LAST HURDLE IS ALL ABOUT RAISING YOUR GAME, NO MATTER WHAT LEVEL PRESENTER YOU ARE RIGHT NOW. IF YOU’RE STRUGGLING, YOU’RE PROBABLY MISSING THE FUNDAMENTALS. THAT’S A QUICK FIX. GOING FROM GOOD TO GREAT IS AS MUCH ABOUT THINKING LIKE A CLIENT AS IT IS A CREATIVE PERSON. WHAT I PROVIDE IS AN ACCELERATED LEARNING CURVE FOR EVERY LEVEL.

TO SELL WORK YOU HAVE TO WORK AT SELLING
You can read a book or watch a video about presentation skills. Both have value. But until you apply that knowledge you’ll only get marginally better. It would be like taking driving lessons without a car.
 

THE WORKSHOP:  TWO JAM-PACKED DAYS
The Last Hurdle two-day workshop is comprehensive and challenging. I come to your agency, we commandeer a conference room with a big TV and hang out a DO NOT DISTURB sign. Then we lock the door and work on everything. Like how to engage an audience, how to build trust, how to defend work against a barrage of tough (okay, sometimes dumb) questions. We talk about getting the most out of your personal presentation style and how to lay out an idea so that it’s clear and concise. It’s a hands-on, stand-and-deliver, come-out-better presentation-a-thon.

ONE-TO-ONE TRAINING
For more senior creatives, I offer one-to-one sessions. Creative director to creative director. It’s like having a personal trainer who knows exactly what muscles to work on because he spent years playing the same sport. Whether you just want a presentation skills tune-up or help framing a big campaign or new business pitch, I can come to you, you can come to me (think Bed & Breakfast, charming town, Chesapeake Bay) or we can schedule a few Skype sessions.

VIRTUAL PRESENTING: HOW TO COMMAND A ROOM WHEN YOU’RE NOT IN IT
If you think it’s hard getting and holding people’s attention when you’re in the same room, try doing it when they’re in a different city. This webinar/workshop is a virtual class in how to present virtually. The four-hour webinar portion looks at all of the skills it takes to be an engaging, persuasive presenter. We then explore the added challenges that come with presenting through cyber space, from mastering your technology to maximizing your on-camera appearance to managing presenter-to-presenter hand-offs to building decks so a virtual audience can’t look ahead, and much more. The workshop portion of the training gives presenters a chance to practice these skills in a real-world environment. Virtual reality, as it were.
 

TEAM AND NEW BUSINESS TRAINING / SENIOR CREATIVES, AE’S AND PLANNERS
Team training is all about selling big campaigns and winning new business pitches.  Presenting in silos is a common practice for most agencies. Do your part and sit down. The Last Hurdle team workshop breaks that old habit. Account people, planners and creatives learn how to build cumulative impact. It’s a wingman approach designed to increase team trust and effectiveness. Real world scenarios are played out. Curveballs are thrown in. In two days, teams learn how to focus the message, deliver a common storyline, and present in a more unified, compelling way.
 

CREATIVE FEEDBACK WORKSHOP
Evaluating creative work and providing effective feedback is a skill set all its own. Over the course of this one-day workshop we break the evaluation process down piece by piece: Does the work answer the brief? Is it on-brand? Is it interesting and engaging? Will it resonate with the target audience? We look at how to have an open mind when reviewing work, how to resist knee-jerk reactions, and, most importantly, how to provide motivating feedback rather than demotivating feedback. The entire workshop is designed to get the best creative product out of your teams, whether you’re a newly-promoted creative director or strategist, account person, or client.