I used to be a member of a full-time training unit, with L&D manager and admin team.

Since then I’ve worked a variety of contracts with organisations that no longer maintain an L&D unit.

Instead, they engage associates, contractors or outside events to deliver their training needs.

I don’t own a car any more but I’ll rent a small or larger car or a van depending on what’s needed when, and return it to the rental company. It feels like organisations are more likely to ‘rent and return’ a trainer for particular jobs now.

The huge change is that now there’s a wealth of online DIY learning opportunities – videos, podcasts instruction manuals and ebooks, webinars etc.

And subject matter experts (who, if they’re lucky, will get a train the trainer course) may be tasked with passing on their knowledge to their peers.

So are corporate trainers obsolete – or the concept of the trainer as full-time employee?

Will we all eventually be freelancers?

Philippa Hammond

Are you getting critical feedback about your public speaking? It can really tank your confidence!

I had my own crack-and-break moment in front of an audience way back when – and I use my bad experience and my solutions  now to help my clients feel, look and sound better when they stand up to speak.

Three quick tips to help you make a great impression:

🌟If you’re planning a PowerPoint, remove as much text as possible and replace with pictures. We respond to images plus the spoken word, and that combination will help your message land well.

🌟Consider your posture, hands, feet, eye contact, smiles … how you choose to look to the audience will help them feel comfortable with you.

🌟Slow down. We all speed up when we’re nervous, which makes it harder for audiences to follow along. A slower more measured pace helps them understand and trust you.

✋What’s your biggest worry around public speaking?

🤗I’m here.

Philippa x
Confident Public Speaking skills for leadership, management and business

How did you come to do the thing you love to do now? I’m on an interesting journey and I bet you are, too.

The first half of my Civil Service life, I was an immigration officer, working shifts on the control at Gatwick.

I most enjoyed passport forgery detection – and one day, a colleague invited me to assist him in a presentation to new trainees, showing examples and chatting about forgery and counterfeiting. This led to travelling abroad to train airline staff. And I was hooked.

In parallel, my partner and I were also involved in the Brighton and Edinburgh theatre scene, creating and performing shows.

Then the big leap – I joined the newly expanding training unit at Gatwick in response to a huge recruitment drive.

One Certificate in L&D Practice later, I was now a full time L&D officer, learning my trade with daily practice.

Down in Brighton, we were now involved in film making, too.

And when the offer of an attractive redundancy package was made – I took it.

Now? Everything combines. 

I blend my acting, voice and screen experience with my corporate training, coaching and leadership skills to train Confident Public Speaking, Train the Trainer, Leadership and Employability skills for business.

What’s your story?

Philippa x

What’s your key skillset? Whatever your field, there’ll be something essential, central to your practice. How do you describe yours?

I believe it’s possible to be both heart- and business-centred. The people and their needs will always be at the heart of my practice, with the business goals at its head.

As a trainer/coach, I see learning and development as a four sided diamond, all about quality and clarity:

💠Audience learning, development and performance needs analysis

💠Designing, writing and creating content and supporting materials to deliver new knowledge, develop new skills and encourage new mindsets

💠Hands on delivery, whether in person or online, with a wide variety of delivery methods

💠Kirkpatrick-style evaluation, focussing on their reaction, learning, behaviour and results.

It’s all about triggering (and crucially, supporting) a permanent change in behaviour that achieves the organisation’s goals.

How do you describe you and what you do?

Philippa x

What’s keeping you up at night? What’s the worry? What’s wrong? Whether I’m working with an individual client, a cohort of workshop delegates or an organisation, these questions are key.

Helping them look at where they are now, holding up a mirror to their current situation and supporting them as they reflect is so rewarding.

I love to see people feeling they’ve been  given permission to be vulnerable, to be open about what’s not quite right and getting clear about what they want.

Pinning down those problems, identifying the triggers and the blocks, and acknowledging what’s driving them and what they truly need.

And saying yes – this is what I want and I’m going for it.

Whether you’re an individual client, attending one of my group workshops or looking for a corporate learning and development programme … I’ll be asking you to ask yourself those questions!

Philippa x

Confident Public Speaking skills for leadership, management and business

Do you secretly wonder what they must think of you when you stand up to speak? Maybe they’re criticising your appearance. Your voice. Your message. Judging.

I’ve trained countless business people on how to feel, look and sound their best and deliver a great message, using simple tried and tested insider techniques.

Anyone can learn! Here are some quick tips to help you:

🌠Be prepared! Ask yourself what your audience really need from you right now and give it to them in clear, simple plain English.

🌠Wear something you’re familiar with and know it’s in a great colour for you and fits you well.

🌠Breathe deeply from your diaphragm not your chest, and allow the pause. Much more effective and easy to follow than a nervous ‘um’-infested gabble.

If you’d like to step into spring with more public speaking confidence and impact, I’m offering my new Speak Up And Step Up 1-1 coaching programmes.

Philippa x
Confident Public Speaking skills for leadership, management and business

It’s not what you know, it’s not who you know – it’s who knows you that counts.

Face to face networking is an actor and business essential, and gets easier the more you do it.

Everyone starts out shy and uncertain – and gets better at networking with practice.

Top tips for making the most of networking events

Get cards with your photo, contact details and white space for them to write on it when and how they met you.

Polish your elevator pitch – who are you, what do you do – so you can quickly and gracefully introduce yourself.

Practice a few opening remarks.

Act as you would if you already know them and treat them as you would like them to treat you.

Remember this is (probably) not a singles dating event.

Ask them about themselves and listen to their story too.

Keep going – consistency works. Renew those acquaintances, remember names, faces and stories.

And practice your closing remarks, too – great to meet you, have a good evening …

Follow up – email, connect on LinkedIn, keep the conversations going and your news appearing online – without becoming a pest.

Philippa Hammond