The Speaking Protocol — For Engineers Who Want to Be Heard

You know your work is solid.

But you've also watched:

Eyes drop to laptops halfway through your update.
Someone with half your depth repeat your idea badly and get the nod.
A meeting move on even though you had the answer.

That's not an intelligence problem. It's a delivery problem.

The Speaking Protocol is a membership for engineers who are done losing the room. You'll run one short rep per day, sit in a weekly engineer-only hot seat, and fix your delivery like you'd fix a flaky system: baseline, technique, experiment, final product.

“Before your feedback, my briefs ran long, my BLUF got buried, and I overstuffed slides… After working with you, I open clean with a BLUF, frame three key points, keep slides to one message each.”

Audie Cunningham · Army Engineer, SGT (E5) · Unit Supply Sergeant, HHC 7th EN BDE

60–90 days from now

Picture a normal week a couple months from now:

In standup, you give a 60-second update. People nod, ask one clarifying question, and move on because they actually understood you.
In design review, you walk through tradeoffs calmly. No rambling, no backtracking. Your diagrams land. Your recommendation sticks.
In cross-functional calls, non-technical stakeholders stop saying "sorry, can you repeat that?" and start saying "that makes sense, let's do it."
Your manager starts pulling you into higher-stakes conversations because "you explain this better than anyone."

You're not trying to be a motivational speaker. You're just the engineer whose ideas actually land. Consistently.

“Now I'm confident that I can communicate my ideas in a way that will get my team on the same page. … You saved me hours of time and effort that would have been spent explaining myself.”

Matthias Williams · Army Officer, 1LT · Platoon Leader

CLIP — Day 1 vs Day 30 tape side-by-side

root cause analysis

Why you're stuck (and why past attempts failed)

If you're like most engineers, you've tried:

Watching random "public speaking" videos that talk about big stages and storytelling you don't care about.
Reading yet another book instead of getting live feedback.
Telling yourself you'll "speak up more in meetings"… and then defaulting to mumbling status updates.

These don't work because:

No baseline: you've never actually watched yourself on tape long enough to see patterns.
No instrumentation: nobody has broken speaking into levers you can adjust one at a time.
No reps: you change nothing in your day-to-day behavior, so nothing compounds.

Information is not your bottleneck. A feedback loop is.

“The most helpful part of working with Isaac was getting feedback everyday from him. That gave me direction to improve fast with. I'd work with Isaac again if I needed to.”

Sarah Richards · Ph.D. Candidate

the mechanism

The Speaking Protocol treats speaking like an engineering problem

STEP 01 BASELINE

Watch how you actually sound (and look) on tape, and name the skill gap it shows you.

STEP 02 TECHNIQUE

WHAT you sayCut the jargon, lead with the point, say it in one sentence anyone gets. The fastest win, so it comes first.

HOW you say itThe five levers you control: pace, tactical pauses, volume, pitch, body language.

STEP 03 EXPERIMENT

Pull one lever per rep, tested on tomorrow's daily tape.

STEP 04 FINAL PRODUCT

Run real meetings with deliberate prep and debrief.

BASELINE → TECHNIQUE → EXPERIMENT → FINAL PRODUCT

This is not a course you binge once and forget. It's a protocol you run.

FRAMEWORK IMAGE — diagram of BASELINE → TECHNIQUE → EXPERIMENT → FINAL PRODUCT

differentiators

What makes this different

Built for engineers, not "natural storytellers."
Focused on normal rooms: standups, design reviews, 1:1s, promo panels.
Short reps you can actually do: 3–5 minutes a day, not hour-long homework.
Three layers of feedback: your own review, async notes on tapes, plus live hot-seat coaching.
Honest promise: clearer, more confident delivery in 30 days if you do the reps. No "keynote speaker in a weekend" nonsense.
Real mechanism, plain language: no invented frameworks, no fake vocabulary.

COACHED SO FAR

ARMY ENGINEER CAPTAIN ENGINEER PLATOON LEADER, 1LT PH.D. CANDIDATE ENGINEER UNIT SUPPLY SERGEANT ARMY ENGINEER NCO ARMY ENGINEER NCO

the offer

Here's exactly what you get when you join The Speaking Protocol

Weekly Engineer-Only Hot-Seat Coaching Call

60 minutes · Saturdays 10:00 AM ET

Short 3–5 minute briefing reps.
Feedback at the level you're ready for: notebook only, chat, or live to the speaker.
Clear, structured critique on: What were you trying to say? Was it clear? Was it engaging?

SCREENSHOT — live call grid with engineers presenting

Daily 3–5 Minute Speaking Reps

the habit engine

One simple prompt. One short tape.
Three-pass review: watch muted, then audio-only, then full.
End each rep by answering: "What's the one change that would make tomorrow's tape less cringe?"

IMAGE — daily checklist / rep tracker

Async Tape Feedback

targeted corrections

Post selected tapes inside Skool.
Get 1–2 highest-impact fixes, not a laundry list of theory.

SCREENSHOT — feedback comment thread on a tape

Engineer Speaking Video Library

Modules 0–4 · ~27 videos

Module 0: Start & avoidance
Module 1: Message
Module 2: Delivery
Module 3: Being heard
Module 4: On-the-spot & Q&A
Each video covers one specific problem (rambling, pace, interruptions, eye contact, etc.).

SCREENSHOT — library module view

Speaking Diagnostic Pack

4 fillable datasheets — the real documents, not stock art

DOC 001 · DIAGNOSTIC

DOC 002 · ROADMAP

DOC 003 · CHEAT SHEET

DOC 004 · REP LOG

Speaking Diagnostic (baseline snapshot).
30-Day Rep Roadmap (what to do each day).
Delivery Cheat Sheet (five levers, body, pre-talk sequence).
Rep Log (post-tape debrief template).

