Speaker 1: All right, next up this morning, we are diving into
Speaker 1: a powerful guide for anyone who wants to own the stage,
Speaker 1: whether it's a boardroom, a webinar, or a keynote. Joining
Speaker 1: us is Dnestri, Play, professional speaker coach and creator of
Speaker 1: the speaker Ignite program, and she's here to talk to
Speaker 1: us about her book Ignition. Three Steps to Drive from
Speaker 1: Newby or three Steps to Drive from Newby Presenter to
Speaker 1: expert speaker. It's packed with speaker hacks, visuals and practical tools.
Speaker 1: It's not just a book, it's a full on transformation
Speaker 1: manual for presenters of all levels. Good to have you.
Speaker 2: Hello, Hi Mourning, I'm well, I'm well. Listen.
Speaker 1: Tell us what expired this book, Why inspired the book?
Speaker 1: Why why did you feel the need to write it now?
Speaker 3: I felt the need to write it because I felt
Speaker 3: that there were a lot of individuals like myself who myself,
Speaker 3: I struggled with speaking when I started going into corporate
Speaker 3: and needing to present to teams and at executive board levels.
Speaker 2: And no one.
Speaker 3: Actually gives you the structure on how to speak. They
Speaker 3: give you the position, they say congratulations, all the best
Speaker 3: with you, but no one actually tells you when you
Speaker 3: have to do your first board presentation. How to structure
Speaker 3: that message? And it really came out of my early
Speaker 3: corporate career. I was asked to present to as senior executives.
Speaker 3: I was prepared, I was excited, I was even confident,
Speaker 3: But when that moment came, I froze, I stuttered, I
Speaker 3: forgot my words. I wasn't actually nervous, I was just overwhelmed.
Speaker 3: And that experience just shattered me. But it inspired me
Speaker 3: to become a better version of myself, and it set
Speaker 3: up this part to redefine my communication identity. So for
Speaker 3: the next twenty years, I traveled, I trained with master communicators.
Speaker 3: I turned this weakness into a teachable strength. I teach
Speaker 3: people how to speak in partblic right now. I have
Speaker 3: been doing it over sixteen years, and I just thought
Speaker 3: it was about time I put all of this knowledge
Speaker 3: into a book for others to work with. So I
Speaker 3: essentially became the culture I went needed. And I'm giving
Speaker 3: this book out so that people can be coached and
Speaker 3: get the same insight that I once needed.
Speaker 1: How much of it is down to personality? Do you
Speaker 1: think dinner shreet? Because there will be some people, you know,
Speaker 1: I just mentioned myself, who I can do a very
Speaker 1: good impression of an extrovert and somebody who is very
Speaker 1: very confident. But actually I've got an awful lot of
Speaker 1: imposter syndrome going, an awful lot of negative self talk going.
Speaker 1: Maybe not in this seat, you know, after a a
Speaker 1: few twenty four hours of being in this seat, I'm okay.
Speaker 1: But I do speak for a living IMC events. I
Speaker 1: host events, and even in that space, I kind of
Speaker 1: have to go with my Sarah Jane MC while a
Speaker 1: king hat on. I don't just rock up a Zeschja,
Speaker 1: because if I just rocked up as esch I'd probably
Speaker 1: never get onto the stage. How much do you think
Speaker 1: it has to do with personality and confidence?
Speaker 3: A very interesting question and it's something I get asked
Speaker 3: all the time. You have what I have in my groups.
Speaker 3: I call them introverts, and they want to identify themselves
Speaker 3: as extroverts. And it doesn't matter whether it has to
Speaker 3: do with personality, whether you feel you're more introverted or extroverted.
Speaker 3: For me, everyone is a speaker. You just don't know
Speaker 3: it yet. There are some principles that goes into it.
Speaker 3: So my introverts they still need help because they need
Speaker 3: to overcome their shyness and get confidence. The extroverts also
Speaker 3: need help because they come across as being too loud
Speaker 3: and too much emotional and passionate, and so have to
Speaker 3: teach them how to turn down their messages personality. Now,
Speaker 3: there are some principles to speaking, and that is, regardless
Speaker 3: of your background, speaking as a privilege. When you are speaking,
Speaker 3: you are allowed to share your knowledge and experience, and
Speaker 3: regardless of who you are speaking to. I believe that
Speaker 3: you attract the audience that you're ready to handle. Just
Speaker 3: to go a little bit step further with that. The
Speaker 3: reason why I call this book Ignition is because I
Speaker 3: want to transcend this thought that it has to do
Speaker 3: with something like a gift. And that is why I
Speaker 3: use the analogy of driving, because learning to drive and
Speaker 3: speaking require practice and not perfection. With driving, you gain
Speaker 3: confidence as you progress from short drives to highways, just
Speaker 3: like speaking, where you move from speaking to small audiences
Speaker 3: eventually get to the boardrooms and then lent to go
Speaker 3: to bigger stages. The more you speak, the more skilled
Speaker 3: and confident you become. And it's so important for me
Speaker 3: to express this analogy because I want to tear down
Speaker 3: this barriers that exist that speaking has to do with personality,
Speaker 3: or I'm an introvert, or I'm an extrovert, or I'm gifted,
Speaker 3: or it's really a skill that you learn by doing.
