How to win friends and influence your online colleagues with Leanne Hughes (Episode 159)
Release Date: 02/06/2021
First Time Facilitator
Building a training business! We think we need to do all those things like cold call people, have the best one-liners, be on social media all of the time. Mark Garrett Hayes is my guest today and he shares that there are other ways you can build your training business, which doesn’t rely on what we traditionally think we should do. Mark is the founder of , a Media and Education platform serving facilitators, trainers, coaches, consultants, learning & development consultants and human development experts around the world, to start, scale and grow their business! I was a guest on...
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This week, we’re talking about a topic that isn’t really talked about, and today’s guest is on a mission to change that. (A quick heads up if you’re listening, in this episode we’re talking about suicide, and how to starting a conversation if you’re worried about someone). My guest is Rose Allett, and she is the face behind Start the Conversation. She’s a qualified counsellor, mum of one, keen yogi and singer (amongst other things!) and also a passionate, experienced and international tutor of suicide prevention skills. In this conversation, I’m curious to discover how...
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This week we’re focusing on two of my favourite things, that I mention on this podcast over and over again (aren’t you lucky!): Unpredictability and Contrast. My guest today, Johnny Quinn from Audience Alive, epitomises both. This is a masterclass episode in how to do things differently in your workshops. I’m not saying that lightly either, literally, there are at least 10 ideas in this podcast, you can use, or share with your company, or anyone running events, workshops, presentations to immediately create audience engagement. Raised and Educated in Ireland, Johnny...
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My guest today threw a crazy stat at me in this conversation: 99% of employees want feedback, however 75% of managers don’t like giving feedback.
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Today, you’ll hear from a guest with tremendous presence (and a matching tremendous voice!). We all know stories are important, but what’s the best way of eliciting those stories from our workshop participants? My guest today is David Pullan, co-founder of The Story Spotters. In this conversation, David shares pragmatic details on questions and x-factor activities we can use in our next workshop, using the Story Spotter framework. He also shares a reassuring phrase we can use as facilitators, to help us relax a little bit (I’m looking at myself here!!). David is a fine example of...
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Ooh - how’s this for a first time? It’s the first time we’ve had an L&D detective on the show and he’s here to answer the #1 question that plays on all of our (and our clients’ minds): “How can we measure the results, and the ROI of our workshops?” Known in the global learning and development (L&D) community as “the L&D detective,” Kevin M. Yates answers the question, “What is the impact of learning?” He solves measurement mysteries and investigates how learning activates performance and business goals using facts, clues,...
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Your workshops are amazing: So amazing that you’ve been asked to share your expertise in a keynote presentation! How do you convert your interactive group content, to something that can be delivered from the stage in front of hundreds of people?
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Energy is the most important thing when it comes to your workshops, and I discovered this nice and early when I geeked out on an energetic conversation with today’s guest, Dana James-Edwards. This is a #bestof episode - I spoke to Dana back in 2018, when she called herself “Dana the Trainer”. Through a series of pivots and discovering her passion, she is now known as “Diversity Dana". Today’s conversation is as relevant as ever - you’ll learn Ways to make facilitation more fun, colourful and engaging How to balance or lift your energy levels when required What to do when things...
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Wouldn't it be cool if you could say to your client: "We'll practise those skills at Sir Elton John's Oscars party!". Today's guest has done that :) Here's one of my #bestof episodes! I'm in deep work mode, working up a new program and busy attempting to pick my own brain. My guest today is Steve Sims and he runs the coolest workshops I’ve ever heard of, no joke. And how does he embed learning at the end of these workshops? By making people practice the skills they’ve learn, when they rock up to Sir Elton John’s Oscars after-party. Steve is the man who created Bluefish, a...
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You’ll often hear how facilitation is used in the context of workshops and meetings on this podcast. However, today’s guest, demonstrates how it’s an incredibly handy skill for life in general, to. In fact, she used the tool of facilitation alone to build an entire Learning and Development department at the company she worked at. She’s a tremendous example of how you can define what you love, and have the courage to go after it. If you want to build a facilitation career but have no idea how to take the next step, I hope that this conversation will help you find your courage to seek...
info_outlineDo you rely on your colleagues to provides input and decisions to move a project forward? Do you find that you're constantly chasing people to get things done, and finding it hard to build relationships because you can't catch up with people in person?
Then, this episode is for you.
When we used to do things face to face, and I had to chase a colleague for information, I'd head out for a coffee.
It was semi-strategic. I’d sit at the coffee shop outside of my company’s office. It was a fantastic way of saying hi to people when they were in a good mood (with caffeine, outside, day hadn’t really started), you could easily sneak in a quick question about your project, get an answer, and feel like you’d already won the day.
In a virtual world though, it’s hard to orchestrate these conversations… Or, is it?
In this episode, I share the tactics I’ve used to build relationships and influence people I’ve never met before.
You’ll find this helpful if you’re:
- Having to get people’s time/attention and you’re struggling because they don’t respond to your emails / you don’t have direct authority (you’re influencing / in a dotted line relationship)
- Partnering with an organisation to achieve goals, and you need to work with leaders/subject matter experts, but they’re too busy to give you the input you need to move forward.