What Speakers are Saying ...

Sahar Hashemi - Entrepreneur

“With her deep and dedicated experience both from the client and the speaker angle she has the ability to give you the most eye-opening insights that can completely renew your speaking career.  She pushes you right out of your comfort zone and ingrained habits- and gives you both the inspiration and the actionable tools to completely reinvent and reposition yourself to keep in step with what the speaking world needs “ 

Isaac Getz – Renowned Leadership Expert 

“I want always to improve and our short exploratory chat turned into several sessions so much was there. It’s like you had always a feeling that something is missing in the dish you prepare and then, a great chef shows you that you can add that and that and that… and drop some stuff too. Now, I’m cooking differently–I hope better for those who taste them. What’s more, Maria sends you the recordings of your sessions and my advice is watch them. By going back through the recordings, you’ll find, as I did, some nuggets of gold that I had missed the first time. Maria is not a coach. She’s rather one of those custom-made tailors, London is famous for, who will help you to feel yourself. How about cooking like a chef and in style? Try it.”

Jamil Qureshi - Performance Psychologist

“Maria proves that you can take the transactional to transformational.”

Danny Scheinmann - Storyteller

“If you’re serious about speaking and want to get more bookings then I highly recommend Maria Franzoni’s course. I’ve never been comfortable promoting myself and I’ve tended to rely on word of mouth but the work dried up during the pandemic. I needed to reboot. I learnt so much from Maria. She makes prospecting for work easy and fun and if you follow through on her techniques you are pretty much guaranteed to open new doors.”

Philip Hesketh - Persuasion & Influence Expert

“I’ve been a full time professional speaker for 17 years and have spoken at conferences all over the world but this was still the best money I’ve ever spent to take my business to the next level. A thorough, honest appraisal of what I can improve on and 20 action points to take away from the 90 minutes session with Maria. Fabulous.”

Maher Mehzer - Innovation Expert

"Working with Maria Franzoni was a memorable experience answering professionally all my questions related to dealing with speakers bureaus , how and when to approach them on top of the style and pace to build a solid relationship with them. Finally Maria introduced me to 3 leading Bureaus in Europe that I ended up signing with them. If you're looking to accelerate your speaking  career , there is only one Name to Consider..... MARIA FRANZONI."

Antoinette Dale Henderson - The Gravitas Coach

“Thank you for all your support and encouragement – see below the words I printed out and put next to my monitor. I’ve looked at them many times over the past months and they inspired my thinking as I worked on my new website.”

Paula Reid, Adventurer

"I have just experienced a Speaker Business Appraisal with Maria Franzoni and I was blown away by the quality and quantity of useful tips packed into the session. I had assumed there would be some feedback, and coaching, and a few useful tips, but Maria over-delivered by a country mile. She was direct, decisive, clear, focussed, thorough, and 100% switched on to my business and needs for the whole session. I was bombarded with incredibly useful tips and I agreed with every single one. She had a useful external point of view and utilised her years of experience in the industry to cut to the chase. Brilliant."   

Sylvia Baldock, Maximising Personal and Team Talent

"I have had the great privilege of being mentored on becoming more bookable by awesome ‘Speaker Industry’ expert – Maria Franzoni. What Maria doesn’t know about the speaking industry isn’t worth knowing and she continues to excel in every area, from securing bookings, negotiating lucrative contracts and creating really impactful speaker showreels, to running speaker appraisals, highly effective workshops and 1-2-1 mentoring. Maria lives and breathes this industry and instinctively knows what works. She has razor sharp focus and is highly creative, generating a myriad of ideas which are incredibly relevant, thought provoking and impactful. Maria transforms good speakers into exceptional speakers and is highly respected and loved by both bookers and speakers alike. I can’t recommend her highly enough." 

Erica Sosna - Entrepreneur & Thought Leader

“Maria’s advice and expertise was so on point. After years of seeing speaking as a vehicle to share my expertise in the careers space, I finally took the leap to identify as a professional speaker.  She offered valuable insight on how to position myself and how to prepare a good quality showreel. Maria built my confidence to really go for it and helped me to capitalise on the work I had done so far as well as avoid the pitfalls and wrong turns on the route. If you want high quality support and insight from a real expert with genuine knowledge of what bookers and clients want – then Maria must be your first point of call.” 