Speaker 1: I love that you've written down a list of common
Speaker 1: fears related to public speaking, and I imagine that these
Speaker 1: are well, they are common fears because that's what you've
Speaker 1: called them, But some of the top ones being I'm
Speaker 1: afraid of not being as good as the speaker before me.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid that I might forget my speech. I'm afraid
Speaker 1: that people are going to be staring at me. I'm
Speaker 1: afraid that I'll be too nervous. I'm afraid of not
Speaker 1: knowing the answer to a question. Are these all hurdles
Speaker 1: and fears that can be overcome?
Speaker 3: And how absolutely I address these? Because over the course
Speaker 3: of these years of working with individuals, I started finding
Speaker 3: trends in the fears that people are bringing across and
Speaker 3: that's what I've essentially written down in that book. And
Speaker 3: so I then came and worked on a different analogy
Speaker 3: and how to overcome this. And if you can imagine
Speaker 3: an upside down you every time you are speaking, you
Speaker 3: need to picture yourself being on the top of that
Speaker 3: upside down you. They are one of two things that
Speaker 3: can bring you down. One is being too anxious, and
Speaker 3: that's where you can't think anymore. You are so overwhelmed
Speaker 3: with fear that you've forgotten your talk. And the other
Speaker 3: one is over confidence, where you feel you are so
Speaker 3: good and you are just going to ace this presentation
Speaker 3: that you end up attracting a humbling for from grace,
Speaker 3: something goes wrong with your speech. So you need a
Speaker 3: balance of the two, a balance of confidence and a
Speaker 3: balance of anxiety, and that keeps you at the top
Speaker 3: of your upside down you. That's one of the techniques
Speaker 3: of how to overcome fear. What you have listed there
Speaker 3: are the common fears that I have picked up, and
Speaker 3: a principle that I share with my students is to say,
Speaker 3: you need to be a selfless speaker and not a
Speaker 3: selfish speaker.
Speaker 2: Speaking as a.
Speaker 3: Privilege, like I said before, and someone has asked you
Speaker 3: to speak because they believe that you have certain knowledge
Speaker 3: and experience to help them. And so if you're going
Speaker 3: to be overly focused on your selfish fears like what
Speaker 3: if I fall, what if I forget my talk what if,
Speaker 3: and I can continue on that you are not in
Speaker 3: a state to give to this audience. You've got a
Speaker 3: group of people who are waiting to listen and receive
Speaker 3: information from you, and they're not going to ret this
Speaker 3: if you're in a state of selfishness where you're thinking
Speaker 3: about yourself. So one of the principles and their mini
Speaker 3: that I share in the book is to be a
Speaker 3: selfless speaker, where you are focusing your thoughts on what
Speaker 3: your information is going to do to help your audience.
Speaker 3: And when you shift that focus from yourself to the audience,
Speaker 3: you take away the fear because now you are in
Speaker 3: a giving state, and in that giving state, there's no
Speaker 3: space for fear.
Speaker 1: You you talk about the book is the book is
Speaker 1: divided into into three three steps. Just give us a
Speaker 1: quick overview of that, and how do those three steps
Speaker 1: guide a speaker's growth.
Speaker 3: The three steps have to do with the categories of
Speaker 3: where you could be as a speaker and the journey
Speaker 3: that you could be on. I talk about speaking being
Speaker 3: a journey and not a destiny. It goes with the
Speaker 3: driving analogy, and so each one of us, each one
Speaker 3: of you is on a different journey. Some of you
Speaker 3: are in a beginner stage where you need to learn
Speaker 3: how to overcome your fear of speaking. Some of you
Speaker 3: a little bit more advanced, you have been speaking for
Speaker 3: a while and you're looking for refinement, and.
Speaker 2: Some of you at the expert stage.
