The Ultimate Guide to Speaking
Turn fear into confidence and words into impact. The complete online course to master the art of speaking powerfully and persuasively.
12.6 million views
Michael helped me to choose the best stories to captivate my audience and convey a powerful, heart wrenching message. That's the reason my speech is the most viewed TEDx talk in New Zealand and one of the top five most viewed TEDx talks on the planet.
When you're serious about speaking
The Ultimate Guide to Speaking gives you the skills to enhance
your leadership presence so you can:
Develop speaking strategies to build your confidence, career and leadership
Master the development and delivery of your most important talks
Apply proven strategies to win the hearts and minds of any audience
What Kind of Speaker Are You?
Are you holding yourself back as a speaker? Take this quick assessment to discover if you're an anxious or avoidant speaker—and how to break free from the cycle that's limiting your speaking success.
Let nothing hold you back
As a speaker, it’s easy to get stuck worrying about what people think of you and what you should be.
You might feel inauthentic and end up misaligned and out of rhythm with yourself.
It can be difficult to break free of the stress, self-doubt and self-limiting beliefs that have been holding you prisoner.
You have all the resources you need to succeed inside you. But it can be challenging to get out of your own way.
Lack of Preparation and Practice:
- Procrastinating on preparation.
- Not scripting talks or timing them.
- Not practicing delivery and not knowing what or how to say things.
Content and Structure Issues:
- Having too much to say in too little time.
- Struggling with structuring content effectively.
- Not knowing how to find the core of the story or narrative.
Communication Challenges:
- Stumbling over words and forgetting points.
- Difficulty regulating the mood of the talk.
- Mono-emotional delivery and lack of engaging body language.
Nervousness and Confidence:
- Feeling anxious, nervous, stressed, or overwhelmed.
- Struggling with imposter syndrome or feeling unprofessional.
- Being shy or bashful, which affects interaction with the audience.
Audience Engagement and Impact:
- Not knowing how to engage or interact with the audience.
- Having a disengaged audience due to boring content or delivery.
- Speaking in circles or going over allotted time.
Technical and Visual Presentation:
- Having bad slide decks or lacking powerful visuals.
- Not knowing how to present effectively to a camera.
- Oversharing or being overconfident without proper preparation.
Michael helped the team at Evnex to develop our story and pitch for a live product launch. Michael was fun to work with, refreshingly direct and helped us to raise our game significantly.
The level of engagement and awareness of both my personal work and my organisation has sky-rocketed since working with him - and the results have been nothing short of amazing!
Michael is more than just a coach. He is a partner in your success, someone who is truly committed to helping you achieve your dreams, and my go-to coach for speaking and facilitation.
He opened my eyes to how much work goes on behind the scenes to deliver a world class talk that brings your listeners on a journey with you.
Success stories
We coach and train CEOs, celebrities, sales executives, tech giants, best-selling authors, professors, PhDs, and start-up founders to achieve outstanding results.
About Michael
Business Storytelling Expert. Keynote Speaker. Executive Speaker Coach. Former Professor of Practice at the University of Canterbury, Communications & Training Specialist.
Having spent over two and half decades working within leadership development, Michael is the sought after high-performance coach to thousands of executives and leaders.
An expert in storytelling, stage craft, charismatic leadership, and business storyselling. He is renowned for helping people achieve powerful results from their keynotes, sales pitches, capital raises, and formal presentations.
Michael has a resolute belief that mastery of ourselves is forged in the fiery crucible of practical application, self-analysis, self-discovery, and self-management.
No other coach offers his credentials, experience, and singleness of purpose.
Trusted by:
Here's what you'll learn.
Michael will make sure you’re set up for success by asking the right questions of the event hosts who have asked you to speak at their event, ensuring you are going in the right direction from the start with clarity.
He will explain how to construct your script and get your ideas out of your head and onto paper. He will show you how to use a variety of models to craft your talk and engage your audience.
He will demonstrate body language, vocal techniques, and stage presence to ensure you have a positive and effective impact on your audience and yourself.
Learn the 5 C's
Lifetime access to help you with all your speaking
Public speaking isn’t just a skill; it’s a transformative journey. Whether you’re looking to boost self-confidence, conquer the fear of speaking, or achieve personal mastery, the rewards are life-changing. Externally, powerful communication opens doors to leadership, career growth, and lasting influence.
That’s why we offer lifetime access to our online course. It gives you the time and flexibility to build these essential skills at your own pace—turning fear into confidence and words into impact.
