But we didn’t start out that way.

Both of us had a background in coaching and in the performing arts and professional acting, but were working in other jobs when something happened that prompted us into action.…

“He didn’t ask his best friend...because he’d be lousy at the speech”

When my brother got married a couple of years ago, it was a real family-and-close-friends event. After a few years away, he’d moved back to the area where we’d grown up, and there had met his lovely future wife, and re-established some of the firm friendships of his childhood. Their summer wedding was held in a beautiful old church in the heart of a rural English village, and a horse and carriage took the newly married couple back up the hill to a reception in the garden of her parents’ house.

The big surprise of the occasion had been that my brother DIDN’T ask his best friend of many years to be his best man. When I asked him why, the answer shocked me. He said “because he’d be lousy at the speech”. The friend in question was torn between wanting to be there for my brother on his big day, and a total fear of public speaking. I really felt for them both…especially as I could have done something to help.

After this, Lynn and I realised that there must be hundreds of people out there who would like some professional speech tips, how-to guides, blueprints for how to write a best man speech and templates... to say nothing of advice on how to actually present their speech. Bet your bottom dollar - you can kill a good speech stone dead if you’re overcome with nerves and don’t know how to deliver it properly!

We decided that we could use our collective 30 years experience of acting, speaking in public and coaching to create a way for people to learn not only how to write a great wedding speech in 90 minutes or less, but - more importantly - how to stand up and deliver it with confidence and flair. We don’t want anyone else to miss out like my brother and his friend did.

Since then, we’ve coached dozens of people preparing wedding speeches, some of whom are terrified at the prospect of making a wedding speech, and many who speak in public frequently at work, but are just worried that the emotion of the occasion will overcome them.