CASE STUDY: Megan McCracken’s Transformative Talk for 1000 people

Rachael, I have a wild idea for my next talk. Do you think I’m mad?

A client I first worked with a decade ago came to me with an exciting request. “Rachael, I have a wild idea for my next talk. Can you help me?”

Over the ten years since I first coached Megan McCracken, she has become a respected, warm and informed public speaker. Megan speaks at conferences, run workshops and in conversations with authors, at bookshops and writers festivals.

For her next talk at WIMWA 2025, a major industry event with an audience of over 1000, Megan wanted to do something different. She approached me for Strategic Speaker Coaching.

Megan’s 3 public speaking challenges

Megan was writing a talk about AI and what it means to feel human. As an executive coach, she had been asking her clients a question: “What would you bring back to your life that has been streamlined out of it?” Megan told me that every single time the person would get really animated. “I needed an hour to hear them out”, she said. She felt strongly that the WIMWA summit was the perfect place for this topic, and the timing was right.

She came to me with three key challenges for her speaking engagement:

1. Incorporate physical theatre, including an outfit change. Physical theatre, including props and movement can enhance a keynote when used seamlessly. Make sure it supports your message rather than distracting.
2. Communicate a complex topic that is still being formulated. Hearing a speaker’s new ideas can energise and excite an audience, as long as it doesn’t feel like you are processing the idea in front of them.
3. Prepare it all in just two weeks. I usually recommend 6-12 weeks to prepare a significant talk. However, a tight timeline can help focus – if you have the time to give.

Speaker coaching moments – Deep Landscape Scan

I begin the speaker coaching process with something I call a Deep Landscape Scan. In this phase we consider the talk and topic from multiple perspectives in order to uncover deeper intentions. By doing this before writing begins, the process of developing a keynote is faster, more expansive and provides a richer experience for speaker and audience. Some examples of what this looked like for Megan:

• Uncovering – and feeling – her intent for this presentation. When your talk purpose is felt in your body, you can much more easily find the right words and delivery than if you have it purely as a concept in your mind.
• What this talk meant for Megan within her evolution as a coach. We found that Megan wasn’t just bringing a new topic to the stage, the talk marked a shift in her professional approach to executive coaching.
• Megan’s fears about her talk. The shift to let audiences into her evolution as a coach was an exciting one, expanding what Megan could offer future clients. However, she was concerned for existing clients in the audience. Might they be confused if the Megan they saw on stage was not the Megan they were used to? 

Speaker coaching moments – Undercurrent

The Undercurrent is something an audience senses, although it may not be named explicitly by the speaker. (In the language of narrative strategy, it can occasionally be the same as meta-narrative) To help with the tensions around Megan’s topic and fears and intention, I proposed she take her audience on two journeys: the first being the topic narrative, and the second her Undercurrent. Megan’s topic narrative was the story of AI and humanness and her Undercurrent would be her growth and development as an executive coach.

Speaker coaching moments – Embodiment

Another important part of speaker coaching is the physical and “embodied” elements that help narratives land with (or make sense to) listeners. Here are a few I explored with Megan:

• Notice the different parts of Megan that appeared throughout her talk. The parts included Familiar Coach Megan, Emerging Coach Megan, and a Frazzled Technology Part that was core to her topic.
• The ways different parts move, think and relate to the audience. Paying attention to feelings and movements gave Megan the tools to bring her subtle but distinct characters to life over her 15 minutes on stage. This led to a rich and interesting journey for her audience. 
• How Megan’s use of props, movement and costume change could enhance her stage presence. Rather than using them simply for theatre, I showed Megan how different postures and objects – and even where she placed her notes – could signpost her stage personas and add to her message, rather than distract.

Speaker coaching moments – Responding to the room

Embodiment also helped Megan to notice when she would shift into “convincing” mode. When an idea is new or uncertain, speakers can fall into the habit of talking “at” an audience. Keynote speakers generally do all of the talking, speeches are more effective if you are able to listen and respond to the room. 

Megan’s impact as a speaker

Megan was already a skilled speaker, but by challenging her approach to include physical theatre and a still forming, complex topic, she was able to bring something new to the stage. Audience members said Megan made them think about their relationship with themselves and with tech. They laughed; some got teary. The audience was with Megan for every word (and costume change). Importantly, Megan started a conversation. This type of delivery – connected, co-created, curious – is generative over time, propelling the speaker, their idea and their audience.

“You helped me to craft this for the stage, and to build in creative and physical elements in a way that added to, rather than detracted from, my message. You challenged me as a public speaker and I felt really supported in that”.

(Megan McCracken, 2025)

Rachael West has been a Strategic Speaker Coach for over 15 years. She draws on a rich background in innovation and strategy, plus training in physical theatre, Body Mind Centering and other movement and performance practices to help speakers of all levels deliver great talks that make their ideas ripple. Contact Rachael to discuss how her speaker coaching can transform your next talk.