Presenting for the Petrified

Fearful of presenting or public speaking?

Anxious about speaking up in meetings?

Presenting for the Petrified is a range of brain-friendly, virtual offerings, designed to help build your speaking confidence & presentation skills

Learn how to deliver a simple, clear, & authentic presentation and lessen your fears around speaking up in front of others

Recommended for introverted, sensitive, fearful, phobic, neurodiverse & beginner presenters, anyone who feels uncomfortable speaking up in front of others, or anyone who prefers to learn in a gentler, safer, virtual way

Presenting for the Petrified takes a more humane approach to presentation skills training. We believe your brain can’t learn well when overwhelmed by fear, perceived social threats and self-judgement. Instead, gentle, step-by-step, psychologically safe/brain-friendly exercises, using small group support and visualizations, help encourage and support you in a less pressured & fearful way

You will learn the basic skills of public speaking, but our main aim is for you to become happier or more confident about speaking up or presenting at work

FAQs

How is Presenting for the Petrified different from normal presentation skills training?

Regular presentation skills training, however well delivered, can be nerve wracking even for the confident. The standard ‘in-at-the-deep-end’ approach can be like having your first ever driving lesson at rush hour in a busy city center. Terrifying! This is because participants are forced to do the thing they fear the most .. presenting .. without sufficient confidence building first. Add to that the ordeal of receiving feedback from the group (a technique often used by researchers in human stress experiments) and it's no wonder it can all be just too overwhelming  

Presenting for the Petrified has been designed by Debbie Jeremiah, a Leadership Learning specialist who taught Presentation Skills at GE, alongside virtual courses on the brain at work, managing emotions, boosting resilience, mindfulness & collective intelligence. She has an Executive Masters in NeuroLeadership & is on the advisory board for the Academy of Brain-based Leadership. This course, is a unique combination of all of those topics

"When a class reduces grown adults to tears, then I question the wisdom of that approach. Standard speaker training, which probably hasn’t changed much in hundreds of years, uses a ‘sink-or-swim’ approach, ignoring everything we now know about fear, the brain and psychological safety. It focuses on improving speaking skills only and assumes confidence will appear in time, with practice. But I believe a gentler, more brain-friendly way is more effective. My approach is to build confidence first, through a quiet, calm, step-by-step approach and only then consider improving speaking skills. It's a much more humane, modern and psychologically safer approach to overcoming the fear of speaking up .." 

How is Presenting for the Petrified ‘brain-friendly’ & why does that matter?

We know from brain science that an overloaded, shut down or 'paralysed with fear' brain, is not a learning brain. Learning can’t be stored or retrieved and insights can’t be generated. We also know that receiving feedback in front of others, so common in presentation skills training, is likely to trigger a significant threat response in the brain, shutting down thinking, memory, decision making, emotional control & speaking eloquence. All the skills needed for good public speaking!

During our LIVE courses, psychological safety is created through exercises in small, safe, unobserved breakout groups, by giving everyone the opportunity to speak without interruption and by trying out the tiniest of speaking opportunities. The aim is that these activities can provide a new, different & possibly liberating, experience of speaking in front of others

We also know that spaced, bite- size chunks of learning, such as the skills micro-videos, may be more effective than intensive learning, especially if accompanied by social learning (digital group support) and self-generated learning (reviewing your own selfie videos)

Why learn presentation skills virtually?

Classroom courses can be unnecessarily stressful for fearful speakers. Small group virtual training, attended from the safety of your own home or desk, can be a much safer alternative

Spacing out the learning over a number of weeks is also a much more brain-friendly way to learn. So rather than cramming everything into 2 intensive, stressful classroom days (and then forgetting most of it afterwards), you can practice a small number of skills in real-life, building upon them gradually over time, as the sessions continue

Does the course cover in-person or virtual presentations?

Both!

There are many skills which are common to both, so we cover them all, in addition to speaking in meetings too

Which is the best option for me?

Firstly it depends on whether you are looking just for yourself or for your group or team. It also depends on how much time and energy you wish to devote to it. Do you want a quick fix for an upcoming event or a deeper dive for more lasting change? Do you want to learn according to your own time schedule or would the structure of live webinars and working with a buddy and a small group be more helpful? Whichever your preference and requirement, there is a suitable solution

Unsure? Please Contact Us

So can you remove my fear?

Studies suggest that glossophobia or fear of presenting or speaking up in front of others, is the #1 fear for many of us, often severely limiting our ability & confidence to participate in opportunities

Fear of presenting is an internal response, based on an automatic natural reaction to rejection, often linked to shame, humiliation, low self-esteem and fear of failure. But because fear is internal, there is much we can do to change that response. We can become conscious of it, we use various tools before or during fear to change our association with it and we can learn to walk through the fear by practicing in a gentle, safe way. The best results are likely to come through a course with LIVE webinars, to gain the benefits from the ongoing group support 

But when it comes to presenting, we will never get rid of the fear. Even the best speakers get nervous. And in fact, a manageable amount of fear is helpful, keeping us mentally sharp and on our toes. But debilitating or career limiting fear is unnecessary. Overcoming that fear can be liberating