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Episode 180: How to listen + unlock ideas from 10,000 workshop participants with Juraj Holub

Juraj Holub is the Chief Meeting Designer at Slido. In this conversation with Leanne Hughes on the First Time Facilitator podcast, he shares how he built up his facilitation and meeting design skills, and how he uses Slido to create an engaged company culture.

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When I ran my masterclass on booking out your workshops, I used a variety of tech tools to gain interaction from the live audience. I asked you to share your responses in chat, and also to jump into a tool called Slido, to ask your questions, upvote the ones you liked, share where you were joining us from, which facilitator business challenges you had, and more. It’s such a fun tool to use, and I’ve been leaning on it over the last 12 months as I deliver corporate workshops online.

So, I’m very excited to share a delightful conversation with a delightful person who is Employee #8 at Slido.  I’m not sure if you’ve heard the news but this company has just blown up in an amazing way and were acquired by Cisco last December.

Today’s guest is Juraj Holub, and he is a Chief Meeting Designer. Isn’t that the best job title? 

Juraj is an executive team member at Slido which has made over 800,000 events interactive. He works with conferences like Web Summit or SXSW and Fortune 500 companies helping them transform their meetings and events. He also crossed Iceland by bicycle.

He was also first marketing person to accelerate the company's product-led growth and position Slido as a thought leader in the industry. 



When you talk to someone who is like the face of the company, you kinda expect them to go on about how great their work is, how great the tech tool is - and it really is awesome technology but what I love about what Juraj shares today, is how their company became better because they listened to their clients… they sought out amazing facilitators around the world, and asked how they would use a tool in a meeting, or a workshop. 

You cannot go wrong with a listen -first approach whether that’s in marketing, or when you host your group experiences tool. I’m sure Slido were listening when they created their Meeting Zombies video which is hilarious, and has been viewed 2 million times on YouTube.

Juraj is also super humble, fun, energetic, you’ll love this conversation.

Oh and I connected with Juraj mainly for the 2021 Slido Trend report Slido - hybrid sessions and their 2021 trend report and launch event, where we explored, “What do our meetings look like in 2021?” Slido asked 1,500 remote workers to find out, the stats are incredibly interesting, a link to the report and the launch details is in the show notes. I also worked with the amazing Sabine and Simona from Slido on a webinar sharing our tips for delivering hybrid meetings.


About today’s guest: Juraj Holub

During his 7+ years at Slido, Juraj has been part of an amazing journey, helping to grow the company form $100.000 to eight-figures in revenue.

He'd had an incredible career trajectory, joining as a content specialist, then he moved to New York City as a marketing manager, later becoming a marketing director and was finally promoted to the VP of brand and communications while being on Slido's executive team.

Over the years, he’s  spoken at dozens of conferences in the US, UK and EU sharing thought leadership on meeting design, conversational presenting and audience interaction.

In this episode you will learn:

  • How you can use tech tools to give your audience a voice

  • Some fun question you can ask to build a strong culture in your company and recognise the silent heroes in your business

  • The importance of putting the focus squarely on your customers (knowing that success will follow)

  • How Juraj learns the most about leading a remote team (Spoiler alert: It’s not from reading books)

  • How he blends his two favourite passions - content marketing and facilitation/education in the role he does today

  • …And of course, a couple fun questions you can use w/ Slido during your next meeting, or event!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Watch the video now!

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 179: Stop! Stop doing the work for your group with Paul McGregor

Jimbo Clark has been working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years. He excels at meaningfully facilitating activities, games and simulations to bring new awareness of possibilities and clear actions for future improvements.

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I’m excited to release today’s chat with a friend who I met through my private Show.Up community last year. We haven’t spoken in 2021 until today’s conversation and I was just amazed and proud of the progress he (and his company) has made, it’s astonishing!

Today’s guest is Paul McGregor from Business Lab (www.businesslab.co.nz). He’s based in NZ and is a Collaboration Broker (cool phrase!), helping to transform how organisations work with their community.

If you think about it, this is a stunning business value proposition because every organisation has a community - whether that's a council and its residents; A government agency and its citizens; or a business association and its members. By harnessing the power of your community, your organisation can achieve more than if you simply go it alone.

