"People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never" Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Rachel enjoys working with speakers and business owners who want to get their message out, and communicate and market more effectively.
She works with speakers at all levels - from those who are nervous but need to put themselves forward, to experienced and confident professional speakers who want to hone their material, marketing or approach.
Rachel believes that "if you want to speak, you will be able to" if you adopt the right Techniques, Attitudes and Practices (TAP). She writes about TAP for speakers on her weekly speaking tip - delivered free every Wednesday (New Zealand Time)
Rachel's skill set is unusual - she blends analytical ability with creativity, the ability to see the big picture (and deal with details), and a constant thirst to learn more about communication and to help others find courage to communicate more effectively.
The projects she takes on include speechwriting, coaching speakers, running workshops, developing training in person and via e-learning, writing web-content, and helping people who have great ideas get their message out through non-traditional means.
Rachel has a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing and Management - with minors in Economics and Operations Research), and a Bachelor of Laws, both from the University of Canterbury.
Her first training workshop was on the Fair Trading Act and Commerce Act for the Commerce Commission, where she was the Fair Trading Enquiries Officer, was taught how to be an investigator and to execute a search warrant. She also was paid to read advertising! She moved on to the Ministry of Housing where the favourite part of her job as Office Solicitor was the training she gave on the Residential Tenancies, Privacy, Official Information and Human Rights Acts.
Rachel lived in London from 1999-2005 where she was a Senior Corporate Lawyer (Regeneration and Partnerships) at the London Borough of Southwark. While there she studied acting/directing and playwriting under Craig Snelling at Morley College. She also took courses in voice with Nigel Gregory, and accents with Eileen Benskin at the City Lit and was an active volunteer at the Globe Theatre.
Rachel began studying coaching in 2002 graduating from the Coach Training Program in 2005, and has since completed a Certificate in Adult Teaching at CPIT in 2009, while teaching part-time in the School of Business for the National Diploma in Business (Online), and on the Graduate Diploma of Event Management. She was admitted to the bar in 1994 but "retired" from law in 2005 and is how happily non-practising. She does not provide legal advice.
