Lady Chase Weblog

The Kiss Chase Sandbox Suckfest

April 21, 2008 by Elaine Gunn

I’ve been doing a lot of research recently on the mythical beast that is the Google Sandbox Effect. This Loch Ness Monster of the technical age is a phenomenon I had until recently been unaware of, yet in just 6 short months I have learned to shudder at its name.

For those uninitiated in the intricacies of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Sandboxing is reputed to be a process by which Google “quarantines” new websites - particularly those on newly-registered URLs, or those competing for popular keywords - preventing them from achieving any significant ranking in their search listings. Thus, the new website receives little organic search engine traffic, rendering it (and its unhappy proprietor) lonely, impotent and useless. The idea is to let the baby website play safely in its sandbox, until the mighty Google considers it mature enough to join the bigger kids in the global marketplace.

Lest I should sound overly bitter without cause, I ought to explain that our new baby Kiss Chase (www.kisschasegifts.com) has been languishing in said sandbox since its launch last November. Any hopes we had of emerging after 6 months were dashed on the 11^th April by the feeble number of visits we achieved - down two thirds on our previous year consumer site traffic.

In mild panic, I’ve been trawling the internet for information on what we might do to extricate ourselves from this predicament. Sadly, beyond building quality links with reputable existing websites, there seems to be very little we can do except wait - with the obvious exception of travelling back in time to November 2007 and actually listening to our SEO friends at Occupancy Marketing when they advised us not to change our site domain name!

So in true SK Chase fashion, I’m busy looking for the positives in our sorry situation. Okay, so Kiss Chase probably sees about as many visitors as Victoria Beckham sees fish suppers, but at least we’re getting time to add and grow the content of the site and make tweaks, nips and tucks to improve usability and develop our brand personality. And in the spirit of learning from our mistakes, we’re listening very closely to the experts at Occupancy Marketing as we come to refresh our business to business website www.skchase.com this month.

Incidentally, I feel it’s important to mention that Google has officially and repeatedly denied the existence of their sandbox. Sandbox theory has been developed by SEO experts through analysis of the performance of new websites since 2004/2005, so nobody really knows for sure if it actually exists, or if there’s something else going on.

Myself, I prefer to remain a believer - our Kiss Chase sandbox suckfest at least allows us some level of influence over its outcome. The alternative is probably best described as “fate” for the internet - and that’s an e-commercial can of worms that we can do very well without, thank you very much.

So it’s not all bad, even if the tedious process of updating a website that nobody ever sees is starting to chip away at little pieces of my soul! I just keep myself busy, imagining the wonderful day that we’ll finally toss aside the bucket and spade, as Google beckons us out of our sandbox to bask in the warm rays of their glorious page rankings.

Posted in E-commerce | Tagged Add new tag, Google, sandbox, Search engine optimisation | No Comments »

Lovely London

April 9, 2008 by Kaye Taylor

I’ve just been reading Elaine’s blog on business travel and it got me thinking…. Unlike Elaine, I do spend quite a bit of time travelling around – lots of London meetings means frequent flying in my case… but just like Elaine, I don’t ‘work’ en-route… Instead I escape into a world of Conde Nast ‘Traveller’, ‘Grazia’ or my latest ‘self-help’ book (I’m addicted… a strong passion to constantly improve myself renders me completely willing to buy the first book that Amazon recommends promising that I can create the life I truly want…).

I LOVE my trips to London. I find the city so glamorous these days. I lived in the big smoke for seven years, and loved it then, too, but for totally different reasons. This was at a time when I assumed that cuppa soups, veggie sausage toasties smothered in tomato ketchup, and silk cult accompanied by white wine was a reasonable diet. This was long before the realisation set in that healthy eating equalled healthy being.

