Pivot Stories: How Kerri Garbis of Ovation Took Stage Training to the Small Screen of Zoom During COVID-19

At Rose Marketing Solutions, we are highlighting and celebrating companies that have recently adjusted their business models to provide unique services for their customers or to enter new markets with their services during the 2020 pandemic and economic crisis. 

Today we are talking with Kerri Garbis, President of Ovation. Ovation started after a chance meeting with a friend nine years ago.  Kerri worked as an actor and offered presentation tips to her friend as he prepared for a speaking engagement. She realized she had skills as an actor to offer business professionals to train them for formal presentations and conferences, and Ovation was born.

Ovation employs working, professional actors who deliver expert trainers to “create customized engagements that guide professionals to reach their full potential.” Their trainers prepare speakers for the boardroom, conference stage, or television.

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A Restaging of 2020

Many businesses have looked at this new reality and have asked their employees and stakeholders to “pivot”, or go in a completely different direction. Instead, Kerri thinks of it as a “restage”. In play or performance, “if a number isn’t working…the director will come in and restage a number…to maintain the artistry, excitement, and beauty of the number, without compromising the experience of the audience.”

Kerri began by adjusting her own mindset. She realized that training could happen in a virtual setting and it wasn’t required to take place in person. Before 2020, many of their clients were HR Managers and heads of learning and development.  Their new engagements have shifted to the virtual event planners, content and speaker managers for conferences.  Ovation’s trainers are perfect for these coaching sessions because they are comfortable in front of the small screen.

Ovation restaged buyers and audiences who were no longer engaging with speaker coaching for conferences and by offering training online.  As travel and conferences have gone virtual, Kerri and her team at Ovation have revised their training to provide expert conference and performance coaching!

Make sure to watch our interview to find out how you can use storytelling to reset a meeting when the conversation gets off track.