Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudyne Wilder.
Claudyne Wilder, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Started management consulting at companies like Fidelity Investments and Gillette. Realized that what people really need are speaking skills. Without speaking effectively, a person just does not get ahead.
Heard over and over again from executives, “We can’t promote Sue because she bores the Board with all her details.” ” We can’t promote Sam because he never gets to the point.” So wrote the first book on laptop presenting called Point, Click and Wow and started my own presentation consulting firm called Wilder Presentations.
My company success has been based on two factors. First, are a niche boutique presentation company which allows us to customize every workshop for the participants. Second, we have a very specific presentation success process we teach.
It is focused on a storytelling theme with specifics on developing focused content, designing message oriented slides and delivering with confidence and credibility. All of this while staying with the story of the whole talk interspersed with short “stories” to elaborate on key points.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The struggle for any small business is marketing. How to let people know we exist. I hired someone to call for me and we got some business that way. As I look back business came from coincidences and our excellent reputation.
We had a contract with a company bought by a large pharmaceutical company. My client at the company told the large company that they wanted to hire me, not use the large company’s resources. Then in a year, I received an offer to bid to be a vendor for the large company. We won!!
I practiced that 2-hour presentation 18 times. Little did I know I would still be working with this company after 10 years! The other struggle was to find several colleagues who could teach my Get to the Message Workshop.
We have a methodology and a specific way we coach when participants practice. Over the years I only had to fire one instructor who I found out did not use the methodology.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Wilder Presentations – what should we know?
My company is known for three things:
We teach people to Get to the Message sooner rather than later by using an executive summary.
Second, we keep participants busy. In a two day workshop where they present 6 to 7 times and have to redo a portion of a presentation, help redo the content and visual design of people’s PowerPoint slides.
Third, we give the participants in the workshops customized slides in their company look that they can use in the future to organize their content.
We specialize in one to two day Get to the Message workshops. We believe that speakers should “Get to the Message” of the talk right away and not to wait for 30 minutes to share the key points of the talk.
Consequently, we teach how to create and give an executive summary of the key points right at the beginning. Everyone is very busy with minds going in many directions.
What they want to know is, “What are your talking about and how will it affect my work or the business? and What do you want from me?”
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
How do you, personally, define success? Whats your criteria, the markers you’re looking out for, etc?
I define success when someone emails me saying, “I got my resources agreed to by upper management.” or “Because of my presentation, I was asked to teach around the world.”
Pricing:
- Offer an online presentation survey and coaching tool. $25 month
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wilderpresentations.com and www.torchmetrics.com
- Phone: 617-524-7172
- Email: claudyne@wilderpresentations.com
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