As one of my responsibilities is employee communications for a group of top sales professionals, I’m always looking for ways to advance my skills in this area. I came away from the discussion with very actionable take-aways that I have already started to apply when co-hosting our virtual all-hands communications calls – vocal variety and physical performance. -Anonymous
The guest speaker, Kerry Barrett, who spoke on the topic of “Unlocking Authentic Influence”, was a great choice and did an exceptional job sharing her learnings and experiences – along with moderating the panel discussion with various Xerox leaders. It was a very engaging session. -Anonymous
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at the recent XLA Annual Conference. -Anonymous
Very often, corporate leaders demonstrate very extroverted personas. In terms of Insight profiles, either red or yellow energy. There is a great deal of value placed on being sociable and relatable. However, for many in a wide array of engineering roles, our minds aren’t always wired in quite the same way. Efforts in regards to team-building and to draw us out of our shells are met with skepticism and doubt as opposed to openness and fun.
For those reasons, I was very pleasantly surprised by Kerry Barrett’s presentation at the XLA conference. Although I met her topic with my predetermined amount of skepticism, she was able to hook my attention and never let it go. She spoke to relatability and proved to be relatable throughout her presentation. I didn’t get the sense that she was preaching from a list of prescribed suggestions but rather that she had the lived experience to speak confidently on the topic. Her conclusions about the characteristics that make a person relatable were driven by data and she is interested in constantly improving her methodology. I would HIGHLY recommend her to any other organization or company looking for a key note speaker for a similar event.
-Dan Cappuccio
If you missed the XLA event with Kerry Barrett, you missed a lot. As someone that doesn’t like to present, I can use the tools Kerry shared to help me overcome my fear. Kerry provided tips on how to improve your relatability and how to create a connection with an audience when presenting. Use the “ABC” approach, Audience Before Content and connect with a person in the audience giving off a feeling of warmth. By always reverting back to that warm person it will provide reassurance and indication on how you and the presentation are being perceived. A bonus was Kerry’s honesty of sharing her bloopers that have occurred over her career. Really enjoyed the afternoon. -Anonymous
