As the Business Development and Technology Manager with Valbridge Property Advisors | Northern California, Laura Hulberg is no stranger to public speaking. Still, given the opportunity to hone these skills through the Valbridge Women’s Council (VWC) public speaking class, Hulberg decided it was a valuable chance for further professional development.

“Before this class, I felt fairly comfortable with public speaking,” Hulberg said, “but I wanted to get it to the next level. It really helped me fine-tune my presenting skills.”

It particularly helped her re-learn how to structure the presentation for clarity, polishing the content to maximize engagement and impact.

“Public speaking can almost be applied to any speaking that makes you nervous,” says Hulberg. It doesn’t require a large audience or even have to be a live presentation.”

In her role as Marketing Director with Valbridge Property Advisors, Hulberg knew she’d have ample opportunity for public speaking—including an interview earlier this year with the company’s new Interim CEO, Pledger M. (Jody) Bishop III, MAI, SRA, AI-GRS, CRE.

“It was a big deal,” Hulberg said, adding that the class gave her both the confidence to do it and the tools to create more structure in the interview itself.

Led by Sarah Cross (né Krisher) of Stand Tall, the inaugural VWC public speaking class was a six-month program consisting of a one-hour virtual session each month for a small cohort of VWC members across the country. While the group had a whole range of comfort levels, Hulberg says, Cross did a great job of inspiring confidence in each and helping them develop the skills needed to organize their presentation topics.

Each participant had a presentation idea to build on in each session, where they received feedback from Cross and the cohort.

Hulberg has previously presented to the VWC on the topic of networking and honed this idea through the class with the initial intent to present to a local chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (more commonly referred to as CREW). While she did not end up speaking to this group as intended, Hulberg pivoted to another opportunity—to present the same topic to youth as part of a 4-H Leadership Overnight camp held in March.

“It’s a different challenge to talk to kids instead of adults,” says Hulberg, but being passionate about the topic, she chose to take it on, re-tooling it for the new audience by working more activities into it.

Attended by about 75 youth, ages 8 to 17, the event was a rousing success—made even more so by Hulberg’s creative companions.

To cultivate an interactive experience, Hulberg would teach a technique and then give the kids a chance to practice it. To prompt the change from presentation to activity and back, she used an unexpected, yet effective tool—a squeaking rubber chicken.

“They loved it,” Hulberg laughs. “They went crazy for the rubber chicken.”

Hulberg also brought a bunch of mini, rubber chicken launchers to award as prizes for participation—which she got. In spades.

While this event was a far cry from the interview with Bishop, Hulberg was grateful for how the new techniques she cultivated during the VWC class helped prepare her for each, giving her the confidence to present on new topics to other audiences in the future.

“I’m super grateful to Valbridge Women’s Council and to Jen [Benton] and Sarah [Cross] for organizing and coordinating this. It was a great opportunity to be involved in the first group, and an exciting way for me to get connected with others and build on my skills.”