SCG Inc. coaches senior and next-gen leaders to be masterful in every high-stakes communication situation they face from boardrooms, investment pitches, and all-hands meetings, to sales & marketing talks. We help our clients achieve Impact Leadership Communication (ILC) with authenticity, efficiency, and power.
Danny Slomoff, PhD
During his more than 35 years of executive leadership and communication coaching, Danny Slomoff has worked with all levels of an organization: C-Suite executives to middle management. He specializes in bio-tech, high-tech, financial and professional services and has coached Peak Performers including Olympic athletes, dancers, and musicians. His clients strive to attain the "edge" and keep it. They share relentless desire to achieve and be on the top of their game -- always.
Danny has held positions as Distinguished Faculty with Speakeasy Communications Inc. and VP Human Capital, Bio-Logical Capital LLC and began his career as both a clinical and an organizational psychologist.
Jo McGinley
For over 30 years, Jo McGinley has created innovative ways to combine her theatre expertise with business executives. As a highly regarded improvisational actress she has performed at top theatres in Los Angeles and San Francisco. She has taught in the Masters programs at UC Irvine, USC, Pepperdine University and the University of San Francisco. Her corporate work has elevated senior executives talks and programs with her corporate clients. She has coached peak performers including Olympic Athletes and their coaches, musicians, Oscar Nominees and leaders in healthcare, tech and financial services to improve executive presence and increase confidence.
Matt Davenport - MBA
Matt has been an executive for over 25 years working for large publicly traded companies to mid-size private firms. He most recently was the CEO of Anchor Brewing of San Francisco where he led the sale and integration of the business to Sapporo Holdings of Japan. Prior to that Matt headed up the U.S. commercial arm of Italian Drinks Firm - Campari, the 6th largest distilled spirits producer globally.
Matt recognized early in his career the impact great communicators had in motivating and leading organizations. He aspired to be a great communicator and began working with Danny Slomoff as his coach in 1999.
Matt joins the Slomoff Consulting Group, Inc. to lead the Strategic Communication efforts and help leaders who share his desire to excel in this area. He uniquely combines the Slomoff Method© of brain-based coaching coupled with his first hand knowledge of the business world.
Matt is really enjoying this new phase of his career and passing forward his depth of knowledge.
How We're Different
We Help You Avoid the Public Speaking Trap: Our philosophy is there's no such thing as public speaking. There are only conversations: one-to-one and one-to-many. The term 'presentation' is a limiting paradigm. It's psychologically limiting because people who present, give speeches, or speak publicly tend to accidentally and unconsciously alter their behavior — becoming a fraction of their rich, conversational selves. What's better, being wooden or being your authentic, genuine, conversational self?
We Accentuate Your Strengths: If you want to excel at a skill, approach speaking the way great athletes and musicians approach their talent: develop a strong awareness of what you're doing when you're terrific and then use that knowledge to build consistency. That is the secret to excellence. We coach on the positive traits — and let errors dissolve. Great behavior is what clients need to learn. Many coaches accentuate and highlight errors; some people even count them. This is psychologically wrong. Constantly reviewing errors can cause a person to develop anxiety over making the mistake. Focusing on errors leads to avoidant behavior and ongoing fears. By concentrating on positive strengths and correct behaviors, our clients gain control quickly and improve significantly.
We Focus on Impact: The world's best communicators strive to transfer an idea into the mind of another person. This is the essence of our coaching methodology: Impact Leadership Communication. The best communicators attempt to impact minds. That is what we coach our clients to achieve. Most executives don't impact minds, instead they explain what they know. This is called the expository method. Individuals tend to explain their knowledge base, which is dramatically different than creating meaning and relevance. Our clients learn how to create interesting, valuable content using our 4-Step Impact Methodology and then deliver it with impact.
We Use Proven Storytelling Principles: We introduce clients to a profound & logical storytelling structure based on elements of theatre, film, and the psychology of influence. What makes storytelling work is the vividness of the scenes, order doesn't matter. The key isn't linearity but instead how rich and vivid the experience is for the listener. We demonstrate how to implement this process to create content that is more meaningful, relevant, and captures the listeners' imaginations.
There's also an entirely different way we approach communication coaching. Our methodology is much more based on how your brain talks and how the listener's brain absorbs information. Brain-based communication coaching is the new, more modern, approach. The dated method is technique-based coaching. The problem with technique is when you focus solely on technique it makes people look mechanical and robotic. So the first belief with brain-based coaching is we talk to minds. It is my mind talking to your mind — how does my mind engage and how does your mind absorb what I say? The SCG philosophy and coaching are all built around how the brain talks.
Knowing how the brain talks is the whole key. If you know how the brain works you can be a very compelling communicator. But if you have no idea how the brain talks then you'll just be trapped in a habit pattern which you learned through imitation.