Check out the courses you'll be taking at FRESH Speakers Academy over the next four months.
You can learn more about our faculty here.
CORE CURRICULUM
Course 1: Seed Your Thought Leadership
Too often leaders like you are left feeling inadequate in the face of grand, disconnected thought leadership goals. There's never enough time. There's never enough energy. Writing an op-ed or writing something witty on social media keeps getting pushed to the end of your to do list. But what if it's not you that's broken, but the expectation? You don't have to be good at all forms of thought leadership; you need to be self-aware about your strengths and joys, and excellent at delegation.
Classes
1. The elevated elevator pitch - Share what you do in a concise, memorable way that will make people want to learn more about you and your work.
2. An internal audit: How does your soul like to speak? - Let go of what a thought leader "should" be and identify your greatest strengths at communicating. (And more importantly, what brings you the most joy.)
3. An external audit: How does your story show up in public? - Develop a practical plan for your online identity so gatekeepers won't be able to turn away after they google your name.
Course 2: The Enduring Power of a Great Short Talk
One of the most powerful ways to reach the hearts of people is through storytelling. A great talk surprises its audience, and often brings a fresh outlook to an already well-covered topic. In this course, we will work together to develop a short, TED-style talk on an issue of your choice. The goal is not just to captivate your audience, but to raise awareness, spark conversations, and shift perspectives.
Classes
4. Finding the thread - We call it “the thread” -- that one compelling sentence that encapsulates your talk in under 20 words. This is one of the most valuable public speaking tools to add to your toolkit.
5. Sticky storytelling - William Blake told us to “see the world in a grain of sand.” How can you explain a really big concept through one, profound story? The stories that stick in people’s minds are full of detail, and invoke the senses.
6. Say it plain - Jargon is most speakers’ biggest “blind spot” -- and one of the most common ways speakers lose their audience. Time to cut out the acronyms and industry clichés!
7. Be your own best editor - Writing a great short talk means being a great editor. Learn to trim, edit, and refine in order to make sure your remarks are stage ready.
Course 3: How to Deliver a Talk
with Impact
The best keynote talks aren’t the most perfect, but the most genuine. When it comes to delivery, our goal is simple: to help you step into your power and own your own unique style, rather than be asked to be something you’re not. You now have a talk to take to the stage (or screen), now it’s time to harness it. This course will walk you through how to deliver a powerful talk with integrity and authenticity.
Classes
8. Talk practice and preparation - Whether you memorize or use a reading aide, building muscle memory will help you “know” your talk so well, it will feel like second nature.
9. The thing about “performance” - Learn about why “performance” is overrated, and what you should focus your energy on when it comes to preparing for your delivery: creating a routine that helps you become your most authentic, unapologetic you.
10. Deliver a great virtual keynote - Virtual talks are becoming more of the norm in the speaking industry. From the technical to the personal, you’ll walk away knowing now to rock an on-screen keynote.
11. Mastering a panel conversation - Compared to delivering a great keynote, panels are a whole different ball game. We’ll let you in on a few handy techniques to make sure your voice stands out.
Course 4: Cultivate Your Practice
Our last course helped you seed a meaningful thought leadership plan; this one shows you how to cultivate it. Dive into the minute details of developing a public communications practice, from taking back your personal narrative through a powerful op-ed, learn how to use a message triangle in a media interview, to using public speaking to fundraise for your organization.
Classes
12. Easeful, impactful op-ed writing - Learn how to craft a powerful op-ed that gets your name out there and shifts the narrative on the issues you care about most.
13. The Message Triangle - Create three compelling, concise points to support the issue you care about. This is one of the most tried-and-true messaging tactics out there.
14. From standing ovations to big dollar donations - Discover how to think strategically about using your public speaking practice to raise money for the issues that you care most about.
Graduation Station!
Once you finish our curriculum, we will walk you through how to best utilize all of the assets you’ve created with us, and develop a plan to hold yourself accountable to your goals.
Classes
15. Your public speaker portfolio - Now that you know what it takes to create a dynamic public speaking practice, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and build out your public speaking one-pager.
16. Leverage what you’ve learned - Receive a send-off message from our CEO with some tips on what you can do with your suite of tools to continue to build on your public leadership practice.
ELECTIVES
Reimagining Thought Leadership
Public speaking can provide huge opportunities to create real world impact for your work, but engaging in the far-from-perfect conference world raises lots of questions. How can we push against hero-worship and think about thought leadership as a collective practice? How do we navigate those moments when we experience tokenization? In this course, we’ll tackle some of these questions and give you tools to advocate for yourself, your work, and your comrades, and explore how we as a community can fix some of the structural inequities that exist in thought leadership.
Classes
Collective thought leadership - Thought leadership doesn’t have to be as individualistic or as ego-driven as the current industry stands. Learn about how to practice "collective thought leadership" by amplifying your work through collaboration with others.
Getting real about tokenization - Thought leadership reflects the same structural inequities found across major industries. This session explores the challenges faced by BIPOC, LGBTQI+, women, disabled, and other underrepresented speakers—and how to advocate for yourself while connecting with communities driving systemic change.
Challenging traditional storytelling - Since middle school, most of us have been taught just one structure for telling a story. But there’s more than one way to share a narrative with the world. Learn how we can begin to expand the boundaries of what storytelling can look like.
Seed Your Thought Leadership Career
Every public leader should have a vibrant speaking practice. Professional public speaking and writing is not only an incredible way to fundraise for your organization, but also can create real world impact by popularizing the issues you hold most dear. But before you grow your practice, you’ve got to seed it. In this course, we’ll explore the many ways to build a thought leadership career.
Classes
Your public speaking career - Learn about how to develop a vibrant speaking practice from one leader who has made a successful career out of it. Whether you want to create a full time practice or side hustle, these are invaluable insights that every speaker should have.
3. Negotiating your speaking fee - An event organizer has asked you what your “speaking fee” is, and you have no idea where to start. We’ve got you covered—both on how to answer that question, and navigate the negotiation process.
3. The ABCs of public speaking - Let’s talk through the nuts and bolts of the business of public speaking. Should I have a contract for my speaking engagements? What do speakers bureaus actually do? We’ll answer these and more, so that you’re well-prepared once your speaking engagements start ramping up.
3. The world of book publishing - The are vital questions you want to ask yourself as you explore the possibility of book writing. In our class on book publishing, we dive into these questions, and include essential how-tos on creating a query letter and the anatomy of a book proposal