The Speaking Club: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking

After leaving her job as an auditor and feeling like a helpless victim, Vicky Martin spent four years hiding from the world. Then something happened that gave her the strength to take back control of her life. She switched careers and found her purpose.   That was 19 years ago, when she became a Tattooist. Over the 19 years since she has developed her skills in tattooing to become an industry expe...

You've probably heard me say before, that people's attention is one of the hardest things to get, and one of the most precious commodities of today. As a speaker people might say you have an advantage because you've got a captive audience, but I don't think that is true. With mobile phones and social media, with some of your audience potentially having been forced to attend, and with our decreasin...

In this episode I'm sharing my top 10 tips for public speaking success. They cover all aspects of speaking from mindset to performance and I believe that if you use them in your public speaking then you'll be increasing your effectiveness as a speaker significantly. Some of them are very simple, but in working with clients I've seen some of these small, seemingly insignificant changes have a massi...

After a battle lasting nearly eight years Clarry Bean's wife Christine lost the fight for her life a year and a day from when this show was recorded. Despite thinking that he was prepared to face the future without the love of his life, Clarry found himself in shock and despair. Taking inspiration from the strength Christine found in facing her illness, he forced himself to find something positive...

It's very likely that everyone who speaks has something to sell…if you're a business owner you may be using speaking to grow your business, or you may be a corporate leader trying to sell an idea or change, or a professional speaker with a side hustle to diversify your income, (whether that's a book, coaching, a different talk, or product or service). It is also likely that you have previously bee...

In her own words Joanne Lockwood has traded being part of the most privileged demographic in society to becoming part of one that many people will either stare at or do their best to ignore. In this show, Joanne is sharing the story of two journeys…how she came to be an international speaker, and how she came to be standing on stage in a dress as a woman.   Joanne's early life was as traditional a...

When I met Peter Cheese, I knew he would make a wonderful guest for the show. He is an expert in people and change management, with a distinguished career at one of the biggest consulting firms in the world, followed by Chief Exec positions at two of the leading people organisations in the UK. On top of that he is a recognized thought leader, government advisor and a very in demand speaker.   Pete...

Charles Hanna was on top of the world with a successful business and a family that he adored, when he began to sabotage his own success. As his life began to spiral out of control, he started to uncover the source of his internal suffering. On the journey back from that dark period of his life he has found greater happiness and success than ever before. His book 'Higher' is helping many people wit...

After 20 years in sales and marketing working for vineyards and clients like Google and Facebook, Steve De Mamiel knows a thing or two about what works in attracting and converting customers. He is a sales and marketing coach and speaker has written a book called The Mongrel Method, which combines stories based around his dog, with sales tips.   On this show we get into how sales have changed, the...

Gail Gibson grew up in Australia before getting itchy feet and setting up home in the UK. Feeling at cross roads in her career, she decided to leave her corporate job to pursue a new career as an entrepreneur. She founded and ran two businesses and discovered her passion for coaching. Her 'Can Do' programs have been helping business owners discover and conquer what has been holding them back.   Sh...

We all think we set big goals… but in this episode I got a little perspective on what big goals really are! Devin Thorpe spent many years in a corporate career within the finance function, but he never forgot a promise he made to himself at the age of 11. When he lost the job of his dreams that promise led him to re-evaluate his life purpose and set him on the path to what he does today.   Devin h...

Joy Marsden left the corporate world of marketing and trade relations helping brands like Dolmio and Uncle Ben and became known as a motivational speaker, because that's what her audiences kept calling her. Her messages resonate because they are real and relatable. She blends story, with song, humour and practical ideas to engage and inspire audiences across the globe. She doesn't have a big 'sob...

Sophie Devonshire is a business leader, entrepreneur, brand specialist and author who has worked around the globe including roles with Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola GB, Leo Burnett and Interbrand. She is much in demand as a speaker on contemporary leadership topics, business acceleration, brand transformation, the relationship between work and family life and the role of diversity at work and is con...

One of my previous guests said that dull people should try something other than public speaking, and I have a slightly different view. I believe that being dull doesn't have to be a permanent thing, I believe that you can learn and do things that will make you more engaging, entertaining and interesting as a speaker, and in life.   One of the things that plays a big part in achieving that is how y...

Simon Fanshawe is funny, authentic and passionate about making the world a better place. He trained as a lawyer and promptly abandoned a career in law and became a comedian. Simon was doing stand-up comedy from 1982 to 1992, when it began to transition from safe jokes about your mother-in-law performed in men's clubs to the diverse, political, anything goes stand-up that gets performed in stadiums...

Paul Coleman is a down to earth guy that spends lots of time taking a helicopter view of business and entertainment. He helps big companies come up with new ideas for products from washing powder to snack foods. With a career that has spanned the different disciplines of marketing, innovation, broadcasting and writing, he has a rich vein of experience to tap into whilst working with some of the bi...

This month has been loosely themed around performance, and I've had an idea for months of doing an episode on 'Framing'. This concept is used in many art forms, and is basically another story, situation or structure that allows the original story to be told, or better understood by the audience. You will have come across 'framing' in various forms within the arts, from Shakespeare plays to Hamilto...

Steve Cross began his career as a scientist, but soon left the lab to pursue his calling of making science more engaging. He shifted into communications, which led him to start the Bright Club, a project to make scientists funny. Today, alongside his more serious work with Universities and other institutions, who he helps with communication and engagement policy, he is also regarded as a Prince am...

I've done hour long stand-up comedy shows, acted in plays, and spoken in front of big audiences, but despite all that, I've been avoiding doing Facebook Live. I recognise that getting comfortable with doing live video is important for my brand and growing my business. So, I decided to ask Brooke Hender, a cognitive hypnotherapist, to take a look at this issue with me, and I'm sharing what happened...

Jay Miller dreamed of and trained to be a classical singer, and though his original dream drifted away from him, his love and passion of voice stayed. He has spent the last 20 years training speakers, actors and business people how to develop a great voice, as well as overcome anxiety around public speaking. He is now one of Canada's finest voice and speech coaches, appearing across the Canadian m...

Brooke Hender has had quite a journey, from project manager to actor to therapist. Although he found he had patterns of behavior that were negatively impacting his ability to live a happy and fulfilled life, he initially resisted getting help. He felt that this was just the way things were. Eventually, he gave therapy a chance but was amused when his own therapist suggested he would make a good th...

The way my brain is wired means I have lots of ideas and I'm able to see the big picture quickly… that's the upside. The downside is that I have a mind like a butterfly, and I get distracted super-easy… and then time just vanishes. But I hate the idea of wasting time… and I think that's why I'm always on the lookout for things that will help me work smarter, faster and keep focused.   As you know,...

Graham Allcott fell into productivity when he found his emails going into a big black hole. He shifted from leading a team to working on his own and found that while had great ideas and could delegate well… he was not actually very good at getting things done. He did loads of research, carried out many productivity experiments and began to find the principles and systems that worked. That's when h...

One thing I've learned in life and business, (and actually in theatre too – thanks Will Shakespeare), is that there are very few new ideas under the sun. It is inevitable in 99.9% of cases that someone else has already created something similar to what you want to do and often written a book or an article about it. But often we don't check first. Even with the world at our fingertips, I know peopl...

Dr Simon Raybould found his way to becoming a Speaker and Trainer, by way of being a professional researcher, actor, lighting technician and fire eater. He got interested in communication after seeing valuable research getting lost as politicians and policy makers couldn't understand it. That led him to write his first book Presentation Genius.   It was when he was writing that book that the idea...