Voice and presence under pressure
Breath, projection, pace and the pause. The mechanics almost nobody has been taught, and usually the fastest visible change in a room full of people.
Team workshops — London and online
Your team has something worth saying. The room isn't hearing it.
Practical speaking and presence training, built around the meetings, pitches and presentations your people actually have to deliver. Not a generic away-day.
The cost
You already know which meetings this is costing you.
None of it is a talent problem. You hired well. It's a training gap, and one almost no organisation ever fills, because presenting is treated as something people either can or can't do rather than as a skill with a syllabus.
It has a syllabus. The acting industry has been teaching it for four hundred years.
Any given week
4 meetings
- 09:00
All-hands
A genuinely good update lands flat.
- 11:30
Client pitch
Stronger on paper than it was in the room.
- 14:00
Product review
The specialist's idea is adopted only when someone more confident repeats it ten minutes later.
- 16:00
Leadership call
The team goes quiet the moment a senior person joins.
What it is, and what it isn't
This is not a team-building day.
Your team works on their own material: the actual presentation, the real pitch, the update they have to give next month.
What we don't do
- Improv games
- Role-play with strangers
- Trust falls and ice-breakers
- A laminated card of tips
- A nice day out that changes nothing
What we actually do
- Your team's real presentation, pulled apart and rebuilt
- Specific feedback, person by person
- Rehearsal under realistic pressure
- A shared standard the team keeps using
They leave with something they can use on Thursday.
What we cover
The syllabus, shaped around your team
Chosen with you before the day, not delivered as a fixed menu.
Structuring a message people remember
Openings that earn attention, arguments that build, and endings that land instead of trailing off. Applied to your team's real material.
Presenting as a team
Handovers, shared decks and multiple speakers. How a group presents as one coherent voice rather than three people taking turns.
Questions and pushback
Handling the hostile question, the derailing one and the one nobody can answer. Rehearsed in advance, so it isn't a crisis on the day.
Speaking on video calls
Eye line, framing, and how to enter a conversation without talking over three people. Most of your team's speaking happens here.
Speaking up when you're the most junior in the room
The quiet, expensive problem in most organisations. How to contribute early, hold the floor and be heard by people more senior than you.
How it works
From a first call to a room full of people
- 1
A scoping call
Twenty minutes. What your team actually does, where it's falling down, and what better would look like in practice. No charge and no obligation.
- 2
Research and design
I look at the real material: the decks, the meetings, the situations your people face. The session is then built around those specifics. Every organisation gets a different day, because every organisation has different rooms.
- 3
The workshop
Everyone speaks. Everyone gets feedback. Group sizes are capped so nobody can hide at the back, which is the failure mode of every large training day ever run.
- 4
What happens after
People leave with specific things to practise. Where it's useful, I follow up with one-to-one sessions for the individuals who want to go further.
Formats
Three ways to run it
Half day
One capability, properly. Best when there's a specific problem: the pitch, the all-hands, the client meetings. Enough time for everyone to work on their feet.
Full day
The wider craft, with considerably more rehearsal time. Best for teams who present regularly and want a shared standard to work to.
A series
Spread over several weeks. This is the most effective format by a distance, because the gaps between sessions are where the change actually beds in, out in real meetings rather than in a training room.
Who it's for
Leadership teams who present to boards and investors. Client-facing and sales teams. Technical specialists who need non-specialists to understand and act on their work. Any team where the quality of the thinking is higher than the quality of the communication, which is most of them.
In person in London, or online. Online works genuinely well for this, and if your team's presenting happens on video calls then it's the right medium to rehearse in anyway.
Who's running it
Trained to teach it, not just to do it
I'm Sophie. I'm a LAMDA examiner in speech and communication, assessing speakers against a formal national standard, a qualified teacher and a former Head of Drama. Running a drama department is group teaching under pressure with people who did not choose to be there, which turns out to be reasonable preparation for a Tuesday morning workshop with a room full of busy professionals.
Most speaking coaches are people who are good at speaking. I am trained to teach it, which is a different qualification and the one that actually matters when there are fifteen people in the room.
Tell me what your team has coming up.
Book a free twenty-minute scoping call. Tell me who the team is, what they have to deliver and where it's going wrong, and I'll come back with a proposal for exactly what the session would cover and what it would cost.
In person in London, or online. Half day, full day or a series.