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Spotlight on John Sullivan,
A Director of Sales Training
A Director of Sales Training
©2008, RiverWays Enterprises
All rights reserved.
Fifteen
years ago John Sullivan loved public speaking. He had a radio show in
Boston, frequently addressed gatherings of regional sales and marketing
executives, and generally had “no issues with being in front of
crowds, with or without preparation,” he says. In fact, for him
public speaking was an experience of “total joy, total bliss.”
Then, in his first month with a major sports equipment company—where he is now Director of Sales Training—he was asked to present at a national sales meeting on a topic he knew nothing about. He choked.
“It was the first time in my life I had encountered that level of failure, and it was catastrophic as far as I was concerned,” John recalls. “Having that gift had been a big part of how I defined myself.”
Since he’s a perfectionist and a Type A, John tried everything—from Toastmasters to counseling to hypnosis—in an attempt to banish his stage fright and restore his stress-free attitude toward public speaking. Nothing worked.
Then a friend recommended Carla Kimball. John attended a SpeakingPresence session and then signed on for Carla’s two-day Successfully Speaking Intensive.
At first, he says, Carla’s approach didn’t make a lot of sense to him. “It was like slamming up against a wall when you’re driving 80 miles an hour. What, you want me to stop talking?? You want me to have a soft gaze??”
Gradually, though, he moved from “not getting it” to understanding her SpeakingPresence approach on an intellectual level, and then to practicing it in his daily life as well as in speaking situations.
“What Carla’s methodology does is get you grounded where you are, with the focus not on you but on the people you’re addressing,” he says. “What I found to be really enlightening was how you can change your delivery and re-channel your energy in such a way that unexpected outcomes can occur.”
For example, when John learned he’d be giving a toast at his daughter’s wedding last October, he prepared his remarks in January and made it his goal to practice them 300 times before the event.
“When I shared that with Carla, she just smiled,” John recalls, and advised him to set his goal aside and instead allow the experience of his daughter’s wedding day to inform his remarks.
“I accepted her coaching and embraced the idea that I needed to have an open mind and an open soul,” John says. “I wanted to be aware of my feelings and the other things going on around me, and I wanted it to be all about my daughter. It was that openness that allowed me to deliver remarks that both she and I were very pleased with. If I had taken my usual ‘success in business’ approach, that never could have happened.”
“Carla has an innate talent, a gift,” he adds. “I have complete confidence in her ability and when I’m with her I feel I’m in a very peaceful place, where anything can happen. Her coaching is compelling and magnetic—once you’ve experienced it, you don’t want to approach it any other way. Everyone in that two-day intensive came there with feelings of vulnerability about public speaking, and we took away with us a sense of heightened self-esteem. That was a really wonderful outcome, and it’s because of Carla.”
John has now integrated Carla’s methodology into his life and work
to the point that he finds himself constantly using it to communicate
and connect during meetings and trainings—and he shares many of
the SpeakingPresence principles and techniques with his sales trainees.
Though he has not yet achieved the kind of comfort level with public speaking
that he hopes to recapture one day, he knows he’s on the right path.
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