Blog posts

Her hands had shaken for 20 years. Then something remarkable happened.

Submitted by Jack Milner on November 9, 2026

She was a good presenter, confident, and had been a top marketeer for 20 years.

"Yes, I'm pretty confident," she said. "But I don't enjoy it. Whenever I present, my hands shake. A LOT. Yeah, I'd love it if you could stop my hands shaking."

And indeed, when she presented, her hands shook. At the end of her first presentation, which lasted about five minutes, I asked her how it went.

"That was fine, but my hands shook. They're still shaking."

Has AI made presentations worse!?

Submitted by Jack Milner on October 5, 2026

^{I was reflecting the other day with another communication coach about whether AI has actually improved presentations.}

^{Because now you can literally type: Here’s our business, here’s what I’m thinking, I’ve got to speak to the senior leadership team — fashion me ten slides that does the job.}

^{And you’ll get a pretty good-looking deck.}

What Procurement Taught me About Play

Submitted by Jack Milner on September 16, 2026

Last week I was running some online presentation training for an American health insurance procurement team. And as you’re reading that, I can imagine your thoughts are: Well, that must have been fun.

Actually, take away your preconceptions, because it really was a lot of fun. I’ve worked with this particular organisation for a few years now and, despite the label that sometimes comes with procurement, they are genuinely really nice, lovely people.

Anyway, the story.

What a box of Rice Krispies and a tasbih taught me about connection

Submitted by Jack Milner on September 8, 2026

There’s a story behind this photograph, and I probably need to tell it.

Last week I was running a taster session at KAPSARC in Riyadh on Communicating on the Global Stage. The main theme was connection, because I believe connection has never been more important and yet, bizarrely, most organisations – and most presentations – are incredibly bad at creating it.

The good news is that some of the solutions are remarkably simple. One of them is using a prop.

Executive Presence Is Mostly B*****ks

Submitted by Jack Milner on August 14, 2026

When I first started working in communication skills about 25 years ago, imposter syndrome was running rampant in my head.

An HR Director would say, “We’ve got some brilliant senior leaders, but we need them to have more executive presence.”

And I’d nod knowingly, despite the fact that I had absolutely no idea what executive presence was. In those days, I wasn’t entirely sure what an executive was.

Why Play Produces Better Ideas Than Pressure.

Submitted by Jack Milner on August 10, 2026

The surprising link between creativity, productivity... and having a laugh.

When Charlie Curson and I run our creativity workshops, we start with a bit of a ridiculous exercise.

We ask people to turn each other into statues – in just 20 seconds.

First, they have to create a really boring statue and give it a title e.g. “Plank of Wood in the Garden.” Then they create a silly statue e.g. “glamorous duck trampolining.”

How to Add Three Years to Your Life (Without Really Trying)

Submitted by Jack Milner on July 27, 2026

If I could genuinely add three years to your life, would you read the next 700 words?

Of course you would. And that’s the power of So What.

One of the things I goon about in my presentation workshops is that before you think about confidence, storytelling, slides or body language, you need to answer one simple question:

So what?

Why should your audience care? What’s in it for them?

To Lectern or Not to Lectern?

Submitted by Jack Milner on July 21, 2026

To Lectern or Not to Lectern?

Was this a tale of two lecterns?

First came Keir Starmer doing gravitas: the leader, the decent man, falling on his sword before heading off to see the King. Then came Andy Burnham doing almost exactly the same thing... but without a lectern and obviously with a more positive vibe.