Geoff Burch at the Communicate with Clarity seminar, Barnet

About a decade ago, I bought a book entitled Go It Alone: The Streetwise Secrets of Self Employment by Geoff Burch. I could see immediately that it was unlike other business guides in its humorous, no-nonsense approach.

Some years later, it helped me out of a difficult situation when I was asked to deliver a speech at a civic function - but not in my home town. I had a few anecdotes but not enough for me to feel that I had a rounded speech. I was actually on my way to the venue when it occurred to me that the town had the word 'time' in its tourism slogan and I remembered a great metaphor concerning time which was quoted by Geoff Burch in that book. I linked the two together in my speech (quoting the source, of course) and the whole thing worked much better. It wasn't the best I've ever given but an audience member came up to me afterwards and said how well it dovetailed together so thank you, Geoff!

During the autumn of 2008, Geoff Burch presented an eight-part BBC2 series, All Over The Shop, in which he visited failing small retailers and suggested ways for them to turn their businesses around. Most were sensible enough to follow his advice (although, for some reason, those in the West Country seemed to be the most resistant!) I really enjoyed the programmes.

So when I learned that this business guru and author was to be the guest speaker at the Communicate with Clarity seminar run by Jeremy Jacobs at Barnet Football Club on 2 December, that was one more reason to jump at the chance to attend!

He arrived well before he was due to speak and took part in the group exercises set by Jeremy during the first part of the seminar. It is always a good idea for guest speakers at training days to take part in other activities besides their own presentation - it makes you more memorable. When I have spoken at training days, for example, for the Home Office and Siemens, I have joined in with activities before/after my own time slot.

Public Speaking Tip #271: If you are speaking during a training seminar, try to participate in other exercises during the day. You will make more of an impact overall.Of course, if you can do this before you speak, you will also gain some valuable insights into at least some of your audience.

Geoff spoke for around 50 minutes and was funny and inspiring. He is a great storyteller and very good at accents. He took questions and continued what Jeremy had done in the first part of the session: taking much of that fear and mystique out of cold calling. There were also points where he deferred to Jeremy who had a long and successful career in sales before his TV, radio and speaking career.

You rarely get the chance to hear a well-known speaker when they have a TV series that is currently running and they are able to say 'If you watch tonight's edition, you will notice...' but this was the case here and it gave extra relevance to Geoff's excellent presentation.

Afterwards, he stayed to chat to everyone (I told him how his book had helped with my speech that time and he signed my copy) and his books sold well to other audience members.

This was a great seminar, inspiring, entertaining, well-attended, expertly-run and backed up by some excellent written materials to take away. I know Jeremy Jacobs plans to run more of these events and I can thoroughly recommend them to anyone in business/sales. You may also be very pleasantly surprised at the cost!

Public Speaking Tip #272: Even if you are a trainer yourself, there are still great opportunities to learn from seminars run by others - and they don't always cost a fortune!

Afterwards, I shared a Tube journey back to the West End with Steve Beer, Jeremy's cameraman from Leicester Square TV, who had some fascinating stories.