Hey everybody, how you doing? My video
this week is going to be based on a
question that I got sent. Let me read it
out to you. It goes: How do i project
confidence in my work? How do I project
my professional presence with the people
that I work with and my stakeholders? How
do I make more impact? Well look, I
totally get that. I see that a lot! I've
experienced it a lot in my life as well,
and the funny thing is is I've actually
coached a few people around this
recently, so it seems to be a common
question at the moment. Now what I'm
going to share with you in this video is
what I like to call three switches that
you can flip that will get you into that
place of professional presence, that
projection of your confidence, and as
well as projecting your confidence I
think it's going to help you achieve
more of your emotional resilience
because you're going to have that
confidence, you're going to have that
presence, and you're going to stay cool
in meetings under pressure because again
you're going to have that presence, and
you're going to be better at being the
problem solver because having this kind
of presence also helps you be a problem
solver in business, with that presence, so
I think this is gonna be good for you.
And hang around to the end because in
addition to what I show you in this
video I also want to show you how you
can access a further free tutorial which
I think will be of massive value to you,
which is how to absolutely master your
composure when you're in pressure
conflict and stress in the moment, so
hang around for that.
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Now my name is Steve and I'm a
professional coach. I work mostly with
professional people just like you on
combining your personal brilliance with
unshakable emotional wellness so that
you can create a happier and more
successful experience of your life and
work, so for the best ideas and topics in
that theme, please subscribe to this
channel and don't forget to hit the
notifications bell so that you'll know
when new content arrives. Now back when I
identified mostly as a Neuro-Linguistic
Programming trainer, or NLP as it likes
to get abbreviated, I did a lot of work
on mind and body states around
confidence and presence; and as I've
expanded that work and embraced some
more spiritual work along the same lines,
I've kind of complemented that with
work that I've come to call "personal
grounding", so I've done a lot of work in this
space, and what I really wanted to say to
start with, my starting point, is the best
way to project confidence is to feel
confident. Now I know that sounds like
I'm stating the obvious but bear with me.
I think you'll see where I'm coming
from, because the best way to feel
confident is to know your stuff,
and to know that you know your stuff, and
to know that you can create what you
need to create when you need to create
it, and that's a long way of saying do
your homework, do your groundwork, do your
preparation. I really do not recommend
faking confidence when you haven't done
any preparation. Now the famous film
director Ron Howard who you might know
directed films like Apollo 13,
he said confidence is preparation in
action, and I think that's a good motto
to be guided by, so do your preparation.
Now if you have done your preparation,
it's just that you get that
self-doubt thing, and you can't quite
project your confidence, then that's
where we're going to go next.
By the way if this is something that you've
ever felt or you've got a story around
this, or you know somebody who has a
story around this, then tell me about it.
I'd love to hear it, leave it in the
comment if you're OK to do so; I'll read
every comment that you leave and I'll
reply to as many as I can.
Now the first switch that I want to
present to you is a really simple mind
and body switch that changes our
internal state and it changes our voice
into something more impactful and
measured. It's a great antidote to
speaking too fast, to speaking too
nervously, and to rambling, which is one
of the ways that we lack impact when we
speak. When you see people are doing that
it's like they're speaking from here.
Obviously I'm being
metaphorical, I'm not, it's not literally
speaking from here, but this is what it
feels like. It's coming from from quite
high up and the remedy to this is to
really take it down, to move it down
towards the center of your body, so the
idea here is put your attention in the
center of the body, take it
out from here, put it in the center of
your body,
breathe into that place, and speak from
that. Speak from the center of the body
rather than from up here, so instead of
being like (squeeky) "My name's Steve," it becomes
My name's Steve. Now if you've never done
this before then as soon as you've
finished watching this video I want you
to go find a mirror and I want you to
stand in front that mirror and spend 30
minutes practicing this. Spend 30 minutes
putting your attention down here
breathing into it and speaking from that
place, because practice is what will make
you good at this. Knowledge without
action is no good. Make it knowledge with
action!
Now the second switch that you can flip
is something I love, this is something
that I modeled back in my NLP days
because one of the things that I noticed
about people who get into these nervous
states and it feels like they don't
project their confidence, that they're
not projecting their presence, is it
feels like their presence in the room is
constricted. If you imagine your presence
as being an invisible entity it's like
it's doing this, it's crunching inwards
and getting small. Well again this is
metaphorical, it's not literal, obviously!
But if you imagine the opposite, if you
imagine your presence, this invisible
entity, is like a balloon that's
expanding outwards like this until it
starts pressing on the sides of the
walls and pressing into the ceiling and
pressing into the floor and pressing
into the corners of the room, then that
is a great way of experiencing your
presence projecting outwards. And when
people do this that also has an impact
on our mind-body state that is positive,
that helps us project more, that helps us
feel more confident. And again if you've
never done this before I want you to
turn knowledge into action by practicing
this, so at the same time that you're
standing in front of a mirror practicing
speaking from down here I want you to
imagine that your presence is expanding
and filling the room and as you move
from room to room I want you to imagine
that your presence expands to fill that
room as well.
Now the third switch I've got for you is
where your attention is, because again
one of the things I noticed about people
who don't project their confidence and
don't project their presence is that
their attention is directed inwards.
Their attention is back on themselves
with questions like, "What if people don't
like what I have to say? What if what I
have to say isn't worth anything?" And the
more your attention is directed back in
on yourself the more nervous you're
likely to get, whereas people I found who
speak confidently in public and do
project their confidence and do project
their presence, I've noticed that they're
projecting their attention
outwards they're asking themselves
questions like, "What can I do for this
audience? What can I do that will serve
them? What will have an impact for them?"
So that third switch quite simply is to
shift your attention off of yourself and
put it on your mission in the world.
Now I have space to take on one new
coaching client this week and as always my
coaching starts with a free deep dive
session so if you'd like to explore how
we could create transformational results
in your life together then get in touch
with me, I would love to hear from you.
You can contact me by my website which
is linked in the pinned comment below
this video. And please like this video if
you did like it, because it helps show
YouTube that this is worth showing to
people. Share it share with your friends.
Share it on Facebook. And don't forget to
subscribe because there's a lot more
like this coming! Now I mentioned at the
top of the video a follow-on to talk
which I think will be of massive value
to you. To recap that is to
absolutely master your composure when
you're facing conflict, pressure and
stress in the moment. Now to get access
to that tutorial again there's a link in
the pinned comment. Go down, find that link,
click on it and you'll be able to get
access to that totorial. It's absolutely
free so please help yourself and other
than that I'll see you next week!
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