Hello and thank you for taking time to check out my website. I hope it will be a useful, insightful and fun space that you will come back to often, as you journey through presenting with confidence.
Who am I ?
My name is Karen and I’m a mom to 3 grown up ( questionable ! ) children and I have spent over ten years as a corporate trainer of management and personal development within a diverse group of industries. My favourite training was always presentation skills whether as a two day course for a mixed group or as a one day for those on management development. I have taught builders to give health and safety briefings ( interesting ! ) and directors to give talks at annual conferences ( challenging! ) and a myriad of others in between . My favourite, and yet always the delegates least favourite, and when I say least favourite I mean “I would rather die right now than do a course in presentation skills?”
My own journey with presenting began when I was head girl at my junior school and had to give a thank you speech to governors and parents at the yearly awards ceremony. Now I was not a typical head girl , was usually in some sort of trouble for talking too much or distracting others but I rose to the challenge, wrote my short but concise speech and rehearsed it so I knew it word for word. Something along the lines of thanking everyone and congratulating the winners of the trophies. What could go wrong ? Well I only went and won a trophy ( highly unexpected ) dropped it and then immediately after had to give speech which meant I had to congratulate myself !!
So not the greatest start to my career, but trust me I have made many a mistake along the way, actually some could be termed as disasters but you will hear about those as you journey through my training. I train not from perfection but by having learned from my mistakes and passing on my knowledge of what to do and what not to do. I have had a career that has spanned the music industry, network marketing , vintage retail and corporate training as well of lots of committee volunteering so I have presented, one on one, to small groups and to audiences of 1500 delegates.
I want you to know that I have been where you are now and I can give you a blueprint for success as long as you always remember that you are unique, and that is your best quality as a presenter.