I’m utterly passionate about creating powerful written and spoken English. I am equally passionate in my desire to teach and assist all other people to have a confident command of English, no matter what their starting point. In my career, I have lead and developed many software projects in Silicon Valley, I am now transitioning fully to a public speaking and coaching practice. In the mid-nineties I worked as a trainer for communication skills in the high tech industry, my clients included Hewlett Packard Professional Services Consultants and Oracle technical support staff for all day workshops.
I am a veteran speaker in Toastmasters and current officer at two clubs. I speak frequently and also help present educational programs at clubs all around the bay area. In Toastmasters, my constructive evaluations have been called “masterful.” And my prepared speeches have been described as "the epitome of elucidation.” I serve as mentor to new toastmasters in my clubs with three current mentees. My speech evaluation skills were recently featured on a Bay-to-Bay television program.
My most celebrated mentee was the 2010 winner of the Toastmaster District 4 humorous speech contest. I assisted him in composing his contest winning speech. (District 4 stretches from San Francisco to Monterey and includes hundreds of clubs and contestants.)
I am a graduate of the ProTrack professional training program for public speakers. This program is sponsored by the Northern California Chapter of the NSA (National Speakers Association). I am frequently requested to provide speech delivery and speech composition feedback by both professional and aspiring speakers in the area.
In addition, I am co-leader of a group on the “South Bay Public Speaking Skills Group” In this group, meeting bi-weekly, I provide live in-the-moment coaching as participants practice their front of the room speaking skills. These groups are sponsored by a San Francisco organization where I have attended and co-lead both their “Boot Camp” and “Advanced Boot Camp” speaker trainings.
I have also studied and worked with other trainers to produce and deliver specialized speaker skills programs on the Peninsula. Recently I delivered a one hour public workshop at the ProMatch professional center in Sunnyvale. I hold NLP certificates at both the practitioner and master practitioner levels. NLP emphasizes the art of exquisite listening and I employ that art to fully hear and respond to the needs and motivations of the listener. Though my final studies in college were computer science, I was initially a communications major and have attended many workshops and courses on fiction composition, including the New School for Social Research in New York City.
I fervently believe that for every learner there is an optimal direction and challenge level as they acquire new communication skills and confidence. My role is to help them find that optimal path and accelerate their efforts with enthusiastic and skillful advice and information. I provide either written or oral feedback always based on the learners goals and the requirements of the current project.
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