Meet Terry Rubin | Public Speaking and Strategic Storytelling expert

We had the good fortune of connecting with Terry Rubin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Terry, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever start a business on my own. I was a journalist, Speech and Debate Coach, and teacher but that all changed one summer. I was asked by a parent of one of my students to come to his office and run some public speaking workshops for his staff. After I worked with over 25 of his staff, they started to call and inquire if I could come work with more people. At a point, due to my regular job, I had to turn down business. At the same time, my wife and I welcomed our first child. I wanted flexibility in my schedule to be present for my wife and son. I loved the work with executives and staff at various companies. I reached out to my now business partner, Kurt Macdonald, and asked him if he would consider going into business to start a communication firm centered on public speaking skill building, impactful messaging, and strategic storytelling. We did some market research and realized there was space for public speaking and storytelling training and content development work for businesses in the mountain region. We jumped in with both feet with really just one client. Seven years later we have had over 100 clients that span the globe and are loving it, but more importantly, excited for what the future holds.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We believe Communication matters. How you present your company, your products, your services, your value, your expertise…MATTERS! Our client’s success depends on how well they communicate. This is where we come in. We help people improve their communication skills by improving their public speaking techniques, demonstrating what makes a strategic story impactful / memorable and how to use it effectively in every communication opportunity, and helping them improve their content whether for keynote address or for a weekly team meeting with their direct reports. What sets us apart as a communication skill building firm, is that we cater to every client. No workshop looks or sounds the same. We will train 15 executives on improving public speaking skills and then the next day, work with a Hedge Fund on their pitch to potential investors. We will work one-on-one with speakers preparing for high stakes presentations helping them create the outline, the engaging organization, the strategic stories, and then work on fine tuning the execution of that content. Another week, we will work on extemporaneous speaking and helping people be more effective in their meetings, the next week, we will work with a small team on media training, and then a couple weeks later, we will help an executive team prepare for a series of management presentations to potential buyers. We think we are quite unique from our competition, as we work with a wide variety of clients helping solve and fix their communication challenges and obstacles, to set them up for success.

Seven years ago, we started with a half of a client, and just started to meet and talk to everyone about who we were. We did free lunch and learns, sponsored breakfasts for the chamber of commerce to give our pitch, presented at conferences, and did free breakout sessions for associations. We believed and still do, that our greatest asset is….US. We needed to get in front of people to help them understand our value and why they needed to hire us. It was rough the first couple of years. We started to build momentum when COVID hit. I thought we were dead when everything shut down. We only did “in-person” training at the time. Then we started to get requests to improve virtual communication for national sales teams, people presenting on webinars, and individuals having to run meetings remotely for the first time; COVID actually helped grow our business. From there, we have been growing ever since.

Our greatest compliment we receive over and over again is that people are impressed by how much we know about the work they do, how we make our training and coaching relevant to their jobs, and that “we provide the best professional training they have ever received.” We get all three of those compliments week in and week out. One time we did a communication training for a group of 20 or so TPA’s (401k Third Party Administrators.). We learned everything we could about their business of managing 401K plans and the rules and regulations that come with them. At the end of the workshop, when we opened it up for questions, the first question asked was, ” Were you both TPA’s before you started this business? You two knew more about what we do than some of our own staff.” This is why we do what we do. We pride ourselves on building this connection with our clients and continue to strive to improve and be the best we can be for our clients. More than 80% of our clients return and ask for more training and coaching. It is because of the prep work, the easy to implement tools and techniques and we are easy and fun to work with.

We have not had the easiest path forward, but no business is easy. We are still learning each and every day. Most importantly, we are very excited about the future.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would say first we would go for a hike at Lair of the Bear to introduce to him / her to some mountain life. We would then go to Steuben’s to get some great high end diner food for lunch. The next day, it would be a tee time at City Park and let him/her take in the spectacular views and enjoy one of Denver’s finest golf courses. A late lunch or early dinner on the patio and then home to relax and have beverage of choice. I would want a nice night out so of course it would be my favorite place, Guard and Grace. Best food and service in town. One day we would go up to Red Rocks to take in a movie or a band, and enjoy catered food from Marzyk’s deli.

I think we would then head up to Boulder for hike around the mountains and then down to the Tea House for a nice relaxing lunch.

The last day would be a bit more chill, Walk around Washington Park, brunch at Syrup on City Park, and then an afternoon nap. 🙂

Overall, we would be active but take in some great food and spots around Denver.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I think first and foremost I want to dedicate my shoutout to my father, who was a salesman and a great storyteller. He made relationships with everyone and showed me at a young age that being ethical, showing kindness and listening goes a long way in life and business. I would say first and foremost my business partner, Kurt MacDonald who without him there would be no Professional Communicators. He brings imagination, attention to detail, creativity, and quick wit and words each and everyday. He is just a great person. I am lucky to be in business with him and that he is willing to be in business with me. The next shoutout goes to my wife who really has given me the confidence to be a business owner and given us the runway to make it work. She is my greatest cheerleader and believes in the work we are doing and the value we provide to all of our clients. Finally, want to give a shoutout to David Chao who started me on this road by being the first one to hire me to come in and do workshops for his staff. Without him, don’t know if I would started on this path. Thank you, David!

Website: https://www.procommunicators.com

Instagram: @procommunicators

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-professional-communicators/. or https://www.linkedin.com/in/terry-rubin-a02bb44/

Twitter: @TheProCom

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/procommunicators