preparation

What Dolly Parton Can Teach You About Public Speaking

What Dolly Parton Can Teach You About Public Speaking

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.

12 TEDx Talks: 12 Lessons in Public Speaking

12 TEDx Talks: 12 Lessons in Public Speaking

On Thursday 18 February, the TEDx University of Edinburgh (TEDxUoE) 2016 Conference was held in Edinburgh’s Central Hall for an audience of around five hundred people. I was delighted to have the opportunity to coach 10 of the 12 speakers for this event and was incredibly proud of the way each of them delivered a clear, concise and engaging talk. So, from my perspective as an audience member, this post covers public speaking lessons inspired by each of their talks.

What Mary Poppins Can Teach You About Public Speaking

What Mary Poppins Can Teach You About Public Speaking

Whilst in Australia I had the pleasure of watching a brilliantly produced and performed amateur production of Mary Poppins. As is so often the case when I attend live theatre, I identified a number of tips that can be easily transferred to your talks and presentations. Read about them here...

3 Areas Most Presenters Forget To Prepare and Why You Should Make Them a Priority

3 Areas Most Presenters Forget To Prepare and Why You Should Make Them a Priority

Regardless of whether you worry like crazy when asked to do a presentation or see it as a great opportunity to share your knowledge or passion, you will probably have a certain way of preparing what you're going to say. 

And whilst what you say is fundamental, how you say it is equally, if not more important. In order to bring your words to life and ensure they have the most impact, you need to prime the elements that communicate the words – your body, your voice and your mind.

11 Ways to Kill Your Credibility as a Presenter

11 Ways to Kill Your Credibility as a Presenter

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...

9 Public Speaking Lessons from the Theatre

9 Public Speaking Lessons from the Theatre

If you’ve been reading my posts for a while you might have gathered that I love the theatre and in particular the lessons we can learn from the theatre to enhance our public speaking. Whether you like it or not, each time you speak in public it is a performance. Here are some of the areas of performance that presenters sometimes overlook...

Tips for Managing the Q&A Part of Your Presentation

Tips for Managing the Q&A Part of Your Presentation

Many people worry unnecessarily about asking an audience if they have any questions after their presentation. But as with everything else to do with presenting, you can prepare yourself to deal with them, and there are a number of reasons why a question and answer session is a good idea...

What to Do When Things Go Wrong During a Presentation

What to Do When Things Go Wrong During a Presentation

During any live performance there will inevitably be some on stage disasters; even with the best preparation there is always a possibility that something will go wrong. In this post I talk about the most common public speaking disasters and how to manage them...

10 Tips to Make Challenging Conversations Easier

10 Tips to Make Challenging Conversations Easier

If you're someone who avoids conversations that you perceive may be difficult, you'll probably already know that this can lead to further miscommunication, upset and angst. It is crucial to ensure that you find a way to express yourself so in this post you'll find some tips for preparing and managing the conversation...

'Let Go' and Improve Your Public Speaking

'Let Go' and Improve Your Public Speaking

Do you sometimes wish that you could wave a magic wand and you’d be great at public speaking? If so, I’m sure you wouldn’t be the only one! But rather than trying too hard, sometimes you just need to tear up the script and let go in order to improve...

7 Simple Rules of the Stage for Presenters

7 Simple Rules of the Stage for Presenters

Many presenters are unaware of some of the basic rules of the stage so in this post I share with you some of the points you should take into consideration whenever you are in front of an audience...

How to Ensure Your Pitch Strikes the Right Note

How to Ensure Your Pitch Strikes the Right Note

I have developed a simple formula for what I like to call a 'pitchtastic' pitch. It can be applied to any type of pitch from a 30 second elevator pitch that you might deliver at a networking event right through to pitching for millions of pounds worth of investment. This post looks at each element of the formula individually...

8 Tips for Remembering Your Presentation

8 Tips for Remembering Your Presentation

One of the biggest fears my clients have is about forgetting what they are going to say when public speaking and I am frequently asked for advice on how to memorise a speech or presentation. In this post I explore the different schools of thought about this and provide some suggestions on how to prepare effectively to remember your presentation...

The Moment Before...

The Moment Before...

Just like an athlete warms up before a sporting event, so should you warm up before any presentation or public speaking engagement. In this post I share a variety of techniques to prepare your mind, voice, body and more so that you can manage your nerves and deliver the best possible speech or presentation...

Getting the EDGE

Getting the EDGE

More and more business pitching competitions are taking place around the UK offering opportunities to win prizes, support and funding to help grow your business. In this post I share pitching tips from the Scottish EDGE fund, tips that can be used in all types of situations to give your company an edge. Is it time for you to polish your pitch?