2-Minute Tip: 3-Fer

 

This week's tip comes from our special guest, Pradeepa Narayanaswamy and is a 3-pack of tips.

 

1. Wear comfortable clothes. That doesn't necessarily mean loose. It means clothes in which you feel comfortable and powerful.
2. Practice power poses and do vocal warm ups before going on stage. You can check out Amy Cuddy's work for more details on poses. For vocal exercises, go ahead and make sounds and loosen up to get comfortable. You can even step into the bathroom before you speak to do this. Bonus: you may end up with an entire public restroom to yourself as you make theses sounds to loosen up.
3. When someone asks if you're nervous, say instead, "I'm excited." Even announce on stage how excited you are. The body responds similarly to nervousness and excitement so embrace the mindset that best prepares you for success.

 

Post Tip Discussion: Meet Pradeepa Narayanaswamy

 

Pradeepa is a corporate trainer, speaker, and fertility coach whose mission in life is "to help men's women's, and couples' infertility journey suck less."

 We talk about how she group up in the public speaking world, first learning by watching her father, and later being coached by him when she entered the world of competitive speech. She developed a natural rhythmic style that came through as we spoke. It's one of the things that makes Pradeepa a compelling speaker.

 She brought those skills to her new found passion as a fertility coach. This is not a journey anyone seeks out. It's the result of her own, long struggle with infertility. She talks about the details and heartbreak of these struggles over at the Biz Babes with Soul podcast.

 

Conferences have played an important part in Pradeepa's evolution from developing new skills and understanding around the importance of listening to giving her an opportunity to experiment with branding and publicly embracing her new identity.

 We also talk about the challenges of talking about a subject many folks don't want to talk about publicly, and how Pradeepa benefited from doing just that.

So take a few minutes this week, and get to know the fascinating Pradeepa Narayanaswamy.

 

This week's links

 

• Pradeepa's Coaching Site -- Lives-Transformed.com
• Pradeepa's interview on Biz Babe's with Soul
• Pradeepa's LinkedIn article "Claiming My Niche"
• Pradeepa on Twitter
• Amy Cuddy on TED

 

Call To action

 

• What are your thoughts on this week's episode? Have you found yourself speaking about taboo subjects from stage? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comments below.
• Check out Pradeepa's site for more information or to learn how you can work with her.
• Do you listen to 2-Minute Talk Tips on an Apple device? Visit the Apple Podcasts store to leave us a rating or review
• Don't get best...get better.