If not, then rest assured. You are not alone!

A vital skill for many business professionals is to ensure their audience understands the meaning behind the numbers. However, most people struggle to understand the complexities of business finance. Presenters often lose the attention of their audience when they use accounting methods, financial jargon and reporting processes to tell their story.

Recently, one of our clients faced this challenge. They wanted to strengthen their finance leadership team’s delivery skills when presenting at Board and Executive updates, departmental events, team meetings and one-on-one briefings.

A way of achieving this goal was to undertake our presentations training.

Because our client was mindful that it is often difficult for finance team members to take time out of their busy schedules to attend training sessions, they decided to incorporate it into their global finance offsite event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We trained all finance team members from across the world at the same time and in the same way.

Over the course of two days, Spoken Word colleague Glenn van Zutphen and Clive Hawkins trained 50 team members in full-day sessions. They focused on techniques to promote the positive attributes of the participants. This included how to be a credible and engaging presenter, capture audience interest from the start and make key messages memorable. They covered ways to tell the story and make information meaningful. These are essential elements for any business support function, particularly for the finance team where their story is told in numbers!

Our outreach complemented the finance team’s training requirements.

We are based around the world with extensive in-house and journalistic experience. We’ve worked in over 20 countries across five continents in areas of corporate, finance, and operations. And most importantly, we are able to provide global and local insights to delegates during the training.

In summary, the program proved extremely successful.

Delegates were fully engaged and eager to learn. They were also keen to share their experiences with colleagues and implement new techniques into their future presentations. Our training sessions received over 90% positive rating for the quality of material and delivery. 

For more information on how Spoken Word can help your organization engage its audiences effectively in the numbers, contact Dave.

The post Communicating Meaning Behind the Numbers first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.

The post Excellent Product Announcement Example first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.

Howard Dean brought back the “Dean Scream” at last week’s Democratic National Convention. For those of you that don’t remember, the “scream” virtually ended Dean’s presidential campaign when he sought out the democratic nomination in 2004.

Here’s a refresher of the famous first one:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0

The post The “Dean Scream” Returns at DNC first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.

The ongoing battle between Peyton Manning and Roger Federer to see who can be the world’s most well-spoken athlete took yet another turn yesterday when Manning delivered perfectly worded marks to announce his retirement.

Enjoy the clip as to what will no doubt be the standard for athlete remarks moving forward.

The post Peyton Manning Delivers Perfectly Crafted Retirement Speech first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.

Sarah Palin expressed her “disgust” on being questioned about some controversial statements she had made a week earlier regarding her son, President Obama and PTSD.

What’s sad is that such a seasoned politician and media darling couldn’t handle a simple little question that should have been expected.

The post Sarah Palin “Shocked” About Question on PTSD first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.

Golfer Ernie Els was awarded the 2015 Payne Stewart Award for his charitable contributions outside the game of golf. When the award was given recently in Atlanta, Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning, who’s company sponsors the award, was asked to introduce Els. His remarks were outstanding. Instead of rambling on about Els he came in with a plan and more importantly, a message.

His remarks begin around the 4 minute mark in this video. They only last two minutes and it’s well worth the watch.

The post Excellent CEO Introduction first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.

Recently retired from Schlumberger Limited, Mary Jo Caliandro-Hansen began her career with the world’s largest oilfield services company in New York. During her career at Schlumberger, which spanned over 30 years, she held a range of management positions including Director of Internal Communications, Public Affairs Manager and Marketing Communications Manager.

While at Schlumberger, Mary Jo contributed to several communications platforms such as crisis leadership, media relations and investor relations. She also led company efforts in regards to training, coaching and mentoring technical and executive staff for media interviews and presentation skills.

She began her career in New York, but has been based in Houston for the past 20 years. While at Schlumberger she often travelled to South America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East to provide communication, presentation and media training within the company.

Mary Jo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. She is a current member of the International Association of Business Communicators, European Association of Communication Directors, and the Public Relations Society of America.

The post Spoken Word Adds Former Schlumberger Communicator Mary Jo Caliandro-Hansen as Trainer first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.

We recently had the pleasure of prepping Texas Teacher of the Year winner Shanna Peeples before she went to Washington and was awarded the National Teacher of the Year prize. After her recognition, she was invited to New York to appear on CBS This Morning.

Let us know how you think she did.

The post Spoken Word Client Shines on CBS This Morning first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.

Imagine the surprise when Bill Belichick took the podium this morning and gave a 7+ minute statement, mostly without reading and came across as credible and sincere. Who ever thought we would be using the words credible and sincere when discussing Bill Belichick?

Don’t get too excited though, when the questions started he was back to his old ways. Someone really needs to introduce Bill to the bridging technique.

Here’s the video for your viewing pleasure.

The post Who is this man posing as Bill Belichick? first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.

Like most of the country, I was watching live when St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch read the grand jury’s decision on the Michael Brown shooting.

It was clear to me, that McCulloch spent a lot of time writing his statement and carefully crafting the words that went into it. For the most part, I thought the words he used were well crafted. However, his delivery left much to be desired. He came across with very little empathy and due to the fact he read the statement, his eye contact and speed at which he read made him seem heartless and uncaring.

The lesson in this is that if you choose to read a statement, which I think in this case was the right decision (it ensures you get the wording exactly right) you must still maintain some eye contact (by looking up occasionally) and also watch your speed (McCulloch was way too fast).

The post Ferguson District Attorney Misses On Grand Jury Decison Statement first appeared on Spoken Word Communications.