feel more alive

I was prompted to write this post after one of my friends shared an experience whilst on a Skiing Holiday over the New Year Period. My friend, whom I happened to know is an aspiring speaker, posted the following comment on FaceBook “ “Managed to ski today. Turns out I feel more alive when I…

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Recently I heard pop star Jessie J interviewed on BBC Radio 4.  During the interview she talked about how the key to success was being fearless.  She then went on to define what that meant for her. She explained that fearlessness was the acceptance that , making mistakes, getting things wrong, or being criticised by others were just…

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The King's Speech

Can Public Speakers Learn from The King’s Speech? Every so often I watch a film that proves to be a fantastic source of learning and inspiration as well as entertainment. Recently I saw The King’s Speech and it really moved me. Afterwards, I started to wonder what it was that made it so powerful. The acting was…

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The most engaging presenters are those who are both knowledgeable and passionate about their content. We can tell that they are passionate because of things like their animation, energy, vocal variety, eye contact and enthusiasm. But what about when you have to present information that you are not passionate about?    Well in an ideal…

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A  recent comment to one of my earlier posts by Stephen Hendren prompted me to review some of the research on positivity and performance. Thanks to his post, I found a great video interview by Positivity researcher Barbara Fredrickson.  I thought you might like it so I have included it in this post.  Dr Fredrickson’s key message…

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When I ask the people who attend my workshops what is the difference that makes the difference between and average speaker and a great speaker they often come up “presence”. When I go on to ask them to be a bit more specific about what they mean by presence, they tend to struggle. So what…

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manns face showing happy and sad expressions - emotion in presentations

Why is it that so many business presentations are dry, dull and ineffective? Well, it could be the presenter’s delivery style, or it could be the tedious and wordy powerpoint slides they insist on using, but I think there is an even more dangerous principle at work here. I think that most business presenters think…

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This video clip serves four purposes for students of presentation and public speaking skills: It demonstrates the value of a clearly structured message It shows how things like eye contact, body language and vocal variety engage the audience It shows how simple visual aids with well chosen images add to the presentation It contains a…

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