Workshops

Melinda Henning’s Speaking School Workshops are Unforgettable Learning Events to give you the skills you need to get the results you want in high stakes speaking situations.

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Speaking with Conviction:
How to Make the Case for Your Cause

This is essential training for every Executive Director, board member, development professional, and key volunteer who needs to change minds, touch hearts, and move listeners to action by speaking. It’s a solid foundation in content development and delivery skills for newer speakers and a polishing process for the more experienced. You’ll learn (and practice) how to:

• prepare a memorable and persuasive speech of any length in record time, and
• deliver it convincingly, with minimal dependence upon notes

You’ll gain influence tools you can adapt to a variety of speaking challenges, become aware of your natural strengths, have a plan for continued improvement, and you may find you actually begin to enjoy each of your opportunities to make a difference by speaking!

Seven Steps to Quick and Brilliant Speech Prep

Stop agonizing over important presentations! You’ll cut your prep time dramatically, be more concise, and become more convincing when you follow Melinda’s Seven Steps systematically. Bonus: Combine the Seven Steps with the Advocate’s Org Chart (included) to reduce your reliance on notes, avoid sounding scripted, and be present to connect spontaneously with your audience. Your speaking life will never be the same again!

Hot Seat Speaking!
How to Make the Most of Controversy and Challenges

Opportunities to make an impact by speaking often come by surprise, during a crisis, or as part of a heated exchange with an unfriendly audience, especially when the issues you address are emotionally charged. You can’t risk rambling, blanking, or blowing up, because these are times when people are really listening! In Hot Seat Speaking, you’ll learn (and practice) how to keep your composure to stay on message in the heat of the moment, express your strong opinion succinctly, and “dance” with angry audience responses. As a result, you’ll sound as smart as you are, no matter what, and gain positive leverage from the controversy inherent in your topic.

Treasure Maps and Talking Points: 
How to Find People Who Care, and What to Say to Engage Them

This workshop is for you if you are charged with engaging individual donors in a cause or organization you care about. You may be inviting them to an event, encouraging them to volunteer, gathering signatures, or asking for funding directly. With templates and techniques to use in conversation or in formal meetings, TM&TP makes it easy for board members, enterprise leaders, key volunteers, and client beneficiaries to ask others for their involvement in a concise, targeted, and personally authentic way

Telling Your Story:
Sharing the Truth of Your Life Experience

Skillfully speaking of your own experience in public forums, in fundraising events, and in conversation may be the most powerful way to raise awareness, correct misperceptions, and garner support. But where to start? And stop? And how can you tell the truth without putting a damper on the meeting? In Telling Your Story, you’ll experiment with 4 templates to help you condense your content, and learn (and practice) 3 delivery techniques to make your stories stick. As a result, you’ll increase your influence with what you know best: your story