It’s natural to be a little nervous when you start speaking but your nervous gestures can give the game away to your audience .   Here are  the most common and most distracting ones along with preventative  tips on how to reduce or eliminate them.

Dancing, rocking and pacing as you speak can all be very distracting for your audience. Awareness is the starting point so get some feedback on your stance and movement. [...]

7 Nervous gestures and how to tame them is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

The most asked question I get is “how can I overcome my fear of public speaking”. In this post I want to share my top tips for managing your anxiety and encourage you to add yours.

1) Breathe! I know this one sounds like a no brainer, but when we are nervous, our breathing gets shallow and rapid and we deprive ourselves of vital oxygen. Deliberately talking two or three slow deep breaths is a great way to relax. With each in [...]

Nine awesome techniques for managing presentation and public speaking nerves is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

In this post I want to share my top tips for managing your anxiety and encourage you to add yours

1) Breathe! I know this one sounds obvious but when we are nervous, our breathing gets shallow and rapid and we deprive ourselves of vital oxygen. Deliberately talking two or three slow deep breathes is a great way to relax. With each in breath imaging breathing in pure White, cleansing [...]

Nine awesome techniques for overcoming fear of public speaking is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

How often have you been irritated by a speakers random movements and mannerisms.   Typical ones that annoy me include rocking back and forward, restless pacing, clicking the button of a ball point pen, or playing with hair.

I used to have a bad habit of tugging at my shirt sleeves and also rubbing my nose (thankfully not at the same time!)   then one day, on a presentation skills course led by a fantastic guy called David Strachan, I found s simple [...]

Dealing with nervous gestures is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Due to popular demand I am running two special open workshops in April 2008

Personal Productivity Secrets Workshop -Friday 4th April 2008 Our time is finite but the demands upon it are not.   More and more people like you are suffering from too much work abnd too little time syndrome.   If allowed to continue this results in stress, ineffectiveness, poor work/life balance and burnout.

If you have had enough, book a place on this course for just £167 plus Vat and learn how [...]

It’s amazing the difference a day can make! is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

I’ve been training presentation and public speaking skills for more than ten years now and today I’d like to share one thing I learned which has had the biggest single impact on the results I get.   If you are curious to know what it it, then read on.

I still remember the first bit of feedback I got when I stood up to give a talk.   The giver, no doubt intending to be helpful told me that I had said “um” [...]

Discourage Critical Feedback If You Want To Improve Faster is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

A couple of night’s ago I attended my local Toastmasters club and one of the guest’s comments got me thinking….When people come to the club for the first time most are nervous and not a little afraid.

Standing up and speaking in front of a group of strangers can certainly be scary, at least in our own imagination. So where does that fear come from and what are we afraid of?

The Worst Thing That Could Happen To A Presenter is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Many reluctant presenters (and many experienced ones too!) make the simple mistake of placing all their attention on themselves as presenters. Effective communicators on the other hand do it differently…

When you are presenting to an audience, be it one person or a thousand, you must remember who the most important people are. Who are the protagonists in your story? Who is taking the action when the talking has finished? [...]

It’s The Audience Stupid! is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Fear of public speaking is the number one reason why people avoid having to stand up and speak in public. The good news is that this is a natural reaction and that it can be conquered and that nervous energy turned into a resource.

I have posted elsewhere on this site about this topic but on reviewing my posts I realised that I had omitted a few tips that I still use myself and recommend to others. I am to correct [...]

Control Your Nerves With Saliva! is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Last week I ran one of my open workshops in London and I had six fantastic participants and despite their professional experience and expertise, every one of them wanted to learn how to minimise their nerves. The fear of public speaking is a common and often paralysing condition.

As a departure from my usual session, I assigned them into pairs and asked them to share their worst fears relating to speaking in public.

Fear Of Public Speaking is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing