What To Do With Your Hands

Many speakers and presenters are not sure what to do with their hands when they are not gesturing. Sure you need to move your hands effectively and have an expansive gestural vocabulary, but what do you do when you are not gesturing, those quiet times, those times when the audience is speaking or asking questions. There are 3 recommended resting …

Better Presentations

Three Tips For Better Presentations

Enclosed is an article from this months Management Today. The tips closely echo what I teach, so it is always nice to know that someone else agrees with you. Enjoy, Peter

start public speaking

Never Too Young To Start Public Speaking

I love TED talks and you can find so many inspirational and unusual stories there. If the story is great and is told with authenticity, humility and genuineness, then you will have impact. I love this 13 year old Kenyan boys short inspiring presentation. Enjoy!

connections and building relationships

The Importance Of Connection And Building Relationships

I have often written about the importance of connecting with your audience and building trust and rapport. This is because when you present and speak and train you are really educating people with your information and knowledge. And people more readily learn from people they know like and trust. I love the Harvard Business Review quote that goes something like …

Gesture

The Smart Way To Gesture and Six Wrong Ways To Make A First Impression

Michael Grinder is one of the worlds foremost experts on non verbal communication and gesturing. He talks about the intelligent way of gesturing and that is around making your gesture as you speak, and then when you pause, to breath, to gather your thoughts or to create suspense, you freeze your gesture. So as you are talking, make your gesture, …

deal with hecklers

How To Deal With Hecklers

When speaking to audiences, dealing with hecklers is always a concern. This is especially the case if you are delivering bad news or talking about something unpopular or contentious. Two ways you can simply deal with hecklers are to one; acknowledge their point of view and right to speak and two; use humour to defuse the situation. And self deprecating …