FOR CLIENT-FACING AND STAKEHOLDER-FACING TEAMS

Confident Client Engagement

Ideas that connect. Delivery that wins the room

A practical workshop for teams who need stronger presence, greater credibility and more persuasive delivery in pitches, presentations and high-stakes client conversations


Especially relevant for: Account Directors, Client Services Directors, Strategy Directors, Managing Partners and anyone responsible for how their team performs in the room with clients

Why Work with Alfie Noakes

Alfie Noakes founded We Are Funny Project after more than 25 years across BBC journalism, television production and live comedy.

Before building WAFP, he spent more than 13 years in media as a BBC reporter, TV producer and documentary director, working alongside talent including Bill Bailey, Tess Daly, Johnny Vaughan and Dr Brian Cox.

That career gave him a deep grounding in how ideas are shaped, structured and delivered to hold an audience's attention.

In comedy, he produced around 1,800 live shows and MC'd more than 1,000 of them, learning in real time how the opening of a set either wins a room or loses it, how timing and presence shape trust, and how recovery from a difficult moment can actually strengthen connection rather than break it.

More than anything, he watched how people learn to perform under pressure.

What builds genuine authority.
What makes someone sound natural rather than rehearsed.
What separates a person who holds a room from one who merely occupies it.

That is the experience this workshop draws on.

Why this workshop matters for your team

Strong thinking does not always win

Ideas are often lost not because they are weak, but because they are over-explained, under-shaped, delivered without conviction, or allowed to die when the moment turns difficult.

AI can help teams prepare decks, structure arguments and summarise information.

What it cannot do is read the room, build genuine rapport in the first sixty seconds, recover composure when a question goes badly, or make a client feel genuinely heard in real time.

Those are human skills. And they are learnable.

This workshop helps people express themselves more clearly and more convincingly when it matters, whether they are pitching to clients, presenting to stakeholders, leading internal sessions or speaking in one-to-many settings where trust, authority and connection all count.

• Enter the room with more confidence
• Build trust faster with the audience
• Sound less scripted and more natural
• Handle questions and curveballs better
• Communicate with more presence and authority

Why this approach makes sense

The overlap has little to do with jokes.

A stand-up comedian walks into a room full of strangers and has seconds to earn their attention, establish trust and hold the room.
They have to read the energy, adapt in real time, recover when things go wrong and close with impact. Every time. 

That is not so different from a pitch.
Or a stakeholder presentation.
Or a client meeting where the room is harder than expected and someone has to pull it back.

The mechanics that help a performer hold a room under pressure are the same mechanics that help a professional communicate with greater authority, genuine ease and real composure in high-stakes moments.

This workshop transfers those mechanics directly into a client-facing context. No comedy required.

What your team will learn

Practical skills with immediate value

This workshop is not about writing better decks or inventing stronger concepts from scratch.

It is about helping people show up with more confidence, build connection faster and handle high-stakes communication more effectively when they are speaking to a room.

Stronger presence under scrutiny

Show up with more calm, authority and control when the room matters. The kind of composure that makes bold ideas feel safe to choose.

More natural delivery

Sound less scripted, more fluent and more like yourself. Prepared enough to be present, not so rehearsed that it shows.

Better audience connection

Build trust faster and keep people with you for longer. Read the room, adjust in real time and make every person feel heard.

Greater composure in difficult moments

Stay steadier when nerves spike, the room shifts or a question goes somewhere unexpected. Recover without losing authority.

More flexible live responses

Handle curveballs, objections and unpredictable moments with greater ease and more natural confidence.

Stronger control of key moments

Open well, close clearly and guide the room with intention. The moments that are remembered most are the first and the last.

What the session covers

The outline below reflects a strong baseline version of the half-day workshop.

The emphasis can shift depending on your team, your goals and the situations they most need to handle well.

In the full-day version there is more time for rehearsal, simulation, feedback and coached live practice.

Confidence and composure

How to steady yourself, manage nerves and enter the room with presence rather than apology.

