Power To Speak with Confidence. Conversations that will inspire and empower.

Ben Albert is the founder and CEO of Balbert marketing and the founder, host and producer of the Real Business Connections podcast.

When Covid hit in March 2020 Ben was a sales executive bobbing along quite nicely in his hometown of Rochester, New York. Within a month he was unemployed and in his own words ‘lost’.  

He was in a dark place, taking comfort in a bottle of whiskey. Did he say did he stay there and wallow in self-pity? Hell, no!

He re-launched the Rochester Groovecast podcast. He started the Everything Balbert blog. He taught a podcast in class at Rochester prep high school and became a marketing consultant. He launched Rochester Business Connections. And there’s more ...

Over the last 2 years, he has been fortunate enough to work professionally with over 40 businesses, built multiple B2B partnerships and helped numerous brands. He's spoken on countless podcasts and networked with new friends that he hopes to support for the rest of his life.

Wow! See what happens when you put the bottle down and put your mind to something. As you would imagine, our conversation is jam-packed and full of advice and wise words. From stacking your skills to amplifying the underdog to leaning into vulnerability and what to do if you're too short to play basketball.

Find out more about Ben and Balbert Marketing by following this link:  https://balbertmarketing.com

To find out more about Power to Speak, the podcast and speaker coaching go to www.powertospeak.co.uk.

My guest is voice-over artist, Santa Claus extraordinaire and all-round creative being, Richard Crossman

Richard is Canadian-born but of British heritage. It's the reason he is so adept at its regional accents, particularly English RP (received pronunciation), beloved by BBC broadcasters of the 50s. Currently, he is a voice-over artist working from his home studio and due to his not-so-passing resemblance to a particular jolly gentleman in red he works extensively, virtually and in-person, bringing Christmas joy globally.

Richard has been performing since the age of three and first dressed as Santa at the age of seven.

He's had a fascinating journey. Not only is he an accomplished voice-over artist narrating everything from audiobooks to medical papers but he's a trained opera singer and retired school professor, specialising in pastry arts and commercial baking.

Oh, and he makes theatrical costumes too. See, an all-round creative being. 

Welcome to this special ‘best of...’ edition of Power To Speak, the podcast.

Unbelievably, the podcast is 2 years old. During that time, I’ve had the privilege to speak with creatives, business owners and thought leaders about the importance of creativity for their work and life, as well as their unique journeys.

Thanks to the podcast I have learnt, been inspired, educated, and enthused by those I have interviewed.

None more so than these seven inspiring gentlemen – I shall call them the Magnificent Seven! – bundled together in my, happy 2nd birthday, edition entitled, Six Marketing Masters, One Public Philosopher and Me. They are:

Joseph Jaffe. Author of 5 books, including Built To Suck, Flip the Funnel and Z.E.R.O, thought leader, speaker and host and founder of CoronaTV.

Trevor Young, strategist, Consultant and Content Marketing & Communications coach, author & Speaker.

Jason Miller. Currently, the Marketing Director at CreativeX. Best-selling author of Welcome to the Funnel and founder of RockNRollCocktail.co.Former Senior Content Marketing Manager at LinkedIn and Senior Manager of Social Media Strategy at Marketo and Microsoft.

Jon Burkhart. Award-winning keynote speaker and regular at South By Southwest Interactive, as well as a performer, educator, marketer and fire-cracking firebrand! Co-author of the marketing book Newsjacking: The Urgent Genius of Real-time Advertising and founder of marketing consultancy TBC Global Ltd. 

Mark Masters. Founder of You Are The Media, author of The Content Revolution and all-around community building, and marketing legend.

Geoff Cottrill. CMO of Topgolf. The former head of marketing for Coca-Cola, Converse and Starbucks

Tom V Morris. Professor of philosophy, keynote speaker and author of 30, yes, 30 books,

0.4 secs. Tom Morris. Creativity comes from hard work.

1.37 secs. Joseph Jaffe. Marketing 101. Differentiation and the authentic voice.

