Navy Seals Teach Us About Public Speaking Fear
[Updated 2020.] As you’ll know if you’ve been around my work for a while, I used to suffer real anxiety around presenting to people (and music performance anxiety before that – it was a long road!). And when I work with clients on reducing public speaking fear, I use lots of different tools and techniques, depending […]
When your Negative Voice Gatecrashes your Presentation
Have you ever had the experience while presenting of looking out at the audience and seeing only a sea of blank faces? You look at them and immediately get discouraged; the negative self-talk kicks in: “John looks bored, this must be really bad” or “that woman’s just looked at her watch again…I’d better speed up!” […]
8 Reasons Why you Feel Anxious about Public Speaking
There are very real reasons why public speaking is so uncomfortable for most people, both because of how our brains are ‘wired’, and also in how we relate to the outer world. Today I’m going to share with you some of the reasons why we feel anxious about public speaking. Firstly, let’s look at what […]
Two Great Ways to Open your Talk, Especially if you’re Nervous
The opening of your presentation is often the part where you’re most nervous or self-conscious. You’re faced with pairs of eyes looking at you, the audience feels like it’s one big stare, and you’re not enjoying the sudden attention. What can you do to take some of the unwanted focus off yourself, and create an […]
Increase your Self-confidence in Public Speaking
Imagine that you’re looking for advice on how to increase your self-confidence in public speaking. You want to build self-worth in that part of your life, so you come to see me as a client. You tell me that you’re afraid of failure (aren’t most of us?); that your confidence fluctuates – or is totally […]
Which Music Can Make you Feel More Powerful Before you Present?
Updated October 2019 We all know that music can have a strong effect on our emotions (I’ve only ever met one person who claimed that music didn’t affect her at all). And there was a study done back in 2014 about which types of music can make you powerful before you present, and lead to […]
7 Ways NOT to Open your Presentation
The opening of your talk is crucial: your main goal is to capture your audience’s attention and show them why they should listen to you. It also sets the tone and direction of your presentation. This is often the time where you’re most edgy, and the audience is most focused on you, so you don’t […]
Should you Move About When you Present, or Not?
As presenters, people tend to fall into two opposing ‘choreography’ camps when they’re in front of a group – you may recognise yourself here: You stand stock-still (often hiding behind – even hanging onto – the lectern), barely twitching except to advance a slide Advantage: you feel better because you’re in a safe space (or safer […]
As a presenter, should you be interesting, or interested?
[Updated 2024] As a presenter or speaker, should you be interesting or interested? When I was younger I used to worry that I was never interesting enough; I was quite shy, and never one of the cool girls…and I used to fret that I had nothing special or exciting to say socially. Well one of […]
Why and Where to use Silence during your presentations
This topic is deceptively simple, but it’s such a crucial aid to your speaking success that it’s worth revisiting. After all, we’ve heard the basics before – but we don’t always remember to do them, right? Pauses Few presentations have enough of them – how do yours rate? Imagine that your presentation is like the ocean, each […]