Presence and body language

How to use voice, posture, movement and delivery to communicate authority without sounding rehearsed.

Reading the room and building rapport

How to understand audience energy, build connection quickly and adjust in real time when the room shifts.

Preparing to be spontaneous

How to rehearse well enough that you can respond naturally and flexibly when the live moment goes somewhere unexpected.

Openings, closings and handling Q&A

How to begin with impact, end with clarity and handle questions with composure and confidence rather than defensiveness.

Take the workshop into a live comedy venue

Choose a workshop in a working comedy venue, a private bespoke comedy show, or combine both into a day that develops your team and ends with something genuinely worth talking about.

Professional photographers can capture the whole occasion if you would like individual portraits, group and team shots taken.

Away day workshop

A full workshop delivered on a real stage in a working comedy venue. All the practical value of the core workshops, in a setting that makes the day feel genuinely different

Private comedy show

A one-off company event featuring professional comedians and bespoke material written around your people, your industry and your culture. The tone is agreed with you in advance

Combined experience

Workshop by day, unique stand-up show by night. Skills, shared laughter and one memory that will outlast any standard away day

Pricing and formats

Prices reflect a strong baseline version of the workshop.
Tailored content, travel outside London or additional coaching may affect the final fee.

All options include a pre-session conversation to shape the day around your team.

Relevant for Account Directors, Client Services Directors, Strategy Directors, Managing Partners and anyone responsible for how their team communicates in high-stakes client environments.

Half-day on-site
From £1,800

A focused, practical session delivered at your premises

Duration: 3 hours

Ideal group size: 8 to 10 people

Best for: a focused session on presence, composure and communicating with authority in client-facing moments

Style: interactive and practical with live delivery exercises, coached feedback and time to apply what is covered in the room

Result: people leave with stronger presence, clearer delivery habits and greater composure when it counts, with tools they can use immediately

Full-day on-site
Typically £3,000 to £3,500

More depth, more live practice and stronger behaviour change

Duration: 6.5 to 7 hours including breaks

Ideal group size: 8 to 10 people

Best for: teams who want deeper work on confidence, trust-building and high-stakes communication in client rooms

Style: more room for live practice, individual feedback, team discussion and applied learning in realistic scenarios

Result: a team that shows up with more authority, builds rapport faster and communicates more effectively when the pressure is on

Away-day in a live comedy venue
From £4,250

The full CCE workshop delivered on a real stage in a working comedy venue

Duration: full day


Ideal group size: 8 to 10 people


Best for: teams who want the full CCE experience in a setting that sharpens presence and delivery from the moment they walk in


Style: same interactive format as the full-day, in a venue built for live performance


Result: everything the full-day delivers, in a venue where the environment itself makes the skills feel immediately necessary


The away-day workshop is designed for your core team of 8 to 10. If you'd like to make more of the occasion, the evening is an opportunity to bring in a wider company audience for a private bespoke comedy show. Thirty, fifty or more people.

A natural extension of the day that turns a team workshop into a company event. Show pricing is by quote. Ask on the discovery call.


Not sure which format is right for your team?

Start with a 25-minute discovery call.

No hard sell. Just a focused conversation about your goals, your team size and which option makes the most sense.

Why this workshop works

Practical mechanics, not presentation fluff

Stand-up comedy is not just about telling jokes.

It is about entering well, holding attention, building trust quickly, staying composed when things go off-script and recovering when they do not go to plan.

Those mechanics transfer directly.

This workshop brings them into a business setting so teams can communicate with more composure, stronger presence and greater authority when it matters most.

The goal is not to be funny. It is to be more natural, more credible and harder to rattle in the live moment.

