• Energy
• clarity and
• humanity.

Energy, in that we all need lightly more energy than we think we do need.

Clarity, that’s clarity of thought, clarity of message, clarity of delivery. So that the listener will understand and remember what you’ve said.

And thirdly, humanity. In a world where electronic communication has almost entirely taken over, the fact that you are one human being who has been bothered to turn up and reach out to another human being gives you an immediate head start. People respond to people. We all want to feel engaged and valued. Humanity is vital.

Public Speaking Training can help you 

If you want some expert coaching to help you enhance your public speaking skills then Skillstudio are there to help. We provide:-

Public Speaking for Beginners
A 1-day public workshop for absolute beginners to presenting and public speaking held in Central London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh & Glasgow.

Effective Public Speaking
This 2-day Public intermediate level workshop is held regularly in Central London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Advanced Public Speaking
This 2-day Public course is held regularly in Central London.

We can also run our public speaking courses for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe. We also offer 1-2-1 coaching in all aspects of public speaking throughout the UK.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

The magnetic power of great public speaking

If you think of all the great speakers you’ve ever seen, either live or on television, they will have had these three essential qualities, energy, clarity and humanity.

Together with good vocal delivery, positive body language and good structure to their speeches, we find it impossible not to listen to these speakers and we remember what they’ve said.

These are qualities that we all have inside us – we are born with them. But as we grow up we are often told to hide our emotions, this happens to children as young as playground age, and by doing this we cut off one of the most powerful communications tools we have.

How do you become charismatic?

If we can feel comfortable in showing our humanity and our passion, we too can become powerful, charismatic speakers.

How do we learn to use these essential qualities as we get to our feet and present to a group?

Here are some useful tips that can make an immediate difference and double your impact:

Try to lift the energy of the room an extra 10% as you enter – feel like you’re literally lighting the up the room.

Give yourself status – and give your audience the same status that you’ve given yourself. If you do this, you won’t come across as nervous or condescending.

When you first open your mouth, speak as if on a ‘bubble’ of energy.

Keep body language open and relaxed.

Be yourself.

Say Hello – and wait to get a response!

Take a good look at your audience carefully – How are they today? Do they really want to be there? Are they tired, hot, bored?

Keep eye contact with your audience as you speak.

Treat each audience member as an individual – as if you are talking specifically just to them. Try to speak to one person specifically for each point you make. They will feel ‘special’ and the others will feel you are being specific in what you say.

Constantly check to see if your audience are still interested and listening attentively. Monitor their reactions – it will tell you how you’re doing.

Have a conversation with them – like you’re telling some good news to a friend.

Really connect with them – or you might as well have just sent them a video or shown them a PowerPoint presentation.

Be more expressive than you think. Use imagery as you speak. We are more likely to remember and be motivated by hearing that your company’s annual results are ‘like a beautiful sunrise – a perfect circle of hope’, rather than just being told the results are better than expected. If you say that the washing machine that you’re selling is ‘the Rolls Royce of washing machines’, it has more impact on the brain and memory than just saying ‘it’s the market leader’.

Mean what you say, speak with passion – enthusiasm is infectious.

Don’t panic if you feel nervous – some nerves are good – as long as they don’t overwhelm you, they can up the ‘excitement’ factor.

Be slower than you think, nerves tend to make us speak faster. Even if you think you are too slow, it will probably feel like fast-forward to the audience! Normal conversations are 125-140 words a minute – for larger groups and bigger halls, aim for 70 words a minute.

And always remember, your audience WANT you to be good – they don’t want to be bored, they want to be entertained, challenged and energised!

Finally, always end confidently – as if you’ve been the most FANTASTIC speaker, however badly you think you might have done because:

(a) you might not be the best judge of your performance and

(b) by ending confidently, you might fool some people into thinking you were better than you were anyway!

About the author of this public speaking article

This article was written by Robin, one of Skillstudio’s consultant trainers. 

Robin is based in London, is an excellent trainer; and runs many of our public speaking training sessions (from 1-2-1 coaching through to Masterclasses).  

You can read his training bio here. 
 

Public speaking coaching

For most people, becoming more successful at public speaking is a relatively slow and painful process with many never really achieving their true potential.

But it doesn’t have to be like that.  

You can quickly develop these skills with Skillstudio through expert coaching and practice.  And by enhancing your public speaking skills you will be able to develop a much stronger influence on your audiences and reap the business success that goes with that.

To get some coaching in public speaking, click on one of the links below:-

Public Speaking Coaching  - 121 coaching
Public Speaking Courses – Open to members of the public
Public Speaking for Business - In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

How to become a powerful charismatic public speaker is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

By shaking their hand or standing in a particular way, we might trigger off old memories in the person we are trying to impress. Maybe an old friend stood exactly like that, in which case our advances might be treated sympathetically. But if we stand like the back-stabbing colleague who has treated them badly, our advances are likely to be treated as hostile.