Speaker 3: Where you're now looking at more complexity. And that's the
Speaker 3: three steps. So ignition is then very practical, it's visual,
Speaker 3: it's personal. Every chapter gives you tools, tips, and structures
Speaker 3: for speaking at each of these levels. So a person
Speaker 3: could almost pick up a chapter, pick up the book
Speaker 3: and start with what they know the beginner content for
Speaker 3: that chapter, or if they know something about the beginner
Speaker 3: they can go straight to the advanced section or the
Speaker 3: expert And so as a result of it, a person
Speaker 3: can pick up the book and systematically work through each
Speaker 3: chapter at a time and put their talk together. It
Speaker 3: helps people to craft their message, and it's that full
Speaker 3: journey of how do you start speaking, how do you
Speaker 3: use props, how do you use your stage, how do
Speaker 3: you use your hand gestures, your body gestures. What do
Speaker 3: you need to do to get your audience's attention in
Speaker 3: the first forty five seconds to three minutes? How do
Speaker 3: you structure a message? How do you package and deliver
Speaker 3: that content? How do you answer questions? And so it's
Speaker 3: that full journey, including at the end, I've got some
Speaker 3: speciality talks like how to delute, praise talks, bad news
Speaker 3: MCing toast speeches. The book is center around the top
Speaker 3: three speeches that most people are asked to speak, which
Speaker 3: is how to sell a product or service, how to
Speaker 3: inspire or uplift an audience, how to teach content. And
Speaker 3: so the end of the chapters I focus on all
Speaker 3: these specialty talks and so as a result of that,
Speaker 3: it makes this book a very complih hends of guide.
Speaker 3: I was told it's three books in one Why you
Speaker 3: need to speak? What do you need to do to prepare?
Speaker 3: And how do you deliver that message? And as a
Speaker 3: result of all these illustrations, real life stories, step by
Speaker 3: step formulas, it makes it relatable and it's at one
Speaker 3: step in one book.
Speaker 2: It's interesting.
Speaker 1: If you're just joining us this morning, we're talking to
Speaker 1: dnestri Play who's a professional speaker, coach and creator of
Speaker 1: the speaker Ignite program, and she's talking to us this
Speaker 1: morning about her latest book. It's called Ignition. Three Steps
Speaker 1: to Drive from Newbie presenter to expert speaker. When we
Speaker 1: think of a business context, Dnesiri, we can all be
Speaker 1: experts in our field, in our particular field of business.
Speaker 1: And then you throw in, oh, yes, but excuse me,
Speaker 1: John or tandor whoever. In three weeks time, you need
Speaker 1: to go and present to a group of people which
Speaker 1: may not necessarily fall within their their skill set in
Speaker 1: that particular sector, and can throw even you know, senior
Speaker 1: level managers off because that's not there, or senior members
Speaker 1: of staff off because that's not necessarily their skill set.
Speaker 1: These are the types of people that you work with,
Speaker 1: people who maybe are more academic in nature, or maybe
Speaker 1: work much more in isolation and then are thrown into
Speaker 1: the deep end when they suddenly have to present and
Speaker 1: perform essentially in front of other people. Is that quite
Speaker 1: a common thing that you deal with.
Speaker 3: Yes, that is a common theme that is part of
Speaker 3: my audience. I've had a wide spectrum of audiences, ranging
Speaker 3: from trainees newly qualified, especially your new managers who have
Speaker 3: just been appointed into their role and suddenly are thrust
Speaker 3: into speaking. Some other delegates that come through. It's a
Speaker 3: niche need. Perhaps there's a product or a service that
Speaker 3: the company is now launching, and they want this team
Speaker 3: to learn how to package this message and sell it
Speaker 3: to an audience. So they bring me in to teach
Speaker 3: their teams on how to package the content and allow them.
Speaker 2: To sell it.
Speaker 3: Could be also a group of individuals where you are
Speaker 3: taking them through a leadership development program and now you're
Speaker 3: inserting communication skills as part of that, So they're.
Speaker 2: Bringing me in to teach that.
Speaker 3: Now, to your point, I was smiling because I tell people, mentally,
Speaker 3: you'll attract the audience you're ready to handle.
Speaker 2: So if you are Joe Blogs, you know.
Speaker 3: Sitting in the corner and mining yourn business, doing in
Speaker 3: normal work, and then your manager comes to you and says, hey,
Speaker 3: I can't make this meeting in three weeks time. Can
Speaker 3: you fall in my spot for me? You must know
Speaker 3: you attracted that opportunity because you're mentally ready to handle it.
