Learning About Our Services
Chris Graham offers group training and 1:1 coaching in public speaking, communication, and personal storytelling.
Interactive Talks and Trainings
Say goodbye to one-sided snooze fests.
Chris regularly teaches groups of people about public speaking, communication, and personal storytelling. His teaching style is “keynote calibre”, meaning he brings the same creativity, engagement, and polish to a small team training as he does to a conference or retreat. The goal is for every audience to feel like they’ve experienced something special—while also learning a whole lot of meaningful, practical content.
Audience size: a handful to over a hundred people
Virtual available: Yes for all sessions
Duration: 60- to 90-minutes (half- and full-day engagements are also possible)
Interactivity: each session is approximately ⅓ teaching + ⅓ group exercises + ⅓ discussion
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“Your Story Changes Everything” Storytelling Training
Helping people see you as a person they respect and trust
Stories about yourself are an effective way to establish trust and build meaningful relationships with clients and colleagues. But what can you say about yourself? Which parts of your life are interesting? Is it OK to be funny? Should you be vulnerable? Chris teaches you how to tell stories using the same tools as successful TEDx speakers.
Learning experiences: Using storytelling demonstrate values and establish trust; crafting memorable stories from your personal and professional experience; finding opportunities to share stories; how to be funny and vulnerable
Master a Meaningful Elevator Pitch
What to say when someone asks, “So, what do you do?”
What makes this question hard is trying to answer with a comprehensive summary of your work. The real challenge is recognizing you can’t soundbite your life, nor should you try. Crafting your “elevator pitch” is all about getting someone into a meaningful conversation about you and your work. Some of these conversations will lead, eventually, to an invitation to work together.
Learning experiences: Making it easy for people to understand what you do and how you can help; creating space for meaningful networking conversations; crafting an authentic, engaging story to reflect your personal and professional identity
No One Knows How Toilets Work
Persuasion through shared understanding
Ever wonder why people say “No” to good ideas and how to change their mind? This session is for you.
Being persuasive, building consensus, encountering and overcoming disagreement. All of these are challenging conversations, especially when you don’t have much of a relationship with the person you’re trying to convince. That’s why making your case isn’t really about having the best reasons—it’s about making people ready to hear your reasons. This session teaches participants a range of tools for persuading through shared understanding.
Learning experiences: Tools for anticipating and engaging disagreement; strategies for when you feel stuck, frustrated, or confused by what people are saying; simple tools for persuasive communication (especially to non-experts)
Get Better at Talking to Everyone
Foundations of workplace communication
Every person you talk to (colleagues, clients, peers) has different expectations around what kind of communication would be useful for them. Being an effective communicator means thinking about those expectations and adjusting what you say to fit the circumstances. This session offers participants a foundational toolkit for effective communication at work.
Learning experiences: Making sense of your audience; calibrating level of detail; making it easy for people to follow along; giving better answers to people’s questions
Interested in a session? Let’s chat.
Book a 15-minute call to discuss group workshops for your next retreat or orientation. Don’t worry, we’ll also provide a proposal you can take back to your team.
Engaging Public Speaking (The Series)
Create learning experiences participants will remember with one or more of these bootcamp-style sessions. Perfect for onboarding, up-skilling and re-skilling. Each session reflects Chris’s “keynote calibre” approach to speaking and training.
By offering a clear progression from foundational skills to advanced practice, this series ensures professionals at every level can develop and refine their communication and public speaking skills, making them more confident, effective, and influential in their roles.
Each part of the series is also available as a one-off training session.
Audience size: small groups work best (up to a dozen people)
Virtual available: Yes, but let’s discuss
Duration: 60- to 90-minutes (but let’s talk about a full day boot camp)
Interactivity: each session is approximately ⅓ teaching + ⅓ group exercises + ⅓ discussion
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Public Speaking Level One—Presentation Structure
Focused on the nuts and bolts of creating an effective presentation: how to start, make your points throughout, and finish strong. Designed for professionals who are starting to do more public speaking and looking for a baseline of best practices.
Public Speaking Level Two—How to Be Engaging
Focused on expressing your ideas in meaningful, memorable ways so that both you and your session stay with the audience. Designed for professionals who are already good at clear, concise explanations (Level One) and are looking to be more engaging to their audience.
Public Speaking Level Three—Performance and Delivery
Focused on aspects of performance and delivery: establishing and maintaining authentic connection (presence); developing your voice; managing nerves; using notes, visuals, and other prompts. Designed for professionals looking to develop their presence at the front of the room.
Public Speaking Level Four—Audience Participation
Focused on supporting audience participation in your talk or presentation. Designed for professionals looking to enhance a traditional Q&A and consider alternatives that promote deeper, more meaningful connection with the audience.
Interested in a training? Let’s chat.
Book a call to discuss training for your team. Don’t worry, we’ll also provide a proposal you can take back and consider.
1:1 Coaching in Communication, Public Speaking, and Personal Storytelling Skills
If you’re putting on a conference or event to elevate your executives, or senior leaders in your organization regularly give talks and do webinars, this 1:1 coaching is designed to help your best people showcase their best thinking.
(You can pitch it as: “How to talk about your expertise without sounding like ChatGPT.”)
Chris’ practical coaching and calm, supportive presence helps leaders and future leaders perform confidently in front of any audience.
Personalized coaching can happen over one or many sessions with support in areas such as:
Refining and editing material
Storytelling and identifying impactful stories
Incorporating humour
Audience connection and interaction
Improving delivery and different delivery formats - In-person, virtual
Specific performance skills (e.g., managing nervousness, speaking pace, non-verbal communication, etc.)
