There are very few people who like standing up in front of a group of people – even if that group is made up of family members or friends – and make a speech.

Most of us worry about it; we have doubts about our ability to do it well; for days or weeks before we have feelings of dread, defeat, disaster.

It is the norm for most of us.

Does it have to be so? No.

Making a speech of any kind – at a wedding, funeral, birthday, club celebration, company dinner – is a skill like any other skill e.g. riding a bicycle, swimming, playing snooker.

Anybody – with right guidance, direction, props – can do it; do it with confidence, with success and with the admiration of our audience.

In this programme – on your visit to us – we will;

• ask you about yourself; your background; experience; skills, successes and happy moments in life.
• we will talk about the speech that you are going to make, to whom, about what.
• we discuss how you are thinking of doing it; what to put in; how to start; how to finish and what to put in the middle.
• we then discuss what successful speech makers do that marks them out from the ones who do not do it at all well.
• we adapt your existing experience, skills, knowledge, values to the expertise of good speech makers and send you off to practice at home – using our notes to remind you of how to do it in such a manner that on the day of your actual speech you will remember what you wanted to say, in what order and to what effect and you will not allow anxiety, which you will still experience the night before and just before your speech – to get in the way of a great performance.
• after 7-10 days you come back to us and make the speech.
• We give you feedback on your progress and send you away with advice on how to keep up the practice for the real event at which you will be chuffed with your performance.

And, you do not have to change your personality or lie or exaggerate or do anything that is alien to you to make a great speech; you merely use what you have got to better effect.