So there are two reasons why body language is helpful.

Firstly, to understand how we come across to other people and be able to send the right message – “Trust me, I’m not out to get you!”

And secondly be able to read the signals that another person is sending back.

By adjusting the way we stand, move, dress and interact we can make encounters with other human beings (and probably most animals too!) much easier and smoother.

So, what exactly is Body Language?

Body Language is all the non-verbal communication we make – both conscious and unconscious.

HOW WE JUDGE OTHER PEOPLE AND HOW THEY JUDGE US:

A huge part of our judgements of other people and their judgements on us are VISUAL. Studies have suggested over 50% of these judgements are VISUAL.

How do we stand? How aggressive or non-threatening are our gestures? How do our eyes, skin, hair, clothes and shoes look? Do we look happy or sad, clean or untidy, confident or nervous, tired or awake?

Another large part of these judgements will be made by listening to someone’s VOICE – the resonance, timbre, volume, pitch and pacing.

Just how important is it?

And some studies suggest that only 7% of our judgements are based on WHAT WE ACTUALLY SAY! To be fair these studies were usually taken when the body language was not CONGRUENT (that means where the body was giving signals that were disagreeing with what was being said).

The actual figures can be disputed but there is no doubt that a huge part of an audience’s judgement is VISUAL and VOCAL.

People spend hours honing a script for their speech, choosing exactly the right words – and of course that is highly important – but, it must be worth also paying close attention to the VISUAL and VOCAL judgements that audiences are making of you every time you stand up to speak!

Different types of body language

There are basically five types of body language. You will probably be able to recognise the more obvious signs:

CLOSED – AGGRESSIVE body language

• Hands on hips
• Legs too wife – too macho
• Invading personal space – too close
• Aggressive gesturing – finger pointing
• Standing ‘over’ someone
• Over firm handshake
• ‘Eye balling’ – out staring

CLOSED – DEFENSIVE body language

• Crossed arms or legs
• Hunched shoulders
• Poor eye contact
• Leaning away
• Tight voice

CLOSED – NERVOUS body language

• Nail biting
• Dry throat – swallowing / coughing
• Blushing – face/neck/chest
• Weak handshake
• Avoiding eye contact

CLOSED – BORED body language

• Looking around the room
• Looking at watch
• Drumming fingers
• Yawning
• Shifting weight
• Rubbing face

OPEN – INTERESTED body language

• Firm handshake
• Good eye contact
• On the same level
• Confident stance
• Confident gestures – chosen gestures
• Showing interest – head nod / slight lean in

And from personal experience

We all know that we ‘close off ‘ in a lift to feel safer as our personal space is invaded. We look up or down and cross our arms. This is an obvious case of ‘closed’ body language. It might be appropriate in a lift but in most other situations, it will ‘close’ the other person down. They will not respond to our advances. So learning to give ‘open’ signals will literally ‘open’ people up to our ideas and advances.

Most of us know the well-recognised ‘closed’ or ‘aggressive;’ signals, but we give off far more subtle signals all the time that we might not even be aware of.

Getting is right

Your body has to be in CONGRUENCE – that means we’re giving off signals that are in tune with what we are saying.

If you say, “This has been a terrible month.” We would probably take it on face value (literally what your face is saying) and be downcast.

But if you said, “This has been a terrible month” followed immediately with a smile and a wink of your eye, we will assume it has actually been a great month.

A smile needs to fill the whole face. If you say you’re happy but your eyes are cold – even though your mouth is smiling – we will believe the eyes.

If you nod when saying yes or shake your head when saying YES, we believe what the head is doing, no the words you have used.

Seeing is believing

We always believe what we see far more that what we hear.

In the 1960 TV debate between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon, both candidates answered well. But on a poll conducted the next day, there were completely different results between TV and radio audiences – between those who had seen and heard and those who had only heard.

Listeners on radio were convinced Nixon had won the debate, his arguments were clear. And viewers on TV were convinced Kennedy had won, he came across as likeable and believable. This was despite the fact that Nixon’s arguments were probably clearer. People believed Kennedy more – they bought into his body language and the signals he gave of. They didn’t trust Nixon from the body language he was using.

Influencing other people:

We can learn be aware of how we come across and the signals we give. We can even influence the behaviour of other people by gently MIRRORING back their body language.

You will have seen couples who are newly in love literally mirroring everything the other does. If one reaches for their wine glass, the other will follow. If one touches their chin, the other will. It’s a sign that they’re getting on – that they are quite literally, in sync.

You can change your body language

You can change your body language to show empathy and to influence someone by slowing down your movements or taking away any unintended aggressive body language of your own.

You can learn to relax, calm and excite other people purely by the way you hold yourself, the way you move and the way you interact.

