Cindy Tonkin turbo charges high-potential, smart teams make better people decisions.
Using improv techniques grounded in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and other brain sciences, she has over 30 years of on-the-ground experience with corporates. She entertrains, infotains and gets the message across with you laughing all the way. She has a gallon of great stories of corporate change, team work and meeting challenges.
The author of more than a dozen books, all of Cindy's fun is grounded in pragmatic ideas. She is direct, extroverted and motivating.
Talking Points
Make 'no' sound like 'yes'
If your team is overloaded, has problems with scope or they’re working too long and too much, then they need to know how to say “no” - but make it sound like yes.
Make 'no' sound like 'yes'
You've worked hard to get here: don't let nerves undermine your presentation
Too often people think that you’re under-confident because you’re incompetent. But confidence and competence are not the same thing (go hang at a karaoke night for the living proof!). Learn the 6 keys to confidence under pressure. Impress with your confidence (and seem even more competent than you are).
You've worked hard to get here: don't let nerves undermine your presentation
A sundial in the shade is worthless: discover and use your strengths
Every team member has parts of the job they love and parts they hate. Identify and play with your strengths based on your MBTI, Enneagram, Strengthsfinder or DiSC profiles.
A sundial in the shade is worthless: discover and use your strengths
Faster preparation
The world is accelerating. Sometimes you have less than half an hour to prepare a presentation. Learn the best practice way to get it done and look like a champion. Think faster, prepare more quickly for better results in a fraction of the time.
Faster preparation
Hurry up and decide. Help your clients make a decision more quickly
Discover the underlying structures of how and when people decide. Leverage that to get it happening on your timetable!
Hurry up and decide. Help your clients make a decision more quickly
Don't be the dragon: Your customer's Hero's Journey
Sometimes just getting your product or service is an epic journey for your customer, complete with trolls, witches and fire-breathing dragons. Walk a mile in your customer’s shoes and discover how to be seen as the wise mentor, not the evil wizard.
Don't be the dragon: Your customer's Hero's Journey
Story sells
The ways story works and why you should be using it to sell, service and delight your customer base. The principles for collecting, remembering and even how to build stories from scratch. Fun, entertaining and useful!
Story sells
Think in synch
Harness the principles of group mind from the art of comedic improvisation to build a more resilient, dynamic and aligned supportive team. So they can take on any new challenge! Life is not a rehearsal, so start improvising. Be a calm and creative team even when you’re under pressure.
Think in synch
It's not you, it's them: The science of sussing out your customer's style
Pick a person and persuade them. Listen and learn how they let you know what they like. And then lean into it.
It's not you, it's them: The science of sussing out your customer's style
Giving bad news and keeping the relationship
You can’t always give your client exactly what they want. No one wants to deliver bad news but everyone has to do it at some time. Be the hero of your own adventure and rescue the client in distress. They’ll thank you for it.
Giving bad news and keeping the relationship
Ask excellent questions
Shine the spotlight on what matters and ignore the noise. Be clear on what you need to know, when to speak and when to shut up and smile. Active, passive and “really want to know” listening styles. Listening past the facts. Hearing what they didn’t say, reading between the lines, making the implicit explicit. Reading people like a book.
Ask excellent questions
I didn't do it! Recovering after a mistake
No one wants make a mistake, but they occur, just when you least expect it. You can’t control a system failure or a procedure change. Nor can you change history. But you can keep that relationship, that customer, that account. Here’s how.
I didn't do it! Recovering after a mistake
Pre-suading: influencing before you begin
What you do before you ask for the sale, reprimand a staff member or request time off influences greatly the outcome you get. Listen to the stories of failure and success in pre-suading and take what works so you can get what you want, every time.
Pre-suading: influencing before you begin