Paul is also the Host of the Beyond Consultation Podcast and in this chat, he shares how he started up a podcast 12 months ago, releasing episodes every 2 weeks, and he shares that having a podcast has created hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting work for his company - HOW GOOD!

When I think of Paul, I think of progress, in today’s episode you’ll hear his candid story about his facilitation journey, both as someone exploring it as a career, and also how he navigates the business side of the work as well.

We have similar backgrounds in how we discovered the work of a facilitator, by being in environments where strangers came together, and walked away as best of mates!

He also shares his lessons learnt from being a first time facilitator, some of his facilitation failures, and shifting the expectations (being okay with giving his group the space to share, to listen, RATHER than having that urge to get in and solve, drive a solution right then and there).

This conversation is brilliantly honest, and Im sure you’ll learn a lot from Paul’s progress as a facilitator and business partner!


About today’s guest: Paul McGregor

People describe Paul as an insightful guide through complex issues.

Paul hosts the Beyond Consultation Podcast, is the creator of the Engagement Canvas and the author of Virtually Productive - your guide to facilitating virtual meetings that create change outside the meeting room.

His career began in public policy with the Ministry of Justice before a life-changing role with Lifehack, a systems-level initiative for supporting the wellbeing of young New Zealanders.  He then co-managed the Nelson branch of Literacy Aoteroa before being drawn to the variety of Business Lab’s work.

Outside work, you'll find Paul walking his hipster dog on the beach, mucking around with his young family at home or taking on another community governance role before he knows what’s good for him!

In this episode you will learn:

  • The magic of starting a podcast to supercharge your facilitation business growth

  • How Paul discovered the world of facilitation, and quickly stepped into it

  • How Paul’s expectations of himself, and his work and getting results in his group-work, have shifted over time

  • A new tool, called Psychodrama, which you can use to create great dialogue, experiences and shared empathy in your workshops.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 177: How to test the emotional temperature of your invisible audience with Nikki Bush

Jimbo Clark has been working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years. He excels at meaningfully facilitating activities, games and simulations to bring new awareness of possibilities and clear actions for future improvements.

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Is it possible to test the emotional temperature of your virtual/workshop group? Today’s guest share her ideas, and fun ways of reinvigorating her virtual sessions. She’s an absolute rockstar and I cant wait to share her facilitation story and experiences on today’s episode.

I met Nikki Bush when I was lucky enough to present a workshop for the Professional Speakers Association of South Africa (Jo’burg Chapter) a couple of months ago. We got along so well (thanks for the intro, Yoke!), I , I love her enthusiasm, wisdom and her energy which you’ll pick up in today’s episode for sure.

About today’s guest: Nikki Bush

Human Potential and Parenting Expert, Nikki Bush from https://nikkibush.com/   empowers individuals, families and teams in business and education to win at work, home and life. She has the knack of putting difficult, complex and sensitive topics on the table (ones we often prefer to avoid), and making them accessible, such as disruption, future-proofing, dealing with loss and adversity, team dynamics, self-leadership, parenting and more. 

Nikki’s book on disruption, Future-proof Yourself (Penguin Random House) hits the shelves in July 2021.

(Comment from Leanne - I have a version of this book and the actionable tips across all aspects of work and life are spot on!)

Nikki has also has co-authored four best-selling parenting books with major publishers, including, Future-proof Your Child for the 2020s and Beyond, Tech-Savvy Parenting and Easy Answers to Awkward Questions . She has fielded almost 3 000 media interviews in the past 15 years. You may have seen or heard her on her weekly slots on Radio 702 and SABC3’s Expresso among many others.

Nikki always speaks with energy, passion, self-deprecating humour and a disarming honesty and vulnerability. She packs a powerful sound bite whether from the stage or the 18 different virtual conferencing platforms she has experience with. Your audience will be left with valuable insights and practical solutions to help them to win at work and life. 

Nikki is a founding member of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa (PSASA), holds the international Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, and was inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame in 2019 – the first woman in South Africa to ever receive it. She was the 2020/21 President of the Johannesburg Chapter of the PSASA.

For more information and a full length bio, visit Nikki’s website. 

