Public Speaking

Why Improving Your Public Speaking Should Be Your Top Priority This Year

Why Improving Your Public Speaking Should Be Your Top Priority This Year

Are you one of those people who wrote ‘Improve my public speaking skills’ on your list of new year’s resolutions? If so, well done and I trust you are well on the way to achieving your goal (if you’re not, read on!)

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...

The Show Must Go On: 7 Tips on How to Give a Presentation When it’s the Last Thing You Feel Like Doing!

The Show Must Go On: 7 Tips on How to Give a Presentation When it’s the Last Thing You Feel Like Doing!

or many people, the thought of delivering a presentation makes them feel sick with nerves. But what if you’ve been booked to speak at an event and you are feeling unwell?

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.

25 Questions You Must Ask Before Creating Your Next Presentation

25 Questions You Must Ask Before Creating Your Next Presentation

Often when people are asked to deliver a speech or a presentation, they will start their preparation with the question “What do I want to say?” But this is the completely wrong place to begin. Here's what to do instead...

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...

Secrets of a Public Speaking World Champion

Secrets of a Public Speaking World Champion

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...

Public Speaking Lessons from the Professionals

Public Speaking Lessons from the Professionals

At a recent Professional Speaking Association event, it was fascinating to witness the variety of different speaking styles, all engaging in their own way and all true to their own unique approach. I love the opportunity to learn by observing other speakers so here are some of my take-away tips from the event...

Fitness, Focus and Fashion - 3 Public Speaking Tips from a Broadway Show

Fitness, Focus and Fashion - 3 Public Speaking Tips from a Broadway Show

I absolutely love live theatre, both performing in shows and watching them. Recently I had the opportunity to see several shows on Broadway and three things came to mind with regard to what presenters can learn from the theatre...

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...

How To Ensure You Are Understood

How To Ensure You Are Understood

Whether you are leading your team meeting, pitching to investors or talking to your partner over a romantic dinner, the ability to be understood is critical. Here is one of the best ways to ensure that your message is understood...

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...

How to Take Your Presentations From Good to Great

How to Take Your Presentations From Good to Great

During a recent Professional Speaking Association event Patricia Fripp, award-winning keynote speaker, business presentation expert, sales presentation skills trainer and in-demand speech coach, put presentations under the microscope and offered advice for how to make a good presentation great. Here is an overview of her top tips...

'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...