First Time Facilitator

Send Leanne a message The magic of this podcast is that I get to connect with amazing facilitators around the world. I met today's guest through the podcast. She also lives in Brisbane and over the last couple of years we’ve hung out at various events, she's hosted some Flipchart meetups at her property and over coffees (and wine!) we've riffed off all of the topics related to group...

Send Leanne a message We all know relationships require ongoing maintenance, you can’t just “set and forget”. And that’s the hard part, right? Continuing conversations, staying present in each other’s lives, getting the space to reach out and reconnect with people you’ve met, and clients you’ve previously worked with. There’s no one better at connecting and staying front of mind (from a place of s...

Send Leanne a message I've loved bringing out a private podcast to listeners this week! If you've missed it, listen to this episode and if you want to dive deeper, you need to jump over to bookedoutfacilitator.com to register for the show. It self destructs on 4 October. In this minisode, I share the three key ingredients to booking out your facilitation business. This episode sets the s...

Send Leanne a message When I dropped out of corporate life three years ago, I remember trying to write social media posts, emails, even website copy and I couldn’t break out of that “be professional” way of doing things. As a result, my messages came across very vanilla and didn’t really attract anyone (let alone my dream clients!). I’m honestly still trying to break that mindset, that balance bet...

Send Leanne a message This week, we’re spinning our focus back onto the craft of facilitation with a guest who I so resonate with in terms of her enthusiasm for the work we do, her passion for trying different things and of course, because she throws away those powerpoint slides! Tricia Conyers from Island Inspirations is a change coach, learning experience designer, trainer, facilitator, meeting...

Send Leanne a message "Your facilitation business (and busy-ness) is fully integrated with your life.” My conversation this week is with Uyen Vo from Fierce Consulting. I LOVE THE WAY Uyen sees the world, considers things, and ultimately - operates. She thinks about things in an analytical way - though, not in a black and white way, I find her reflections are shared in a very playful analytic...

Send Leanne a message This week I’m chatting to someone who has an extremely cool role in the university sector, in fact he works at my old university, The University of Queensland.   I so wish he was in this role when I was there! Marvin Fox is the Senior Program Officer for UQ Ventures, leading the Validate pre-accelerator program and running Design Sprints for research and industry clients. As...

Send Leanne a message I'm handing you an idea today that's worth at least $10k, and this idea applies to you whether you’re a consultant working externally, you work internally as a leader, as a director, as a Comms or L&D expert. I don’t know about you but I often sign up to online webinars, events, courses, programs, [fill in the blank here] with incredible motivation. As I take ou...

Send Leanne a message About a year ago, I had a conversation on this podcast that completely changed the way that I viewed my facilitation business. That conversation was with today’s guest, Alan Weiss, the Rockstar of Consulting. Not only did that interview resonate with me, it resonated with many of you, so I had to invite Alan back on the show for an encore performance.   Last year’s interview...

Send Leanne a message I love the metaphor that my guest today shares, when she explores how she manages group dynamics - it’s like an antenna, that you need to tune into! This week, I’m talking to the delightful Lisa Evans from Speaking Savvy, and host of the Business Chat podcast. I was using some of Lisa’s story activities before I even met her (through reading about them in The Story Cookbook)....

Send Leanne a message I remember in those early days when you're called to run a workshop, or moderate a panel conversation, you feel like you need to do things "by the book". I remember my panel interviews being very pedestrian! Now I think (I hope) I've developed more confidence, and I'm willing to create some banter between panellists, and let some personality shine thr...

Send Leanne a message Deb Zahn from the Craft of Consulting is back on your First Time Facilitator airwaves this week. And even better? I’m joined by my fellow Booked Out Facilitators. We share the microphone in this episode to create an incredibly informative, helpful and awesome group masterclass if you have your own facilitation business. Collectively, we pick Deb’s brain on all manners of cons...

Send Leanne a message The beauty of having a repeat client over many years is that you build a strong, trusting relationship. The not-so-beautiful part is the pressure we put on ourselves to create new content, experiences, and activities to keep our workshops fresh! Truett Black has worked as a trainer, speaker, and executive coach since 2005 and in this episode, he shares how he reinvigorates hi...

