BLOG
I have a LOT of blog posts to look through! If you’re looking for something specific, like “shadow work” or “text mapping”, I suggest using Google with your search words and “ubu skills”.
NOTE: I’ve recently migrated my free content to the tools section of this website. If a link to a free guide is broken, you’ll find the resource in tools.
How To Feel Comfortable on a Virtual Meeting (Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, Face Time, etc.)
Well, here we are. We’re all navigating this new world, fast and sometimes terrifying information flying at us every hour, it seems. Our children (if we have them) are home, most of us are working from home, or else we’re working in an essential service, on the front lines. All of us are doing our best to avoid contracting Coronavirus.
It’s exhausting. You’re doing great. You’re still here.
How To Prepare For A Job Interview
You’ve been pounding the pavement (or… what’s the internet equivalent? Clicking the keys?) searching for a job. This might be your first job, or you might be looking for something better. Regardless, you’ve secured a job interview. Congratulations!
And now the preparation begins.
I Know You Can Do It. You Have to Know You Can Do It!
I’ve been reminded a few times over, this past week, from clients and teaching my “Acting For Real Life” course at St. Lawrence College, that in order to do the thing you are afraid of, you have to do the thing you are afraid of. (I knew that, but they didn’t know that - until they knew that. Clear as mud?)
Elevate Your Status - 5 Ways that Women Can Get Ahead
My passion in my role as a public speaking coach and workshop facilitator is to elevate women’s voices. This is why I created the Big Voices for Women workshops. The same goes for the under-represented in any form: people of colour, Indigenous people and racialized people of any variety; differently abled and physically challenged people; people on the spectrum; people managing mental health issues; people within the LGBTQ2 realm; people facing poverty. We’ve heard from the same people in power for hundreds of years, and look at where we are.
You Are Not One Thing
Something I’ve been noticing lately, with clients and friends alike, is our ability to pigeonhole ourselves into not doing things because we are ______________________ (<— fill in the blank with a disparaging thought about yourself).
How to Read Aloud Well
Let me begin by saying that, aside from controlled breath, this is one of the most fundamentally important lessons in public speaking that I can give to you. In fact, it’s so key that for a long time, I didn’t even mention it on social media posts because I didn’t want to give away the “secret ingredient”.
Carving Out Time To Practise
More often than not, a big struggle for my clients is trying to find time to practise the skills they learn in our sessions.
Whether it’s students with a jam-packed course load, parents with full-time jobs, or professionals trying to improve their skill sets, most of us are already over-scheduled. Often, simply trying to find a small bit of free time to unwind feels like moving mountains, never mind adding extra tasks to your to do list.
How to Survive Winter.
I’m not sure what city you live in, but here in Kingston, Ontario, Canada - winter is here. For a brief minute, I thought Disney+ had orchestrated all of this snow in anticipation of the Frozen 2 movie. But then I came back to reality and realized it’s probably just the environmental damage we’ve done to our world, creating an early and extended winter.
Does your get up and go press the snooze button 17 times?
Do you have a morning routine? Alternately: do you have the desire to have a morning routine, but can’t seem to get out of bed with enough time to make it happen?
Morning Walk Revelations
I had a #solviturambulando this morning, though that wasn't necessarily what I thought would happen.
Sometimes, reluctance to get up and speak is deep. Let's go there.
This one is going to cut close to the bone, here. We know that public speaking is difficult for many (almost everyone). We know that the difficulty usually lies in fear, and those fears sometimes resemble things like: I’m afraid that I’ll look stupid. I’m afraid that my voice will shake and I won’t be seen as confident. I’m afraid that I’ll sound like a robot when I’m reading my speech.
Solvitur Ambulando
This is my new mantra. Well, I guess it's my old mantra, but evidently there is a name for it. #SolviturAmbulando is latin for "it is solved by walking". ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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A friend who knows my love of walking, alerted me to an article in Quartzy about the power of walking and a walking journal that Bonnie Smith Whitehouse has created. Obviously, I am the target market.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Why Vocal Work is Important
My main goal in teaching public speaking is to help you feel confident in your delivery, to eliminate barriers between your message and the audience's ability to receive your message and to give you tools to keep your machine in good running order so that you can continue to deliver your important message. If you lose your voice because you've been unnecessarily straining it, no fabulous PowerPoint presentation complete with videos and music is going to save you.
Mental Health and Speaking in Public
Today is #BellLetsTalk day. January 25. A day when Bell Canada will donate 5 cents to every retweet they receive of their original tweet. Or, for every tweet using the #BellLetsTalk hashtag. Possibly capping their donation at a number. Or... it's hard to know. They don't actually advertise those pieces. And they've potentially fired somebody specifically for sharing her mental health issues. So, y'know. Big corporation. Big reach. Potentially shady undertones. Not surprising.
But let's, instead, actually talk about mental health. Which is what the campaign claims they are trying to do. We'll take them at their word.
Eye Contact.
You've heard it said time and time again when preparing to speak: Make eye contact.
Most public speaking "how to" materials emphasize the importance of connecting with your audience, and most will demand that you give each person some eye time. I also teach the importance of eye contact, but my emphasis lies in doing it well.
It’s Allergy Season!
As somebody who suffered from substantial allergies in my childhood, I've been surprised to be waking up with a scratchy voice and itchy eyes over the past week. My allergies magically disappeared (along with my asthma) in my early 20s, but now I'm suspicious that I've inherited my Mom's ragweed reaction.