Working with a coach can be really helpful -the coach is a mirror, feeding back how the world ‘sees’ you.

Finally, learning about body language is not all hard work.

Remember, it takes 42 muscles to frown but only 17 to smile!

Try it – it works!

About the author of this body language article

This article was written by Robin, one of Skillstudio’s consultant trainers.

Robin is based in London, is an excellent trainer; and runs many of our body language and public speaking training sessions (from 1-2-1 coaching through to Masterclasses).

You can read his training bio here.

Body Langauage Training

If you’d like Robin or one of Skillstudio’s other trainers to help you become more aware of how your body language can affect the messages you are trying to convey, please get in touch.

We will help you to take control and have more influence with your own body language.  We’ll also provide you with an insight into how to read and respond to the signals being sent out by the very people you are communicating, negotiating or simply living with.

Body Language Awareness Workshops
These 1-day public courses are held in Central London.  These workshops can also be tailored and run on an in-house basis for your organisation throughout the UK and Europe.

Communication Skills Workshops
Our 1-day communication skills workshops also include an element of body language awareness.  Both public courses and in-house workshops are available.

Interpersonal Communication Skills 1-2-1 Coaching
Our 1-2-1 coaching sessions take place throughout the UK and are tailored to your specific requirements and are normally of either a half day or full day’s duration.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, job interview skills, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

Why is Body Language important? is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

But there are many factors that increase our feelings of nervousness when public speaking.

There are two broad types: 

Internal – that is how we personally respond; and 

External factors – things we feel are outside our control.

Public Speaking Training can help you overcome your fear

If you want some expert coaching to help you overcome your fear and enhance your public speaking skills then Skillstudio are there to help. We provide:-

Overcome Fear of Public Speaking
A 1-day public workshop for absolute beginners to presenting and public speaking held in Central London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh & Glasgow.

Effective Public Speaking
This 2-day Public intermediate level workshop is held regularly in Central London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Advanced Public Speaking
This 2-day Public course is held regularly in Central London.

We can also run our public speaking courses for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe. We also offer 1-2-1 coaching in all aspects of public speaking throughout the UK.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you or your team.

External Fears of public speaking

The most common external ones are:

• Importance of the stakes involved (career/status)
• The size and composition of the audience
• The venue – Is it the well-known Board Room or the unknown Conference Centre
• The time of day – some people are better in the morning and some in the evening
• Your personal state of emotional wellbeing – recent personal events may have taken their toll (relationship break-ups/bereavement) or made you feel great (falling in love/getting a promotion)
• Your recent performance when speaking – 3 good ones in a row or 3 disasters?

Internal fears when speaking in public

On top of these external factors are four common internal fears or worries:

1. Fear of being nervous

(As Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself .”)

People often say, “If I look nervous on the outside, my internal, confident persona crumbles.”

So often the battle is not with the fear itself but between two parts of yourself.

Your confident persona is in conflict with the sensitive and feeling part of you.

If you broke your arm you wouldn’t pretend you hadn’t broken your arm and divorce yourself from it. Everyone can see you’re wearing a plaster cast.

Try admitting your fear to yourself. Even try saying, “I am excited to be speaking to you today. I’m SO excited that I’m scared stiff because I want to do the best job for you I can. So if you see my hand shaking it’s only excitement!”

2. Fear of being judged – worrying what others will think of us

We often think the whole audience is sitting there judging us, as if we were contestants on THE X FACTOR. Just remember, that audiences have their own issues to worry about. For example:

• May a sick child at home
• Maybe thinking about what to question to ask afterwards
• Maybe angry with a co-worker for plotting against him at work
• Maybe worried about losing his job
• Maybe worried he has an uncomfortable ulcer

Because of this, your audience will tune in and out of your speech thinking about themselves and their own worries. They might very well not notice if you blush or that your hand shook for a couple of seconds.

3. Fear of going off script – forgetting your words

Fear of forgetting your words is, of course, a worry for many professional actors and singers. Barbara Striesand once forgot her lyrics in 1968 and didn’t perform live again for years. If you are giving a presentation, most of the audience will not know what you had intended to say. So if you forget your words or ‘go off script’ they probably won’t even be aware of it!

You could occasionally try speaking off the cuff – you probably know your subject well enough anyway. And speaking off the cuff can often have great benefits in making it sound as if you really mean what you say and are not merely reading a script. (A word of caution here – you can only do this is you know your subject well or you have prepared thoroughly.)

4. Fear of large audiences

If you are speaking to under a dozen, you can see their eyes and their faces and read how you’re doing. In larger groups – we often feel a ‘mass of humanity’ starring back at us in judgement. And if you see one person yawning you tend to think that everyone you can’t see clearly is also bored.

Remember, even the largest audience is made up of individuals. Try to talk to them individually, each one at a time.

