Postcards with Presence

On the power of silence, and how we can use it to great effect in our public speaking.

Looking back on a journey to French wine country - and what I learned along the way.

A conversation in my local park... and why we need to make space in our communications to let the light in.

Scaling up competence - and confidence - on the public speaking path.

A warm, autumnal welcome to Season 2 of Postcards with Presence!

The heat and humidity of summer have finally given way here to bright, blue-sky days and pleasantly cool nights. What would probably be considered an Indian summer in northern Europe.

Autumn is my favourite season. Even if there aren’t many autumn colours on the Mediterranean coast, I love the changing light and increasingly beautiful sunsets.

My first postcard this season comes from the town where I live...

This in-between-seasons, longer episode is an account of an experiment I did inspired by Oliver Burkeman’s TEDx talk, “Why patience is a superpower”.

The experiment involved a beautiful painting of sunset by Turner, a hushed ambience in an art museum… and plenty of patience.

I hope it will spark insights you can apply to your communications - and perhaps inspire you to carry out a similar experiment. I really recommend it!

Here are links to Oliver Burkeman’s TEDx talk:

https://www.ted.com/talks/oliver_burkeman_why_patience_is_a_superpower

And his book, "4,000 Weeks: Time And How To Use It", which I also mention:

https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books

Check out the Turner painting in an article I posted on the subject on LinkedIn – and do connect with me while you’re there!

I’ll be sending more Postcards with Presence your way very soon.

As summer draws to a close and my first season is complete, I'm going to take a short break from sending you Postcards with Presence.

I'll be back in the autumn :)

When I launched my podcast earlier this year, I was inspired by the idea of the postcard to share brief, visual and playful moments of connection.

Sometimes drawing on stories of little moments from my life and how I drew meaning from them, or using images and metaphor to spark ideas for communicating with presence.

My goal is always to help you bring more of you to your public speaking.  

I'd love to know what you think of the show. You can rate it and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts.

And please feel free to share any ideas directly with me via a contact form on my website: carolineharvey.me.

I’d love to hear from you.

You can also sign up to my monthly-ish newsletter, Own Your Voice, for more drops of inspiration and ideas for communicating with confidence, and creativity: carolineharvey.me/newsletter-sign-up

Thank you so much for listening and being a part of this journey - and have a lovely rest of summer, wherever you may be.

A TGV journey through the South of France reminds me that being ourselves at work - with levity, empathy and humanity - can transform the day-to-day into something special.

The book I refer to is "Reinventing Organisations", by Frédéric Laloux.

Changing your mindset from feeling like a rabbit in the headlights... to presenting with purpose and confidence.

Inspiration from stand-up comedy on giving the audience not what they expect... but what they want.