Creative Coaching and Training
If your business depends on wowing clients and winning pitches with creative presentations, you need to know you can deliver.
Mark McGuinness speaking at the Royal College of Art for FuelRCA
Many people (audiences included) dread presentations, and ‘death by PowerPoint’ is so common it’s become a cliche.
When the spotlight is on you, it’s easy to forget the purpose of a live presentation and hide behind your material, reading out slides full of bullet points that overwhelm the audience with information.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
By taking a creative approach to designing and delivering your presentations, you can boost your confidence and actually enjoy the whole process. You’ll also stand out from the crowd and be a refreshing — and memorable — change for your audience.
My Creative Presentation Skills workshop will teach you how to do just that.
With a little imagination and preparation, you can design and deliver a truly original presentation. The kind that lingers in people’s minds long after the event and gets them talking. The kind that changes minds and inspires action.
You don’t need to speak like a trained actor or produce slides like a professional designer.
You don’t need to deliver the whole thing word perfect.
You don’t even need to know everything there is to know about your chosen topic.
You just need to connect with your passion and the audience’s interests — and inject a little creativity into your preparation.
“Mark showed us (by example and practical exercises) the value of storytelling and emotional engagement in conveying even complex ideas. He also instilled the importance of avoiding cluttered slides, so the focus stays on the presenter.
“We immediately put his lessons to use, and our success rate in pitches has risen steadily following his training course.
“Mark is also a source of inspiration on personal development, and how to use both successes and failures to achieve your life goals.”
Reg Manser, Creative Director, Life Healthcare
Creative Presentation Skills is for anyone who wants or needs to be a better presenter. And these days, that includes most of us.
Whatever your line of work, making a powerful connection with a live audience is critical for success – in team meetings, and at conferences, auditions and client pitches.
And in many creative industries, pitching to win business is essential for companies to survive and thrive.
Creative Presentation Skills is perfectly suited to the specific needs of creative teams and creative industries workers, in fields such as television, design, advertising, marketing, publishing, architecture, computer games, music, fashion, film, theatre, dance or technology.
The workshop is also relevant to anyone who needs to present their ideas – and wants to take a creative approach to making an impact.
Creative Presentation Skills is a practical workshop that will teach you simple principles of presentation design and delivery, unlocking your creativity and releasing your natural speaking voice.
This presentation skill training will teach you the three skills that are essential to creating a compelling presentation:
You will learn to organise your material into a logical structure that makes it easy for you to remember and deliver – even if the worst happens and the projector breaks down and the dog eats all your notes!
The same organising principles will make it easy for your audience to grasp your ideas and remember them.
An entrancing presentation appeals to the emotions as well as logic – and stories are one of the most powerful ways to engage your audience emotionally and persuasively.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a natural storyteller, I’ll show you how to dream up stories that will resonate for your audience, and tell them in an engaging way.
Once you have your material, it’s time to concentrate on delivery. I’ll teach you how to get into the right frame of mind to present, by tapping into your natural enthusiasm.
I’ll also show you how to add some verbal polish by using some simple but powerful rhetorical patterns. And I’ll help you handle stage nerves and deal with challenging audiences.
You don’t need PowerPoint slides to give a great presentation, so we leave them until the end, as an option you can use to enhance your delivery.
Most PowerPoint slides are monstrosities – crammed full of bullet points, text in tiny fonts, hideous clipart, and ill-advised corporate logo templates. Don’t go there.
I’ll show you how to create stunning slides that illustrate your presentation and help you make an impression on your audience. Even if you’re not a graphic designer (I’m not), you can create beautiful and memorable slides – and take a lot of satisfaction in doing so.
The workshop is highly interactive and gives you plenty of time to practise your presentation skills in a safe (and fun) environment.
During the workshop you will design and deliver a short presentation about a subject that matters to you — ideally one that you will have the chance to deliver as part of your work.
The course is delivered in person by me, and features:
When you attend Creative Presentation Skills you will receive access to an online summary of the workshop, which relieves you of the need to make detailed notes. So you can focus 100% on your experience of the training – listening, asking questions, sharing ideas and practising new skills.
I make sure everyone has plenty of fun during our time together – and that you leave with useful ideas and practical skills you can start applying the very next day at work.
“It’s given us all a solid platform to feel more confident when we present in a range of different environments. From a research point of view, Mark’s advice on slide design has me think hard about how we present our data.”
Linus Gregoriadis, Research Director, Econsultancy
Mark McGuinness speaking at the Royal College of Art for FuelRCA
I’ve been coaching and training creative professionals since 1996.
Organisations I have worked with include the BBC, Channel 4, Transport for London, The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, TBWA Media Arts Lab, Dare Digital, ASOS, Magnum, Econsultancy, Gist, Vodafone, BT, Servier Laboratories, The Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment, The British Library Business and IP Centre, The Cultural Industries Development Agency (CIDA), The Arts Council, The Cultural Leadership Programme, Arts & Business, Spread the Word, The University of Warwick, King’s College London, the University of the Arts, London, and the Royal College of Art.
As well as facilitating others’ creativity, I know the creative process from the inside-out, as a poet and author of a string of successful ebooks and two of the most popular creativity blogs in the world, at LateralAction.com and WishfulThinking.co.uk.
I originally qualified as a psychotherapist and hold an MA in Creative & Media Enterprises (with distinction) from the University of Warwick.
Sian James, Project Manager – Create KX
In the course of my career I’ve given hundreds of presentations, as a trainer, lecturer and conference speaker.
My audiences have included executives, corporate teams, artists and creatives, students, healthcare practitioners and wedding guests (four Best Man speeches).