25 bite sized learning lessons
We get it, you’re busy. So we’ve created this course with that in mind. We’ve broken down the modules with short punchy videos that are no longer than 10 minutes. We understand, Michael’s got ADHD so there’s no point overloading, just give you what you need.
A workbook to help collect epic ideas on your learning journey
There’s nothing worse than downloading a digital file and you can’t fill it in. We’re looking at you MasterClass. You want to be able to take control of your learning while you’re on the go.
Learning where you want.
How you want.When you want.
On the bus, on the boat, wherever you choose to float, sometimes the best learnings happen when you’re on the go or in between things. Like riding an Uber to your next meeting or sitting at home with the family over Christmas and looking for any excuse to get away. Your learning is in your hands.
Introducing StoryVault
Where great stories are kept — and even greater speakers are made.
The StoryVault is your curated library of powerful, plug-and-play stories and metaphors designed for workshops, keynotes, and coaching sessions. Whether you need to break the ice, shift the energy, or land the lesson — the right story is always at your fingertips.
Nicola Turner
Director of Mainstream Green
William Trubridge
2x World Champion and World Record Holding Freediver
Kura Te Ua
Choreographer and Artistic Director
Jordan Watson
How to DAD (Youtube Celebrity)
Robyn Twemlow
Director at Tourette's Association New Zealand
Alex Tan
Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at University of Canterbury
Craig Jarvis
Architectural designer
Why The Ultimate Guide To Speaking?
This course focuses on the way you speak, the language you choose to use, your natural ability to influence others, your unconscious mannerisms and behaviours that might be preventing you from being larger than life.
The Ultimate Value in Speaker Training
The Art of Presenting
Stage Academy Online
Inspire your audience in 3 easy steps.
We can guarantee you'll be a better speaker with the Ultimate Guide to Speaking than without it.
Get access to Michael's online course
Master key public speaking skills
Deliver world-class talks and presentations
This one-time course gives you lifetime tools to communicate like a leader, coach like a pro, and deliver like a keynote speaker.
Access to a curated library of transformational stories—ready to use in coaching, keynotes, training sessions and team communication.
Everything you need to become a confident, charismatic communicator in one simple bundle.
Annual StoryVault subscription
Questions about The Ultimate Guide to Speaking
A step-by-step online course designed to take you from nervous to powerful on any stage.
You get unlimited, forever access to every module, lesson, bonus download, and future update. No subscriptions. No expiry. Just everything you need, when you need it.
Yes! Whether you’re brand new to speaking or want to refine your delivery, The Ultimate Guide is built to grow with you — from your first shaky presentation to confident, high-impact speaking.
Most people complete the course in 4–6 weeks, but you can go faster or slower. You’ll be applying what you learn in real-time — and you can revisit the material anytime you need a refresh.
It’s for all of the above. The tools you’ll learn apply to keynotes, team meetings, TEDx talks, job interviews, sales pitches, and beyond.
One purchase = one license. If you’re a team or organisation, reach out for a group access discount or in-house training options.
Questions about The StoryVault
A growing library of plug-and-play stories, metaphors, and speaker tools for coaches, communicators, and leaders.
You get access to a searchable, ever-growing collection of powerful stories, teaching metaphors, and narrative tools — with suggestions on when and how to use each one.
It’s built for coaches, speakers, trainers, facilitators, consultants, and anyone who wants to communicate with impact. If you speak, teach, or lead — this is for you.
Monthly gives you flexible access with no lock-in. Annual gives you 12 months for the price of 10, plus early access to new drops and premium bonuses.
Yep! If you’re on the monthly plan, you can cancel with a click from your dashboard. Your access will continue until the end of the billing period.
Yes — they’re adaptable and cross-industry. You’ll find stories for leadership, change, resilience, sales, innovation, mental health, culture, and more.
Questions about The Ultimate Speaker System
The full speaking success ecosystem: The Ultimate Guide course + 12-month access to The StoryVault.
You get lifetime access to the full course (The Ultimate Guide to Speaking) plus 12 months of premium storytelling tools from The StoryVault — bundled for a powerful discount.
If you’re serious about speaking, this is the best-value path. You save money and get a complete toolkit for confidence, content, and charisma.
You can renew at the standard annual rate, or switch to monthly — no pressure. You’ll get reminders before anything expires.
Yes — if you do the work. You’ll learn how to craft compelling talks, tell stories that stick, and present in a way that makes people want more.
Yes! You’ll have access to a support team, live Q&As, and bonus material from our broader speaker community.