After all our uniqueness is what makes us all interesting.
We will also start to build confidence in standing and delivering in front of an audience.
Our students will also start to learn how to begin to signal and build their credibility – a real superpower.
Take away: Return next week having practiced their unique form, voice and presence.
Week 2: The storytelling session
Great storytellers are even better storycollectors, we will learn how to be better storytellers by learning how to mine our experiences for stories. We will learn how to find meaning in those stories and structure them so that others will connect our message.
Takeaway exercise: our students will spend the next week completing a story collection diary, they will capture events and give meaning to them.
“Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground. Writers should be like archaeologists, excavating for as much of the story as they can find” – Stephen King
“Write in passion,
edit in cold blood” – Omar Musa
Week 3: The memorable messages session
This session we dig deep in to crafting ideas the will resonate and stick with a listener long after you’ve left.
We will go into provocative opening statements, the use of metaphor and analogy, the anchor and twist, emotional superiority in language choice, and hooks that have an audience lean forward.
Takeaway exercise: our students will spend the next week crafting their message using their new found tools and return with messaging that is unforgettable.
Week 4: The stagecraft session
Speak-a-licious is designed for both public and private speaking contexts. This session is where we ratchet up our craft in front of an audience. We will explore how to deal with nerves, how to use a stage, how to use your voice and body language.
Takeaway exercise: now that they have all of these tools, they will compile an entirely new talk.
“All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players” – William Shakespeare
“Everything is practice” – Pele
Week 5: The rehearsal session
With all that we’ve learned, we will put together an entirely new talk. This is the final finesse of that talk.
We will peer workshop and rehearse so that our audience gets the best of us.
Takeaway: rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
Week 6: The showcase
Showtime. Our students are ready to shine.
They will present their Ignite style presentation at an event in front of as large a group as possible – the rest of the team to the entire org! It is both an awesome celebration of what they’ve accomplished and will liven up any company event.
We love this format because brings the fun and still delivers real content.
We can discuss what all of this could look like.
Ignite: the super fast paced presentation format that is both thrilling (and terrifying 🥳)
Presentations are:
exactly 5 minutes long
exactly 20 slides
exactly 15 seconds/slide
All attendees also get these awesome reference cards
The way of the Sumo Ninja Monkey
learn by doing
Be prepared to bust a sweat. Everything we do is super interactive and fun.
Our coaching and workshops are based on legit experience and evidence. Science says that the best way to learn and retain what you’ve learnt is to do.
tools not rules
What makes you unique is what makes you an interesting speaker. Because of that, our other key principle is that rules are for fools.
We reckon loading you up with things you must do, kinda sucks and makes you anxious – not particularly helpful.
Fear not though, we care about giving you tools to create your best content and find the best you, boo.
equity of voice
We believe that all voices should have the opportunity to have equal volume.
That so much goodness sits in the minds of those who lack speaking confidence as much as those who love to rock an open mic.
Michael Kordahi
Michael adults by coaching and training leaders in companies to help them become better speakers, storytellers and influencers.
He thrives by finding the most creativ’est, fun’est and easiest way to be impactful with words and then teaching others about it.
His company is sumoninjamonkey.com and he works for a long list of very impressive big clients.
Also, total and proud engineering nerd and former Microsoft executive who can occasionally be found referring to himself in the third person and making words up to suit his bio.
Equal parts Frasier and Niles.
More Michael here.
speak-a-licious
Thank you Michael Kordahi