Topics I’ve spoken on include creativity, management, entrepreneurship, psychotherapy, communication skills, time management, personality types, marketing, motivation, – and of course, presentation skills.
As well as the usual presentation formats, I’ve given live readings of my own poetry, delivered podcasts and audio seminars over the internet, and presented my work in a TV documentary for the Discovery Health Channel.
In the process, I’ve made just about every mistake in the book – and found practical solutions to all of the major challenges facing public speakers.
I’ve created this presentation skills training to give you the benefit of what I’ve learned – and to make the process quick and easier for you than it was for me.
Sean Kirkegaard, Development Executive – BBC Children’s Television
Clare Hudson, Creative Industries Manager – Creative Leicestershire
To enquire about booking this workshop for your organisation, please contact me using the form below or by telephone at +44 (0)1707 644 665.
If you’d like me to let you know next time I run this workshop as a public event (usually in London), enter your email address and hit ‘subscribe’.
I’ll then send you occasional email announcements whenever I launch a new event, product or service for creative people.
Of course I will never share your email address, and you are free to unsubscribe at any time.
Sarah Douglas, FuelRCA, Royal College of Art
If you’re considering booking this workshop for your team but you’re not sure whether it will address the specific challenges you’re facing, feel free to contact me using the form above.
I’ll be happy to discuss your requirements on a no-obligation basis – and of course I will treat anything you tell me as strictly confidential.
When we think of creativity, we think of creative thinking. But motivation is at least as important to unlock high-level creative performance.
Mark McGuinness speaking at the Royal College of Art for FuelRCA
There is now a large body of research evidence demonstrating some surprising findings about creativity:
So if you’re engaged in creative work, you need to be very careful to focus on the right kind of motivation – which is hard when you are under pressure to succeed.
And if you’re the manager or leader of a creative team, you can actually harm their performance by offering rewards! You need to forget the carrot and the stick, and find new ways to inspire them to do their best work.
I’ve created this motivation training workshop to help you with these complex challenges, and harness the four most powerful types of motivation to produce outstanding creative work – in yourself or your team.
The workshop is based on my popular ebook How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself).
Sarah Turner, TurnerInk.co.uk
There are two versions of the workshop: for Creatives and for Leaders of Creative Teams.
This workshop has been designed for creative people of all kinds — artists, creatives, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and anyone else who takes their creativity seriously.
It is perfectly suited to the specific needs of creative teams and creative industries workers, in fields such as television, design, advertising, marketing, publishing, architecture, computer games, music, fashion, film, theatre, dance or technology.
The workshop is also applicable to professionals working in any industry, if their success depends on tackling complex creative challenges and delivering focused work in a busy environment.
This practical motivation training will help you understand the four most powerful types of motivation and use them to achieve creative and commercial success.
I will show you how to:
Candida Bradley, CandiPops.com
Topics include:
“Mark has a direct and empathetic style and instantly established a strong rapport with the group of creative businesses with whom we work. We had a lively and engaging day, full of challenge and fun. The content of the workshop was exactly what the businesses were looking for and all left inspired and ready to implement some new ideas in their businesses.”
Morag Ballantyne, Business Development Advisor, Creative Northants
This version of the workshop is for leaders, managers and directors and facilitators of creative teams:
I will help you:
Tim Siedell, Fusebox
Topics include:
Steve Roesler, Roesler Consulting Group
The workshop is highly interactive and helps you achieve sustainable motivation and innovation – keeping your creative spark alight and persevering in the face of challenges, to achieve things you can be proud of.
The workshop is delivered in person by me, and features:
When you attend the workshop you will receive a copy of my popular ebook How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself), which relieves you of the need to make detailed notes – so you can focus 100% on your experience of the training – listening, asking questions, sharing ideas and practising new skills.
I make sure everyone has plenty of fun during our time together – and that you leave with useful ideas and practical skills you can start applying the very next day at work.
Mark McGuinness speaking at the Royal College of Art for FuelRCA
I’ve been coaching and training creative professionals since 1996.
Organisations I have worked with include the BBC, Channel 4, Transport for London, The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, TBWA Media Arts Lab, Dare Digital, ASOS, Magnum, Econsultancy, Gist, Vodafone, BT, Servier Laboratories, The Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment, The British Library Business and IP Centre, The Cultural Industries Development Agency (CIDA), The Arts Council, The Cultural Leadership Programme, Arts & Business, Spread the Word, The University of Warwick, King’s College London, the University of the Arts, London, and the Royal College of Art.
As well as facilitating others’ creativity, I know the creative process from the inside-out, as a poet and author of a string of successful ebooks and two of the most popular creativity blogs in the world, at LateralAction.com and WishfulThinking.co.uk.
I originally qualified as a psychotherapist and hold an MA in Creative & Media Enterprises (with distinction) from the University of Warwick.
Sian James, Project Manager – Create KX
Sean Kirkegaard, Development Executive – BBC Children’s Television
Clare Hudson, Creative Industries Manager – Creative Leicestershire
To enquire about booking this workshop for your organisation, please contact me using the form below or by telephone at +44 (0)1707 644 665.
Sarah Douglas, FuelRCA, Royal College of Art
If you’re considering booking this workshop for your team but you’re not sure whether it will address the specific challenges you’re facing, feel free to contact me using the form above.
I’ll be happy to discuss your requirements on a no-obligation basis – and of course I will treat anything you tell me as strictly confidential.
Time management training may not sound the most inspiring activity — but it could make or break your creativity, not to mention your career.
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Coaching for senior creatives and leaders of creative teams, with Mark McGuinness.
In-person in the UK, or worldwide via webcam.
Click here for details.
Specialist training for creative professionals and creative team leaders:
Read the Amazon.com Top 10 Creativity Best Seller