Over the years, I’ve noticed something in the feedback our clients give us. It’s rarely just “thanks, that was useful.” It tends to describe a change in how someone thinks about presenting, not just how they do it.
Read enough of these and patterns start to show up. Seven genuine shifts in how people relate to the whole business of standing up and speaking. Here they are, in our clients’ own words, with what actually helped.
1. From Distracted to Deeply Engaged
“My mind never wandered once.” — Victoria Robinson, Customer Solutions Representative
This is one of the more striking things people tell us: a full day where they simply didn’t check out. No drifting off, no reaching for a phone, no watching the clock.
What made the difference wasn’t a trick. It was real conversation instead of a script, examples people could relate to, and pacing that kept shifting rather than settling into one register for six hours. There was no padding, nothing on the day that didn’t need to be there. Every exercise, every example, every story had a reason for existing. It’s the same shift we deliberately design for in our public speaking courses; engagement isn’t left to chance in the room.
Try this: build in real moments of interaction, a question, a short reflection, a quick story — rather than hoping engagement happens on its own. It won’t; you have to design for it. If you’re speaking for an hour, plan for at least three of these break points in advance, so you’re never relying on the room to carry itself.
2. From “Presenting” to Thinking Differently
“It totally transformed the way I look at presenting.” — David Cook, Marketing Manager
The biggest shift we see isn’t just in someone’s delivery. It’s in what they think presenting actually is. Most people arrive assuming it’s a performance: slides, a script, getting through it without messing up. They leave thinking about it as something closer to leadership: a chance to genuinely influence how people think.
Try this: before you build a single slide, write one sentence: what do I want my audience to think, feel, or do differently by the end of this? If you can’t answer that clearly, you’re not ready to build the talk yet. Pin that sentence somewhere you’ll see it while you’re building the rest of the talk; it’s easy to lose sight of once you’re deep in the detail.
3. From Nervous to Confident
“It has helped with my confidence and given me a new way of looking at presenting.” — Catherine Coley, Financial Reporting Assistant Controller
Confidence rarely comes from being told, “You’ll be great.” It comes from feeling genuinely supported and understood, and from being challenged. This surprises people. Our clients often say they left feeling capable of more than they’d realised, and that feeling tends to stick because it was earned in the room, not handed to them as a compliment. It’s why so much of our one-to-one coaching starts with listening, not technique; confidence has to be built on something true about you, not borrowed from a script.
Try this: next time you catch yourself thinking “I hope this goes well,” try replacing it with “I know what my audience needs, and I’m here to give it to them.” Shifting the focus outward, onto the audience, tends to quiet the nerves faster than trying to talk yourself into confidence directly. Say it out loud in the minutes before you present, not just in your head; it changes how you walk into the room.
4. From Learning to Loving the Process
“It’s rare to find a training course where you can learn so much while also enjoying the process.” — Andrew Haines, Project Manager
People remember more when they’re enjoying themselves, and they’re far less anxious while they’re doing it. That’s not a controversial idea, but it’s easy to forget when you’re building a training day or a talk; enjoyment tends to be the first thing cut when time gets tight, even though it’s often what makes everything else land.
We build it in deliberately: humour where it fits, real stories, and practical exercises rather than pure theory.
Try this: add one moment of genuine lightness to your next presentation, a relatable story, an honest admission, a shared laugh. It’s not decoration. It’s often the moment people remember longest. It doesn’t need to be planned to the second; sometimes the best moments are the ones you allow yourself to notice and use in the room, rather than scripting them in advance.
5. From Avoiding Presentations to Looking Forward to Them
“I found the content, ideas and your delivery of the training excellent and I look forward to creating my next presentation… which I never thought I would ever say!” — Marc Ioannidis, Channel & Panel Manager
This is the shift I find most rewarding to watch. For a lot of people, presenting starts out as something to survive. Somewhere along the way, for our clients, it becomes more of a craft they actually want to get better at.
What tends to cause that shift is having a repeatable structure, something that makes the next presentation feel doable rather than like starting from scratch under pressure again.
Try this: start your next presentation with a blank page and one question at the top: what’s the story here? Thinking in story rather than bullet points changes how it feels to prepare, not just how it sounds when delivered. Look for where the natural tension sits; the problem, the turning point, the resolution, because a good structure follows the story; it doesn’t get imposed on top of it.
6. From Information to Impact
“I absolutely loved your training — exactly the kind of concepts and feedback I needed to raise my game.” — Louise Hutchins, Head of Policy and Public Affairs
Many presenters believe that if they include enough information, the audience will be persuaded. In practice, audiences tend to remember how a talk made them feel long after they’ve forgotten the details on the slides. Clarity and structure do more to create genuine impact than volume of content ever will.
Try this: for every slide you build, ask one question: does this help my audience understand something, feel something, or do something differently? If the honest answer is no, it’s probably not earning its place. Cut it ruthlessly. A shorter presentation that lands is worth more than a longer one that simply gets through everything.
7. From Presenting to Being Noticed
“The feedback from the Group COO to my boss after the meeting was… “What’s happened to Nick? His presence and statue was notable… with content to match.” Once again thanks for the coaching… it worked. ” Nick Thompson – Logistics Director, UK&I’s Trust
Presence is one of those things people can’t always name, but they notice it immediately: posture, pacing, tone, and a sense that the person speaking is fully there rather than half-performing a script. When someone’s mindset and energy shift, it tends to show up in the room before they’ve said a word.
Try this: before you start speaking, pause for two full seconds. It feels uncomfortable at first. It also does more to make you appear confident and in control than almost anything you could say. Use the same pause again mid-talk whenever you sense the room’s attention drifting; it’s one of the few tools you can deploy in the moment without missing a beat. Please don’t forget to smile before you speak, either.
What These Seven Shifts Have in Common
None of these is really about technique. They’re about how someone relates to the whole experience of presenting, whether it feels like a performance to survive or a genuine chance to connect with people.
What I take from years of hearing this feedback is simple: the people who improve the most aren’t usually the naturally gifted speakers. They’re the ones willing to be challenged, to practise properly, and to rethink what presenting is actually for. That’s available to anyone; it just takes the right kind of support to get there.
None of it happens by accident, and none of it is reserved for people who are already confident speakers. Whether you’re working through these shifts yourself on one of our public speaking courses, bringing them into your team through presentation skills training, or working through your own specific challenges in one-to-one coaching, the pattern is the same. Real change starts with seeing presenting differently, then being given the right support to practise it until it’s genuinely yours.
If there’s someone on your team who’s dreading their next presentation, take a moment to send them this article. A few minutes of clarity now will do more for them than another slide template ever will.
Image courtesy of Canva.com
