VirtualSpeechCoach

Your Visual Signals are Leadership Signals

Before people evaluate your ideas, they evaluate you. Not your résumé.Not your title. You. Your posture.Your eye contact.Your gestures.Your facial expressions. Leadership is seen before it is understood. In high-stakes meetings, presentations, and client conversations, visual cues shape credibility long before your message is fully processed. They’re subtle. Often unintentional. Always interpreted. Here’s what to […]

Stillness is a Leadership Signal

On a recent cruise to Antarctica, I stood quietly on deck watching an iceberg drift past. It wasn’t loud.It wasn’t rushing.It wasn’t trying to impress anyone. And yet, no one could ignore it. Stillness sends a signal. In leadership settings, that signal often communicates more authority than energy ever could. When leaders want to improve […]

Are You Overlooking the Executive Presence Signals That Shape Leadership Perception?

Executive presence is often treated as something intangible, mysterious.You either have it or you don’t. But in real leadership environments—meetings, presentations, client conversations—executive presence is anything but mysterious. It’s observable. Before you finish your first sentence, people are already deciding: Those judgments happen quickly, often subconsciously. And they aren’t based on charisma, personality, or how […]

“Webinar Replay” Impromptu Speaking Workshop

I recently presented a workshop on Impromptu Speaking and many people asked me for the “Webinar Replay.” But, I hadn’t recorded it because it was actually a Zoom meeting and participants were on camera. However, the next day I recorded myself giving the workshop as a presentation and sent the video to the people who […]

NEW! Group Program: Virtual Presentation Success

“Thank you for the outstanding job on facilitating the Virtual Speech training. I learned multiple things, some of them I had an idea, others were new. It provided great value for our time”–training participant Live, online group training + individual coaching Download the complete program description Build fundamental skills essential to presenting in a virtual […]

8 Tips to Speak with Confidence (video)

In this narrated PowerPoint video (16:26), you will be encouraged to speak with confidence, perfection not required! The 8 speak with confidence tips in this video:1. Reframe Failure 2. Practice 3. Get Excited 4. The Power Pose 5. Just Breathe 6. Dress for Confidence 7. Prepare for Questions 8. Have a Response Framework for Answering […]

Public Speaking Book only $0.99 for 100 Tips!

The 100 Tips and Tricks in this book are techniques and strategies I learned through my years of presenting and coaching speakers, and now through May 8, 2020, you can get the ebook for only $0.99. Here’s a sample tip (screen shot):

Book Launch Special $0.99 thru May 8, 2020

Get your confidence on!Get my latest book, 100 Tips & Tricks to Appear Confident in Presentations: Public Speaking Success in 5 Minutes or Less! for only $0.99 for the ebook on Amazon. The paperback is $9.99. Practical, Illustrated tips, one to a page, will boost your skills and confidence! Editorial Review: An easy to read, […]

Speak with Confidence and Credibility Webinar (practice session)

In this 51-minute webinar practice video (I’m giving a webinar for the TCSHRM–Twin Cities Society for Human Resource Management in a couple of weeks), you will learn 6 Power Tips to Speaking with Confidence and Credibility (it’s not perfect, but I am modeling my belief in practice & dress rehearsal!): Structure with PREP Create Catchy […]

Stand Tall! Improve Your Speaking Posture

“Stand up straight!” my mother frequently nagged me  (I attained my adult height of 5’8” at age 12 and slouched to minimize my height). Poor posture is not something only tall teen girls deal with. It is pandemic, especially since so many of us hunch over phones or other devices, giving us “forward head” posture, […]

“What Do I Do with My Hands?”

Gestures, the hand and arm movements you make while speaking, reinforce your words and convey, non-verbally, your feelings. Gestures help both you and your audience relax, comprehend and remember your content. If you feel confident while speaking, you will most likely gesture naturally, with few distracting gestures. In this article, learn the top 4 tips […]

Engage with Passion

My husband and I recently had a photo shoot with our 4 grandchildren. As you can see from the above photo with two of them, this was not the typical posed photo shoot. It was wild, with an overwhelmed 17-month old, who had just arrived with her mother from New York that day, almost-3-year-old twins […]

The Secret Memory Booster in Public Speaking

Would you like to know one technique that can help you better: learn your presentation? remember your presentation? facilitate your audience’s learning and recall of your material? Yes? The powerful technique is to use body movement and gestures. Perhaps you may recall learning gestures to a song as a child, or helping children learn something […]

Free ebook for Summer Reading: 12 Ways to Be a Confident Speaker

Learn some public speaking skills this summer!  This week your free ebook is 12 Ways to Be a Confident Speaker. Get your free Kindle version (US link, Canadian link, UK link) It’s free on Kindle through Saturday, June 21, 2014. You will learn how to: –Speak with Passion –Focus on the Audience –Know Your Material –Use Notes Sparingly –Speak Conversationally […]

Free ebook for Summer Reading: Public Speaking Lessons from TED Talks

Learn some public speaking skills this summer!  This week and next, I am giving you free ebooks on public speaking (next week is “12 Ways to Be a Confident Speaker”). Get your free Kindle version (US link, Canadian link, UK link)  of the short e-book, Public Speaking Lessons from TED Talks: The Good and the Bad from the 10 Most-Viewed […]

Be a Confident Speaker: Recorded Interview

Grab a cup of coffee, sit back and learn my top tips for being a confident speaker! Last week, Regina Barr, Founder of Women at the Top, interviewed me as part of her “Author Interview” series on how to be a confident speaker, based on my book, 12 Ways to Be a Confident Speaker. Here are the […]

Is Communication Really 93% Non-Verbal?

Have you heard these statistics?:  “Effective communication is only 7 percent verbal and 93 percent non-verbal (the non-verbal is 55 percent body language and 38 percent tone of voice). They are often accompanied by a PowerPoint pie chart: Maybe you have even quoted those statistics. I’ve heard so many speakers quote those numbers (including a […]

Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #7: Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are (Amy Cuddy)

Video and transcript here The Big Idea:  Amy Cuddy shares how “power posing,” standing or sitting in a posture of confidence, even when you don’t feel confident, can affect testosterone (dominance hormone) and cortisol (stress hormone) levels in the body, causing you to feel and be perceived as more confident.  It’s not “fake it till […]

FREE KINDLE BOOK until 11/16: 12 Ways to Be a Confident Speaker

If you’ve enjoyed my recent tips on becoming a more confident speaker, you will want to get your FREE Kindle book, 12 Ways to Be a Confident Speaker.  But, hurry! The book is only free through Saturday (and after that, it is available for only $2.99–It’s a short book!) And, I have a BIG favor to ask you! Will […]

Smile! Don’t be a Stiff Presenter!

Which person’s presentation would you rather attend? This person’s presentation? Or, this person’s presentation? In the top picture, I am displaying my neutral face.  I am neither happy nor sad.  But don’t I look a little sad, maybe even angry?  I also look every one of my 51 years.  Gravity is starting to give me […]

Speak with Confidence: Stand and Move with Power and Purpose

I could tell they were all nervous. Julia’s hands shook.  Justin kept his left hand in his pocket.  Darcy flailed her hands. As each student came up to give their first speech in my class, their body language, and especially their hands telegraphed their speech jitters. Hand in pocket Clasped hands Flailing hands Fig leaf […]