London for me then, was all about working hard, partying hard and living in near squalor (one house-share saw me cohabiting with drug addicts, cats and where my bedroom was quite literally an extension of Queenstown Road platform 2… those city workers and the regular beep, beep beeping of the train-doors closing were familiar and somehow reassuring sights and sounds to me). Not to mention my always complicated love-life. Sadly, by the time I left London, I had grown to hate it – all the things that had made it special for me became nuisances and I was glad to go.

But recently I’ve been introduced to a whole new wonderful world – restaurants, hotels and shops that I didn’t realise existed back then. Steph and I ended up on Charlotte Street the other evening and ended up eating in a quirky Turkish restaurant which served fantastic vegetarian food. Later that week I read (in Grazia, of course) that Brad and Angelina had frequented the very same restaurant only that week! We didn’t even realise we were in a fashionable part of town.

And Carloline Pile (who runs Piledrivers with her sister Sue and who helps us build the Kiss Chase brand) took us to Sketch on Conduit Street – just a visit to their website is a gripping experience, let alone the real thing. I don’t want to say anything apart from you MUST go there the next time you’re in London. It’s surreal. Particularly when you venture to the loo…

But I have found my idea of pure heaven… VitaOrganic – a raw food, vegan restaurant on Wardour Street. Not everyone’s idea of a jolly night out (no alcohol served on the premises, but you can bring your own). The food is divine; not only is it all organic, full of nutrition and fresh, it’s also cooked at a low temperature so that it doesn’t ‘kill’ nature’s vitality… Perfect!

I’ve also found a set of business women in London, in the form of a rather selective business club, who are completely on my wave-length. I’ve joined Sister Snog – I cannot recommend it highly enough. All the women I’ve met so far at the lunches I’ve attended are smart, warm, successful, witty and honest. Run by Annie Brooks and Hela Wozniak-Kay, aka Violet and Lilac, (who at times are quite nutty, but lovely and extremely passionate about connecting people and ‘keeping it real’) it has enabled me to create a network of really valuable London contacts.

But more than that, I’m making new friends, and it feels great. I read recently (yes, in a self-help book) ‘where ever you are, there you are’ and I realised that what you feel inside is what is reflected on the outside. So now, London has come back to life for me again and the love I had for it has returned, just in a different form.

Posted in Business Culture | Tagged Add new tag, London | No Comments »

Poor Little Gerald!

April 7, 2008 by Elaine Gunn

It was my intention last week to write a post introducing the newest addition to our little family here at SK Chase. Gerald joined us on Saturday 21^st March and was much pampered and petted by the girls here, until sadly we lost him suddenly to a nasty fungal infection.

Gerald was our first office pet - a beautiful silver sand coloured, fan-tailed goldfish with a bright orange forehead. We took a team expedition a few Saturdays ago and brought him home to his new tank which is now sitting at the end of my desk.

A couple of weeks ago, one of our directors, Steph, read a great little book called Fish! which she passed around the rest of the team as an example of the kind of working environment we’d like to create here at SK Chase.

I read and enjoyed the book, and think that it might well prove useful as our guide to a great atmosphere at work. Centred around four basic principles, Fish! is a mini training course in storybook format. It comes up with great ideas on how you can personally make a difference to your working day, have fun at work and make your customers feel fantastic. Give or take a bit of Americanised psycho-babble I thought it was well worth a read, and has certainly made me think about how I can do my bit to make SK Chase a great place. (hey, that rhymes…)

The thinking behind the pet fish was to have four in total - one for each principle in the book. That way, every time any of us got stressed after a ropey phone call, we could head over to the tank and gaze at the little fishies, both to relax us, and to remind us that we have a choice over how positively or negatively we react to things that happen to us at work.

So we made a trip to the Aquatic Rooms on Leith Walk (and then to the pub - but that’s another story altogether) and invested in a 35 litre tank, a filter, some fish food, and most importantly our new fish - whom I named Gerald.

