Dipping your toes

Tactics

There are two ways of dealing with a fear: either by plunging in whole-body or dipping in your toes and gradually getting in deeper. One way isn’t better than the other, and neither method is going to apply to one person all of the time. That being said, I find that when it comes to…

Talking to strangers

Confidence, Connecting

Much like any other skill, we need to practice talking to be good at it. You don’t need to sweat buckets over complex presentations or formal speeches to become a good talker.  You just need to talk with people.  Lots of people.  Different people.  I know some great presenters who are surprisingly poor at just talking with…

Things don’t always go according to plan

Shipping

Actually, things rarely go according to plan. Take today, for instance.  Take this very post. I had planned to re-launch my blog today after months of inactivity.  I had temporarily suspended active posting while I re-vamped my website and created a raft of new content ready for regular publication.  Planning, writing, designing, building – for a…

So you are not outspoken…

Confidence

There are people who come to me for help because they love speaking and want to get better at it. There are people who come to me for help because they are terrified of speaking, because they are desperately uncomfortable being heard and raising their voice, or because their shyness has started to get in…

Don’t say sorry

Confidence2 Comments

“Sorry” is quite possibly one of the most pernicious words I hear in regular conversation. When used in its truest sense, a sincere sorry is lovely – both strong and vulnerable in the way in admits and accepts responsibility, or empathetic in the way it expresses understanding. These uses, however, are heard with woeful infrequency.…

Lost the groove

Creating

It is remarkably easy to get out of a solid groove.  The groove you lost may have been one centred around a good habit you had, or one for a skill you built up and were maintaining.  Either way, we can break out of these with surprising rapidity, losing the characteristic we worked so hard…

Conference Terror part 1: Permission

Presenting

Note: I haven’t decided how many instalments of this topic I’m going to do, but I do know that there’s a part 2 and 3 on the way… Finding a venue to broadcast your message is easy; what’s scary is actually doing it.  There are lots of ways you can practice speaking in front of groups or…

Communicating Intimately #2: The Experience

Connecting

The funny thing about establishing intimacy with an audience is that it doesn’t necessarily matter whether you, the speaker, feel that an intimate moment has been shared.  Like just about any desired emotion, what really matters is that your audience feels it.  They, quite frankly, don’t give a damn about what’s going on in your own…

The bandwagon of uncertainty

Funny Stuff

You know, like, totally whatever? That aggravating upwards lilt of the voice makes you sound like an non-confident teen girl.  I will be merciless when it comes to stripping you of that most wretches of speaking habits! I will also make you watch Taylor Mali’s brilliant freestyle poetry on that very topic. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGAMd-tT6fQ&w=420&h=315] Y’know.