Kat Millar

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3 Little-Known Things That Kill Your Presentations

Most uccessful coaches, experts, and entrepreneurs use events to attract and sign up clients because it is the quickest way to build trust with your ideal audience.

By mastering the art of presenting and inspiring people to take action, you can position yourself as an expert and authority figure.

This leads to deeper relationships with potential clients as they get to know you better through video or Zoom, ultimately choosing you over other options.

Effective presenting is a craft that can transform your life both professionally and personally. By honing your presentation skills, you can work from home, achieve financial success, and boost your confidence.

You don’t need to be a super polished or charismatic speaker to learn this craft – anyone can do it.

Developing the ability to communicate your thoughts and ideas in a compelling way will also improve your communication skills in all areas of life.

Presenting is more than just a skill, it’s a game-changer that can elevate your personal and professional life.

However, there are some common mistakes presenters make that can be fatal and prevent people from watching, engaging, or even signing up to work with you.

It’s crucial to identify and avoid these mistakes to maximise the impact of your presentations.

In this video I share 3 little-known mistakes that kill your presentations.

You can watch the video here:

The 3 Little-Known Things That Kill Your Presentations.

1. Winging it, not crafting it

When you don’t take the time to craft your presentation properly when you’re just winging it, rather than crafting it without any type of structure that you’re following.

You can miss so much of your audience.

Because we all think in different ways.

There’s been so much research done on psychology and human behaviour and the way we process information that if we don’t follow the way the human brain naturally goes, we lose people.

The purpose of the presentation is for the audience, not for you. You are not there to process and download and work things out as you go.

You want to make sure that you have a framework that you’re following.

Always start with why then go into the what followed by the how to.

2. Focusing on yourself, not on the audience

If your nerves are making you so self-conscious, you’re thinking about yourself and not your audience.

It ends up that you’re not able to be really present and allow the flow to come through you, because you’re so busy thinking about yourself.

The more you think about your audience, the less nervous you’ll be.

3. Under sharing, or over sharing

A lot of people say to me, “How do I know what’s over-sharing and giving too much?” “How do I know what’s not giving enough?

Under sharing is being stingy and holding back from giving.

It’s so important, if we want to build trust, that we give plenty of free value, I find that the more give, the more clients I get.

We always have to provide great value whether that’s free or not. It’s not just oh, I’m going to hold back all of my awesome value only for my paying clients.

We’ve got to give substance content that has real-life application, even if it’s for free.

Now on the flip side is oversharing.

I used to do this all the time. Whenever I ran an event, I’d give so much away like this massive banquet and people would leave really full.

But it can be a disservice to people if they feel that they can go and do it on their own.

You want your presentations to give lots of value but you don’t want to give too much.

You always want to leave people satisfied and hungry for more.

There is a sweet spot in the middle between being generous and not giving away everything you have all at once.

There are many factors depending on where people are at in their journey, how much they’ve absorbed from you, or really how well they know you.

I’m going to be unpacking these factors in the upcoming workshop as well as so much more.

I’m sharing the formula that I’ve created “The clients from workshops formula” that I’ve used for the last 15 years.

To help you get clients from events, whether that’s workshops, webinars, master classes, or anytime that you show up to present.

I’m sharing how to create a really effective presentation where you craft it in a way that overcomes or dissolves any objections that they have if it’s the right person for you.

It positions you as the expert and the authority…

…and it really creates that desire for what you want.

How to deliver it with value getting that sweet spot. Making sure that it attracts and signs up the right people.

I’m also sharing how to market your workshops so that the right people come not just any people.

I’m doing it all without any complex tech. Without you having to do any sales calls. Or any of that kind of hustling tactics.

…It’s very elegant…

This powerful 1-day online workshop takes the best of what I’ve learned from running 300+ events and lays it all out in a simple system.

I think you’re going to absolutely LOVE How To Get Clients With Online Workshops

It’s limited to 30 seats only 

How To Get More Clients With Online Workshops
Why this event is different from other events you’ve attended…
  • It’s PACKED with Valuable, Tangible Tools & Strategies You Can Apply Straight Away to create FAST and lasting changes. It is NOT a pitch-fest. It offers tried-and-tested techniques that WORK and ENDS the confusion.

  • ​​It’s About Action: It’s not about just sitting and listening. Throughout the day, you’ll start implementing what you’re learning. You’ll be guided through the clear steps you need to create your own workshop plan, and walk away with key takeaways and clear actionable steps.

  • ​​It’s Designed Specifically For Women: As women, most of us process and absorb information differently to most men. We typically need more time to express and connect over what we’re hearing to bring it to life for us. This workshop includes plenty of time to connect, ask questions, and discuss what you’re learning, so you retain it better.