The following Monday I was the first to arrive at work, and naturally went straight over to Gerald’s tank to check that he’d made it through his first weekend in his new home. I was most perturbed to see him lying prone and motionless on top of the filter, his fluffy fishy fins swaying gently. I instantly assumed the worst and sent a few upset text messages to the other girls to break the bad news.

However, returning after 10 minutes with my rubber gloves, ready to fish him out and flush him off to white china oblivion, I got a bit of a fright when he came suddenly to life, wriggled off the top of the filter and swam casually to the other side of the tank.

Clearly Gerald was a bit of a joker!

The upshot of this was that I discovered that the filter was creating too much of a current for poor little Gerald, and he had more than likely been pinned to the top of it for most of his first weekend. I sorted the direction of the filter, apologised profusely to His Fishiness and hoped that he would escape unscathed from his experience.

All seemed well for the first few days, Gerald was eating well and seemed to be quite at home - particularly so when we gave him some pebbles and another plant to brighten up his tank.

Then, without warning, disaster struck! Natasha (Tash) was the first to discover that he was sporting a new and interesting jacket of white spots, swiftly diagnosed as Ichthyophthirius Multifiliis - or “Ich” to those of us who can’t get our heads round the full Latin version.

Ich is a particularly nasty parasitic fungal infection specific to fish, sometimes caused by stress, and shortly after his diagnosis I discovered poor little Gerald floating limply in a cloud of stinky white fuzz. Clearly those pesky parasites had been having a field day with our boy! This time there was no question of my being mistaken (note to self - once we get more fish, must stop arriving first in the mornings) and the wee man had definitely been summoned to the big shiny fishbowl in the sky.

We’re now busy treating the tank and changing the water in preparation for his replacement - hopefully we’ll have better luck next time. The theory’s still there anyway, and at least we’ll be able to turn to the Fish! book for some handy hints on how to react positively to our swift bereavement - oh the irony!

So that was Poor Little Gerald. His time on this earth was short, but we were very fond of him while he lasted.

Gerald SKChase Esq

21/03/08 - 31/03/08

Posted in Office Pets | Tagged Fish!, Goldfish, White Spot | 1 Comment »

Bored and lonely in a sea of pinstripe…

March 31, 2008 by Elaine Gunn

It’s been a while since I travelled to London on business, so I’d forgotten what a surreal experience sitting in the departure lounge in London City airport was.After the usual trip through security, with the obligatory worry that I’d set the beepers off, then disgrace myself by giggling when frisked (it tickles!), I planted myself beside Gate 1 and wondered how long my flight would be delayed for.

I don’t think it had ever really occurred to me before just how many people travel up and down the country every day on business - no wonder the government’s worried about our carbon footprint. I think I’ll start taking the train from now on - both in the interests of the environment and to keep me away from that departure lounge.

In my experience, the London City lounge is an odd parallel universe where otherwise intelligent and confident women (i.e. me) find themselves wandering aimlessly through shops, boredom-buying peach lip gloss.

Departure lounges, particularly during business travel, seem to encourage me to behave in ways I would usually find unacceptable in everyday life. For example, having had breakfast at home, and knowing I’ll get a second breakfast on the plane I am quite comfortable buying a sandwich to have in the departure lounge before I board. My literary tastes take a spectacular nose-dive and I buy trashy novels to read on the plane, that then have to sit uncomfortably on my bookshelves at home between Jane Austen and E.M. Forster.

It makes me wonder if the myriad of high-powered businesspeople I see around me are similarly affected. Looking to my left and right I can see rows and rows of suited and booted gentlemen poring over their laptops - is there a sneaky Danielle Steel novel hidden behind one or two of the screens? One of them gets up and walks to the bathroom, I wonder if he too bought an unnecessary peach lip gloss and just can’t wait to try it out…

I suspect not.

The thought crosses my mind that I might be irretrievably frivolous, undisciplined and immature. Does this mean that unsuited as I am to the tedium of business travel, I‘m no good for business in general either?

