Speaking Business podcast

In this episode of the Speaking Business podcast, I sit down with world-renowned futurist and keynote speaker Nikki Greenberg. With a background in real estate and technology, Nikki transitioned from designing skyscrapers to designing impactful keynote speeches on the future of cities and innovation.

Nikki shares how she built her speaking career from scratch, including the challenges she faced, the strategies she used to stay ahead in a competitive market, and the importance of being both relevant and memorable. Whether you're a seasoned speaker or just starting out, Nikki’s insights into breaking into new industries, using technology to amplify your message, and mastering the art of storytelling are not to be missed.

Join us as we explore how to take your speaking career to new heights—literally and figuratively!

In this episode of the Speaking Business Podcast, Maria Franzoni reconnects with her very first boss, Steve Sumner, a trailblazer in high street sports retail and a pioneer of online business strategies. With over 40 years of experience, Steve has helped build multi-billion-pound businesses and launched five successful startups. In the episode, he's sharing his insights on how speakers can unlock growth in their own businesses.

From navigating the challenges of legacy mindsets to leveraging digital tools like LinkedIn, Steve provides actionable advice for speakers looking to stay ahead in a rapidly changing market. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your speaking career to the next level, this episode is packed with valuable lessons on innovation, strategy, and staying true to yourself. Tune in to learn how you can apply the principles of business growth to your speaking career and keep your audience coming back for more.

Join us in this exciting episode of the Speaking Business podcast as we dive deep into the world of leadership, resilience, and high-performance teamwork with multi-award-winning speaker Mark Denton. Mark shares his incredible journey from leading a team to victory in the world's most challenging yacht race to becoming a sought-after keynote speaker.

Discover how Mark turned a standing ovation at a corporate conference into a thriving speaking career, captivating audiences across diverse sectors. Learn about the techniques he uses to make his speeches unforgettable, including the use of multimedia, gripping storytelling, and powerful music scores.

Mark also opens up about the challenges he has faced in the speaking industry and how he stays adaptable in a constantly evolving market. He shares valuable strategies for securing consistent bookings and the importance of treating speaking as a business.

Whether you're an aspiring speaker or an established professional looking to grow your business, Mark's insights and advice will inspire and equip you to navigate your own path to success. Don't miss this episode packed with practical tips, real-life examples, and the wisdom of an experienced speaker who has mastered the art of engaging and moving audiences.

Tune in now and embark on a journey of learning and inspiration with Mark Denton

In the latest episode of my Speaking Business podcast, I interview AI expert Ben Gold, delving into his extensive experience in technology and AI. Ben shares insights from his 20-year career in tech sales, particularly focusing on the transformative impact of generative AI. He discusses practical applications of AI, emphasizing how speakers and businesses can harness these tools to enhance productivity and engagement. Our conversation touches on the ethical considerations of AI, the future of AI in professional speaking, and the innovative ways Ben uses AI to streamline his own speaking business. This episode provides valuable perspectives for anyone looking to integrate AI into their professional toolkit.

My guest today is the Founder and Director of Behind The Mic, a speaker management and consulting agency in London. With over 15 years experience in the speaking industry, she has worked in both the US and UK markets. She has made a career out of helping inspirational, thought-leaders share their expertise on stages across the globe."

As CEO of Human First Ltd, Jaz Ampaw-Farr helps leaders who want to influence, inspire and motivate their teams with greater engagement in order to grow their businesses and leave a lifelong legacy. Jaz combines lessons learned from a challenging and often brutal childhood with those from her rise TV presenter, TEDx Speaker, stand-up comedian and Z-list reality TV star.  Her authentic honesty and humour consistently empower people to think differently about leading themselves and others.

Jaz has managed to go from a market where she is highly established and a bit of a rockstar into a brand new market, and that transition, is not easy. We'll find out exactly how she did that and how she has now become very successful in her new market.  Jaz will also share how she runs her business and what her products and services are.