Speaker 3: That's a principle that means you right now, even though
Speaker 3: you are not in that position, you have what it
Speaker 3: takes because your manager has seen in you the ability
Speaker 3: to speak. So you need to go and say yes
Speaker 3: to the opportunity, and by doing so, you say yes
Speaker 3: to growth. If you shut down that opportunity. You're shutting
Speaker 3: down your opportunity to leadership, to growth, to expensiveness, and
Speaker 3: so you attracted that opportunity because you're ready.
Speaker 2: So you need to say yes I.
Speaker 1: Was making, is that something come in? I suppose the
Speaker 1: point I was making is that some people don't have that.
Speaker 1: It's not a yes or no, it's you are going
Speaker 1: to do this. It's not oh, I don't really feel
Speaker 1: like doing that today. It's like, well, this is part
Speaker 1: of the remit of your job, and so that's what
Speaker 1: you're going to do. And I imagine that in that
Speaker 1: situation where it's not a choice, where you don't have
Speaker 1: the choice as to whether you're going to do it
Speaker 1: or not, that's where a lot of the fear comes
Speaker 1: in because you may not feel equipped to deal with that.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the importance of mindset though.
Speaker 1: How does one's internal dialogue, and I make reference to
Speaker 1: myself that sometimes can be that imposter syndrome, that lack
Speaker 1: of confidence that what could go wrong exactly? How does
Speaker 1: that impact your external delivery?
Speaker 3: It's massive. There are two parts to speaking. The first
Speaker 3: is to get your psychology right, and that is your
Speaker 3: limiting beliefs, your internal dialogue, What are you saying to
Speaker 3: yourself your speaking identity? And that is why a big
Speaker 3: part of my speaker Ignite program I deal with psychology.
Speaker 3: I'm a accredited coach myself, and I specifically specialize in
Speaker 3: that field of understanding the brain and how to untap
Speaker 3: potential because I saw the benefit of bringing that into
Speaker 3: my program. If I teach you speaking alone, which is
Speaker 3: just the skill, and tell you this is how you
Speaker 3: structure your message, and this is how you put powerpoints
Speaker 3: lies together, and this is how you stand. That's only
Speaker 3: why side of the equation, because then you could be
Speaker 3: in front of an audience, but then I haven't dealt
Speaker 3: with that little thought that you might have that then
Speaker 3: becomes a massive thought when you're standing in front of
Speaker 3: the audience, something small like I don't think I'm worthy
Speaker 3: enough to deliver this message. So if I don't deal
Speaker 3: with those thoughts that you might have in your head
Speaker 3: before I teach you the skill, you could always learn
Speaker 3: the skill, but have this one thought that brings you down.
Speaker 3: So yes, it's massive, and that is why psychology and
Speaker 3: your internal dialogue and coming up with the new speaking
Speaker 3: identity for yourself is a big part of my program
Speaker 3: and how I work people into becoming the speaker they
Speaker 3: meant to be.
Speaker 1: What do you mean a speaking identity?
Speaker 3: Okay, you have created for yourself a description of how
Speaker 3: you are right now, so you could be calling yourself
Speaker 3: you know, I'm just a admin clerk, or I am
Speaker 3: just a finance manager. I'm not meant to be speaking.
Speaker 3: So you have created a description of yourself that has
Speaker 3: currently made you comfortable, but it's also limiting you as to.
Speaker 2: What you could be doing.
Speaker 3: I reshape that, and so I work with individuals to
Speaker 3: expand what they believe they could be by reworking how
Speaker 3: they see themselves. And when they see themselves differently, then
Speaker 3: they are able to embrace this new skill of speaking
Speaker 3: and start going out and speaking more. So it's essentially
Speaker 3: your belief mechanisms, the way you describe yourself internally and
Speaker 3: how you then introduce yourselves. So tapped in with that,
Speaker 3: I work with the individuals to change their introductions of
Speaker 3: how they introduced themselves to an audience. If initially they
Speaker 3: had just said, you know, my name is so and
Speaker 3: so and I am X y Z position in an organization. Today,
Speaker 3: I'm going to be talking to you about I work
Speaker 3: with the individuals after reidentifying their speaking identity, I work
Speaker 3: with the introductions on being more expansive to bring in
Speaker 3: some of these elements of their passion, their experience, their
Speaker 3: past working with individuals, or the content, and we have
Speaker 3: a much more longer introduction that gives them credibility not
Speaker 3: only to the audience but to themselves.
Speaker 1: What are some of the most common mistakes that you
Speaker 1: see people making once they're on stage? Deni Shre.
