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Confidence Dose

Speak like the room is yours.

Speeches written for your voice. Coaching from a journalist and a West End director. The keynote, the IPO roadshow, the hard town hall.

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Dan Ilett, founder of The Proposition
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The challenge

The speech of your career is in two weeks and the opening still does not work.

The diagnosis

Your leadership team is brilliant on paper and wooden on stage.

The first major keynote. The biggest stage you have ever stood on. You are speaking to a world leader's audience. The IPO roadshow starts on Monday. Twenty rooms, ten days, one narrative that has to land every time.

The all-hands is broadcast to thirty thousand staff. Every market, every time zone. The wrong line lives on Slack for a year. The crisis town hall is tomorrow. Layoffs, a loss, a pivot. Press in the room. The first sentence has to be right.

We write the speech for your voice. Then we rehearse it until you know where every laugh is.

Four ways in

Same standard. Pick the one that fits the moment.

  • For the executive. A speech written for your voice. One-on-one with a senior writer. We listen to you talk, read what you have published and write a speech that sounds like you on your best day. Rehearsed the day before.
  • For the leadership team. A two-day workshop that lifts the bench. Six to twelve leaders. They walk out with a team narrative, a speech bank for repeat use and the on-camera muscle to deliver it.
  • For the moment. The keynote, the IPO roadshow, the hard town hall. A defined moment with stakes. We write it. We direct it. We sit in the back of the room. We rebuild the second one if we need to.
  • For the board. The 10-minute board update that lands. A specific format, a specific arc. Built around what your board actually wants to know. The CEO update most boards say is the best they have heard.
Walk away with

You walk off stage. The room is yours.

  • A speech in your voice. Drafted, edited, read aloud, rebuilt. Eight to fifteen minutes typical.
  • 1:1 coaching on stage and on camera. Senior writer plus a coach who has worked the West End.
  • A speech bank for repeat use. Top, middle, end. Ready to remix for the next twelve months.
  • A pre-stage rehearsal pack. Tech check, Q&A drill, opening drill. The 90 minutes before doors.
  • A standing ovation. A team that quotes you on Monday. A board that listens differently.
Who it is for

CEOs, founders, CFOs, CMOs and senior partners with a high-stakes moment.

We work with executives who have the substance and need the speech. Keynotes, IPO roadshows, earnings calls, town halls and board updates. On camera and on stage.

Frequently asked

A few things people ask before booking.

  • I just need a speech. Yes, many engagements are one speech. Two weeks is typical. Faster if we have to.
  • Can you coach over Zoom? Yes. Most coaching is on camera. For the day itself, we usually want to be there.
  • I am not a CEO. We work with founders, CFOs, CMOs, CTOs, MDs and senior partners at the same standard.
Speed

Two weeks is typical. Faster if the calendar demands it.

Typical

Two weeks

Rush

Available

Speech length

8--15 mins

Delivery

London + remote

From the work
"They smashed it. We were looking for journalistic flair rather than traditional marketing. We have struggled for years to describe what we do in a clear way. They got to know us really well and created a whole new concept for describing what we do."
Matt Sims · Managing Director, Hatch
Start here

Tell us the moment.

The stage, the date and what you need the room to feel when you finish. One call. We will tell you what is possible. Replies within 24 hours.

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Dan Ilett, founder of The Proposition
Who runs the room

From asking CEOs the hard questions to running the transformation programmes inside FTSE companies.

I have worked every side of the commercial table. I spent years interviewing CEOs as a journalist for the Financial Times, newspapers and online media. I founded Greenbang (50,000 readers, quoted by the UN and European Commission) and was the founding editor and investor in CoinDesk.

Inside FTSE companies I served as Commercial Director at Virgin Money and at Thomas Cook, where I ran transformation programmes that changed how big organisations sell, grow and prove their numbers.

That work has unlocked over $1bn in revenue for clients, and I have advised teams at IBM, Microsoft, Google, Cisco and Cognizant along the way.

Dan Ilett · Founder, The Proposition · Editor, The Executive Summary