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...

Why Other People Are the Key to Your Success

Why Other People Are the Key to Your Success

Jim Rohn is quoted as saying, ‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.' If you want to change your situation, you need to change the people you spend time with. Here's how being in a mastermind group will contribute to your success...

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's Your Theme For 2015?

What's Your Theme For 2015?

We are already more than three weeks into the new year and there has been a lot of talk about new year resolutions. But I wonder whether you are sticking to your resolutions? Have you already broken them or at least some of them? Often we set too many or make them completely unrealistic so that it is impossible to stick to them. Here's an alternative...

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...

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...

What to Wear When Presenting

What to Wear When Presenting

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...