Being in Control…

Photo From Brighton Chamber by Ashley Lashmar Ford

Don’t we all just want to be in control of a conversation, pitch or presentation? I think the worst feeling is often when we have lost control of what we are saying, how we are saying it or what we are sounding like.

I seem to be talking about this more and more with clients lately. We were never given any tips or tricks to help us feel in control of our nerves, therefore good communication goes out the window.

I help clients to gain awareness of how they speak and communicate. Once you know what you do we can work on tips and techniques to help you speak with ease, clarity and confidence.

Working with the mind, body and voice in all this is essential because tension in your body (from nerves) changes your breath and speech is powered by breath.

Do you ever walk out of a meeting or finish a call thinking “I wish I hadn’t said that,” or “why didn’t I say X or Y?”. What we say when we are put on the back foot or nervous is not very reflective of our actual knowledge or experience.

My top tips right now to stay in control are to:

1) Ground yourself
Really plug your feet into the floor, hip width apart and relax the knees. Distribute your weight through both feet evenly.

2) Breathe into the belly
Get the breath low and slow and focus much more on the out breath rather than pulling lots of breath in. This should calm you down.

3) Pause when you are speaking!
It is TERRIFYING! I know. But…try your best to take a pause and let things sink in with the audience. You will end up being much clearer with what you want to say in the process too.

Good luck, you can definitely take back some control of what you are saying to get heard.

You can book in a call if you have any questions here: https://calendly.com/speakingworks
Or get in touch to book an initial coaching session: jude@speakingworks.co.uk