Hello Reader, When you’re asked to give a presentation, what is the first thing you think about? Is it what you do well? Or does your mind immediately begin listing everything you’re not good at? Maybe you worry that you don’t sound confident enough. Perhaps you use too many slides, forget your words, speak too quickly, or struggle to command the room. Before you have even started preparing, you are already concentrating on your weaknesses. I used to do this too. Then I heard a story about a...
20 days ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, One question I think everyone has one their mind when they want to learn public speaking “How long will it take me to become a good public speaker?” Three months? A year? Fifty speeches? My answer is usually: wrong question. Public speaking doesn't have a graduation day. I think the learning curve of a speaker follows five stages. I call it the SPARK Journey. S — SEE: Get Curious Every improvement starts when you notice something you cannot yet do. Perhaps you watch someone...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, This week, 63 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech. I'm not going to analyse it. Plenty of people have, and you've heard the famous line anyway. I want to do something else. I want you to be him. For five minutes. It's Tuesday night You're 34. You're in a hotel room in Washington. Tomorrow, a quarter of a million people are going to stand in front of you, in the heat, waiting for you to say something worth the bus ride. You've been working on the...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, Yesterday, Amsterdam once again reminded the world why it is such a special city. The canals were overflowing with colour, music, laughter, and celebration. Every bridge seemed packed with people cheering complete strangers. For a few hours, labels disappeared, and joy took over. It was also wonderful to see our Prime Minister Rob Jetten smiling and waving throughout the celebrations, sharing in the energy of a city that truly came alive. As I walked through the crowds, one...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, Here's something most speakers forget: your audience isn't just listening. They're watching. Constantly. Neuroscientists call it the social brain — the network your mind runs to read other people. And it never switches off. Even as you speak, part of every listener is scanning your face, your eyes, your posture, deciding one quiet thing: can I trust this person? The proof is in the wiring. We have a patch of brain — the fusiform face area — devoted entirely to reading faces. The...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Here's the trap. You've got two minutes. So you take your ten-minute talk and just... talk faster. You cram the story. You dump the details. You sprint to the finish line. And the audience drowns. Less time is not less of the same speech. It's a different job. But most speakers never see that — they treat two minutes like a sped-up ten, and lose the room. And here's what it costs you. When you overstuff a short slot, the audience doesn't think "how thorough." They think "this...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, The era of the speaker on a pedestal is coming to an end. For decades, public speaking was built around a simple model: one person speaks, everyone else listens. The speaker was the expert, the audience was the receiver, and communication flowed in one direction. But now, that approach feels increasingly outdated. People today don’t want speeches delivered from a throne. They want participation. They want ownership. Most importantly, they want autonomy. We’re living in a world...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Conversational public speaking is the ability to speak to an audience the same way you would speak to a trusted colleague across a table ,natural, clear, human, and connected. It doesn’t mean being casual or unprepared. It means communicating in a way that feels authentic rather than rehearsed. And today, this skill matters more than ever. Audiences no longer connect with overly polished presentations or robotic delivery. Whether you’re leading a team meeting, presenting to...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Greetings from Taiwan. Let's talk about an important skill today, that isn't discussed a lot. Listening. Executive presence is often mistaken for the ability to command a room with powerful words. But in reality, some of the most impactful leaders don’t dominate conversations, they elevate them through listening. In every meeting, you’ll notice three kinds of listeners. The first is bbarely there. Eyes on the phone, mind elsewhere, offering the occasional nod. Presence: absent....
6 months ago • 1 min read