What memories does the sound of church bells trigger for you?

For me, it’s a mix of freedom and longing.

In my hometown of Sherborne, Abbey bell practice night was a Tuesday.

The freedom goes back to those heady summer evenings, old enough to be out with friends, but not old enough to have too many responsibilities. We’d head up to the Terrace Playing Fields, with a view of the town and the Abbey, listening to music with no particular purpose than to hang out together and belong, with that feeling of remote infinity.

The longing came from those evenings of study, leading up to end of term or public exams, wanting the windows open for the air but finding the bells a distraction, and wanting to be outside, for the exams to be over and to be rediscovering the freedom.

What does their sound evoke for you?

For more ideas of how and where to find your stories,

download my free Pdf now

‘7 Simple Story Prompts’ 

Rachel Maunder is a...

If you’re stuck for stories, try going through some old photos to trigger some memories.

Here’s mine:

It’s Boxing Day in Sydney Harbour, which means just 1 thing – the start of the Sydney-Hobart Yacht race.

The harbour is full of boats with ticketed places sold at a premium.

And there am I, literally a few hours off my flight, my brain still fuzzy from flying.

I can hardly believe the amazing spectacle in front of me and for me, no ticket necessary.

My friend had secured me a day-job on the boat he worked on. I collected dirty glasses, sworn not to mention I wasn’t regular staff, giving upbeat replies to people showing concern that I was expected to work so soon after arriving in town.

Funnily enough, I didn’t mind at all!

Why not look out some of your photos and share the stories behind them?

For more ideas of how and where to find your stories,

download my free Pdf now

‘7 Simple Story Prompts’

Rachel Maunder is a...

What do you do when you’re asked to give a presentation and the one you’ve already prepared doesn’t quite match the brief?

I used to spend unnecessary time starting again from scratch, or even worse, turned down opportunities due to lack of time to prepare a new talk.

But not anymore. With a bit of creative crafting, it’s usually possible to adapt the piece you’ve already prepared.

Different angle? Spotlight the part of your content that touches on the new angle and bring that to the fore. Include another story to illustrate the angle.

Ask a reflective question inviting the audience to consider your content from the angle you’ve been asked to address.

Different audience? Include different stories more relevant to them. Include something to let them hear you know who they are and what they do.

Sometimes an added sentence, question or short story is all that’s needed.

For more help with creating and crafting your content, hop...

It’s probably no longer a shocking secret that you have just 7 seconds in which to make an impression and this applies to any scenario in which you are in front of someone new. Whether you’ve just walked into a room for an interview, been introduced to a prospective client or just taken centre stage to give your stunning presentation, the 7 seconds still applies.

No doubt we can all think of an example where we did change our mind for the better about someone who didn’t do so well in that 7 second test but in my experience, but why take the risk?

Why not make every effort to prepare that stunning preparation so that it’s stunningly good rather than stunningly poor?

Plan, prepare, practise are the well known alliterative maxims for a good presentation and I would add poise, presence and being pithy.

There are many more but let’s focus on those for now.

Plan

Plan what you want to say ahead of time. Choosing to wing it or letting the words come to...

Back in the day, before I knew better, I used to think that well-delivered good content with a clear call to action would be enough to get around the one glaring thing that was holding me back from being a great speaker.

Now I know better and want to explain why, in case you’re still one of the many business professionals who still believe that good content is enough.

So, let’s have a deeper look at those beliefs and then I’ll go on to explain why, on their own, they’re not enough to get that all important audience engagement that leads to more business.

Confident delivery

This is the biggest grey area or blind spot I come across when it comes to public speaking and presenting your business. I have literally had people say to me ‘I’m really lucky not to need your services as I’ve always been a confident speaker’, only to watch them go on to deliver a really boring, badly structured talk – but confidently delivered, for...

 If you’re fed up with being told to include more personal stories in your presentations, I know how that feels.

For several years, having entered the world of speaking as part of my business model, I struggled to find my own stories.

Despite the assurance from anyone offering me feedback that ‘you do have a story, everyone does,’ I still couldn’t see why anyone would want to hear my very ordinary and unexceptional story.

What didn’t help was that I had the good fortune to hear a lot of excellent speakers sharing their incredible, awesome and powerful stories, making mine seem even more insignificant and unworthy of being aired in public.

Does any of that resonate with you?

I tried to convince myself that I could get around the story issue by making sure I gave good content and delivered it competently. What more could I do, because you can’t make stories up, can you?

I still don’t really know what happened to shake the penny down, but...

Standing up in front of a group of prospective clients and/or potential collaborators is such a useful thing to do, and yet so many business owners shy away from it or worse still, do it badly. 

Having a well-constructed 15-minute presentation up your sleeve allows you to say ‘yes’ at the drop of a hat when an opportunity to present your business comes up, perhaps at a networking meeting or at a professional seminar.  

Speaking about your business gives you an opportunity to present yourself as an expert in your field and will ultimately help you get more clients – when you do it well. 

I’ve heard a lot of business owners give lots of valuable information, and often do so with confidence and clarity, and yet the audience remembers little of what was said. 

Putting your content into a simple structure that can be easily followed, understood and remembered will make you more memorable than the next speaker...