The wrong quest for a public speaker

powerful authentic presence

Lots of people who come on my courses want to be a flawless public speaker and not to make any mistakes, not to show that they are nervous in ANY way, to be able to have wonderful structured sentences flowing from their mouths. And somehow not to be noticed at the same time even when they are the centre of attention. Yet when I ask every group about their experience of seeing really good speakers they talk about:

“Someone who is relaxed, engaging, passionate, with great eye contact, comfortable in their own body and being looked at, tends to be informal, able to be present (in the moment) and deal with what is happening in the room. They will be ok about making mistakes, (able to laugh at their mistakes), relaxed about talking off the cuff but also to the point. People being themselves”

Blimey guv, there is a huge mismatch going on!

As nervous speakers we want to be perfect and yet the audience wants speakers to be themselves.

The journey to being a powerful speaker (and a happier person) is not about polish, learning how to gesture and ulitimately nothing human showing. It’s about allowing ourselves to get out of our own way. Letting go of the inner voice of fear, the voice of judgement and the voice of cynicism. Becoming who we really are and learning to be present