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Our premier package
Our premier package of communication coaching
Our premier package includes:
8 one-hour virtual sessions of individual coaching over 4 months
Choose up to 8 of these topics:
- Public speaking, for beginners or experienced speakers
- Pronunciation improvement, for native English and bilingual speakers (recommend 4 - 6+ hours for this topic alone if the topic is of interest)
- Learning to speak more slowly (recommend 2+ hours on this topic)
- Listening and questioning skills
- Meeting management, for efficient meetings
- Idea generation techniques for groups
- Conversational skills, such as making small talk or using concise, precise and relevant language
- Coaching and delegating techniques
- Interviewing skills (as the interviewer or interviewee)
- Executive Presence
The techniques are practical and the course involves learner activities.
Investment per learner: $1200
This can be arranged for small groups; contact us for details and pricing.
Your professional development in communication ...your way!
"Katie has helped a number of our folks with a variety of business-communication improvement needs, including such areas as accent modification, leadership communication, and speech-rate reduction. I have always found her to be a consummate professional with a wealth of knowledge and experience in her field." H Lynn Clark, HR Director
FAQs
I requested 3 topics when I enrolled. I've had two but now I need to change the third to another topic. Can that be done? Yes, the new topic can be addressed during the next coaching session.
Can I learn how to make presentations or do interviews during the first sessions and then use the rest of the sessions to practice upcoming presentations or interviews? Yes, you as the learner can decide which of the listed topics you want.
How do I get my company to sponsor this training for me? Talk to your supervisor about how this training could benefit you in your current position or in your career development to prepare you for the next step in your career. Give specific examples of what you want to learn and how it will help you and the organization.
Polish Your Presentation:"just in time" coaching
Are you an experienced speaker and want to improve your next speech with just a little bit of coaching? Do you want to improve your extemporaneous speaking or work on a product pitch? Polish Your Presentation is our new individual 2-session coaching option! Go over your presentation and delivery the first session and get tips on writing, delivery, pronunciation and more . Practice it between sessions, and then deliver it in front of the coach the second session to fine-tune it. Both sessions with the same learner must be used within 30 days. The slight disadvantage is that you may need more coaching for your next presentation. Get the advantage you deserve!
"After working with Katie my speaking ability improved a lot. Now, I feel more confident and comfortable about my American English accent both in public conversation and in academic presentations.
Thanks again for teaching me!"
TSH Zahid, Scientist II
In-depth coaching
This is individual, customized coaching to your specific needs, and within your budget. It can involve as many sessions as desired. It can include one or more of the following: making pronunciation more easily understood by a specific audience, public speaking, job interviewing, conversational/small talk, executive presence, executive functioning (planning, scheduling and implementing activities), listening, or body language skills
Small group online coaching is also available. Contact us to tell us y our preferred topic, dates and number of employees info@BusinessSpeechImprovement.com
FAQ's
FAQ's
How do I offer this service to my employees?
Companies may choose to offer coaching in any aspect of communication to those employees who are motivated enough to request it. or to all employees. Emphasize that this coaching is to increase a skill-set, such as being able to be more easily understood by a specific audience. Being bilingual, for example, is an asset if listeners to the person's second language can easily understand him or her. English is a difficult language to learn because of all the exceptions to the rules, and some speakers would benefit from customized coaching in certain aspects of pronunciation or grammar. Native English speakers also may make mistakes in pronunciation or public speaking. Mistakes take listener attention away from the speaker's message, making some speakers reluctant to share their knowledge with others. All speakers need to adapt to the a given audience's communication needs in pronunciation, wording, and depth of material.
I am an experienced speaker. Can you help me polish my upcoming presentation?
Yes! You will get the greatest benefit if you have an outline of your presentation and have run through it a few times, and have at least 2 weeks to practice. (If you want to work on your pronunciation, starting earlier would be even better.)
Pitches to venture capitalists or angel investors are a special type of presentation. Learn how they differ from regular presentations and how you can make them more effective.
We can also work on making small talk, American style, as well as speech rate, stage fright, body language and communication skills for leaders. Your sessions are customized to your needs.
I have a strong foreign or regional accent. Can you help me with standard American pronunciation? Yes. We will start with a quick skills-gap assessment, to understand your areas of strength and opportunity, and go from there. If you are combining this with giving an upcoming presentation, we will work on the words in your presentation first, and later we will work on other sounds and words. Rate of speech and pronunciation are easier to change. Usually intonation, or "lilt", is only slightly changed, as it is a function of brain neuroplasticity.
