Advicetap Blog

Today we caught up with communications consultant and Advicetap member Janice Tomich based here in Vancouver, BC. Janice is doing some innovative stuff with her company, branding, and services that she’s offering. We met her to get the skinny for all of you…

Hi Janice thanks for stopping by…first off introduce yourself to the readers. What kind of work do you currently do and how did you get into it?

I am a downtown dweller who thrives on the buzz of Vancouver’s constant action. My husband and I moved from the outskirts of Metro Vancouver once our son grew up and we haven’t looked back.

Living downtown is really convenient and enables me to meet clients easily. Many of my clients are situated downtown and they like to meet in their office space.

My type of work is a bit unusual. My business, Calculated Presentations, helps people develop their public speaking voice. In a nutshell I am a presentation trainer and coach.

The love I have for language and words began at my childhood kitchen table. My father, the orator, would deconstruct political speeches.

I am drawn to the intricacies of motivational speeches and that magical pivotal moment when a speaker holds their audience in the palm of their hand. To understand what that “something” is I returned to academia three years ago.

First at BCIT in the Marketing Communications program, then completing a Bachelor of Professional Communications at Royal Roads University.

When I enrolled at RRU, I had a solid idea of my plans post-graduation. A friend and mentor advised that there was a need of presentation skill offerings for IPOs and Engineering and Scientific presentations and I agreed that he was on to something.

Tell us a bit about your company, what kind of services you offer your clients, and how you’re standing out in a crowded marketplace?

The three primary services I provide are public speaking training, content collaboration, and slidedeck creation. I have an arsenal of techniques that speakers use to engage their audience.

The visual perception of a speaker by an audience can make or break a presentation, which makes voice, gesturing, and stance important. As does clear and concrete content targeted to “what’s in it for the audience.” Along with the trend for visually rich slidedecks, these three key components create presentations that end with audiences applauding and wanting to learn more.

My service is niche in its nature so I believe I stand out already. Instead of standing out, the hurdle for me is to educate the client of how valuable my service is.

The evidence is easily demonstrated – have you noticed the people sleeping and fidgeting (aka Blackberries and iPhones) at presentations?

We all know the importance of presentations for sales and relationship building but often we resort to default PowerPoint and old style lecturing.

Here at Advicetap we love branding. So I need to ask you why you chose to go with Janice Tomich as the main focus of your visual and brand identity (logo, URL, website, etc)? Has this worked well for you? Any positives or negatives you can share on how personal branding has worked for you.

The decision to use my name as my brand was not an easy one. I went back and forth a few times. My decision is a bit waffley as I am the identity (URL, my image on the website) but the company name is Calculated Presentations.

I understand that the trend is individuals being the identity of a brand. The philosophy of Tony Hsieh from Zappo’s Shoes helped me make my decision. He is the face of Zappo’s and leads it but he is not the company.

What I have noticed recently that is that people recognize me, and what I do, but do not know my company name. This is a dilemma for entrepreneurs.

Speaking of branding and visual identity your website is really pro looking. You mentioned to me the whole thing is powered by WordPress even though it’s much more then a blog? How does that work for you and do you recommend this set up? Where did you get it done? (….More)