Over the years I’ve presented using most styles of microphone. On stage I’ve coped with a handheld heavyweight, a clip-on lapel mic and a headset that sat over my hair like a hairband. I’ve also spoken into a mic on radio, internet TV, on Zoom calls and most recently to record my audio book*. And […]
How to comfortably work with a microphone. Read More »
Having not stayed away from home for the past 20 months I have stayed in 4 different hotels in just the last 2 months; twice for work and twice for pleasure. Pre-Covid, I tended to stay in the same type of hotel for business (low cost, standard service, you know exactly what you’ll get and
Don’t make a bad situation worse. My takeaways from recent hotel stays. Read More »
One of the major complaints I hear about Zoom meetings is that they can be quite confrontational. A bit like constantly attending a panel interview where you are eyeballing, and being eyeballed, by everyone in the room (including yourself)! However, the benefits of Zoom include things such as being able to see everyone at the
Where should you speak from in a meeting? Read More »
If you follow my articles, you’ll have heard me speaking about listening skills. The art of listening is key for good communication. However today I want to talk about what happens when the other person doesn’t appear to be listening to you! It can really throw your confidence and affect your ability to deliver your
How do you react if you aren’t being listened to? Read More »
Last summer a friend of mine moved her mother-in-law into the family home so that she wasn’t alone and could be looked after. Nice for her and her family. Yes; but her teenage son is struggling with his grandmother being there 24/7. She always has a suggestion for how he should be doing something or
Why counting to 10 is a great communication skill. Read More »
A client was recently complaining that she had heard that one of her team was calling in sick when she wanted a free day’s holiday. A few years back I received a mailing that had obviously been sent by a disgruntled employee or freelancer. It told me that the person running the company was everything
If something goes wrong, are you talking to your team enough? Read More »
I came across an interesting paper, while researching an upcoming presentation, called “Exploring Filler Words and Their Impact” by Emily Duvall, Aimee Robbins, Thomas Graham and Scott Divett. It’s a report looking at filler words, their impact on credibility of the speaker and comprehension of the listener. It’s a subject I have always found interesting.
How Umming and Erring in a speech can improve your believability. Read More »
As some of you may know, a good portion of our client base are tourist attractions and at the time of writing, they have been shut for the best part of a year and many of their staff have been furloughed, I’m thrilled that with the opening of the Road Map in England, it looks
Complaints will go up this summer. Will you make things worse? Read More »
There are a number of ways that you can diminish your authority online and two key ones are to have poor lighting and to get the camera angle wrong. If you don’t get these right then at best, your audience will be struggling to see you and at worst, looking straight up your nostrils …
2 quick wins to improve your online communication skills. Read More »
When I was little, I couldn’t pronounce my ‘R’’s so I would get “Weally, weally cwoss” and my father told me I would be OK so long as I didn’t marry a “Wobert”. I had elocution lessons (as they were called then) to help me change ‘Weally’ to ‘Really’ and ‘Wobert’ to ‘Robert’ … which
Don’t let your communication problems stop you from communicating. Read More »
