Commit to Presence & Presentation Mastery

How skilled are you at presenting? How activated and consistent in spotlight moments is your Charismatic Presence, the magnetic life-force that, nurtured and unfettered, moves people into leaning into and not away from you? Wherever you are in your trajectory as a speaker and communicator, you are never fully "done." There's always something more to learn that can take you to ever greater levels of excellence. Peak performers of all kinds understand this and commit to developing mastery in their chosen disciplines over the course of their lives. They understand the value of pushing themselves to move toward the next level of artistry and are willing to step again and again into the murky middle of discomfort between what they know and what they don’t know yet.

Think Like An Actor And Move Towards Mastery

It pays to think like an actor and commit to presence and presentation mastery by engaging in regular activities designed to keep you centered, fired up, and progressing as a speaker and communicator.

In my third book, Charismatic Presence: 5 Principles for Magnetic Presentations, which will be released by Indiebooks International in January 2025, I share a list of twelve practices that can help you burnish your presence and presentation skills over time. Here are five practices from that list I hope you consider adopting.

Five Ways to Level Up Your Presence and Presentation Skills

1.Ask yourself The Four Questions?. After every spotlight moment you engaged in, ask yourself the following: Did I solve my intention? What went better than expected? What didn’t go as well as I’d hoped? What could I do differently the next time? Then honor the answer to the final question by taking a different action or approach for your next presentation.

2.Commit to caring for your voice, body, and head, the tools you rely on as a speaker. This means regularly doing exercises to warm up and strengthen your body (yoga, strength training, walking—whatever gets you moving) and your voice (do tongue twisters, hum your favorite tunes, take voice lessons, refrain from yelling and potentially hurting your vocal cords, use a microphone when you’re speaking to more than thirty people for over thirty minutes). And be vigilant about your mental health: Get a good therapist if you need help managing anxiety or stress; meditate or do mindful breathing regularly; write your wrongs out in a journal.

3.Push yourself to level up by trying something a little scary—like standing up and presenting if you’re used to sitting when you give a talk, speaking in front of a larger audience than you’re accustomed to, or volunteering to be first or last in a lineup of speakers (if neither is something you’d prefer to do).

4.Videotape and watch your presentations, both when you’re giving them to an audience and when you’re rehearsing them (easy to do on Zoom or other such virtual platforms). Yes, I know it’s painful, but it’s the only way you’ll see, hear, and learn what tics and habits might be getting in the way of your efforts as a speaker, as well as what is working and flowing well.

5.Work with a coach to help you create and rehearse presentations and help you minimize any habits and behaviors that are keeping you from performing at your peak.

The more you commit to practices that encourage presence and presentation mastery, the more confident and engaging you will be as a communicator and speaker, and the more your Charismatic Presence will grow and strengthen over time.

Need support in becoming more masterful as a speaker and radiating a maximized Charismatic Presence?? Reach out to me and let’s have a conversation!