Peter Cross - Consumer Expert

"Maria's little black book is one of the most sought after in the industry, opening up a world of opportunity and possibility to speakers keen to fast track their way to success"

Nick Saunders - Communication, Collaboration and Conflict Resolution Specialist

“The speaker appraisal with Maria was simply excellent. Maria is clear, honest, kinda brutal yet inspiring. I’m buzzing. The session will undoubtedly help take my speaking business to the next level, and beyond!”

Geeta Siddhu-Robb - CEO and founder of Nosh Detox

“Spending an hour with Maria was better than spending a whole day at a speakers Bootcamp. She really knows her stuff and picked up exactly where I was not clear, not focussed and helped me to find my own voice in my materials.” 

Henry Rose Lee - Inter-Generational Diversity Expert

“QJ and I both found the session really useful and practical and want to rush off and do everything!” 

Alex Staniforth - Adversity Adventurer

“I had a one to one strategy session with Maria – it was exactly what I needed and more. Having the opportunity to explore challenges from an external viewpoint was invaluable and helped me to move forwards when my own emotional connection was getting in the way – I’m excited to get on with putting my plan into action.” 

Mark Fritz - Expert on Leadership

“I had a speaking business appraisal with Maria and was very impressed and grateful for her advice.  She made such thoughtful and practical suggestions, with ideas that were very valuable to me beyond my speaking business.  Her advice will help me achieve my goals faster than I could have on my own.” 

Bob Ferguson - Speaker Coach

“My Q&A session with Maria was focussed on improving my business, full of practical tips, and excellent value. This is just a brilliant way to get access to over 20 years of experience in how to position yourself with bureaus. If you’re serious about working with bureaus this is a no-brainer” 

Amy Brann - Founder of Synaptic Potential

“I reached out to Maria when I thought I was ready…and she gave me what I am always most grateful for. BRUTAL, honest, direct feedback. She said the things I feared but others just weren’t saying. I didn’t like it, but I did believe it, and over a 3 year period I worked on it. After a chance meeting I mentioned I was so thankful for her advice those years ago. She looked at my ‘stuff’ again and she was so complimentary…and because I knew I could trust her – I continue to turn to her for her expert input.” 

Angela Oguntala - Futures and Innovation Expert

“I watched from afar as one respected speaker after another recounted how Maria has transformed their work. After my first session with her, I fully understand why. Maria is able to distill her decades of expertise into clear, understandable insights that unpack the root of your challenges and exactly what do do about them. She is also incredibly charming and frames things in a way that just makes them click in your mind, and that goes a long way in keeping you energized and motivated towards your goals." 

Andrew Bryant

"There's an old maxim that those that can do, and those that can't teach, but then there are those who have done it and choose to share their wisdom through coaching and mentoring others. 
Maria Franzoni is one such person whose experience and wisdom are invaluable to anyone who is, or aspires to be, a Professional Speaker."

Penny Pullan - Renowned Expert in Virtual and Hybrid Leadership

"I have 4 pages of A4 notes from my mentoring session with Maria yesterday, with ‘aha’ moments galore. Many were things I knew already but hadn’t really acted on as a professional speaker and others were the sort of insights into the speaking business that would take years (and no doubt lots of costly mistakes) to find out. Thank you Maria!"  

Sarah Whyte - Emotional Wellbeing and Resilience Expert

“Thank you so much for such a fantastic Speaker Bureau workshop! I so appreciate you both sharing your expertise and insights. There were many valuable key takeaways. You’ve transformed my feelings from anxiety over where to even start with speaker bureau to excitement and knowing exactly how to prepare to approach the right bureau (when I’m ready).” 

Shola Kaye - Communication Consultant

"I definitely feel much better after getting your advice and excited about moving forward with my speaking business. Lots of changes to make but everything you said makes perfect sense and having your experienced eye on my work will doubtless prove to be invaluable."

Sarah Furness - Executive Coach

"I attended Maria's training workshops as well as a 121 session as I wanted to know how to launch my speaking business into the mainstream speaking market and get well-paid gigs. I knew I had something worthy to talk about, but I wasn't sure how to get noticed and booked amongst the highly saturated and highly competitive speaker industry. Maria got straight to the point in her charming and inimitable way. She helped me see what was "saleable" about me and diplomatically allowed me to see that my "cause" is not what sells, it was me, my experience and ...maybe my hair. She explained the key components you need to be speaker ready and gave me a list of high impact changes I could easily implement. I also learned something which has transformed how I interact with potential clients - it's not really about me. It's about them! Once you can get over your own ego and see it from that perspective it revolutionises your business - people actually WANT to do business with you and sales becomes an enjoyable experience which feels effortless. A fellow speaker commented just recently that I "exploded" onto the scene and this was exactly the time I started following Maria's advice. Here are some of the things that have changed since I started working with Maria. My linkedin profile immediately got more traction. I got listed with 5 new bureaus. My fees doubled. My diary goes out to 12 months in advance. I know exactly where to channel my effort so that I'm not running around like a headless chicken. I believe that I can get exactly where I want to with Maria's guidance, I feel kind of bombproof and excited about the future, which is quite something in this market. If you want to scale up your speaking business, this is literally a no-brainer. Book Maria. Today."

