First Time Facilitator

On today’s show, I chat to Steph Clarke. Steph is originally from the UK and is now based in Melbourne, Australia. She runs her own business, using her experience in learning, leadership development and executive coaching to develop courses to help organisations develop and professionals become more confident, productive and effective leaders.

We cover topics in this episode, ranging from how she pivoted from being an accountant into the world of Learning and Development, and how she grappled with being a First Time Facilitator.  She also shares why she’s decided to focus her business on leadership and creating effective teams; and how she’s created a very unique and cool personal brand.

Listen in when she shares a book recommendation that’s really influenced the way she sets up her learning environment, and gives her the language to challenge clients on some of their decisions in the lead-up to delivering a workshop or meeting.

In this episode you’ll learn

* Why it’s important to challenge decisions made prior to a workshop

* How Steph changed careers and entered the world of Learning and Developments

* How Steph uses self-discovery techniques to keep her participants engaged

* Why she decided to focus her business on teaching leadership skills for emerging managers/technical experts

* Her Venn diagram process for leadership (and how she created this model)

* Her book recommendation and how it changes her outlook on why we bring people together

About our guest

Steph Clarke is a learning and development professional and pommy (that’s a Brit living in Australia for the uninitiated) based in Melbourne.

After starting life as an accountant she realised she enjoyed developing others more than deciphering technical accounting standards. Cue a career pivot and for the last nine years she has worked in learning and development in a global professional services organisation. Steph runs her own business, using her experience in learning, leadership development and executive coaching to develop courses to help organisations develop and professionals become more confident, productive and effective leaders.

She also hosts the ‘Future Leaders Collective‘; a meetup in Melbourne for emerging leaders across industries to come together and learn, collaborate and hear from other successful professionals.

When she’s not creating and curating killer content, you’ll find her in the pilates studio, in the kitchen, on a plane or hiding somewhere with a podcast, book or a great Spotify playlist

Resources mentioned in this episode

* Steph Clarke’s website

* Steph Clarke on Instagram

* Connect with Steph on LinkedIn

* ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens’ by Sean Covey

* The Art of Gathering: How we meet and why it matters by Priya Parker

* Fiverr

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Today’s episode is all about co-facilitating.  I’ve been wondering how to do it more effectively – particularly if you need to develop the actual content together as well. If you’re handed something off the shelf to deliver, it’s a lot easier to co-facilitate- but doing both the development and delivery together sometimes can be a […]

The post Does co-facilitating mean half (or double) the work? with Leanne Hughes (Episode 32) appeared first on First Time Facilitator.

Your name can feature on Leanne's Wall of Work Fame.

Just pre-order her book by 30 Sep 2026; and follow the details to claim your star.

Also, there are a ton of bulk order incentives as well!

Support the show

Today’s episode is all about co-facilitating. 

I’ve been wondering how to do it more effectively – particularly if you need to develop the actual content together as well.

If you’re handed something off the shelf to deliver, it’s a lot easier to co-facilitate- but doing both the development and delivery together sometimes can be a little tricky.

In this episode you’ll learn:

* The advantages of co-facilitation

* A process to use the next time you c

Today’s episode is all about co-facilitating. 

I’ve been wondering how to do it more effectively – particularly if you need to develop the actual content together as well.

If you’re handed something off the shelf to deliver, it’s a lot easier to co-facilitate- but doing both the development and delivery together sometimes can be a little tricky.

In this episode you’ll learn:

* The advantages of co-facilitation

* A process to use the next time you co-facilitate

* A core document called the ID map that should underpin your workshop development plans

* Learning objectives: Why they’re so critical

* Systems, tools and apps that enable better collaboration between you and your co-facilitator

Resources mentioned in this episode

* We Are Podcast conference 2018

* Google Docs

* Asana

* Whatsapp

* Uber Eats

About your host

Leanne Hughes is the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and is based in Brisbane, Australia. She works in the field of Organisational Development. She loves to shake up expectations and create unpredictable experiences and brings over 12 years’ of experience across a variety of industries including mining, tourism, and vocational education and training and believes anyone can develop the skills to deliver engaging group workshops.

Like this show?

* Please leave me a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so I can thank you personally!

Let Leanne know about your number one takeaway from this episode! (or, leave a comment below)

 

Send Leanne a message

When you’re asked to deliver another workshop, do you find you’re having to recreate content, or dig around different folders, trying to find that one slide or activity that worked really well all those years ago? This happens to me. It drives me crazy. I wish I had a better way, or system to store […]

The post It’s time to stop recreating content: How to be a more productive facilitator with Sally Foley-Lewis (Episode 31) appeared first on First Time Facilitator.

Your name can feature on Leanne's Wall of Work Fame.

Just pre-order her book by 30 Sep 2026; and follow the details to claim your star.

Also, there are a ton of bulk order incentives as well!

Support the show

When you’re asked to deliver another workshop, do you find you’re having to recreate content, or dig around different folders, trying to find that one slide or activity that worked really well all those years ago? This happens to me. It drives me crazy. I wish I had a better way, or system to store these resources.

If you listen in our guest today, Sally Foley-Lewis has a solution for you.

Sally is obsessed with productive leadership, helping dedicated professionals (like you), achieve

When you’re asked to deliver another workshop, do you find you’re having to recreate content, or dig around different folders, trying to find that one slide or activity that worked really well all those years ago? This happens to me. It drives me crazy. I wish I had a better way, or system to store these resources.

