Sometimes it’s because you are ‘known’ for your expertise or experience or maybe even your story. Which is great. Of course, knowing your stuff doesn’t automatically mean that you know how to say it with maximum impact and influence. Just recently I’ve been working with some amazing clients – they most definitely know their stuff. […]
Archive | Preparation
By Catherine Sandland on March 5, 2021 in Boring presentations, Engaging audiences, mistakes Speakers make, Preparation
Let me tell you a story: Mark delivered a #Presentation He was well prepared. Had spent hours making sure his information was accurate. Making sure he had enough content to answer any questions the audience could throw at him. Designed slides that were detailed and right and comprehensive. Had run out of time to speak it […]
Editing – is it cheating or less authentic?
By Catherine Sandland on February 5, 2021 in clarity, mistakes Speakers make, photography, Preparation
Had an interesting conversation with my 12 yo on Sunday when we were walking the dogs. We both like taking photos on my camera and I happened to mention that for a long time, I thought editing my photos was cheating. That adding filters was misrepresenting what was actually there. My son who edits carefully […]
I made some banana and blueberry muffins the other day. I forgot the blueberries! They were in the recipe. I’d got them out ready and they were on the worktop. But I’ve made these a thousand times before and just didn’t bother to check the recipe or even consciously think ( my mind was on […]
Prepare with the end in mind
Do you mentally run through how your presentation is going to be before you stand up to deliver? I was thinking about this at Mum’s as she and I are getting things in place for her long-awaited, postponed-from-April, hip operation at the weekend. We’ve started with the time she needs to be at the hospital […]
How do you structure a presentation?
What a kerfuffle. Mum’s having her bathroom replaced and yesterday the skip arrived for all the waste materials. Well, it was like a game of Tetris In order for the skip to get in the drive, mum’s car had to be moved out. In order for mum’s car to move out, I had to move […]
Where to start?
Where do you start? You’ve got all sorts of information whizzing around in your head. Lots of things you could say. Lots of things you should say. But how do you even start to put in some sort of order? How do you get it outside of your head – maybe on paper, maybe in […]
Learning from mistakes
By Catherine Sandland on March 5, 2020 in Confidence, Engaging audiences, mistakes Speakers make, Preparation, Presentations, success
When I started my first ‘proper’ job in retail management, my boss called me into his office, said I needed to be good and confident at speaking to groups and immediately set me two tasks. One was to prepare for a short slot at the next management meeting. The other was to go and deliver […]
Personality and purpose
By Catherine Sandland on February 5, 2020 in clarity, Confidence, delivery, Experts who present, personality, powerful speaking, Preparation, process of presenting, Structure
Do you want to know what I love about my job? Seeing patterns and stories and helping others shape and craft their message so that yes, it has impact and influence but more importantly than that, that their personality shines through. I’ve just finished a session this morning with an absolute inspiration of a business […]
How do you get your listeners to ‘dive ‘ into your presentation?
I’m about to go swimming in the lake. It’s eight o’clock in the morning. It is September. The lake is about 14 degrees (not entirely sure about that but I’m guessing). So, there’s a bit of acclimatising to go on. I’ve been learning that for me, walking in slowly but purposefully and then after checking […]
