After less than a year in operation, Practice Makes UnPerfect – the training programme developed by Amy Kean and New Digital Age – has embarked on its new phase of growthwith three facilitator hires: Jackie Adedeji, Emma Jackson and Sophie Ewen.
The three trainers – each with extensive experience, unique perspectives and voices – will be collaborating on a new training course to be held on 22nd October called Back To You.
Back To You is a one-day course specifically for women to help ease the transition from virtual to real world, covering all aspects of public speaking, including chairing meetings, running workshops, presenting in front of big audiences and taking part in panels. It willbe an intensive day of practice that will prepare anyone nervous about moving from Zoom to real-world meeting and conference rooms. Tickets for the training course cost £400 and booking opens today withonly 30 spaces available.
Practice Makes UnPerfect was launched in response to the painful lack of female spokespeople in our industry, and to help women both find and finesse their public voices. In just under a year, around 100 women have been trained, from companies such as TikTok, the FT, The Atlantic, Channel 4, WeTransfer, Permutive, Teads, Admio and many more.
In 2022 there are also plans to launch a dedicated 4-day bootcamp to ‘put people through their presenting paces’ and a course for men, entitled MPU, which will be crafted to help men better listen to and collaborate with women at work.
Amy Kean, co-founder and lead facilitator of Practice Makes UnPerfect said: “There’s nothing like PMU in the industry right now, that encourages women to be themselves instead of a carbon-copy fictional perfect version of ‘professional’ that we are all apparently supposed to adhere to.
The energy and passion we’ve brought to the market, as well as the transformative nature of the training, have driven a rapid growth that none of us quite expected. We’ve got huge plans for the next 12 months and with our amazing new facilitators Jackie, Sophie and Emma and the innovative nature of New Digital Age, our team couldn’t be stronger and more equipped.”
The Practice Makes UnPerfect team will also continue to run bespoke in-house PMU training for female-only and mixed-gender teams, based on specific internal challenges and goals.
About the new Practice Makes UnPerfect facilitators:
Jackie Adedeji is a Podcaster, Columnist and Presenter, and recently interviewed Whoopi Goldberg for The Edinburgh TV festival Icon Award. She has a column for The Metro, where she talks about body image, pop culture dating and race, and has also written columns for The Huffington Post and The Evening Standard.
Jackie has just launched a brand new podcast – co-created with Coppafeel, the breast cancer charity, called Boobshare! produced by Global, where she talks with celebrities such as Giovanna Fletcher, Olivia Bowen, Candice Brathwaite, Scarlett Moffatt about their relationship with their boobs. It’s been covered in Evening Standard, Heart and OK Magazine. She is also passionate about society, body image and empowering women and has featured on Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, BBC 1xtra Talks and BBC Three and many more.
Jackie said: “I am absolutely BUZZED to be part of the PMU gang (can I say gang? Ok I’m saying it..) What drives me in life is helping people – specifically women – fulfil their potential, and bringing out the best version of themselves whilst staying authentic and true to who they are. Think of me as your official PMU hype woman, only here to remind you that you’re the sh*t, it’s just the world doesn’t know yet!”
Emma Jackson is a coach to the tech and creative industries, using evidence based strategies to help people with performance, productivity and happiness. She has produced content that champions diverse content for Cut YouTube channel. You can find out more about Emma at www.evj.af. She is at her most vocal (read potty-mouthed) on Twitter and can be frequently found swimming in the rain at Soho House, or hanging out with her Siberian Cats in West London.
Emma said: “The most exciting thing about being part of the PMU crew is the power we unleash on the world every time a cohort even signs up – these women are changing the landscape and we get to be part of that “
Sophie Ewen is Head of Outreach at CodeYourFuture; a social enterprise. She leads the PR for the organisation – that trains and supports disadvantaged people, asylum seekers and refugees as developers and to find employment. In a career spanning over 2 decades, Sophie has developed and delivered solutions and partnerships for clients including Nike, the Government, Colgate and Cunard. She has a passion for creativity and learning, conceiving frameworks for creative thinking and idea development, building training programs to embed these practices into the workplace. When she is not working you can find her doing Mum stuff, running (slowly) and indulging her passion for design – in an alternate universe Sophie would have definitely been a singing furniture-designer!
Sophie said: “Joining the Practice Makes UnPerfect community is an exciting new adventure, I can’t wait to get started. Being able to help others find their voice and grow in confidence is hugely rewarding and I feel privileged to do this as my job!”
