Do you ever bet on the horses? I don’t, as a rule, but I have been to the races a couple of times and, in my complete ignorance about anything at all to do with horse racing, I do what loads of us do: I choose based on the name! I pick a name that stands out, or one...

Lots of people struggle with confidence. The minute we enter “Presentation Mode”, we feel awkward and self-conscious. We become incapable of natural movement and feel constricted, getting stuck in a cycle of public speaking fear. Authenticity really matters: true...

As a public speaking coach, I work a lot with clients who want to learn how to create and deliver a brilliant presentation; or to nail their next interview; or confidently deliver a best man’s speech. But I also get a approached by people who want to improve their...

I’m in to insightful, outcome-based, bespoke training – I take time to understand your challenges before creating a programme just for you. But there’s no denying there are some fundamental rules that we would all benefit from remembering the next time we get up and...

I recently worked with a lovely client called Amanda, who is a health data analyst. Her presentations were all about, well…data. How to capture it, and what to do with it. Presentations about data – about numbers, statistics, and graphs – have the potential to be...

You can prepare and rehearse your presentation as much as you like, but I know people still get a bit scared of that bit at the end when you’re expected to take questions from the floor. It’s worth exploring why you feel like that. Often, it’s because we can’t...

If you do an internet search of “modes of communication” or something similar, you’ll see lots of information about different presentation styles.  You might identify yourself as a “passive-aggressive” communicator; or maybe your style is ”ideas oriented”; perhaps...

Although we’re going back to the office, a lot of our communication will still be done via video conferencing. So, knowing how to make a good impression in the online world is as important as for face-to-face meetings. We’re all so used to video calls that we may be...

Research shows that we form an opinion on someone within 7 seconds of meeting them. This quick judgement is what we’re programmed to do – it doesn’t make us bad people, we just inherently need to decide quickly whether someone is friend or threat. Whatever that first...

PowerPoint is a funny old thing. We seem to love it and hate it in equal measure. Our heart sinks when the presenter opens their first slide, and yet, the first thing we do when we have to start writing our own presentation…yep, we go straight to PowerPoint. But the...

Since publishing my recent blog, “But what do I do with my hands”, I’ve been asked for advice about eye contact. A lot of us struggle with this in day to day communication, let alone when standing up and talking to people in a professional capacity. But eye contact is...

This is one of the most common questions I’m asked. Many of us use our hands when we’re talking, but the minute we enter “presentation mode” we seem to shut down this part of our communication. We feel uncomfortable and unnatural, and our arms become these useless...