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John delivered a keynote address about the importance of public speaking to 80 senior members of Gore’s Medical Device Europe team at an important sales event. He was informative, engaging and inspirational. Everyone was motivated to improve their public speaking skills. Following his keynote, John has led public speaking workshops for Gore in Barcelona and Munich. He is an outstanding speaker who thinks carefully about the needs of his audience well before he steps on stage.
Karsta Goetze
TA Leader, Gore and Associates
I first got in touch with John while preparing to speak at TED Global about my work on ProtonMail. John helped me to sharpen the presentation and get on point faster, making the talk more focused and impactful. My speech was very well received, has since reached almost 1.8 million people and was successful in explaining a complex subject (email encryption) to a general audience.
Andy Yen
CEO, Proton Technologies
John gave the opening keynote on the second day of our unit’s recent offsite in Geneva, addressing an audience of 100+ attendees with a wealth of tips and techniques to deliver powerful, memorable presentations. I applied some of these techniques the very next week in an internal presentation, and I’ve been asked to give that presentation again to senior management, which has NEVER happened before. John is one of the greatest speakers I know and I can recommend his services without reservation.
David Lindelöf
Senior Data Scientist, Expedia Group
After a morning of team building activities using improvisation as the conduit, John came on stage to close the staff event which was organised in Chamonix, France. His energy and presence were immediately felt by all the members of staff. The work put into the preparation of his speech was evident and by sharing some his own stories, he was able to conduct a closing inspirational speech which was relevant, powerful and impactful for all at IRU. The whole team left feeling engaged and motivated to tackle the 2019 objectives ahead. Thank you, John.
Umberto de Pretto
Secretary General, World Road Transport Organization
I was expecting a few speaking tips and tricks and a few fun exercises, but you went above and beyond – and sideways. You taught me to stand tall. You taught me to anchor myself. You taught me to breathe. You taught me to open up. You taught me to look people in the eye. You taught me to tell the truth. You taught me to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. I got more than I bargained for in the best possible way.
Thuy Khoc-Bilon
World Cancer Day Campaign Manager, Union for International Cancer Control
John gave a brilliant presentation on public speaking during the UN EMERGE programme in Geneva (a two days workshop on leadership development for a group of female staff members working in the UN organizations in Geneva). His talk was inspirational and practical, thanks to the many techniques and tips he shared with the audience. His teaching can dramatically change our public speaking performance and enable us as presenters to have a real and powerful impact. Thank you, John, for your great contribution!
Sara Canna
HR Specialist, World Health Organization
John is a genuine communication innovator. His seminars on gamification of public speaking learning and his interactive Rhetoric game at our conference set the tone for change and improvement in our organisation. The quality of his input, the impact he made with his audience and his effortlessly engaging style made it easy to get on board with his core messages and won over some delegates who were extremely skeptical as to the efficacy of games for learning. I simply cannot recommend him highly enough.
Thomas Scott
National Education Director, Association of Speakers Clubs UK
John joined our Global Sales Meeting in Segovia, Spain and we all participated in his "Improv(e) your Work!" session. I say “all” because it really was all interactive, participatory, learning and enjoyable. The session surprised everybody and was a fresh-air activity that brought a lot of self-reflection and insights to improve trust and confidence in each other inside our team. It´s all about communication and a good manner of speaking!"
Jon Lopez
General Manager Europe, Hayward Industries
Thank you very much for the excellent presentation skills session. The feedback I received was very positive. Everyone enjoyed the good mix of listening to your speech, co-developing a concrete take-away and the personal learning experience. We all feel more devoted to the task ahead, more able to succeed and an elevated team spirit. Delivering this in a short time, both in session and in preparation, is outstanding!
Henning Dehler
CFO European Dairy Supply Chain & Operations, Danone
Thanks to John’s excellent workshop, I have learned many important tips and techniques to become an effective public speaker. John is a fantastic speaker and teacher, with extensive knowledge of the field. His workshop was a great experience and has proven extremely useful for me in my professional and personal life.
