My career in corporate training
started in elementary school.
I got my start in corporate training at ten years old. Cast cast as a member of the chorus in our school production of Tom Sawyer, I was nervous and I loved it.
Two school plays later I was cast as the lead in Oliver Twist. Our production was a bit hit; we even took the show on the road to a neighbouring school. Altogether, I appeared in five school productions – even returning for one play after I graduated!! This experience was so valuable; I learned how to remember lines and to gracefully recover when I flubbed. More importantly, I understood how create a mood and deliver a scene. I used these skills on-air as a radio journalist and later as a company spokesperson handling very challenging communication scenarios. And I still love it. Forget being confident. Every media trainer public speaking trainer talks about confidence. I want you to enjoy it. I want you to discover the skills you have to deliver during a time of high stakes, outsized scrutiny. I want you to know how it feels to learn you can knock your media opportunity out of the park. Work with me. |
My why.
Two hundred people are relying on me to pay their mortgages and put their kids through school.
I don't think I can do it much longer."
With tears in his eyes, the successful business owner before me explained how his life’s work was unravelling.
He didn’t need to tell me; for a week I watched his implosion play out on the nightly news. On several occasions, encircled by a scrum of reporters, he snarled, barked and said hurtful things in response to their basic questions.
Even worse – the issue he was embroiled in wasn’t his fault.
“He’s overwhelmed,” said my instructor the previous night as we discussed this scenario in a crisis communications class. “Somebody should call that guy and offer him some tips.”
The next day I did that. Two hours later I was sitting in the man’s office. The person I met that day was nothing like the animal I saw on the news. His children described him as a gentle, a good employer who was well-liked by his employees. A proud grandfather, he was grooming his children to run the business.
But the situation he had inherited was consuming him and he didn’t know what to expect or how to help himself.
That man is my why.
I’ve worked with other good people who have found themselves in unbearable circumstances. I’ve also helped people work through other tough communications challenges.
Good people in tough circumstance motivate me to understand their situation and arm them with strategies to help themselves.
Whether you’re facing a near-impossible situation or need to capitalize on an opportunity, I can help.
He didn’t need to tell me; for a week I watched his implosion play out on the nightly news. On several occasions, encircled by a scrum of reporters, he snarled, barked and said hurtful things in response to their basic questions.
Even worse – the issue he was embroiled in wasn’t his fault.
“He’s overwhelmed,” said my instructor the previous night as we discussed this scenario in a crisis communications class. “Somebody should call that guy and offer him some tips.”
The next day I did that. Two hours later I was sitting in the man’s office. The person I met that day was nothing like the animal I saw on the news. His children described him as a gentle, a good employer who was well-liked by his employees. A proud grandfather, he was grooming his children to run the business.
But the situation he had inherited was consuming him and he didn’t know what to expect or how to help himself.
That man is my why.
I’ve worked with other good people who have found themselves in unbearable circumstances. I’ve also helped people work through other tough communications challenges.
Good people in tough circumstance motivate me to understand their situation and arm them with strategies to help themselves.
Whether you’re facing a near-impossible situation or need to capitalize on an opportunity, I can help.
Experience.
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I have been a professional communicator and marketer for more than fifteen years. I have worked on both sides of the microphone, starting my career in radio and television journalism and later moving into the work of corporate communications. There, I conducted hundreds of sensitive media interviews and also trained numerous executives to interact with the media and speak publicly with confidence.
I live in Calgary, Alberta with my awesome wife and two truly amazing kids. I do my best work very early in the morning, thinking and writing while pacing my darkened living room with my second coffee listening to overseas radio news. I am an enthusiastic, but lousy, photographer. I ski, skateboard, rollerblade, hike, run, snorkel and, in my dreams, surf. And I tell the worst jokes ever. Seriously, ask my kids. |