WISH Cumbria - Speaking with Confidence

Speaking with confidence was a sell-out event and we were delighted to welcome many new faces. Our guest speaker, Marcus Orlovsky is a TED X host and coaches the speakers so they can get their message across clearly in their 10 minute slot.

It’s all about first impressions

Many of us find networking events awkward. Entering a room full of strangers can leave even the most extrovert amongst us tongue tied. Marcus was quick to get the room up and interacting; starting with an “Introduce Yourself in 30 seconds” exercise which led on to another practical exercise Networking with a Purpose. All the delegates recognised how quickly they had been able to change their hesitance into meaningful networking – there were even business meetings set up as a result of the exercise.

Marcus shared examples of presentations to demonstrate how great stories told badly lose an audience and how losing the preamble and starting a story in the middle can capture your audience and take them with you. His tips on presentations were very helpful and though seemingly obvious we can often overlook them.

• Be You
• Practice - you become more confident when you know what you are doing
• Develop your own style

Marcus went on to explain how learning to network with a purpose is great training for learning to create the perfect Elevator Pitch. The idea behind the elevator pitch comes from the US film industry. Imagine you are in an elevator with the key influencer in your business. You have the time it takes an elevator to reach its destination to sell your idea to the person you need to “green light” the project. That’s just 30 – 40 seconds so you need to be clear and compelling.

After sharing some entertaining and insightful examples of human behaviour and elevator pitches from You Tube, Marcus gave us a checklist to help focus our own elevator pitches.

• What is your product or idea?
• Describe the problem you are trying to solve
• Tell them what the fix is
• Tell them what the key benefit is.

Marcus Orlovsky was a highly engaging inspirational speaker and gave us all plenty of food for thought to go away with. By sharing some of his own life experiences and life-changing health issues he demonstrated how he lives his personal mantra “Why not do the impossible just to see if you can .You doesn’t know till you try.” He made plenty of converts to the idea of turning “Wish I had “into “Glad I did”. We’re certainly glad we invited him to speak to us.

Kindly hosted by South Lakes Housing, Kendal

and sponsored by Mitie