Inspirational Speakers. Amy Cuddy.

In this series of Well Prepared Training articles we pay homage to the people we admire when it comes to the way they speak in public.

That last sentence probably doesn’t even do them justice. Our choices for these articles have truly found the purpose of their voices and speak so that everyone is listening to them. They inspire. They engage. They create passion. They can evoke tears. They tell compelling, human stories that make you feel something with every word. These are the inspirational speakers that blow our minds.

Our next speaker is Amy Cuddy. Yes, the woman that made the ‘Power-Pose’ famous. Amy is a social psychologist, author, public speaker, famous for confidence building body language and she’s a previous Harvard Business School professor. Wow.

Oh, and her TED Talk, on Body Language, has been viewed over an astonishing 54 million times. She’s clearly saying something people want to hear.

It took us some time and debate to decide which of Amy’s speeches we wanted to talk about but in the end, we decided on her performance, and we call it that because it’s literally a work of art, at Inc 5000 Conference in 2019 where she talked around her research into the power of body language.

We love the power that Amy brings to the stage but she doesn’t threaten the listener or viewer, she makes them feel engaged. Her power pose doesn’t intimidate, it simply boosts her confidence and our confidence in her as the speaker. It’s clever stuff.

There are so many parts of this speech which really inspired us, but we especially loved the pace, the clear and easy way she explains something that has so much depth in her research.

She helps her listeners to engage and understand by using real life examples and stories so you can almost hear the penny dropping as the audience realise she’s making complete sense. It’s an amazing thing to watch.

When she moves onto a sensitive topic and one that might ruffle feathers, gender stereotyping, it’s done with such confidence, heartfelt knowledge and passion that people just listen and nod. We particularly loved one message she left the session with.

“When you feel personally powerful, you are more likely to be able to empower the people who work for you”

We were so impressed with her stance, her clear and direct communication, the confidence, the way she practised what she preached and the way she has the audience in the palm of her hand as they realised that this speaker, was talking to them and making them want to be more like her. Incredible.

You can watch Amy in action in her multi-million streamed TED Talk by clicking this link.

Now we can’t guarantee to make you speak like Amy, but we can help you become an awesome public speaker through our own SPEAK programme so if we can support you get in touch.

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