Your goals are unique. Your learning path can be, too.
Customize your learning experience.
Message & Method provides a comprehensive system for becoming a more deliberate speaker. Private Coaching makes that system responsive to you.
You may want broad development across the entire method. Or you may arrive with an important presentation, a new leadership role, or a period of increased visibility already ahead of you.
01
Start with your actual needs.
We begin with your goals, current capabilities, speaking responsibilities, and immediate challenges.
02
Concentrate the work where it matters.
The curriculum remains available in full, but coaching time and assignments can emphasize the areas with the greatest relevance.
03
Apply it to consequential situations.
Use upcoming presentations, pitches, keynotes, interviews, panels, or leadership moments as practical contexts for development.
Private coaching can build your complete speaking skillset—or prepare you for something specific.
COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT
If you want a deliberate assessment of your speaking capabilities and a personalized path through the complete Message & Method system.
Possible areas of focus:
A HIGH-STAKES SPEAKING CHALLENGE
If you are preparing for a specific keynote, pitch, presentation, interview, panel, media appearance, personal event, or new period of visibility.
Possible areas of focus:
you don’t have to choose
You may engage with coaching because of an upcoming talk, for general skill development, or both.
You may begin coaching with a specific presentation already ahead of you. That presentation can become both an immediate objective and a practical setting for broader development. Or you may begin with general improvement in mind and later apply the work to an important speaking opportunity that emerges along the way.
A structured process, customized to your unique strengths and needs.
Your coaching experience will be tailored to you.
While you’ll have access to core curriculum, your learning may follow a different path. Through consultation and discovery, we will shape a unique plan that emphasizes the type and level of help you require, in the areas that you need it most.
Private Coaching is supported by the complete Message & Method system.
LEARN
PREPARE
SPEAK
FEEDBACK
REFLECT
APPLY
LEARN
YOUR GROWTH DOESN’T STOP BETWEEN SESSIONS
You are not purchasing isolated coaching conversations. The complete Message & Method curriculum., workbooks, assessments, speaking tasks, playbooks, decks, and interactive tools provide a shared foundation for the work.
Private Coaching allows Peter to adjust the sequence, emphasis, assignments, and practice around your needs without withholding any part of the core program.
Included in Private Coaching:
Private coaching works best when your goal matters—and you intend to practice.
Private Coaching gives you the highest degree of individual attention. It may be the right choice if you want sustained one-to-one development or if you are approaching a high-stakes speaking situation and want direct coaching and guided rehearsal.
If you prefer to learn on your own, consider the Self-Guided program.
Learning as part of a small group has meaningful benefits. If that sounds like a better fit, consider joining a Guided Cohort.
FIT CHECK
This is likely a good fit if you:
YOU MAY WANT TO RECONSIDER
It may not be the right fit if you:
“Peter’s seminar was not simply informative or entertaining, it was tailored for us. His ability to prepare, adapt and respond made him astoundingly effective.”
—MICHAEL MARTINECK
Senior Communication Specialist, NFTA
MEET YOUR COACH
A coach who can see the whole speaker—and the next useful move.
Peter Cumbo has spent more than 30 years studying communication from both sides of the experience—as a speaker and performer in front of audiences, and as a director and producer shaping what audiences see, hear, and feel.
He has coached thousands of professionals and leaders, and brings the same approach to private coaching: understand the speaker, the audience, the objective, and the situation first—then work on the choices that will make the greatest difference. The goal is not a generic “speaker style,” but communication that becomes more capable, intentional, and distinctly your own.
“He has a unique way of always making a topic relevant to your life and career.”
—DANA MARCINIAK
Public Relations Expert
Then Corporate Communications Manager, New Era Cap Company

Peter Cumbo
30+ years in communication and presentation
Experience leading intimate cohorts and audiences of hundreds
Customized training for professionals, leaders, and creative teams
A defined engagement, built around your objectives.
The complete Message & Method system, organized around your goals, schedule, and speaking priorities.
WHAT THE STARTING ENGAGEMENT INCLUDES
Private Coaching with Peter Cumbo
A customized experience, tailored to your needs.
STARTING AT
$8,000
Each Private Coaching engagement is individually scoped. The starting price of $8,000 normally includes:
Your proposal will define the exact inclusions, schedule, support, and limits of your coaching program. Additional services may be included in your proposal or added later by mutual agreement for an additional fee. This includes added services such as:
Start with a conversation, not a checkout.
01 REQUEST A CONSULTATION
Share your goals, timing, and speaking context.
