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How leaders lead, coaches coach, salespeople sell, teachers teach and influencers influence.

It is well-established that stories are more memorable and powerful than facts and statistics. Stories are the basis of leadership, coaching, influence, teaching, sales and team culture. From the beginning of time, stories are how we have passed on our values, made sense of the world and effected change. Today, it's how we influence our customers, our teams and audiences.

In this keynote, Michel Neray shows you how to harness the power of stories to lead, motivate and influence. It covers the fascinating similarity between classic Hollywood films, case studies and testimonials, and leaves you with specific tools and models you can begin to use immediately. It also inspires you to see the value of your own personal story and how it contributes to your unique strengths and success in business.

This is a fun and engaging presentation that will open your eyes to new ways to tell and perform stories to sell more, lead more powerfully and, yes, change the world.

Inside-Out Storytelling™ is part of an ongoing programme that combines exercises in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), classic story-telling, stand-up comedy, improv, acting and professional speaking. It helps participants strategically develop signature and turning-point stories to motivate/inspire/influence team members, customers and audiences in the most engaging and powerful way. Inside-Out Storytelling was born from our experience with momondays — a monthly show of personal storytelling created by Michel Neray, that has expanded to over 14 cities in North America.

A simple model for finding the strongest and most differentiating market message for your business, product or service.

This keynote is fun, engaging, motivating and useful! It begins by showing audience members why an ability to stand out is the single most important challenge in this – or any economy. Then it teaches audience members a simple model for finding the strongest and most differentiating market message for their business, product or service.

A differentiated message and brand position is the common denominator that connects leadership in sales and branding to personal leadership. Especially in these uncertain economic times, companies need both personal and business leadership more than ever.

Drawing on his background in advertising, Michel shows the audience some of the funniest television commercials to demonstrate how even the largest companies – including Apple, Honda and Federal Express – leverage this model. Using personal examples and stories, he then shows how the same principles apply for each individual in the room.

With this presentation, audiences walk away with the tools to establish market leadership and the personal motivation to drive it home.

'Learn how to 'ask' - not 'push' - your way through a proposal or sale.

Sales and marketing 'experts' are always telling us to focus on benefits. And the higher level the benefit is, the better.

But telling your customers and prospects that you’ll help them – insert any high level benefit, like 'make more money', 'increase productivity', or 'be a hero in your company' – is usually as credible and differentiating as a politician saying he or she supports world peace.

Based on the Essential Message workbook 'Everything Starts With A Conversation,' participants discover how easy it is to engage people in conversations around the work they do – whether on the beach in Mexico or across the boardroom table.

Instead of benefits, participants learn to listen for and communicate Impact Statements, Persuasion Drivers and Provocative Questions.

This keynote or workshop is a perfect fit for sales events, national conventions and networking events. It gives people the tools they need to make all their communications – with clients and customers, colleagues, friends and even your family – more powerful than ever!

Participants will learn how to master customer-centric listening skills and develop intelligent questions that speak directly to customer interests and needs. This enables participants to 'ask' their way through a proposal or sale rather than 'push' their way to a decision. The interactive exercises also help participants learn about each other, making this ideal for networking events.

Fun exercises include the 'Back-to-Back Fairy Tale', 'Listening for Impact', and 'Digging for Drivers'.

Get into the head and heart of your clients ‐ without going out of your mind!

All of us sell, regardless of the role we have in an organization. Executives, managers and directors sell ideas, recommendations and strategies. Entrepreneurs sell businesses and business concepts. Salespeople and service providers sell specific products and services.

This keynote or workshop brings together the key elements of change management, neuro-linguistic programming, core challenge analysis and tried-and-true direct response copywriting. Participants learn to elicit the needs of the prospect or recipient of the proposal/recommendation, how to clearly identify the rationale for the recommendation and how to communicate it in the clearest, most compelling way.

This not only empowers managers and directors to link their recommendations to ROI and key corporate strategies, it also makes it easier for other decision-makers to evaluate the proposal for a quicker decision.

