From Anxiety to Anticipation

You are great at communicating one to one, or small groups. But when it comes to big groups, you will get nervous, or even scared.   When you have to speak in big groups, you would get worried all the way leading to the presentation day. You secretly wish the presentation would get either postponed […]

The Secret to a Voice with Impact

To influence your audience and have them think, feel and take action, you must engage your audience, give them time to reflect on what you’ve said and relate it back to their own lives. Rushing through your speech does not offer that opportunity. Pause does. Pause, expressed in silence, is more than silence. As Dale Carnegie put, […]

Four Sins of Speaking Fast

8 out of 10 of my clients speak very fast. “It’s just the way I talk. I tried to remind myself but still have difficulty slowing down. “People always ask me to repeat, which frustrates me.” “I speak so fast that I feel breathless after some time.” Did you experience similar frustrations? You might think […]

Feel Your Words

Nine out of ten clients told me that they are monotone in their presentations. The problem is not that we are not expressive, but that we’ve kept the emotions to ourselves in the modern society. We see expressing emotions as a sign of being weak, getting easily seen through or taken advantage of by others. The truth […]

Ask. Don’t Tell.

I was coaching a client lately on presentation. The feedback he received from the participants included “boring” and “not engaging”. Upon having him presenting to me, I realized one of the major issues he had was that he was telling almost all the time. People learn from autonomy and reflection. In presentations, we, as audience, […]

How to Make Your Presentation Memorable (II)

This is part II of the guest post from my good friend Douglas Kruger (part I is here). Douglas is a professional speaker, trainer and 5-time winner of the South African Championships for Public Speaking. Not only does he excel at speaking, but he has an amazing voice that keeps you engaged. Hope you’ll pick up great […]

How to Make Your Presentation Memorable (I)

This is a guest post from my good friend Douglas Kruger. Douglas is a professional speaker, trainer and 5-time winner of the South African Championships for Public Speaking. Not only does he excel at speaking, but he has an amazing voice that keeps you engaged. Hope you’ll pick up great tips from his sharing.   […]

Monotone Is Not the Problem

9 out 10 of my clients tell me, “Cynthia, I think I have a monotone voice during my presentations that puts my audience into sleep.” Surprisingly, even my most bubbling client told me she has a monotone voice! I was so confused at the fact that 90% of the presenters think they are monotone! After […]