Presenting Finance with Alexandra Bond Burnett

Today I’m presenting Kirsty McGregor chairman of the corporate finance network and accountant in residence for Capitalise. During 2020 Kirsty led a campaign called #leavenobusinessbehind championing accountants to be the guiding hand for SMEs during the pandemic. Kirsty shares with me what she saw in the accounting space; resilient conversations clients, being the SME therapist and how well accountants have been equipped to manage these high stakes conversations themselves and their teams.

This week I'm failing all over the place. And loving it. Accountancy and finance is such a binary space living in a world of yes and no, fails and wins. In this episode I talk about what the finance space is missing out on - the value we talk from failure, and how powerful that can be for innovation and discovery. 

This week I'm speaking to Madeline Pratt, CEO and founder of Fearless Foundry and CEO and founder of Womxn Talk Money - a community of female speakers in finance. We talk about Madeline's experience working with accountants on their personal brand, and also her experience on the speaker circuit and how she came to create a network of women finance professionals who speak on stage.  Women Talk Money is your community where we collaborate for the advancement and empowerment of womxn in the accounting and finance space.  https://www.womxntalkmoney.com/ Fearless Foundry is a creative consultancy that specializes in helping ambitious innovators with marketing, branding, and business development - find out more about them here: https://www.fearlessfoundry.com/ Follow Madeline here: instagram.com/madelinekpratt twitter.com/madelinekpratt

What do accountants need to really make an impact, beyond the technical skills? They say the technical will get you through the door, but these traits will get you at the table.  This week I'm going to share with you the 5 essential traits that really make accountants influential and get them making waves wherever they go. 

We all have our good days, and bad. Sometimes we are tired, or stressed and bring our B or C games to our meetings. Mindset affects not only your presence, but ability to make decisions and how you influence in the room.  Many things affect the way we 'show up' in accounting, but I have prepared a list of 5 ways that you can instantly use to help you be at your very best, to deliver high value work and make strong positive connections.  If you would like to find out more about yourself and how you make waves in accounting, take the influence in accounting scorecard

This week I'm following up on the popular public speaking episode, this week I talk about the three extra things you need to do (yes, even virtually) to take your speaking and influence from ok to outstanding.  1) How are you using you space to impact? 2) How do you make people feel? 3) How honest are you really being? As mentioned in the episode, you can test your ability to connect, influence and connect on the accountants communication scorecard and get your free report and ebook, Connect and Affect at www.speakingambition.scoreapp.com

Fear of public speaking is one of the top 5 phobias in the western world, and a huge barrier for accountants needing to step up and speak out for their role . Commonly known as glossophobia, this fear can manifest in a variety of ways from sweating, to shakes and extreme sickness.  I share my own experiences as well, it happens to everyone, even the best public speakers. In this episode I explain why this happens, how the brain and body react and teach you the three steps to help you tackle your nerves when presenting or speaking in public.  Measure your communication skills with the communication skills scorecard for accountants:   https://www.speakingambition.com/scorecard

This week I'm talking about public speaking, in fact, the THREE powerful tools of public speaking that help you share your insights in a way that make people want to take action and influence business performance.   WHY now? When most stages are closed? Public speaking skills (or BIG stage confidence as I call it) are not about getting up on stage at Wembley... If you can learn how to use your voice, body language and the space effectively, then you can present anywhere - from zoom to boardroom.  In this episode I walk you through: The common public speaking mistakes I see in accountants How to resonate with your audience  How to clearly connect and express actions and emotion to your financial insights Want to check your speaking skills? Take the communication Scorecard for accountants https://www.speakingambition.com/scorecard

One of the biggest barriers for accountants is being able to share their financial insights in a way that really makes an impact.  This week I share the method to help you find a narrative that connects to people, and inspires them to take action from your reports.  Learn the types of stories that numbers can tell, and how to identify the results you want them to generate How to adapt your presentation perspective to champion the stakeholder How to find the hero and the villain in the data Links Test your storytelling and speaking skills in the Accounting communication scorecard: https://www.speakingambition.com/scorecard Join the facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/speakingambition/ 

This week I'm sharing the two questions you MUST ask before you even start creating your presentation. As long as you have these questions in your head - you can lose the script, and guides you and the audience to a successful and memorable presentation.  Whether you are presenting in a large TEDx stage, whether you're in a conference room, whether you're just sat in front of your laptop, these questions are the first and foremost thing that you should do to gain clarity in your communication and your messaging. In this episode I cover: How steer your audience from what they want - to what you know they need, and how to feed the audience's brain with information that sticks.  How to guide your own memory throughout a presentation to stay on track  How to identify the data and analytics that your audience really care about  How to know your audience, regardless of size Ask one question to change your voice and body language to capture attention Call this your foundation class in successful persuasion skills, because once you've helped your audience gain clarity and you also have clarity, the result is an audience that trusts the information you are presenting.  Quotes:  "You could be the smartest person in the planet but unless you actually communicate what it means and and turn into action points and get other people involved, then it's just gonna stay there and locked up." "What is another word for want? It's desire.  Desire is part of our ego, our sense of self.  It's what they really really need for you know what they really are trying to get out of this communication" "We as the human race, are driven by two things throughout your entire day, from when you wake up, and when you go to sleep, and sometimes even during your sleep!  We're driven by two things and that is what can cause us pleasure and what can cause us pain.  Turn that around think about finance, how do we know what the pleasure and pain points are, and how do we actually boil that down for our audience? Very simply; the pleasure and pain suddenly turns into cost, and reward." "if you're dealing with data, the more that you drive into that desire, the more effective you will be."  Links www.speakingambition.com/liveevents Nick Elston and Alexandra: Speaking Academy Accountancy Special 

This week we are joined by Phil Hobden, Head of Education at Capitalise an adviser led funding platform, sharing that first opening question that accountants can use to initiate very simple, effective conversations with SMEs that lead to growth What we chatted about How to use your position of authority to ask questions that dig deeper into your relationship Using bridging questions to allow people to open up and engage  How 49% of SMEs will go to their accountant before they go anywhere else  What the impact of COVID-19 is on the client relationship  Best quotes in this episode: "SMEs like talking about anything it's about their business, their passion. " "How do I get started having this conversations after years of not?" "Traditional firms just have a client on a spreadsheet that is a number , and it's about turning that client that's a number into a story, with a back story - so you understand what their business is and what they do"  "We thought MTD would be the wrecking ball of change, until HMRC changed the game and gave get out of jail cards... COVID will be the fundamental trigger for an uptick in cloud adoption" "If you get that conversation right, your relationship will never be stronger"   https://uk.linkedin.com/in/philhobden https://twitter.com/capitaliser_ph

Never before have businesses needed to quickly assess who to trust to help guide them through the impact of COVID-19.  Every man and their dog has advice, but as accountants, professionals in your field, being a trusted voice has never been more important.  In this episode:  The three drivers of trust Empathy  Credibility  Reliability  Actions that you should be taking now Reaching out and listening Being valuable  Be at your best - the first person you need to look out for is you. Make sure you take care of your health and wellbeing, so that you can help others. 

I recorded this at a time of isolation, where videoconferencing has become standard procedure in our communication. Today I’m going to share with you my facilitator insights into how to run an incredible experience for your webinar, online meeting, or training session. I will go over how to prepare your audience, how to manage the session internally, and how to make sure that they leave the session feeling valued.

How do we sell accounting?   Sales skills can often have a bit of a sticky feel about it. In fact these days we call it business development. Tackling that sales patter to build your client base can be daunting, but it gives you the opportunity to connect with your perfect client.  If I was going to cost you £1500.. you might say no. That's a chunk off your bottom line. BUT...  What if I focussed on the profit my time and expertise gave you?  What if using me means you make another £30k profit?  In this episode we discover that the pivotal conversation, the sale, is the qualifier for the rest of your client relationship.  Speaking with the delightful Phil Sayers from Proten Sales Development, we discuss 5 things you should be doing to have better profitable conversations, with nothing salesy about them.    If you're looking to increase your sales skills - look at Phil's workshop Selling For Accountants on Wednesday 26th February in London. Tickets are £95 plus VAT, but Phil has very kindly given us the promo code of BOND which will reduce the price for your listeners to £75 plus VAT. Phil's book “It’s All About The Value" is available on Amazon in printed and eBook format. www.protensd.co.uk LinkedIn  Phil Sayers,  Twitter Phil_Sayers Helping accountants and their clients sell more, sell more often and build a better business https://protensd.co.uk/for-accountants

Using video isn't just about marketing, it's the digital way to communicate culture, ideas and services.  This week I take you through 16 ideas for accountants to start using video to deliver awesome communications inside, and out of their firm. Today I talk through 8 ideas and how you can implement them to help give your clients, team and the world a view of what you are all about.  www.bondambition.co.uk www.subscribepage.com/16videoideas https://www.bondambition.co.uk/video-masterclass