  • ​​Access To A Wealth Of Experience: It’s Being Presented By ‘Amplify Your Influence’ Expert Kat Millar, who has 18 years of experience in business and has helped completely transform the businesses and lives of thousands of individuals.

  • ​​It’s A Personal & Intimate Environment: This workshop is limited to just 30 people to create a more personal and intimate space. This more effectively maximises your learning experience and allows for a tailored approach, and more of your specific questions to be answered. 

Check out How To Get Clients With Online Workshops

Until next time, keep showing up and sharing your message because the world needs it.

Big love, see you soon

Kat xo

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How To Use Your Tonality To Come Across More Confidently

Want some simple hacks for how to use your voice to come across more confidently?

 

 

In order to come across more confidently, we have 3 ways to do it:

  1. Our body language (posture, gestures, facial expressions etc.)
  2. How we say it (tonality)
  3. What we say (the words)

This is part 2 of a 3-part series on confidence about the different communication styles of confidence.

In part 1 I share how to use more confident body language.

In this article, I talk about tonality – how we say things.

Our language is like musical rhythm and melody. There are seven notes in the musical scale. And we can take our voice up and down.

Think about the pitch, the power, the pauses and the pace of the way that we speak. We can use the variety of these things within our tonality to come across more or less confident.

At both a conscious and an unconscious level, we can tell when someone’s confident by the way they express the words coming out of their mouth.

The words coming out of our mouth is only about 7% of communication – that means about 93% of our communication is body language and tonality.

Tonality makes up about 38% of our total communication.

To come across more confident as a business owner or in the workplace, it comes down to three things – our body language, our tonality and the words we speak.

You know very quickly when someone is unconfident.

Think now about an unconfident person – the way they speak.

Our brain is wired to be able to pick up if someone is certain and confident and sure themselves or not because we tend to trust people more if they’re more confident.

So you’re already doing this at an unconscious level.

Now think of the most confident person you know. Think about the tonality, how they actually speak. They do certain, predictable things that project confidence.

What are those things? Here are 3…

1. Speak With More Volume

People who are confident, generally speak louder.

There are quiet people who are quietly confident too and don’t feel the need to speak loudly.

It’s about finding the sweet spot.

You will probably know where you sit in the spectrum.

The most important thing is to bring awareness to where you’re at and whether you need to speak louder, clearer and stronger.

I’m sure you’ve been in a meeting where there’s someone who speaks super loud, and they actually get a lot of attention. Even if it annoys you, they do generally come across as more confident if they’re speaking louder.

Sometimes it’s to compensate for them NOT being confident.

But in many cases, when people want to increase their confidence, I notice that they could increase their volume.

So, if you want instantly be noticed or respected more and if you want people to perceive you as more confident, start increasing your volume.

I used to speak so quietly. I was so unconfident and when I was in a meeting, I would speak so timidly and shy.

I remember being in this boardroom meeting when I first was working for a big company. And my Supervisor asked me to speak, and she kept saying “Speak up Kat, we can’t hear you”

I remember not liking the attention not liking people’s eyes on me. And so I just spoke really, really quietly.

But, as soon as someone speaks quietly, for example, if someone stands up in a meeting or at a networking event and speaks really softly, it’s often a sign they’re not too confident in what they’re saying.

If you’re really shy and timid and nervous about what you’re saying, you’ll probably speak really quietly, and you probably won’t get that respect and that confidence from other people that you’re looking for.

If you currently speak quietly and you want to be heard more and be more confident – you may need to turn up the volume knob.

I’m not saying shout… I’m saying project confidence.

Even if it feels uncomfortable (which it probably will), if you’ve been speaking quite quietly for a long time, it’s going to take practice.

Confidence is going to come as a by-product of competence.

As you take lots of action in your life, and get better at stuff and build your skill acquisition and you get more knowledge you become more confident.

As you start facing your fears and doing things like public speaking and Facebook Lives and webinars or going out and making sales calls, you will find it way easier to speak with confidence and naturally have a higher volume.

Whatever it is that you’re doing to face your fears and get stronger and more confident as a person will help.

That’s going to be a byproduct of being more confident naturally.

But you can also be perceived as more confident instantly by just turning it up, so that’s an easy little hack you can do straight away.

Just start speaking louder and you will most likely be perceived as more confident.

2. Take your intonation across, or down

Intonation is the rise and fall of your voice. Think of musical notes.

If you are asking a question, it’s ok to go up in your intonation at the end of the question.

But if you go up in your intonation when you end your statements, it sounds as though you are questioning what you’re saying.

you’re when you’re

When you’re speaking to a client or potential client, speaking on video, on a webinar or at a workshop, you want to make sure that when you’re making statements that go across or down in their inflection.