3.01. Mark Masters. Pull a seat up at the table. Try something new.

3.39. Joseph Jaffe. Productive originality. original and purposeful.

5.25. Tom Morris. Rodin’s The Thinker. Doing while thinking. Thinking while doing.

6.10. Jason Miller. The elegance of constraints. Creative leadership and permission to fail.

11.09. Geoff Cottrill. Speak up. What a creative boss can do. Coca Cola.

14.57. Joe Jaffe. 2020 sucked but it was great for humanity.

15.56. Tom Morris.  Disney and the philosophy of Winnie the Pooh

18.15. Mark Masters.  Step outside your comfort zone. Banish hierarchy, and create community.

22.17. Trevor Young. What do you want to be known for? Curiosity feeds evolution.

23.02. Jon Burkhart. Newsjacking, Deathjacking and highjacking.

29.25. Geoff Cottrill. Converse is 100 years old. What you should actually use an 8-week marketing budget for.

34.23 Tom Morris. If Harry Potter ran General Electric. Fear is a feeling; courage is a choice.

38.09 Mark Masters. The joker.

Susan Murphy's spent the majority of her 40-year career on-air. Starting as a shadow traffic reporter and programme director in Philadelphia she then moved to New York and became a radio personality before hosting and producing PBS television fundraising drives, crossing paths with our very own Charlotte Church. She once even rode an elephant through New York. She's been a voice-over artist for commercials, TV, websites and E-learning but her heart has always been in teaching and so having set up her company VOSOT (Voice Over Sound on Tape) she now 'polishes the on-air sound of anchors and reporters.' As a voice coach, myself, I of course loved this conversation. There is a lot of cross-over with what Susan and I do even though we work in different areas. A common element that occurs for both of us is a determination to help find our client's AUTHENTIC voice. So important when having to convey trust and authority. To find out more about Susan and the work she does visit her website https://susanmurphyvosot.com Or follow her on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-murphy-a649406/ To find out more about Power To Speak and to sign up for the newsletter go to https://www.powertospeak.co.uk  For the complimentary 12-page PDF, How To Impact, Influence and Inspire Your Audience, follow this link. https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r4g3m0

Polymorph and wide boy is the way that Jason De Jonge describes himself.

According to Linkedin, Jason is a recruitment and outsourcing specialist, a public speaker and a manager of a team of e-commerce gurus. With this many job titles, he is, indeed, polymorphic. But 'wide boy'? 

Well, he started his career on the family market stall selling souvenirs to tourists in London's West End, followed by a stint on a City trading floor before running a fashion retail business from a shop on Carnaby Street. Then clubs and bars, eventually ending up in recruitment via an aerospace company! See, polymorph and wide boy!

Plus, he is the director of Purple Fedora, where along with MD, Gareth Wax they help people convey their message online.

In our fascinating conversation, Jason takes me on the journey through all over the stages of his incredible career.

And what is his advice to young people just starting out - life is long. Enjoy it.

Follow Jason on Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thescribbler/

Or check out Purple Fedora. https://purple-fedora.com/index.html

For more info on Power To Speak, podcasting, and speaker coaching go to www.powertospeak.co.uk.

Trevor Young is a Strategist, Consultant and a Content Marketing & Communications coach. He's also an Author & Speaker, a Content Creator & Social Broadcaster.

He provides "up-to-the-minute communications strategies and astute guidance for forward-thinking individuals and businesses wanting to grow their influence and create more impact in the marketplace."

If you make content to promote your business you NEED to listen to my conversation with Trevor.

A 'country kid' from Australia and son of a bank manager, Trevor grew up in a bank next door to the local newspaper offices. He went to sleep to the sound of the printing press. No surprise then that he became a journalist before moving into the world of social media and content marketing.

He’s been blogging since 2007 and has written 2 books, Micro Domination and Content Marketing for PR. He's also a personal brand mentor and guide (he's known as the PR Warrior), speaker, educator and content creator.

We talk about his growing up in Warracknabeal (yes, that's a real place!), his initial fear of public speaking (he did his first 50 talks for nothing), his love of writing, the benefit (and pitfalls) of self-publishing and how writing a book has opened doors to other opportunities.

On creating content, he says we should 'nail our colours to the mast!' What is it we want to be known for? We are our own media companies and should pick one platform, master it, and then move on to the next. He has some great advice on how to earn your audience and 'cut through the noise.'

And apart from all of the above we just about had time to discuss when’s a good time to write the great Australian crime novel and his time on legendary Aussie soap, Neighbours!!