Jacqui Harper - Presentation Skills Expert

"Just want to thank you for a wonderful Speaker Bureau workshop today. It was full of useful ideas and inspiring. It made me realise that I am speaker ready for specialist bureaus and I have experience and expertise that they can make money from."

Diana Theodores - Presence & Performance Specialist

"TS Eliot said in the Four Quartets “we had the experience but missed the meaning.”  As a performance coach, facilitator and interactive speaker, I love  creating memorable experiences for my  audiences, but that’s not enough. The critical bit is how to sense-make the experience and apply the learning. Application = Value.  Maria Franzoni’s latest course, Prospecting Day for Speakers is not only mega rich in content but instantaneously applicable, and I mean that literally!  The live exercises of the day challenged us to test-drive a series of techniques in the actual time of NOW. The results were astonishing for generating leads that converted to actual clients while on the course! I try to use this term sparingly but this was a game changer in my learning and development. Thank you Maria and Mary!"

Jane Gunn - The Barefoot Mediator

“I attended the Practical Prospecting course with Maria and Mary and what a goldmine of information it provided. So many tips and tricks that will be easy to adopt on a weekly basis that have the potential to enable us to reach more prospective clients and in fact, the ones we would most like to work with. Look forward to putting it all in to practice for 2022."

Steffi Bednarek - Psychotherapist

“Thanks for sharing all your amazing knowledge and making it sound so clear and simple.”

Rosalind Kainyah - Sustainability Speaker

“After a 30 year career in Sustainability, covering operations, senior management, executive and board level experience, I decided to build a career as a paid speaker on Sustainability. I have  spoken on Sustainability – as a panelist, moderator or Keynote speaker on Sustainability in Africa, the UK, Europe and the US since the early 1990s and thought that would be enough to get me paid speaking engagements.  However, the training sessions with Maria, which included other members of my team, taught me that although this was a good basis it was far from enough. The end result is that now only am I better equipped technically but more important it has resulted in a completely different and stronger way of thinking about what I want to do and the impact I want to have.  Maria, and her partner Mary, improved my presentations skills; provided invaluable input into my new website, particularly showing the importance of the website; taught me so much about the use and power of LinkedIn – which is already paying off; gave me advice and support with improving my presentation slide to make them even more professional; and gave taught me and my team members the who and how of prospecting for business – which was all very new but is already proving very effective.  I have always had a strong sense of needing to make an impact and of legacy. Maria has now armed me with what I need to go out and make that impact.  If I were to sum up in a sentence Maria’s impact it is this – ‘I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but now I know and am so much better for it.  One last but very important thing, she is not only excellent at what she does but the one thing I remember is that we had lots of laughs as we learnt." 

Scott D McArthur - Future of Work Speaker

“When I was a student in Edinburgh, one of the most popular drinks in the bars was called a long vodka. It was a refreshing and enjoyable cocktail prepared by mixing vodka, lime and lemonade and served over ice in a tall glass. However, a (Scottish) long vodka had a secret; it included a magical ingredient that set it apart from other beverages. A dash of Angostura is added to the mixture just before being served. Angostura is an exotic preparation that originated in Trinidad and Tobago and includes extracts of grasses, roots, leaves and fruits dissolved in alcohol; it is ideal for balancing alcoholic drinks. 

Maria is the Angostura of the speaking industry. 

Maria always gives constructive feedback and provides sage advice on developing your content, marketing and stagecraft. I have no hesitation in recommending her to help build your speaking business. Everyone can learn from her, whether you are a beginner or an experienced speaker." 

Anis Qizilbash

"Just my received first booking from Speakers Corner after sharing refined profile from our 1-2-1 sessions.

I’ve spent over £10k on various “experts”, most of them were an embarrassing waste of money. Since then I’ve been quite weary of investing in these experts. But investing in your expertise has been THE best return on investment by far. Thanks a million."