A company that I worked for was a huge proponent of this program, and it's easy to see why. Speakeasy's focus is on preparing rising leaders to speak clearly and concisely-to that end, the class that I attended was called "Talk so People Will Listen" Over the course of three days, I was videotaped 8 times and all of these tapes were reviewed with my peers.
The class size is small-it's limited to 10 participants-and is team taught, allowing each instructor to take best advantage of their expertise. We were given homework each night, and 15 months later, I still find myself referring back to the materials. Of our group of ten, three of us were local and the rest had been flown in from around the country-a woman who had recently made partner at Ernst & Young, a controller from Timberland in New Hampshire, an executive from Blue Cross who'd come from Virginia, a sales manager from Con-Agra-a company that requires all members of their sales team to go through the training.
If you can convince your company to pay for it, I highly recommend the training. Just spending three days focusing on eye contact, sloooooowing thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigs dooooooooooooooooown, and enunciating my words has made a huge difference in my public speaking ability. I found myself just this afternoon replaying a voice mail message I had left-a technique from Speakeasy to get attendees to focus on how their message is being received. Necessary, but cruel. Speakeasy has offered me a tool box of skills that I will rely on throughout my career. read more