I met Diana in Autumn 2018 when she organised the winter 2018 Moscow Toastmasters conference. She later moved to London and served as conference director for the Toastmasters District 91 spring conference. There, she spearheaded the transition from a world-class in person event to a world-class online event. Last year she launched Skillsme Academy and I recently … Read more
You’ve perhaps been asked to “say a few words” and deliver a short speech at very short notice, and with only a limited amount of time to prepare. This will be especially the case if you are in a position of responsibility or a leadership position. In my leadership journey, this happened so many times … Read more
Once upon a time, when I was a child in primary school, I distinctly remember our teacher telling us – “Your notes must be neat, tidy and most importantly, understandable to anyone visiting the school that may want to look at them.’ This sentence stayed with me ever since and often comes back to my … Read more
I am delighted to be presenting a webinar for the Nuclear Institute tomorrow entitled ‘Speaking with Impact’. It is always a pleasure for me to do anything relating to the industry where I learnt a lot about leadership and made some cool memories like walking atop working Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors. Here is why you should … Read more
How does your speech title impact how others perceive your speech? Your speech title matters more than you think and can impact how your audience perceives your speech, even before you’ve said a single word. The broken promise I sat through a public speaking competition a few days ago and one of the speech titles … Read more
This post is part of a series of posts aimed at PMO professionals ahead of my keynote Public Speaking Demystified at the Future PMO Conference on October 17th in Hammersmith. In earlier blog posts in this series, we covered the importance of basing your presentation around a single idea and additionally why you should be clear on what … Read more
This post is part of a series of posts aimed at PMO professionals ahead of my keynote Public Speaking Demystified at the Future PMO Conference on October 17th in Hammersmith. In an earlier post in this series, I mentioned the importance of having a foundational idea behind every speech or presentation. While having a clear and well-structured idea … Read more
JFK’s speech delivered in 1962 at Rice University in favour of the Apollo programme. Is in my opinion one of the best political speeches of the 20th century. There is a lot that can be learnt from this speech. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, this speech is a very good example of … Read more
Standing out as a memorable speaker and clear presenter can open new doors to you, and help you establish credibility as a leader in your field. A very effective way to stand out while you speak is to have a clear sense of purpose. Here are a few tips to help you when you next … Read more
When I started my public speaking journey. I had an image in my mind of what a great public speaker was. To me, a great public speaker was somebody using bombastic body language when speaking in front of an audience. Somebody, using rhymes and rhetorical devices to bring the richness of a subject to life. … Read more