What people say about working with Alfie

Across workshops, gigs, one-to-one coaching and online courses, Alfie's work has attracted nearly 1,000 reviews with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5. No other communication trainer in this space has built that volume of verified feedback from real participants.
"Alfie helped me to become engaging with an audience to discuss ideas 'off-script'... helps me to help managers to deliver organisational changes that have buy-in and therefore are likely to become embedded and supported by an organisation and its employees."
HARUN,
FORMER HR AND CHANGE MANAGER, HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
Alfie helped me sharpen my timing, simplify my messaging, and use humour as a natural connector rather than a crutch. That shifted everything, not just for public speaking, but for the way I now host meetings, pitch ideas, and hold a room under pressure.
Andrew,
Head of Risk, Controls & TECHNOLOGY, RJ O'BRIEN
Alfie doesn't just teach performance. He shows you how to connect, how to hold attention, and how to leave people remembering you for the right reasons.
Joanne,
Speaker, Business Owner and Consultant

Explore more workshops

Confident Client Engagement is one route into the work.

If your team needs something different, or something that complements this workshop, these may be a better fit.

Bomb Proof: Sales Resilience Under Pressure

For teams who need to handle rejection better, recover faster and stay steadier when difficult conversations are part of the job

Best for: outbound sales teams, repeated objections, rejection-heavy roles and live communication under strain

Developing Stronger Ideas

For teams who need sharper thinking, stronger development and better material before delivery even begins.


Best for: idea generation, shaping material, sharper messaging and stronger creative thinking

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Best for: morale, trust, everyday communication and more human team dynamics

Ready to find out if Confident Client Engagement is right for your team

Start with a 25-minute discovery call. No hard sell.

Just a focused conversation to work out whether this is the right kind of help and, if so, exactly what that looks like for your team.

Frequently asked questions

Do you offer ongoing coaching or longer programmes?

For teams who want more than a one-off session options include 1:1 coaching, repeat sessions and broader programmes shaped around ongoing communication and performance goals.

Best discussed on a discovery call.

Can the workshop be tailored to our team?

Yes.

The page outlines a strong baseline version of the workshop, but the emphasis can shift depending on your team, your goals and the kinds of rooms they need to handle most effectively.

Some teams need more help with presence and confidence. Others want to focus more heavily on rapport, Q&A or preparing to be spontaneous under pressure.

What are the payment terms?

Our standard terms are 50 percent on booking and the balance within 14 days of delivery.

For larger organisations with established payment processes, we are happy to discuss terms that work for both sides. Just raise it on the discovery call.

Is this about teaching people to be funny?

No.

Though funny might rear its head on occasion. This is not about turning people into comedians or teaching them to crack jokes at clients.


It is about applying the mechanics that strong performers use, things like attention, structure, rehearsal, room-reading, confidence and recovery, to help people communicate more effectively in business settings.

Does this include rewriting our deck, content or messaging?

No, not in the main.

This workshop focuses on how people show up and perform in the room: confidence, presence, rapport, preparation and handling pressure live.


If your team needs more support with idea development, shaping material, editing, memorable phrasing or humour mechanics in content, that sits more naturally within Developing Stronger Ideas.

What group size works best?

Workshops are typically designed for around 8 to 10 people to allow for real depth, practice and feedback.

Smaller groups allow for even more individual attention. Larger groups can still be accommodated, but the delivery may need to be adjusted to suit the format and goals.

Do you travel?

Yes.

Workshops are usually delivered in person, and travel can absolutely be discussed. 1:1 coaching is more appropriate for video conferencing.

For bookings outside London, additional travel costs may apply, and for longer-distance work, accommodation may also need to be covered.

All of that can be discussed clearly at discovery stage, before anything is confirmed.

Who is this workshop best suited to?

Confident Client Engagement is designed for client-facing and stakeholder-facing teams who need to communicate with more confidence, clarity and authority when the room matters.

That includes strategy leads, creative leads, founders, senior team members and anyone responsible for pitching, presenting, leading sessions or handling high-pressure conversations.

Infrequently asked questions

If I stand still for long enough, will birds nest in me?

Technically, yes. The threshold is lower than you might hope.

The fastest recorded nest-building birds are the village weaverbird, which can construct a functional nest in approximately nine to fourteen hours, and the black-billed magpie, which works quickly when motivated. You would not need to stand still for long in evolutionary terms. In practical terms, a long afternoon in a garden with the right posture and a patient bird nearby would represent a genuine risk.

