Public Speaking, Presentation & Leadership Skills

Let’s face it—public speaking can be nerve-racking. You step up to the podium, clear your throat, and see an ocean of faces, some eager, some distracted, one possibly asleep. The truth is, those first few sentences can decide whether your audience becomes engaged listeners or enthusiastic phone users. So, let’s talk about how to start a speech with a bang, using easy, plain English, practical examples , and a bit of comic relief (but nothing that’d make your nan blush).   Why Do First Impressions Matter? Imagine you’re at a birthday party. Someone comes over and says, “Hello, I’m here to talk about dental insurance. Please take a seat.” Fun? Not so much. Now imagine someone walks in and says, “Who here loves popcorn? By the end of my talk, you’ll wish you brought extra!” Suddenly, you’re curious—even if you’re not a popcorn fan. The opening of your speech is that vital ‘hello’. It’s your chance to promise something interesting, spark curiosity, and make people want to list...

  Let’s be honest giving a talk or presentation can be nerve-wracking. For ages, I believed that if I packed in loads of facts and spoke with enthusiasm, my listeners would remember everything. Fast forward a few years and, with a bit of bumped ego, I discovered the hard way: people forget most of what we say. Maybe you’ve felt the same sting—wondering afterwards, “Did anyone take anything away from that?” Well, let me share some stories (yes, the ones where I went wrong!), what I learnt, and how you can make your sessions stick in people’s minds.   Why Do Audiences Forget So Much?   Before we dive in, here’s a bit of science (but don’t worry, no jargon—lesson learnt, as you’ll see). A German psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus, discovered over a century ago that people forget almost “ 70% of new information within 24 hours ”. That’s right: most of your precious presentation will just float away by tomorrow!   Why? Because our brains can only take in so mu...

Hey there! Have you ever found yourself sitting through a technical presentation, struggling to stay focused? Maybe the slides were packed with tiny text, or the speaker rattled off jargon that left you scratching your head. We’ve all been there. But what if you could be the presenter who makes everyone lean in rather than zone out? Today, let’s talk about how you—yes, you—can use audio-visual (AV) tools to breathe life into your technical presentations. Whether your audience is full of industry pros, new learners, or an international crowd, the right AV choices can make your message clear, memorable, and even fun. Why Should You Care About Audio-Visuals? Let’s be honest: technical subjects can be intimidating—or even boring—if presented badly. But you have a secret weapon at your disposal! Audio-visuals are more than just eye candy. They help break down tough ideas, keep everyone on track, and appeal to different learning styles in the room. Some of us are visual thinkers,...

Toastmaster Project speech 8 I delivered my Project 8 Speech on using visual aids effectively at city of Perth Toastmaster Club and won the Best Prepared Speaker Award for the session. The tips and ideas for creating your Project speech 8 are discussed in the previous blog . This speech was about how wisdom is available in day to day life and activities, it was about how even a small thing like pen, pencil can teach us important lessons of life.  The visuals used were Paper of the size of $50 $50 note Pencil and eraser Toastmaster Lantern Before you start the speech make sure that the above visuals are readily available and also not visible to the audience.  I kept the visuals on the lantern and the lantern was on my side. The lantern (none of the audience thought that the lantern is a prop) easily blended into the scene with almost nobody suspecting that this can be a prop.  In the speech the use of props are marked in red. Wisdom Wat...

Be yourself Probably you have come across this advice more often than not. Certainly I’ve come across this advice about making presentations in quite a few places over the years. It seems to be quite good but somewhat limited and occasionally wrong. When this is said, it is generally meant to be good – usually spoken by a friend just before a terrified speaker goes up on stage in a last minute attempt to reassure them that all will be well – but the truth is that being a good speaker requires more than being yourself. If one need to be yourself to be a good speaker, then everyone of us would have been a good speaker. In other words - You need to “be yourself” and you need to “perform” at the same time – in other words you need to be yourself and have good presentation skills. Difficult? Of course it is or we all would be doing it. Think of the techniques to help you to perform the day to day activities like walking. Once we know how to walk,...

As discussed in my previous blog my Toastmaster Project 6 - "Vocal Variety" was named “The Wind”. The speech was about finding a relation between nature and life. The speech was written in a way to have a drama, inorder to incorporate both movement and vocal variety . In red are the emphasis I had attempted of incorporating. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“THE Wind”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fellow Toastmasters and guests… A few years ago while I was in India, my wife and I traded our condo keys for house keys. Our floor space doubled, but there were two much larger changes. First, our mortgage jumped from something quite manageable to something which scares me considerably. Second, the few hours that I once affectionately called “free time” (emphasize it with a sarcastic voice and imaginary quotation sign) became known as “yard work.”  Yard work is a bit like working at MDA for me. I don’t have any clue what I should be doing half the time, but somehow I always end up be...

Project 5 – The Body Speaks - Speech As discussed in my previous blog my Toastmaster Project 5 was named “The Choice”. The speech was a scarstic take on the choices we make in the urban fast paced society and how it impacts us at the end.  As described in Toastmaster Project 2 – Organise your speech – used the beginning to introduce the problem - put in couple of examples in the middle to highlight the issue – and talked of the action required in the conclusion. In red are the body movement I had attempted of incorporating. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“THE CHOICE”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Few days ago, I was reading a humorous speech loud. It started with: If you want to be a monkey, eat bananas and insects If you want to be a giraffe, eat shrubs, leaves and barks If you want to be a buffalo, eat the movie posters If you want to be a lion eat the monkey, giraffe, and buffalo My Three and half year old Son, who was doing his trademark gymnastics, asked “If you wan...

PAUSES and its importance Remember the famous example, which taught that Punctuation can save life (literally). “Let’s eat, Grandma” versus “ Let’s eat Grandma.” Punctuation saves the lives of the elderly!” In the world of public speaking pauses are your punctuation. When we speak out loud, we can’t rely on punctuation to help our audience follow along. Instead, create emphasis or convey emotion and  humor  by using the pause as spoken punctuation. Pausing adds power, drama, to your speech. Used well your silences will literally speak LOUDER than your words. Learning when to pause and how long for is a skill and like all skills improves with practice. Effective use of speech pauses is a master technique. If you do it right, nobody is conscious of your pauses, but your ideas are communicated more persuasively. If you do it wrong, your credibility is weakened, and your audience struggles to comprehend your message. Effective Speaking Pauses – tips and...