About Alan Steinborn

It was September, 1996. It was one of those critical moments when you are in a conversation that dramatically changes your life completely.

The conversation I am talking about took place on a sail boat called the Raven in the river Tagus, docked next to the oldest neighborhood in Lisbon, Portugal, the al Fama District.

I had been living on that sailboat for about a year while working for Seimens/Portugal. The job was only part time. Mainly I was playing my sax, meditating for hours a day, going on long walks, living like a hermit, writing poetry and watching endless gorgeous sunsets.

By the time of that fateful conversation, I had grown tired of living on that river, looking at all those sunsets, and being alone. I felt that I had achieved a great deal of stillness, focus and sublime insights on that boat, but I needed to share myself with others, and let others share themselves with me. I needed more interactions with people. I was ready to move on.

All that was needed was a good conversation with a friend who would give
me just enough courage to shake the dust off my boots and get moving.

And that is exactly what happened.

In January, 1997, I moved to New York City, where I started a company selling artwork and representing artists.

I had a fabulous time.

I met some brilliant and crazy artists from around the world, organized some amazing exhibitions in some of the biggest buildings in midtown Manhattan and I even had some high drama moments. I almost took a flight off the back of a truck with an 8 foot long oil painted original, when we were driving over the Manhattan bridge and a 50 mile/hour gust of wind caught the painting like it was a sail with me holding on to it desperately. Even though it was wonderfully exciting, I made no money in this project and by the middle of 1998 the Internet was calling.

In 1998, an Internet startup company in San Francisco hired me as director of sales and marketing. It was chaotic and intense. All of us worked 15 hour days, 6 days a week.

We consumed dreams and pizza.

I learned A LOT from this experience. I realized, on this job, that what I really liked was the part when I got to train my people in all areas related to communication; Presentations, sales training, negotiation, team building were among the topics I trained my staff.

I loved it when I could help others achieve more from their communication than they thought was possible.

But I also noticed a frustration growing in me.

I started to recognize that really good communication in which everyone is enriched was a very rare phenominon in a fast paced world where we give so much attention to our hopes and fears and not nearly enough attention to the person right in front of us or even the person inside of us.

I decided to start a training company focused on helping leaders who struggle with presentations and other forms of communication.

I travelled around the world and worked with communication leaders in such diverse places as Utrecht, Holland, Paris, France, Berlin, Germany, Zurich, Switzerland, London, England, Lisbon, Portugal, Marrakech, Morocco, New York City, San Francisco, Delhi, India, Jerusalem, Israel among many other places.

I also got to share my views with a wide variety of organizations, both big and small, from private and public business, NGO, and governmental sectors as well as at Universities.

In 2001, The Union Bank of Switzerland brought me in to develop their standards and training for effective email communication.

In 2002, The European Union brought me in to help leaders of small companies develop and give presentations to acquire seed funding.

These and many other engagements were really great in that I was able to combine my passion for presence, stillness, authenticity and creativity with traditional business communication!

In 2003, I moved to Austin, Texas; the city where I had studied at the university back in the eighties and where some of my family still lives.

I founded SpeakNow, a presentation training and coaching company and InPresence training, a training program to help people see their life in a completely new way. My commitment to helping people get beyond self-consciousness to speak their truth led me to create a free stage fright clinic which has helped thousands get past all manner of self-consciousness. Since then I have worked with leaders from organizations such as IBM, AMD, Dell, Freescale, International Semitech, as well as scores of leaders from smaller organizations.

I am very encouraged by the results people have had from the work I do. It seems to have had a profound impact on the lives of many clients. It has helped them achieve success in presentation situations, and, more importantly, in every area of their life that matters to them.

For example, Phil Hamilton, President of Hamilton Valuation said: "Working with Alan has helped my communication effectiveness far more than anything else I’ve ever done."

Jim Roach, former Senior Account Executive for Anne Kleine said: "His commitment to deep listening has provided me with a key, that unlocks the previously hidden wisdom within myself. I am now able to express this inherent wisdom in the world. "

In 2007, I trained 3 wonderful facilitators to give the Joy Experience Weekly.

In July 2007, I moved to Portland, Oregon, but SpeakNow thrives in Austin. I come back every 2 months for intensive coaching and retreat programs.

Whenever I get the chance you can find me around Portland, playing my sax, meditating, going on lots of long walks, watching beautiful sunsets and having wonderful experiences with the many lovely people I have been fortunate enough to meet.

I am SO GRATEFUL for that conversation way back when on the sail boat.

Alan Steinborn, All Rights Reserved, 2004, 2005