In this episode you will learn how to:

  • Use the drivers of human nature to enhance your workshop experiences

  • Detect the emotional temperature of your audience, even when you’re in a virtual workshop

  • Boost the interactivity with your audience

  • Increase your profile, to appear in media outlets (without using a PR agency)

Here are some questions I asked Nikki during the conversation:

  • Can you tell us the story of how you got here and where you started from?

  • You talk about getting set up for remote work, you mention that one time you’re in a call, a parrot escaped and landed on your head. Talk us through that, how did you recover? Did you embrace it? What did you do next?

  • What’s your advice to our listeners to create that engagement?

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Watch the conversation!

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 176: Workshops that spread like wildfire (and book you out in the process) with Leanne Hughes

What does it take for your workshops to go viral? Listen in for some of my ideas!

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This week, I'm continuing the momentum from last week's solo episode, and responding to a listener question about how to create momentum and drive word of mouth, so that you can book out more workshops.

Here’s the question I received this week:

"Hello! I have no idea how to turn our initial client workshop into multiple ones.
Our clients and participants loved the day, and we have a few months of follow up because the technical implementation is important to them... 
But how do I now get others in? 
I know they have a lot more people in their organisation, who need our work.
I don't want to just wait and have it fizzle out..."

There are many elements that drive word of mouth referrals, for today’s minisode I want to focus specifically on the workshop itself as a tool (as opposed to how you work, pre and post workshop, opening a storyloop with your client).

In this episode, instead of giving all the answers, I’d like to provoke you to think about how some of the lessons/ideas I share, and how this could apply to your specific context?


Register now for my free webinar on 16 June 2021: Steal my Booked Out Facilitator framework to land repeatable workshop bookings 

Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/leannehughes)

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 175: Deciding what you (and your facilitation business) actively pursues with Leanne Hughes

How do you know what you and your facilitation business should focus on? Listen in!

Today is a solo, just in time episode, on something that I’ve probably been a bit shy in sharing.

However, when I’ve been on listening tours, and spoken to you, and even now in my foundation round of my new online program, Booked Out Facilitator, it seems a common challenge I hear is that it’s really hard to decide (and then define) what you actually do.

This actually comes to life more so when you start messaging and promoting and website building.

It’s not a messaging problem, it’s a decision problem.

I empathise so much with this, as I continually question it for myself: "What are you doing Leanne? Where are you progressing? Stop being so vague!"

No one has agonised over this harder than me.

Sometimes I even wish someone would tell me what to focus on, and make that decision for me. Crazy, right?

In today's episode, I pull on my explorer hat, and take you behind the scenes of conversations I've had, tools I've used, questions I've answered to help navigate my uncertainty. I share it in the hope that it helps provide you with some clarity and direction!

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 174: Out of the box facilitation + business building with Jimbo Clark

Jimbo Clark has been working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years. He excels at meaningfully facilitating activities, games and simulations to bring new awareness of possibilities and clear actions for future improvements.

What I love about my conversation with today’s guest is his knack and ability for jumping in, trying things, being open for the possibilities.

I think that’s an incredibly important facilitator skill and he demonstrates it, not only with the way he runs his business and facilitates workshops, but his life as well!

My guest today is Jimbo Clark from Innogreat.

When Jim Clark arrived in Shenyang China in 1987, he had no idea that he would settle in Asia, that he would start a consulting company focusing on creative innovation, that he would live in Taiwan for more than 25 years, or that his name would change from Jim to Jimbo. If he had known any of these things, he probably wouldn’t have gotten off the airplane. Luckily, he didn’t and he has been living, working and innovating in Asia since, working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years. 

I think when we’re starting anything new, we always want to know - where will this go?

We want to have all the answers: What will I offer, how will I do it… Well, all if this can change in an instant!

It did for Jim when when he used the resources that he had available to him in a workshop and spun an entirely new idea, service, product offering off it, which continues to grow today - and you’ll hear more about!

In this conversation, Jim also shares how he got started in facilitation and pretty much self-funded his experience, how he facilitates mindset change and really values connection over content in his workshops. Probably

As you’ll hear, Jimbo’s goal is to be a catalyst of creative change, to support those he comes in contact with, to become who they need to be, to answer the burning questions of their lives.

Jimbo is also offering listeners 50% off his book titled In and Out of the Box, scroll down to find out more.

