I was waiting in the lobby of my massage therapist’s office this week.  Happy to be there to have a massage with my extraordinary orthopedic massage therapist Deborah Cimo, I was feeling good and anticipating feeling even better after Deborah did her magic on my neck and back.   The door from her [...]

  Sean  Buvala  at storyteller.net has written an awesome post on using stories for apologies and healing.  He says that “Storytelling can be used for many different applications. One of the most difficult, but needed, application of storytelling is to express reconciliation, repentance and recompense.” Sean lists five steps that help create a story of redemption: [...]

  The trick to awesome speaking is not looking good on the outside, but feeling good on the inside.  You must build an inner foundation of comfort in your skin, presence, internal fullness and receptivity to the flow of other’s attention.   What trips people up about speaking is often the internal tension that distracts [...]

 I teach people to think on their feet and speak from their hearts.  My greatest challenge as a presentation teacher is to persuade people to accept their natural ability to speak and to let it flow without expecting themselves to be perfect in their speech. Verbal communication does not require the same sentence structure that [...]

  I would love to have been a fly on the wall to have heard what President Clinton said to the North Korean officials that persuaded them to release the two women reporters.  My guess is that he used his ability to connect genuinely and speak from his heart.  I am sure he had a [...]

    Recently, I was fascinated by an NBC Dateline documentary spotlighting the singing star, Taylor Swift.  What compelled me to pay attention and watch the whole hour twice was the authenticity from which this dynamo of a performer and businesswoman lives her life and runs her productions.   At 19 years of age, she [...]

  I heard this on the radio today, “Great Leadership begins with the ability to level with people.” That’s another way of saying we must be transparent to be effective as leaders. I just heard Obama criticized for going to Cairo to “apologize” for American behavior. It might just be that he was being transparent [...]

Public speaking clients ask me how they can “read” their audience. I tell them they must open to receive their audience members. Receiving is an experience of 1) seeing individuals in the audience, 2) making authentic connection one-to-one with them and 3) taking them in through soft-focus eye connection. Receiving is my way of expressing [...]

There is something about public speaking, expressing oneself in groups, presenting or performing that triggers many people’s desire to look perfect.  It seems we just can’t give ourselves permission to be imperfect and…. well, human.  When we don’t feel safe to be genuinely who we are in front of others, we tense up the body [...]

Imagine my thrill as I read respected author Seth Godin declare that any great presenter must have two qualities – respect from the audience and love for the audience!  Take a look at his post at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/the-two-elements-of-a-great-presenter.html.. Then read my post at http://www.self-expression.com/speaking-freely/don%e2%80%99t-talk-to-strangers-how-caring-for-your-audience-helps-stage-fright-and-fear-of-public-speaking/ Love is a vibrational frequency that attracts.  Love is not only the answer [...]