The more pressing question is what constitutes sufficient stillness. Birds do not require absolute motionlessness. They require the absence of behaviour they interpret as threatening. Scarecrows fail at this over time because birds learn, relatively quickly, that nothing is actually happening. You would have the advantage of warmth, which scarecrows lack, and warmth is attractive to nesting birds for reasons that should concern you.

Your hair is the obvious primary site. It offers structural complexity, thermal insulation and, depending on recent product choices, potentially interesting aromatic properties. Shoulders are a secondary option for larger species with more ambitious architectural ambitions.
The birds most likely to attempt this are not the glamorous ones. You are not looking at eagles or herons. You are looking at sparrows. Possibly a determined robin, which is a bird that combines charm with an almost unsettling level of boldness and has never historically respected personal boundaries.

The recommended strategy, should you wish to avoid this outcome, is to move occasionally. Not dramatically. Just enough to communicate that you are a participant in events rather than a feature of the landscape.

The recommended strategy, should you wish to encourage it, is to stand very still in a garden, wear something textured, think calm thoughts and wait. Spring is the optimal season. Bring a book.

What is the word for the day after tomorrow that is used in some languages but doesn't exist in English?

Overmorrow.

It existed once. Middle English used it freely and without embarrassment. Somewhere between the 15th and 17th centuries it simply fell out of use, leaving English speakers with no single word for a concept that comes up constantly and currently requires four words to express.

German has übermorgen. Spanish has pasado mañana. Hindi has परसों. Several Slavic languages have their own versions. English, a language that has borrowed so enthusiastically from everyone else that it effectively has no shame, somehow failed to keep this one.

Overmorrow is technically still in the dictionary. It is classified as archaic, which means it is available for use but you will be looked at.

Use it anyway. It deserves better.

If awkward silences were sold by the minute, what's the going rate?

Market analysis suggests a tiered pricing structure based on context, duration and the specific configuration of people involved.

A standard awkward silence (two colleagues in a lift, neither able to think of anything) would retail at approximately £1.20 per minute. Common, low-stakes, over quickly. The market is saturated and prices reflect that.

A family dinner silence, following a comment that went badly, commands a significant premium. These silences carry weight, history and the specific texture of things that cannot be unsaid. Current trading would put these at around £8 per minute, rising steeply after the three-minute mark when they begin to acquire structural significance.

A first date silence (the kind that arrives when the conversation runs out for the first time and both parties simultaneously become aware of the ambient music) is rarer and more acutely felt. Estimated value £12 per minute.

The most expensive silence on record would be the pause that followed a boardroom presentation during which the presenter's slides were discovered to contain, on slide seven, content clearly intended for a different audience. Analysts estimate this silence at approximately £340 per second at its peak before someone coughed and everything resumed.

Buyers in this market are few. Sellers have no choice in the matter.

If procrastination burned calories, who in history would have been the fittest person alive?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and it would not be a close contest.

Coleridge spent approximately 40 years intending to write a philosophical masterwork called Logosophia, told everyone about it at considerable length, produced extensive notes, revised the notes, reconsidered the structure, discussed it with Wordsworth on numerous walks across the Lake District and died in 1834 having written none of it.

The energy expenditure of that level of sustained, committed, lifelong non-completion, converted to calories at the standard metabolic rate for cognitive avoidance behaviour, would represent somewhere in the region of 340 million calories across four decades.

For context, running a marathon burns approximately 2,600 calories. Coleridge's procrastination, calorically converted, would represent the equivalent of running roughly 130,000 marathons.

He would have been extraordinarily lean. He was not. He was, by most accounts, quite comfortable, which suggests procrastination does not actually burn calories and the entire premise of this question is nutritionally unsound.

The poem Kubla Khan, however, is excellent. He wrote it in an afternoon, apparently by accident, and was interrupted before he could finish it.

This may be the most Coleridge thing that has ever happened.
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