About today’s guest: Jimbo Clark

Jimbo has been working across APAC with individuals, teams and organizations on achieving transformational change for more than 25 years. He excels at meaningfully facilitating activities, games and simulations to bring new awareness of possibilities and clear actions for future improvements.

His goal is to be a catalyst of creative change to support those he comes in contact with to become who they need to be to answer the burning questions of their lives.

Psst…Jimbo is sharing TWO amazing offers for First Time Facilitator listeners - yeaaah!

20% off Upgrade your B❒X: The Hybrid Experience

This session combines:

a) what we've learned from running hundreds of face to face B❒X sessions, and

b) what we learned in the last 18 months running more than 100 virtual sessions

into a bundled hybrid product that kicks box.

This hybrid program includes:

❒ The B❒X Book (digital download)

❒ E-learning pre-course

❒ Your very own B❒X (shipped)

❒ The Virtual B❒X Experience (a 2.5 hour virtual workshop)

❒ E-learning post-course

Jimbo is offering 20% off the already discounted pre-release price

How to claim? Navigate to: https://box.innogreat.com/upgrade-your-box/

Use coupon code: upgradel2

If you can't attend a session, Jimbo is also happy to provide 50% off his book, which is also available here.

Coupon Code: boxbook50

In this episode you will learn how to:

  • Create shifts in our own mindset

  • Create connections between content and participants

  • Jump in and be okay with learning as you go!

  • Start building your brand and business, paying attention to what clients actually want

Here are some questions I asked Jimbo during the conversation:

  • How did you feel, how did you feel that first time you tried it so there was no real process, it was like I just gathered these materials? This anticipates it's going to be 45 minutes and now you've just extended it to three hours?

  • How did you start training and facilitating? What drew you to this profession?

  • Is there anything that we can do as facilitators to help instill mindset shifts, with our participants?

  • How did you start building your brand?

Resources mentioned in this episode:

  • Jimbo Clark’s Email - jimbo@innogreat.com

  • Visit Jimbo’s website

Watch the conversation:

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 173: To stand out, you have to stand up with Mark Garrett Hayes

Mark specialises in working with inside sales teams (telesales / digital sales) in technology businesses and has collective experience in working with professional services (legal / finance) and online retail business.

It’s funny what ideas you get in your head when you put pressure on yourself to grow your training or facilitation business. For me, this looks like cold calling people, have the best one-liners, and being on social media all of the time. Horror!

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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 think we should do.

Mark is the founder of TrainingBusiness.com, 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 Mark’s show last month and loved our conversation around building a business, and wanted to continue it and hear his strategies for outreach and connecting with clients, to create a profitable training business, his podcast, Training Business is a fantastic source of inspiration to help you out with this, too.

What I love about this conversation is how we can use our masterful skill of facilitation to grow our business. It really is the best skill around.

Mark drops some fantastic, memorable one-liners too, some of my favourites include:

  • Acronym BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing)

  • Sales - reframing it, calling it a service, making it fun, more accessible, and creative, too

  • References, referrals and recommendations - the difference and which ones you should pursue.

About our Guest: Mark Garrett Hayes

Mark specialises in working with inside sales teams (telesales / digital sales) in technology businesses and has collective experience in working with professional services (legal / finance) and online retail business.

His team works with business internationally and the beauty of working with telephone sales people is that we can deliver sales training / sales coaching online remotely whether your business is in the US, UK, EU and APAC.


In this episode you will learn:

  • Easeful systems and frameworks for generating and qualifying leads

  • A realistic timeframe for building your business

  • How to promote yourself without talking about yourself!

  • Knowing your ICP - Ideal Customer Profile

Here’s a sample of questions I asked Mark during the interview:

  • What’s your approach to word of mouth vs. outreach?

  • How did you capture your IP in this type of work?

  • What are your tips for people who do not like to take phone calls?

Resources:

Watch the video interview below:

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 172: Start the conversation: Creating a safe space to explore tough topics with Rose Allett

Rose 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

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 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 Rose creates trust quickly with her groups, particularly in the virtual world, and how she starts a conversation around a sensitive topic. We also dive into being a business owner and the importance of having an abundance mindset- valuing collaboration, over competition.