It’s odd that a simple change in environment can precipitate such a drop in confidence levels. I suppose I’m so used to working in a small team where everybody’s ready at a moment’s notice to have a giggle or a gossip, that I forget what the real world of business can be like, and how different from that stereotype I’ve become since I started working here.

In any event, I don’t suppose I’m going to change my ways now. It’s been a few years since I started with the business travel malarkey and I’ve not been able to find a way of making myself appear more credible while I’m doing it to date!

So I’ve just resigned myself to the likelihood of remaining the bored (but immaculately lip-glossed) woman in a bright coloured jacket, sheepishly trying to concentrate on her chick-lit while a multitude of proper businesspeople tap away on their blackberries and laptops.

I daresay if I throw a glass of wine into the mix now and then, I might even stop worrying about it too.

Posted in Business Culture | Tagged business travel, self confidence | 2 Comments »

Does (pond) size really matter?

March 12, 2008 by Elaine Gunn

Until quite recently I was a very small fish in the great big career pond that is a major UK bank. Then, suddenly in September 2007 I was netted and whisked into (comparatively speaking) a puddle when I joined SK Chase as their Marketing Manager.

Part of the reason I was so ready to make the move was to see what value my skills actually held for a business. I was quite used to seeing my work disappear off to some distant board somewhere on a report with my boss’s name on it, and had started to wonder if I could personally make a difference to a company’s bottom line.

Apart from anything else, I was craving some autonomy and the opportunity to work for an organisation that would notice me and my work - without having to spend hours investing in (to me) nefarious political self-promotion schemes.

Very quickly after my move I worked out that the main difference between working for a small company and a large one is that everything you do matters more in a small business. Whether your contribution is positive or negative, the impact you’ll have is far greater and will be noticed!

This is great news for talented staff looking to work hard and prove themselves - not so good for anybody used to a free ride in a big comfy company.

If I’m being honest, I wasn’t quite a free-rider in my old job but I certainly wasn’t working to my full potential - not even nearly. A combination of lack of motivation caused by lack of recognition, and my natural sceptical reaction to rules, rules and more rules, meant that I wasn’t quite firing on all four cylinders.

Moving into a business with (then) only four other full-time staff turned out to be just the kick-start I needed to turn me back into the passionate and hard-working businesswoman I believe I truly am.

That’s not to say, however, that I haven’t encountered challenges with my radical change of working environment. Along with increased autonomy and recognition, came increased responsibility for my own workload. Like I said, everything matters more in a small company - so when my personal task prioritisation went spinning slightly out of control a couple of months into my new role, I immediately had to address the gap in my skills and tighten up on my workload - fast!

Without wanting to be overly critical of large organisations, I have definitely noticed that there just isn’t the same capacity (or tolerance if I’m being completely honest…) for underperformance in a small business.

I remember my old frustration with the “all mouth and no trousers” promotions, rife every March and September throughout the bank, for second-rate staff who happened to have the right connections and a nice line in chatting up managers. However, I also learned (the hard way) that to consider yourself “above” working the politics in a large organisation is to smack your career progression very hard on the head, with a bag of anvils.

I guess the main difference (and my favourite so far) between working for SK Chase and a large corporate organisation, is that the traditional female work ethic of “get your head down and do a good job - somebody will notice” actually works here. To date, there’s been no need for me to find sneaky ways of making sure that my boss’s boss sees my achievements (mostly because my bosses don’t have bosses - but you know what I mean…)

All that said, I don’t regret my time with the bank at all. There are some professional skills you just wouldn’t acquire without working for a heavily regulated, complex and diverse organisation with rules for rules, and for every line manager I had who casually took credit for my work, there was always another who encouraged me to develop and made sure that the decision-makers around them were aware of my potential.

At the end of the day, I couldn’t do what I do now without the benefit of the experience I gained in my large pond, which makes me believe that ultimately size does matter - whether it’s good or bad for you just depends on what type of fish you happen to be.

