By ALESHA CAPONE
AFTER Jennifer Burrows overcame her fear of public speaking, she decided to help other people reach the same goal.
For the past seven years, Ms Burrows has been a pitch consultant and runs a business called Value For Life in Williamstown.
As part of a previous job, she delivered many board presentations but never liked doing so until a CEO kindly told her she needed to improve her public speaking skills.
“I tried many different presentation courses but nothing worked,” Ms Burrows said.
“When I discovered the keys to constructing and delivering powerful pitches and presentations, my mission was clear; help others be insanely great in front of any audience so they can experience the success they deserve.”
Ms Burrows said her present job as a pitch consultant involved helping businesses to create a “powerful verbal message” as part of announcements, tenders, key note speeches and other presentations.
“We also work within organisations coaching teams in the skills essential for presenting and persuading with confidence, credibility and impact, skills that are highly relevant for those that present either internally or externally, at small informal meetings and/or to larger more formal groups,” Ms Burrows said.
A few years ago Ms Burrows worked to develop a presentation on the $750 million ANZ building in Docklands.
“The delivery of this presentation was to 150 of ANZ’s top executives so the execution had to be flawless,” she said.
“I love seeing that building, all its angles and curves and I have a huge appreciation for the effort they expended in making it environmentally friendly.”
Ms Burrows said one of her favourite projects involved working with 25 people to ask a government panel for a $40 grant to build a co-operative research centre.
“The tender had been two years in the making and we only had a week to prepare the verbal presentation. They all worked incredibly hard,” she said.
“When they won, I was in tears, I was so happy for them.”