As you’ll hear, Rose is passionate about empowering people to overcome their fears and find the words to talk about suicide, because she believes... she knows... that talking saves lives. It saved hers. 

And not just talking, listening too. A conversation; a brave, bold and necessary conversation

About our guest: Rose Allett

Rose is a passionate and experienced Suicide Prevention specialist and Founder of Start the Conversation. She has empowered hundreds if not thousands of people around the world (face-to-face and more recently on Zoom) with the skills and confidence to talk about suicide.

Her courses include: LivingWorks ASIST and safeTALK, Suicide First Aid (SFA) and her own 90-minute Zoom training Talking about Suicide: Ten Tools (TAS10), developed in partnership with the charity Olly's Future.

She has taught English in the Sahara desert, coached Vietnam veterans in the Australian bush on how to actively listen, created a guide and a film for parents worried about their teen's self-harming, coordinated role-play sessions (with young actors) to train doctors how to communicate more effectively with teenage patients who are self-harming or thinking of suicide.

She has managed projects, including the innovative award-winning Safe Space and youth mental health project Right Here (both YMCA DLG). She is a qualified Integrative Humanistic Counsellor, specialising in working with young people aged 13-25.

In this episode you will learn how to:

  • Create an environment of openness and trust quickly, to open crucial conversations

  • Start a conversation if you’re concerned about someone’s well-being

  • Manage your energy and put on your “game face” before a workshop

  • Channel an abundance mindset (and the importance of focusing on collaboration over competition_

  • Incorporate self-care as an everyday way of being

Here are some questions I asked Rose during the interview:

  • Can you talk us through what’s working in terms of creating that environment of starting a conversation?

  • You exude warmth, radiance and comfort. Did you hone that or is that just part of who you are?

  • How do you manage your state and energy before your workshop?

  • How do you reflect on how your workshop went?

  • What do you want to share with our audience about the abundance mindset?

Resources mentioned:

Watch the video interview below:

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 171: Turning a monologue into a dialogue with Johnny Quinn

Since 2001, Johnny Quinn has provided custom presentation services for over 500 local and international clients resulting in over 25000 slides and too many bullet points to count! John’s creativity and professional design experience will result in an effective presentation with impact.

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.

He’s been a DJ, Postman, Van Driver, Theatre, Technician, Cameraman, Engineering Manager, Business, Development Manager, Company Owner and his burning desire is to travel to the worlds top 10 beaches (I’m sure Cable Beach in WA would be up there, that’s my favourite beach!)

In this episode, Johnny also shares some very memorably analogies, one liners and expressions, you can also use to help influence others to be brave, and try things differently.

About our Guest: Johnny Quinn

Raised and Educated in Ireland, John Quinn arrived in the United Arab Emirates in 1996 determined to make the difference between presentations that fall flat, and that ‘seal the deal’. After several years with Gearhouse & Philips Middle East he started Satellite in Dubai Media City in 2001 and then expanded the operation to Dubai Silicon Oasis in 2010.

In 2015, John added www.audiencealive.com service to his worldwide portfolio and expanded his business to cover Australia and NZ. 

Since 2001, John has provided custom presentation services for over 500 local and international clients resulting in over 25000 slides and too many bullet points to count! John’s creativity and professional design experience will result in an effective presentation with impact.

In this episode you will learn how to :

  • Breaking the “norm” of presentations and tackle non-linear work

  • Channel your fears, and turn it into excitement by spinning your monologue into a dialogue

  • Boost engagement using powerfully simple tools

  • Fun ways of running both in-person and virtual events

  • Use technology and powerful activities in your workshops 

Questions Leanne asked Johnny during the interview

  • Moving from a monologue to a dialogue and putting our audience front and centre. You have some compelling stats on meetings and the state that we’re in now. Could you please share that with our listeners?

  • How do you get your presenters to be more confident about the idea of being more flexible?

  • What are your ideas for improvement for meeting architecture?

  • Where do you get your ideas and where is your source of inspiration?

Resources mentioned

Watch the video interview below:

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 170: Putting Grace in the Space with Beth Wonson

The mission of Beth Wonson & Company is to bring Navigating Challenging Dialogue to everyone who wants to have meaningful, drama-free dialogue. We provide leadership coaching, consulting, and training rooted in the NCD Process so our clients are able to stop wasting valuable resources through miscommunication, unhealthy conflict, and unnecessary drama.

