Unlike in real life, the person on the other end of a Zoom or Teams call is stuck with whatever view of ourselves we offer them. Therefore, it pays to think like a movie director, who ‘sets up the shot’ to create the correct relationship between the character on...
Presenting to Camera: What We Can Learn from Hollywood. Part 2: Shot Angle and Eyeline
Unlike in real life, the person on the other end of a Zoom or Teams call is stuck with whatever view of ourselves we offer them. Therefore, it pays to think like a movie director, who ‘sets up the shot’ to create the correct relationship between the character on...
Presenting to Camera: What We Can Learn from Hollywood. Part 1: Shot Length
Our partners at the CFA recently asked us to deliver a webinar for their members providing online presentation tips. Drawing on our professional background, we dipped into the movie director’s toolkit. What can Hollywood teach us about communicating effectively on...
Scientific Proof that Good Posture Lowers Stress?
At MSB Executive, posture work is a regular feature of our sessions. We help our clients to express confidence and authority by adjusting how they sit and stand. Our experience in the acting profession has also taught us that our physicality generates inward feedback....
How Can I Stop Myself From Blushing?
There’s nothing more off-putting when you’re presenting than the feeling of heat spreading across your neck and cheeks and then the ensuing paranoia. We’ve brought together our favourite concepts around blushing, plus tips on how to manage it, seeing as it’s such a...
Three Blogs on Breathing: Part 3
Teaching people how to breathe might strike you as teaching grandmother to suck eggs. But there are different ways of breathing, and some are better than others. By looking first at the habits and consequences of bad breathing, we can make sure we are doing the...
Three Blogs on Breathing: Part 2
To Speak Well, First Breathe Well Talking: most of us spend many waking hours (and even some sleeping hours!) pouring torrents of language out of our mouths. Have you ever stopped to wonder how your body manages this amazing feat? Unless you have some vocal training –...
Three Blogs on Breathing: Part 1
The topic of breathing arises in practically every coaching session, masterclass and workshop we run at MSB Executive. You’d be forgiven for rolling your eyes at the thought of being taught how to breathe! Surely we already know everything there is to know? After all,...
Why It’s Good To Yawn
A Great Teacher Without saying a word, the woman sitting in front of me clenched her fists, arched her back, opened her mouth as wide as it would go and yawned luxuriantly. As the seconds ticked by, I and my fellow students watched in amazement as she twisted and...
How to Apologise
Apologies have been the centre of attention in the UK news recently. What is a real apology, a half-apology or a non-apology? It is a topic we sometimes discuss with our clients. When things go wrong, when is an apology appropriate and how is it best done? These...
Can AI Improve Your Presentation Skills?
Our Head of Coaching, Nicola Hainey, reviews Microsoft Powerpoint’s new feature: Presenter Coach. An AI tool to help rehearse presentations? In honesty, we were slightly sceptical. However, having reviewed Microsoft’s new Presenter Coach in Powerpoint, we do think...
Christmas and the Rule of Three
3 Minutes of Embarrassment There’s a hilarious home video of a Nativity play in an English village church. It usually goes viral at this time of year. A four-year-old girl doesn’t so much sing as bellow her way through ‘The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy’. The girl, now...