My top tips for small fish in a big pond:

Make sure your boss’s boss knows who you are and is aware of your achievements.
Take every development opportunity you’re offered. If you’re not offered, then ask for them - at the very least it’ll be a networking opportunity.
Take advantage of the flexibility of a large organisation, move around and do different jobs - you’ll expand your network and acquire useful skills.
Learn the “corporate language” for each area you work in - if you sound like you know what you’re talking about, people will believe you. Bingo - instant credibility!
Don’t assume that the route to promotion is simply doing a good job. Look at colleagues who are being promoted around you- the personal qualities they have (whether you like them or not) are what you might need to start displaying if you want to get ahead.
Remember, the next restructure is probably just round the corner - keep your skills developing and your networks active.
Watch what you say about colleagues and managers - you never know who you might end up working for after the next restructure…

…and then if you find yourself in a small pond:

Try to work for someone who believes in you. You won’t have the same opportunity to move about in the organisation, so it’s really important that you feel valued where you are.
Work hard. Don’t mess about trying to look as if you’re working hard.
Stick to plain English - that “corporate language” you learned in the big pond is great if you happen to need a bank loan, but otherwise you’re likely to be (a) wasting time, and (b) unintelligible.
Don’t underestimate the importance of generating income for the business. A sound piece of advice that my boss gave me about prioritising my work was, “do the stuff that makes money first” - after all that’s where your salary will be coming from.
Be flexible. You can’t afford to hand tasks off to some call centre or other if you don’t fancy doing them - the chances are you are the call centre in one way or another.
Smile - the whole company will see you and will feel good!

Posted in Business Culture | No Comments »

A short history of Mother’s Day…

March 5, 2008 by Elaine Gunn

Ever wondered why the date of Mother’s Day changes from year to year? Looking carefully between the flowers, chocolates and widespread commercialisation of our annual motherly celebration, traces of its origins from all over the world can be found.Thought to have evolved partly from ancient rites of goddess worship in ancient Greece and Rome, and partly from the 16^th Century Christian practice of visiting one’s Mother Church annually, the modern British Mother’s Day is a hybrid celebration, drawing from various cultures.

The change from year to year in our British Mother’s Day is due to the holiday falling on the fourth Sunday after Lent - exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday - in line with its Christian origins. Interestingly, the only other countries to celebrate Mother’s Day on this date are Ireland and Nigeria, with the most popular alternative date being the Second Sunday in May - influenced perhaps unsurprisingly by the United States.

The US Mother’s Day, although thought to have been imported from Britain, was conceived originally as a rally to unite women following the American Civil War, supported by the 1870 Mother’s Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. By 1914, the custom had reached 45 different US states, when President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day - as a day for American citizens to honour the countless mothers who had lost sons in World War One.

Within nine years of its first official celebration, Mother’s Day in the US was already suffering a backlash. Believing that rampant commercialism and marketing associated with Mother’s Day had masked its true significance, the original founder spent her family inheritance campaigning against the holiday, and subsequently died in poverty.

Such is the influence of the US on worldwide culture, that Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Croatia, New Zealand and Iceland. US commercialisation of the holiday has also been mirrored in the increasing profile of the date in Britain, with only traces of its original Christian roots to be found amongst the gifts and cards used nowadays to mark the occasion.

All cynicism over commercialism aside, I’m a big fan of Mother’s Day. Yes, it may have been hijacked by capitalist corporates, however that doesn’t make the card or the flowers I send my Mum any less of a gesture of love and appreciation.

Anna Jarvis, the founder of the US Mother’s Day, who rebelled so spectacularly against commercialisation of the holiday famously ranted; “A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world.” However in these times of casual contact through telephone, email and text messaging, I think a well-chosen printed card received in the post indicates a degree of thoughtfulness that’s often missing from modern relationships.

