Hello, I'm DK – justadandak.com – creative producer and speaker coach.

Hi, I’m DK. A creative producer crafting delicious learning experiences & a speaker coach working with impressive humans in leadership roles. In between, am a speaker-for-hire as well.

Just a smattering of good folks with whom I’ve collaborated with in the past few years:

What people say:

“DK recently spoke to 120 members at the Chamber Innovation Workshop, where he gave an outstanding presentation around ‘Building Creative Leadership.’ DK is a charismatic and inspiring speaker who communicated his lessons in an insightful, balanced and humorous manner that fully engages with his audience. I would highly recommend DK as a presenter.”

Ann Lockhart, CEO,

Queenstown Chamber of Commerce

“DK helped us plan and facilitate a hack style event focused on innovating government’s sourcing model. DK exceeded our expectations on all fronts. He was meticulous in his planning, thought outside of the box in his design of the day and offered the experience we needed to facilitate a range of divergent thinking. His creative leadership helped shape a unique experience and we received an overwhelmingly positive response from attendees. His calm and gentle manner meant the process was stress free and most importantly fun!”

Chris Webb, General Manager Commercial Strategy & Delivery,

Department of Internal Affairs

“DK’s approach sets the environment for creative thinking and exploring new and different ways of tackling organisational challenges. We brought all of our people leaders together to make the most of a positive organisational survey result and focus on what we might do to accelerate our progress. DK helped us think outside the norm, creating and facilitating a session that was engaging, had everyone up and working differently than usual, and brought out new options for our people to start working with.“

Bronwyn Kingdom, Group Manager Human Resources,

Land Information NZ (LINZ)

“Even experienced professional speakers need help sometimes! Recently I had a showcase event for 200 conference organisers. I was so nervous, because I wanted to do such a good job (and have them book me, and my agent love me more). DK worked with me on my message, story, slide deck. He helped me get the cadence and rhythm of my talk just right (and I nailed it). His coaching made all the difference, and the bookings have been pouring in.”

Melissa Clark Reynolds,

Company Director

“DK has provided great coaching in developing my story for a number of key presentations. He has a great ability to connect and focus on the delivery and would wholeheartedly recommendation him.”

Clive Spink, Chief Executive Officer,

Pukeko Pictures

“DK crafted and facilitated a two-day off-site for a cross-departmental group of folks to explore the digital and social media opportunities / consequences of a new initiative. He steered the discussion and activities superbly, sensitive to the levels of literacies whilst igniting the latent talent in the room to a great set of outcomes.”

Phil Sage, Senior Director : Global Product Acquisition & Inventor Relations,

Hasbro

“This is the second time that I have engaged DK to work with our team to help us sharpen our collaborative story-telling skills. As architects and designers, everything we engage in is collaborative. Our ability to continue to win work is highly dependent upon our ability to tell collaborative stories to our potential clients in a credible and engaging way. DK helped us develop techniques and approaches that are intuitive, memorable, and highly impacting. I would recommend DK to any person or organization that wants to get better at connecting with their clients in meaningful ways.”

Jonathan Steel ARB, RIBA

Director, IBI Group

“As part of Wellington’s business leveraging during the DHL New Zealand Lion Series, we collaborated with DK to create a unique experience melding together the worlds of sport and tech, drawing out ideas from Wellington businesses to tackle the challenge of how to improve the sports fan experience. DK and his colleague Emilie facilitated The Tech Ruck with seamless professionalism, a positive outlook and a real can-do attitude within extremely tight project deadlines. Working with DK was a great experience and I would do so again.”

Tiana Rakete, Senior Events Advisor,

Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency

“DK says that “Public speaking is a skill that needs to be nurtured.” Coming at me was a number of high profile speaking events – and very little time to prepare, and I was out of practice. DK was my saviour! Over a few weeks I went from bumbling idiot to well – less so! And even received praise on a job well done. DK helped frame the conversation, refine some skills and introduce some new ones. Just what I needed. Thanks DK.”