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Intentional Storytelling

Steve Ashton is an expert in Executive Presence and Storytelling.  He became an expert in both of these disciplines through personal experience of being the sales and marketing director of a business that grew from £7m turnover to £68m in 3 years, through thousands of hours of live tv, radio, theatre acting, stand-up comedy and podcasting as well as more than 30 years working in Learning and Development.

He recently left a role as Chief Leaming officer for an international Division of American Express and has set up his own practice focussing his efforts on helping people increase their presence and ability to engage, connect and inspire people with storytelling.

Steve shares why storytelling is such a popular subject these days, why it's important to be a good storyteller and some top tips and tools to use for storytelling.

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How every speaker could benefit from having a manager.

Who better to be looking after your speaking career, than a manager used to dealing with bookers, promoters, and agents in one of the toughest of all businesses – the music business?

QJ is very familiar with the notorious rogues, the dodgy dealings and the pitfalls that we come across in the speaking business – to this day.

When he started out in the business, he was an artist, songwriter and producer signed to a couple of major record labels himself, but eventually ran his own record label, signing other artists, and dealing with the likes of record pluggers, radio DJs, in order to get publicity, exposure, and radio play for those he signed.

He says, ‘You really have to be pretty ruthless in the music business to get anywhere. So having honed my skills in that industry, I find that the challenges of making progress in speaking are not dissimilar, but a lot easier.’

QJ shares his passion for ‘other people’s talent’ and why he believes that a good manager can take your speaking career to the next level.

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Finding your 'True Funny' 

Paul Dornan has worked in the TV and film and comedy world for over two decades as a writer, producer, director, teacher and mentor. Specialising in character comedy and comedy-drama, he’s written and helped create sketch shows, sit-coms, series and films that have won awards, stormed the box office and sold around the world. Along the way he’s worked with a galaxy of stars – from Dame Edna to Mrs Merton aka Caroline Aherne from Boy George to Downton’s Hugh Bonneville, from Lenny Henry to the Spice Girls. A natural collaborator and team player, he’s acted as writing mentor for rising comedy talents and once co-wrote the massive Sunday Times No 1 bestseller ‘The A-Z OF Behaving Badly with Simon Nye – one of the biggest comedy books ever.

Away from page and screen, he has used his narrative skills in the business world too, helping a range of international brands with creative brainstorming and story.

He’s now the founder of a new venture – True Funny – a service offering creative consultancy and coaching to help professional speakers bring more humour, warmth and likeable storytelling to their work.

Paul shares how his work as a writer and director can help speakers make great main-stage speeches, what true funny is and why this is so important for professional speakers and whether making people laugh is a god given gift, a magic trick, or is this something anyone can learn.

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Owning your own story.

With a background in Public Relations, Lesley Woods has 20 years’ experience of curating and creating compelling stories.  Her career has taken her around the world, working with international partners to shine a light on the work of her military colleagues, from celebrating Christmas in Kandahar to delivering humanitarian aid to the Central African Republic.  

As a current serving senior Royal Air Force Reserve Media Officer, she shares unique perspectives gained from her operational experience.  Her mission is to get you out of the (communication) trenches and into new territory, to get you thinking differently about how you can emotionally engage your audiences.  

In her civilian ‘day job’ role she leads campaigns in the UK Ministry of Defence Communications Directorate, a team that aims to ‘give a voice to the men and women who serve so that their stories can be heard’.  

To help the UK Armed Forces reach new audiences she has led collaborations with films, TV series and documentaries, from influencer events with Disney to a PR partnership with the producers of James Bond.  She once lost half an eyebrow evacuating a TV documentary crew from a burning toilet tent in Afghanistan....whilst wearing ballistic pants.  

Lesley shares the importance of using your OWN story along with tips on the concept of bullet-proof storytelling.  For those speakers that are interviewed, Lesley has lots of advice from her media training background.   And if you ever fancied climbing a tree for Tom Cruise, well Lesley can tell you how.

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