You can always be coached

Over the years, I've invested in executive coaching, including specialized presentation and media skills training. My media training was facilitated by a former primetime news anchor (Annetta Wilson) that earned her way from a general assignment reporter to hosting the morning show on one of the big three local news stations in the Orlando area. I'd say, I was blessed to have been coached by one of the best. And because of that training and ongoing speaking opportunities, I've grown to become more confident in my presentation skills over the years, so it would be very easy for me to think "I've got this. I don't need any additional support."

That my friend is not in my blood.

No matter the training, there is a knowing inside of me that believes your skills can forever be honed and there's always something to learn from others. This mindset is critical to lifelong growth and achieving and bringing your very best.

It requires humility and the ability to check your ego at the door. That's not always easy to do, especially in a group setting. If anyone recognizes this, it's Andrew Hurteau of Butterfield Speaks.

You see, I recently had a scheduled presentation rehearsal with my co-presenter, John Laverty at Insurity (John did a fantastic job by the way). We were speaking together in Las Vegas about creating a differentiated personalized experience and strengthening customer relationships. We had the perfect team on board to conduct a dry run. Andrew Hurteau was there to provide coaching on content, style, tone, messaging, and delivery.

Andrew proved to not only be an exceptional coach, he knew how to create an environment from the start that made it easy for executives to check their egos at the door. Not that it was needed for this group (it wasn't), but it was something I recognized when Andrew introduced himself. He started the session by setting the stage and communicating that his role was to support us in any way we needed it.

During our rehearsal, Andrew came up with the most powerful talking points, but more than that he used flags to draw attention. The tone he used helped me to remember the points and it taught me how to speak with greater authority to gain the trust of the audience and keep them engaged.

Our story was about our collaboration with Insurity to create an innovative solution that harnesses AI to automate policy, billing and claims intents. This includes technology to serve tens of thousands of Floridians at once to file a claim after a major hurricane. For this audience (senior-level executives and technologists), that solution is engaging on its own, but when you toss in the vision of building technology that is not in search of a solution, but instead technology that's built with specific pain in mind and alleviating that pain, it amplifies the value of what we created and how truly special the innovation was for our business and customers.

That is truly the way the technology was built (alleviating pain for our customers) and Andrew picked up on it and provided that brilliant line. And I used the heck out of it.

I received a lot of positive feedback after the session, including from people I've grown to admire in my career who were also in the audience. What a joy that moment was!

Andrew gave us hard-hitting points in a way that helped us to demonstrate the real innovation of the technology and how important it is in delivering a truly phenomenal customer experience. My goal is to secure a partnership with Andrew and leverage his expertise throughout my career. This will have a huge impact on my career and my life and includes working with him to help me deliver the most compelling pitch and communicate the unparalleled services Brilliantly brings to startups at every stage of growth.

You may be a talented speaker and effective communicator, but are you delivering information in a way that quickly builds trust, positions you as the authority, and deeply engages the audience? Is your account-based marketing what it needs to be? Whether written or verbal, we all need communications training expertise and no matter how skilled you are, if you aren't strengthening those developed skills intentionally with an expert like Andrew, your skills will disappear.

Andrew delivers not just in coaching, but he is also able to quickly understand the value of technology and the underlying important themes. That's a bonus!

Thank you for making our presentation so effective, Andrew. We had a room full of professionals who were highly engaged throughout our presentation and not one person got up to leave. In fact, many stuck around to ask questions and learn more. And more than that, my always supportive colleagues, Jag Randhawa, Anil Annadata, and Ben Bomhoff were impressed with this presentation. That means the world to me. I've spoken with them or they've seen me speak throughout my career, so I was happy to see that I've gotten better--thanks to you.