Christine explains techniques on how to introduce a talk or presentation. The kinds of methods used depend on the situation, the culture, the person, the relationship, and the listener. Find out how to get your audience fully engaged from the outset of your presentation with consideration for the ambience of the room, first impressions, a powerful opening, and the emotional buy-in of your listeners.

CHRISTINE REVEALS

• How the COVID lockdown has decreased people’s confidence in speaking to a live and present audience. 
• That first impressions matter and you should consider the room, background, and ambience before you begin.
• The importance of understanding your audience. 
• That your first two lines are of critical importance.
• The secret behind ‘hooks’ and how to use them to gain emotional buy-in.
• The importance of being mindful of cultural references and jokes.
• That creating relevance of the topic to your listeners is paramount.
• That timetabling time for questions can deal with challenging hecklers.

BEST MOMENTS

“One of the most important aspects of a talk or a presentation is its opening. How you open makes all the difference, not only to your audience, but to your own confidence and speaking success.”

“When I was an English teacher I used to put scented bags of essential oils on the radiators before my students came to class to help them feel calm.”

“In with the hook, always backup your data, it’s very important, especially if you want to be credible to an audience.”

“Conviction in your voice, belief in your content and capacity to deliver it, and strategic phraseology cast a spell that commands attention. Respect them, sometimes playfully, but with absolute clarity.”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're looking to impress executives with a presentation, you won't want to miss this episode. Christine shares ten essential tips to help you prepare, structure, and deliver a compelling executive presentation that effectively communicates your solution to their problem. Her guidance covers all stages of the process, and she uses real-world examples to make it easy to apply. Listen in to learn how to make your next executive presentation a success.

CHRISTINE REVEALS:

• Generally, leave the jokes to the comedians.
• When preparing a presentation, look out, not in. Present for your audience and resist the temptation to showcase yourself.
• Use social media to gain insight into who the key members of your audience are. Include a few comments in your presentation that connect with their world view.
• You are presenting to powerful people, be ready to hand the power back to them when you need to.
• Manage your blinks. The more you blink the less you are believed.
• Answer the executives’ questions and show them that you have the solution to their problems.
• If someone tries to undermine you during the presentation, rise above it.

BEST MOMENTS:

“One of the golden rules in presentation, especially across cultures and countries, is not to start with a joke.”

“C-level executives see the answer long before anybody else does. Prepare to be interrupted.”

“Would you believe your argument or your proposal? Executives value conviction.”

“In a second, an executive will spot a number that´s off, logical errors, content errors. Get an expert eagle eye to review your content.”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christine demonstrates how the force, pressure or volume applied to a syllable, word or phrase influences how your message is received in a presentation or conversation. She defines Speaking Power, giving examples of how failing to understand stress techniques when speaking can result in a speaker's message being misunderstood or not being heard at all.

CHRISTINE REVEALS:

• Power is also called ‘Tone Quality’ and is often referred to as ‘Stress’ by English language teachers.
• How we weaken and strengthen sounds in English and link certain word combinations impacts how well an audience can understand what we say.
• When speaking too softly, listeners can lose confidence in the speaker, or when too loud, a speaker can frustrate or alienate the audience.
• A special technique the best orators use to take their audience on a journey as they speak.
• How mastery of these techniques can provide you with the engagement you desire when presenting or communicating in English.

*NOTE: The Phenomenal Presenters Platform Christine mentions is no longer available.

BEST MOMENTS

“A well-used punch of power vibrated within the resonators offers a delightful quality to a speaker’s overall tone.”

“Variability is key. Too soft, an audience may lose trust. Too loud and a speaker can appear overly dominant or emotional and push people away.”

“Languages use stress differently. Some apply the same degree of power to every syllable. Some apply the same degree of duration to every syllable, the same pace. Spanish and French are examples of that.”

“One of the most memorable speeches ever given and still one of the most famous speeches today draws on both of these techniques, three or more, the powerful rule of three when speaking, and on the building to a climax. Which speech, you ask? Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream."

“It’s particularly important to understand this aspect of English, that we weaken and strengthen sounds, that we link certain sounds together.”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever held yourself back when asked to speak or present? Christine addresses situations in which you can be tested or deliberately manipulated, including a personal story of her own, and examines how we can build our defences against negative influences, both external and internal and free ourselves to express with confidence in our abilities and knowledge. Take your first steps to become bulls**t resistant.

CHRISTINE REVEALS:

• How advertising takes advantage of your vulnerabilities to sell to you.
• How our formative years shape us with lessons to be embraced or unlearned to return to the confidence levels we are all born with.
• How confidence is not only dictated by knowledge of the subject but by the perceived difficulty of the task at hand.
• An invaluable piece of advice to help you nurture confidence.
• How to sound confident in professional situations, even if you don’t feel like it inside.

