Do you ever find yourself struggling to hit a decent balance between all the activities and responsibilities you have on your plate and the energy you have to actually do all those things? Heavens knows I do, and I know plenty of others who do as well. The frustration we experience creeps into our language – we…
Is your speech plagued by umms, ahs, and other pointless filler words like “so, like, y’know,” etc? I’ve got a question from Tamara on this very common issue: Hi Lauren – I find myself saying “um” and “ah” a lot when I give a presentation, and I hate it! It’s distracting and makes me…
How much time should I spend on my presentations? This is the wrong question to ask. A better question to start with would be “What kind of presentation do I need to give? Is this a utility presentation, one I’ve give loads of time and am already familiar with? Or am I creating…
I have a secret for you: I don’t like flying. I don’t like the idea of being in a pressurized tube thousands of feet in the air, hurtling along at ungodly speeds. I don’t like being trapped in a confined space from which there is no escape. I don’t like turbulence. I really don’t…
When doing an activity that puts you in the spotlight, it seems a given that your personality will have a pretty significant factor in whether or not you enjoy it and how much effort it takes to succeed at it. When it comes to public speaking, most assume that extroverts are naturally more inclined…
I know you’ve been there – sitting in an audience listening to a speaker and wondering “Why am I listening to this and when is it going to end?” Such is the agony of sitting through a terrible speech. But what makes a speech terrible? This is something I get asked a lot. Differences…
The secret isn’t innate confidence. It isn’t a good slide deck, either. It’s not positive, pre-show affirmations. It’s not killer quotes, “life changing” stories, or hilarious content. It definitely isn’t picturing your audience in their underwear.* The above all play a part in great presentations (with the exception of the underwear visualization), but they…
I may love writing, but doing podcasts is a hell of a lot of fun! As I’m off visiting family this week, I’m casting my content line back a couple of months and bringing you a podcast interview I did with the amazing Alison Donaghey from Natural Born Speakers. We chatted about pretty much everything related…
I like to think that working out and public speaking go hand in hand. They are both tiring, they both demand a lot of effort, and speakers definitely benefit from being in good shape. Think about it: after you give a presentation, do you feel as fresh as a daisy or are you tired out? Do…
“Well, yes, the talk was rough. I needed all those notes, and I had to read from them because I thought of a much better thing to talk about at the last minute and changed the whole presentation. I didn’t have time to practice the new material.” No, no, no, no, NO! Naughty speaker!…
