skip to Main Content

Terri Sjodin

Terri Sjodin

Terri is a “high content” speaker – Her approach is fresh, real-world, and her style is sassy and practical

Topic Categories:

Fee Range: Contact Speaker Exchange Agency

  • Advancing the persuasive presentations skills of professionals
  • Principal and Founder of Sjodin Communications
  • Author of Presentation Ready: Improve Your Sales Presentation Outcomes & Avoid the Twelve Most Common MistakesScrappy: A Little Book About Choosing to Play Big and Small Message, Big Impact
  • Terri is a popular LinkedIn Instructor and a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows throughout the country, appearing on The Today Show, Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC, and more.
  • July of 2012, Terri was inducted into the NSA Speaker Hall of Fame
  • In June of 2007, Terri was named one of the top five Women in Business by the Orange County Business Journal
  • Serves on the Orange County Board of Trustees for Olive Crest

*Fee ranges are presented as a guideline only. Speaker fees are subject to change without notice. For an exact quote, please contact your Speaker Exchange Agency representative.

Terri Sjodin is a renowned speaker, author, and entrepreneur, celebrated for her expertise in helping professionals enhance their persuasive presentation skills. More than thirty years after launching her company, Sjodin Communications, from a spare room in her home, she has built an impressive client list that includes Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, national sales teams, industry associations, and even members of Congress.

She is the author of several books, including “Scrappy” and the New York Times Best Seller, “Small Message, Big Impact”, (Penguin/Portfolio), which also hit the Wall Street Journal Hardcover Business bestseller list, and USA Today Money bestseller list. Her newest book, “Presentation Ready” based on a multi-year, three phase research study, was recently published by McGraw-Hill.

In July of 2012, Terri was inducted into the NSA Speaker Hall of Fame. This award, called the CPAE, is a lifetime award for speaking excellence and professionalism. Inductees are evaluated by their peers through a rigorous and demanding process. Each candidate must excel in seven categories: material, style, experience, delivery, image, professionalism and communication. She also received the prestigious CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation. Less than 12% of the 5,000 speakers who belong to the International Federation for Professional Speakers hold this professional designation. She was also named one of the top five Women in Business by the Orange County Business Journal.

Beyond her success as an entrepreneur and author, Terri is a popular LinkedIn Learning Instructor and a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows throughout the country, appearing on The Today Show, Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC, and many industry podcasts.

Her impact extends beyond the business realm, as she serves on the Orange County Board of Trustees for Olive Crest. Olive Crest is dedicated to preventing child abuse, to treating and educating at-risk children and to preserving the family one life at a time.

Terri graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Speech Communication. Before forming her own company, Terri was a top sales producer with both The Achievement Group and Resource Dynamics.

Her combination of academic communication theory, field research, and practical street sales experience collected during thousands of coast-to-coast business presentations cast Terri in the leading role of advising today’s professionals on becoming more polished, persuasive presenters and adapting to the changing marketplace.

Terri is a “high content” speaker – Her approach is fresh, real-world, and her style is sassy and practical. Each presentation is loaded with street-worthy ideas, methods, and tips that men and women can use immediately to get results. Many consider Terri to be today’s sales professionals’ speech coach.

Presentation Ready: Exploring the Art of Presenting Persuasively

Most people want to improve their presentations but don’t know where to start — and that can be costly. That is where this program can help.

In this session, Terri shares the results from her multiyear research project on the state of sales presentations, which identified 12 common mistakes that may cost an individual the win, the deal, or the opportunity, and shows how to avoid them. Why focus on mistakes? Because you can’t improve what you don’t recognize as a problem. The solutions will ultimately help you course-correct faster and gain greater confidence for future presentations.

(This program can be delivered in a keynote, breakout session, half-day or full-day format.)

