How Mastering Discomfort Can Set You Free to Speak in Public
Speaking in public is confronting for most people. It can bring up all sorts of uncomfortable emotions and physical symptoms, which of course you’d rather avoid. But if what you want to achieve is outside your comfort zone, then inevitably there will be discomfort – or outright fear – in getting there: “Discomfort brings engagement […]
5 Excuses Which Stop you Getting Help
[Updated 2020] Are you letting your fears about speaking in public stop you from getting the help you need to improve your speaking skills? Change is hard, as we all know. We’re designed to avoid doing anything which frightens us, hard-wired this way to ensure our survival. You can overcome speaking fear…the hardest part is just starting. My […]
How to Build Confidence When Public Speaking and Presenting
What do you believe about building confidence around your speaking skills? Here is what I’ve found to be true: confidence is simply the expectation of a positive outcome. There are all sorts of possible definitions of confidence, but I like this one; it’s clear, and boiled down to its essence. So how, you may be asking, […]
Mind-trick That Can Help With Public Speaking Fear
Here’s a mind-trick for public speaking fear that many of my clients have found very useful. Imagine that you’ve just given a talk and it’s gone well. You’re now successfully on the other side of it, and have just been congratulated by your boss…or you phone your friend and tell them that it went well. […]
Need to motivate yourself? What’s better, self-esteem or self-compassion?
Trying to rev yourself up to improve your speaking skills? There has been some interesting research done recently into what helps you to feel better about yourself: self-esteem or self-compassion? Psychological studies are finding that self-compassion – being kind to yourself – is more effective than high self-esteem when it comes to helping people to […]
How to Positively Change Your Expectations for Speaking Success
In my last post I talked about how the expectations you set for yourself around your public speaking can really influence whether or not you achieve the results you’re after: the article is here if you missed it. And I suggested that according to the latest brain research – and what I’ve seen work for […]
Public Speaking Like Facing a Firing Squad? One Client’s Belief
What would you answer, if I asked you to complete this statement: “speaking in public is like____________________”? A new client, let’s call her Alice, was telling me recently that when she first entered her (particularly male-dominated) area of academia 30 years ago, giving a presentation was known amongst her peers as “facing the firing squad”. […]
Creating a New Speech: 7 Tips To Get You Started
Do you have to write your own speeches or talks? Ever struggled to get going? I used to spend far too long getting a first draft out of my head (weeks, months anyone?) until I learned these tips: Mind mapping is a great way to begin generating content; it’s a method which uses the brain’s natural tendency […]
Introvert? 4 Ways to Blast Through your Resistance to Presenting in Public
If you’re an introvert, you may struggle to speak in public and plan to avoid it whenever you can; getting up in front of a group can seem like an insurmountable hurdle if you tend to avoid the spotlight. Yet you may need or want to present well; you have ideas to share, and it […]
Is Presenting a Conversation or a Performance?
What’s your take on presenting: conversation or performance? Let me tell you about an experience I had recently. I went to a networking breakfast in the city, on a dark, wintry Monday morning: it was hard to get out of bed, but I was looking forward to the event because I enjoy meeting new people, and the […]