(The three people described below are each composites of a number of clients who have come through my public speaking programs and services.) Jane was bright, experienced, and the only female on her work team. Frustrated, she felt that nothing she said at team meetings was taken seriously and her participation was frequently discounted or More…
Tag: delivering a speech
The first ingredient of rapport is full attention
I was listening to an interview today with Daniel Goleman, who, having previously introduced the concept of Emotional Intelligence, is now talking about Social Intelligence. His current work is looking at how the brain is wired to create connection. The sentence that drew me into the interview today was, “The first ingredient of rapport is More…
Authentic presence… What is it really?
After having had the pleasure of being in the presence of a number of “masters” in the last couple of weeks, I’m deeply immersed in this inquiry. What is authentic presence really? Here are some examples of presence that I’ve experience: I attended a facilitated gathering of folks recently where the lead person demonstrated a More…
Can’t remember what you’d planned to say?
Has this ever happened to you? You have an important presentation and you’ve done all your preparation. You don’t want to memorize the talk, but you also want to have a clear sense of what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. The morning of the talk you practice More…
Lessons from a lint filter, water bottle and electric toothbrush
Somehow, as much as I’m trying to slow down and simplify my life, I always seem to be in a hurry. Every time I do my laundry I’m reminded that hurrying through my tasks isn’t the most efficient way to get things done. I always seem to want to quickly empty the lint filter in More…
Openings… The biggest stumbling block
“The first few moments of a presentation always terrify me.” “I know my subject really well and know what I want to say, I just don’t know how to get started.” “If the first few minutes go well, then I relax for the rest of the talk.” Statements like these are almost universal. It seems More…
“What do I do with my hands when I speak?”
I was having an important conversation with my daughter this week when I became very aware that I was not connecting at all with her. We were standing by a car and I couldn’t find a relaxed, comfortable position. So instead of really listening to what she was saying, I was focused on where I More…
Self-consciousness vs. Presence
In response to David’s comment to my last post about fear arising not at the beginning of a talk but rather 3 or 4 minutes into the talk, I thought I’d share the first article in a 26 week article series I’ve written entitled The ABCs of Presence in Speaking, Leading, and Life! This first More…
Fear of the first few minutes in public speaking
I swim for exercise. I swim in pools that are kept relatively cool so that lap swimmers don’t overheat when they work up a “sweat”. This means that it’s always hard to get into the pool at the beginning of my swim. Once I’ve been in the water for even one lap, the chill wears More…
The “less is more” approach to public speaking
I am moving! My new home is about one quarter the size of my current home. This is a conscious choice for me as I have begun to realize that the only way we can truly impact our ever growing environmental crisis is to make a much smaller footprint on the planet. And, I have More…