Thoughts & Insights

To mark the first anniversary of our book, ‘Insider Secrets of Public Speaking’, we are looking again at the core advice we’ve given. This week: AUTHENTICITY. Authenticity provides the crucial third dimension to any speaker’s toolkit, although ‘being yourself’ isn’t...

To celebrate the first birthday of our book, Insider Secrets of Public Speaking we are looking again at the core advice we’ve given in the light of our time spent presenting, hosting, speaking, coaching, and sitting in audiences watching other people on stage in the...

It has been over a year since our book, ‘Insider Secrets of Public Speaking’ hit the shelves, and in that time we’ve delivered dozens of workshops, training programmes, speeches and coaching sessions off the back of it. In the run up to Christmas, we thought it would...

Even when attending an event (#FFE15) with a lanyard marked ’SPEAKER' - it’s important to remember to keep your ears open: the whole point of live events is to share ideas and remember that nobody has all the information. PS Programmes’ Nadine Dereza and Ian Hawkins...

Former Foreign Secretary William Hague, canny political operator that he is, used to coach the then leader of the Opposition David Cameron for Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs). The trick, Hague says, is to phrase the question so that it is unanswerable, as an...

The memory does not like complexity. When we are coaching speakers or work- shopping crisis media management, our advice often boils down to: keep it simple. Whether it’s a speech or a statement, you often have to frame your message just as you would a picture. You...

Nadine Dereza was asked to facilitate the HBAA Forum last month. And if you haven't heard of the HBAA before, well it's a dynamic trade association for the hotel booking agency, apartment and venue community, and so the audience was formed of the great and good from...

Taking care of the planet is a bit like any good habit: you diligently recycle the papers and sort out the plastics, but once in a while, you’re working late, it’s bin day tomorrow… and those black bags are opaque, aren’t they? Most of us try to do the right thing,...

It's been a rough few months for Thomas Cook, but not as rough as it's been on the parents of Christi and Bobby Shepherd, the two children killed my carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty heater in their hotel bedroom. In the face of human tragedy, it feels very...

So the votes have been cast, the results have come in, and Britain is slowly finding out what a majority Conservative government is going to mean for the next five years. Gone are the LibDems (a soft-hearted check on the political rudder or an ineffectual nuisance,...

Soothsayers and oracles knew that the hazard of prediction was that if you live long enough, you'll find out how wrong you were - so better to couch the future in metaphor and symbol. And if you've ever read or seen Macbeth, you'll remember that even if the news is...

With the General Election in the UK on the horizon, here are things to look for from the candidates who will be appearing soon (too soon; and possibly, for too long) on the media outlet of your choice as they vie for your vote. The problem with blanket coverage, is...

Coaching is our bread-and-butter here at PS Programmes Towers. Client confidentiality is something we take very seriously, and as such we wouldn't dream of spilling the beans on our dazzling roster of celebrity clients, however many times they are on TV and radio or...

Since the publication of Insider Secrets of Public Speaking, we have been delighted and flattered to receive invitations to speak at all kinds of events on the subject. Distilling the core themes of the book into a session that is useful and interactive has meant...

Stand up comedy is the bear-pit of public speaking. On the average club night, you'll typically see between three and five acts, some of them pros and some of them newbies, all trying to achieve one thing: audience laughter. If public speaking is up there on popular...

Our very own Nadine Dereza was asked to do a speech last week, with a slightly unusual brief. The subject - an overview of the careers environment we can expect in 2025 - isn't such a surprising topic - though it involved a fair bit of interesting research which...

The British Library is a collection of books. That’s a sentence that manages to be both an under- and over-statement. The library is, of course, much more than a collection of books, and we’ll come to that in a second. For now, let’s look at the books and what books...

When bad things happen at Christmas, they chime a particular note in our consciousness. Hearing bad news for other people just as we are occupied with hanging stockings or wrapping presents, opening cards or peeling the potatoes makes us remember that the important...

This year, we’ve sat through Gone Girl, Night Crawler and Gravity, but nothing made such breathless and squirm-inducing viewing as The Apprentice winner - Mark Wright’s relentless discomfort when facing three perfectly nice-looking people who may or may not have liked...

As the PS Programmes team likes to keep its finger on the pulse, we allowed Tom York to slip free from his PR and social media handcuffs and attend the Enterprise Nation #GovernmentExchange event this week. There are a few things we have been discussing that we think...