professional communication advisory firm

We are Alexis Blevins and Katya Kantar, the new summer interns at Accent On Business. As interns we were very excited to sit in on our first client session. We observed a small business entrepreneur who is developing a 45-minute keynote speech for marketing an innovative, new product. The session included an overview of basic presentation skills and how to deliver the content of the speech in a more significant and memorable manner. It began with Ellen Dunnigan, President and CEO, inspiring the client to think and question how she wanted her audience to perceive her and what the main goals of the speech are for both the speaker and the audience. We recognized that the client truly believed in the content she was presenting to us. She wanted to be perceived as relaxed and insightful while giving her speech, but she had no way of explaining what it meant […]

The sometimes debilitating fear of public speaking, technically called “glossophobia”, affects a large portion of the population. It is known in medical communities as a type of social anxiety, similar to “stage fright”. This includes symptoms of: a feeling of impending doom, obsessive thoughts of failure and worry, trembling and shaking, dizziness, accelerated heart rate, sweating, and nausea. You might also find that your mouth dries and your voice weakens and cracks.

When you get up to the podium, notes shaking in hand, feet nervously fidgeting, it seems like all the information you know well and rehearsed, delivering has just gone whirling away with your confidence. At that moment, staring at your anticipating audience, all you really want to do is flee. However, this reaction is a response to your brain’s necessary “fight or flight phenomenon”, the physiological response to a threatening situation.

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