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.
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...
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...
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...
Whether we like it or not, people are making judgements about us from the moment they first see us. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a great first impression. Therefore, when we are speaking in public it is crucial to think about the image we are presenting as this can have an effect on how the audience perceives us and receives our message...
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...
Pitching competitions are a great opportunity for companies to raise funding and support to grow their business, but in order to win you need to be able to stand out from the competition. Based on what I observed at a Scottish EDGE fund final, here is a list of dos and don’ts to help your next presentation or pitch stand out...
During the first 30-60 seconds of your presentation, your audience will decide whether they like you and are interested in listening to what you have to say. It’s a very short time to draw people in and it’s important to ensure that you don’t waste those first few precious moments to effectively engage them so here are 9 attention grabbing ways to open your presentation...
This week I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Neil Dorward who is known as The Legacy Man. He was the first full time civil funeral celebrant in Scotland, and has written and delivered over 2500 funerals in the past nine years. In this post he shares a bit about his work and some great tips for public speaking...
If you think about speakers who really connect and truly engage an audience, there’s a good chance it will be those who bring an authentic energy, enthusiasm and excitement to their presentations. These qualities are infectious and they enable speakers to bring their audience on a journey with them. But how do you inject energy into your presentation? Here are five ways to infuse your talk with a liveliness that will have your audience captivated...