Just in case I was actually being a bit wide-eyed and naïve, I decided to poll a couple of the girls here for their opinions on Mother’s Day - and here’s what they said…

Lorraine:

“Yes it’s commercial, but it’s still a chance for me to let my Mum know how I feel about her - that I love and appreciate her.”

Jane:

“It reminds you how much you care about your Mum - as well as her. I always make sure I send my Mum a card”

Natasha:

“I was given a Mother’s Day present from my boyfriend’s two kids from a previous marriage. They knew I wasn’t their Mum, but still wanted to say thanks for looking after them - it meant such a lot to me!”

So the long and short of it is (in my humble opinion…) that it’s nice to be nice. At the end of the day, my Mum’s just spent the best part of 30 years looking after me and caring about what happens to me - it’s only right that I should be saying thanks to her every so often!

Posted in seasonal | Tagged history, mothers day | No Comments »

Public speaking tips

December 20, 2007 by Kaye Taylor

I love public speaking. I used to hate it.

I got to a point in my corporate life where I was sick and tired of using the same old methods for presentations and wanted to discover how to come across as a real human being while delivering my talks, rather than a corporate spokesperson.

I wanted to learn and understand how fantastic speakers were able to inject their own personality, humour and really fascinating stories into their presentation.

And I wanted to know how they these inspiring people are able to seem so relaxed and ‘themselves’ when on stage.

So I went on a bit of a personal journey – and learned why my presentations just weren’t doing it for me, (not to mention my audience) and what I’ve done to change that.

I hope these tips will help you significantly improve your overall performance.

Give a powerful performance.

Public speaking is a form of entertainment. It is therefore your responsibility to perform.

Be generous to your audience. Speak from the heart. Give them a part of yourself. Be willing to show them your true self.

Stop thinking about yourself and how nervous you are, or how important it is for the audience to like you and start thinking about the individuals in your audience and how you want to give them something really valuable.

If you really want to transform the way you present, then be willing to put some time, effort and energy into changing the way you prepare and deliver. The results will be so well worth it!

Yes, but how?

I used to give presentations fairly regularly to colleagues and industry peers. I had a formula that I relied upon.

This formula worked, in as much as I was able to stand up and talk confidently, and the audience understood what I said. I may have even shared something with them that they didn’t already know.

But did I leave my audience inspired? Did I reveal my personality? Did I ad-lib at any point?

The answers were consistently no.

Not only that, but for days prior to the presentation I was really, really nervous. I felt highly-strung and would get butterflies on and off right up to the event itself. Afterwards, I would feel absolutely drained and would need to sleep for 18 hours just to recuperate.

My old method for preparing for presentations:

I planned in advance
I knew who my audience was going to be
I thought long and hard about the key messages I wanted to convey
I made sure the content had my audience in mind

So far so good…

I had a script which I memorized
I put together PowerPoint slides with key bullet points on them
I rehearsed in front of my husband
I used imagery where I thought appropriate

This is where it all went pear shaped…

The result?

A word-perfect presentation, lasting the exact amount of time I’d been allocated, but which lacked any genuine enthusiasm, passion or personality.

The above formula, though used by thousands of people around the corporate world, simply doesn’t work.

What I changed

I’d decided to transform the way I gave talks. This is how I did it.

First step:

The first thing I did was to read two books:

Lend Me Your Ears – By Professor Max Atkinson

Life’s a Pitch – Stephen Bayley and Roger Mavity

What I learnt:

Ditch the Powerpoint
Most slides are nothing more than the speaker’s notes and add nothing to the audience’s enjoyment of the presentation.

Pause
Give your audience time to absorb what you have said, this gives far more impact to what you say.

Don’t rehearse in front of people.
It is a fake environment and it will make you feel more nervous. Instead, go through your ideas with people – share with them some of the content to see what they think of it and listen to their feedback. It will help you improve your content and make it more relevant.

