Executive Presence and Influence
Help professionals build credibility, communicate confidently, and influence important decisions.
Your team learns to project confidence, structure clear executive-level messages, and stay steady under pressure.
When your people communicate better, the whole organization moves faster.
Uplevel brings practical communication training to your leaders and teams, built around the meetings, updates, and conversations they already have every week.
Trusted by leaders and teams at
Microsoft
GE Vernova
Microsoft
GE Vernova
100,000+copies sold of Speak With No Fear
25 yearshelping people communicate with confidence
100+ stagesincluding TEDx Sawmill Lake and TEDx Warrenton
The real cost
Most communication problems don't look like communication problems.
They show up in everyday work.
- Managers put off the hard conversations, so small issues grow into big ones.
- Meetings end without a decision or a clear owner.
- Updates run long, and leaders still don't know what they need to know.
- Strong experts hand their ideas to someone else to present.
- Sales teams struggle to show their value and lose deals they should win.
- Customers feel friction in conversations that should build trust.
The fix is a handful of simple tools your team can use the next morning, plus real practice using them. Every Uplevel program is built to give them both.
Training programs
Training built around the work your team does every day
Every program can run as a single workshop or as part of a longer series, and each one can be shaped around your industry and your team.
The Manager Communication Toolkit
Equip managers to give effective feedback, set expectations, coach employees, and improve team performance.
Managers learn to give clear updates, set expectations, give useful feedback, and coach their people.
Leadership Communication
Communicate clearly across every level of the organization.
Leaders learn to communicate across, down, and up, create clarity around ownership, and influence without relying on authority.
Difficult Conversations and Conflict
Reduce workplace friction, navigate difficult conversations, and strengthen working relationships.
Your team learns to address issues directly, give feedback that lands, and balance empathy with accountability.
Team Communication and Collaboration
Improve alignment, strengthen accountability, and help departments work together more effectively.
Teams learn to share information clearly, agree on expectations, and work across functions with less friction.
Meetings That Work
Create more clarity, better decisions, and stronger ownership.
Leaders learn to set a clear purpose, keep updates short, move discussion toward decisions, and leave with clear owners.
Sales Communication and Persuasion
Help sales teams build trust, communicate value, overcome objections, and win more business.
Sales teams learn to open strong, frame value clearly, handle objections, and close with confidence.
Customer and Client Communication
Improve customer experiences, handle difficult interactions, and build stronger client relationships.
Client-facing teams learn to handle difficult interactions, explain clearly, and turn hard moments into trust.
Formats
Choose the format that fits your team
60 min to half day
Workshop
Focused, interactive training on one topic, with short teaching, practical frameworks, and live practice.
Full day
Executive Presence Intensive
A full day for leaders, focused on identity, message, and delivery, with real-time coaching.
Multi-session
Executive Impact Program
A series spaced a few weeks apart, so new habits build and stick. It can include assessments and 1:1 coaching for key leaders.
Ongoing
1:1 coaching for leaders
Private coaching for executives and high-potential leaders. See Coaching
Every format can run on-site at your office, virtually, or at the Uplevel Training Center in Austin.
Signature keynote
Unlock Executive Presence
Build the confidence, credibility, and influence every professional needs to advance.
People are judged as much by how they communicate as by what they deliver. In this keynote, Mike introduces the Presence Gap, the Uplevel Formula, and the Career Multiplier Effect, and shows audiences how small changes shift the way others experience them. Everyone leaves with tools they can use in their next meeting.
- Close the Presence Gap. Learn how others experience you and how small changes shift perception and influence.
- Build confidence with a process. The Uplevel Formula of awareness, knowledge, practice, and feedback works for any personality.
- Multiply your impact. See why communication is what accelerates careers, creates visibility, and opens doors.
- Use three skills right away. Volume, gestures, and pauses strengthen authority and lift perceived competence.
Ideal for conferences, leadership retreats, kickoffs, and company events.
How it works
Three steps from first call to lasting change
Consultation
We learn about your team, your goals, and where communication is getting in the way.
A plan for your team
We recommend a workshop, a program, or a keynote, and shape it around your team's real work.
Training and follow-through
We deliver the session with materials your team keeps, and we can add follow-up sessions or coaching so the skills last.
Proof
Organizations we've trained
Mike and the Uplevel team have trained thousands of professionals. Here are some of the organizations we've worked with.
Piedmont Healthcare
GE Vernova
Edwards Lifesciences
Symphony Medical
EvoTech
Restaurant365
UMass
WSU Executive MBA
Minnesota Organization of Nursing Leaders
At ExperINS, we also partnered with Mike to bring executive coaching and organizational training to our full team, including a train-the-trainer model to help the work scale beyond one session or one person. In just three months, the impact has been clear.
Mike Acker led an incredible workshop on effective communication. He worked with leadership throughout the company to improve their individual effectiveness with the teams as well as clients.
As a technical leader, I wanted to strengthen my communication, executive presence, and leadership effectiveness, and Mike provided practical tools I could immediately apply.
In Austin
Based in Austin? Bring your team to us.
Book a private two-hour workshop at the Uplevel Training Center in Westlake for up to 25 people. We provide the training, the space, the setup, and the materials. You bring your team.
Explore Uplevel in AustinQuestions
Common questions
Can you come to us?
Yes. We run training on-site, virtually, or at the Uplevel Training Center in Austin.
How many people can join?
Workshops work best when everyone gets time to practice. Larger groups can be split into sessions or served with a keynote.
Can you customize a program?
Yes. Every program can be shaped around your industry, your team's real situations, and the outcomes you need.
Who leads the training?
Mike Acker and the Uplevel team of certified coaches, all trained by Mike in the Uplevel Formula.
What does it cost?
It depends on the format, length, and group size. We'll give you clear pricing after the consultation.
Next step
Let's talk about what your team needs.
A short consultation is the best place to start. Tell us what's happening with your team, and we'll recommend the right next step.
Booking Mike to speak? See his speaker profile at MikeAcker.com.