Expert Teacher of Effective Communication

Miriam McKenzie has published a resource for teachers, won an award for exporting speech programmes to China, and is now back in the classroom.

The primary school trained, speech and effective communication expert has gone full circle since graduating as a teacher almost 30 years ago.

She’s relishing her new role teaching at Wallacetown Primary, having not been in a classroom for the past eight years while she worked on her business.   “It’s like putting on a pair of comfortable shoes.”

But ‘Say It Clearly’ has also evolved in recent months, to an online school where people can purchase the resources themselves, rather than spend time one-on-one tutoring.

Her customised training programmes are for individuals at all levels – from novice to experienced public speakers, speakers for whom English is a second language, children and young people.

New Zealand’s literacy levels have dropped over the last 20 years (according to the PRILS study) so in 2012 Miriam  produced a book ‘Say It Clearly, – a resource for teachers to address oral language issues that can lead to reading and spelling difficulties, and in 2019 she put out a revised edition.

That was when she realised she needed to turn her book into a business, and hasn’t looked back.

From 2015 she started collating all of her resources online, and recently has transformed into more of specialised niche business, following on from her Southland Export Trust award in 2018.

Many of her clients nowadays are people where English is a second language, and she also deals with a small client base of corporates needing help communicating more effectively.

A born and bred Southlander, endless lockdowns and our ever changing world has enabled Miriam to keep adapting her business model to suit her clients.