In order to come across more confident, you want to train yourself to only go up if you’re asking a question.

If you’re not asking a question, go straight across, or go down. Deal?

This is particularly common with women. Often women speakers go up at the end of their statements.

I’ve had to really work on this habit and I still am not perfect at it, but working on it.

I tended to have a bit more of an apologetic way of speaking that I’ve had to really work on and train myself out of it.

One way to do this is to read yourself books, such as children’s storybooks and practice coming down or practice going across in your statements.

Newsreaders are brilliant at this. So if you do want to practice this, if you do find yourself going up a lot, then you might want to pay attention to newsreaders because they’re actually trained to go across and down.

Unless you’re asking a question or unless you’re trying to build rapport, and going up is a way of softening what you’re saying. So if you’re saying something harsh or direct, you can add that little flick up at the end, if you just kind of want to soften it a little bit and not come across quite so forceful or direct.

You’ve got to know who you’re speaking to, what they’re going to respond with.

And remember, it all comes down to outcome, what outcome do you want? If you’re going to show certainty and have people respect you and listen to you, you do not want that ‘questioning’ inflection, unless you’re asking questions.

3. Lower your pitch

People who speak with a deeper voice are typically seen as having higher status. A new study in Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests lowering your pitch also increases how you perceive yourself and makes you feel more powerful.

The study showed that students who spoke in a deep voice were perceived as more powerful by both themselves and their peers.

The implications are summed up by the researchers simply:

” This would add a simple and generally available instrument to your strategic arsenal: your own voice. The lowering of your own voice could then be used not only to influence others but also to influence yourself.”

I used to have a higher voice, and I trained myself to speak lower. Now a lower, a lower pitch is again a byproduct of becoming confident. So my voice actually got lower.

Just practice it, and you will no doubt come across as more confident. S

If you have a high pitched voice, like a higher note on the musical scale, straight away your positioning, authority and expertise often lowers in the mind of the listener. It usually happens at an unconscious level.

If you think about it, often mums who have quiet, soft or high pitched voices, often get the Dad to step in. And often that masculine can bring a feeling of safety and trust.

I remember when I was a kid the blinds caught on fire. I distinctly remember wanting my Dad to come home and hearing his voice as he came in, it was like I felt safe with that lower, deeper voice.

I’m not saying be overly masculine, but just by having that slightly lower pitch, you likely will find that you’ll get more respect and will come across as more confident.

So those are three ways you can have come across more confident by using your tonality.

1. Speak with more volume

2. Take your intonation across, or down

3. Lower your pitch

Give it a go. I’d love to hear what you think.

Remember to be real. there’s a side of you that’s confident turn up that side.

Don’t be fake. Don’t be inauthentic. Don’t come across super weird.

Just adjust those ‘knobs’ on your tonality and bring the bring the volume up, bring the intonation across and bring the pitch down and you will definitely find that people perceive you differently.

Test it out and let me know how you go.

I wish you all the success in coming across as more confident!

Kat xo

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How To Have The Body Language Of Confidence

Have you noticed how one person can appear super confident, while another person comes across as unconfident – even if both people are saying similar things?

Confidence is not just about what we say, but what our body is saying as we say it.

I think you’ll agree, if someone has really unconfident body language, you can tell straight away they don’t fully value or believe in themselves, or what they’re offering.

Our body language is a reflection of our confidence.

In this video and article, I share with you how to have the body language of confidence.

This is part 1 of a 3-part series about how to have the language of confidence.

 

 

Think about influence. If you’re a business owner, if you’re a coach or any kind of service provider, that person is buying in to your confidence, right?

People are not going to buy from you if you are not confident in yourself and what you’re offering.

Have you ever made a significant purchase, actually invested quite a lot of money in something where the salesperson or the service provider was really unconfident?

Probably not right?

Because we buy off people who have confidence and boldness in what they’re offering.

They believe in themselves, they know their worth and their value.

You have to be confident in three different ways.

The first way is your body language.

Body language is estimated to be roughly 55% of our communication.

It’s not just about what we say, but it’s how we say it. It’s about what our body is saying.

Our tonality, the way we say something is about 38% of our communication, and words are only about 7%.

A lot of trainers focus on the words – what to say, and our words are really important. I’m going to cover that in the third part of this series.

But in this article, I share tips on body language, because it can really make or break your ability to sign up clients your ability to make an offer confidently and make a sale.

Recently I was asked by a company to come in and train their staff on how to be more engaging and market themselves better.

We were brainstorming in this meeting yesterday and talking about all the different things that stop people from taking action, from being inspired to buy, and act.

And the first thing that we decided to start with is communication skills.

Because you can have the most amazing product or service in the world.

You can have all the written copywriting in place.

