Blog

27Jan

For Confident Public Speaking, Be On Your Own Side

For confident public speaking, be on your own side   Confident public speaking or presenting can be challenging, to state the obvious! And sometimes you might make it even harder for yourself by getting in a bad loop of negative self-talk. It's harsh and critical, and easy to get fixated on bad past experiences. Which is entirely normal, by the way: your brain's wired to look for threats, and will try to warn you of anything coming up that might be 'dangerous' to your system. There are, however, ways to counteract this negative self-talk, without turning it into a fight. And without making...

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13Jan

Powerful Internal Questions to Influence Up

Some powerful internal questions to influence up, if you're nervous or threatened by hierarchy. Hierarchy challenges can rear up for a lot of people. Even when confident, that sense of "less than" can be a real issue. It can help a lot to reframe what you're aiming to achieve. Asking yourself powerful questions such as "How can I contribute here? How can I help these people with my information?" can make a difference. Or finding a way to generate a feeling of 'peer to peer' discussion by asking yourself - prior to the conversation or presentation - questions such as: "What will make this feel...

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13Jan

A Powerful Way to Increase Speaking Confidence

Hello! A video for you with transcript below about one powerful way to increase your confidence in speaking.     https://vimeo.com/sarahdenholm/powerful-way Transcript: Ok, we talk to ourselves all the time, don't we? And we have automatic thoughts, and some of those thoughts and questions that we might be asking ourselves all day long, are, variations on different categories such as reassuring ourselves about something: we might be giving ourselves advice about what to do next. We might be talking negatively to ourselves that we're not capable of doing something or this is not going well. And a 4th category, and one that I particularly...

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09Dec

To persuade, check your tone

To persuade, check your 'tone'. How often do you focus on your tone of voice when you're trying to persuade? One of the issues that can turn people off without you even being aware of it, is speaking in a tone that sounds pessimistic or resigned. Thinking of it as a tone 'scale': Resignation and pessimism on one end, versus enthusiasm and energy on the other - where do you usually sit on that scale? It's easy to be concerned about appearing pushy, "too much" or even cheesy! And we certainly need to be aware of all of those things. But in an effort to...

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09Dec

Confidence, perfectionism and making mistakes

On confidence, perfectionism and making mistakes I've been thinking a lot about mistakes this week; two clients in very different situations have talked about their fear of making a mistake when they speak. How do you feel about mistakes? When I was a classical pianist, they were something I certainly had to contend with! If you have a tendency towards perfectionism, which has many tricky ways of showing up, this can manifest as an almost obsessive desire to avoid any kind of fumble or mistake. And it's a frighteningly constricted and tightrope-balancing act to enter a meeting or presentation space feeling this way. In my first profession as a...

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04Nov

Personal Story-telling Delivery Trap

Have you ever had the experience of a family member or friend who announces to you that they had this incredible dream last night? And it’s not always that incredible for you when they tell you all about it :) I've certainly experienced this as a listener - it's probably happened to most of us…and I’ve been the culprit myself in reverse! Where it goes wrong We get immersed in the details…second-guess ourselves aloud…and just as most dreams are random, speaking them aloud is usually pretty random too. People relating their dreams out loud can be similar to people telling a story in a presentation...

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07Oct

2 Things To Consume Before Public Speaking

We all know the importance of practising before we give a presentation or talk. But sometimes you may not be so aware that what we eat and drink can have a big impact on our performance too. So today I want to give you some tips into 2 things to consume before public speaking, and why they're so important. And if you skim this post and think you know these tips already: you might just find a couple of tweaks that can make even more of a difference. 1. Water Pretty obvious one, right? We need to stay hydrated to think clearly. And also...

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08Sep

Stories as Light, Web or Glue

Stories as light, web or glue. Do you use stories or case studies as part of your communication process to engage or influence an audience? If you do - and I hope that's the case - you probably know that there’s a lot of information out there about the best ways to create and deliver one effectively. So I want to keep today's concept simple: it's about using three specific lenses to categorise your stories. Doing this can help you to see them in new ways, and have more impact. Note: these story categories relate to working across sectors to effect systems change, and...

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05Aug

Do you Struggle with Too Much Content?

Do you struggle with too much content when you present? A presentation (a talk or speech also apply here) isn’t the best way to deliver a lot of content, it’s actually very inefficient. The brain isn't designed to take in a whole of information coming at it rapidly, as we know. Particularly nowadays! A good or great presentation or talk is about communicating something where you add value by showing up. You're enhancing and interpreting the information in your own voice and delivery style...and the audience needs you as interpreter. Otherwise why be there? Your audience needs space This is especially important if...

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22Jul

Key Piece of Speaking Advice: Be Yourself but Elevated

I had a photo shoot yesterday – look out for new images soon – and one part of the day's events was running a small group Q&A session while I was snapped “in action”. One client in the group asked me: “Sarah, if there’s one piece of advice you’d give to people wanting to improve their speaking skills, what would it be?” My answer: “Be yourself, but elevated.” “Being ourselves” is an ideal foundation - but is often simply not enough when we're speaking in front of a group. We need to elevate our natural state. Particularly when we're presenting virtually, where our persona...

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