Terri Sjodin

Terri Sjodin is a renowned speaker, author, and entrepreneur, celebrated for her expertise in helping professionals enhance their persuasive presentation skills. More than thirty years after launching her company, Sjodin Communications, from a spare room in her home, she has built an impressive client list that includes Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, national sales teams, industry associations, and even members of Congress.

She is the author of several books, including “Scrappy” and the New York Times Best Seller, “Small Message, Big Impact”, (Penguin/Portfolio), which also hit the Wall Street Journal Hardcover Business bestseller list, and USA Today Money bestseller list. Her newest book, “Presentation Ready” based on a multi-year, three phase research study, was recently published by McGraw-Hill.

In July of 2012, Terri was inducted into the NSA Speaker Hall of Fame. This award, called the CPAE, is a lifetime award for speaking excellence and professionalism. Inductees are evaluated by their peers through a rigorous and demanding process. Each candidate must excel in seven categories: material, style, experience, delivery, image, professionalism and communication. She also received the prestigious CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation. Less than 12% of the 5,000 speakers who belong to the International Federation for Professional Speakers hold this professional designation. She was also named one of the top five Women in Business by the Orange County Business Journal.

Beyond her success as an entrepreneur and author, Terri is a popular LinkedIn Learning Instructor and a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows throughout the country, appearing on The Today Show, Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC, and many industry podcasts.

Her impact extends beyond the business realm, as she serves on the Orange County Board of Trustees for Olive Crest. Olive Crest is dedicated to preventing child abuse, to treating and educating at-risk children and to preserving the family one life at a time.

Terri graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Speech Communication. Before forming her own company, Terri was a top sales producer with both The Achievement Group and Resource Dynamics.

Her combination of academic communication theory, field research, and practical street sales experience collected during thousands of coast-to-coast business presentations cast Terri in the leading role of advising today’s professionals on becoming more polished, persuasive presenters and adapting to the changing marketplace.

Terri is a “high content” speaker – Her approach is fresh, real-world, and her style is sassy and practical. Each presentation is loaded with street-worthy ideas, methods, and tips that men and women can use immediately to get results. Many consider Terri to be today’s sales professionals’ speech coach.

 Presentation Ready: Exploring the Art of Presenting Persuasively

(This program can be delivered in a keynote, breakout session, half-day or full-day format.)

Most people want to improve their presentations but don’t know where to start — and that can be costly.  That is where this program can help.

In this session, Terri shares the results from her multiyear research project on the state of sales presentations, which identified 12 common mistakes that may cost an individual the win, the deal, or the opportunity, and shows how to avoid them. Why focus on mistakes? Because you can’t improve what you don’t recognize as a problem. The solutions will ultimately help you course-correct faster and gain greater confidence for future presentations.

The audience will gain an understanding of:

• The 12 most common mistakes people make when presenting
• The 3 benchmarks for crafting an effective presentation: Case, Creativity and Delivery
• How to make your messaging persuasive rather than just informative
• How to communicate more effectively, whether in person, virtual or hybrid
• How to avoid “strange” body language and gesturing
• How to channel fear and anxiety to work for you vs. against you when you’re speaking one-on-one or one-on-one hundred

The focus will be on developing verbal communication skills for greater impact with listeners.

Building Your Persuasive Case

(This is a breakout session to follow the Presentation Ready keynote.)

Has your sales presentation become far too informative versus persuasive? You are not alone.

In this session, Terri will address one of the highest ranked mistakes participants self-identified in The State of Sales Presentations research study: Being Overly Informative Versus Persuasive. She will show you specific method for developing logical persuasive arguments in the body of your presentations, including how-tos for identifying your most compelling talking points. This is a roll-up-your-shirt-sleeves interactive session.

The Scrappy Advantage… It’s About Choosing to Play Big!

(This is a popular breakout session to follow the “Presentation Ready” material)

In today’s competitive market, it takes more than just showing up, more than persistence, more than just having a dream to reach your goals. Sometimes you have to get a little scrappy and creative to earn the right to be heard!

In this special session, attendees will get a sneak peek into Terri Sjodin’s book, Scrappy: A Little Book About Choosing to Play Big (Penguin Random House August 2016). The American Heritage Dictionary defines “scrappy” as “…full of fighting-spirit.” The impetus of a scrappy mindset might begin when a person (insert you) has a specific goal with a specific challenge to circumvent, most likely within a certain time frame. Terri will share research, interview material and incredible stories from a variety of people from different industries who have pulled off seemingly impossible wins or achieved crazy, fun goals. This session will give you tactical ideas to help you execute on your vision of what you can accomplish…once you decide to get scrappy.