From Hamster to Harmony: The Presentation Skills Lessons I Didn’t Know I’d Written

Every now and then, life hands you a moment of quiet clarity, the kind that makes you stop, smile, and wonder how you didn’t see something sooner.

For me, that moment came recently when I picked up a book I had written more than a decade ago.

In 2006, I sat down to write about what I believed truly mattered in life. Three years later, those thoughts became Hamster to Harmony, a personal development book that has quietly guided me through every chapter of my life since.

What I didn’t realise until now is that the principles I wrote long before Mindful Presenter existed are also powerful lessons in public speaking.

It turns out that the book I wrote to help people live better lives also teaches them how to speak better, connect better, and communicate with more purpose.

Here are some of the presentation skills lessons hidden inside Hamster to Harmony.

Chapter 1: Guidance from a Hamster — Ask the Right Question

As a child, I spent years asking the wrong question:
“How do some people get to be so lucky?”

What I should have been asking was:
“How do some people get to be successful?”

The same misunderstanding shows up in public speaking.
Many people assume great speakers are simply “lucky” or born with a gift, but deep down, we know that’s not true.

Great speakers aren’t born; they’re built, and the only question that matters is:
“What does it take to be a great speaker?”

You don’t need a hamster for guidance; you just need curiosity, commitment, and a good coach.

Chapter 2: Stop Your Wheel — Break the Pattern

In the book, I wrote:
“To stop your wheel, you must decide to stop sleepwalking your way through life.”

The same is true in business presentations.

Millions of them happen every day, and far too many are predictable, flat, and forgettable. Not because people lack talent, but because they’re stuck in the wheel of doing what they’ve always done.

To grow as a speaker, you have to stop the wheel.

Pause.
Reflect.
Seek honest feedback.
Ask what’s working, and what isn’t.

If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.

Chapter 3: Wake Up — See Yourself Clearly

In Hamster to Harmony, I encourage readers to ask:
“What’s missing, and what’s in my way?”

When you apply that question to presenting, you begin to see yourself with fresh eyes.

You notice how you:

– use your voice

– stand and move

– gesture

– make eye contact

– tell stories

You also discover just how:

– creative you are

– passionate you are

– deeply you can connect

– you make people feel

Waking up isn’t about criticism; it’s about awareness, the birthplace of every great speaker.

Chapter 4: Ask Yourself Three Questions — Through the Audience’s Eyes

In the book, I challenge readers to ask three brutally honest questions about their lives.

For presenters, the three essential questions come from the audience’s perspective:

– Do I trust and like this speaker?

– Does this speaker understand and care about me?

– Will my life be better for listening to them?

If the answer to any of these is “no,” the content doesn’t matter.

Connection always comes before information.

Chapter 5: Decide Your Purpose — Kindle a Light

Carl Jung wrote: “The sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”

I believe the same is true of public speaking: a presentation without purpose is just noise.
A quarterly update or project review is not the purpose; we need to look beyond the information as to how it really serves the audience.

In this context, purpose is the light you kindle when presenting, and to find it, you need to ask yourself:

– What do I want my audience to do when I finish speaking?

– How do I want them to feel?

When you know those two things, your message finds its direction.

Chapter 6: Finish Your Story and Move On — Except When You’re Presenting

In the book, I talk about the stories we carry, the ones that hold us back until we finally let them go, but in presenting, the advice flips.

Don’t move on until you’ve told a story.

Stories are how humans make sense of the world.
They turn information into meaning, speakers into people and presentations into experiences.

If you want your message to land, tell a story.

Chapter 7: Choose and Decide Wisely — Your Thoughts Shape Your Voice

One of the core ideas in Hamster to Harmony is that our thoughts shape our lives.

They also shape our speaking.

Public speaking anxiety often comes from the thoughts we choose to repeat:

– “What if they don’t like me?”

– “What if I forget my words?”

– “They might see how nervous I am?”

These thoughts feel involuntary, but we do have a choice about which ones we feed.

Choose thoughts that support you, not sabotage you, and our audience will feel the difference.

 Chapter 8: Use Your Six Gifts — The Hidden Tools of Great Speakers

In the book, I describe six inner gifts we all possess, and they translate beautifully into presentation skills.

Perception

See your strengths, not just your flaws.
See your audience as human beings, not judges.

Imagination

Use stories, visuals and language that spark emotion and curiosity.

Will

Focus on what matters: your message and your audience.

Memory

Decide on the one thing you want your audience to remember.

Reason

Give them logic, evidence and clarity.

Intuition

Tune into the room.
Feel the energy.
Adjust as you go.

These gifts are already yours; you just have to use them.

A Book About Life That Became a Book About Speaking

Hamster to Harmony was never meant to be a book about public speaking.
It was a book about living with intention, awareness and courage, but communication is at the heart of everything we do with ourselves and with others.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that the principles I wrote all those years ago now echo through the work I do today.

If you’d like to explore these ideas further:

On a personal development level, you can read the book, ‘Hamster to Harmony’

If you’d like to learn the lessons to develop your public speaking and presentation skills:

– Book yourself onto a powerful public speaking course.

– Invest in some really good one-to-one public speaking coaching.

– Get yourself some excellent presentation training