Testimonials

I love helping my clients to achieve their business and professional goals by becoming best-in-class communicators. Here are some of their views on how I helped them to succeed.

 

Annual Investor Meetings & Fundraising projects

Cat did a great job in providing practical, effective and critical coaching for each presenting team member in advance of our first ever virtual annual meeting. Her input resulted in a more polished and professional presentation. There was a noticeable improvement and level of confidence in the speakers, and the overall presentation received very positive feedback from our investors.
— Jeri Harman, Founder & Chairman, Avante Capital Partners
Working with Cat is an integral part of our preparations for the Annual General Meeting and investor update calls where deal teams are required to present to investors. Cat’s advice is always to the point and her constructive feedback is highly valued by all team members. Having Cat as a coach enabled the team to become more effective in delivering key messages, which is essential in a time where presenting virtually became the new normal.
— Stephan Grillmaier, Head of Investor Relations, Arcus Infrastructure Partners
Cat helped all of us to be better, more confident public speakers delivering a crisp and memorable message. She’s great fun to work with, comes with real wisdom from her professional experience and is very obviously passionate about public speaking – all of which make her a really effective coach.
— Alex Cooper-Evans, Partner, Epiris LLP
The consensus is really strong that hiring Cat in the run-up to our annual meeting was a great move. Investors went out of their way to praise improvements in the team’s presentation style, along with the more dynamic and flowing content. It was, I honestly think, our best annual meeting and Cat’s sterling work definitely helped. Job brilliantly done.
— Christiian Marriott, Partner, Equistone Partners Europe
Cat’s approach was professional, pragmatic and most importantly it was subtle: she managed to handle egos of individuals who often believe they are natural-born presenters by listening, engaging with a gentle touch and bringing out the best in them by nurturing structure, conciseness and focus. We will certainly be turning to her again.
— Christopher Masek, CEO, IK Investment Partners
Cat provided us with invaluable help, support and advice as we prepared for our first Annual Investor Meeting. The fact that it went as well as it did was in no small part due to Cat’s involvement and I have no doubt that we will continue to work with her for many years to come.
— Mark Salter, Managing Partner, Apiary Capital LLP
 

Masterclasses - in person & online

Excellent masterclass. Cat had a very structured approach to highlight the most important topics in presentation skills, interaction with the counterparty and the new Zoom environment.
— Managing Partner at a European secondary market specialist
Cat is great at providing practical tips, in an interactive environment, where you leave the session well armed to put your learnings into practice straight away!
— Feedback from investment professional attendee, Level 20's "Being Heard Online" masterclass
Cat was clear and engaging in her advice and addressed individual concerns with practical tips. The covid pandemic has given rise to many issues related to impactful communication in a virtual world and Cat helped provide a useful framework to apply in my daily life which will continue to be useful even when face to face meetings start to return.
— Feedback from investment professional attendee, Level 20's "Being Heard Online" masterclass
Wonderful session... Very engaging... I really enjoyed it and found myself nodding knowingly and cringing inwardly as you demonstrated some ‘extreme’ examples that felt all too familiar!... Great advice for group discussions with the ‘ready-to-use’ sentences, to keep traction with the auditory while thinking of the actual answer. Before, I would just keep quiet to think, and most of the time miss my turn.
— Feedback from attendees at Level 20's "Being Heard" masterclasses
 
 

One-to-one speaker development programmes

After several months working with Cat, my awareness and confidence around speaking has increased – both in investor meetings and in a public setting. Her former experience as an IR professional was especially relevant and her strategic advice went beyond speech coaching to helping refine and deliver the key messages. Cat’s approach is practical, encouraging and fun which makes for a very engaging session.
— IR Principal at a global mid-market fund
I really enjoyed working with Cat over the last three months. Our time together focussed on some real life work goals and her input and support helped me achieve what I didn’t think was possible. It was great to have the opportunity to have such tailored coaching and I would highly recommend Cat to anyone that would like support and encouragement to improve their public speaking.
— ESG Professional at a European mid-market private equity manager
Cat’s sessions were very valuable and really helped in how to go about preparing for important meetings and delivering the key messages. The sessions gave me more confidence. Cat is clearly very passionate about what she does and I really enjoyed my sessions with her.
— Investment Director at a global limited partner
I really appreciated Cat’s input as she helped me to prepare for an important external presentation. It was a very useful session – practical and supportive – and the feedback I received afterwards was entirely positive.
— Investment Partner at a global secondaries firm
Cat has helped me to find my voice and develop gravitas when speaking in public, from board meetings to larger events. Building around my own strengths, she guided me to transform my initial apprehensions of public speaking into an engaging experience that fosters exchange and collaboration.
— Investment Professional at a global infrastructure fund
 

Online speaker coaching BOOTCAMP

I started the six-week bootcamp as a relatively average speaker. Cat is an incredible speaker and teacher and the course taught me how to research, prepare, practice and deliver my presentations in ways I had never considered before. The programme was tailored to investment professionals and the presentation practice was relevant to the presentations I give day to day.

The feedback was very personal. I saw huge improvements in my speaking abilities over a short period of time. I now feel like I can tackle any presentation with the tools Cat has taught me.
— Investment Professional and BOOTCAMP participant
BOOTCAMP was a fantastic programme, filled with high-quality content and tips, and Cat’s experience in the industry really comes through. I particularly liked how she mixed her own ‘lessons’ with external sources and references to public figures: it certainly is a winning approach!
— IR Managing Director and BOOTCAMP participant
 

Other speaking & coaching

Poise, presence and charisma. There are few people who can, for nearly an hour, comfortably stand before an audience, entertain them, introduce and interview a series of speakers, master the timing and do it without a teleprompter or visible cue cards. Cat Kipling is that rare person. In front of any audience, her charm, grace, skill and experience rise above and master the room.
— Daniel Rex, CEO of Toastmasters International
Cat’s help with our presentation was invaluable and has given us a much clearer picture of the direction we want to take. We were a bit overwhelmed with the amount of content we had, but to have somebody from the outside drill down into the strongest themes, slides and anecdotes has helped us get savage about stripping things out. Now that Cat has worked her magic we can allow ourselves a bit of space to breathe during delivery!
— Sophie Montagne & Sandy Hennis, Polar Performance (members of the first all-female team to ski coast-to-coast across Antarctica)