But if you are not inspiring, influential and confident in the way you deliver it, people are unlikely to buy it.

 

There are 3 main things that make up confident body language.

 

1. Open body language

When you first meet someone, they are making a first impression of you within about the first few seconds.

People are sizing you up and judging you. We have to, because it keeps us safe, right? We’ve got this in-built judging part of us to protect us, we want to know if that person is trustworthy, if that person is safe.

Part of our brain is scanning the body language to make sure that that person can be trusted. The more closed we are, the less confident we look.

So when you meet someone at a networking event, for example, if your body language is closed, people automatically, at an unconscious level discount you and lower you in your positioning inside their mind.

When you meet people – are you crossing your arms?

Are you putting your hands behind or body or clasping your hands in front of you?

At an unconscious level, this sends out signals to the person that you’re communicating with that you are not open to them.

And closed people aren’t usually warm, and are usually less trustworthy.

When I get people up in my workshops to stand in front of the group, pretty much everyone closes up, crosses their hands or arms or puts their arms behind their back -whatever it is that makes them feel less threatened.

Closed body language makes you appear more nervous and less confident.

So make sure that when you’re standing talking to someone that you keep your arms at your side, or use your hands purposefully.

It can be a really hard thing to do.

The most important thing you can practice with body language is standing with your arms directly at your side.

I remember as a personal trainer, I was taught when I’m training my client to stand with my arms at my side.

It was one of the hardest habits I had to get out of.

And when I did professional speaker training, they made us stand with our arms by our sides for days when we were presenting, to get us out of that habit of closing our body or fidgeting.

We often just go to this pattern unconsciously and don’t even realise we’re doing it. So you’ve got to train yourself. You need to practice it. It’s probably going to feel weird at first, but practice, practice, practice.

If you’re calm, and certain and confident, then you can easily just hold your hands at your sides.

When you’re in a meeting, when you’re speaking on video, when you’re chatting with a client, are you using open or closed body language?

It matters.

Also, remember to use your hands. Your hands add flavour, interest and colour to what you’re talking about.

Don’t overdo it; don’t be distracting. But just use your hands naturally as where they want to move to.

2. The body language of certainty

People who are certain about what they’re saying use certain body language.

Using gestures with your palms down shows certainty.

Using strong hand gestures where your hands are straight and in a natural position with your palms facing each other is also a certain position.

You can also use your hands to drive your point home.

With certain body language, you’ve got to read the situation.

Body language is not ‘one size fits all’, it’s about using what is appropriate for the person or people you’re with.

Standing tall with your head up is also a certain body language pose.

If you’re on stage and you want to come across confident, you want your body language to be bigger.

Certain language is bigger. Compare it to people who are very shy and nervous and awkward – their body language is small and more tucked in. They try and make themselves small to take up less room and not be so seen.

Very confident people try and take up more space.

It’s very similar to the animal kingdom, animals that are trying to exhibit their territory or their power or go really big.

Think of a peacock, or a gorilla beating its chest.

3. Symmetrical body language

Another body language of confidence is symmetry.

As soon as you tilt your head to the side, as soon you put your lips to one side, or lean on one hip or put your weight on one side, you look less confident.

Asymmetrical posture makes you look more confusion and less confident in what you’re saying.

When we’re certain we have symmetry: our feet are together, we stand with even weight on both feet, and we’re not tilting or leaning or torso or head at all.

If you want to come across more confident in your body language, this is a simple hack that you can apply straight away.

If you’re making an offer to someone, avoid going asymmetrical in your body language.

If you do it too much, you’ve lost it – it’s usually game over.

The body language of confidence is very symmetrical.

It doesn’t mean being stiff and forced. Just bring awareness to it and think about how you may be coming across and being perceived by people.

If you want to come across more confident, if you want to command more respect from people – and you can still do it in a nice, friendly, open, warm way – be symmetrical.

Symmetry is one of the most important parts of confident body language.

It doesn’t mean you’re symmetrical all the time, but when you’re delivering your message or presenting your offer, having enough symmetry in your body language is crucial.

So, to recap the 3 parts of confident body language

1. Open body language

2. Certain body language

3. Symmetrical body language

So, how’s your body language?

Are you being open, certain and symmetrical when you’re making your offers?

The first step is awareness.

I have hundreds more tips on influence and how to attract clients and inspire them to sign-up to what you’re offering.

If you’d like help in this area, I’d like to offer you a free, private 1-1 strategy session.

Together, we’ll create a game-plan on your best next steps to being a more influential business owner who gets results.

Click this link to book your free 45-minute strategy session.

Business is too hard to do alone.

So don’t struggle, make sure you reach out, I’d love to help you overcome your business challenges and get the results you deserve.

Kat

 

 

 

 

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