The audience will gain an understanding of:

  • The 12 most common mistakes people make when presenting
  • The 3 benchmarks for crafting an effective presentation: Case, Creativity and Delivery
  • How to make your messaging persuasive rather than just informative
  • How to communicate more effectively, whether in person, virtual or hybrid
  • How to avoid “strange” body language and gesturing
  • How to channel fear and anxiety to work for you vs. against you when you’re speaking one-on-one or one-on-one hundred

The focus will be on developing verbal communication skills for greater impact with listeners.

Building Your Persuasive Case

In this breakout session, Terri will show you specific how-to’s for developing logical persuasive arguments in the body of your sales presentations, including strategies for handling objections.

(This is a breakout session to follow the Presentation Ready Keynote.)

Has your sales presentation become far too informative versus persuasive? You are not alone.

In this session, Terri will address one of the highest ranked mistakes participants self-identified in The State of Sales Presentations research study: Being Overly Informative Versus Persuasive. She will show you specific method for developing logical persuasive arguments in the body of your presentations, including how-tos for identifying your most compelling talking points. This is a roll-up-your-shirt-sleeves interactive session.

The Scrappy Advantage… It’s About Choosing to Play Big!

(This is a popular breakout session to follow the “Small Message, Big Impact” material)

In today’s competitive market, it takes more than just showing up, more than persistence, more than just having a dream to reach your goals. Sometimes you have to roll up your shirt sleeves and get a little scrappy and creative to earn the right to be heard!

In this special session, attendees will get a sneak peek into Terri Sjodin’s new book, Scrappy: A Little Book About Choosing to Play Big (Penguin Random House August 2016). The American Heritage Dictionary defines “scrappy” as “…full of fighting-spirit.” The impetus of a scrappy mindset might begin when a person (insert you) has a specific goal with a specific challenge to circumvent, most likely within a certain time frame. Terri will share research, interview material and incredible stories from a variety of people from different industries who have pulled off seemingly impossible wins or achieved crazy, fun goals. This session will give you tactical ideas to help you execute on your vision of what you can accomplish… once you decide to get scrappy.

Small Group Workshops Also Available

Their unique Presentation Skills Workshops are designed to help attendees learn how to build and deliver more polished and persuasive elevator speeches! Class sizes are limited to allow for more individualized attention, provide hands on training, and to focus on coaching business professionals to truly execute presentations that generate results!

(Note: The core skills learned in Terri’s workshops also help individuals to build and deliver presentations of greater length, for a variety of different business situations, and enhance overall leadership effectiveness.)

One Day Workshops

Program runs approximately 6 1/2 hours
8:30 am – 4:30 pm
(Maximum of 20 attendees per session)

This program includes a brief lecture-only seminar in the morning to review The 12 Most Common Sales Presentation Mistakes. Then the participants will be asked to deliver two different types of presentations in front of the group.

Each presentation will focus on further developing: stronger verbal communication skills, structure, building persuasive arguments, closing, style, humor and timing. Participants will receive coaching in a group environment, with specific feedback on areas for improvement. Videotaping is optional.

1.5 Day Workshops

This is the extended version of the One-Day Program described above – with a twist. Participants are allowed to meet with Terri until 8:30 pm at the conclusion of Day 1 to receive optional one-on-one coaching and feedback to improve his/her final presentation on the following day.

Fondly named “Hell Night” by clients because it’s hard work! This intensive and highly interactive program produces results! Attendee’s consistently remark that this course is a “game changer” for their careers long term. (Maximum of 16 attendees per session)

Day 1 – 8:30 am – 4:30 pm Evening coaching from approximately 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Day 2 – 8:30 am – 12 noon

The final presentations are critiqued and evaluated by Terri as well as the senior management of the company sponsoring the event. It’s hard work…but the results are worth the effort.

This is Terri’s signature workshop as described in her books, Presentation Ready, and Small Message, Big Impact. (Videotaping is typically reserved for “Hell Night 2” as part of the Advanced Program)

Please contact us to see testimonials.
Related Speakers

Want to bring Terri Sjodin to your next event?  Please tell us a little about your event, and we will get back to you shortly!

  • *Required
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Back To Top