Recently, we did a training for a group of women investment managers at a large financial service company in Zurich. Each woman came prepared with a short presentation they were working on, which we filmed when they first arrived in the morning. Then we did a full day training, the same one that we do all over the world for companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, MTV, universities and non-profits.

If you’ve ever done Own The Room you know how experiential and interactive the training is—no sitting around taking notes in our groups! You’re on your feet, filming each other, and practicing techniques so that by the end of the day, you’ve got a treasure trove of new skills to use. It’s a bit like boot camp, but fun and challenging. As one CEO who experienced Own The Room previously told his team last week at a training, “Today is going to change your life.”

We filmed this group of women in Zurich again doing that same presentation at the end of the day, but now they were utilizing the public speaking techniques they’d learned. In less than seven hours they went from okay presenters to dynamic, strong, and confident presenters. In less than seven hours.

Could they get even better? Sure, we can all improve. But the difference was dramatic and striking, and in some cases, pretty hilarious. When one woman saw her before video, she said, “I look like a Vulcan!” But in the after video, she was funny, strong, and memorable.

We see this all the time, noticeably dramatic improvements – but having the before and after videos really emphasizes how quickly people can improve – and how striking the differences can be.