Nick Skellon

Nick is one of the UK's leading public speaking and presentation skills coaches. After serving as an officer with the British army, he spent almost twenty years in a number of big, blue-chip FMCG companies (Mars Confectionery, Duracell Batteries, Rothmans Tobacco, Golden Wonder and Vimto) in various sales and marketing roles, from what used to be called 'carrying the bag' a a salesperson though Major Account Manager, National Sales Manager and Sales and Marketing Director.

He set up his own company in order to pursue his passion, which is training and employee development. He began running successful seminar programmes on customer service, but found that whenever he told people what he did for a living, they would invariable say something like, "Oh, I could never do that!" or "Giving presentations is the worst part of my job." And these were often people who were very confident socially and very good at every other aspect of their job.

So he spent over a year thinking about why he enjoyed it, what made him good at it and how his approach differed from that of other trainers and created the concept of 'Whole-Brain Presenting', an approach that engages both halves of the audience's brain and increases your chances of achieving your presentation's objective exponentially.

Because that's what Nick believes presentation skills training is really about. It's not just about teaching you to connect with the audience, or get over your nerves, or get great feedback after it's over. It's about helping you to achieve your presentation's objective. After all, what good is it being told that your presentation was really interesting or entertaining or insightful, if you didn't achieve what you set out to when you began?

During his twenty years at the above-mentioned companies, Nick gave almost 1,000 business presentations and sat through several thousand more, so he understands corporate life and has stood in your shoes. He bears the scars and has walked the walk and is fond of saying that he's already made all the mistakes so you don't have to.

It took him many years to perfect the art of giving great presentations and today he teaches other people how to do it. He trains using his unique approach full-time and has written several books and scores of articles on the subject.

What people have said about Nick's seminars:

“Honestly it was the best class/workshop I’ve ever attended. I see no room for improvements. Nick was amazing on how he delivered the material and how he was able to keep everyone’s attention for the duration of the 2 day course. Kudos to Nick!” – John Chomko, McKesson

"I'm quite experienced as a speaker, but always felt that something was missing and wanted to do more. This workshop was an eye-opener for me, especially the bit on how to use rhetoric ... I feel I've improved by leaps and bounds" ... Jeremy Waterhouse, Citibank

"Probably the most enjoyable course I've been on. Loved the relaxed, humorous approach Nick uses to get his points across" ... Julie Walsh, HSBC

"This workshop really sorts the men from the boys. Can't wait for the next company conference to impress everyone"... Paul White, HP

"Absolutely loved the bit on using humor. As an engineer I have a logical, detailed mind and am not much of a comedian, but this gave me some great tips I can't wait to try out" ... Martin Branston, BA