Malcolm Gladwell in his book “What The Dog Saw” describes research where the results of a full 1 hour job interview are compared with the assessment of a group of people who just get to watch a video of the first 15 seconds of the same interview process. The first 15 seconds is generally the hand shake, the smile, eye …
The Importance of Gestures
Varying research reports that over 50% of our message and our ability to connect and communicate with an audience comes from our gestures and body language. I have been watching the regular reporting of the Queensland floods and have been shocked and shaken by the enormity of the disaster. I have also been watching with great interest the interviews that …
The Kings Speech
As a person who stutters, I really enjoyed the movie “The Kings Speech” It captures beautifully the emotions, the struggles and the embarrassment that a person who stutters goes through when they try and speak. The movie was very close to home for me and at the age of 8 a drama and elocution teacher did put marbles in my …
Remember the KIS principal (Keep It Simple)
Information overload, death by PowerPoint and over complicating things are common mistakes that speakers and presenters make. They bombard their audiences with information, statistics, and numerous PowerPoint slides and seem to have too many points which make it hard to find the core message. The most effective speakers and presenters use the KIS principle regularly. They limit their material to …
Immerse Yourself In Public Speaking
It is fair to say that if you stand on your feet and speak once in a blue moon, it is going to be very difficult to overcome any fears and become confident and effective as a presenter. The reality is the more that you do it, the easy it becomes. The more you speak, the less fear and anxiety …
The Rule of Recency and Primacy
As a public speaking trainer and coach two things that I always try to get people to remember are: Start Strong Finish Strong The first thing that you say (primacy) and the last thing that you say (recency) are 2 parts of your speech that are very likely to be remembered by an audience. So make use of them and …