Some of you may have heard about Public Speakers University initiated by Andy Harrington that not only aims to transform you into a competent public speaker but also to a professional speaker that can increase significantly your income by working less.
Basically, Andy’s mottos are that anyone has a skill or knows something that there are other people across the world that are willing to pay to have it also. In addition, any person in any profession can win a lot of money with less effort if he or she instead of following a one-to-one approach to follow a one-to-many through public speaking..
Andy started as salesman in insurances and after reaching really the bottom in his life, he made many changes (personal and professional ones ) and he has become now a millionaire by running workshops across the world on transforming individuals into professional public speakers.
I happened to hear for the first time about Andy from my friend Kristjan when I was in Slovenia/Ljubljana giving a three days workshop on how someone to write successful proposals for funding in Horizon 2020 the new Research and Innovation Programme.
I remember very well the dialogue we had:
- Nikolaos, tomorrow we need to finish sharp at 17:00 (sometimes I get so passioned with my training that I forget the time) he says to me.
- -Why? I replied back(I still don’t understand why some people wish to leave at the time that is scheduled when I train them)
- I would like to attend a three hours presentation given here in Ljubljana tomorrow afternoon by Andy Harrington
- Andy who?
Anyway, I had nothing to do that afternoon after my workshop and I decided to join him. During these three hours, basically Andy presented some fundamentals on public speaking, showed testimonials of people attending his three or four days workshops and encouraged us to pre-register in his full three days workshop organized next month in Ljubljana on public speaking via their host in Slovenia, Panta-rei. The participation fee was quite high for my standards (something a little bit less than 1000 EUR) and I had to consider also my expenses for travelling from Athens and staying in Ljubljana during the workshop. I was hesitating ( I guess in the same manner when people hesitate to join my trainings) but a small voice inside myself (say it an instinct) made me to register.
The more the days were close to Andy’s event, the more excited I was getting Finally, the day before the workshop arrives that I take the plane from Athens in order to get to Ljubljana via Belgrade. However, two very bad incidents happen to me just before the event and just after. More specifically, on the way to Ljubljana from Belgrade there were so strong winds that the plane (really small one) couldn’t land. After many unsuccessful attempts and after the screams and vomits of many passengers (I will not include myself in this category but I can only say that during this experience I promised myself that if we survive, I will always switch my mobile phone to flight mode), the captain decided to fly further and manage (thank God) to land in Zagreb (the capital of Croatia).
It was around, midnight, I was exhausted, I was in another country than initially planned and next morning I was supposed to participate at Andy’s workshop. For one thing, I was sure that I would never go back again to any plane at least for the next three days (I had to return back to Athens, anyway). Eventually, a bus was arranged for all these desperate and frightened passengers including me to take us to Ljubljana. The lack of sleep and the extra travel burden did not affect me negatively at all since I was really really really happy travelling on the ground. (Can you imagine that from a guy that had done also sky-diving/tandem for his 40th birthday celebration?).
Anyway, next morning, I was there at Andy’s workshop and I will provide you more details shortly about this but let me inform you first about another unfortunate incident that happened to me towards the end of the whole Andy’s worshop. During the whole seminar, I wasn’t feeling that well and I guessed it was due to all this flight experience but especially the last day, I was shivering, with sore throat, exhausted and with high fever (40o Celcius) as I realized when I arrived home. They took me to the doctor that diagnosed that I had been infected with the H5N1 flue that kept me in bed for the next seven days
And now the interesting staff! In spite of those two quite unfortunate incidents, I can only say one thing.
I was really fortunate attending Andy’s workshop that showed me a completely other way on how to exploit my skills, knowledge and my personal educational approach in writing successful grant application forms and transform larger audiences into successful proposal writers.
The workshop was run by Andy and his assistant Cheryl Chapman that she was very competent also. There were more than 150 participants but during these three full days, I felt that the training was delivered to me personally. They inducted me into the essentials for engaging large audiences, they showed me how to systemise my knowledge and training skills and also how to sell them and multiply significantly my income. Last but not least, I had the chance to meet very interesting people and I am really looking forward to my next time in Slovenia. I think I was the only foreigner (apart from Andy and his team) during the whole workshop duration at the Public Speakers University workshop but everything made me feel very comfortable.
I am really looking forward now to the one-to-one coaching sessions with Andy himself.
Thank you Andy, thank you Cheryl, thank you Kristjan, thank you Sara from Panta-rei.
Have you attended any events of Andy Harrington or of similar people? If so, I would love to hear from you.