Dr. Ian Turnipseed

Dr. Ian Turnipseed is a seasoned, experienced Executive Communication Coach with THE SPEECH IMPROVEMENT COMPANY. His extensive background in the field of communication gives him the knowledge and tools to help people understand the mechanics of speech and the psychology of communication to develop a unique and highly effective personal communication style. 

Ian has coached over 230 conference speakers across a number of industries, including retail, financial services, and life sciences. He has taken their presentations to a higher level by addressing their public speaking challenges such as controlling nervousness, simplifying complex (and often scientific) information, truly connecting with the listeners, and being more authentic.

Based in the Southeastern U.S., Ian focuses his talents as both a personal coach and workshop leader on senior-level executives who strive to speak more clearly, persuasively, and with greater authority. He has been involved in public speaking and training for the past 25 years as a presenter, coach, trainer, and researcher.

Ian has worked extensively with clients in life sciences, most often helping leadership teams with their investor presentations.

He holds multiple degrees in the communication field, instructed at Harvard and MIT, and travels the globe working with leaders of countries, companies, and people from all walks of life helping them become more comfortable and effective when they speak.

Ian has written multiple articles about how to deal with extemporaneous or impromptu speaking situations and with 4 years spent researching the psychology of how communication affects us, has assisted with publishing several books on the underpinnings of speech.

Ian is skilled in establishing clear, sometimes difficult, but always attainable goals with his individual clients and he maintains an equally sharp focus on specific, actionable results in group training sessions. Topics in which Ian brings added expertise to THE SPEECH IMPROVEMENT COMPANY include: listener analysis, communication in the moment, public speaking skills, executive communication, and leadership.

Ian’s clients include Boston Dynamics, Edwards Lifesciences, Evelo Biosciences, Google, Harvard University, Northwestern Mutual, Novartis, Olympus, Twitter, University of Miami, and USAA, 

He is incredibly effective because he has coached hundreds of individuals at these clients and many more, including CEOs and thought leaders in prominent industries. Ian has leveraged this impressive background and expanded his practical communication know-how as an invited presenter at dozens of conferences on communication, at countless speaking engagements around the country. He understands what is required to speak effectively and efficiently in front of any group of listeners – from a small boardroom to an auditorium with thousands. He has personally logged over 1,000 hours helping conference presenters truly connect with their listeners.

Ian has helped C-Suite executives compose presentations, explore different ways to more effectively communicate with listeners, and feel both confident and comfortable with their own personal communication style. His extensive formal education allows him to come up with real-world solutions grounded in proven communication and psychological theories and research, plus his years of coaching allow him to deliver those solutions as actionable results. He specializes in areas such as controlling nervousness, developing style, message construction, presenting to board rooms, conference keynotes, and detailed listener analysis.

Since 2005, Ian has invested a lot of time teaching public speaking in secondary education as well as Higher-Ed because he believes that helping youth find their voice benefits us all. He extends this enthusiasm to professional executive public speaking and leadership communication because it fulfills his mission: to help all speakers to be heard.

He has coached high school national communication champions, collegiate communication champions, actors and actresses who currently are on major television shows and movies, and prepared executives across many industries for TEDx presentations as well as professional keynote addresses.

Ian has degrees that cover the gamut of communication. He holds a Doctorate in Mass Communication and Media Effects with a specialization in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Alabama. His Masters from Alabama is in Rhetorical Theory and his undergraduate from Clemson University is in Journalism.