Speakers Impact Network

Be the best example.

Do any of you get anxiety before presenting? 😰 How does it feel? Sweaty palms? Shaky voice? Red face? 🌡️🗣️ Does it put you off presenting? 🚫 For me, I get a bright red nose like Rudolph, and my left leg shakes like crazy. If you like, I can teach you how to get over your public speaking nerves, or at least hide them a bit better so no one notices.

Myths You Might Believe About Public Speaking 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 #𝟑: "𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝." I can totally understand why someone would believe in this as I’ve been there myself, but I have seen time and again that no matter how good you think you are, you have room for improvement. Most people think that they don’t need to practice because they feel they must be a good "natural" speaker, because they mistake the rush of adrenaline in their body for the feeling of success. And after they have given a talk, everyone comes up and says how great they are. But no one will ever come up to you and tell you face-to-face that you suck. And while your body may have been pumped up on adrenaline, your audience probably didn't feel quite as excited as you did. The truth is, you need to practice. You need to work at it, and you need to hear constructive criticism of your skills in order to improve. No matter how good you may think you are, you can always do better. The pro’s practice all the time. You should too. Because believing in these myths will stop you from taking the right action. Your confidence gets affected, you don't seek guidance, and subsequently, you don't transform your speaking skills as a result. How else will there be 165000 people giving TEDx talks around the world if it was so hard? So they are all naturally born super-speakers? No... they did it by putting the effort in, getting great advice and of course, through pure hard work! As someone who coaches speakers for a living, I have seen breakthrough after breakthrough and I know that is not difficult to deliver the talk of your dreams, people just don't have the right guidance to succeed when it comes to how to be coached, how to build confidence and how to practice effectively. So take heart. You can do this! Don't for a second doubt yourself.

Kelly McGonigal knows how to make stress your friend. - In this wonderful talk, Kelly uses great body language, expression and audience interaction as she re-frames stress. If you feel stressed out in work, life, or even when speaking in public, spend a few minutes watching Kelly's talk, and you may feel a little more friendly in the end. https://lnkd.in/eyAA9-Q

A while ago I was coaching American MD PhD Kevin Marks to communicate his work in a new way. He had completed a lengthy PhD thesis and 5 articles that got published over the past 3 years - but he was finding it hard to make the impact that he wanted in the field of early identification systems for developmental and mental health screening in childhood. Kevin wanted to drive change, and make his important work impactful in the medical world. I worked with Kevin alongside the Danish Diabetes and Endocrine Academy to help him transform his work into a short, 15 minute speech that could be understood by the general public. He performed his talk live, and the audio was recorded to make a podcast. Kevin believes that the Podcast version of his talk might hit a nerve and convince people to make positive changes. Sometimes, we need to change the format that we communicate in, in order to get the impact we want. While Kevin's thesis and articles are fine for communicating complexed medical concepts, what really sets us on fire is when he speaks with passion. An audio podcast recorded in front of a live audience allows us to hear the passion in his voice, the concern he has for the future, and the care for a positive future of tomorrow's children. - Sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it that really counts. It has been an absolute pleasure to see great, expert content delivered in a personal, human, relatable way. If you are an expert in your subject, and the world could benefit from your idea, but you just can't get them to listen, maybe you should try taking your ideas out into the public speaking stage like Kevin. If you would like to learn more about Kevin's work, you can check out ‘Missing Maria, Identifying Anna’: Lessons on Improved Screening Questionnaires for Children and Adolescents at the link below. https://lnkd.in/e3sc3A7M

"The world is listening. What will you say?"

I've been blown away by the number of people signing up for my new online group. I'm looking for 60 people to professionally train as public speakers, and take their skills to the world stage. Maybe its you? Maybe it's someone you know? >>> https://lnkd.in/ei9pmPFH <<<

Myths You Might Believe About Public Speaking 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 #𝟐: "𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭" This is SO not true. Confidence is a skill that can be learned through hard work, support, and practice. Most people think you are either born confident, or you are shy, and that’s it. Because pushing out of the comfort zone feels scary, so few people ever try. The truth is, confidence is very easy to obtain when you take baby steps. You can’t build it overnight. Every day, every week and every month you need to actively take small, well thought out steps to grow your confidence by a tiny percentage. Over time, these little percentages all add up. I know, because I see it happen to members of the Speakers Impact Network all the time. On average, it takes about 6 months of baby steps to go from completely terrified to a fully confident public speaker. Some people are faster, some take longer, but it happens little-by-little. I have personally had members who lacked the confidence to speak up in meetings, make phone calls, or even take part in interviews. Over time, they still made it work, so I know that you can too!

Susan Cain unlocks The power of introverts in her powerful and influential TED talk. Introverted people often give the most incredible talks, and this is one of them. https://lnkd.in/dqJuUEy

"When I started a my journey into Speakers Impact Network I was so unconfident with my speaking. I think the first video I made I don't remember if I actually even dared to re-watch it because I a shaking mess... a completely worried face... and I could not string sentences together without completely stuttering. I couldn't complete words into sentences. I come from having a very loving group of people around me but people would often interrupt in a way with that felt like "𝑂ℎ... 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢." I've gone from the kid that never said anything to the kid that talked way too much ... and now I can find my balance. The biggest thing that helped me was gaining confidence for speaking. Now when I get nervous I remember that everybody who is there wants to listen to me. Now I think "𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒍! 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕" and I just go into it!" - Sidsel Dauv Becky said: "𝑆𝑖𝑑𝑠𝑒𝑙, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛! 𝐼'𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑘𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔! 𝐼'𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟. 𝐼 𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 '𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑆𝑖𝑑𝑠𝑒𝑙'! " This is one of the heartfelt conversations that took place during one of my coaching calls. It's amazing to see the progress and confidence that public speaking skills training can bring to people. By being part of a supportive atmosphere, and getting the right advice, anything is possible. Today I want to celebrate Sidsel for all her hard work and achievements in speaking.