Why do you need a speaking coach?
‘We don’t need orators anymore – it’s all texts and Twitter these days.’
Not true.
You need proper coaching to reveal your inner speaker. So that you can effectively communicate, persuade, entertain – achieve your goals – in front of a live audience.
Why does this matter today? Don’t be daft! Oratorical training has been sought after since ancient Athens, precisely because in a democracy every citizen is required to take part in debates.
But, in our modern democracy, where power is no longer concentrated at the top of society, there are numerous occasions, not just weddings, when ordinary people have to perform in public. It could be making a point on Question Time, making a product presentation at work, or facing the sharp end of a media journalist’s question.
How will you perform? Will people enjoy listening to you? Think of the kind of people you enjoy listening to. It’s always the storytellers. Storytellers live the story as they tell it: with a voice animated by the pleasure of knowing they’re communicating well.
All public speaking requires that passion, whether presenting Rumpelstiltskin – or the benefits of vinyl flooring.
Success is rooted in your confidence. And it’s always a story.
For you and many people, public speaking is a daunting prospect because it’s an unfamiliar and frightening activity. Fear thins your voice; you lose your thread, start repeating yourself; you notice the audience becoming fidgety and you start to panic.
Written notes hardly help – compared to being free with your message and your audience. The most effective part of the body is your face. Audiences demand human contact to hold their attention. Even a great message depends on techniques such as modulation, and is undermined by monotony of pitch or pace, inaudibility, nervous body language, inert facial expression or poor posture.
Born speakers are quite few: most of us need coaching.
Who is Stephan Chase ?
Stephan Chase is a highly experienced actor, public speaking coach and acting coach, based in London. He offers coaching sessions to help public speakers prepare for speeches, critical business pitches, even highly specialised auditions such as drama school interviews.
He is RADA trained with a long career in movies, TV and theatre. For many years he has coached adults from all backgrounds for public speaking. He’s also coached schoolchildren for Lamda’s “Verse and Prose” exams with remarkable success – with an enviable 98% of his 400 or so pupils gaining Merits or Distinctions.
Having featured in dozens of programmes, he enjoys developing client’s skills and drawing on relevant experience to offer you a personally tailored, one-to-one service in a relaxed atmosphere. You have hidden talent that only needs nurturing.
How will I learn to engage my audience?
Part of the solution to the problems is confidence: however, this is hard to teach from the outside. Stephan has pioneered an increasingly popular concept called “Managing Authentic Presence” (MAP). Good actors rely on technique, but only as an adjunct to the task of bringing a character to life on stage or screen. This task involves creating the whole of that person as a living, feeling, and reacting organism. Stephan maintains that the business of effective public speaking is actually what actors do, the only difference being that public speakers are good at “being themselves”, rather than “being someone else” in front of an audience.
With this coaching you will discover the confidence to express your authentic self and live it in the moment. Whatever story you tell, it will sound like your own story,.. only then can the audience make it theirs. It’s the empathy. Acquiring and managing “MAP” is a challenge that requires energy, imagination and courage: as an actor, Stephan is ideally placed to help you incorporate all the richness of your expertise and experience into your presence and storytelling.
How will it work for me?
You need a private, relaxed workshop that is personal to your specific needs. Sessions begin with the client speaking. Stephan directs a flow of ideas and techniques so that you can discover your confidence. To start we use clients’ relevant material or script as a start for them to find their voice. We then introduce stagecraft: owning the space, projecting thought and developing elements of voice, posture and movement through exercise. Stephan helps you control nerves for positive effect, shows you how to use the vital energy of their own personality to breathe life into speeches and keep your next audience engaged.
Your first step
Usually you will begin with a 2-hour session, and then a 2-hour follow-up session if required. That will leave you with plenty to work on as well as equipping you immediately for tomorrow’s engagement.
Please email below with your name and contact number and a few words about your goal.
Stephan Chase 