Testimonials for The Mental Game of Speaking™

Here are some participant comments from our program, The Mental Game of Speaking™.

"Bill Cole is a world-class coach... A speaker's speaker."
National Speakers Association

"a veteran professional communicator"
Linear Technology Corporation

"a true platform professional and veteran communications expert"
Central Coast Claims Association

"Bill Cole did a GREAT job for our chapter. Congratulations to Bill on a most successful Professional Development Workshop on The Mental Game of Professional Speaking. Everyone's needs were met and then exceeded. Bill led a dynamic session which included a professional workbook, various dyadic and group exercises and magic tricks throughout."
Craig Harrison
Board of Directors
National Speakers Association
Northern California Chapter

"Bill, thank you for your excellent writing, coaching and guidance with my speeches and presentations. Your help was invaluable in my political campaign."
Steve Poizner
Candidate for California Assembly District 21
California State Insurance Commissioner

"You are an engaging, warm and personable speaker with a smooth, relaxed and natural style who immediately puts the audience at ease. You weaved in stories, humor and insights from your experience in ways that helped the audience 'get it' right away. You were able to bring other people's experience into the group conversation, and were able to encourage people to share and learn from each other. You are masterful at getting the audience to own their questions by asking them deeper questions. You have great presence as a speaker and you're very much in touch with your audience."
Rick Holden
Executive Director
San Jose Leadership Council
Silicon Valley, California

"Coach Bill has the winning blueprint to help you feel more confident, polished and prepared in any speaking or performing situation. His energetic and witty approach makes learning fun. It's obvious he loves what he does and he's the best at it."
Nancy Pristine, author of the books The Zen Of Tennis and The Victory Dance: Placing Yourself in the Winner's Circle

"I believe the finest praises a person can receive are those received from one's peers. In this regard you are a SPEAKER'S SPEAKER...your efforts and professional delivery were among the best I have had the pleasure to enjoy."
Chuck Eudy
Professional Development Workshop Series Committee
National Speakers Association of Northern California

"Thorough, deep content excellently adapted to a different field-- (speaking) from sports."
Douglas P. Balluff
Founder and CEO
The San Francisco Group
San Francisco, California

"You demonstrated that you are a true platform professional and veteran communications expert. Your program was excellent, and you hit a perfect bullseye of exactly what our people need to help them to perform at higher levels in their stressful and busy workdays. With your incisive, hard-hitting, in-the-moment solutions to our audience's questions about their work and life challenges, you clearly demonstrated why you are known as a personal and professional development expert. Your exceptional communication skills allowed an intimate interplay between the audience and yourself as you coached us right from the platform. Your methods and insights will cut years off our people's success learning curves! Your mental game approach to achievement and success is a message that should be heard by everyone. After your program, the audience made fourteen requests for your consulting, coaching and training, including four requests for another speech on similar topics. I'd call that a home run."
Steve Churchill
President
Central Coast Claims Association
San Jose, CA

"Thank you for contributing to the success of our annual meeting of the California Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. CAHSA looks to experts in the field to meet the unique educational needs of its distinctive member types. You played an important part in meeting our objective, which is to provide high quality education to CAHSA members at every level of care. We trust you know how much CAHSA valued your participation at our annual meeting. Thank you once again. Here are some comments from the participants in your program on leadership, communication and presentation skills:

• The best workshop yet. Great! I learned a lot.
• My grading says it all. Great exercises. Wonderful speaker. He shows passion in his presentation. We need to have him back again.
• Bill has a very comfortable speaking manner. The two hours after lunch seemed to fly by.
• Excellent and well-needed.
• Great after lunch program, very interactive
• Very well done, thank you!
• Great Speaker!
• Great applicable material, good handout.
• Great workshop!
• Very helpful!
• Very interesting.
• Bill gave us good points to keep in mind when preparing for a speaking situation.
• I really appreciated the centering technique.
• Very well thought-out workshop."

California Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
Sacramento, CA

"Many thanks for the most fascinating ideas you shared with us...and thank you for all the truly beneficial help you have given me throughout the seminar...thank you for all the advice and ideas; they will surely benefit me throughout my life. Mostly thanks for the inspiration you have given me."
Fred Forman
Tyler College
Tyler, Texas

"You were so VERY informative and many of your concepts were new to me. You are ENCOURAGING, welcomed comments from the audience, and gave us SOLID information."
Michelle Quillin
President
Humorist Extrordinaire
Oakland, California

"These are very good, effective guidelines and a solid program to make my presentations as powerful as possible."
Thornton Prayer
President
Life Coaching
Concord, California

"Bill brings his extensive experience and talent in coaching to inspire us and to achieve peak performance, then shows us the way."
John Rafael
Principal
WFDJ Consulting,
Alameda, California

"You didn't rely on materials and high tech--you relied on teaching! You taught us how to self-coach."
Jim Bogan
Revenue Manager
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina

"Bill covered a wide array of tools and kept the meeting interesting. Very practical and useful techniques!"
Suzanne Clark
Office Manager
Rick Stanley, MD
Albany, Oregon

"Great examples and stories. Excellent at bringing other people's experience into the group conversation. Excellent self-exploration tools."
Taylor Dial
Executive Director
Housing Trust of Santa Clara County
Silicon Valley, CA

"It was great!"
Ollie Becker
General Manager
American Golf Corporation
Hercules, CA

"I realized that I put an incredible amount of pressure on myself to perform. These tools I learned today will allow me to perform more effectively."
Antoinette Finizio
Practice Administrator
Premier Orthopedic Associates
Vineland, New Jersey

"Bill Cole was helpful from the first minute we started media training coaching. He was insightful, supportive and clearly possessed a level of expertise and understanding that allowed us to be very productive. The net effect was that while on camera, I was rock solid confident that I knew how to come across, due to my training with Bill. I recommend him highly."
Ed Strachar
Author/Speaker
www.geniuszone.com

"The National Speakers Association of Northern California had the pleasure of working with Bill Cole, MS., MA. in his program the Mental Game of Speaking. What a professional! He showed us why he is known as an expert in the psychology of communications and why his system of teaching the mental game is so powerful.

Mr. Cole led a masterful three-hour professional development workshop for our members, entitled the Mental Game of Speaking. This content-rich workshop managed to seamlessly combine instruction, interactivity, fun and magic! Everyone learned a tremendous amount of cutting-edge information and had a great time enjoying the process.

Many programs on the fear of speaking or performance enhancement simply cover the basics of speech preparation, handling nerves and learning how to relax. Bill's program offered us far more. He delved into the nuances of the mental game by helping us understand and access the powerful performance zone known as the flow state. We now understand what being in the zone is, and how to get there.

Bill Cole's Mental Game Of Speaking program is a one-of-a-kind, powerful, results-oriented, entertaining excursion through the mind of a peak-performing platform professional. He helped us understand how the pro's mental game operates and how to bring forth our best performances.

Whatever your organization's endeavors, we heartily recommend Bill Cole to help you master the 'mental game.' With a world-class coach like Bill on your team, you're destined for a winning experience. The National Speakers Association of Northern California thanks Bill Cole for a great program. Well done!"
Craig A. Harrison
Director, National Speakers Association, Northern California Chapter
Oakland, CA

"Thank you for contributing to the success of our annual meeting of the California Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. CAHSA looks to experts in the field to meet the unique educational needs of its distinctive member types. You played an important part in meeting our objective, which is to provide high quality education to CAHSA members at every level of care. We trust you know how much CAHSA valued your participation at our annual meeting. Thank you once again. Here are some comments from the participants in your program on leadership, listening and communication skills:

• Overall rating of excellent.
• Best workshop of the convention.
• A longer day with Bill would be great!
• Very engaging, and inclusive of the audience.
• Absolutely enjoyed this workshop.
• I was engaged from the beginning to the end.
• Handouts, lecture and role-playing can be applied to real-life situations.
• Very good workshop! Good things to think about to be a better leader."

California Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
Sacramento, CA

"Bill, I wanted to tell you how much you helped me prepare for the series of interviews I recently completed in seeking the position of Superintendent. Your assistance was invaluable in helping me achieve success in this job-seeking campaign.

Our sessions prior to each interview gave me a lot of confidence and helped me prepare in ways I couldn't have by myself. Thanks for coming over to my office that time on such short notice, and on a weekend! That's going the extra mile for your clients. I really appreciate it.

I used many of the things we had talked about. The 'interview mini-speeches' content we crafted and the facial expressions you helped me be aware of, including "smiles" was very, very helpful. Our videotape sessions were eye-opening! You helped me know what to expect once in the interview, and how to turn the stress into peak performance. I felt very calm once I got through the very first question. You are a great coach! So, thanks to you for all of your support and helpful feedback. Once the dust settles, I know I would like to call upon you again--there will be many speaking opportunities and I would like to continue to work on my skills in this area.

I will certainly recommend you to other people who could use your expert coaching. Many thanks again for all your help and your great coaching."
Suzanne Boxer-Gassman, Ed. D.
Superintendent
Los Gatos Union School District

"As a Stanford performance expert and credentialed sports psychologist who worked with top athletes at the Olympic Training Center in Greece, I was looking for the best media coach possible to help me prepare for my international interviews on major TV networks -- BBC, ABC, Fox News, and Associated Press Radio.

Choosing to work with Bill Cole, The Mental Game Coach, is without a doubt, one of the best decisions I've ever made. His brilliant media coaching, including scripting, clever sound bytes, media strategies, and performance methods helped me to feel prepared for anything that might happen during my national TV interviews. The mock interviews we did helped me to think through and craft my material to the reporter's needs. With Bill's expertise, I learned how to play the media game and feel comfortable in high pressure media situations.

As a result of our intensive coaching, the TV interviews went extremely well. I felt relaxed and ready, I was confident with my material and delivery. The reporters loved the sound bytes that we created, and I got national and international exposure that I never thought possible. Bill Cole knows the media well and he is fun and a joy to work with. I always enjoy our sessions. He comes up with some amazingly clever phrases that keep the media coming back again and again.

Bill is an expert at creating and building good relationships with his clients and with the media. While in Greece at the Olympic Games, I was interviewed by the Associated Press Radio. This interview was syndicated and broadcast to over 5,000 stations worldwide. I've done repeat interviews with the BBC-TV and ABC, as well as the New York Times, Time Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

I highly recommend Bill Cole's media coaching services to anyone who wants more positive exposure to skyrocket their career. If you really want to see IMMEDIATE and SIGNIFICANT results, Bill Cole, the Mental Game Coach is the best resource in the business. His coaching was well worth the investment."
JoAnn Dahlkoetter, Ph.D
Keynote Speaker
Best-selling book author, YOUR PERFORMING EDGE
Winner, San Francisco Marathon
Stanford Performance Expert
www.YourPerformingEdge.com

"The best idea I got from The Mental Game Of Speaking program was the IPS-The Ideal Performance State. Very entertaining, as well as informative program."
Asha Goldberg
Oakland, CA

"The best tools I took away from this program The Mental Game Of Speaking were centering and focusing and to set up my energy and space consciously. I am leaving with so much more than I came with and than I expected. Thank you."
Connie Allen
Mountain View, CA

"The best concepts I took away from Bill's program on The Mental Game Of Speaking were how to be centered and how to use the BASICS acronym. This was a great introduction to getting into the flow as a speaker."
Joy-Ellen Lipsky
Cupertino, CA

"Bill's program, The Mental Game Of Speaking, was very helpful in teaching me breathing and focusing techniques. Bill is an unexpected delight and a real pro!"
Nan Andrews Amish
El Granada, CA

"Bill's program on The Mental Game Of Speaking showed me how not to be a perfectionist. This was a terrific program! Very helpful!"
Pam Ammondson
Santa Rosa, CA

"Bill's program on The Mental Game Of Speaking taught me how to be prepared and to always have enough material to pull from, and never to wing it. This was fun and informative.
Zina Henderson
Oakland, CA