Eric Thuillard
Senior Sales Manager, Sunrise Communications
John’s presentation skills training was a terrific investment of my time. I increased my skills in this important area and feel more comfortable when speaking to an audience. John provided the right mix between theory and practice.
Diego Brait
Director of the Jura Region, BKW Energie AG
Be BOLD. Those two words got stuck in my head and in the heads of all those ADP leaders and associates that had the privilege to see John on stage. He was our keynote speaker at our annual convention in Barcelona, and his message still remains! John puts his heart in every word. Few speakers are so credible, humble and yet super strong with large audiences!
Guadalupe Garcia
Senior Director and Talent Partner, ADP International
Amen! The moment the audience percieves we are trying to forcefully feed them our message, that’s when we lose them.
Thanks for the comment, Seb. As you well know, it is all about authenticity!
Wonderful share of the quote! Though short, this concise quote can be of great value when one is in need of some motivation and inspiration to overcome his or her phobia in public speaking.
Thank you for your great share!
Thanks for the comment, Ernest. Glad you liked the quote.
I disagree with Mr. Yeats. The persona a speaker presents should only reflect the content
of the speech. The minister who seems to be enjoying delivering a funeral oration
would be as out of place as a stone faced speaker delivering a speech at a graduation
ceremony.
Thanks for the comment, John, and thanks for challenging Yeats. As I said in the first post on Quotes for Public Speakers, the quotes would be presented without comment. People were encouraged to weigh in as to whether or not they agreed.
As for the Yeats quote, in my view, it is, like so many things, neither white nor black. Depending on the audience, the occasion and the topic, a speaker who is “visibly enjoying” those beliefs might be entirely successful in convincing his audience. On the other hand, I can think of many situations where you are absolutely correct that it is the content that will (or will not) carry the day: a shareholders meeting; a scientific presentation to experts; an application for approval build a landfill; etc.
You raise the example of a minister who seems to be enjoying a funeral oration. Even there, if the enjoyment comes from the wonderful and uplifting memories of the deceased, the speech can work. I have seen a few speeches at funerals where the speaker tried, successfully, to lift the congregation’s mood by creating a positive mood about the deceased’s life.
Thanks again for starting the conversation.
Hi, John, The speech where the police officer is obviously enjoying giving you a ticket for exceeding the speed limit by 5 MPH is sure to rankle.
My interest at the moment is rhetoric. Rhetoric has a bad reputation. How often do you hear “Oh, that’s just rhetoric!” I am working to get Toastmasters more interested in the subject, in our speeches, in our evaluations. What better way of improving our own speeches and our evaluations of others’ speeches?
On page 28 in Heracles’ Bow, the author, James Boyd White writes, “[Rhetoric] should be seem not as a failed science nor as an ignoble art of persuasion (as it often is) but as the central art by which culture and community are established, maintained, and transformed.”
I wear a British Friendship Pin, crossed British and American flags, in recognition of, and appreciation for, Shakespeare’s contributions to our culture and our national consciousness. Countless of our citizens learned their rhetorical constructions (if not the technical terminology) from their study of Shakespeare.
I’d appreciate your thoughts.
Regards,
John A. Miller Washington, DC
Hi John,
Point taken on the police officer example, especially when he doesn’t open up the floor for questions!
I am with you on the importance of rhetoric. I am a big believer in it. In fact, I just finished a great book on rhetorical devices and wrote this review about it. You should check it out. And yes, Toastmasters should do more on the use of rhetoric. I am a big supporter of Toastmasters but the analysis of our speeches doesn’t always go as deep as it should in my opinion. Mastering some of the basic rhetorical devices can significantly enhance the quality of one’s speeches.
Thanks for keeping the conversation going.
Hi there. I’m glad to see you thank Mr. yeats. I think all the great speakers were bad speakers at first, so I agree with you.
Thank you for the comment.