I don't have a strong accent but want to learn to use my speech, vocabulary and voice more effectively.
We can work on your speech rate, diction, pausing, vocabulary and other verbal skills to make your speech more powerful.
I want to work on my communication skills for leadership or sales primarily. We can focus on listening and questioning skills, meeting management and leading powerful idea-generating group sessions, delegation skills and using a research-based protocol. to improve idea-generation. You choose your topics of interest for our sessions!
I have difficulty saying long words, and live in North Carolina, USA. Can you help me? As a certified speech-language pathologist, I am happy to try. Mispronouncing words is frustrating!
I need to get speech coaching for a presentation that is coming up very soon. I offer a two-hour package just for this. The first hour is to hear the presentation and teach some modifications. The second hour, another day, is to fine-tune your practiced version. (Getting speech coaching further in advance is recommended when possible.)
Do you work with individuals, groups or both? Most clients are seen individually. However, companies can contact us to work with small groups of 4 or fewer people (or 10 people for coaching in public speaking). All coaching is done virtually.
Can you work with people all over the US? As a certified, licensed speech-language pathologist, I work only with people in specific states, based on your state's regulations. That is why I will ask about your state. If I cannot work with you, I will try to refer you to someone licensed in that state. I am located in Durham, NC, but work virtually. I also work with clients in other countries.
I need to work on organization, such as planning, scheduling and implementing tasks. It affects my work and my personal life.
Certain strategies help with these skills, called executive functioning. People may have always had difficulties with these tasks, or may develop these difficulties later in life, possibly due to certain medical conditions.
What is your refund policy for coaching?
Refund Policy: A full refund or a session credit will be made with a cancellation via email sent at least 72 hours in advance to info@BusinessSpeechImprovement.com. When we receive your message, we will respond to indicate receipt. This allows us to offer that appointment to another client.
Cancellations made in writing with 71 - 12 hours notice will be offered a session credit only. (Tell us when you want to reschedule and we will do it for you.)
Cancellations made with less than 12 hours notice are appreciated. However, they and no-shows will not be offered a credit or a refund. We will wait online for 10 minutes before determining if a client is a no-show.
Feel better about your communication skills. When your speech is clear, it can help your career.
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Our services
How to offer speech coaching to employees
How to offer speech coaching to employees
Business Speech Improvement offers expert coaching in:
Presentation skills and pitches We help you develop a powerful delivery and will advise on the writing as well.
Pronunciation improvement Do listeners have difficulty understanding you easily? Our clients may have a strong foreign or regional accent, fast rate of speech, or other communication concern.
Executive presence: Leaders need strong communication skills as part of their executive presence. Which skills would you like to improve? We offer modules in listening, asking questions, coaching, delegating, and meeting management. Interested in innovation? We teach the powerful, research-based brain-writing technique, a modern-day and much more effective version of brainstorming.
Other verbal skills: communicating complicated ideas in simple language, basic lipreading, more
How to offer speech coaching to employees
How to offer speech coaching to employees
How to offer speech coaching to employees
Companies can offer communication coaching among the other courses they offer or sponsor for employee career development. Motivated employees can choose to enroll with the company's sponsorship.
An individual manager can choose the direct or the indirect approach with a given employee. The direct approach is to say, "Clear communication is essential for employees, and we would like to sponsor you in group or individual coaching on your choice of topic. We value you on our team and want to help you improve your career development skills. Would you prefer coaching for pronunciation improvement or public speaking?" The indirect approach is to say, "There is an expert speech coach who helps employees improve their American English pronunciation or presentation skills. We will pay for some motivated employees to take this training so they can communicate more easily. The training is done online. Would you be interested in this opportunity?"
Companies offering this valuable service can add it to their unique value proposition, as a way to stand out to highly qualified candidates in difficult-to-recruit fields.
Enrolling in speech coaching
How to offer speech coaching to employees
Enrolling in speech coaching
Decide on the topics the employee is to learn. Complete the short enrollment form below. Pay for the sessions below and then choose your preferred schedule for them. Once we are notified of these, we will send you a Zoom link for the sessions within 24 hours. If there are any questions, contact us at info@BusinessSpeechImprovement.com.
FAQ's
Enrolling in speech coaching
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Reasonable expectations
Two sessions are enough to get a good start on communication challenges and to polish an already-drafted presentation for most people. Otherwise, two sessions are enough to get an assessment of a challenge and a start on resolving it.
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