Plan, plan and plan. The more thought you put into what you want to include in your presentation, the better it will be.

Rehearse one or two days prior to the event
Do this in private. This means you can try out different ways of speaking, different pitches and placing emphasis on different bits – but don’t rely on a script.

Second step:

I visited a voice coach.

This is where the transformation really occurred. What I learned in the two two and a half hour sessions I had with Bridget Casement from VoiceBusiness (www.voicebusinesstraining.co.uk) was invaluable. If you are serious about improving your presentation skills, increasing your confidence and injecting your own personality into your talk, then I strongly recommend you visit a professional who can coach you.

What I learned:

Improve body language
Whilst my voice projected well, my body posture was very child-like as if to say ‘please like me’.
I learned how to feel relaxed in my own skin and to stand and move confidently.
Be generous to the audience
Focusing on the audience and thinking positive thoughts about how you’re going to entertain them really takes the focus off yourself and relieves your nerves.Bridget explained that thinking something like “You are gonna love this…” as you approach your audience will radiate the right kind of energy. So instead of focusing on yourself, and how nervous you are, concentrate on your audience and how much you want to give them inspiring and interesting stories.

Look at people
Make eye contact with individuals in the audience; it will make you 100% more connected to the whole audience. Remember to look at different people in different parts of the room throughout.

Use mind maps instead of scripts
This has literally transformed the way I give presentations. Instead of remembering pre-written scripts, I now have a wonderful tool to prompt me with stories. This ensures that my real personality shines through, instead of being word-perfect and somewhat robotic.
I recommend you read Tony and Barry Buzan, The Mind Map book.

Breathe properly
Breathing is key to being relaxed. It’s so obvious, but in my opinion it’s the single most important thing to ensuring that you come across as calm and collected.

Warm up the body and the face
By using simple stretching techniques (much like Yoga) and stretching the face, it makes me feel so much more prepared to ‘perform’.

Warm up the voice
Being able to project your voice is a skill. When I first attempted to project my voice, I stuck my chin out and leaned forward, which isn’t necessary. By warming up the voice and doing various exercises, you are able to warm up the vocal chords which helps when projecting your voice.

Practice the walk!
Bridget shared with me that the audience will make a judgment on a speaker just based on the way they walk to the stage! Therefore it’s really important that you ‘start’ your presentation even before you walk into the room. I now walk into a room with my head up and smiling!

Third step:

Say yes when asked to give a talk!

Since I’ve put in practice what I’ve learnt, I’ve learned so much more! As with anything, the more you put into practice what you’ve learned, the easier (and better) it becomes.

Not only that, but each time I give a talk I’m asked by someone in the audience to give another one at a future event – that’s got to be good feedback!

Be a Smile Millionaire

“When you smile and the smile comes from your heart, … your soul smiles through your heart and your heart smiles through your eyes. Then you are a smile millionaire… enriching others souls and enriching yourself.” – Paramahansa Yoganada

One tip for being more relaxed throughout a talk is to smile. It’s unbelievable how much smiling can add to your presentation. I have never felt like the sort of person who can be funny whilst giving a talk. However by simply smiling, it’s amazing what funny anecdotes pop into your head whilst giving a talk.

Feel free

The beauty of not having PowerPoint is that you have nothing to be attached to. I’ve spent so many years relying on slides (as a crutch) that it’s so liberating not to have to use them anymore. Only use slides if it actually aids the audience in some way.

BE on stage.

When you’re on stage, BE on stage.

Allow yourself to enjoy being the centre of attention. Soak up that electric atmosphere of standing on a stage in front of a room full of people, who are all listening to you.

I’ve spoken at events where others have also been speaking. I’m amazed that they choose to stand on the ground on the same level as the audience rather than up on the stage, or that they stand behind a podium. The audience wants to see you; they want to see your face as you share your story with them. If you stand on the same level as them (or behind something), many at the back of the room won’t feel so connected.