“It converts optimism into a competitive advantage — audacity, clarity, and impact in the service of sustainable performance.”
Michel Poulaert
Michel Poulaert
Michel Poulaert is the eldest of eight children. From a young age, he develops a keen sense of responsibility and a leadership temperament: he is the one who brings together sports teams, scout groups, and youth clubs. These early experiences forge his unwavering optimism and his ability to guide others toward the common goal.
After editorial stints at the Belgian magazine TéléMoustique and at RTBF, he hones his taste for writing and video. In 1989, a 24-month prospecting project in the Netherlands forces him to master Dutch and English, while leading small sales teams. This intercultural learning experience lasts twelve years and makes him an expert in international trade. In 2006, Michel turns his passion into a career: he becomes a corporate speaker and earns a master's degree in business coaching. His first interventions focus on optimism, boldness, and the positive culture of failure—topics he explores through lived anecdotes and discoveries in neuroscience.
Recognized for his professionalism, he founded the School of Professional Speakers in 2018. Certified FPSA (British) in 2017, then CSP and Virtual Presenter (United States) in 2020, he now supervises the training of over 800 speakers, combining voice, gestures, and stand-up humor. His style blends storytelling, scientific demonstrations, and "emotional elevators." A born educator, he provides his audiences with immediately applicable keys: changing perspective, positive anchoring, and the PAS methodology (Perceive, Accept, Scan). Present in over 30 French-speaking countries, he speaks before COMEX, sales teams, managers, and executives. His message: transform adversity into opportunity and turn every challenge into a springboard for excellence.
The audacity of optimism!
- · Rather than a mere plea, this conference reveals why optimism is today a strategic skill. Michel demonstrates, supported by neuroscience research, how a positive mindset activates the networks of resilience.
- · Through his famous "problem bag" sketch, he shows that we naturally amplify difficulties. Drawing from his experience in industry and large retail, he shares concrete tools to put things into perspective and reframe each situation.
- · The session includes positive anchoring exercises and an interactive survey: the audience identifies its limiting beliefs and then reprograms them in real time. The stand-up approach guarantees as many laughs as insights.
- · In the end, participants leave armed with an action plan: to turn an obstacle into a lever and instill clear-sighted optimism within their teams.
Surprise to sell better!
- · Faced with digitalization, Michel Poulaert proves that emotion and the unexpected remain the best levers for conversion. He draws on 20 years of international trade to unveil his "secrets": improvisation, storytelling, and inverted scripts.
- · The conference puts the audience at the heart of a staging: fictitious situations, cross feedback, and client scenarios. Participants become co-authors of the experience, live the pitch from the inside, and immediately test the techniques.
- · Michel Poulaert shares his dialogue templates, his methods to capture attention in 5 seconds, and the keys to defuse objections and silences. Each piece of advice is illustrated by true anecdotes, where even his competitors were left speechless.
- · At the end, sales teams have a ready-to-use toolbox to reinvent their approaches, retain their clients, and significantly increase their closing rates.
To succeed, dare to fail!
- · Failure is too often stigmatized and avoided. Michel Poulaert reminds us that no sports champion has won without first losing. This conference deconstructs our relationship with error and offers the PAS method: Perceive, Accept, Scan.
- · He illustrates each step with stories of great " catas" turned successes. A live workshop invites the audience to design their own "fake briefing" and then plan secure experiments within their professional context.
- · Participants discover serendipity as a driver of innovation: failure is not a wall, but a turn. They leave with a framework to capitalize on every setback and transform disarray into opportunity.
- · This conference unleashes creative energy and establishes a sustainable test & learn culture, essential for innovating and remaining competitive.
Compassionate leadership and sustainable performance
- · In a world where employee engagement relies as much on trust as on goals, benevolent leadership appears as a lever for sustainable performance. Michel Poulaert shows that benevolence and demands are two sides of the same coin, essential for motivating and retaining teams.
- · He draws on neuroscience research to explain how recognition and active listening strengthen cohesion, reduce turnover, and stimulate creativity. Through concrete examples from large companies and start-ups, he illustrates the biological mechanisms of stress and the sense of security.
- · The conference includes a "mirror listening" workshop: in pairs, each participant learns to reformulate positive and constructive feedback. An interactive stage reveals the "avoidance zones" of the manager – those counterproductive habits that stifle talent.
- · At the end of the session, managers leave with an action plan focused on three pillars: establishing recognition rituals, encouraging autonomy, and practicing regular feedback to sustainably transform the managerial culture.
Trust and impact: mastering your speech
- · Speaking in public remains a challenge for many, sometimes synonymous with anxiety or a lack of legitimacy. Michel Poulaert deconstructs these fears by revealing the key principles that make a speech an impactful and memorable moment.
- · He illustrates each step – mental preparation, structuring the message, and managing nerves – through demonstrations from stand-up and theatrical voice. Participants learn how to align posture, gaze, and rhythm to capture attention from the very first seconds.
- · At the heart of the "Express Pitch" workshop, each speaker has 60 seconds to present a project and receives instant feedback on the clarity of the message, intonation, and body language. This immersive situation accelerates the acquisition of best practices.
- · At the end of this conference-workshop, everyone leaves with a "confidence kit": a preparation grid, breathing and visualization exercises, and the PAS methodology applied to public speaking.
Resilience and perseverance: bouncing back in the face of crises
- · Organizations go through ongoing disorder, reorganization, and crises. Michel Poulaert offers an exploration into the mechanisms of individual and collective resilience, showing how to transform adversity into an opportunity for growth.
- · He presents experiences from teams that have overcome strategic failures, canceled funding, or health crises, and details the steps of a "bounce-back cycle": debriefing, readjustment of goals, anchoring of learning, and proactive relaunch.
- · The conference includes a "Resilience Wall" workshop: each participant lists a past failure, identifies the lessons learned, and co-creates, in small groups, a rapid response protocol in case of crisis. This co-creation strengthens solidarity and speed of reaction.
- · Leaders and teams leave this session with a "Bounce-back Plan" in three parts: instant diagnosis, a psychological toolkit to limit emotional impact, and a roadmap to reinvent post-crisis success.