How to use your talks to get more clients (and not feel like vomiting)
This is NOT a video about how much money you’re leaving on the table (yucky marketing talk) if you don’t use your talks to sell. This IS a video about how many more people you can help with all the goodness you have to offer, if you can find a way to speak that feels natural and comfortable for you and your audiences. This applies to EVERYONE who speaks, by the way, even if you think you’re not trying to sell anything (you’re wrong). Oh, and this is also a video about one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made that guarantees I lose power and connection with my audiences. I bet you do this too.
How to make your audiences care (and get results)
One of the big problems I see for so many speakers is they don’t know how to make their audiences care about what they’re saying. If they organise the speaking event themselves, they go to enormous effort to get bums on seats. They carefully craft their signature talk, do all the marketing – usually for weeks and weeks, and then, when it comes to the speaking part, they deliver their talk in such a way that it doesn’t pack a punch, build trust, or get new clients.
How to shift from fear to power as a speaker
I can’t tell you how many clients say this to me: “Could you please help me get rid of my nerves/stress/fear/anxiety about public speaking.” As someone who quit piano lessons as a kid because I was so terrified by performing at the once-a-year recital, and who never dared to put up her hand at school to answer a question in case I got it wrong and made a fool of myself, I understand the pain. I have a solution to help you move past fear. Yes, a solution. It really does work.
Take your time (or why introverts can be the most powerful speakers)
We’re sitting around a boardroom table. I’m at the head, with two women either side of me. They’ve been nominated for a prestigious award, and I’m helping them prepare for the inevitable media interviews coming the way of the winner. Two have fronted up to the media before. They love talking. A lot.
The other two haven’t. One is the quietest in the room. She tells us she’s been identified as an “Accepting Introvert” (I hadn’t heard of that term, but I knew exactly what it meant, especially in relation to her).
30 things nobody tells you about powerful speaking
There’s all sorts of advice in books, online, and being espoused in public speaking courses everywhere about what you absolutely must know to stand up on a stage and own it. I’ve been speaking publicly since I first sat behind the microphone at 5AD, the radio station that offered me my first journalist and newsreader gig at the ripe old age of 20. I want to share with you what I’ve learned during my 25 years in the game so you can focus on what’s genuinely necessary to become a truly powerful speaker, and ditch everything else.
What you don’t want to talk about (and why powerful speakers do)
The most powerful speakers understand that strength without vulnerability depletes their power. They also get that vulnerability is a strength. So they do what it takes to stay connected with their truth and they speak it. And they keep speaking, holding firm to the message that matters to them, regardless of other people’s opinions, judgements or agendas. Because the message is too important to buy into that. Far out, that message is no less than what gives them their sense of purpose on this planet.
How to share your message (and wisdom!) to make a difference
Depending on where you choose to place your attention, it’s highly likely you’re consuming too much junk food (and I don’t mean via the drive thru of your local Maccas). We’re fed a stodgy diet of fear-filled messages amidst rants and raves in the daily news and on social media. Messages that scream life is […]
Public speaking confidence: lessons from a kid who gets it
My daughter loves singing.
This year she joined the Australian Girls Choir. She was asked to audition for a solo in the Winter Showcase Concert, and was awarded a part. At the weekend, in front of more than 800 people, she stood out the front, microphone in hand, and sang her heart out.
Ten ways to be an inspiring leader
We live in a world where people who tell personal stories on stage are revered, anyone can be seen and heard more than ever before, and expressing vulnerability is the new black. Not at work though. And the gap is rapidly widening. If the keys to success as a leader for our times include connectedness, […]
How to connect to make a difference
Once upon a time there was a world where people weren’t inspired by their leaders. Conversations about what was really happening were rare. Boring presentations fell on deaf ears. Little changed. Differences weren’t made. And people longed, deep down, to be inspired, engaged and be part of something that truly mattered. In that world, no-one […]