Speaker 3: I think that could be an expansive list. The most
Speaker 3: common is taking the audience for granted. So what I
Speaker 3: mean by that is, if you've just done a presentation
Speaker 3: last week, you take the same presentation copypaste it to
Speaker 3: the next audience, and you should always tailor the presentation
Speaker 3: to your audience, even if you are making one's minded
Speaker 3: tweak to it. Change something, change a PowerPoint slide, change
Speaker 3: the delivery, change an activity, change something because it does
Speaker 3: two things. One you're honoring the audience for their uniqueness
Speaker 3: and two for yourself. It makes you excited to want
Speaker 3: to deliver that message in a different way versus taking
Speaker 3: the same cookie cut approach to multiple audiences. That's one
Speaker 3: Can I give you another or do we.
Speaker 1: Have time, Yeah, we have time.
Speaker 2: Another one is research, researching your audience.
Speaker 3: So before you go into the next venue, take a
Speaker 3: little bit more time to speak to the host, speak
Speaker 3: to audience members, prep the stage. Most people get into
Speaker 3: a venue and they just come just a few minutes
Speaker 3: before they talk and they start presenting. What I recommend
Speaker 3: to individuals is to get there about at least an
Speaker 3: hour earlier, put your stuff together, and then sit in
Speaker 3: the audience. Go stand in different parts of the stage.
Speaker 3: See not the stage, the audience, So have a look
Speaker 3: at the different parts of where the audience is seated
Speaker 3: and what is their angle from that perspective of the audience.
Speaker 3: Go to another part of the audience and see where
Speaker 3: how the stage looks from that other side of the venue.
Speaker 3: And by doing that, you're getting in your head perspective, space, orientation.
Speaker 3: You know different parts of the audience, and you can
Speaker 3: then you know align how you're standing on the stage
Speaker 3: relative to the audience. Speak to audience members. A lot
Speaker 3: of people just go on to the stage and they
Speaker 3: don't have this connection with the audience. So before you
Speaker 3: go there, part of that one hour speak to people
Speaker 3: in the audience, ask them I mean, what are you
Speaker 3: looking forward to in this talk? What brought you here today?
Speaker 3: And see if you can bring in some of that
Speaker 3: messaging and tell your talk slightly to align to some
Speaker 3: of the things that you are hearing. People love it
Speaker 3: when you bring in an element of individuality and you're
Speaker 3: also bringing or when.
Speaker 1: You personalize I guess yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and you connect with the audience better. Yeah.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about notes? People taking notes onto stage?
Speaker 1: I mean, in some cases obviously that people might be
Speaker 1: doing a presentation, in which case the audience is going
Speaker 1: to be looking at something. But what about taking actual
Speaker 1: sort of bits of paper and notes on stage. Are
Speaker 1: you somebody who believes in that maybe bullet pointed cards
Speaker 1: or do you think people should always learn the material
Speaker 1: and speak off the cuff.
Speaker 3: It depends on the type of talk that you are delivering,
Speaker 3: and this is highly critical for me to EMPHASI size.
Speaker 2: So let's chat about this.
Speaker 3: You get talks like you're speaking to inspire speeches, your
Speaker 3: educational talks, you're speaking to sell an idea, a product,
Speaker 3: or a service. Those kind of talks, no problem. You
Speaker 3: can have a detailed script, take out the keywords, bring
Speaker 3: the keywords onto a PowerPoint slide or onto some kind
Speaker 3: of notes pad in front of you. If you look
Speaker 3: at the keyword, you know what to say. But then
Speaker 3: you get very detailed talks, very serious talks like your
Speaker 3: crisis talks, delivering of bad news, maybe a praise talk
Speaker 3: at a wedding event, and for that one you want
Speaker 3: to stay with the script. Imagine those COVID speeches that
Speaker 3: we had. We whenever we listen to those speeches from
Speaker 3: prime ministers and presidents, they had a script and they
Speaker 3: stayed with that script. So there are certain talks, very
Speaker 3: formal speeches. If you're giving a speech rewarding someone as
Speaker 3: an example, you want to stay with the script. So
Speaker 3: it depends. If it's a general talk, leer, selling, teaching, inspirational,
Speaker 3: you can get away with keywords, but if it's something
Speaker 3: more formal and more sensitive, you want to stay with
Speaker 3: the script.
Speaker 1: How do we get hold of the book? Dinish?
Speaker 3: The book is available on Exclusive Books Take a Lot
Speaker 3: for next day delivery in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.
Speaker 3: It's also available on Amazon as well as Unkindled Great Stuff.
Speaker 1: Thanks very much for your time this morning, Dannestripe the
Speaker 1: Plae the author of Ignition. Three steps to drive from
Speaker 1: newbie presenter to expert speaker