Do you struggle to find time to practice your speech with your packed schedule? The idea of grinding through your speech over and over for 30, 60, or 90 minutes at a stretch can make anyone turn into a master procrastinator. Practice is absolutely essential for delivering a good talk, but you don’t need to…
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…
Confidence is a subject I get asked about a lot. I’m currently working on a mini-book about that very topic – this blog post is an excerpt from the book draft. Nearly everybody I work with believes that confidence is something other people have and they do not. When they try to define confidence,…
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…
I’ll admit, at the moment my head is less full of the practices, theories, and philosophies of public speaking and more focused on the giant pile of presents I have yet to wrap. . So instead of my usual post, I’m leveling a challenge your way. . Yes, it’s time for you to take some…
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…
Have you heard the advice that you should only picture a positive outcome for your talk? That you should only visualize a successful speech in which everything goes according to plan, you breeze through your material, and the audience is lavish in their praise and applause? I have. I’ve heard this bit of advice come…
Yes, you sound different when you speak than when you write. The carefully massaged sentence, paragraph, or turn of phrase is unlikely to come out of your mouth in the same way that it reads on paper. Writing, reading, and unscripted speaking are all different mental processes. You can create a consistency between your spoken…
One of the most wonderful, beautiful things about live performance is the fact that there are no do-overs. Sure, you rehearsed and practised and polished and made sure that every ‘i’ was dotted and ‘t’ crossed. When it comes down to it, though, that particular performance in front of that particular audience is a one…
