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Frequently Asked Questions
Do you accept refund requests?
Yes! If you don't get value out of your strategy session we'll give you a full refund! Email our team and we'll get you sorted out.
How many people on my team can train with Isaiah at a time?
Doesn't matter! We've worked one-on-one with people and up to hundreds at a time.
What prep work do I need to do before my session?
The more specific a thing you bring to work on the more you'll get out of it. But, there's nothing you need to read or watch beforehand.
Can I bring my co-founder or [insert other person here]?
Yes! Bring 'em with you and we'll all talk together.
Will you sign an NDA before our strategy session?
Yes! Email it to us before your session and we'll get it signed.
Can I have my strategy session in person?
Yes! Cover travel expenses and we'll come work wherever you are.
How does this differ from training like Toastmasters?
I was nervous one day asking my mentor, Steven Tomlinson, what he felt about Toastmasters, given my personal conviction that they need to be replaced and shut down with something that prioritizes substance over form.
He laughed and said something like “Toastmasters?? That’s just rehearsed trauma!”
I couldn’t agree more. While some of us more than others may need a confidence boost, Toastmasters to me represents the ultimate low-brow form of false confidence. It’s kind of like MBAs who have never made a real consequential decision that affected 50 employees before.
I find Toastmasters people tend to:
Vastly overestimate their content/substance, because they can speak without saying Uh and Um
Lack the listening and critical thinking skills necessary to break through to the highest level, so they’ve adopted an artificial ceiling
Are by and large annoying to thoughtful people, introverts, and great leaders
I’m not speaking from ignorance here. I participated briefly in Toastmasters, even developing a debate program for them in the DC area to help tackle some of the problems I saw. I was invited to the huge train-the-trainer Toastmasters event as a speaker, which was several hundreds of Toastmaster trainers.
I spoke on “Metonomy” and taught them how to use 40 figures of speech, a classical rhetoric staple of the “style” canon of rhetoric. The audience of trainers was wowed! They had never heard of antimetabole, antanaclasis, snowclones, or litotes, much less intentionally crafted them. They were using them within the hour and blowing themselves away! My talk was voted best of the train-the-trainers program.
So I concluded that Toastmasters is an extremely well-meaning program of the blind leading the blind and took deeper turn into brain science and classical rhetoric, which consistently show up with the why behind great expression, plus the disciplined restraint of a master instead of the overwhelmingly annoying presence of a “dominant,” confident speaker.
If Toastmasters connected with its classical rhetoric roots, was diligence about behavioral science, or worked within the contexts of management communication, I believe it would do much more than give shy people the false believe that they are amazing communicators.
We need more Aristotles and fewer Limbaughs.
Are our strategy sessions recorded? Do I get access after?
Yes, if you ask to get your session recorded we'll provide you with the recording afterwards.