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.

I feel like if you could talk about some of the challenges that are faced in organisations today, you could relate it back to this one statistic.

Toady we’re talking about feedback and I’m joined by Beth Wonson from NCDsolution.com. This is a quasi episode mixing up two topics:

1) Feedback conversations - how to get better at having them

2) Facilitation: In particular, how to centre yourself before a workshop, and what you do when you receive negative feedback about your workshop - you know that negative bias we all have?

What I love about Beth’s work is the simplicity of what she shares, and how applicable it can be to you - If you know you’e been avoiding feedback for some time, this is a great opportunity and reminder on how to normalise giving and receiving feedback, and taking away that stigma attached to it.

About our Guest: Beth Wonson

Since 2015, Beth Wonson, CEO and Founder of Navigating Challenging Dialogue®, has coached hundreds of C-suite professionals in Fortune 500s and the non-profit sector to have meaningful, drama-free conversations. Beth has worked in the various industries holding roles including CEO and COO.

Beth founded Navigating Challenging Dialogue in 2015 out of frustration for the ways in which traditional leadership skills fail the mission and goals of organizations. Beth realized one of the most critical needs was an awareness of the importance of emotional self-management.  

By exploring how our brains work, Beth recognized how emotions and thinking errors impact our ability to create positive work environments. By applying what she learned into her practice with clients, she developed the process of Navigating Challenging Dialogue. 

The four-stage NCD Process is for managing yourself and your ability to communicate effectively with curiosity and clarity. The NCD Process is unique in that it is successful in any place where human interaction is critical.

People who work with Beth learn to end miscommunication mishaps, chaos, and costly conflicts. In turn, they create a culture that fosters greater employee satisfaction, retention, and performance. Grounded in proven methods of self-management, Beth’s proprietary process, Navigating Challenging Dialogue, guides leaders to communicate directly and effectively while strengthening their company’s fundamentals.

The mission of Beth Wonson & Company is to bring Navigating Challenging Dialogue to everyone who wants to have meaningful, drama-free dialogue. We provide leadership coaching, consulting, and training rooted in the NCD Process so our clients are able to stop wasting valuable resources through miscommunication, unhealthy conflict, and unnecessary drama.

In this episode you will learn:

  • How to master getting feedback during workshop

  • Identifying feedback and ensuring it is fact-based

  • How to normalise the process of giving feedback, and using it as an opportunity to provide support

  • How to regulate your emotions when you receive feedback

  • How to be responsible for the energy you bring to the room

Here are some questions I asked Beth during the conversation:

  • Can you share your process of working with leaders and have them take action on getting feedback?

  • As recipients of feedback, should we take on all feedback given to us… Or should we be selective from who we listen to?

  • What’s your advice for handling our negative bias?

  • How do you deliver feedback online as it’s not as fluid as face-to-face? 

  • What would be the next step in normalizing giving feedback?

  • How do you personally prepare for a workshop?

Resources Mentioned:

Watch the video interview below:

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 169: How to get your groups to spot (and share) their stories with David Pullan

On the First Time Facilitator podcast this week 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.

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? 

FTF_Ep169_David-Pullan.jpg

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 someone who is excellent at building relationships, and he also shares his ideas on how facilitators make THE best facilitators. I never thought of it that way!

About our Guest: David Pullan

David Pullan  is the founder of The Story Spotters where he helps leaders and teams use the power of story to build powerful connections one conversation at a time. We dive into the 4 elements of story spotting in this show.

He has extensive experience in helping clients sharpen their spoken communications. He specialises in business development communication and key internal presentations, helping clients to unlock the complexity of messages that need to stick with their target audiences.

David has been coaching senior leaders since 2005. Working in some of the world’s top organisations and SMEs, he helps clients adapt their communications for different settings from Board and Executive committee sessions, to town hall meetings and video conferences. 

David was a professional actor for 20 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre, BBC and Paramount Pictures. He continues to work both as a broadcast voice-over artist and conference host, both of which keep his own communications skills at the sharp end.


