POWERFUL PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH COMMUNICATION COACHING

Overview

Imagine the self-confidence you’d get from knowing you could communicate and perform brilliantly, no matter what situation you’re in. You Brand coaching lets you do just that!

How can the theatre help your personal development?

You Brand is a unique personal communication coaching programme, rooted in the psychology and performance techniques of professional theatre.  Why the theatre?

Because good actors use themselves to inform the part they’re playing (while lesser actors can just hide behind technique). It’s this reality that makes us believe in and care about the character. You Brand lets you in on the secret of the actor’s craft, and how you can perform yourself.  This isn’t about faking it - the part you’ll be playing is You.  You’ll learn how to use all of you - head, heart and body - to engage people in you and your message.  It’s the most powerful form of communication there is.

The work is experiential and practical.  It is not a ‘hints and tips’ approach; it will equip you with intuitive techniques that are reliable and will keep you safe in the heat of the moment.  It centres on the individual and brings the power of your uniqueness to your performance.  You Brand Coaching starts from the premise that it’s all right to be you – in fact, you have to be you, as this is your potential charisma.  Or as Oscar Wilde put it: “Be yourself – everyone else is taken.”  

Develop an authentic personal brand

But just ‘being yourself’ isn’t always easy!  

We can often find ourselves in situations that make us feel exposed or uncomfortable.  These situations can be different for different people.  For some of us, it’s a formal presentation in front of a large audience.  For others, it can be a group meeting or negotiation.  For others still, the supposedly ‘relaxed’ one-to-one chat over a coffee or a casual corridor exchange with a colleague.

When we find ourselves in these places our feelings can kick in and distort the way we come over, and this generates confusing and conflicting messages about who we really are.  There’s likely to be incongruence between what we say and our body language and tone of voice, for instance; or a disconnect between what we really feel and want to convey and the message people are actually picking up from us.  

Bridging the perception gap

So there’s a perception gap between how we want and intend to come over and how we are actually perceived by people.  Bridging this gap revolves around a paradox, which lies at the heart of the coaching: in order to appear as who you truly are (‘You’) in a way that’s real, natural and engaging, wherever you go (‘Brand’), you have to perform yourself; but performing yourself doesn’t feel real or natural – which is why people don’t do it.  But when you do, you’ll start to translate and have a real presence, and your message will ‘land’ in the way you want, whatever situation you’re in.  

As the programme unfolds, you’ll learn a performance toolkit that will help you to:

• understand the perception gap and have more control over how you ‘occur’ to people.
• discover your potential for having presence and being present.
• turn corporate-speak into clear language that engages and motivates people.
• energise how you look and sound.
• be comfortable ‘in your skin’ and able to project this.
• be free from scripts, notes and slides.
• appear to talk off the cuff and be thinking on your feet, but always stay on track: ‘Freedom within a Framework’.
• reframe anxiety into excitement and transform your nerves into fuel and power.
• heighten your awareness of your relationship with others, with your organisation and with yourself using Transactional Analysis.
• listen actively so that those around you feel understood and valued, and that their own You Brand has the space to flourish.
• deepen your interpersonal and negotiation skills, raise your visibility and broaden your leadership capability.
• turn emotional intelligence into something you can do, a practical everyday reality.
• ‘go public’ with the best piece of communication you’ve ever done – and enjoy a whole new profile! This can enhance your career like nothing else!

This will give you a different way of thinking and working and will take your performance to a whole new level in all sorts of ways you may never have imagined possible.  It has the power to transform team behaviour and bring about a radical change in the culture of an organisation.

To find out about some of the immediate applications for You Brand, please visit the ‘You Brand Live’ section of this site.

Programme

The full You Brand programme lasts 4 days, taken over time: approx. 8-10 weeks for the full programme. It can be taken individually or in a small group.

But of course it can flex to suit your individual needs: you may find that the huge breakthrough you've made after the first day is enough for you; or that you'd prefer to focus on a specific event, or work on the psychological and performance dynamics of interactions, for instance, with a two-day version of the programme.

Your coach will always review things with you at the end of Day 1 to discuss and agree the way ahead, and ensure you're comfortable you'll be getting what you need.

Once the initial coaching is completed, follow-up sessions are always available to prepare and rehearse for specific events, or to re-visit whichever aspects of the coaching you'd like.

It is possible to take certain parts of the programme virtually (Zoom is our preferred platform for this).

Testimonials

"This isn't coaching; it's liberating souls."

"It's ironic that You Brand is 'transformative', because it's our authentic self that we find, learn to express, to be, to speak, to breathe, to live.  An investment that has no price."

“Personal Presentation is the best communications and public speaking organisation I have ever worked with. My favourite lesson with them focussed on understanding the perception gap between how I see myself, and how I come across to others (on camera and in public). If you have an audience you want to inform and inspire Personal Presentation are the people you want to work with.”                                                                                                

"The results of the You Brand process are little short of extraordinary. One learns to connect with an audience in a profoundly human way. Business presentations cease to be a chore or a trauma and become instead a form of authentic self-expression."

“The improvement I have seen in my confidence and public speaking skills following my day with Personal Presentation is immeasurable. I always felt as if I had a lot to say but I struggled to convey it in an effective manner - which ultimately led to me struggling to land a graduate role. The coaching helped me to combat this lifelong problem of mine and I have now managed to land my dream role with my dream company. I cannot thank you enough.”

"I can highly recommend everyone – irrespective of age, career path or perceived degree of professionalism – to invest in a 1:1 coaching with the Personal Presentation team. From my point of view, it is among the most valuable learnings money can buy, as it not only helps you in your business context, but in all the conversations you will have in your private life, too.”