Speak, Think, and Act with Charisma
As a speaker, one of the most important qualities you can hold is to be seen as credible, or to be considered an expert in your field.
However, when starting out, many speakers will suffer from the ‘Curse of Cassandra’, which means that they feel they know the truth, but others do not believe them.
This speech will blow them away!”
I foolishly thought these words as I stepped on stage, dreaming of a standing ovation,
This dream was shattered as I stared at a hundred blank faces, and my legs started to shake.
The seconds felt like minutes as sweat beaded on my brow and my voice struggled to ignite, like a car on a winter’s day.
“They’re angry,” I thought fearfully as I clutched my written speech with sweaty palms. The paper had a life of its own, it looked like a butterfly lost in a gale. The words had turned to alphabet soup.
I looked up..I realised that I had been standing there silently for what seemed like an eternity. I had to say something, anything. What was my speech about?
In today’s digital age, networking is often thought of something that we do online: posting photos and clips of ourselves in fun situations in return for likes and comments. This isn’t really networking though.
Definitely not the successful kind of networking that gives real results. While our social networks can be of great benefit to us as networkers, they should be a secondary tool to support us in the real world. The true art of networking involves face to face communication with people who can help you to progress in your professional, social, and even romantic life.