In this episode you will learn:

  • The stories that you need to spot, shape and share stories: Listen to David share his valuable story-spotting framework

  • How to make your workshops the best experience for all involved

  • Some refreshing advice for first time facilitators

  • How to connect people’s ideas to concepts and key messages

  • How to extend the life of your voice, using the UFO technique

  • What keeps David motivated as a business owner


Here are some questions I asked David during the Interview:

  • Tell us more about what spurred your rebrand?

  • Can you please share those 4 elements of story spotting?

  • How do you extract stories from people you work with?

  • How can you test the assumptions about the things you tell yourself )that maybe true or may not be true)?

  • What are your tips for facilitators in extending the life of their voices?

  • What keeps you going?


Resources mentioned in this episode:

  • Connect with David Pullan on LinkedIn

  • Story Spotters on LinkedIn

  • Tweet David on Twitter to let him know you’ve seen this episode!

Watch the video interview below:

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

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Episode 168: An L&D Detective solves the ultimate measurement mystery with Kevin M Yates

They call him the L&D detective because he solves mysteries. The mystery he solves is, "What is the impact of learning?" It's not a murder mystery. It's a measurement mystery!

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, evidence, and data. 

FTF Ep168 Kevin M Yates.jpg

Kevin’s career in the learning and development profession includes over 20 years of experience in local and global roles for facilitation, instructional design, learning technology, program management, leadership development, impact analysis and more.

His reach is worldwide through in person and virtual keynote presentations, panel discussions, and workshops across the globe. 

If you’re curious on how to measure your workshop results, setting measurable targets, identifying performance gaps and helpful questions you can use after your workshop, you’ll enjoy this episode.

About today’s guest: Kevin M Yates

Kevin is a learning and development (L&D) detective and he solves mysteries. The mystery he solves is, “What is the impact of learning?” He looks for facts, clues, evidence, and data as proof for learning’s influence on performance, behaviour, actions, and business goals. He examines outcomes for training and learning.

His reach is global with in-person and virtual keynotes, presentations, panel discussions, podcast interviews, live-streams, and his eBook, the 𝙇&𝘿 𝘿𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙆𝙞𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨. He shares actionable methods and techniques for removing the mystery from measurement. He demonstrates how to proactively plan for impact in the beginning so it’s easier to measure in the end.

His message is firmly rooted in the belief that measuring impact is possible, necessary, and actionable. He acknowledges challenges and searches for what makes measuring impact possible. He finds joy, fulfilment of purpose, and excitement in helping the global learning and development community.

In this episode you will learn:

  • How to measure results of the workshops you deliver

  • How to clarify your targets in order to measure your results

  • A format for driving a discovery conversation with your clients to reveal their performance requirements and help set goals

  • What you can do with post-workshop results

Here are some questions I asked Kevin in the interview:

  • What are your thoughts on the work that we do - can we quantify it having a real impact on business results?

  • As an L&D people, how can we take on that role influencing people (rather than being an order-taker)? 

  • What do you think about the post workshop survey?

  • Can you please share a bit more about the philosophy that you really believe in the magic of timing, if the timing is right, things will happen? Can you talk more about that statement?

  • When you turned a certain age, something changed within you, you felt like it was just okay to be you. Can you elaborate on that? And how do we get that feeling now even before turning that age?

Resources:

Watch the full episode now!


About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 14 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.



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Episode 167: How to turn a workshop into a killer keynote speech with Leanne Hughes

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?

That’s the topic I explore today, where I share actionable tips on how I prepare for a keynote speech. Spoiler alert: The first thing I do when designing a speech is to step away from my computer, and go out for a walk!

Thanks to Adele Spurgin, who asked the following question in The Flipchart this week:

“Traditionally I am right at home facilitating so today when a keynote speaking gig in front of 750pax was offered to me, I just said YES & am now starting to workout the how!

Any advice, insights etc would be greatly appreciated!!! As I haven’t done this size crowd in a while.

Leanne Hughes I saw your LinkedIn post and although this is not an MC role maybe you could help shed some insights pls!

I mean how hard can it be, right?”

Listen in to hear how I design, prepare, rehearse and deliver my keynotes in this week’s episode.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

About your host: Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work.

She combines her experience in Marketing, with her education in Human Resources and Psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences - that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development.  She has over 13 years’ of experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and was a finalist in the 2018 Australian Learning Impact awards for Learning Professional of the Year.

