Public Speaking with David Murray

When using presentation slides it's important to consider the needs of the audience. This means incorporating the slides into the presentation in such a way that the speaker remains connected to the audience at all times. Unfortunately, some presenters have a tendency to turn away from their audience and read directly from the slides themselves. This isn't an effective way of delivering presentations. In today’s episode I share how to present effectively whilst using presentation slides. The 5 S

Whether you’re having a conversation, navigating a job interview, or speaking in public, I’m sure you’ll agree that creating and maintaining rapport with others is important. And what is rapport? Well I like this definition from the web: “a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well”. And that is the key part “communicate well”. So, whenever you communicate with others, being in rapport with them is ver

While public speaking, you're probably going to move around. I think this is a good thing to do. And if you do it with purpose, you'll be able to connect your movements with your words. This means your audience can connect with your message in terms of what you're saying, and what they see you do. Moving with purpose elevates the impact of your public speaking. But sometimes when you’re moving around, you may want to move back to the spot where you started speaking from. How can you do this to e

I’m sure you can look back at a presentation you’ve delivered, and recall in the build up to it, how it made you feel. Or perhaps you’re looking ahead to delivering your next presentation, and when you do this, it makes you feel a certain way too. Everyone feels differently in the build up to a presentation, and whether you’re feeling excited, nervous or a bit of both, it’s important not to get caught up in how you’re feeling. Because this will take up all your energy and focus which you should

When was the last time you sat in a meeting? Have you ever sat in a meeting where most of the people in the room you have never met before? Imagine you are sat in the room, the meeting chair looks around the room and says, let’s get to know each other. And everyone has to introduce themselves. One by one each persons sits or stands and says their name and starts describing what they do. Everyone sounds confident and they describe their role in a way that sounds so much more interesting than your

Have you ever attended a work meeting and been asked a difficult or challenging question? How about when you're delivering a presentation and you're inviting questions from your audience. You feel that someone in your audience seems to want to catch you out, by asking a difficult question, one which you may not know the answer to, or did not anticipate. What's a good strategy for dealing with difficult or challenging questions? And what's the best thing to do if you don't know the answer to a qu