Great speaking moves people.

You’ve been in audiences where members felt drawn in, felt seen, and were somehow changed by what they heard and saw. You know yourself well, and you know that’s where you want to go.

You don’t only speak because you have to. You choose to speak. It elevates your career. It fulfills a purpose. It’s a means to an end, and you’re good at it, even if you’d only say it out loud to your mom.

To be known as the thought leader you are, more people have to see and hear you lead— be it in the boardroom, at the negotiating table, or on stage. You know you have that in you, but perhaps the path isn’t clear.

What’s next?

How do people close the space between good and great speaking?

In the development of great speaker-leaders, there is a change that happens. In the survival stages, a speaker’s energy is mostly devoted to mechanics: Sequence the material this way or that way. Move like this. Speak from here. (Imagine the audience in their drawers.)

The fact is, you’re past the survival stages and you know what the next level looks like, even if you aren’t quite sure how to bridge the gap. You know there are skills you want to work on. You know you need to get outside your own head to know what you don’t know.

We built MasterSpeaker Lab because our clients kept telling us these things. They were moving on to bigger and better stages, but there was a dearth of resources to get them past the basics they’d long mastered or over the blocks they couldn’t see.

Our speakers don’t want random, loose brainstorming, but focused help approaching their subjects with creativity. Not preachers, but guides to meet them where they are and help them move forward.

They speak to get something done, send a message, advance a cause, impact someone— to MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN— and they want to be able to tell the story so damned well that their audiences invest. Hear. Move.

MasterSpeaker Lab is a place for good speakers— even great speakers— to hone their skills for world-class stages.

Each course is intended to target a problem that advanced public speakers often encounter or to help speakers see blocks they may not be aware of so they can whip it (and whip it good).

MasterSpeaker Lab is for you or your organization if:

• Your sphere of influence is growing or it’s time to grow it.
• You’re being asked to speak on new topics or to new or bigger groups.
• You’re ready to shift focus from comfort and mechanics to engaging audiences.
• You want to sharpen your technique and your message for the world.

About us

Between the two of us, Margaret and Ryan have a collective 40+ years of experience coaching performers on world-class stages across the country and beyond. Our clients have spoken on stages from TEDx to the World Gas Conference. We aim to provide next-level training for established speakers, leaders, and their organizations.

Margaret Watts Romney owns, operates, and is a founder of MasterSpeaker Lab.

Margaret keynotes, coaches speaker-leaders, leads workshops across the U.S, and is a perpetual student. She is well known for coaching over 100 TEDx speakers nationally and internationally. Margaret has supported over a thousand performers and performances in her career. She loves helping people transform to project strong leadership and seeing the impact that new confidence this has on their audiences.

She has supported entrepreneurs preparing investment pitches, individual create their signature talk, and curated many TEDx events. Margaret has been nicknamed “The Benevolent Pusher” for her uncanny ability to be supportive, directive, and entertaining as she leads communication workshops and coaches individual speakers. She says, “Speakership is Leadership” and is passionate about helping people lead with their communications.

Her free time is filled with meditation, podcasts, tea, hiking the paths of Boulder, CO, and reveling in her three grown daughters’ marvelous lives.

Ryan Foley owns and operates Foley Learning and is a Founder of MasterSpeaker Lab

Ryan Foley is an Australian communications coach, keynote speaker and storytelling consultant living and working in the United States.

His keynotes and interactive workshops derive from years of experience guiding phenomenal thought leaders, entrepreneurs, c-suite executives, and rising stars from industries, universities, and non-profit organizations in giving the most powerful talks of their lives.

Through a deep understanding of the art of public speaking, body language, and human behavior, Ryan works behind the scenes with presenters who are ready to powerfully impact audiences at conferences, TED-style speaking events, galas and special events. He helps them to home in on key messaging, refine talk design and delivery, embrace their authentic style, and incorporate powerful storytelling and persuasion techniques.

From the age of 8, Ryan was enrolled in a speaker training program in his native Australia, progressing to give hundreds of public talks over the years to audiences of between 100 and 10,000 people. In his early twenties, he became a coach to other speakers, guiding them in delivering captivating speeches, fascinating interviews, and engaging storytelling of their own. He has since trained and coached speakers from around the world for major conferences and events in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and speaks regularly on body language, communication, and rhetoric.

Ryan’s fascination with the nuances of verbal and nonverbal communication grew dramatically as he studied American Sign Language in the United States. Soon after, he became a nationally certified sign language interpreter. He began to accrue extensive experience in body language analysis and deception detection through training and mentorship by the best in the business, including the Paul Ekman Institute and former ATF agent, bestselling author, and human lie detector, Janine Driver. After accepting a position as head of training for one of North America’s top ten language service companies in 2011, he grew the division to offer some of the most comprehensive interpreter and intercultural communication training programs in the industry. Since 2014, Ryan has dedicated himself to working with brilliant speakers and organizations who have a lot riding on their communication and who truly have ideas worth spreading.

Today Ryan is the host of the Happy Humans Podcast, a member of the National Speakers Association, and is regularly asked to provide expert body language analysis for political debates and current events for Fox 26 and ABC 13 in Houston, Texas. His focus as a communications coach remains on giving smart, motivated people all over the world the tools and knowledge they need to enjoy personal success in the spotlight.