Speeches Workshops

A communications campaign offers four critical opportunities to connect with a target audience. Fail to connect at any one of these four points and you may lose your audience entirely.

The Unique Power of Compelling Stories

Learn how the singular tool of storytelling can motivate your audiences and advance your cause. Learn also the elements of good story -- whether in a Hollywood screenplay or a one-to-one conversation, and how to build a storytelling culture within your organization. Finally, develop your ability to tell the compelling human stories that bring data, values and policies to life.

Why Bad Presentations Happen To Good Causes

This presentation draws on Andy Goodman’s unique survey of over 2500 full-time staff at non-profits, foundations and public agencies. Although generally geared to the needs of public interest presenters, this speech offers valuable tools and lessons for anyone who makes presentations on any subject to any audience of any size.

Communicating Successfully in a Time of Recession

II. WORKSHOPS

These can be customized or expanded to meet specialized client needs.

Workshop: Storytelling as Best Practice (3 hours +)

Participants come prepared with 2-3 stories they could use to help accomplish a work goal. During the first hour, I make the case for storytelling and share the elements of a good story. Then the real fun begins! Participants spend the second hour writing their own stories, while I offer non-stop, one-on-one coaching and share highlights with the group. In the third hour, volunteers share their stories with the group and receive feedback from me and from their peers.

Workshop: Why Bad Presentations Happen To Good Causes (3 hours +)

Participants are invited to submit a few minutes of a PowerPoint presentation. After sharing Why Bad Presentations Happen To Good Causes, I offer personalized feedback on individual submissions. Participants spend the second hour redesigning and rewriting their presentations, while I offer non-stop, one-on-one coaching and sharing highlights with the group. In the third hour, volunteers share their presentations with the group, and receive feedback from their peers and from me. Coaching can emphasize particular aspects of successful presentations, such as design and structure, and successful use of PowerPoint, or performance and delivery.

Workshop: Dramatically Better Meetings (90 minutes)

What is the quickest way to increase your organization’s effectiveness? Improve your meetings! Dramatically Better Meetings is an interactive, hands-on workshop that uses humor to change the way people think about meetings. It has already helped public interest groups, businesses, and schools get more out of every meeting.

Workshop: Message and Media Mastery (choose the length)

This interactive workshop offers information and exercises to help you: 1) figure out, clarify and express what you, your department, or your company/organization really want and need to say, 2) communicate effectively in a variety of situations and media, including print, radio, and television.

III. Specialized Consulting: Writing, Editing, Messaging, etc.

I am open to consider a range of ways to work together. If you have any questions about your vision, your mission, your message, your core stories, etc. or how to best express or deliver any of these – let’s talk. We can create together an approach to my consulting or collaborating that will work for your particular needs and resources.

Here are a few possibilities.

Some clients send me stories after the workshop for additional feedback and improvement. Others have realized that, in addition to building their staff skills, they could benefit from my assistance in producing a specific communications tool or product. In such cases, I might work with them to “perfect” one or a few of their stories; going beyond feedback to editing or even doing the actual writing for the client.

Others realize that the single most important communications task before them is to craft their essential message. I can work with key staff to develop your message, your overall narrative, as well as a number of stories with which to express it.

If you wish to pull together a number of stories that represent your values and history, as well as individual client and staff successes, I can work with

you as an editor.

Terrence McNally / terrencemcnally.net / temcnally@mac.com

Clients include American Heart Association, Bank of America, City & County of Los Angeles, EPA, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Greenpeace, Intel, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Herman Miller, NASA, NRDC, Non Profit Finance Fund, American Public Media, Rhino Entertainment, Union Of Concerned Scientists, Volunteers Of America....and more.

As demand expands and resources shrink in the public service sector, communications and advocacy must cut through layers of fear and uncertainty. Funders support those who can tell their stories. In the corporate world, investors and customers seek allies, brands, and products they can trust. In both, stories build credibility with new audiences and engagement with those already on board.

How can I contribute to your abilities to fulfill your mission? Whether consulting, speaking, training, coaching, or writing... in groups or one-on-one, in-person or online, via phone or email. Let’s design something that fills an immediate need, and through which we can build a long term relationship.