Meeting Report for Thursday 4th July
Alex Pandolfino from The Octopus Group
on Personal Presenting.
Alex and her Chauffeuse Lynne (good disguise Lynne!) gave us an overview of the collaborative style of the Octopus Group and their desire to work with other NLP professionals using the wealth of experience that people bring into the NLP community. Octopus Train, Coach & Facilitate across Business, Education, Health and Sport.
The evening fell into two parts.
Part one a presentation on Personal Presentation.
Part two a group participation and competition.
Part one:- Using Powerpoint Alex took us through the major elements for personal presenting excellence, how to utilise the massive power of our unconscious mind, how to use our knowledge of NLP to access the right state of mind, the correct physiology, a strong and powerful internal representation and keeping our mind focussed on our outcome whilst being in peripheral vision to dramatically influence the behaviours that show congruety, capability, committment and lead to respect.
Alex wanted to distil this to its simplest level so our tiny conscious mind didn't have to struggle to remember everything.
In a nutshell (just to prove I was listening):-
Start with your outcome and the outcome of your audience - make a strong internal representation of you achieving it.
Check your posture - and breathe deeply from the tummy.
Focus your mind - go into peripheral vision (the learning / healing state)
Be committed to your task and trust your unconscious mind to show your capability.
Part two:- Alex had put together an excercise on using many NLP techniques in presenting. It was structured as a competition with a bottle of wine as the prize for the best overall score. We split into four groups to choose ways of demonstrating this to the whole group. This is where the real fun began as we put the evening's learnings "into the muscle". In demonstrating the chosen techniques the spokesperson needed to pay attention to the model of personal presenting excellence, and the rest of the small group had an important support role to play in also emanating the physiology of presentational excellence for their "leader".
The results were magnificent and prove the benefit of practice in the group.
I was energised by Harold's enthusiasm, enthralled by Jenny's rapport, deeply moved by the role play of Marie, Jan and Ken (with Angela's clear direction), and entranced by the long walk around the school to share a cup of tea with Steve. It fell to me to make a few notes so I was able to watch the audience for each presentation and to share in the collective pride and support we gave to each speaker.
The learnings for me:- "The audience will enable you." "Rapport is everything." "Be congruent 'outside' as well as within." "How powerful are everyday metaphors."
Thank you all for a super evening, and thanks to Alex and Lynne for the work they put in on our behalf.
The competition was declared a four way draw with each team achieving maximum points, so I have the two bottles of wine!! I promise to share them with the group at some point soon. (Hic).(Burp).
If you were not there and would like more information on the wide range of courses and support mechanisms of The Octopus Group phone them on 0870 345 2255 or e-mail to service@octopusacademy.com Remember to mention NLP-South (you may get a discount) more to follow on this!

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