Linda Oliver, Result 9 Manager,

Ministry of Business, Innovations & Employment

“I was fortunate to have DK’s coaching on preparing for an industry event presentation. DK brings a refreshing approach to workshopping the structure, content and style for delivering a memorable presentation. He’s very much focused on engaging with your audience and is great to have involved early in your process.”

Arturo Arrarte, Head of Growth – APAC

Slack

“We contracted DK to run several sessions with members of our leadership team and other staff who are required to present ideas, solutions, explanations and work flow information to clients and audiences. The sessions were so insightful and the feedback was extremely positive, even the most cynical were surprised at what they could achieve and change the way one approaches preparation and off the cuff speaking. A highly productive and useful experience and one we will repeat.”

Vicki Jackways, Head of Marketing,

Park Road Post Production

“I recently had DK run the ‘presenting engagingly online’ session at a virtual conference I was managing for our organization. We had many great speakers, but based on the feedback (and my opinion too!) DK’s was the highlight. The session included tangible take aways that I use daily while presenting and was fun and energetic. Coordinating the session with DK was a breeze (even with the time difference), and he tailored his approach to fit the group I was working with. Could not recommend enough!”

June Kinloch, Lead, Digital Products

The HIVE at IBI Group

“When in lockdown, at Pharmac we asked DK to deliver a zoom presentation on ‘presenting engagingly online.’ Our objective was to give staff an opportunity to connect virtually after we had all shifted to working from home and we had few opportunities for a shared experience. We used DK’s prepared session to shift from presenting in this new medium (zoom) to how we adapt generally, with shifting mediums as a metaphor for the broader pressure on all of us to adapt and change in response to our external environment. The latter part was progressed via a moderated Q&A session. Staff really enjoyed the session – both parts – and I consider DK’s role as catalyst to have been really helpful.”

Mark Woodard, Director of Corporate Services/CFO,

PHARMAC NZ

I have had the great pleasure of inviting DK to work with our team for 2 enjoyable and valuable sessions so far: an in-person (those were the days!) public speaking and storytelling workshop; and a virtual Presenting Engagingly Online session. These were both very highly rated by our team and we’re looking forward to having DK come and share more magic with us to help us continue to hone our skills and confidence. On top of that, DK is one of the kindest, most compassionate and generous people I know. He builds an environment of trust, confidence and care, role modelling respectful feedback and gently supporting people to build confidence and strength with public speaking, storytelling and presenting. I cannot recommend DK highly enough.

Kimberley Gilmour, Chief People Officer

Uneeq

Engaging, smooth and professional. DK delivered his ‘Presenting Engagingly Online’ session to some of the sport sector in Wales. He keeps you locked in with his presentation, exhibiting exactly what he’s preaching with all the best tips and tricks for online delivery in the age of working from home. A top man who I highly recommend. Diolch, DK!

Matthew Davies, Digital Marketing Lead

Sport Wales

DK delivered a brilliant session for my team, giving us all accessible, understandable and effective advice on how to present engagingly. The training worked for those with extensive presenting experience as well as those with little exposure to public speaking. It was also very practical and encouraged us to embed our learning by doing. Highly recommended!

Emma McLean, Engagement Lead,

Engagement Lead, Accenture The Dock (Dublin)

“Hello from Cairo! (I’m on a regional workshop tour.) Showed a group in Tunis the TEDxWellington Trust wrap-up video last night. New teams from Ghomrassen and the University of Manouba both started sharing how they could scale that to their budget – ideas about playing with expectations, changing up the normal event experience in Tunisia, making their smaller event size seem purposeful and exciting. Your team has impact in wide, wild ways. Thank you!”
“This is beautiful. Amazing to see the ticketing experiment play out this way. I’ve shared this with our content and community teams, so that they can understand more about how this played out in your community. Congratulations – hope the entire team had fun pulling this one together.”

Will Davis,

Applications Manager for TEDx