If you listen in our guest today, Sally Foley-Lewis has a solution for you.

Sally is obsessed with productive leadership, helping dedicated professionals (like you), achieve more, reduce your stress and take back two hours per day! 

Listen in to her when I ask about her tips on how she embeds learning on her workshop.

In this episode you’ll learn:

Valuable and time-saving hacks for first-time facilitators

Coping mechanism on dealing with feedback

The three big elements of productivity: personal productivity, professional productivity and people productivity.

Essential questions you need to to ask yourself before standing in front of your audience.

Skills needed as a first-time facilitator.

About our guest

Sally Foley-Lewis is a dynamic and interactive presenter, MC, and much sought after facilitator and executive coach. Blending 20+ years of working with a diverse range of people and industries, in Germany, the UAE, Asia, and even outback Australia, with exceptional qualifications; a wicked sense of humour and an ability to make people feel at ease, she’s your first choice for mastering skills and achieving results. Obsessed with productive leadership, Sally helps you achieve more, reduce stress and take back two hours per day!

She has written three books, her latest is The Productive Leader and she gives presentations and runs workshops to help people become Productive Leaders. Sally’s clients rave about her because she leaves the audience equipped to take immediate positive action.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sally Foley-Lewis’ website 

* Sally’s book: The Productive Leader: 

Like this show?

Please leave me a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so I can thank you personally.

Click here to let Leanne know about your number one takeaway from this episode!

Click here to tweet your thanks to Sally. 

Quotes of the show:

“The goods are good; don’t devalue good. It’s good and that’s a positive word.”

“I think for facilitators, it’s being okay to play, be flexible and adaptive and to continue trying to work things out because your audience wants to get it”.

“The more content you shove in; the more shallow you’re going to be. I think that’s that balancing act that makes it very hard for facilitators sometimes.”

Transcript

View the transcript of my conversation with Sally Foley-Lewis.

Send Leanne a message

Murray Guest is a coach, consultant, facilitator and speaker based out of Newcastle, Australia.  His consultancy is called ‘Inspire my business’ which is apt, because as you will be able to tell from the conversation, he’s an inspirational bloke.  After over 20 years in corporate roles which included roles as a QA Manager, L&D Manager, […]

The post A hostage, a hard-worker and a holiday maker walk into a workshop… with Murray Guest (Episode 30) appeared first on First Time Facilitator.

Your name can feature on Leanne's Wall of Work Fame.

Just pre-order her book by 30 Sep 2026; and follow the details to claim your star.

Also, there are a ton of bulk order incentives as well!

Support the show

Murray Guest is a coach, consultant, facilitator and speaker based out of Newcastle, Australia.  His consultancy is called ‘Inspire my business’ which is apt, because as you will be able to tell from the conversation, he’s an inspirational bloke. 

After over 20 years in corporate roles which included roles as a QA Manager, L&D Manager, BD Manager and Facilitator, Murray followed his heart and started his own business as a business coach, facilitator and consultant.  

We cover a ran

Murray Guest is a coach, consultant, facilitator and speaker based out of Newcastle, Australia.  His consultancy is called ‘Inspire my business’ which is apt, because as you will be able to tell from the conversation, he’s an inspirational bloke. 

After over 20 years in corporate roles which included roles as a QA Manager, L&D Manager, BD Manager and Facilitator, Murray followed his heart and started his own business as a business coach, facilitator and consultant.  

We cover a range of topics in this conversation, ranging from the importance of professionalism as a facilitator; to the questions he uses to get people to start talking to each other at the beginning of a workshop; through to behaviour management.

Listen in when we also talk about teams in organisations and reasons why they may not be performing as effectively as they could/should.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Murray got his break into the world of facilitation

His philosophy around TGIF 

The importance of professionalism and what that means for facilitators

What you can do when you have participants who demonstrate resistance in your workshops

The three types of audience members in your workshop

How he uses the Gallup Strengths Finder tool everyday; in both his personal and professional life

Why it’s important to create foundations in a workshop (and how long Murray spends doing this)

How to survive (and keep your energy and sanity) during consecutive days of facilitation and

Ideas on when you should start reflecting on a workshop you’ve just run (hint: Don’t reflect immediately!)

His advice for First Time Facilitators

About our guest

Murray Guest is one of Australia’s leading Strengths coaches, helping over 1,000 people unlock and apply their strengths to achieve their professional and personal goals. As a Gallup certified Strengths coach he partners with organisations to build strengths-based cultures and realise the benefits a strengths-based approach brings. 

The founding director of Inspire My Business, he combines his diverse experience in HR, QA and Business Development to inspire leaders and their teams along the pathway of change and continuous improvement. 

His recognition includes one of only two coaches to speak at all three of the Gallup Strengths Summits in Omaha and receiving the HMA Excellence in Training Award for leading significant improvements as the Learning and Development Manager of Tomago Aluminum.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Inspire My Business

Murray Guest on LinkedIn

* Gallup: CliftonStrengths34 

Like this show?

Like this show? Please leave me a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so I can thank you personally!

Click here to let Leanne know about your number one takeaway from this episode!

Episode transcript

View the First Time Facilitator episode transcript with Murray Guest.