Seriously, there were SO many takeaways, from our conversation. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. If you want to find out more about Trevor visit trevoryoung.me at: https://trevoryoung.me/category/reputation-revolution-podcast/

To find out more about Jackie Goddard and how Power To Speak can make you excited about sharing your message with an audience visit powertospeak.co.uk at: https://www.powertospeak.co.uk

Caleb Nelson describes himself as Your Concierge to Happiness, Functional Spokesperson and Image Consultant. What does that mean? Well, put simply he has dedicated his life to inspiring others to live life to their fullest potential. His company (and podcast of the same name) Naked Sunday is the pursuit of all aspects of personal growth. Exploring all topics, ranging from health, love, spirituality, wealth, discovering your purpose, and beyond. He works with leaders and business owners to eliminate obstacles and shed self-limiting beliefs. He believes we need more great leaders in the world and helps the cause by facilitating the change. With Naked Sunday he hopes to ‘hold space for people to be truly honest and authentic, cultivate a greater connection within themselves and their relationships, and ultimately live a happy and fulfilling life.’ During our fascinating conversation, we discuss how he does this, of course, but he also tells me how the pursuit for his own ‘nexus of happiness’ developed out of a childhood spent as part of the religious cult known as the ‘Moonies’ and how the prospect of an arranged marriage (like his parents) and lack of autonomy left him feeling like an outsider, with the need to give and receive unconditional love.

Check out the Naked Sunday podcast here.

As an Executive and Business Performance Coach, Al has worked with 1000s of people around the world, helping them to achieve remarkable success, through infinite pie thinking.

His mantra is ‘Improve your thinking, improve your performance.’ He has over 30 years of business experience and is passionate about personal development and performance improvement.

He also hosts the @infinitepiethinking podcast. Where he talks with remarkable people from the business, sports and entertainment industries, sharing with his audience their stories and perspective on success and failure.

As well as a coach and storyteller he is Co-Founder of Infinite Pie Ltd & Gift of Story, a new initiative giving people the opportunity to gift their story to loved ones.

And as if that’s not enough he is a father to three girls which he and his wife home-schooled. Al shares how he has used some of his own experiences and lessons learned to guide them.

We talk about his growing up in Australia and how a love of storytelling has shaped his career.

Check out the Infinite Pie website: https://www.infinitepie.co.uk

Follow Al on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/al-fawcett-12014b14/

For the Power To Speak free download, How to Impact, Influence and Inspire Your Audience, click the link: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r4g3m0

For more information on how Power To Speak can help you communicate effectively with the art of public speaking head to the website: www.powertospeak.co.uk.

Today’s guest is author of Mental Theft, Paul Newton. Magician, mind reader, and former actor Paul, after a brush with the military, now talks about cyber security and cybercrime. As a much sort after keynote speaker, he scares the bejesus out of his audience’s telling them,

 ‘You may have the best security systems in place, but I can hack the people in your organisation! It’s not all about high tech, it’s about people. They’re either the weakest link or your strongest defence.’ 😱

A family man and a people person, based in the New Forest, Hampshire, he started magic at the age of 7 having been given a Paul Daniels magic set. Paul’s career has been a mix of theatre and corporate making for a very interesting conversation.

There are some great presentation and speaker tips in there too. Like how you can step out from behind a script and why we have a fear of the unknown rather than a fear of speaking. It’s insightful and entertaining stuff.

If you want to find out more about Paul check out the websites: https://www.paul-newton.co.uk

https://mentaltheft.co.uk

And book tickets to see him live in aid of the Minstead Trust at Hangar Farm:

https://www.minsteadtrust.org.uk/charity/events/paul-newton-mental-theft/

For Paul's podcast Newton's Nuggets: https://www.newtonsnuggets.com

If you want any help with your talk or presentation you can contact me at https://www.powertospeak.co.uk

Sign up to the fornightly newsletter: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/h0x0h8

Watch Power To Speak, the podcast on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtVHnywe_F-gmYkhjRB6GHw

My guest this week is Growth Strategist, Kallum Nicholson.

Kallum (with a K) introduces himself as ‘the unconventional business coach that puts a foot up your ass and wears you like slippers.’

Kallum helps SMEs and larger corporations grow to the next level. 

And if that wasn’t enough, he is a SUPER networker hosting both his own and others. He’s also a magazine editor, keynote speaker, business show host and school governor. 

And all this at the tender age of 26!

But as you will hear in our conversation Kallum has been an entrepreneur since he was at school. That is the school he is now a governor at, by the way.

Amongst many other things, Kallum tells me the best thing you can do for yourself, and your business is to learn the art of public speaking - and unsurprisingly I couldn't agree more!

Connect with Kallum on Linkedin or go to his website https://kwakademy.com