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Making a Fortune From Public Speaking

Motivational speaking is a real skill and I recommend watching some of the most popular speakers currently doing the circuit. More often than not they are not breaking ground with anything particularly new, but have the knack of being able to inspire with a fresh twist. There are always presentational lessons to be learned from […]

Small Talk Tips for Holiday Parties

Summertime and the livin’ is easy… at least according to the 25,000+ recordings that have been made of this classic George Gershwin number which he wrote in 1936. However skip forward a tad over 80 years and one wonders if the livin’ is so easy as it once was. Back then, for example, there was […]

Brexit. Give to us straight!

Social media loves the sort of meme that shows a group of photos with accompanying captions stating;  ‘What society thinks I do’, ‘What my friends think I do’ etc, ending with a self deprecating ‘What I really do.’ The Government got served with one last week, courtesy of TV hard man Danny Dyer. For any […]

Using the Head to Win Big

Have you come down with World Cup fever yet? It is an affliction that tends to afflict the non-football crowd just as much as the football crowd every four years. Inevitably there can only be one World Cup winner and from 32 nations competing, 31 will be feeling the pain at some point in the […]

Pitching to Win – New Workshop

We have just launched a new workshop, Pitching to Win, looking at how to work together as a dynamic team, engage and inspire your potential client and leave them wanting to work with you. Pitching to a client is not an exercise in saying how great you are. You need to create dialogue, demonstrate an actual experience […]

Business Vlogging With Confidence

It’s all about video! That’s the word on the street  – or at least a line we often hear from those  signing up to our media training course who seek to launch a business vlog. They are correct of course. Social media thrives on video and this month the Godfather of it all turns 13. […]

Have we forgotten how to listen?

Professional Marketing for PM Forum members magazine has just published an article by Luan de Burgh entitled ‘Have we forgotten how to listen?’ Please see here to read the article.

Saying Sorry Like You Mean It

Saying sorry doesn’t come easily to most people. It’s a word that so often gets stuck in the throat of politicians and business people, and you don’t even want to ask for a lawyer’s opinion on the matter! Why don’t we like to say sorry? None of us get it right all of the time […]

Does Sport Need More Personality?

Professional sport in the Twenty First century owes almost as much to business as it does to feats of sporting prowess. These days successful sports stars are global commodities that can be traded for exorbitant fees, their marketable image just as significant as their silky skills or athletic attributes. As such the rise of the […]

Brexit: EU Negotiators Roll Up Sleeves

The clock is ticking… One year and counting until Britain leaves the EU. Recently I focused on the prominent figures representing the UK in the next round of negotiations. This week I am taking a look at the key characters on the European side of the divide. In the UK we have a rich tradition […]

Sit Down and Learn from a Stand Up

“If you don’t do  stand-up… don’t do stand-up.” When giving a presentation, using humour is good. It can create a connection with an audience, warm up the atmosphere and – dare I say it – introduce an element of fun to proceedings.  Imagine that! However, I am always surprised at how people (many of whom […]

With Great Powerpoint Comes Great Responsibility

Are you a big Powerpoint fan? Many of us are these days. The presentation tool has been around since 1987 and is said to be used by 500 million users worldwide – for the most part very badly. I have lost count of the number of badly prepared Powerpoint sessions I have endured wondering just […]

Three Brexiteers, One Year to Impact

A year from now we will be standing on the edge. Depending on your point of view this will be a springboard or a precipice, as Britain officially severs its ties with the European Union albeit with a handful of bungee chord caveats to slow the leap. I think I speak for the nation when […]

Time to Review your Body Language?

Donald Trump likes to race to the front but doesn’t handle silences so well. Vladimir Putin is often on the back foot while listening but grows as he speaks. Richard Branson likes to fist bump instead of handshake and Mark Zuckerberg will often mimic those he is speaking to. Do you have a signature body […]

Death by Autocue

An ability to stare down the barrel of a camera, or hold eye contact with a crowd while delivering a long and perfectly flawless speech is an enviable skill to have.  It is also a skill that most of us don’t naturally possess! The autocue may not count as one of man’s greatest adventures, but […]