BUT Fear can save your life

Finally Fear is not always bad, it can save your life – like avoiding a crash or falling off a cliff.

But remember that we need Big fears for big threats and only Little fears for little threats.

You can allow yourself a little fear when speaking in public – a little dose of adrenalin can up your excitement factor – but let’s not get carried away, it’s not actually a life and death situation. Try to enjoy it!

About the author of this public speaking article

This article was written by Robin, one of Skillstudio’s consultant trainers. 

Robin is based in London, is an excellent trainer; and runs many of our public speaking training sessions (from 1-2-1 coaching through to Masterclasses).  

You can read his training bio here. 
 

Public speaking coaching

For most people, becoming more successful at public speaking is a relatively slow and painful process with many never really achieving their true potential.

But it doesn’t have to be like that.  

You can quickly develop these skills with Skillstudio through expert coaching and practice.  And by enhancing your public speaking skills you will be able to develop a much stronger influence on your audiences and reap the business success that goes with that.

To get some coaching in public speaking, click on one of the links below:-

Public Speaking Coaching  - 121 coaching
Public Speaking Courses – Open to members of the public
Public Speaking for Business - In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

Four common fears about public speaking. is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

When early man was attacked by wild animals, the body sent panic alarms to the neural pathways in the oldest part of the brain, the amygdala. When you are nervous, the amygdala, still assumes you are in physical danger and sends an electro-chemical alarm to ‘fight or flee’. This response is, of course, out of proportion to the ‘threat’ of public speaking but the body is only trying to protect you.

Seven Deadly Stages of Public Speaking Nerves

So this is literally what happens in the body the moment you stand up and speak in public:

Heart pounding?

1st : A message is sent to the Heart, to increase the heart rate and raise blood pressure.

Feeling light headed?

2nd : Another message is sent to the Lungs, to increase breathing for fighting or running.

But that energy has to go somewhere. We exhale too quickly causing an imbalance of carbon dioxide. As we are not in physical danger this is not used up so we end up hyperventilating, feeling light headed, with tingly cheeks and fingers. (Some people even faint completely – as Winston Churchill did in his Maiden speech in Parliament.)

Dry throat?

3rd : The amygdala shuts down the Salivary system. You are going to need loads of air to fight this wild animal, and you don’t want to choke on your own saliva. So now you have dry throat and mouth.

Got that sickly feeling?

4th : The amygdala deliberately draws blood away from the stomach – all blood is needed to give muscles extra fire power so there is no time for digestion. In fact it wants an empty stomach, intestines, bladder and bowel – and fast! After dinner speakers rarely enjoy their meal for this reason. Food doesn’t even taste normal at this time – often bitter and unappetising.

Eyes watering?

5th : Adrenalin is sent shooting to the eyes to find a quick escape route . Eyes are left darting around the room often staring at the ceiling or floor. We can behave like a child: “If I can’t see the Tiger, perhaps the Tiger can’t see me.” After all, it’s sensible to avoid eye contact with dominant, aggressive male Gorillas. These responses are primitive. So don’t beat yourself up when you avoid the audience and look at the floor – your subconscious thinks the audience is an aggressive Gorilla!

Mind going blank?

6th : At times of life threatening danger, the amygdala downgrades the importance of the brain. Running away is more important than thinking about running away! So whilst blood is surging into the muscles, it is ebbing away from the brain. Heroic people when interviewed after disasters often say, “I don’t remember much about it – it was all a blur.” Or an actor winning an Oscar proceeds to blurt out ecstatic nonsense about everybody from their cat to their cleaner.

Lost your voice?

7th and lastly : The amygdala also downgrades the importance of the voice. Presumably one would keep as quite as possible in the face of the Tiger.

Help is at hand

So there you are, standing up in front of a group of people, and your muscles start to shake, you feel sick, you can’t remember a word, your mouth goes dry, you can’t swallow and your voice stops working. Not great is it?!

Knowing the reasons why we feel panic and fear when speaking in public, can help us realise that it is not a failing in us – it is merely an animal response. A response that every other human ‘animal’ feels. We just have to learn how to cope with it – and how to use all that adrenalin to our advantage.

About the author of this public speaking article

This article was written by Robin, one of Skillstudio’s consultant trainers. 

Robin is based in London, is an excellent trainer; and runs many of our public speaking training sessions (from 1-2-1 coaching through to Masterclasses).  You can read his training bio here. 

To get some coaching in public speaking, click on one of the links below:-

Public Speaking Coaching  - 121 coaching
Public Speaking Courses – Open to members of the public
Public Speaking for Business - In-house training for companies and organisations

Skillstudio also offer public courses, 1-2-1 coaching and in-house training in many aspects of presentation skills and communication skills, including public speaking, vocal skills and body language awareness.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.

Public Speaking Nerves is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.