"Having labored through engineering, MSc, PhD, MBA degrees and worked for 25 years - it is pleasantly shocking to find how much there is still out there to learn."
"The highlight for me were the breathing exercises and getting me comfortable one, in my body, and two, being in front of large groups of people. If you are an individual who has struggled with speaking in front of large groups of people, small groups of people, struggle with somewhat of the nervousness and anxiety and want a program that just will help you move through some of those things, this is the actual program that'll do that for you. It'll give you techniques to continue to take them outside of the classroom and equip you for the rest of your professional and personal career."
"This program absolutely exceeded my expectation. This so far is the only program that I've researched that covers the holistic communication skills from your content structure, from focusing on you as the media to deliver the message, to make sure that your audience gives you that, "Yes, I agree to your pitch." It moves you out of your comfort zone and it broadens the zone that you're used to. That will give you some profound thinking about how you're going to go about your leadership development."
"The things that Penny has brought out which are about the posture and the breathing and really the whole energy of the room and understanding your audience, making sure that you're reaching out to everyone, zone one, two, and three, it all has been amazing and it sort of resonates directly with me because I felt that I could relate to a lot of these challenges that she was bringing up and the reasons behind them and how we could all learn from them."
"I have taken other communication presentation-style courses. The aspect that I think made this course different is first of all, the peer group. There were a lot of helpful insights from my peers and secondly, an area that I need to work on, is in developing my presence and controlling-my-breath techniques prior to a presentation. In that area, this course really helped me to think about those aspects beyond just the content of my presentation."
"I must admit that I was expecting dry business skill types, so when I arrived and Penny started off doing some of her exercises, I was surprised initially but actually for me, it really resonated, the techniques that she was teaching us that she has used on the stage. The fact that the faculty team running the course are actually coming with this wealth of real world experience really resonated for me. They're not just coming with a dry, academic mindset, but they've actually put this stuff to work in their professional lives."
"I've done a fair amount of public speaking over the years but I felt as though it's something that you always need to work at to improve, so for me, the content of this course and the focusing on storytelling resonated. The content of the course goes beyond the basics of public speaking or using PowerPoint and really into how to captivate your audience, how to enchant them, and that's something we all want to achieve. One of the highlights is the breathing exercises and really understanding that when you are in front of an audience, you can benefit from techniques to collect your thoughts, remain calm, and have your whole body helping you rather than hindering you."
“As a Haas Alumni, I thought that I had all the courses and learning that I could handle in my 3 years at Berkeley. Berkeley’s Executive Education courses not only allowed me a chance to stay up-to-date with the latest case studies and academic research, it allowed me to take the relevant courses I needed at a specific moment in my career.”
“Richard, Penny & Adam are an amazing set of instructors.”