Send Leanne a message This week, I’m excited to introduce you to a fellow facilitator in south-east Queensland, Australia: Kate Peardon from Zenith Journey . In this conversation, I throw many questions at Kate because I’m fascinated in her experience using visuals in her work as a way to form connections, increase memory retention and even decrease anxiety (particularly when talking about a heate...

Send Leanne a message This week, I’m delighted to bring you an interview with my guest, who took up an amazing opportunity, that opened up insane learning and facilitation opportunities. The example that he shares in the episode of SAYING YES is so encouraging, and I hope that after you listen, anything you’ve been unsure about, not sure that you’re really ready - well, I’d say, jump in! Give it a...

Send Leanne a message 12 months ago, there is no way I would have committed to delivering 3.5 hour virtual workshops. I thought it was virtually impossible to keep up my own energy and engagement for that length of time. This year however, I worked with a client on revamping our 3 day leadership program.  We sliced it to 4 x 3.5 hour modules. I’ve been delivering these sessions over the last few m...

Send Leanne a message When I ran my masterclass on booking out your workshops recently, I used a variety of tech tools to gain interaction from the live audience.   I asked you to share your responses in chat, and also to jump into a tool called Slido, to ask your questions, upvote the ones you liked, share where you were joining us from, which facilitator business challenges you had, and more.  I...

Send Leanne a message I’m excited to release today’s chat with a friend who I met through my private Show. Up community last year.  We haven’t spoken in 2021 until today’s conversation and I was just amazed and proud of the progress he (and his company) has made, it’s astonishing! Today’s guest is Paul McGregor from Business Lab . He’s based in NZ and is a Collaboration Broker (cool phrase!), help...

Send Leanne a message What if landing a DREAM gig was a joyful experience? If you have your own training and facilitation business, or dreams of starting one up while you just try to survive your corporate job, today's bonus episode will provide a ton of inspiration for you. Prina Shah was brave to sign up for my little experiment, seeing if I could help others land more workshop engagements,...

Send Leanne a message Is it possible to test the emotional temperature of your virtual/workshop group?  Today’s guest share her ideas, and fun ways of reinvigorating her virtual sessions. She’s an absolute rockstar and I cant wait to share her facilitation story and experiences on today’s episode. I met Nikki Bush when I was lucky enough to present a workshop for the Professional Speakers Associat...

Send Leanne a message Free masterclass 16 June > Steal my Booked Out Facilitator framework to land repeatable workshop bookings This week, I'm continuing the momentum from last week's solo episode, and responding to a listener question about how to create momentum and drive word of mouth, so that you can book out more workshops. Here’s the question I received this week: " Hello!...

Send Leanne a message Today is a solo, just in time episode, on something that I’ve probably been a bit shy in sharing. However, when I’ve been on listening tours, and spoken to you, and even now in my foundation round of my new online program, Booked Out Facilitator, it seems a common challenge I hear is that it’s really hard to decide (and then define) what you actually do. This actually comes t...

Send Leanne a message What I love about my conversation with today’s guest is his knack and ability for jumping in, trying things, being open for the possibilities.  I think that’s an incredibly important facilitator skill and he demonstrates it, not only with the way he runs his business and facilitates workshops, but his life as well! My guest today is Jimbo Clark from Innogreat. In this convers...

Send Leanne a message Building a training business! We think we need to do all those things like cold call people, have the best one-liners, be on social media all of the time. Mark Garrett Hayes is my guest today and he shares that there are other ways you can build your training business, which doesn’t rely on what we traditionally think we should do. Mark is the founder of TrainingBusiness.com...

Send Leanne a message This week, we’re talking about a topic that isn’t really talked about, and today’s guest is on a mission to change that.  (A quick heads up if you’re listening, in this episode we’re talking about suicide, and how to starting a conversation if you’re worried about someone). My guest is Rose Allett, and she is the face behind Start the Conversation. She’s a qualified counsello...