06 · BONUS

Personal Productivity Library

How to actually use AI in your workflow.
Microsoft stack shortcuts and automation.
Task and project systems that don't collapse under real workloads.
Browser / desktop tools that save real time.

SCREENSHOT — index of productivity videos

07 · BONUS

Live Deck & Talk Breakdowns

Bring real decks, demos, or promos to the hot seat.
We tear them down live, in detail.
Recordings go into an archive you can revisit.

CLIP — before/after slide walkthrough

Join The Speaking Protocol as a founding member, claim your 1:1 Speaking Diagnostic, and run your first tape tonight.

Join before this Saturday's hot seat

founding members only

When you join as a founding member, you also get:

FOUNDING BONUS

Founding 1:1 Speaking Diagnostic

20 minutes · limited

We baseline your current delivery.
Set a concrete 30-day target.
Prioritize which lever to work on first.
Limited to the first 10 people or until August 1, 2026, whichever comes first.

CALENDAR SCREENSHOT — booked diagnostics

FOUNDING BONUS

Personal Productivity Library

Because engineers who care about clear speaking also care about not wasting cycles.

TESTIMONIAL — "the productivity bonus alone was worth it"

FOUNDING BONUS

Deck & Talk Breakdown Archive

Every breakdown we do live becomes an asset you can watch later.

SCREENSHOT — archive list of breakdowns

the guarantee

30-DAY TAPE-BASED GUARANTEE

If you do the work, I'll take the risk.

Here's how it works:

You join and run the protocol for 30 days.
You keep your day-1 tape and a day-30 tape.
If your day-30 tape is not clearly better than day 1, and you actually did the reps, email me.

If you don't hear a clear difference, you shouldn't pay. I'll refund you.

No drama. No arguing. Your tapes are the judge.

“Give him a shot you will be pleasantly surprised of how much progress you can make with him as a coach considering it's a life passion of his. It will show even in the first few sessions with him how insightful and effective he is at this craft.”

Robert Kilbourne · Army Engineer Captain · Joint Task Force-Bravo, Soto Cano AB

Try the protocol for 30 days. If your day-30 tape isn't clearly better than day 1, email me and I'll refund you.

Start your 30-day speaking trial

pricing

Let's anchor this

A single corporate presentation skills workshop can run from hundreds to over a thousand dollars per person… for one day, and then it's over.

SCREENSHOT — example workshop pricing page

Private 1:1 speaking coaching often sits in the $150–$450/hour range.

The Speaking Protocol is built as an ongoing system, not an event that ends.

FOUNDING MEMBER RATE

$289/month

locked as long as you stay a member

The public rate will be $989/month. Founding members never pay it.

Grab a founding spot now

No contracts. Stay because it's working.

You're getting weekly live coaching, daily rep structure, async feedback, a full speaking library, the diagnostic pack, the productivity bonus, and the breakdown archive… for less than many people pay for a single hour of private coaching.

TESTIMONIAL — "I'd have paid the full $989; the founding rate was a no-brainer."

faq

Questions engineers actually ask

I'm already swamped. How much time does this actually take?

Plan on 3–5 minutes per day for your rep and 60 minutes on Saturday if you join the live call. That's it. No hour-long homework, no 40-page workbooks.

I hate seeing myself on video. Is this still for me?

That's normal. Most engineers in this room start there. The baseline tapes stay inside the community, and you control what you share. Getting comfortable with your own tape is part of why this works.

TESTIMONIAL — "I dreaded video at first; now it's just another tool."

English isn't my first language. Will this help or just make me self-conscious?

The protocol focuses on clarity: structure, pacing, and delivery. Those matter regardless of accent. We're not chasing "perfect" English; we're chasing "people understood you and stayed with you."

“Before your feedback, I often felt insecure about my pronunciation since English is not my first language. … I knew my content was strong, but my delivery didn't always reflect that.”

JJ · Army NCO, SGT

I'm already a senior engineer / manager. Is this too basic?

Senior people usually have the most to gain. You're already in the rooms where decisions get made. Small improvements in how you brief, defend tradeoffs, and handle questions pay off fast.

What if I can't make the Saturday time sometimes?

Calls are recorded, and you'll still have daily reps, async feedback, and the library. You don't have to make every call for this to work, but live reps accelerate things.

How much access do I actually get to you?

You get: weekly group hot-seat access, async feedback on selected tapes, and for founding members, a 20-minute 1:1 Speaking Diagnostic. I keep this tight so I can give real feedback, not generic platitudes.

What if I join and then fall off the wagon?

Then you get back on. The 30-day challenge, weekly wins, and simple daily structure are designed to make restarting easy. You can pause anytime by canceling; your founding rate is only locked while you stay active.

TESTIMONIAL — "I missed a week, came back, and still saw huge gains by week 5."

If you're an engineer who's tired of watching weaker ideas win the room, this is your opportunity to change that.

“…the doubt I had in myself you helped me unlock the mindset in me that I know have been by building upon I thank you for that.”

Omar Hernandez · Army NCO, SGT

FOUNDING PACKAGE STATUS

10 of 10 founding diagnostic slots open

--DAYS

--HOURS

--MINS

--SECS

UNTIL THE FOUNDING PACKAGE CLOSES · AUGUST 1, 2026

Once the first 10 diagnostic slots are gone or we hit August 1, 2026, the founding package closes.

Grab a founding spot now

Join before the next Saturday hot seat, lock in the founding rate, and let your next tape be the worst you ever sound.