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CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP
Isn’t it amazing how much you learn from kids every day.
Imagine you have a son, and one night you come home from work after your son has just finished a play date with a little girl from school and you ask him, ‘How did your playdate go?’ He says, ‘Good mum….Mum, can girls be the captain of a ship?’. Surprised by the question you answer, ‘yes, girls can be the captain of a ship.’
He looks at you suspiciously and says, ‘Are you SURE mum’.. ( by this stage you’re getting a little annoyed (on behalf of the whole female race) and you answer ‘yes OF COURSE girls can be the captain of a ship. Why? Did you and your friend BOTH want to be captains?’ and he says, ‘Yeah, but mum are you REALLY sure because there are no pictures of girls being captains of ships. BOOM! Wow! Your brain explodes and you wonder in that instance how your 7 year old son in this day and age can be questioning whether a girl can do anything! Because we can do anything we want right??!!
You catch yourself and let the mum (rather than the strong female professional leader) in you kick in first. ‘That’s a very good point. And the reason why you only see pictures of boys being captains of ships is because the books were all written a long time ago, and in the ‘old days’ a lot of people did think that only boys could be the captain of a ship. Today we know that both boys AND girls can be captains of ships. In fact, what we know now is that when we have both boys and girls being the captains of ships we get the best sail out to sea. Your son says, ‘Oh, ok mum’. (and that is that). 🙂
You then continue the conversation with your husband who was in the kitchen the whole time and hadn’t heard anything. ‘Did you just hear that?’ Our son who is 7 and has had a mum working in a leadership position since he was 6 months old has just asked me whether girls can be the captain of a ship! Isn’t that unbelievable?? You know what this means? It means that if our kids don’t physically see females in leadership positions then they’re going to be having the same conversations we are now in 20 – 30 years time!
Soooo what do you want to do? Do you want to change the world or not? If you do then you need to be seen and heard and be able to stand up and have a voice no matter what the circumstance. Don’t miss the opportunities you may be given to step up because you are not confident or effective in the way you communicate when given the spotlight. Many of the worlds most influential and successful people are not necessarily any smarter than anyone else. They have the ability to communicate their ideas persuasively, succinctly and powerfully. They have the ability to inspire others to follow them even when they can’t see the end result. What would your world look like if you too had that skill?
Let’s ensure the next generation is not having the same conversations as we are and that by the time my son is in the workforce there is no need for gender equality talks because that is just the norm. Wouldn’t that be wonderful.
Let us help you hone and polish those hidden skills and Illuminate your story.
Contact us
0409 007 114
carmen@illuminatedstory.com.au
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#dailymotivation #PublicSpeaking #PowerOfPreparation #TakeCommand
‘Everything is possible, even the impossible’.
‘Everything is possible even the impossible’. Mary Poppins.
Over 75% of women and 73% of men have a fear of public speaking. You are not born a great public speaker. It is a skill that can be learnt and developed. Overcome your fear and let us help you hone your hidden skills and help you nail your talk, presentation or pitch. This skill is one worth developing!
It’s the flame of a single candle which will illuminate the darkest souls.
“It’s the flame of a single candle which will illuminate the darkest of souls.”
― Anthony T.Hincks
At Illuminated Story we support companies and individuals in the art of connecting to an audience through a powerful performance. No matter your topic or performance style it is always infinitely more than just a presentation.
Let us help you hone and polish those hidden skills and bring out the Confident presenter inside you.
Practise out aloud.
Presenting is infinitely more than just a presentation. It’s a process of well crafted material to connecting with your audience through to your performance. Don’t forget to practise out aloud or you will scare yourself, the sound of your own voice will put you off, we know you have it in you!
Let us help you hone and polish those hidden skills and bring out the Confident presenter inside you.
Content. Intelligence. Connection. Confidence.
We all have a story to tell an opinion to share, a board to convince or a business to pitch to sell! Each occasion we should strive to reach the stars with a powerful engagement.
At Illuminated Story we support companies and individuals to hone their CONTENT, we help people to build a CONNECTION, highlight their own INTELLIGENCE and gain CONFIDENCE in the art of presenting. No matter your topic or performance style it is always is infinitely more than just a presentation. Let us help you hone and polish those hidden skills and bring out the confident presenter inside you.
Presentation Creation
Whether writing a presentation for a sales pitch, a keynote, or to deliver to your leadership team it can be difficult to get started. If you want your presentation to be GREAT rather than GOOD, it’s important to get the content and structure right first before mastering your delivery. I believe there are four key pillars you need to consider when building any presentation and they are the Why, Who, What and How.
WHY?
I hate to sound generic, but yes Simon Sinek was right when he said, ‘we need to start with Why’. What is the why behind your presentation? What is your purpose for delivering it? 
it to persuade, to sell, to compel, to entertain (always a good ingredient to add on top whether this is your why or not), to convert, to position? Whatever your reason, you must know it, and you must ensure that your presentation speaks to it. This is an important pillar to check in with as you work through your other pillars. Keep coming back to your Why and make sure you stay on point.
WHO?
Once you know the why behind your presentation you need to think about the most important person in your presentation (and it is not you), your audience. Who are you presenting to? If you know your audience, that’s great. You should be able to think about what will resonate with them the most. What interests them, why should they care about what you are about to say?
If you don’t know your audience then you have some researching to do. Just like a marketer needs to gain market and customer insights, you need to gain insights on your audience. It won’t matter what you say or how well you say it, if it doesn’t resonate with the people you are talking too. The same key messages can be tweaked to suit different audiences, as just like in selling, it’s not the features that customers are interested in, it’s the benefits. You need to shape your presentation to ensure your audience are hearing their benefits.
WHAT?
Okay, you now know why you’re delivering this presentation and you know who you are speaking to, now you need to come up with your content – the what. 
What are you going to say? I find the best way to get my/and or my client’s content out is via a post it note brainstorm. What is this? It is simply allowing yourself to put any ideas on a wall using post it notes. You should only use one word per post it and just throw everything out there. When you can’t think of anything else start grouping your post it’s together in groups that relate to the one message, (this is how you will discover your key points). This is also where you can discard content that is not speaking to your Why or to your Who (audience).
HOW?
The final step, and what the creatives of the world would call the fun part. You can now think about how you would like to deliver your message. Does it need any tools to enhance your messages, to support driving your messages home?
When I talk about tools, I’m talking about a slide deck such as power point or key note, whiteboards, flip charts, props, video footage, activities, audience interaction, or none of the above. Tools should only be used if they support you. You are the lead actor and your tools are the supporting cast.
Give this a try when you’re creating your next presentation, and as I tell all of my clients, ‘Practise out a loud or you will scare yourself with your own voice’.
Carmen Sederino
Director and Executive Speaking Coach
Illuminated Story
162 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC, 3000
carmen@illuminatedstory.com.au