“I came to learn and stayed for the friends I made. BISC is a place where I set aside time to explore and develop my talents in a friendly and encouraging environment. The club offers a diversity of experience, which is good in that we get a range of skills. I am proud to be part of such a prestigious club.”
Cat Faulkes: Member
From a young age, I had a bad stutter which damaged my self-esteem, self-confidence and communication skills as I grew older. In May 2015, when I approached BISC, they invited me for a taster session and I knew within 5 minutes I had made the right decision. I was offered a safe environment amongst like-minded individuals to learn without fear of judgement. I was able to implement key learning techniques and effective methods to help develop my communication. After a short period of time, I was able to deliver speeches up to 10 minutes in front of an audience, host club meetings, deliver engaging workshops and contribute to the club’s activity by joining the board. The club also inspired me to start my own branding agency business, deliver training workshops and speak in front of 50+ business professionals at networking events. The decision to invest in BISC has definitely been life-changing and I could never thank them enough for the sheer impact they’ve had on my personal life and the opportunities that have arisen.
Zoheb Sadiq, ZoCreative: Business Owner
I want to provide you with an update on my post-BISC career and really highlight the strengths/impact the club has had on my life. So, without sounding incredibly narcissistic, here goes... I was successful in early 2017 in joining SAP as a Presales Associate. As part of this I have been in San Ramon, California (just outside San Francisco) for the past five months with 51 other Associates from 30 countries worldwide receiving training at the SAP Academy - it was a phenomenal opportunity and a great adventure. How does this relate to BISC? Well, early on in my time there I was recognised as someone who could engage when on stage, understand his audience and feel comfortable in front of big audiences. This meant that I was selected to interview our Global COO of Channels, Marcelo Giampietro, on stage and, (and this was my biggest career honour to date) I was selected to introduce and speak about my journey in front of our CEO, Bill McDermott. This was amazing and if you get chance to google Bill he is a pretty inspiring guy and a big player in the world of software. It doesn't end there. I was regularly selected to present in front of my own class, at graduation I was awarded the Faculty Award, and I am being flown back out this Sunday to perform my final (capstone) presentation to the new class as part of their gold standard series. It is quite an honour. I wanted to tell you because I put a huge amount of this success down to BISC! I was there for about three years and it was the skills learned and honed there that allowed me to perform on the big stage and engage, inspire, persuade and inform. I do still get a little nervous from time to time but I actually look forward to the big audiences now as opposed to the dread five years ago! I was often told 'you are a natural presenter' by my peers and faculty but, as you know, I wasn't at all. It was the coaching that has allowed me to have my recent success and I am eternally grateful to BISC. I am really excited on where my career is headed and I know I still have lots more to learn from a public speaking perspective and will put that as a focus in 2018. When I am back in the Midlands region I will let you know and if it is a Wednesday, I would love to pop by the club.
Michael Abbott
