Have you by any chance ever seen something like this? Someone wins a big contract. Gets promoted. Lands a speaking gig. Wins an award. And then they go straight to LinkedIn or other social media to tell everyone about it. Of course you have - it's everywhere and to be honest that's great. You should celebrate your wins. But then comes the post. And it goes something like: "Incredibly humbled and grateful and proud blah blah blah to announce that I have been recognised as one

Here's something I keep hearing. "Hey James, this presentation would have been really good if only I'd had more time"! That old chestnut - leaders telling me they don't have time to prepare properly before important conversations. Before the board update. Before the difficult one-to-one. Before the moment that actually matters. And I believe them. I do. Because I can also see their calendars. Back-to-back meetings. Hour-long sessions that could have been thirty minutes. Accep

Look at the world right now. Conflict in the Middle East reshaping energy markets. Trade wars rewriting the rules of global business. Political leaders across multiple continents retreating into noise, deflection, and carefully managed nothing. And we are all exhausted by it. Not just the events themselves, but the communication around them. The hedging. The spin. The leaders who hold press conferences and somehow say less than they started with. And then, occasionally, someo

There's a quality that separates the communicators people remember from the ones they merely tolerate. It's not charisma. It's not polish. It's not even clarity, though that helps. It's courage. We live in an age of heavily managed communication. Messages workshopped to within an inch of their life. Statements that say everything and nothing. Leaders who speak in full paragraphs and somehow communicate nothing at all. The corporate line, delivered on cue, with a smile that we

Two words make most communicators uncomfortable. Two words that get avoided in boardrooms, buried in messaging frameworks, and quietly edited out of leadership updates. The words are: don't know. Right now with the cost of living, wars in the Middle East, travel implications and many other factors affecting life as we know it, there is plenty of uncertainty. So how should we best communicate at a time like this... We've been conditioned to believe that good communication mean

I've really started to notice, there's a question that stops even the most articulate communicators dead in their tracks. "So, what do you do?" The reality is we all have a tendency to freeze when asked to define ourselves or our brand because we're trying to include everything. Every skill, every service, every possible customer. The result is beige. Forgettable. Safe. But let's flip the question! What aren't you? What do you NOT do? Suddenly, the words flow freely. You're n

All week I've been fascinated by the actions of one of our biggest retailers here in Australia. As many of you will be aware the ACCC is taking Coles to Federal Court, alleging they deceived customers by briefly inflating prices on hundreds of products before advertising them as "Down Down" discounts, making fake sales look like genuine savings. What happened to the power of shame? At its best, shame is a civilising force. It keeps power in check. It makes people think twice.

As humans, we learn by watching. And right now, what we're watching is truly awful. Turn on the news. Scroll your feed. Watch any press conference. What do you see? Leaders jostling for position, talking AT people, not to them. Jargon replacing clarity. Spin replacing truth. Performative outrage instead of genuine connection. Self-interest masquerading as vision. Even typing these words leaves me cold (and I'm pretty sure you will feel that too). So, this post is being pitche

Like many people, I took the last month off. But I did something that doesn’t usually get labelled as “growth”. I stayed put. No flights. No itinerary. No dramatic change of scenery. Instead, I chose a staycation here in Perth. With one deliberate rule: every single day, I did something new. A different walk. A different place to spend time. A different café. A different conversation. What surprised me wasn’t just how recharged it made me feel, but how much perspective it gav

In my day-to-day work, today’s topic comes up more than any other. We sit through endless presentations. Slick slides, smart data, the occasional inspiring story, and yet we walk away thinking: So what? Nothing changes. No decisions. No action. No movement. No feeling. That’s a problem. I’ve said this many times before: most presenters stop at what . What they did. What the results were. But the real magic lives in So what? and Now what? So what? is where relevance lives.

As you’ll know, I like to challenge you, to help you think and act differently, rather than slipping into the habitual way of life that feels so familiar and comfortable. Most of us are so busy doing that we’ve forgotten why we’re doing any of it. We race through tasks, inboxes, meetings, and errands as if motion itself equals meaning - as if an overflowing calendar is proof of a life well lived. But if you can’t say what all this activity is actually serving, then you’re no

We’re all guilty of it, waffling, circling, drifting, in effect making a point in 3 minutes when it could’ve been nailed in under thirty seconds. Please, stop circling the runway, just land the bloody plane! Every extra word dilutes your impact and drains your audience’s patience. In a world drowning in noise, brevity isn’t just a skill, it’s a survival strategy. Say less, mean more, and for heaven’s sake, get to the bloody point. be remarkable (presentations) You’ve got 15 m

We’ve all seen it — the moment someone thinks they’ve nailed it, but the room tells a very different story. That was Trump and Hegseth, swaggering in front of a wall of stone-faced generals, blind to the silence staring back. Misreading the room isn’t just awkward; it’s communication suicide. The best leaders don’t bulldoze with challenges, insults and bravado — they tune in, adjust, and win the room before they try to win the argument. be remarkable (presentations) Reading t

We often think success comes from saying yes! Yes to opportunities, yes to requests, yes to whatever lands on our desk. But the real power often lies in the word NO. Saying no creates space for more thinking, focus, clarity, and authority. It’s not rejection - it’s a boundary that protects your energy and amplifies the value of every yes that follows. In fact, some of the most remarkable communicators and leaders are defined not by what they agree to, but by what they confide

Everyone thinks communication is about words. Wrong. It’s so much more than that. You can make the smartest points in the world and yet still bore people to tears. Ever seen a presentation along these lines?! But put a spark in your voice, a twist in your timing, a bit of mischief in your delivery and suddenly, people lean in. They engage, they connect, they’re with you. That’s the difference between being heard and being remembered. be remarkable (presentations) Let’s be hon

A recent study by the UK’s AI Security Institute, alongside Oxford and MIT, found that advanced AI chatbots, eg ChatGPT, can change political opinions in users in under 10 minutes. Amazingly, 42% of those changes still held a month later. What does this tell us? I think it shows something very important. It reveals AI’s growing capability for highly effective persuasion, and that comes with serious ethical implications but I think it also opens up the topic of persuasion for

We talk. We tell. We explain. Then we repeat it all again, but this time a little louder, longer, firmer, just in case we haven’t been clear enough! But what if the problem isn’t in what we’re saying, it’s what we’re not asking? In our rush to be heard, we’ve stopped being curious. I’d say it’s probably the biggest thing that comes up in clients’ sessions - that inability to know when to stop with the comments and start with the smarter, sharper question. So, this week, it’s

be remarkable (presentations) Creating a presentation that reflects integrity starts with being clear about your values and staying true...

be remarkable (presentations) A great presentation doesn’t just inform, it ignites! Well, I believe it should. Judging by what I see 99%...

be remarkable (presentations) Often I'm helping leaders shape a presentation in which they know it's a serious issue with serious...