02 DISCUSS THE ENGAGEMENT
Meet with Peter to explore needs and mutual fit.
03 RECEIVE A PROPOSAL
Review the proposed scope, schedule, support, and fee.
04 BEGIN WITH CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
Coaching begins after the agreement and required payment are complete.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Below are answers to common questions. For more, see the complete FAQ and Terms.
Private Coaching is a customized one-on-one engagement with Peter. It normally includes access to the complete Message & Method program, scheduled coaching sessions, individualized practice and feedback, and a plan tailored to your goals. The exact scope, schedule, deliverables, and between-session support are defined in a written proposal or coaching agreement.
Private Coaching is designed for people who want focused attention, candid feedback, and a plan built around their own skills and circumstances. It is especially useful for leaders, executives, founders, subject-matter experts, and professionals preparing for an important keynote, pitch, presentation, interview, media appearance, or period of increased visibility.
Yes. An engagement may focus on a specific high-stakes event or use that event as the practical context for broader skill development. The schedule must allow enough time for strategy, development, rehearsal, and revision; coaching cannot guarantee acceptance, funding, sales, promotion, audience response, or any other external result.
No. It can accelerate development at many experience levels. It is most valuable when you have a meaningful goal, are willing to practice, and want direct feedback—not only when you are already an accomplished speaker.
The curriculum provides a complete foundation, but the sequence, emphasis, assignments, examples, and practice may be adjusted based on your experience, speaking context, goals, and available time. Any material change to the standard scope will be documented in the written coaching plan or agreement.
Reasonable between-session support may be included during the active engagement. The coaching agreement will define the channel, normal response window, and amount of script, document, or video review. Between-session access is not unlimited, immediate, emergency, or on-demand unless the agreement expressly says otherwise.
Coaching can include strategy, structure, editing, rehearsal, and detailed feedback. Full speechwriting, slide design, research, or production work is a separate service unless expressly included in the proposal. You remain responsible for the truth, authorization, originality, and final use of your content.
Peter will treat non-public coaching information as confidential and use it only to provide and administer the engagement, subject to the Privacy Policy, service providers, legal obligations, and safety concerns. If you need a mutual nondisclosure agreement or special data-handling terms, raise that before sharing sensitive material. Do not send trade secrets, regulated data, or third-party confidential information until the arrangement permits it.
Yes. Peter is based in Western New York State. If you are local to the area, in-person—or a mix of virtual and in-person sessions—may be considered. If you are not located in another area, in-person sessions can still be considered, but will implicate travel fees.
Yes. An organization may contract and pay for coaching. Before work begins, the written agreement will identify the client and participant, what progress or attendance information may be shared with the sponsor, who owns any commissioned deliverables, and what coaching content remains confidential.
If the engagement appears to be a good fit, you will receive a written proposal or agreement describing scope, schedule, fees, payment timing, support, cancellation terms, and any special deliverables. Coaching begins only after the agreement is accepted and required payment is received.
Rescheduling is not guaranteed. Please request a change as soon as practical. Requests are considered in good faith but remain subject to availability and the needs of the engagement. If another workable time cannot be accommodated, the session is treated as used. If Message & Method cancels a session, it will be rescheduled without reducing the purchased coaching time.
The coaching schedule is customized and agreed at the beginning of the engagement. Sessions are expected to occur on that calendar. Changes may be considered in good faith, but an engagement does not create an indefinite right to schedule unused sessions at a later time.
Private Coaching is non-refundable except where the signed agreement expressly states otherwise, Message & Method cannot deliver a material undelivered portion, or applicable law requires a remedy. Time already delivered, preparation performed, and services reserved for the client remain non-refundable to the extent permitted by law.
No particular result is guaranteed. Coaching provides expertise, feedback, practice, and a structured improvement process. Your outcomes will depend on your participation, decisions, preparation, practice, circumstances, and factors outside either party’s control.
Private Coaching starts at $8,000. The standard starting framework includes eight 60-minute one-to-one coaching sessions, 12 months of access to the complete Self-Directed Program, individualized assignments and feedback, and reasonable between-session support through the designated support channel.
Each engagement is individually scoped. The accepted proposal defines the actual schedule, engagement period, support level, reviews, deliverables, format, travel requirements, and fees. Speechwriting, research, slide design, production, extensive review, rush work, travel, and other specialized services are included only when expressly stated.
Build the speaking capability your next opportunity will require.
Private coaching combines the complete Message & Method system with focused attention, deliberate practice, and feedback shaped around you.








