One idea a week to help you teach and present with more clarity, confidence, and calm. No fluff. No scripts. Just practical tools that land.
The 3 things that fix 80% of talk disasters
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You’ve heard it before. Slow down. It sounds like advice for a Year 12 speech night. But if you actually do it? 💡 ONE IDEA WELLMost delivery issues—rushing, mumbling, awkward tone, blanking out—don’t start on stage. They start in your nervous system. And the fastest way to reset that? 🔴 Slow down They’re cliché for a reason: they work.
If you do nothing else to prepare for a talk - do this. Simple doesn’t mean easy. 🧰 LESS MESS, MORE MESSAGEHere’s a reset routine you can run before any talk: 1. Exhale slowly. 2. Roll your shoulders. 3. Smile. For real. This isn’t fluff. It’s a physiological nudge toward presence. 🧭 ASK YOURSELF THISAre you preparing your nervous system… or just your slides?cause of this? I’d love to hear: Hit reply—I’m collecting a list of real-world warm-ups. |
TEACHING ISN’T A SCRIPT. NEITHER IS THIS.
One idea a week to help you teach and present with more clarity, confidence, and calm. No fluff. No scripts. Just practical tools that land.
✈️ Airport Thoughts Right now, I’m at the airport waiting to board a flight to Adelaide. Tomorrow, I’ll be stepping onto the stage at Compassion Revolution to do something I’ve never done before. No slides.No clicker.Just me, the audience, and the words I’ve chosen. 🎤 A Talk, or a Performance? Most of the time, I tell people not to memorise every word. Instead: Know your beats.Know where the story turns.Know the feeling behind each section. But this talk… is different. This one’s more like a...
Ever sit through a talk that starts with a mystery — and ends without solving it? It’s like watching a movie that opens on a gun resting on a desk. You notice it. You wait for it. But the payoff never comes. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL Chekhov’s Gun is a simple rule of storytelling: If you show the audience a gun in Act I, you’d better fire it by Act III. In your talk, the “gun” might be a provocative question, a compelling stat, or a case that promises a twist. And if you don’t circle back? You leave...
A few weeks ago, I was invited to run a workshop on public speaking. Along with the invitation came a slide template - the official university-branded deck. You know the kind: big logos, gradient backgrounds, clip-art flair. This was the opening slide they asked me to use: I get it. It's well-intentioned. There’s an event logo. There's my name. There's even a helpful purple mist. But I didn’t use it. Here’s what I used instead: Why? Because your first slide isn’t just a title card. It’s a...