Delivered in a fun, interactive style, audiences and groups learn how to get into the head and hearts of their clients ‐ without going out of their minds!

You may know the exact, 'right' thing your customers or patients should do, but will they gladly accept your recommendations and follow your advice?

It's a fundamental truth about professional relationships that people don't care what you know until they know that you care -- and that you truly understand them as unique individuals. In neuro-linguistic programming, we talk about 'establishing rapport'. You may recognize it simply as 'empathy'. This is the essential first step that earns you the right, respect and credibility to have your recommendation embraced and followed by your customers and patients.

Can empathy be taught? Certainly not if there is none to begin with, however, it can be awakened, enhanced and integrated into the professional-patient (or customer) relationship for more successful outcomes.

This interactive keynote or workshop is for healthcare and professional service providers who might have the knowledge and professional skills training they need to be proficient, and now could benefit from the human and relationship awareness to help them be more effective.

Delivered in a fun, interactive style, this workshop uses real-life patient/customer scenarios customized to each profession, making it extremely relevant and practical.

How to leverage stereotype perceptions to discover your unique strengths, establish greater trust and earn credibility.

Let's face it. There are a lot of people who have a lot of negative perceptions about you, your industry and the title that's written on your business card. And when those people happen to be your customers and other groups you work with, that's a challenge. It doesn't just get in the way of your relationships with your customers, employer and the people who report to you, it also saps your personal confidence and undermines the positive perceptions we want to have of ourselves.

Instead of trying to ignore it or pretend it doesn't exist, this session will show you how to make friends with those negative perceptions. Better still, you'll learn how to leverage those negative perceptions to positively differentiate yourself, your company and the products you represent in the market. This is a highly interactive and fun session that will boost your confidence as much as it boosts your results. Get ready to laugh your way to a whole new perspective of what you do and why you're needed now more than ever!

For professionals who want to showcase the unique approach, techniques and thought-leadership they bring to the table.

Many companies already know the value of testimonials in their marketing, but are still missing the real potential of testimonials waiting to be harnessed. In this workshop, participants learn how to solicit and craft intelligent testimonials that not only position the company better, they also help improve customer loyalty and pride of association. This is an excellent workshop for salespeople, front-line staff and the marketing team… to do together!

Third-party references are the best way to sell because... why would anyone believe the seller? That's why almost all the better marketers use testimonials — but that’s just the beginning of what makes this workshop so valuable to organizations.

In this workshop, we teach participants how to think like a professional advertising copywriter to develop a library of testimonials that align with the strategic positioning of the product or service, and speak directly to the needs, interests and skepticisms that help turn other prospects into sales. Participants also use the process of developing dream testimonials to gain clarity and focus around the organization's mission, objectives and core value.

Create more compelling and persuasive presentations and proposals and develop critical and creative thinking skills.

This workshop is for all employees, at all levels of the organization, who must communicate effectively. Participants learn a communications technique that not only helps them create more compelling and persuasive presentations and proposals, it also helps them develop critical and creative thinking skills. It is presented in a fun, interactive format that enhances teamwork and collaboration.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The Five Temptations of a CEO. Six Thinking Hats. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. The Four Love Languages.

You’ve seen hundreds of examples of this 'framing' technique, but have you ever thought about how you can take advantage of it to bring clarity and power to all your presentations, proposals and strategic discussions?

Distilling your arguments to a manageable set of key points is the foundation of clearer communications, more compelling presentations and proposals, and more productive conversations and discussions. What’s more, it’s a thinking habit that everyone can learn.

In this keynote/workshop, participants learn The Essential Message 'Bananas' technique – a 5-step process to help them create a logical framework around any subject. Participants brainstorm and improvise with sample topics, and then practice with a real opportunity to help you improve results in your organization.

This workshop is fun, highly interactive and most importantly, it helps raise the productivity of everyone on your team!