BEST MOMENTS

“People are used to being made to feel afraid then convinced the fearmonger has the solution. It’s happened for decades, more than decades.”

“As we grow and develop in playgroups and preschool and before it, and throughout our lives, so too does our confidence and trust.” 

“In approximately 50% of respondents, confidence was also reflected by the perceived uncertainty of the task at hand.”

 “Confidence isn’t something we can simply change overnight. It’s as layered as the therapist's onion representing our emotions and our experience.”

“I am confident enough in my own learning and experience to share what I am sharing today. It’s helped me, my family members and my clients. I don’t need anyone else to validate its truth.”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christine and Instagram's @teacherblo, AKA Bláithín, share their favourite Irish phrases, alongside some submissions from their followers, in a lively Irish-accented discussion. From insults to the most polite of sayings, listen in to get acquainted with some of the things you might hear during an Irish conversation.

CHRISTINE & BLAITHIN REVEAL:

• The craic at an Irish seisiún is the best in the world!
• The connection between an eejit and a ham child.
• “Deadly!” is not necessarily a warning of danger.
• “Giving out stink” does not denote bad hygiene.
• What it means when the Irish say, "I don't be doing something."

BEST MOMENTS

“There’s something that is universal in Ireland...where the seisiún (session) is having drinks, talking *****, singing, maybe a little bit of dancing and your 'sessioner' would be the person who is good at partying.” -Blaithin

“When you know someone you know how far you can push. You can slag them off or say

things about them that won’t actually hurt them, it just creates a bit of craic.” -Christine

“There’s things that I didn’t even realise were Irish-English until I left the country.” -Blaithin

“A "yoke" is a special word in Ireland - originally the thing used to stuff the thatch into thatched houses years ago, it's now taken on a whole new meaning!” -Christine

“It’s only when you have these interactions with people that aren’t Irish that you realise that it doesn’t actually make a lot of sense, the way we interact with each other, but we

understand.” -Blaithin

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christine considers the history of English in Ireland, how the Irish have ended up speaking better English than the English themselves, and how the connotation of the term ‘native English speaker’ has resulted in unfair bias against communicators who are often multilingual and speak English as a third or fourth language. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• English first came to Ireland in the 12th century. Gaeilge, or ‘Irish’, is the true ‘native’ language of Ireland. 
• When the Tudor monarchs conquered Ireland in the 16th century, English was formally introduced.  
• Hiberno English represents the marriage of two distinct languages, Gaeilge and English.
• So-called ‘native’ speakers do not always know more, understand more, or have the capacity to communicate more proficiently across cultures than so-called ‘non-native’ speakers.
• ‘Non-native’ labelling often results in unnecessary bias and damage to the confidence of the bi or multilingual English speaker.  

BEST MOMENTS 

‘The English language was, let’s use the term, ‘brought', to Ireland by the British as it was to every other country in the world which now calls it their own.’

‘Our leaders allowed the Irish language to be reduced to second language status, finding opportunity and benefit in having a population that used English.’  

‘Ah, the lessons we learn about our own and others’ perceptions! There was a great YouTube short done about a Chinese lad who planned to come to Ireland and decided to learn the native language, but bless him, he learned Irish and then when he got here he discovered that nobody spoke it.’

‘It is time to stop using terms like ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ when referring to speakers of languages’; to stop patronising multilingual employees by saying things like “oh, you pronounced that perfectly”, or worse, stopping them mid-presentation and saying, “could you speak more clearly, I can’t understand your accent.”

CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connected_communication

Website : www.languagecouragecoaching.com

Yu Ming is Ainm Dom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqYtG9BNhfM 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christine explores the legend of St. Patrick, whose legacy turns rivers green, sees parades held all over the world, and tourists, donning bunches of shamrock, flood the streets of Dublin on St. Patrick's Day to find the best pint of Guinness. Where was Patrick really from? Was he really as saintly as the archives would have us believe? Did he really drive out the snakes and "free" Ireland, or would we have been better off without him? As Spring Equinox approaches, explore the lore of Ireland's patron saint and decide which Irish traditions you'd like to keep.

Support the Podcast

Instagram

Christine Mullaney is a TEDx speaker, Podcast Host, Author, Blogger, Speaker, Public Speaking, Presentation and Pronunciation Coach, Neurocultural™ Communication Trainer.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What pace should we use to reach our audience in various situations, and how can we improve our communication using variations of pace? Christine explains how variations of speed, accented syllables, consideration of our listener and our environment can all affect proficiency of communication when it comes to pace. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.