Racing heart. Dry mouth. Sweaty palms. Wobbly voice. Red face. Foggy brain. And a general inability to breathe properly. Few of us haven’t felt at least one of these when we’ve stood (or sat) up to speak in an important meeting. While I can’t claim to stop you from ever experiencing any of these side
Presenting
Presentations: why we need to feel the fear and do it anyway
22 Apr / by: Lorraine Forrest-Turner / 0 comments /
You’ve interrogated the brief, developed the strategy and created a stonking proposal. How do you ensure you don’t blow everything by delivering the world’s dullest pitch presentation? While you’re unlikely to win new business with a poor proposal, you’re very likely to lose it with a poor presentation. So before you go in with your
The ‘m’ word – why we um and what we can do to stop it
20 May / by: Lorraine Forrest-Turner / 5 comments /Do your carefully-considered words trip perfectly from your mouth like golden honey from a warm spoon? Or do you punctuate every new thought with a long drawn out um, er or uh? While linguists agree that everyone uses fillers in speech, there are different views on who uses what – and whether they help or
If you’re a fan of the US TV show ‘Lie to me’, love the observations of Sherlock and can generally suss out pretty rapidly who to avoid at parties, you’re probably into non-verbal communication, or body language. But is there any truth to it? Is ‘reading’ eye contact, facial expressions and gesturing as reliable as
Presenting? Then stand up for what you believe in.
26 Aug / by: Lorraine Forrest-Turner / 0 comments /I’d like to think that I’m relatively open-minded and willing to embrace change in business (you can feel a ‘but’ coming on, can’t you?) but there is one old rule I refuse to bend on – I insist on standing up when presenting. Sitting down might feel more comfortable but effective presenting isn’t about feeling