Like this show?

Grab my cheat sheet:

The 5 unpredictable ways to start a Zoom meeting (that predictably work)

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    Episode 166: Creating a learning atmosphere of “serious fun" with Dana the Trainer #bestof

    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 Jane-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”.

    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 don't go to plan (hint: prevention is better than cure)

    • How to create content for new workshops

    I want to share her website copy on her About page as a way of introducing her.

    Here we go:

    My favourite word is the F-Word – FUN

    (Wait a minute … what F word were you thinking about?).  Seriously!

    As you can tell I take an unconventional approach to learning focusing on fun, colour, enjoyment and making things as practical and relevant as possible to make sure that key learnings make it back to the workplace.

    What is it that I facilitate? Great question!

    I have my fingers in many pies, but my 3 core areas are *drumroll please*

    Diversity & Inclusion, Train-The-Trainer (or Coach) and Agile

    And if that sounds like an eclectic mix of things that shouldn’t go together and make no sense  you’re going to have to read the rest of my bio to find out why and how it all came about. To confuse you even further I sometimes even dabble in some Management & Leadership bits … but that’s a story for another day.

    Read the rest of Dana’s story.

    What’s new with Leanne and First Time Facilitator?

    • So excited to share that I’m partnering with Slido on their Online Meetings Revolution trend report. Come along to the launch and hear the interesting data + predictions to make your online meetings as engaging and relevant as possible. It’s on 14 April 2021, here’s the link to sign up.  

    • Join the conversation when the show is over with 1300 facilitators from all over the world in our free group called The Flipchart

    • Support the show (and my ideas) by buying me a coffee

    Resources mentioned in this episode:

    Like this show?

    Quotes of the show:

    • "There are so many things that you can do to bring learning, to bring a classroom alive to make things not so painful for people".

    • Even when you know the content and you're familiar with it, you’re still thinking, 'Who's going to be there tomorrow?', 'What if this exercise doesn't work?',  'What do I have as a backup for this?', 'Did I pack this thing?'

    • 'You cannot be rigid, sticking to your lesson plan. The classroom is a place of surprise.  The best facilitators pull the learning out of what is happening in the room, instead of sticking to the script'.

    Episode transcript

    View the First Time Facilitator episode transcript with Dana the Trainer.

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    #Bestof: Facilitating once in a lifetime workshop experiences with Steve Sims (Episode 165)

    Today’s guest 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.

    Today’s guest 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.

    Not too many people can say that to their clients...But today’s guest, is a one of a kind guy.
    His name is Steve Sims. Steve is the man who created Bluefish, a company that makes once-in-a-lifetime events happen for the rich and famous reveals to the rest of us his trade secrets for making things happen.  With his help and expertise, his clients’ fantasies and wildest dreams come true.

    Steve is the author of the Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen, and he has a podcast of the same name. Steve has spoken at Harvard and the Pentagon, twice.  Getting married by the Pope in the Vatican, being serenaded by Elton John, and connecting with powerful business moguls like Elon Musk are just a few of the many projects he has worked on.  

    I really wanted Steve on the show to talk about a few key things - the assumptions we have about asking for things, how confidence; and your approach can take you far and (literally) open doors.  We also talk about the perfectionism beast.

    If you’d like to join the conversation when the show is over, join The Flipchart, a free community on Facebook for First Time Facilitator listeners.

    About our guest: Steve Sims

    Steve Sims Steve is the visionary founder of Bluefish: the world’s first luxury concierge that delivers the highest level of personalized travel, transportation, and cutting-edge entertainment services to corporate executives, celebrities, professional athletes, and other discerning individuals interested in living life to its fullest.

    Resources mentioned in this episode:

    Like this show?

    Quotes of the show:

    “I'm a great believer in keeping liability low.”
    “The greatest growth comes from the greatest accidents.”
    “It’s incredible to have people just be able to realize the rich people are poor people with a lot of money; things don't change, just that bank account.”
    “I'm a great believer that perfection is a blue unicorn with three testicles; it doesn't exist.”
    “I don't believe speakers should give speeches. I think speakers should have conversations with thousands of people or hundreds of people.”

    Episode transcript

    View the First Time Facilitator episode transcript with Steve Sims.

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