When you’re nervous about an upcoming presentation, it can cause stress on your body and mind which will impact on your ability to communicate your message effectively. In this article I outline a simple exercise to help combat the symptoms and instil a sense of calm; it can be done anywhere at any time you feel a little scattered, apprehensive or anxious.
What's the best piece of advice you've received about public speaking? In this article I share the two words that changed EVERYTHING for me about how I prepare and deliver presentations.
Long ago I lost count of the number of people who have said to me “I HATE public speaking!” But what if I told you that you could learn to love public speaking?
If you fear or loath public speaking and avoid it at all costs, you may be missing out on opportunities to promote your business, progress your career or share a few words about a special person at an important occasion such as a wedding or a funeral.
Having the right speakers and break out session facilitators is crucial to the success of an event. Therefore, if you’re in charge of planning, it’s important to put time, effort (and money) into finding the right speakers who will engage and inspire your audience and ensure your event is talked about for years to come. In this post I share my top tips to help you book the ideal speaker.
Whilst watching The Jacksons in concert recently, I loved their showmanship and ability to really connect with the crowd. We can learn a lot about how to improve our presentations from their theatrical approach, so in this blog I share 11 techniques that you can apply to take your audience engagement to the next level.
What can you learn about presenting from Sesame Street? What are the best techniques to build confidence? And why should you disregard most public speaking advice? Answers to all of these questions and more can be learned in my latest conversation with the amazing Pegine Echevarria, best-selling author, award-winning business woman and one of the world’s top leadership motivational speakers.
As presenters we are in the privileged position of being able to share our knowledge, experience, and passion with an audience. However, with this privilege comes responsibility – a responsibility to ourselves to ensure we don’t kill our credibility, but more importantly, a responsibility to our audience to ensure that our message is relevant and interesting to listen to. It is vital that you avoid these 11 mistakes that will make your audience cringe...
In this post I’ve written about three of the sessions at the Professional Speaking Association’s ‘Refresh!’ online conference. I have included the main takeaway messages as well as my observations on what the speakers did well so that you can consider using some of the techniques to enhance your own presentations.
TED talks have changed the speaking landscape and I was honoured and privileged to be one of the speaker coaches once again for the Glasgow TEDx event at the SEC Armadillo. In a day that showcased 16 speakers some of them were more memorable than others, so in this post I look at some of the talks that stood out and examine the reasons why. Read on to find out how you can use the techniques to make your own communication more powerful.
Though most of us have the ability to speak, many are not able to speak well when in front of a group people. Yet, being comfortable and confident when speaking in public has the potential to enrich your life both professionally and personally. Here are 19 benefits of being good at public speaking...
Have you ever come across something that is such amazing value that you can’t wait to tell people about it?
Well, that’s the way I feel about the upcoming ‘Boost Your Business Speaking Online Virtual Summit’ which I’m delighted to be part of.
Nerves before a presentation are normal and important. Feeling nervous means you care and, therefore, you will put extra effort into ensuring that your message is communicated to your audience in the best possible way. Nervous adrenaline is also useful for giving your presentation the energy it needs to keep your audience engaged, as long as you use your nervousness effectively rather than allow it to overpower you. So here are five easy ways to manage your nerves and to look and feel more confident when speaking in public.
Dolly Parton demonstrated her incredible ability to engage a 180,000 strong crowd during her popular performance at Glastonbury. The more I watched the more I realised that her techniques could be implemented in many public speaking situations. So read on to find out what Dolly Parton can teach you about public speaking.
During a three day conference in London I had the opportunity to watch and listen to some incredibly charismatic and engaging presenters. Amongst them all, however, there was one presenter that stood out for all the wrong reasons and she has inspired this post. Find out what this speaker did to kill her credibility and caused me to walk out of her presentation...
This week I had the opportunity to attend a workshop with the Toastmasters International 2014 World Champion of Public Speaking, Dananjaya Hettiarachchi (‘Dan’ for short). He shared various tips on preparation, content and delivery and a few secrets about how he beat 33,000 other speakers from 120 countries to win the world title. Here is an overview...
